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“The Minor Prophets”By Benjamin D. Bailey All too often, the “Minor” Prophets are thought to be minor because they aresmaller in content and thus smaller in message and power also. However, the title“minor” is a misleading term for these fabulous, fascinating books of Holy Writ. Theword minor should only be applied to the length of these books and not to their overallmessage. For, these Prophets rise to the sublime heights of splendor in their life, andmessage just as Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Daniel do.The Minor Prophets are filled with vivid, image capturing thoughts and conceptsthat are easily applied to Christianity today. These books should not be neglected, butrather read and studied diligently by every Christian to help him reach greater spiritualheights. In these articles we hope to briefly help those desiring to learn more about theMinor Prophets become acquainted with the men who wrote these books and the mainthrust and message of each book.

Hosea: God’s Love and Israel’sUnfaithfulness

The name Hosea in the Hebrew language means “salvation.” Hence, Hosea’s lifeand marriage to a harlot served as an illustration of Israel’s harlotry to God and shouldhave caused them to come back to God for salvation.The Jews in Hosea’s time had destroyed themselves because they had a lack of knowledge concerning God’s will (Hosea 13:9; 4:6). Even the great men and princes of Israel were not following God’s pattern correctly (Hos 5:10; 2 Tim 1:13). Because of Israel’s spiritual ignorance, they possessed a shallow, evaporating faith (Hosea 6:4).They failed to heed the words of 2 Kings 19:30, “take root downward and bear fruitupward.” Due to their spiritual shallowness in God’s sight, they were as useful as a half- baked cake or a silly, flitting dove (Hosea 7:8, 11).However, God did allow Israel a way of escape, a door of hope known as purgingsin out of the camp (Hosea 2:15, Joshua 7). To us, this would be better known as churchdiscipline (I Cor 5). God has always left a remnant of those who would repent and come back to Him with their whole heart (Hosea 3:5). In Hosea 10:12, God gives Israel a 4-

fold way to restore themselves to righteousness: (1), sow righteousness, (2) reap mercy(3) break up your fallow ground, (4) seek the Lord.God has always been a God of deep sympathy and love for those who would turn back to Him (Hosea 11:4, 8; 14:4). The main application for Christians today is that wemust know God, act on our knowledge of Him found in the New Testament with faithfulliving and never, ever forsake the Lord (James 1:22).

Joel: Real Repentance

The name Joel in Hebrew means, “Yahweh is Salvation.” This goes hand in handwith the theme of Joel, which illustrates God’s use of history to bring Israel to repentanceand ultimately to preserve the lineage for the Messiah.Beginning in chapter 1, we are introduced to 4 types of locust that are ravagingthe land (chewing, swarming, crawling, and consuming). This is believed to be figurativefor the 4 world empires that would rule over God’s peoples (Babylon, Medo-Persia,Greeks, and Romans). The main message of restoration and repentance to God is vividlyillustrated through the phrase “the day of the Lord.” The day of the Lord alwaysrepresents a day of doom and destruction upon evil nations by God. Hence, God istelling Israel that unless they return to Him they can expect to receive destruction fromthe nations.Although Joel does warn against God’s coming judgment, he also gives adeterrent for this catastrophe known as true repentance. In Joel 2:13 Israel is told to,“rend your hearts and not your garments; return to the Lord.” And, if they did repent,God promised to restore all that the locust had taken away (Joel 2:25).One of the most memorable attributes of the prophet Joel is that he is oftenreferred to as the Pentecost Prophet. In Acts 2, Peter quotes from Joel 2:28-32 sayingthat God was pouring out His Spirit on all flesh and whoever called on the name of theLord would be saved. Because of Joel’s preaching to Israel, and Peter’s preaching atPentecost, many were left standing in the Valley of Decision (Joel 3:14). Today, everytime a sinner hears the plan of salvation taught he is left in the Valley of Decision. Weare all creatures of choice, what will we choose?

Amos: The Unprofessional, DirectPreacher

Of all the prophets, Amos was probably the most unprofessional. Yet, in manyways the most prepared for the task at hand. As Amos would tell us, “I was not a

preacher, nor the son of a preacher. I was merely a tender of difficult trees and a herder of difficult sheep” (Amos 7:14). Hence, Amos was prepared to take a direct,straightforward message to a professionally sinful people. The name Amos is defined as“to lift or carry a burden”, or “the burden bearer”, which vividly illustrates the task of carrying God’s word to a rebellious nation that he was given.The prophet Amos approaches God’s people with a rhetorical question; “Can twowalk together unless they are agreed” (Amos 3:3)? Even Israel would realize that two people who do not agree would not attempt to walk the same pathway. Likewise, Israelwas not walking in a relationship with God because they did not agree with Him. Due totheir “mighty sins”, Israel could not escape the inevitable coming destruction, and weretold to “prepare to meet the Lord” (Amos 5:12, 19-21, 4:12). Again, as a result of idleliving (Amos 6:1), the Israelites were suffering a spiritual famine of hearing the word of the Lord (Amos 8:11ff).Although things looked very bleak for Israel, they were given hope in the close of the book of Amos. In Chapter 9:11-12, the Lord promised to rebuild the tabernacle of David for the Jews and Gentiles. We would not know that Amos was talking about thechurch unless James had told us in Acts 15:16-17. Truly, God is full of hope and mercyto the penitent.

Obadiah: The High Price of a Bowl of Soup

The book of Obadiah was written to the Edomites who were a direct descendantof Esau. Like Esau, they too were willing to sellout their birthright to be God’s peoplefor the right price.The book of Obadiah begins by portraying the Edomites as a very prideful people. They thought that by dwelling in the clefts of the high mountains they could hidefrom God. But their pride had deceived them, and in essence, God said, “Go as high asyou want. I’ll bring you down” (Obad 3-4). In fact, God tells them that if a thief or arobber were to steal from them he would even leave a little for them to survive on, but Iwill utterly destroy you.The main sin that the Edomites had committed was that they sat back, andwatched their brethren being destroyed, and did nothing to help, but on the contrary theywere happy about it (Obad 10-13). In fact, they even killed those who did escape andhanded over those who were hiding from the enemy. The message for the church todayis that we must be our brothers keeper (Gen 4:6). When we see other Christians in asinful state, we should try to teach them and not stand back and wait for God to punishthem. Often times we want to laugh at and make fun of liberals, when in reality weshould be trying to help them see the truth. The book of Obadiah really illustrates man’s