A Provocation on missing the point of the Prophets

It has been years since I have read through the Hebrew prophets continuously. On this read through it strikes me that the “standard” American interpretation of these texts is almost perfectly engineered to get people to miss the point of the prophets. (Engineered by whom or what? This is a great question!) This “standard” interpretation is to treat the prophets as some cryptic road map to a mythic future “end times” scenario. This places our attention in the future, rather than God’s action, and our responsibility, in the present. 

The prophets are a powerful critique of idolatry and injustice here and now: How God’s people then, and God’s people now, tend to elevate idols of Nation and Tribe, pleasure and power, above the God of compassion and justice; How God’s people then, and God’s people now, tend to excuse their oppression and abuse of the poor and vulnerable, in their quest for immediate gratification and endless consumption; How God’s people then, and God’s people now, are consumed by their own consumption and ultimately humiliated by their own pride, as they cause their society to crumble from within, long before it is toppled by enemies from without. 

The message of the Prophets is not about a mythic battle at the End of Time, but the battle between virtue and Vice within our own soul and our own society right now, and always. Read the Hebrew Prophets through the lens of taking responsibility for our idolatry and injustice, instead of as a road map to the future, and you will see what I mean. And this message is always unpopular, and people have said the same thing in response for thousands of years:

They preach:
“Do not preach!” 
“No one should preach of these things!”
“Shame will not overtake us!”
If one possessed of a lying spirit 
Speaks deceitfully and says:
“I will preach to you wine and strong drink!” 
That would be the preacher for this people. 
(Micah 2.6, 2.11)

Every empire says the same thing right up until the moment they fall into the dustbin of history: We are above critique and have no need for repentance! We will never fall! We will remain great forever!