the cultural or the creation mandate. But I was thinking, okay, what series should I handle next? And really, I got drawn finally to this series, Major Lessons from the Minor Prophets. Major Lessons from the Minor Prophets. And the reason why I've been drawn to that series is that it's been largely a gap that I have found as I have looked at my 35 years of preaching here. I have preached through quite a large chunk of what is called the Torah or the Pentateuch. I have preached quite a bit from the writings the various stories that we find in the Old Testament. I've preached quite a bit from the poetic, the Psalms especially. I've done Ecclesiastes as well, etc., etc. And then, of course, in the New Testament as well. But somehow, yes, I did Daniel recently. and stopped right there. Going all the way from Mosea to the book of Malachi, it's been a section that I haven't quite dealt with. I know I dealt with Malachi many years ago in the early section of my pastoral ministry here in a Bible study. but not while preaching in this pulpit. And then also Habakkuk during a conference, an annual conference. So I felt it was only right that I use this opportunity for us to go through the minor prophets. And one of the issues that is a basic principle of Christianity is that when you neglect one part of the Bible, you become a lopsided Christian, inevitably. You end up being imbalanced or unbalanced. And therefore, for instance, when you've been reading the whole of the Bible, it's healthy because what it is doing is it's enabling you to come through as a balanced believer. Well, if we overlook the minor prophets entirely in the pulpit ministry, we will be lopsided. We will not be as God would want us to be. But one can understand why this often happens. It's because the minor prophets have been given a very unfair name. Minor prophets. And inevitably you begin to think unimportant prophets. You know minor, minor. It's unimportant. And generally scholars think that the first person who came up with this was Saint Augustine, who started calling it who are calling these 12 books minor prophets. And it was not because they were unimportant to him, but it was because they are shorter, by far shorter. I mean, try and compare them, for instance, with Isaiah, which goes into at least 60 or 66 chapters. Compare them with Jeremiah, which also goes into 40-something, no 50-something, I think 52 chapters. Or compare with Ezekiel, which goes on to about 48 chapters. These, some of them, it's but one or two chapters, finished, finished, that's it. So it is in that sense that he called them minor. But I want to assure you that in the day in which they lived, nobody thought of them as minor. they were but one of the prophets, or like Isaiah himself and Jeremiah. In fact, some of them, they were even contemporaries, as I hope we shall see. So the fact that they wrote smaller books does not mean that they are less significant. In fact, that's one of the reasons why I have entitled the series major lessons in the Minor Prophets. It's because I want us to recognize that the lessons there are actually major. They are life impacting. So what I want to do today is basically introduce these books. They are being introduced primarily to whet your appetite. so that you can look forward to coming and increasing your spiritual well-being as you are learning from these books. So very quickly then, who were the minor prophets and why is their message important to Christians today? I'll just read the first two verses. of Hosea, and I want to use those two verses to basically launch into answering this question. So Hosea, chapter one, verse one and verse two. The Bible reads there, the word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Hosea, Jotam, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. And in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Assyria. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go, take to yourself a wife of Wodom. and have children of wardom. For the land commits great wardom by forsaking the Lord." We'll end our Bible reading there. First of all, to the question, Who are the minor prophets? It is basically the books that begin with Hosea all the way to Malachi. I have them listed in my notes, so I will just quickly mention them. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The Jews used to refer to these books as the 12 books. So there are 12 of them. And that's the way they simply used to refer to them as the 12 prophets, sorry. But they used to refer to them as the book of 12. And the reason why they were referred to as the book of 12 is because all 12 of them would be written on one entire scroll. So they didn't have to carry a number of scrolls when they were dealing with what today we call the minor prophets. So it was simply the book of 12, or the 12 prophets. And the message of these individuals is important to us today simply because of the way in which Hosea itself begins. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Behiri. In other words, it is God's word. The God who created the universe, the God who governs history, the God who is the redeemer of his elect people, the God who will one day judge the living and the dead, broke through history and spoke to his servant to then carry that message to his people. Surely that ought to be important to us. And so when you read the minor prophets, this is what keeps coming through. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, or as we read in verse two, when the Lord first spoke through Hosea. the Lord said. Or, if we can quickly skip to the next book, which is Joel, this is what we read there. The same way, the word of the Lord, Joel 1 and verse 1. the word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Bethuel. Surely we should realize this is important. God has spoken. Or even where it begins slightly differently, like Amos, if we can just quickly turn there, Amos chapter one. You will notice that it simply begins, the words of Amos. And you may think, okay, so that might not be very impressive or very important or vital to me because those are his own words. But it's not long before you read verse three, thus says the Lord. Verse six, thus says the Lord. Verse 9, thus says the Lord. Verse 11, thus says the Lord. Verse 13, thus says the Lord. Immediately you realize, okay, it is still the word of God that this particular prophet is speaking in the hearing of those who were there. In fact, in many of these passages, the English word, the word of the Lord, is inadequate to fully express the actual Hebrew word. The word that is used there can also be translated the burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord. And the reason is that these individuals were burdened. They were, as it were, carrying the heavy matters of the Lord to convey to His people. And it, therefore, was something that they wanted to share, that they needed to share, that the people desperately needed to hear the burden of the Lord. So they were not like, let's use my own example that can easily be, a paid pastor. Someone who is brought into an office and knows that at the month end I will get a salary. And therefore, I do need to fill my quota. So even if there's no burden, the word of the Lord is not burning in me and I must let it out. I should still say, well, you know, Sunday is here. So let me prepare something in order to share with the people. These men did not occupy any office in Israel. They didn't. Israel had two offices that you could say were actually by the Nation of Israel officers. And it was kings and priests. If you wanted to see a king, you went to a palace. You found him there. If you wanted to see a priest, you went either to the tabernacle or the temple. You found him there. If you wanted a prophet, there was no office for you to go to, to go and see him, because he did not occupy an office. A king was paid from the tax. A priest was paid from the tithe. A prophet was not paid. There was no payment given to him. So what drove him? The burden of the Lord. That's what drove him. It was when the Word of the Lord came to him. The matters of the Lord came to him. The concerns of the Lord came to him. And he knew, I must deliver this. I must speak this. And I must speak it even if in the process I will suffer for it. And as we shall go on to see, many of these individuals suffered mightily. So that's the first reason why we need to listen to the minor prophets and their major lessons. It is because They spoke the word of God, unpaid, unremunerated, often suffering for it. They conveyed what God said. Number two, the minor prophets lived during the divided kingdom and before Assyria attacked. We see it also in this text. Back to Hosea and chapter one. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri. Listen to this. In the days of Hosea, Jotam, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, then it says, kings of Judah. And in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. Basically what happened is that Israel became a nation under the work of Moses, followed by Joshua, and then they entered the promised land And through individuals like David, they conquered the whole of that promised land, including individuals like the Philistines, who were conquered primarily under David. But what happened is, after that, David was followed by Solomon. And Israel experienced its highest days, its most glorious days, incomparable under Solomon. Partly because of the wisdom that God gave him, but also partly because of the foundation that was laid by his father, David. And part of that foundation was also the establishment or construction of the temple, the glorious temple. It was such a glorious infrastructure that the next time after it was destroyed, which is after these days we are looking at under the minor prophets, was reconstructed The people of Israel really mourned when they saw what was now there in front of them, especially those that had seen the structure before. So that was the most glorious period. However, when Solomon died, two of his sons took over Israel. And in the process, they divided the nation between them. And one remained around Jerusalem with two tribes, and then the rest remained where it was. And where the rest was, that continued under the name Israel. But around Jerusalem was Judah, and that became the primary name. So from that point onwards, you read of Israel, and it's referring to ten tribes. And when you read Judah, you are really referring to two tribes, and it is the ones around Jerusalem who still had the temple with them. So when you read there that the word of the Lord came to us here in the days of all these kings, kings of Judah, and then this other king, king of Israel, you immediately know that it is during the divided kingdom as it is often referred to. However, it is even further than that. It is towards the end of the divided kingdom. In other words, the religious life of the people of Israel was going from bad to worse, bad to worse, bad to worse. And the section that really hit rock bottom first were the 10 tribes. Those are the ones that hit rock bottom first and primarily they went into idolatry. God sent prophet after prophet until finally he decided enough is enough and that's how he brought the Assyrians to come and destroy the 10 tribes and take them into captivity. During those last years, when God was sending prophet after prophet to speak to these 10 tribes of Israel, that's where you have a number of these minor prophets. And I'll soon tell you which ones they are. Well, I might as well tell you now. It is beginning with Hosea all the way to Micah. So what we have there is Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah. Those six prophets were prophesying largely before the Assyrian attack. and they were therefore primarily speaking to the ten tribes. Not to Judah, but to the ten tribes. Although the very last two, Jonah and Micah, were primarily speaking to Nineveh, which was the capital city of Assyria, the nation that was about to come and attack Israel. And that is one reason why Jonah was reluctant to go and preach to them, lest they repent. Because they were, as it were, on the eve, they were Israel's number one enemy. So, of course, it's like, you know, that boss of yours who got you fired. And now you're being told to evangelize him. You understand? You said, oh, no. You want him to perish. You see what I mean? It's hard. That's what was happening with Jonah there. So please, don't throw stones at him when you are in the same shoes. But we'll come to that in a moment. So the first list there was primarily to Israel. And then you have Nahum. Habakkuk and Zephaniah. These were primarily ministering to Judah. And it was again warning them against the idolatry that they themselves also began to engage in. Well, they had begun earlier, but it was getting worse. And so they are the ones who are being preached to primarily by these these three prophets. And in the end, again, they don't listen. And who is it that comes now? Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldeans. They're the ones who sweep down from the north and destroy Judah, bring down the walls of Jerusalem, destroy the temple altogether. carry with them the vessels of the Lord. So these three were primarily speaking into that context, saying, look, you people, you've seen what God has done to your brothers. You've seen. It was because of exactly the same sins that you are now guilty of. Do you honestly think God will spare you? They didn't listen. We've got three more remaining. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. These three ministered many years later to the retaining exiles. So after the Babylonian Empire came the Medes and the Pagans. who came and destroyed, overcame the Babylonian empire. And it was during that season that God moved Cyrus, who was king then, to return God's people back to the promised land. And they went back and they found a devastated place, a humiliated place, walls broken down, the temple, you can cry if you saw the way in which it had been completely devastated. So these exiles had the task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple as much as they could. But there was lethargy, lethargy in the people, lethargy in the priests. And these three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, that was really what they were addressing. So you remember, for instance, Haggai challenging the people of Israel and saying to them, here you are rebuilding your houses, and you are now living in panel houses. And yet at the same time you are saying it's not yet time to rebuild the Lord's house. And the frustrations they were having in terms of their economy and their farming failing to yield fruit. Again, the prophet was saying it's because God is punishing you that you need to set your priorities right. Or if we can jump all the way to Malakai, you remember how it is said that the priests were accepting anything from the worshippers. Even when they brought blind animals and lame animals and blemished animals, they just accepted. You know, look, whatever, just pray. They had become lethargic. and Malachi and his friends were basically seeking to up the game, to raise the spiritual levels of the returning exiles. So perhaps one way in which we can picture the minor prophets is imagine you as an individual speaking to a Christian who's backslidden. And he's been backslidden for some time. And he's actually getting worse. He's gone now from hidden sin, you know what I mean? You know, hidden affairs. And now it's becoming actually in the open. And other people have even given up on him or her. but this person is your friend. So there you are now at your wit's end. You are emotional about trying to plead with this brother or this sister. And so you go in to say, look, God is going to punish you. He's going to chastise you. Don't go this way. Stop in your tracks. And that friend of yours doesn't listen until finally, as is often the case, chastisement falls. Disaster falls. Imagine that during that period of disaster, you are having again to move in and minister to this Christian by imploring him that, look, the Lord loves you. He's done this because he wants you back to him. Repent of your ways. Humble yourself. Maybe the person is even under church discipline. And you're saying, look, just go back to the church leaders and just apologize for the way in which you have lived. Humble yourself. Eat humble bread. You can't go on like this. Finally, he comes back. He apologizes. He's restored. But guess what? He concludes, my spiritual life is best lived now at the back. Nothing against those who are sitting at the back there, but you understand what I mean. At the back. There's no way I'm going to do anything meaningful. It's just good enough that I've been accepted by. It's just good enough. And again, you are ministering to that brother or that sister saying, come on, it's not enough that you are back, that you are simply warming your people. It's not enough. This God demands you all. He is the all glorious one. Throw in your everything for his glory and his honor. Well, that's basically what you have in the 12 minor prophets. They are dealing with terribly backslidden Israel and Judah. The minister during the period when Israel and Judah are sent into captivity, chastised by the Lord, and the minister when Israel and Judah come back to the promised land and their spirituality is half-baked. Can you see the relevance of these 12 to us? Because we often find ourselves that way. We often, as a church, are needing to be warned. when we prioritize the wrong things, when we idolize our work, we idolize our families, we idolize sport, we idolize money, we idolize so many things. And God is speaking, and it is going in through one ear and out through the other, and we're just not responding. We're still not changing. Until disaster hits, we all need to listen to these prophets, to listen to them. Now, the third and last aspect that I want us to notice is that the minor prophets got different messages from God and delivered different messages to the people of Israel. And that is the reason why we should read all of them, not just one. So here, for instance, is the message that came to Hosea, verse two. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go, take to yourself a wife of wardom and have children of wardom, for the land commits great wardom by forsaking the Lord. He never said this to any of the other prophets. Hosea is the one who was told to take on such a wife and to have such children. So it enriches our lives as we read each of the prophets, these minor prophets. By the way, Daniel in the Hebrew Bible doesn't appear between Ezekiel and Hosea. it appears in the writings much, much earlier. So that's one of the reasons why I haven't mentioned it at all as either a major prophet or a minor prophet, okay? So in case you are wondering where Daniel has slipped through the cracks. So let me just quickly give you a rundown in maybe one sentence at the most, two sentences, as to the major message under each of these two of prophets. the major message. Remember, the first six were speaking primarily into Israel, the 10 tribes, though the last two of those six were addressing Assyria or Nineveh, the capital. So Hosea, his main message was that Israel was committing great spiritual idolatry. adultery through its idolatry. The relationship between God and Israel is like the relationship between husband and wife. It's meant to be a monogamous relationship where he's alone in the hearts of his people. The fact that they were now having the temple and its worship, and then also having, as I keep saying, under every spreading tree, you are involved in idolatry, was disgusting to God. Hence the issue of marrying a prostitute. The second, which is Joel, following immediately after this, Joel's primary message was to answer the question, why is God permitting disaster on his people? Why? It's as though we must blame God. We must find fault with God. And so through Joel, God is basically answering that it is because you have departed from me. There's been a departure from the Lord going into idolatry. There's been a breaking of the covenant. That's why disaster is coming. So that's the main message behind Joel. And as I said, we will make our way through this. We come to Amos. Amos. Basically, under Amos, it was the message that God is going to punish Israel, first of all, because they lacked that monogamous relationship with him, but, and this is crucial, listen to this, it's because also they lacked love for one another. They lacked love for one another. They deliberately wronged one another. Those who were the powerful ones, politically powerful, financially powerful, were riding roughshod over the weak and the poor. And remember, God's concern is not just the first tablet. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. There is a second which is unto it, and it is this, you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. And brethren, again, it's important to listen to messages like that of Amos, because I'm talking about those of us who are of a Reformed faith. We often can be very unfeeling very gossiping, backsliding, and rather backbiting, and in the name of jealousy for the Lord, do terrible things towards one another, and somehow justify ourselves. It's for the Lord's glory, for the Lord's glory. And yet there are two tablets that are there together. So to be able to see that true Christianity is love. It's love. Vertical is also love horizontal. Here's another one, Obadiah after Amos. And you can see if you bypass Obadiah and end up in Jonah, yeah, end up in Jonah, I won't blame you because it's just one chapter, just one chapter. Basically, Obadiah prophesied against Edom. Now, Edom is the nation that grew out of Esau, as we normally refer to him. And instead of them loving their brothers, the Israelites, when they were now suffering under the Assyrians, they rejoiced. They were very happy that this was now happening to the Israelites. And therefore, Obadiah was speaking against them, saying, you ought to have come alongside your brothers in order to love them and support them. This is what Obadiah is primarily all about. So they now will also suffer the discipline of God because of lack of love. Jonah is the next. I think of all the minor prophets, he's the most famous. I don't need to tell you. I've already laid the card out of the bag anyway. Jonah was sent to go and preach to Nineveh and ended up being swallowed by a fish. Yeah, after three days. It is often joked about it today, isn't it? Imagine Jonah showing up after disappearing for three days and telling his wife, I was swallowed by a fish. Yeah. He was reluctant to prophesy against Nineveh because he wanted it destroyed and therefore in the process save his own people. But let's go on. After Jonah, which is also a very short book, although it's got four chapters, but each of them very, very short, we come to Micah. Micah. Micah is the very last one now. that is addressing Israel. But it also, Micah also addresses Judah as well. And so if you look at this one, we see there the word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotam, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. But listen to this. which he saw concerning Samaria, and that's where the rest of the nations of Israel had their place of worship, and Jerusalem, which is where Judah had its place of worship. He ended up addressing both. He addressed Israel, which in due season finally went into captivity under Assyria, but he also addressed Judah. And basically the same thing. You are unfaithful to God and you are unjust to God. to the weak who are among you. So again, as you go through Micah, you will read about rulers and the way in which they were wrongly ruling the people of God for their own advantage. And so the Lord comes to speak about destruction that will come upon them. Okay, so that is where we are. Then we cross over to Neham. So remember, we've now left Israel. Israel has suffered its major blow now under the Assyrians. We are crossing over now to the two tribes that are referred to as Judah. So Neham, like Jonah preached primarily to Nineveh. So if you look, if you've got a Bible like mine, you will notice the subheadings there are already about Nineveh. But he also preached to Judah about their own sin. Okay, so largely Nineveh, but Judah also comes in being preached to. Then comes Habakkuk. Habakkuk is fairly well known as well, primarily because you have him complaining about the horizontal relationships in Israel that had become bad, bad, bad. that trading down of the innocent and the weak and the powerless and so on by those who had power in Israel. And so he's saying, look, Lord, please, this is injustice. You need to sort it out. And the Lord says, yeah, don't worry. Actually, the Babylonians are on their way. And he said, hang on, hang on, hang on. I mean, those are the ones who deserve punishment more. How do you start bringing them to a nation that is more righteous than themselves, and so forth? And all that happens is that God says, don't worry. Once I've used the Chaldeans, there are 10 who will come, and I'll come and sort them out also. That's what Habakkuk is all about. Zephaniah. Zephaniah. Basically, Zephaniah finishes off this section. He is warning Judah. In fact, if you've got a Bible like mine, you can see it as a subheading there. He's basically saying, fine, disaster is finally here. It's finally here. Where your brothers went, you're also now going because you have been stubborn. So that's the message in Zafanaya. We cross over to Haggai. This is now the retaining exiles, okay? And basically Haggai's message, remember what I said earlier, is to the retaining exiles and is saying you need to prioritize the rebuilding of the temple, the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. You need to prioritize that rather than your own individual little lives. I've already talked about that. It's a very small book, and you basically cross it in two chapters. Zechariah is one of the longest. Let's see, yeah. You have about 14 chapters. And he was basically prophesying to the nations that dealt in a very cruel way to the people of Israel, the covenant people of God, and is basically saying, God is coming after you as well. Yes, he may have used you to discipline his people. That does not justify the wrong that you have done. And so, for instance, right on top of this nine, if you've got a Bible like mine, is the words judgment on Israel's enemies, judgment on Israel's enemies, and then they get restored. Finally, Malachi, I think I spoke about that already. In Malachi, it's the laissez-faire attitude in the priests that makes them fail to see that God is supposed to be honored and glorified. You're coming from a very bad situation. It doesn't mean we should accept lopsided, underhanded, haphazard religion. Our God is great. We must show his greatness. Okay, so that takes us right to the last of the minor prophets. So do you see what we miss when we don't take time to look at each one of these and to learn from each one of these for our own spiritual lives? Because we are all with a tendency towards backsliding. We easily lose sight of the glory of God. And how many of us tempted by the lures of sin, want to have the kind of life where you go to church, yes, but you're literally just sitting at the edge and your heart really has gone after the things of the world. So you are there, yes, you know, church, yes, but really your heart has gone away from the Lord long ago, long ago. These minor prophets, will bring us back, at least they ought to bring us back, so that we can have a single-hearted devotion to the Lord. Just two more words and I close. I've taken longer than I thought I would. First of all, each of these minor prophets, while they are speaking warnings of judgment and destruction that is coming and so forth, each of them also spoke of God's loving kindness and faithfulness to His covenant people. Each of them. that God is a God who is holy and just. But as I said this morning, he's also a good God. So he punishes in order that he might bring us to himself because that's the best place for us. It's the best place in that monogamous relationship with him. It's the best place. And that's why he chastises. He doesn't chastise to destroy. He chastises to bring us to spiritual health. So these minor prophets, although speaking in very difficult spiritual circumstances, are still pointing to a further hope. The Lord, after you have learned your lesson, will restore you. After you've learned your lesson, he will restore you. There's hope. Look into the future. It's a blessed day that's going to come. And then lastly, in pointing into the future, every so often, each of these prophets, they prefigure the coming of the Savior. the coming of the Savior. And sometimes, if we didn't have the New Testament, we would not have known that he's the one being referred to. For instance, sometimes it's simply the branch. The branch is the one I'm going to raise up, whose roots are in Jesse, and so on. But based on the New Testament, we know that this prophet is pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. So the hope of Israel, the hope of Judah, ultimately is Jesus Christ, who is our hope as well. He is also our Savior. So even the minor prophets point us to Jesus Christ. As he himself said, all scripture speaks about me. The minor prophets are not an exception. Amen. Thank you very much.