This week is designed to focus on how the prophets:
- always spoke God’s words
- reminded the people of God’s consequences of not following His covenant.
- were not oracles of mysterious future events.
The prophets of Israel had a particular purpose as God’s representatives. They always spoke about a particular future consequence because of a current sin by the people of Israel. Because of this, it is important exigetically to understand the history of Israel before reading the words of a particular prophet. And it is also important not to assume a deeper “secret” meaning present for us (America) today.
The authors emphasize that the prophets can teach us about the general consequences of sin, and God’s desire for us to lead holy lives focused on Him. But there are not specifics to be massaged out of the imagery of the text.
It turned out that our turnout on this night was quite low… But we focus on grace, not accusation 
