THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act IV - The Prophets, Scene 9
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 9

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VOICE TWO:             Not every prophet lived to see the fulfillment of the revelation which had been given to him by God.

VOICE FOUR:            Oftentimes those prophecies were read and studied for hundreds of years before the people of God suddenly realized they were being fulfilled right before their eyes.

VOICE THREE:          The prophet Micah, however, lived to see the very events God had told him would take place.

VOICE ONE:              Hezekiah sat on the throne in Jerusalem and according to the writings of Jeremiah profited from the ministry of Micah.

VOICE TWO:             Micah brought the Word of God to King Hezekiah concerning approaching judgment.

VOICE FOUR:            (CROSS TO #1)  Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple will become high places of  forest.

VOICE TWO:             Good King Hezekiah listened, feared God, repented and prayed for God to spare the nation from destruction.

VOICE THREE:          Hoshea sat on the throne in Samaria and according to the book of Kings did not profit from the ministry of Micah.

VOICE ONE:              Micah brought the Word of God to King Hoshea concerning approaching judgment.

VOICE FOUR:            (CROSS TO # 3)  I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country, planting places for a vineyard.  I will pour her stones down into the valley, and will lay bare her foundations.  All of her idols will be smashed, all of her earnings will be burned with fire, and all of her images I will make desolate.

VOICE TWO:             Hoshea ignored the preaching of Micah, laughed at God, refused to repent and continued praying to his gods of wood and stone.

ALL:                            722 BC!

VOICE ONE:              After three years of devastating famine brought on by a siege of the city of Samaria. . .

VOICE THREE:          After nine years of devious political maneuvering by Hoshea, trying to pit an alliance with Egypt against subservience to Assyria. . .

VOICE FOUR:            After more than two hundred years of an unbroken succession of wicked kings reigning over the northern kingdom. . .

VOICE TWO:             Shalmanezer, King of Assyria, fulfilled the word of God to the prophet Micah, and Israel disappeared into captivity in the land of the Medes.

                                    (READER # 3 TURNS BACK TO AUDIENCE.  READER # 4 KNEELS.)

VOICE FOUR:            For this I must lament and wail, I must go barefoot and naked; I must make a lament like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches, for her wound is incurable.

THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act IV- The Prophets, Scene 8
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 8

                                    (READER # 1 LAYS PRONE ON THE FLOOR FACING THE AUDIENCE. )

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VOICE THREE:        Whale swallows man!

VOICE FOUR:          What a headline.

VOICE ONE:             Man survives!

VOICE TWO:            Now that’s news!

VOICE THREE:        The entire city of Ninevah repents!

VOICE FOUR:          What a headline.

VOICE ONE:             Jonah gets disgusted with God.

VOICE TWO:            That’s not news, Jonah was always getting disgusted with God.

VOICE THREE:        He became disgusted with God’s mercy.

VOICE FOUR:          Begrudging the heathen the very mercy he himself had enjoyed.

VOICE ONE:             Trying to make a doctrinal case for disobedience—if God’s going to be merciful, why should I preach judgment?

VOICE TWO:            He became disgusted with God’s care.

VOICE THREE:        Selfishly determined that God ought to do what Jonah wanted him to do—I’ll just sit here until I see whether or not you’re going to judge the city.

VOICE FOUR:          Selfishly joyful when God provided physical comfort—I’m exceedingly glad for this plant that came up out of nowhere.

VOICE ONE:             Selfishly complaining when God removed the comfort—God, I can’t live without my gourd.  How could you take away my gourd?

VOICE TWO:            He became disgusted with God’s priorities.

VOICE THREE:        You did nothing to prepare the ground for your gourd.

VOICE FOUR:          You had no control over its growth.

VOICE ONE:             You had no time to grow attached to it.

ALL:                           Yet you loved your gourd!

VOICES ONE/TWO: Your gourd!

VOICE TWO:            Your gourd!

VOICE THREE:        Should not I have compassion on Ninevah?

VOICE FOUR:          I created them.

VOICE ONE:             I have loved them from all eternity.

VOICE TWO:            I have demonstrated my mercy on those who repented.

ALL:                           My priority is people!

VOICES ONE/TWO: People!

VOICE TWO:            People!

VOICE FOUR:          No compassion, Jonah. 

VOICE ONE:             I love my gourd.

VOICE FOUR:          No compassion, Jonah.

VOICE ONE:             Just take away my life.

VOICE FOUR:          No compassion, Jonah.

VOICE ONE:             My gourd!

VOICE TWO:            My people!

VOICE THREE:        Jonah, you may think you are disgusted with God.

VOICE FOUR:          But God is disgusted with you!

THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act IV - The Prophets, Scene 7
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 7

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VOICE ONE:             The armies of Edom celebrated jubilantly.  After years of oppression at the hands of their neighbors from Jerusalem, they allied themselves with the Arabians and Philistines and won a great victory.  No more occupying armies from across the Jordan.  No more taxes due annually to King Jehoram.  In fact, if the reports of the battle were correct, they had killed all but one of the king’s sons.  The Davidic dynasty, which had plagued them for hundreds of years, lay in ruins.

VOICE THREE:        At the very zenith of the celebration, when spirits were at their peak, a messenger arrived from Jerusalem.  He carried a small scroll, hardly large enough to roll into a circle and tie with a scrap of leather.  The message came from the Prophet Obadiah.

VOICE TWO:            “You who live in the clefts of the rock, from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.

VOICE ONE:             Immediately the mood of the festivities changed.  The people of Edom had seen what the God of Judah had done in the past.   He had destroyed the Egyptian army at the Red Sea.  He had demolished the city of Jericho with a shout.  He had devastated the Philistines after the defeat of their gigantic hero Goliath.  King Jehoram’s father Jehoshaphat had won a victory over Ammon and Moab simply by singing and praising the Lord in the valley of Beracah. 

VOICE FOUR:          Now God was directing his attention toward them, and they weren’t sure they wanted to be noticed that way.

VOICE TWO:            As you have done, it will be done to you.  Your dealings will return on your own head.  Then the house of Jacob will be a fire, but the house of Esau will be as stubble.  The kingdom will be the Lord’s!

VOICE FOUR:          They had won a battle against Judah, while at the same time succeeding in arousing the anger of Almighty God.  Now, according to the Prophet Obadiah, they would learn what it meant to fear God!

THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act IV - The Prophets, Scene 6
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 6

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VOICE TWO:            All of God’s prophets were men of courage, but few 

                                   possessed greater courage than Amos, a common farmer called by God to leave

                                   his native Judah to preach in a foreign country, the northern kingdom of Israel.

VOICE FOUR:         Do horses run on rocks?  Or do you plow rocks with oxen?  Yet you have turned

                                  justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.   The high places of 

                                  Isaac will be desolated and the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste.  Then shall I rise up 

                                  against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

VOICE TWO:            Amos stood on his familiar preaching platform, an outcropping of rock just outside the gate of the city of Bethel, capitol of the northern kingdom and seat of government for King Jeroboam II.  Right in the middle of the crowd which gathered near to hear him stood one of the false priests of Bethel, a man named Amaziah.

VOICE FOUR:          King Jeroboam will die by the sword unless he repents.  God will give you into the hands of your enemies.  You will be carried away captive and never see the land of your birth again.

VOICE TWO:            Amaziah had heard enough.  Pushing his way through the crowd he entered the luxurious throne room of the king without waiting to be announced.

VOICE ONE:             Treason, O king.  Amos speaks treason.

VOICE THREE:        Is that prophet from Judah up here on another of his crusades?

VOICE ONE:             He’s telling the people that you have disobeyed God and that they will all be carried into captivity.  He is encouraging them to give up when our enemies attack instead of fighting them.

VOICE THREE:        Sounds like treason to me.  Tell him to go back to Judah where he belongs.

VOICE TWO:            Amos’ sermon still continued when Amaziah returned from the palace but the crowd had grown even larger.  The false priest pushed his way through the throng and interrupted the prophet.

VOICE ONE:             Go away, Amos.  Go back to Judah where you belong.  Eat your bread there and prophesy there.  You have no business preaching here in Bethel, this is the king’s city.  You are in the king’s court and I am the priest of the king’s chapel.  You can’t get away with preaching treason against King Jeroboam.  Go back to Judah.

VOICE TWO:            The prophet fell silent and stared at the false priest with eyes that burned like coals of fire.  Soon a hush enveloped the entire crowd as they waited for the prophet’s reply.

VOICE FOUR:          I was not born a prophet and my father was not a prophet.  I was a farmer who herded flocks and gathered the fruit from sycamore trees.  But God placed His hand on me as I followed the flock.  God told me to preach to the people of Israel here at Bethel.  If I were to quit prophesying, I would disobey God, and it is far more important for me to obey God than it is to obey either you or your wicked king.

VOICE ONE:             Treason!

VOICE FOUR:          What I am telling you comes from God Himself.  You tell me not to preach, but God tells me what to preach.  Your sons and your daughters will be killed by the sword, this city will fall to its enemies.  All Israel will go into captivity.

VOICE TWO:            Nothing Amaziah tried could stop the Prophet Amos from preaching his message.  And nothing could keep the Word of God from being fulfilled.  Within thirty years the nation had fallen to Assyria, and the northern kingdom disappeared into captivity, never to return.  The mouth of the Lord had spoken.