The books that we know as the Minor Prophets are not called this because there is anything minor about their message. These books have been gathered together because they are all relatively short. Hence the name, Minor or Little Prophets.

Hosea was one of the prophets to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. His day saw a great deal of prosperity in the land. What could not be readily seen apart from the prophetic message were the storm clouds on the horizon.

Hosea is divided into two major parts. The first three chapters contain a living parable as Hosea is told to go and marry a wife of harlotry - a prostitute. He has children by her and then she is unfaithful to the marriage. This relationship illustrates the similar unfaithfulness of Israel in her relationship with the Lord.

The remainder of the book consists of a large circuit that begins and ends with a Covenant Lawsuit. Both at the outset and at the close of this section the Covenant is specifically mentioned (Hosea 6:1, 7 with Hosea 12:1).

This is covenant language. The Lord brings His legal dispute against Israel for having broken their covenant obligations.

We have all gone the way of Adam. We have all sinned and have become covenant-breakers. The good news of the gospel is that God has made a New Covenant with men in which Christ Himself paid the penalty of a covenant-breaker on our behalf. We enter into this New Covenant through faith in Him so that His righteousness is credited to us.

It is exactly for this reason that Hosea is able to close his book upon a note of hope for the future. He calls for his readers to repent and to turn to the Lord.

What is the result of such repentance? It is a restoration and a redemption.

The book contains no historical narrative. Because of this, we know virtually nothing of Joel or his readers. The Bible is not specific to tell us when it was written and that means it is not really important for us to know the date of writing.

As can be seen from this chart, the centerpoint of Joel's book it the call to repentance.

The book begins with a description of a plague of locusts:

The event that began Joel’s prophecy was a plague of locust. That doesn’t mean too much to us today, but in that day this sort of thing could be devastating. It was an agricultural economy and a locust invasion meant that everyone who starve.

If you do not read this chapter through the eyes of faith, then you will only see bugs. But if you look to see what is really happening here, you will learn that these locusts are really the army of God.

This is a call, not only for personal repentance, but also for national repentance. God comes in a mighty way when the congregation of His people turn to Him. Jesus said that. He said that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 18:19).

Peter quoted this passage on the day of Pentecost. He concluded that what was taking place in his day was that which Joel had promised.

Peter identifies what is happening with a prophecy from the book of Joel. It is a prophecy of the Day of the Lord. Peter quotes this prophecy. Notice the elements of the prophecy.

• God’s Spirit to be poured out.
• Sons and daughters to prophesy.
• Dreams and visions.
• Blood and fire, and vapor of smoke.
• The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood.

How are we to understand this prophecy? How much of this was fulfilled in Peter’s day? I want to suggest that ALL of it was fulfilled in Peter’s day.

• God’s Spirit was be poured out.
• Sons and daughters - Jewish men and women - prophesied.
• Dreams and visions were given.
• The blood of the Son of God had just been shed and now tongues of fire appeared over the heads of the followers of Christ.
• The sun had been darkened at His crucifixion.

In a very real way, the cross was the centerpoint of all human history.

Amos was a shepherd from the Northern Kingdom. He tells us that he was not originally a prophet (1:1; 7:14).

Amos wasn’t a professional prophet. He had no string of degrees behind his name. He had not been to propheteering school. He had not graduated from seminary. Amos wasn’t even a preacher’s kid. He had a real job. He wasn’t paid to be good, he was good for nothing.

There is a principle here. It is that God delights in using unqualified people to do His work.

The fact that God uses unqualified people means that He can use me and He can use you.

On eight consecutive occasions throughout the first two chapters, we read the refrain: "For three transgressions and for four…" One by one we see each of the enemy nations around Israel being condemned by the Lord. We can imagine the people of Israel nodding their heads in agreement over these various judgments.

Closer and closer are the targets of each of these indictments until finally the condemnation of the prophet falls upon Israel.

One might be tempted to think that Israel would be able to get away with more because of her special position. Amos tells us that Israel's special position makes her more accountable before God. It is because Israel has been chosen by God that she will be punished.

There is a principle here. It is the principle that to whom much is given, much is required. I didn't say it -- Jesus did: And from everyone who has been given much shall much be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more (Luke 12:48).

We live in a country where much has been given. There is a church on every street corner. You can walk into almost any bookstore and buy a Bible. Much has been given to us and we shall be judged accordingly.

God swears an oath. This is more than a promise. This is a binding decree. When an oath was sworn, the implication was that the thing by which you swore would be forfeit for destruction if the oath did not come to pass.

God swore by His holiness. He was saying in effect, "If My promise in this matter does not come to pass, then may My very holiness be destroyed."

What is the subject of the oath? It is a promise of Israel’s coming captivity. It is described in graphic terms.

That this promise was literally fulfilled is graphically portrayed in the Assyrian inscriptions that show the Assyrian conquerors placing hooks through the lips of their conquered enemies.

And yet, even with this certainty of judgment, there is also a message of hope in the book of Amos.

Obadiah writes to the nation of Edom in the same way that Jonah and Nahum prophesied against Assyria.

DATE: Written around the time of the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar (587/6 B.C.). Edom would be tempted to gloat over the defeat of Jerusalem and the plight of the Jews. This book is a warning against such gloating.

Like the book of Habakkuk, the book of Obadiah addresses the issue of divine justice. In this case, the focus is specifically upon the kingdom of Edom and their mistreatment of Judah during the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem.

Here is the question: Why has God allowed Edom to prosper and to mock Judah with impunity? The answer is that God will indeed bring judgment upon Edom.

This language calls to mind the ancient city of Petra. By the end of the 4^th century B.C., Petra would become the capital of Edom. It characterized the words of this prophecy as a city "in the cleft of the rock."

This prophecy was fulfilled quite literally in the days of the Maccabees and the Hasmonean kings. The tables were turned and Judah eventually conquered Edom. You can go today to the ancient capital city of Petra -- a great fortress built into solid rock. But you will be hard-pressed to find the Edomite.

However, if you read this short book and see only the tiny kingdom of Edom, you miss the point of the book. It is that God will judge the nations. In this regard, Edom is seen as a mere representative of all of the nations. What is true of Edom is true of all nations. This is taught in verse 15 where we read: For the day of the LORD draws near on all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head.

The purpose of this prophecy is not merely to chastise Edom. It is so that men will repent of their wrongdoing and return to the Lord. It is so that men repent and thereby stop this prophecy from coming to pass.

Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians lived along the banks of the Tigris River as it flowed down from Upper Mesopotamia. Theirs was an ancient empire. But the Assyrians had not remained within the borders of their homeland. They were an aggressive, warrior race and they had often conducted raids southward to the very borders of Israel.

Jonah’s mission was like a modern Jew being sent to Adolph Hitler or to Saddam Hussein. The Assyrians were the Nazis of the ancient world. They were known for their terror-tactics. They could conquer a city and gouge out eyes and cut off arms and legs and then they would get down to serious torture.

The Assyrians were a bad people. Even God said that. He said that "their wickedness has come up before Me."

This was the people to whom Jonah was sent. He was to speak to them about the Lord. This is a book with a missionary theme. It tells us that God has a heart for missions. He had one Son and He was a missionary. Jesus was the most cross-cultural missionary of all time. He crossed from heaven to earth.

Jonah doesn’t cross heaven and earth, but he does come by way of the sea. He is a reluctant prophet and his reluctance is the focus of the big idea of this book.

Jonah reluctantly preaches a message of coming judgment against Nineveh, not because he dislikes such a message, but because he does not want the people of Nineveh to be forewarned. When they come to repentance, he is angered.

Jonah was displeased. He wasn’t merely displeased, he was GREATLY displeased. Why? Because he wanted to see the judgment of God upon the city. The last thing he wanted to see was salvation in Nineveh.

Now we see the real reason that Jonah ran away to Tarshish. It wasn’t that he was afraid of the Assyrians or of hardship or of failure on the mission field. It was to short-circuit the mercy of God from being offered to Nineveh.

Jonah was prejudiced. He was afraid of success. He was afraid that the Assyrians would repent and become a part of God’s people. He wanted the judgment of God to fall upon the Assyrians. His attitude was representative of all of Israel. This is why this book was written. It is to show that God is a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity (4:2).

The book of Jonah ends with a question. Why does the book end the way it does? It is because God asks you the same question that He asks of Jonah. Have you identified with the compassion of God? What is your attitude toward people who are not like you?

• Who have a different theology
• Who have a different color
• Who have a different social status

The story doesn’t end with Jonah. It ends with Jesus. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so also Jesus was three days and three nights in the earth. The reason was the same -- it was a sign of the compassion of God.

Micah is composed in three oracles. Each of these oracles begins with the judgment of God against the rebellious nation and then goes on to give a promise of restoration for the future.

The indictment is made against both the political leaders, the priests and even the prophets. The problem was that they had come to assume that God was on their side, even when they were disobedient to the commands of God.

As a result of this, there would be a coming judgment. The judgment would take place against Jerusalem and the Temple. Jerusalem would become a heap of ruins and the Temple would become a place where trees grew wild.

The prophet rails against the problem of religion without reality.

The multiplication of religious ordinances is no substitute for these qualities of justice, kindness and humility.

Sometimes we get the idea that our involvement in church activities is the sum and scope of our spiritual service. Nothing could be further from the truth. Without taking anything away from the supreme importance and centrality of worship, if your Christian life is only what takes place when you come to worship, then you have no Christian life.

The closing verses of Micah give hope for the future. They picture a God who pardons iniquity and who passes over rebellious acts. That is the message of the cross. It is that God sent His Son to pardon iniquity and to be our Passover Lamb so that God might forgive our rebellious acts.

This is seen in Micah 7:20 where Micah says, "Thou wilt give truth to Jacob and UNCHANGING LOVE to Abraham." The fascinating part is the play on words found in the term "unchanging."

It is a play on words with the name "Jacob" which literally means "heel-grabber" but carries the idea of "supplanter, switcher, trickster or changer." Literally, the prophet says, "You will give truth to Jacob and non-Jacob mercy to Abraham."

The book of Nahum is a prophecy directed at Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria. It is the sort of book that we can imagine Jonah to have penned. Indeed, the similarities between these two books are striking.

• Both Nahum and Jonah focus upon Assyria and their capital city of Nineveh.
• Both Nahum and Jonah contain prophecies of Nineveh's destruction.
• Both Nahum and Jonah close their books with a question. The question at the end of the book of Jonah points to God's compassion. The question at the end of the book of Nahum points to Nineveh's continued lack of compassion for others.

The Book of Nahum is organized in a large parallel known as a chiasm. The centerpoint of this chaism is the lament in which Nineveh is likened to a den of lions that had formerly gobbled up the nations and was now herself devoured.

Habakkuk is divided into two parts. The first part consists of Habakkuk's prayer and God's answers to that prayer. Habakkuk’s prayer begins with a question: WHY DOES GOD ALLOW EVIL TO CONTINUE?

The third chapter of Habakkuk is a song of praise about the wonders of a God who is so great that He moves in history, not only to balance the books in history, but to balance them on our behalf as He saves us from our sins and sets our feet upon firm ground.

The song presented in this chapter is a song of praise. God is pictured in thundering majesty as He comes to act in the affairs of men.

The Almighty is pictured in the most graphic of terms. He is the conquering King who comes with power and radiance and majesty.

The picture of the raging Lord of the universe is a terrifying one until we realize that He is raging on our behalf.

Habakkuk says, "I will continue to praise the Lord, even in those times when I don't see His obvious blessings in my life." We are quick to praise the Lord in the good times, but do we praise Him and pronounce His goodness just as adamantly in the difficult times?

The reference to a "hind" is merely old English for a deer. This is a quote from Psalm 18:34. It pictures a deer in a high place.

The impact of this passage did not come home to me until a few years ago when I had opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon. I was gazing out at that vast expanse when I noted that on a ledge a portion of the way down that yawning precipice stood a deer. She had not fallen. She was not in trouble. She was secure and she had no problem traversing those dizzying heights.

In those times when it looks as though we are going to fall, we can take comfort. It is God who has set us in place. He has directed our paths. He makes a way for our feet. He sets us in a high place and He keeps us safe.

Zephaniah writes in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah (Zephaniah 1:1). Josiah was the king who led the Israelites back to the worship of the Lord. It was during his reign that a copy of the Scriptures were found in the temple and taken to the king. He called for fasting and prayer and national repentance.

Zephaniah came on the scene only slightly before Jeremiah. While Jeremiah prophesied over a space of many years, the book of Zephaniah is only three chapters. They both speak of the judgment that is soon to befall Jerusalem.

Zephaniah foretells the destruction of Nineveh. That event took place in 612 B.C. This means that event had not yet taken place at the writing of this book.

The book of Zephaniah is chiastic in style. The centerpoint of the book is the call to repentance that takes place in Zephaniah 2:1-3.

In the day of the LORD's anger. (Zephaniah 2:1-3).

Notice the title that is used for the nation of Judah. She is called the "nation without shame." This is the language of non-repentance. It is a description of those who are still in their sin and who are proud of it.

This is the pivotal and central point in the book. It is the "so what?" of the passage. It is a call to repentance. It is expressed in the three commands of verse 3:

• Seek the Lord
• Seek righteousness
• Seek humility

Where do we see this fulfilled in Scripture? I believe that we see this fulfilled in Acts 2.

• People are gathered from around the nations.
• God gives the sign of tongues -- purified lips.
• As a result, they call upon the name of the Lord
• From there, the message of the Gospel goes out to the world.

In verses 11 and 12, we see the results of God's saving work in the lives of His people:

In verse 1 of this chapter, Judah was described as a people without shame and that was a bad thing. But here we see a picture of God's redeemed people and they are also without shame. But this time it is for a different reason. They are without shame because their sin has been removed. This is not shameless pride. Rather, it is the absence of shame of one who has the Lord as his refuge.

Haggai is one of the post-exilic prophets. His book contains three discourses, all of which were written during the second year of Darius the Great. This was the period after the people had returned to the land and when they had started to build their Temple, but the work had been interrupted and the Temple was now incomplete.

Now God moved in a special way through two of His prophets to encourage the people to resume the work. Haggai was one of those prophets.

Throughout these three sermons, Habakkuk promises that if they will obey the Lord, they will be greatly blessed and "the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former," says the LORD of hosts, "and in this place I shall give peace," declares the LORD of hosts (2:9).

It is true that the Temple became more glorious in the days of Herod the Great. But I do not believe this to be a prophecy of Herod’s Temple. It is a prophecy of Christ. He is the prince of peace and the manifestation of the real glory of God.

What made the Temple glorious? It was not the gold or the silver. It was the presence of God. God’s presence was manifested in a baby. Jesus came to manifest the presence of God to men. He is the Immanuel -- the One who is God with us.

He is the One who came to be the Prince of Peace. Islam often presents itself as though it were a religion of peace. But the story of Mohammed is not a story of peace. On the other hand, when Peter whacked off the ear of the high priest’s servant, Jesus told him to put his sword away. Jesus came to bring peace. He brought peace by dying.

The book of Zechariah can be divided into three major parts.

• Visions (1-6)
• Sermons (7-8)
• Burdens (9-14)

Zechariah writes in a day of return. Since the days of Cyrus the Great, the Jews who lived in Captivity had been permitted to return to the land. But only a very small percentage had chosen to do so.

It had gotten comfortable in Babylon. I can see how that can happen. We tend to get comfortable where we are and, before long, it is harder and harder to get out of our "comfort zone."

But the problem of which Zechariah speaks is not a matter of physical location as much as it is one of spiritual location. He does not chastise them for not having returned to the land -- he chastises them for not having returned to the Lord.

The book of Malachi can be outlined in two major points:

• God's love for Israel and her unfaithful response (1-2)
• The Day of the Lord and the purging of Israel (3-4)

The book is made up of a series of statements and corresponding questions between God and the people of Israel.

Throughout the prophets, we have seen promise after promise that the Lord is going to come. But here we are told of the coming of one who would precede the coming of the Lord. It is the MESSENGER - the "Malachi" of God.

The duty of this messenger would be to clear the way before the Lord. He would be a forerunner. He would get the people ready to meet the Lord.

They would meet Him when He comes suddenly to His temple. We can recall the vividness of the description with which the Gospels describe the entrance of Jesus into the Temple. Coins clatter. Tables are overturned. A whiplash cracks. The Lord has come suddenly to His Temple.

What does this mean when it says that the Lord has wings?

The phrase translated "in his wings" also carries the idea of "corners" or an "outer edge." It is often used this way to speak of literal wings (Genesis 1:21; 7:14; Exodus 19:4; 25:20; 37:9; Leviticus 1:17). But it can also be used to speak of the "corners" of a person’s robe. These outer corners of the robe came to be known as a person’s "wings."

In what way is there healing in the Lord’s wings? One significant fulfillment of this prophecy is to be found in Matthew 9:20 where a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of His cloak. Do you see it? She touched His WINGS and in them she found healing. And when we come to Him in faith, we find the same sort of healing for our souls.