Major Questions Minor Prophets Habakkuk - God & Evil Hosea - God s Pain Obadiah - God & Pride Haggai - God & Blessing John - God s arrival
The minor prophets - an intro At the end of the Old Testament there are a whole bunch of books that don t often get a look in. They re called the minor prophets, and they include Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. They re called the Minor Prophets not because they re unimportant, but because they re much shorter than the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah & Ezekiel). But while they re lightyears away from our culture, the questions they re struggling over are exactly the same as the ones people are asking today. What s God doing about evil? Does He even care about our suffering? Can t we just ignore Him? What does it look like to be blessed by God? How would we respond if He visited? So in this series we re going to be hearing from 4 of the minor prophets in the old testament - Haggai, Hosea, Obadiah & Habakkuk - and one right at the start of the New Testament - John the Baptist. We re going to be seeing their struggles (despair, hopelessness, frustration, confusion) and their hopes (it ll get better, there s got to be more, God can do something, God will do something). So the minor prophets might not be the place you d first stop in the bible. But the hope is that over the next 5 weeks you re going to see that the questions you re asking, and the struggles you re having, are the same struggles people have been asking for centuries. And they re the same questions that God has been answering since then as well. 1 Travelling through the Old Testament Key Chronicles (narrated account) Post Exile Books (narrated accounts) Samuel/Kings (narrated account) Genesis-Ruth (Incl. Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy & Numbers) Psalms and other wisdom literature The Prophets (approximate order - many books are not dated) 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles Nehemiah Ezra Genesis Exodus & entry to the Promised Land 2 Samuel 1 Samuel Ruth Judges Joshua King David and Solomon 1 Kings Ecclesiastes Song of Songs Proverbs Kingdom Divides into North & South 2 Kings Amos Hosea Micah Exile of the North to Assyria Jonah Isaiah Zephaniah Habbukuk Nahum Exile of the South to Babylon Jeremiah Ezekial Obadiah Daniel Lamentations Return to Jerusalem Malachi Joel Zechariah Haggai Osborne/Harricks 1 If you re looking for a great book that gives a brief outline on the Old Testament books, grab William Dumbrell s book The Faith of Israel. It s gold. Gold I tell you.
Habakkuk - god & evil Here s the background...habakkuk is speaking to Judah (the southern kingdom) just before it s destruction in 586/7 bc, when, morally speaking, Israel was at rock-bottom. It s called an oracle, or prophecy, but more literally it s Habakkuk s burden. And the burden is this - what is God going to do about the evil in Israel? Habakkuk has 2 questions for God (1:2-4, 1:12-2:1), he hears God s 2 answers (1:5-11, 2:2-20) and finishes with a prayer (3). To start, spend some time talking about the evil & injustices you see in the world that rile you up. Before you read Habakkuk, spend some time looking at the diagrams (page 2/3) and understanding the situation in the time Habakkuk lived. Read Habakkuk 1 - What s causing Habakkuk such pain as he looks out at Israel? (1:2-4) 2 - Is this something that you struggle with? Where do you see it? 3 - What does God tell Habakkuk he s going to do about it? (1:5-11) 4 - Babylon were the hated enemy of Israel. And were seen to be much more corrupt & evil than even Israel. What, in 1:12-2:1 does Habakkuk find so disturbing in God s answer? 5 - Consider the list of injustice & evil that you made at the start of tonight. Would you say you re a contributing in any way, or just an observer? What we see here is God dealing with evil through an even greater evil. And we ll see in a moment that that s not God s last word. But before we hear God s greater solution 6 - If God were to deal comprehensively with evil & justice, how would that play out for you? Are there different grades of evil? Do we overlook / justify it in ourselves? God s words to Habakkuk turn out to be true - Babylon is used to deal with the evil in Israel (Judah). In around 586 b.c. Babylon sweep down on Jerusalem, kill thousands and ship the elite off to Babylon as captives.
But God gives Habakkuk hope. And through Habakkuk us. He tells Habakkuk to record his response for all (2:2), and says that while it might not seem like it, he is going to deal with injustice & evil comprehensively one day - and not just in Israel & Babylon (2:3). 7 - In 2:4-20, Habakkuk lists a series of woes - that is, things that God is going to bring people to account for. Go through them. What would they have meant in that context, and do we see them today? Hidden amongst the woes is a glimmer of hope - that the righteous will live by faith (or faithfulness). Habakkuk was in distress because he was surrounded by injustice he couldn t change, heard an answer he didn t like from God, and felt like a solution was a long way off - perhaps not even in his lifetime. But in chapter 3, we see Habakkuk respond as one of the faithful in Habakkuk 2:4. 8 - What does living by faith look like for Habakkuk in chapter 3? 9 - How does what he knows about God shape the way he responds to the evil & injustice he sees around him? 10 - This verse is quoted three times in the New Testament - Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:37-38. Look up these verses and discuss what it means to live by faith this side of the pinnacle of God s plan, Jesus. As we think about the ideas of evil, injustice & what God is doing about it, there are two things for Christians to stop, consider and apply. Let s look at 2 passages / ideas. 11 - First, we re part of the problem. Read Romans 3:9-20 and discuss it s implications for evil & injustice in the world and how we view it (and ourselves). 12 - Second, we re recipients of the true faithful one. Read Romans 3:21-26 and discuss how living by faith is shaped / informed by what God has done in Jesus.
hosea - god s pain Here s the background...hosea 1:1 puts us in the years before the destruction of the Northern Kingdom in 722 bc (See diagram on Page 3), probably somewhere in the area of 750bc to 725bc. It s the longest of the minor prophets that we re looking at, so we re just going to be looking at a select through parts. But we re going to see God, through Hosea, give an incredibly vivid picture of the pain that Israel has caused God and why. To start, what is the relationship between love & anger? (Or love & wrath?) Can someone be full of both at the same time? How? Before you read Hosea, spend some time looking at the diagrams (page 2/3) and understanding the situation in the time Habakkuk lived. Read Hosea 1:1-2:1 1 - If you re looking for names for kids, this probably isn t the place to look. What message / story is Hosea s marriage and names of the kid supposed to communicate? 2 - God is obviously deeply hurt by Israel, but from these verses, what s his desire? While Hosea 1 focused on the children, Hosea 2-3 are going to expand on Hosea s marriage to Gomer to highlight God s pain. Read Hosea 2:2-3:5 First up, we re going to consider why God is so hurt by Israel. 3 - It s not pretty, but what s the picture that s painted in Hosea 2? 4 - Have someone look up Deuteronomy 30:15-18 and read what God called Israel to, and what He promised them? 5 - It s with this background that in Hosea 4-14 God spells out the details of what Israel have done to offend Him. Break the following passages up amongst your group, and get a feel for what they are:! Hosea 4:1-4! Hosea 7:8-11! Hosea 8:1-4! Hosea 10:3-5
! Hosea 12:7-10! So...describe what has gotten God so riled up. 6 - What happens in Hosea 3? Using Hosea 11 as well, build a picture of what God s relationship with Israel is like? 7 - In all this, there s the obvious tension between God s anger and his love. How can / do these two things sit together? To speak about God s anger or God s wrath isn t all that popular these days. But the more fully you understand one, the more fully you understand the other. 8 - Do you agree with this - that the more you understand what fires God up, what grieves him, what makes him angry - the more you can understand His love? 9 - Do you think there are things you have done (or are doing) that have grieved God? In his book, Knowing God, J I Packer writes this: The wrath of God against us, both present and to come, has been quenched. How was this effected? Through the death of Christ. While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son (Romans 5:10). The blood that is, the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ abolished God s anger against us, and ensured that His treatment of us for ever after would be propitious and favourable. Henceforth, instead of showing Himself to be against us, He would show Himself in our life and experience to be for us. What, then, does the phrase a propitiation... by His blood express? It expresses...precisely this thought: that by His sacrificial death for our sins Christ pacified the wrath of God. 10 - What do you think of this? What impact does this have on how you think God views you, your past sin, your present sin and what you will do in the future? In Romans 5:9, Paul goes on to say that since we have now been declared righteous by [Jesus] blood, [how much more] will be saved through [Jesus] from wrath. The implication here is that knowing God s righteous anger, and the extent He s gone to forgive us, it should (and will) be life shaping. 11 - Is your life lived in the knowledge of God s love, or the fear of God s wrath?
obadiah - god & pride Here s the background...this story is set against the background of Jacob & Esau in Genesis 25:23-34. Twins, where the older (Esau the patriarch of Edom) is robbed of his birthright by the younger (Jacob the patriarch of Israel). They made peace while they lived, and Israel when entering the promised land were commanded not to attack the Edomite s because they were their brothers (Deuteronomy 23:7). They were neighbouring countries, linked by blood. But the point at which Obadiah is written, their relationship had gone sour. When Babylon attacked Jerusalem & God s people in 586/7 b.c., Edom helped. And God s not happy. To start, how would you describe pride? What does it look like in practice? Before you read Obadiah, spend some time looking at the diagrams (page 2/3) and understanding the situation in the time Obadiah was writing. Read Obadiah 1 - What is it that has built up Edom s pride? (v.2-3) 2 - Psalm 137 also talks about what Edom did to Israel. What does God promise the future of Edom will be in verses 3-9? 3 - How would you describe (from verses 10-14) what they ve done that has God & Israel so angry? 4 - For Edom, the extreme violence we see here is the outworking of pride. Look at some of the areas it touches on, and talk about how this might strike a chord with how pride takes root in our lives:! Material wealth as security (verse 3)! Self-assurance (verses 3-4)! Apathy / Aloofness (verses 11-12)! Rejoicing / benefiting from others downfall (verses 13-14)
Edom is the focus of this book, but they are also representative here of those who oppose God. And in verses 15-21 the view broadens to all nations. 5 - These verses (15-21) describe the Day of the Lord. This is shorthand in the Old Testament for saying the time when God will visit his people and bring justice. What is this time going to look like for Edom & the nations? What is it going to look for God s people? When we get to the New Testament, the arrival of God isn t quite what people expected. It s not with fire, brimstone & judgement - but in gentleness, love & sacrifice. Justice wasn t meted out on the deserving, but on the one who was undeserving, in the hope that those who were full of pride might be saved by the one full of humility. So if God hates pride, it s worth exploring what the opposite of pride, humility (Isaiah 66:2) looks like in practice. There are two great passages that are worth talking over. Have a read of them both, and then discuss what humility looks like in contrast to pride. 1 Peter 5:5-7 Luke 12:22-34 6 - How do we encourage each other towards humility & away from pride?