When was the last time your church’s youth group studied an Old Testament prophet? Or the last time your family discussed the prophets around the dinner table?
Let’s be honest—the prophets can feel intimidating! There’s apocalyptic language (as in Daniel), bizarre-sounding visions (as in Ezekiel and Zechariah), troubling speeches about the calamity promised to God’s enemies, and other confusing content that we may not feel adequately prepared to explain.
Adding to our trepidation, teenagers have So. Many. Questions. We may find they probe at aspects of Scripture that we haven’t yet grappled with ourselves. All of this may lead us to focus instead on the narrative portions of both the Old and New Testaments, particularly the four Gospels, which seem straightforward by comparison.
But our teenagers—whether our students at youth group or our own children—need the whole counsel of God’s Word if they are to understand the Bible’s storyline. The prophets introduce us to the way God’s people struggled with sin during the years of Israel’s monarchy and subsequent exile. Simply situating the prophets in these historical time periods helps us to make better sense of the prophets and their oddities. This is one of the objectives we had in mind while writing Longing for Christmas: 25 Promises Fulfilled in Jesus, which includes many promises from the prophetical books. (For additional help, I recommend Dr. Carol Kaminski’s Old Testament Timeline and Study Guide.)
In addition to functioning as an important hinge for the Bible’s metanarrative, the prophets offer important assurances for our teenagers as they live in a world wracked with sin. Here are three compelling reasons to dig into the Old Testament prophets with teenagers.
Teenagers Need to Know God Keeps His Promises
Teenagers face the frustration, struggle, and grief of living in this world, all without the advantage of time and experience. They haven’t yet learned the valuable perspective that comes with age. As a result, every disappointment can feel like a tragedy, and failure often seems unrecoverable.
If we hope to speak to the disappointments and sadness our teenagers experience in the world, we must give them a better word than the demands of the culture.
Throughout the prophets, we hear God speaking just this kind of word to weary Israel, in all her sin and struggle. His message is not one of trying harder or pulling oneself up, but rather of trust in “the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth” (Jeremiah 9:24). We see that steadfast love on full display in the words of Isaiah. Although he first warns of coming judgment, he also comforts with the hope of a Suffering Servant who will take the people’s sin and shame upon himself (see Isaiah 53).
As teenagers live in this world with all its hurts, we can point them to the God who keeps every promise he has ever made. We pray they will come to trust in the One who sent his own Son to suffer on their behalf, rescuing them from sin and redeeming every painful experience.
Teenagers Need to Know King Jesus Is on His Throne
Teenagers frequently express anxiety about our divided world, especially in the aftermath of an election. Many have bought into the fearmongering of one political framework or another, and world events can lead them either to misguided exultation or despair.
With increased worry and division, teenagers need to know there is a far better kingdom than our government on Capitol Hill.
The prophets frequently testify to God’s reign as sovereign over all nations. Daniel in particular exults that there is a kingdom that will never be destroyed (Daniel 2:44)—the coming kingdom of Jesus. From the dark situation of Israel’s exile in Babylon and Persia, Daniel offers a word of hope to fellow exiles and to our teenagers today. The coming messianic king will have “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him” and his dominion will never pass away (Daniel 7:14).
While we might assume this material will be too heady for our teenagers, please don’t sell them short! In my experience, students relate to Daniel’s situation in exile and they are eager to engage his bizarre visions. Digging into texts like these requires us to do our biblical and theological homework (we offer lots of resources to help on the Rooted blog). The opportunity to tell teenagers about the forever kingdom of Jesus is worth the effort every time.
Teenagers Need to Know Things Won’t Always Be Like This
Today’s teenagers have greater access to information than any generation before them. They have become the symptom bearers of the social media experiment, reporting record levels of anxiety and depression and struggling to find meaning and purpose.
The teenagers we love are desperate for hope. They need to know that a better day is coming, and that’s just what the prophets declare to us.
This theme of future hope features significantly in the prophets who ministered following Israel’s exile—especially Zechariah and Malachi. Zechariah urges the exiles returning to Israel to return to the Lord from their false worship. He speaks to them about the restoration God’s messianic king will bring to Israel and addresses them as “hopeful prisoners” (Zechariah 9:12, John Goldingay, trans, IVP.). Zechariah encourages them to look ahead to the day when “the Lord their God will save them, as the flock of his people . . . how great is his goodness and how great his beauty!” (vv. 16–17).
The young people in our lives are also exiles and often prisoners of our online world with all its idols. They too are looking for a better future. What a privilege to share with them about the God of goodness and beauty, who sent his own Son into the world in order to redeem it by his blood. Jesus has promised to remake the world, rescuing all who belong to him. That reality empowers our teenagers to live as “hopeful prisoners,” whatever their circumstances.
So please don’t neglect to teach the prophets, dear youth minister or parent! May you bravely wade into passages that make you uneasy, trusting God will use his Word to draw teenagers to himself. And especially this Christmas season, I pray the teenagers in your life will see the beauty of Jesus, the light who shines into their darkness (John 1:5).
Longing for Christmas
Longing for Christmas looks at twenty-five promises God made and fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. As we explore the way God has kept his promises, we can be encouraged that ALL of the longing we feel—for a better world and for things to be made right—will be fully met in Jesus.
