Hello everybody, how are y'all? Good to see all of you today. Let's go ahead and open our time with a word of prayer and we will begin. Father, we thank you for this day. I'm grateful for just some time to look at your word, particularly, Lord, the minor prophets today. I pray that you bless our time, as I know these books cover a lot of history and a lot of different circumstances. And Father, the way that they're delivered to us in our Bibles, Father, can help us to even anticipate the first coming of Jesus Christ. And so, Father, we pray that to that end, we would study these books this morning. Pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. All right, so welcome back to Old Testament Survey. Good to see all of you today. Last week, if you were here, we finished the book of Isaiah, which was the third and really the last of the major prophets, which we surveyed. And today we're gonna turn to the minor prophets, or as I'm gonna be referring to them really through the rest of this morning, the book of the 12. Okay, so the book of the 12. Now in this course, I say this pretty much every week just because you might be a little bit confused about why we're following the order that we are, but we're walking through the Old Testament according to the Hebrew ordering. So this would be the order that Jesus himself would have been familiar with and used in his ministry. And what we know is that the minor prophets in that Hebrew ordering are presented as a single and even a unified book. So whereas in our scriptures, they're divided into individual books, in the Hebrew ordering, they're actually compiled onto a single scroll and arranged as such. Now, these prophets are frequently referred to as the minor prophets and minor for their length, not for their message. These covenant representatives function in the Old Testament much like the 12 apostles do in the New, as emissaries and ambassadors of God's truth, and as a foundation for God's house. Now this is, I think, an interesting point. It's no coincidence that the number of writings, the number of writing prophets in the Hebrew Bible is 15. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and then the 12. And this matches the number of patriarchs and tribes, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then the 12 tribes of Israel. So the written prophets mirror the patriarchs and the tribes of Israel. And in this way, the prophets really serve as a kind of mini Israel calling back the larger nation to its covenant Lord. Okay, so maybe an interesting thing to think about as you read the Old Testament prophets. In your English Bible, the 12 occupy the final chapters of your Old Testament, and in Jesus' Hebrew Bible, these prophets comprise a single scroll, and it was positionally closer to the Torah and to the books that cataloged Israel's history. So in this way, they really provide a kind of a theological commentary on the historic history of Israel, which we find in Genesis through the book of Kings. The fact that these minor prophets were arranged into a single scroll ensured that they would be received together and that they would stand in a kind of theological harmony. So this morning, our goal will be to look at the 12 as a unit, and we will hear and consider their voices together in harmony, rather than focusing on the individual parts. Okay, is it legitimate to focus on the individual books within themselves? Of course it is. There's distinct contexts where these different prophets were prophesying, and all that's very helpful to study them on an individual level and necessary. But you probably have never heard or thought of them as being taken in as a whole. which is how they typically had been received, obviously, during Jesus's time. But even more recent scholarship has kind of returned back to the old way of thinking about these rather than dividing them up into individual pieces. So maybe a different way to think about it this morning as we look at the voice, the collective voice of the 12. So a little context for you, if you don't have a handout, I'd encourage you to get one. A lot of scriptures that we're gonna be referencing and a few other helpful things in there, they're up here at the front. But they began their work around 770 BC with the prophet of Jonah. And the last of these prophets is Malachi, who was prophesying around 430 BC. Now the big event that occurs during this range of years is exile. Okay, exile. Israel goes first into exile by the Assyrians around 723 B.C., and then Judah, the Babylonians, around 586 B.C. So it's helpful to sort this group of prophets into pre-exilic and post-exilic. The first nine of the minor prophets in your Bible, this also accords with the ordering of the Hebrew book. So the order in your English Bibles is the exact same order of the book of the 12. So that's maybe helpful that we're not shifting those around. But the first nine of the book belong to the pre-exilic group that takes us from Hosea all the way through Zephaniah. And the last three belong to the post-exilic group, Haggai and Malachi, through Malachi. If you look on the front of your handout, I actually have a few more notes about that. Certain prophets were prophesying specifically to Israel. That would be Jonah, Hosea, and Amos, pre-exilic Israel. And then certain were prophesying to pre-exilic Judah, Micah, Nahum, and Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Joel, and Obadiah. And then post-exilic Judah, because at this point Israel, you know, was, you know, not Not a good spot, let's put it that way. Post-exilic Judah was Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. So hopefully that's helpful as you look at reading these texts to see who was prophesying into what context and the way they're ordered. So in both cases, in your English Bible and the Hebrew ordering, the books are arranged thematically rather than chronologically. That's an important point to make too. They're not ordered in both cases in a way that's chronological. Now on the back of your handout, you're going to have to get your spectacles out to see it. It's very small. I can hardly read it, but I have horrible eyes, so maybe you can see it just fine. But this has an ordering of the Book of the Twelve, and it kind of sums down a main idea about what each book is contributing to the overall argument. of the Book of the Twelve. So hopefully that's helpful. And you can see, you know, those first nine from sin and punishment, talking about pre-exilic and then Haggai through Malachi, kind of that post-exilic group. So refer to that as you read through that. We might refer back to it in a few minutes, I'm not sure yet. But as we think about a main theme, so if you think about what is the theme of the 12, I think it's helpful to put it like this. And this is coming from the textbook that we're using to formulate this class. And this is how they put it. It says, Israel's spiritual unfaithfulness and the eschatological promise of divine faithfulness. That's there on the front of your handout. Israel's spiritual unfaithfulness and the eschatological promise of divine faithfulness. Okay, you'll notice that in all the prophets that we've looked at, we've used this idea of eschatological promise of something else. And each of the major prophets we looked at had a different focus. And this one, okay, the 12 is really focusing about on the faithfulness of God. The faithfulness of God, that's the focus. That's the main theme of this book. Go ahead and open your handout. And we really have five theological emphases that arise when you look at the whole book of the 12. And I'm just gonna walk through those. That's gonna be our study today. Call these sub themes, call them emphases, whatever you wanna call them. But that's really what we're gonna do over the next few minutes is look at some main emphases that we see when you take the book of the 12 together. And hopefully some fun things will arise as we look at this. So number one, let's just go ahead and jump in with number one. The author of the 12 affirmed God's amazing love for Israel and sin's horrific nature. The author of the 12 affirmed God's amazing love for Israel and sin's horrific nature. Now don't get hung up on that word author, because really what we're talking about is a compiler. And even there, we don't really know who that was or if there was some kind of a collective group of Old Testament priests who identified this and arranged these things. So when we're talking about the author of the 12, know that we're not talking about one particular person who wrote all these things. Obviously, the individual prophets, you know, some of them we know who wrote them and some of them we don't. But we're really talking about the one who compiled these books into a unit and ordered them as such. But number one, God's amazing love for Israel and sin's horrific nature. So these prophets focus repeatedly on God's amazing love towards His covenant people, on the one hand, and the tragic failure of Israel to reciprocate. The book is framed with this focus. The 12 begins, okay, with the book of Hosea, which uses what? It uses a metaphor to symbolize God's love and Israel's adultery. Okay, this is a very striking Old Testament letter. And if you haven't read it, I would encourage you to read it, because it's just so, it's just full of such sorrow and heartache. And it's given in such a way that it would represent God's love for Israel in their adultery. At the time of Hosea's prophesying, Israel, that's who he's prophesying to, Northern Kingdom. Also, if you read through them, it is referred to a lot as Ephraim. Ephraim is one of the larger tribes in Israel, and that's why it's O-ephraim, O-ephraim. He's referring to Israel, the Northern Kingdom. At the time of Hosea's prophesying, they were experiencing a time of prosperity and growth, but inwardly, as we see, they were morally corrupt. and living in basically spiritual adultery, okay, idolatry, these things abounded. Hosea was instructed to marry a promiscuous woman named Gomer, and thus Hosea's life and his wife provide a lens through which Israel was to see their relationship with God. Israel's sin of idolatry is akin to adultery committed against her husband, Yahweh. And Hosea 2.13 says this, I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her rings and jewelry and went after her lovers and forgot me. So you just see the Lord and the, I mean, almost the heartache that is expressed in these types of words as he's, you know, speaking very honestly about Israel. But this idea of love, okay, is permeating. The Lord has loved Israel, set his love on her, and she has chosen to love idols, right? The 12 concludes with the book of Malachi, which opens with this statement. I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say, how have you loved us? Okay, so the Lord declaring his love for her, and then responding by Asking for proof, right? So this reveals a long line of sin that has really desecrated the relationship between God and His covenant people. The 12, and Hosea in particular, reveals that God is willing to begin again. Hosea in the story, he's commanded to remarry Gomer. after he divorces her because of her unfaithfulness. So to God, as a sign of his inextinguishable love, will effectively remarry his wayward bride. So there's this hope revealed in the book of Hosea as well. And this kind of just picks up a whole theme that we see throughout the scripture. The Bible is ultimately a love story. Not only does it begin and end with a wedding, okay? Every marriage since Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 points to an ultimate eschatological wedding at the end of history between the last Adam and his bride, the church. That's, you can read about that in Revelation 19. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's Revelation 19, nine. So the first emphasis that God's amazing love for Israel is real. And also looking at that in contrast to the horrific nature of Israel's sin, really in response. Number two, and this one's fun. I enjoyed this section a lot. and the implications of Yahweh's covenantal commitment to Israel. That's number two. The 12 clarified the implications of Yahweh's covenantal commitment to Israel. So one of the main objectives of the book of the 12 was to call Israel back to her most basic creed. This creed was revealed to Israel by Moses on Mount Sinai. Turn with me in your Bibles if you would to Exodus 34. six and seven, and we're gonna read this together. This is one of those verses that is so ingrained, it should be so ingrained on every Israelite person's mind, because it's just so central to the entire faith that they had. The same can be said of us, of course, but Exodus 34, six through seven says this. The Lord passed before him, speaking of Moses, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. So God revealing himself as a God who is merciful, gracious, and yet will by no means clear the guilty. Visiting iniquity, okay, on the fathers and the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. Now a few months ago, I don't know if you were here for it, but Jake was walking us through the book of Kings. And he made a really striking comment that I think is going to stick with me for maybe forever. He said something to the effect that a tension that really arises again and again in the pages of your Old Testament is the tension between the justice of God and the mercy of God. Okay, and it's very true over and over again. You see these two ideas kind of arise. Israel confessed that Yahweh is a God of perfect holiness and justice, and yet God is a God of immeasurable mercy and compassion. So how is it that this God is both just and merciful? Okay, that's a very legitimate question when you think about it because it almost looks like one of those things has to be compromised for the other one to be true, right? If you do something, if you murder somebody and a judge just says, you know, I'm gonna send mercy to you and let you off. Okay, guess what? Paid the price in that situation. Justice did, right? So how is this God who reveals himself as merciful and just, how are these things held together? How is it that God is both just and merciful? Now this tension is felt acutely in the 12. And the various authors call people back to their basic confession that God, that the God of Israel is both just and merciful. You hear this refrain again and again and again. And it really leads you to really think about how can these things be? That's just to give you a few examples, and I'll get some people to read for me as we turn there. The first one's Joel 2, and the second one's gonna be Jonah. So someone turn to Joel, and someone can turn to Jonah. And I gave you some more examples, but just for the sake of time, we'll just look at two of these. So if we think about God's divine mercy, how does it show up in the book of the 12? First person who gets to Joel, go ahead and read verses 13 through 14. Okay, great. So a call to repentance and then this appeal, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. Word for word, okay, from Exodus, right? Pretty close. Jonah 4.2, who wants to read that one? Perfect, so there it was again. Almost a quote of Hebrew, of what we read in Exodus 34. And a lot of times they'll use this kind of theological shorthand. Relenting from disaster is what it says in the ESV, I believe. Relenting from disaster, when you see that term. Really that's a kind of theological shorthand for what you find in Exodus 34, 27. Yeah, 34. 3427, that longer phrase that says, you know, who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity on the father's children, you know, da, da, da, all those things. The prophets will kind of summarize that in that shorter phrase, relenting from disaster, will not relent from disaster. So that's maybe helpful for you as you see these phrases come up again and again, kind of what they're doing there. Let's also look at a few examples where the justice of God for those who do not repent will be displayed. Someone turn to Amos 9 and Malachi 2. So Amos first. And if you're like me, you have to really find these books. I think I'm going the wrong way. Yep. I used to have the song memorized, but I haven't done it in a long time, so it'd probably be good for me. So Amos 9, verse 10. There you go, Amos 9 verse 10. Who wants to read it? Okay, there it was. All the people who do not repent will die by the sword. Judgment will come. Okay, so there's that clear picture of God's justice. Malachi 2.7, Malachi 2.17, I'm sorry, 2.17. Okay, so you see the weakness of Israel in questioning, or the people that are being referred to here, questioning that God is even just, and they're calling that which is evil good, thinking they're going to somehow escape the justice of God, the point being that they obviously won't, right? So there's a few other scriptures we could go to to see that, God's justice on display for those who don't repent, who don't return to Him. Now, as we know, and we're jumping ahead a little bit, but this tension is completely resolved when we arrive at the pages of the New Testament, where we really see the mercy and justice of God meet, okay, in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. And so how can these things be, right? Well, the clearest way that these things come together is in the person and work of Jesus Christ, where His justice is fully satisfied by Him making atonement for sin. And as such, He is rightly able to clear the guilty, because their sins have been atoned for. So He extends mercy. So I think all this is kind of building up and helping us to anticipate this coming one who's going to really resolve this tension that Jake talked about many months ago and that we see here again. So let's consider these words from Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, 19 through 21 about the work of Christ and think of it in relationship to Exodus 34. So here's verse 19. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And then this really key verse. For our sake, he made him. to be sin, who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Okay, so not counting trespasses against them, and then 21 explains how he who was not sin became sin, okay, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Okay, so you can see how the Old Testament is just pushing us and nudging us towards, you know, towards Christ and that whenever he would come, he would be received as such. Thoughts or questions about those two points so far? Good. All right, number three, the author of the 12 stressed the need for God's people to reflect God's character. Okay, this comes up again and again through the book of the 12. The 12 prophets were convinced that living in covenant with Yahweh meant that the people of God should resemble the God of the people. People of God should resemble the God of the people. So go ahead and turn to Malachi 1, 6-14, and you can read the majority of that later, but look at verse 6. So this is Malachi 1, verse 6. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my fear? Says the Lord of hosts to you, O priest who despise my name. But you say, how have we despised your name? So you kind of see this interesting thing that shows up again and again where Israel's accused of something. And then, you know, Israel's like, show us, show us how we, you know, this kind of excuse making, which is all too common. But God appealing to this idea of honor, of a relation between a father and a son. And that a son, okay, should honor, should live in such a way that brings honor to his father. Or, okay, a slave to a master. It's another example. But this idea of honor and how one shows honor shows up again and again in these books. So from the beginning of the 12, there's not just a focus on the right worship of God, but also an emphasis on being transformed by the right knowledge of him and his will. So it's not just about doing the right things in the right order at the temple. It's really about the people themselves living as a son in relationship to his father would live in such a way that would bring honor to him. Okay? So the rituals of worship, they're empty and they're offensive to God apart from a transformed worshiper. I'll let you turn to Amos 5 later to look at an example of that. So over and over again, the call for Israel to be righteous and just is really very basic to Israel's identity. Now, if we think about what righteousness and justice is, what's the relationship? I like to think about righteousness as the objective standard. Here's what is right. Here's what is good. That's what righteousness is. Justice is required to uphold that standard. Okay, so that's how we, okay, if there's a case, some kind of, and you don't uphold justice, okay, that's a problem because you're actually not upholding righteousness. So that's why, you know, thinking about courts. just decision or an unjust decision. Okay, the whole purpose of that is to uphold some standard of righteousness. So you can see how these two ideas, righteousness is kind of the objective ideal, and justice is how a person lives to uphold that ideal. So this doesn't just apply to a courtroom, but the way that we uphold righteousness in our life really matters, and we're to do it in a way that is just. It's always looking to uphold that standard. So this character not only had implications for how Israel was to relate to God, but also how she was to relate to her neighbor. And it's an interest that you see again and again of a kind of biblical, and I say that because social justice. We hear that term today and we think about all kinds of crazy stuff. But there is a kind of biblical social justice that has regard for neighbor. It's all over the pages of the Old Testament. If you remember the famous verse, when Jesus sums up the law and the prophets, what does he say? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Okay, that's exactly right. So that's really what we're referring to there. And Israel failed on both accounts. Okay, and that's clear through these texts. Number four, the author of the 12 emphasized the future day of judgment for the wicked and salvation for the righteous. Prophets frequently made reference to a future day of final reckoning, a future day of judgment. And really there's a kind of urgency in these words that calls Israel to repent quickly from our sin. We see these calls both in the beginning and at the end of the book of the 12 and really all throughout it. Here's Joel chapter two, turn there if you want to. Joel 2 11 through 13 says this, The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great. He who executes his word is powerful, for the day of the Lord is great and very awesome. Who can endure it? Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all of your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and he relents over disaster." Okay, so you see again in that last verse that appeal back to that very basic creed that Israel had about who God is. Okay, so there it is, making reference to this future day of judgment, judgment for the wicked, but salvation for the righteous. Okay, Malachi 4, 5 is another one. Malachi 4, 5, it says this, behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction. Okay, so you see these oracles of future judgment sprinkled throughout the book of the 12, and there's this kind of urgency that the people would hear them, that they wouldn't fall on deaf ears, and that they would be quick to repent of their sin and cling to the Lord. In fact, the 12 makes such a frequent use of the day that many, and it's probably right to do it, consider the day maybe the theme, the main theme of the book of the 12. No other prophetic book contains as many reference to the day as the 12 do. This is a quote from a guy named Stephen Dempster. It says this, the Old Testament portrays the day of Yahweh as a time of darkness that will catch off guard those asleep from spiritual drunkenness. Joel 1.5 and Amos 5.20 are two examples of that. a time of darkness that will catch off guard those who are asleep from spiritual drunkenness. Hopefully that sounds familiar to you, right? In this context, after asserting that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, for those who are in darkness, Paul asserts this about his audience. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. He then urged, let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. Okay, so you can see how Paul, reflecting on these words and these ideas that we find in the 12, show up as he exhorts. The church in Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians. That was 1 Thessalonians 5, 2, and 4, and also 5 or 6, if you wanna jot those down. Also, someone turned to 2 Peter chapter 3. I want to read this text in whole as well because it's a similar kind of text, but I think it's just helpful to read this in context what we're talking about within the book of the 12 because it's the same kind of anticipation. The first coming of Christ did not satisfy. I guess that's maybe a good way to look at that. The first coming of Christ did not satisfy this day of the Lord that the minor prophets talked about. And here's maybe an example, 2 Peter 3 verses 9 through 13. Someone read that for us. Thank you. Amen. Kind of fun to think about that in relationship to what we see in the 12, okay? Good. We might finish a little early today, which is fine, unless y'all have some questions. The author of the 12 announced the coming of a new David who would bring God's kingdom. Okay, this is again another recurring emphasis or theme that we see in the book of the 12, this idea of a new David who would bring God's kingdom. This is a quote from Dempster again. A final major emphasis in the 12 is the person of David and the city as associated with his name, which is Jerusalem. The prominence of David and his city represents the fulfillment of the covenant that was made with him in 2 Samuel chapter 7. We studied that whenever we were in the book of Samuel. It was one of these main pillar texts in all of your Old Testament, the Davidic covenant. Okay, which effectively promised what? What did it promise? Y'all remember? That David would not lack a heir on the throne. Okay, that his kingdom would be a perpetual kingdom, a forever kingdom. Okay, that's right. So the prominence of David in the city represents the fulfillment of the covenant that was made with him in 2 Samuel chapter seven, which would ultimately fulfill the promise to Abraham, okay, that in his seed, all the nations would be blessed. Okay, so we see this kind of track backwards throughout redemptive history. You see how these covenants built on themselves and ultimately would find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ. So it should come as no surprise to you then, when you turn to the first pages of your New Testament, the very first thing we encounter is what? Genealogy, yep, in the book of Matthew. Book of Matthew opens with a genealogy, which is really divided into three sections of 14 generations. Okay, they go like this. Abraham to David, David to exile, and then exile to Jesus. The whole point of Matthew arranging this genealogy in this way is to show from Abraham, to David, to the kings, to the coming of Christ, that all of these things are leading up to this babe born in Bethlehem. That's the whole point of him doing that. And that's a remarkable thing. That's in Matthew 1, 1 through 17. The Old Testament stress on David heightens anticipation for the new David, the ultimate David, David's greater son. As king, Jesus chose 12 disciples who would become another mini Israel. Okay, we already talked about a mini Israel with the book of the 12 and then the major prophets kind of being the patriarchs and this being a kind of mini Israel calling the people back. Jesus also chose 12 disciples who would become a mini Israel. And he focused the attention on Jerusalem by doing what? What did Jesus do in Jerusalem? A lot of things. The main thing he did was he died there, right? He rose there, okay? And his global rule is stressed by the commissioning of his disciples to be like a city which is set on a hill, bringing news of reconciliation and forgiveness to the worlds. So all these New Testament themes are the initial fulfillment of this Old Testament hope, this messianic hope that has been inaugurated and yet still waits its final consummation. Then we can maybe join with the early church as they prayed, you know, as we see in 1 Corinthians and Revelation, Maranatha, this cry, come Lord Jesus, right? but questions or comments about really anything that we've looked at today in terms of these main themes that we see in the book of the 12 and how they, again, are providing theological commentary on Israel's history, but are also driving us and driving them to consider an eschatological reality of the coming son of David and the final day of judgment and all the things that are entailed with that and God's love for his people and how he's gonna work all this out. Thoughts or questions? Y'all been a good group, very thoughtful I hope. So there you have it, an overview of the book of the 12. I hope that you found it edifying. I definitely did in looking at it in this way and preparing for it. And this lesson will really conclude our study of the latter prophets. Next week we are turning our attention to the last triad in our Old Testament ordering, and that's going to be the writings. So remember that the three are the law, the prophets, and the writings. Those are the three, you know, main categories of Old Testament text. And we're going to be welcomed into the writings with the help of a little book called the book of Ruth. And so I hope to see you there next week. So thank you all. And Jacob, would you close us in prayer?