It is my hope that you have enjoyed our survey of the Minor Prophets, and that you have discerned a theme about how God relates to his people and deals with those who cross them. Also, that God’s prophets rarely lived a life of luxury and convenience. The men (all the Minor Prophets are men, though some women have had the gift of prophecy throughout history) chosen to deliver God’s message needed a strong faith to be sure. Unless that prophet is Jonah, whom you will be able to read all about in the upcoming book that we’ll be publishing soon. But perhaps the most pressing point to learn is just how prophecy is differentiated from other forms of future knowledge.
Haggai identifies himself as a prophet (1.1) and Ezra the priest corroborates this (Ezra, 5.1). The prophet Haggai has taken careful steps to date his messages (1.1, .15; 2.1, .10, .18, .20), 520 B.C. by the modern calendar. He is a prophet to the returned exiles of Judah.
When the prophet Jeremiah prophesied Assyria’s routing of Israel and Judah, he was promptly arrested and tried for treason. While the council debated his fate, most being in favor of Jeremiah’s execution, one councilman was godly enough to have recalled for the others a passage of God’s Word. He recited Micah, showing that when the prophet of old spoke those same words a century ago, he was not arrested for treason. Instead, he recalled, the people repented and the Lord relented his wrath. The council agreed to follow the precedent of Micah and spared Jeremiah’s life. These events show that God’s word certainly lead to life.
SPECIAL REPORT
With all due respect to the President, the shooting yesterday was not a political statement so it does not require a political solution. Who cares how many guns the guy owned? He only needed one.
Nothing more than the name Malachi is known of the author of this message. As a result, some have concluded that “Malachi,” which means “my messenger,” is merely a title for the work, rather than the prophets actual name. However, it would be unusual for a canonized text to endure the centuries without the author’s name. Further, historic tradition holds that a prophet named Malachi was a member of the Nehemiah’s Great Synagogue. This would place Malachi during Nehemiah’s time, about 430 B.C.
To appreciate Zephania’s ministry a brief history is in order. Earlier in Judah’s history there was a king named Manasseh. Manasseh was by far the most evil king to have ever ruled over Judah, and he also reigned longer than any other king (55 years). “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,” states 2 Kings 21.2, and then the author continues to recount the sins of King Manasseh:
Yesterday we examined the historic background of the book of Obadiah, today we’ll take a detailed look at the book itself.
It wasn’t just King David who was prepared for the Lord’s service by tending sheep. Amos, also a shepherd, lead a spiritual reformation, denouncing selfishness and sin. Amos tended sheep and cared for a sycamore fruit vineyard (7.14) in the small town of Tekoa, Judah, located 10 miles south of Jerusalem. Though a citizen of Judah, Amos’ prophecy was directed toward Israel in the North. This ministry was during 757-58 BC, a couple years before a major earthquake befell Israel.
Once the Jews returned to their land, their first priority was to rebuild the temple of YHWH. Persian officials who were willing to put up with the kings edict though they disagreed with it, saw the reconstruction project a waste of time and resources. Threatened with legal injunctions, the Jews stopped the construction and began to rebuild the rest of the nation. This went on for 15 years before God said, “Enough! Finish my temple.” God saw the Persian threat as an excuse to enjoy the good life, rather than a reason to discontinue the building project.
Besides the facts that Habakkuk was a man of deep and intense faith, rooted in religious tradition and a contemporary of Jeremiah, not much is known of him. His name is from a root Hebrew word meaning “to embrace,” a fitting name for Habakkuk if applied to his action toward YHWH. In 3.19 Habakkuk leaves instruction for the “director of music,” indicating that he may have been a Levite Musician. In the Apocrypha there is a legend regarding Habakkuk (The History of the Destruction of Bel and the Dragon):
There are a grand total of 11 other Obadiah’s mentioned in the Old Testament, including an officer in King David's service, a servant of King Ahab’s, a Levite who lived under King Josiah, and a civil leader who returned from Ezra to begin post-exilic restructuring of the nation. None of these men, however, or any of the other eight wrote the book bearing this name. Nothing much is known about the author of Obadiah, other than that his name means “Worshiper of YHWH.”
830 BC? 595 BC? No one seems to know for certain when Joel was written, or even who wrote it. Joel was a common Old Testament name, meaning “The Lord is God.” Not much is known about the author of the book, save what he tells us about himself, which is almost nothing. The book itself gives no reference to any datable historic events. Locust plagues, though infrequent, occur often enough in the Near East to be of no assistance in dating the book.