Do the so-called “Minor Prophets,” addressing their message some two thousand years ago to different kingdoms and crises, have significant relevance today?

Is there any seed left in the barn? The vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree still haven’t produced. But from now on I will bless you. —Haggai 2:19

I. The question is as follows:

Do the so-called “Minor Prophets,” addressing their message some two thousand years ago to different kingdoms and crises, have significant relevance today?

The answer is “no” if God’s sovereignty over the world’s nations is an historical argument no longer applicable upon us since its’s impossible to believe that God is orchestrating history to accomplish His redeeming plan.

The answer is “yes” is we believe that God raises up and brings down nations according to His redeeming plan which would include even the most painful episodes which does not mean history is ever out of God’s control even in nasty and brutish times.

These “Minor Prophets” did not sugarcoat or comfort the judgment for the proud and the unrepentant and yet there is a surprising message within the harshness: God’s deep and redeeming love which is proof of His mercy.

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If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. —Habakkuk, 2:3

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. —Zechariah, 9:9

For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. —Habakkuk, 1:5

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” —Luke 25:25

II. Perhaps the “Minors” are not so “Minor” after all:

Sometimes called “The Book of the Twelve”; and sometimes “The Latter Prophets.” The books can be arranged as follows with approximate dates and places of activity, either the Northern Kingdom (Israel) or the Southern Kingdom (Judah).

Hosea, 760-720 BC, Israel

Joel, 830 BC (?), Judah

Amos, 760 BC, Israel

Obadiah, 845 BC (?), Judah (?)

Jonah, 780-760 BC, Israel

Micah, 737-690 BC ,Judah

Nahum, 664-612 BC, Judah

Habakkuk, 620-610 BC, Judah

Zephaniah, 640-608 BC, Judah

Haggai, 520-516-BC, Judah

Zechariah, Judah, 520-518 BC

Malachi, Judah, 430 BC

One might wish to note that the order is a bit loose as is the chronological order in the Bible. As for the Twelve, there are numerous kings but that too does not precisely match the sequence.

When I learned this, the order was defined by those prophets who flourished in pre-exilic times and those in post-exilic times which would suggest before and after the Babylonian and Assyrian empires who took either the northern peoples or southern peoples into captivity. The historical context, therefore, is sweeping, punctuated by deep emotions from the people especially with God’s judgment of exile, but also God’s (Yahweh’s) anger and sadness over His people’s violations of the covenants. But despite the selfishness and the corruption, God promised the means of reconciliation and restoration which begins immediately after the final words of Zechariah 14:20 and the introductory chapters in Matthew, 1:17-18.

Both are worth quoting in full, especially Zachariah which reads like an Old Testament book of revelations and the incremental repetition of the phrase, “On that day….”

On that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of horses, “Holy to the Lord:” And the pots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations ,and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportations to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place this way.

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Rather than attempting to determine a number in years for generations one might conclude that there’s at least a 430 year gap in time between the closing pages of the Old Testament and the introductory pages of the New Testament and the birth of Jesus.

The years prior to that “gap” are spread across the scroll which in its entirety is again often called “The Book of the Twelve” and as prophecy usually to redeem those those who have violated the covenant and bless those who have not and which creates what is these days called an “existential crisis.” Consider for a moment Hosea’s ministry and the first “book.” His ministry is to the northern kingdom and as a native to this northern kingdom speaking to his own people. At issue is the suffering of these northern people from war with Assyria which has led to anarchy. Furthermore, history records the assassination deaths of four kings within the time space of fourteen years. Toss in a queen or two and a nasty grandmother, and, well, easy to understand.

The point is simple enough since the kingly line suffered more than one coups d’état and more murders and more cruelty that buggers the imagination which leaves the reader wondering how David’s dynasty survived such political tumult and violence.

Perhaps it’s what happens when “we” don’t keep the faith.

Prophecy is the answer and the answer is that God will restore the covenantal blessings.

III. And now a few words from Professor Esbjornson:

Years ago during my undergraduate years, my religion professor referred to those four centuries-plus following the “Minor Prophets” as the “silent years” which is not to suggest nothing was going on. He proceeded to itemize this “inter-testament” time by listing historically what these lands and people were experiencing; occupations might be the best word as well as exile: Persian, Greek (which meant under the influence of the Hellenistic Era), Egyptian Syrian, the Maccabean Era, and of course Roman rule as well as Hellenistic Greek influence into Jewish culture and different Jewish groups like the Pharisees and Sadducees.

The latter introduces a sect of “religious leaders” but separate from the general populace with their meticulous focus on the law. The usual notion is that they emerged about two hundred years before the time of Christ.

The Sadducees, on the other hand, and as I recall, were a sect controlling the Temple and who held views denying the resurrection of the dead and afterlife.

Given all the confusion, well, one might argue that political, social, and religious practices had become confused which might lead to some serious complaining.

And indeed the complaining that appears in the scroll argues that the world seemed to be spinning into chaos. But these latter prophets are given a truth and that truth is that God is about to do something that staggers human understanding with the further point being that nothing is ever out of his control in this orchestration of history even if paganism is used to accomplish his redemptive plan.

Be patient, however, and wait for 430 years.

So, then, as readers of both testaments but importantly the bridge-like transition the “Book of the Twelve” makes into the New Testament, we find a majestic chorus of voices calling the Jewish people, in time, and us in time, back to God. Our understanding might be weak, if not bone-headed, especially when we find, as in the words of Habakkuk who finds amazement in God’s oracular call that He would use Babylon or Edom as in Obadiah with the argument that God raises up and brings down wicked kingdoms to judge his own nation of Israel.

And perhaps again any number of nations far out into the future and even our own time.

Every detail in this “theo-dramatic” large weaving of history is threaded together and meant to be without sin which comes into being through our own efforts to tear apart the weaving as we wish even if willy-nilly. So argued Malachi, the last of the minor prophets who receives the oracle but first in jeremiad fashion calls the people to repentance but also singles out the corruption.

— the priesthood had become corrupt

— worship had become routine

— divorce was widespread

— social justice was being ignored

— tithing was being neglected

To mention a few.

Malachi responds 430 years before the time of Matthew by asking the people to entreat the favor of God “that he may be gracious to “them.”

To which the people answer that all of that is a weariness and then “snort” at the Lord of hosts which as we all know is bad manners.

Malachi then writes that God is seeking Godly offspring worthy of the messenger God will send to prepare the way.

He will be like a refiners fire and and like fuller’s soap.

Which is one fine metaphor.

A the end of this portion of the scrolls, Malachi is prophesying the coming of both John the Baptist and Jesus and referring to both as messengers of God.

IV. One Sunday’s Old Testament Readings

Perhaps I’ve been remiss this church year but had my ears perked up recently with the Old Testament reading from Habakkuk followed by the Vicar’s homily.

Here’s what we know:

The twelve books again make up a prophetic whole scroll-like anthology containing writings composed over a period of almost five hundred years.

Over time the twelve reflect different historical contexts and perhaps by various hands and redactors which will challenge a reader’s habit of reading as if the intentions were those of an actual author by name. More so, scholars dutifully attempt to survey the text’s history peeling away to isolate and discover the text’s original core which we sometimes reference as the “ur-text.”

That being the likely case, readers might still resort to a fiction, so to speak, which would argue that the poetic ire of Amos is indeed the voice of someone by the name of Amos or by additional voices fired up in time with eschatological intensity as in Amos: 2: 4, 5.

The book is pregnant with the judgmental phrase, “Thus says the Lord” which appears incrementally with hammer-like judge-like prosecution:

Thus says the Lord:

For three transgression of Judah,

and for four, I will not revoke the

punishment;

….

So I will send a fire on Judah

and it will devour the

strongholds of Jerusalem

The Habakkuk scroll, as another example, then, was likely written sometime in a broad range between 640-615 B.C. which in history was about the time of the fall of Assyria and the rise of Babylon.

God, apparently, used Assyria to punish Israel and Babylon to punish Judah.

The question is how can God use a wicked nation for His divine purpose and to the extent that even Babylon would eventually fall to Persia. If, on the other hand, God’s people would hold themselves to a higher standard they should do so because they have a greater revelation. Thus, even if God’s ways are mysterious the righteous will live by faith while awaiting salvation. And as the Vicar knows these words are repeated in the New Testament at least three times.

The book begins with Habakkuk’s Complaint and a good one it is.

The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw,

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?

Or cry to you, “Violence!” And you will not save?

Why do you make me see iniquity and why do you idly look at wrong?

Destruction and violence are before me: strife and contention arise.

So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

If the dating is correct Habakkuk was again written between 640 and 615 B.C. But dating aside one wonders if the complaint could have been argued just a few days ago which is to suggest that its ancientness belies a certain timelessness.

What follows the complaint is one of the briefest prophecies in the Old Testament. One of the problems with oracles, however, or to use a synonym, visionaries, is whether what they report seeing is either true or false. One might by comparison ask what did Isaiah see as written in 13:1? He saw the burden of Babylon and a message concerning the destruction of Babylon well before its time.

Babylon does not fare well in the Old Testament.

Hans Urs von Balthasar’s argument for “Theo-Drama” is wonderfully on point here what with dramatic personae but also with the action of divine drama itself as seen in the action and passion of God and man and the character Habakkuk’s personal involvement whereby God Himself comes forth to do battle with dutiful initiative called for on our part.

The Lord’s Answer

Look among the nations, and see;

        wonder and be astounded

For I am doing a work in your days

        that you would not believe if told.

For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans

        that bitter and nasty nation,

Who march through the breadth of the

        the earth,

To seize dwellings not their own.

Dreaded and fearsome are they;

        their justice and dignity go forth

        from themselves.

Their horses are swifter that leopards.

More menacing than the evening wolves;

        their horses charge.

Their horsemen come from afar;

        they fly like an eagle swift to devour.

They all come for violence,

        all their faces forward.

They gather captives like sand.

        At kings they scoff,

        and at rulers they make sport.

They laugh at every fortress

        And hey pile up earth to take it.

They sweep by like the wind,

        they transgress and become guilty;

        and go on.

Guilty men, whose own might

        is their god!

Is there a finer poetic line like than “bitter and nasty nation” that owns a place in ancient history and, if I may carefully suggest history becoming bitter and nasty in our own day and age.

What is this other than divine data itself, if I may use the word data, as well as the unity of glory and revelation and God acting on our behalf in history.

So, to go back a bit, the Vicar was on point in his homily, fine scholar that he is. He made the proper point that Habakkuk is one in the long line of the minor prophets but the term “minor” does not mean the twelve short books are any less inspirational than the major prophets. And once again interesting the is the fact that the books were grouped together at the end of the Old Testament because they were bound together on a single scroll.

V. Let us turn, then, to Hosea, the title to the first book in this unified scroll.

One large issue is the love that God shows from His divine compassion for Israel. It’s a love that will not let Israel go.

The first few lines indicate that God has directed Hosea to take a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom which makes for an odd kind of choice for a wife.

But why?

Because the land has committed whoredom by forsaking the Lord.

Such would seem to be a minor message but the theological drama is large enough to illustrate that God is sovereign and in complete control in the history of all nations not just Israel. God raises up and brings down kingdoms according to his divine purpose.

Is there a larger prophetic message?

If one marries a prostitute, it’s more likely than not such a woman would be unfaithful which the book uses as a metaphor: Israel is unfaithful to God. And the religious leaders were unfaithful in leading the people to God and political leaders were aligning themselves with pagan nations rather than relying on God. History will record Hosea’s prophecy will come to fruition when the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria. So, a vivid description of transgressions complicated by infighting among the “elites” exacerbated problems. Those transgressions can be characterized as moral corruption from both the political and religious leaders and knowing such should lead to genuine contrition which did not occur which led to devastation and once again exile.

The final chapters, however, do lead to a focus on restoration and hope. Justice for sin was inevitable but the wounds could be healed and blessings would follow.

And we know that Jesus would quote Hosea 6:6 in Matthew 12:7 which offers the careful reader a remarkable bit of parallelism.

Does such matter today?

Not if it’s just one more example of ancient history which does not apply to us today since all things are relative. It does, however, if we argue it’s divine instruction which offers divine clarity. If we are living in times of existential crisis.well, Hosea offers perspective into God’s much larger and, yes, ongoing plan.

And to repeat myself, every detail in the large weaving of history is woven together and without sin but which comes into being through our own efforts to tear the weaving apart..

And so as I sat in church that day, I drifted a bit from the Vicar’s homily (forgive me dear friend) I was again recalling my undergraduate religion class with Robert Esbjornson, a very fine man and biblical scholar. It must have been interesting to him to look out into his classroom at the fresh-faced 18-year old students and state simply that the message of those Minor Prophets is a multifaceted call to repentance and so young people get busy.

I say “Is” because once again those writings gathered together in twelve books are comprehensive in scope but highly relevant to contemporary issues, to our time of troubles, complicated by what might best be called messianic longing, a foundational hope in the Bible for a divine figure who will bring about a new era of peace, justice, and salvation and the overthrow of darkness.

In other words, those twelve books carry a major message for the Hebrew audience in their own time although over a period of roughly 450 years from the 9th to the 5th centuries B.C. They speak for Yahweh, the covenant keeping God of Israel.

And over that time period different kings, of course, and different kingdoms, and as always it seems, different crisis. And the writers were all different which means not cut from the same cloth. Some were priests, some were shepherds and others mysterious but we know them by name.

So what must and introverted 18-year old have thought while fearing, however, to address a question to Professor Esby who became in time one young man’s friend and who came forth in time in that young man’s mind to remember.

What more can be said? A few words from Haggai?

Well, like most of the Old Testament prophets the message which is major for these minor prophets is much like one more shout over the years and to the revelation as to who God is, His sovereignty, his love, and a His promise yet to bet revealed a few centuries hence and the most meaningful event orchestrated in history to accomplish His redemptive plan.

So the “theo-historical issue is something like this:

The Old Testament Book of Daniel is usually figured around 605 B.C. when Daniel is in the population exiled Babylon. Bur he’s also present when they Persians conquer Babylon in 539.

Before that, however, we know that in 922 B. C. Israel is split into two nations, Israel in the north and Judah in the south.

A one time whole nation divided against itself.

So the “theo-historical issue is something like this:

In 722 B. C., the Assyrians conquer the Northern Kingdom.

And in turn 586 Babylon conquers Judah and take many Israelites captive.

538 Cyril the Great King of Persia conquers Babylon and allows the Jewish people to return home but the “diaspora” scatters the people into discordant groups scattered even to Gentile countries.

Consider at the end here some words from Haggai, a short but powerful message to those Jews still living abroad and suffering what one might call spiritual disappointment and even loss of both cultural and religious identity.

The need, therefore, was to encourage the exiles to return and rebuild the temple, a work promised by Cyrus.

Haggai exhorted the Jewish leadership to unify the disrupted religious life.

But why?

Well, if I read the text properly Haggai’s point was that to engage in this activity would lead God to bless this people but the ultimate purpose was preparation for the messianic age still some four centuries into the future.

If the people did this work, the heavens which had withheld the dew would respond with dew and if the temple is rebuilt, God will take pleasure in it.

Is it not a small but crucially important book in the overall story of the Hebrew Bible? If God’s work is prioritized God will eventually become a living presence. Take courage, have faith, and remember there is still “seed in the barn.” God is promising an abundant harvest and a new era of blessings.

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The featured image is “Hosea” by James Tissot, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.