Lesson for November 4, 2020
Knowing the Bible
Lesson 24
The Books of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah
Beginning with the book of Hosea, we have what are commonly called the Minor Prophets. These prophets were certainly no less important than the books called the Major Prophets but are simply smaller in content. Hosea and Amos were contemporaries and prophesied to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Hosea is often called “the prophet of Israel’s zero hour.” As a nation, Israel had degraded into a deep spiritual depravity of idol worship and sexual deviance. As a result, God could no longer tolerate their rebellion and His judgment could no longer be delayed.
The Book of Hosea
The central theme of the book of Hosea is “return to the Lord.” Events take place between 785 B.C and 725 B.C. Hosea compared the nation of Israel’s rebellion to his adulterous wife who strayed from him. The same qualities that Hosea in dealing with Gomer his wife are the same qualities that God had when dealing with rebellious Israel. Hosea showed patience and compassion when dealing with his wife. Within the nation there were false priests, false prophets and immorality, which was the result of Israel’s retreat into reversionism.
What we can learn from the book of Hosea is that God always deals with sin and rebellion among His people. They are dealt with individually and nationally as God chooses. As believers in Jesus Christ, God also deals with Church Age believers when they sin or rebel against Him. Believers never get away with sin. As a loving father, God will discipline His children when necessary. (Hebrews 12:6-15)
The return to fellowship with God and execution of His will begins with naming or acknowledging known sins to Him. Then we must begin the process of renewing our minds, not by attempting to change our behavior, which comes as a result of the renewed mind. The mind of the believer is renewed by the consistent intake and application of Bible doctrine. Therefore, the believer involved in reversionism must renew his mind, not “change his ways” (transformation, not reformation). Right thinking leads to right motivation, which leads to right action.
This process of transformation, of course, takes place first in the mind, in accordance with God’s standards of righteousness and truth. Righteousness (a right relationship with God) not only refers to the righteousness of Christ that the believer receives at salvation, it also refers to a righteous lifestyle. A righteous lifestyle is the execution of the unique Christian life, not the practice of legalism. Another way to explain this is: make your experience in Christ align with your position in Christ. Truth refers to Bible doctrine that is circulating in the mind of the believer.
Though Hosea’s wife was adulterous like the nation of Israel who sought pagan gods, he was willing to restore their martial relationship because of his love for her. God in the same way continued to restore Israel forgiving them and restoring them as His chosen people. The lesson of this book love and forgiveness. We are not only to love as God loves but we are to forgive as God does. (Matthew 6:12, 18:21-22)
The Book of Joel
Joel is the earliest of all the prophets. The book was written somewhere around 830-800 BC. He is a person who dealt with a catastrophe in his day. He lived in the southern kingdom of Judah and in his day, there was a terrible catastrophe, a locust invasion which almost destroyed the economy of the country. Joel teaches us a valuable lesson. Prophets were preachers and they were discussing problems of their day and relating the problems of their day to future events. A devastating locust invasion had a very detrimental effect upon the economy of the country, but it was used as an illustration for the Assyrian invasions beginning some fifty years after Joel and continuing for about two hundred years. This occurred under the principle of divine discipline against Israel. So, Joel is a good illustration of how to interpret the Old Testament prophets.
Joel means Jehovah is God, and it is specifically a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ who has always been the revealed member of the Trinity to mankind. Joel set the mark for Hebrew eschatology. The background, the ability, the education, the honors and the attainments of the prophet are unknown. Isaiah and Amos both quote him and most of the prophets use his vocabulary.
With God it is the message not the man delivering the message that is important. We have very little information about Joel but we do have the content of his message preserved by the Holy Spirit. The Lord could get along without Joel but Joel could not get along without the Lord. If Joel had not written this book, the Lord would have found someone else. This means that there is no human being who is indispensable to the God’s work.
God continues to warn a nation throughout national disaster. He never removes a nation from its place in history without adequate warning. In Joel’s day, the national catastrophe was economic depression but in the next century it would be Assyrian invasion. And all of this was because the Jews rejected God’s Word (Bible doctrine) Deuteronomy 28:15, 17, 18, 23-26 describes the curse on a nation for disobedience to God and His Word.
Joel was one of the earliest of the prophets. We have several ways of establishing that Joel was written before any of the other prophets. One of them is quotations. Amos 1:2 quotes Joel 3:16; Amos 9:13 quotes Joel 3:18 — Amos prophesied in the northern kingdom at about 810- 785 B.C. Amos obviously studied Joel, which would have been written prior to Amos. Isaiah covers a period from 760-698 B.C. also quotes Joel as in Isaiah 13:6 is quoting Joel 1:15.
The Book of Amos
Amos was a herdsman and was called by God to prophesy mainly to Israel, but ultimately to both nations (Israel and Judah). The central theme of the book is “can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Obviously, this is a reference to the relationship between God and His chosen people Israel. Israel like many nations had turned its back on God and chosen to ignore His statues and commandments. As a nation, they seemed more interested in the worldly pleasures of life, which they enjoyed during the reign of Jeroboam. Immorality, greed and the oppression of the poor were the order of the day.
Amos began his ministry by denouncing the surrounding nations and pronouncing judgment upon them. The next denouncement was on the nation of Israel for the rejection of the laws of God. Amos continued with his message, pointing out the fact that Israel deserved even greater punishment than did the surrounding nations because they had knowledge of God and His mandates. Greater privilege always demands greater responsibility from God’s viewpoint.
The Book of Obadiah
The book of Obadiah is only 21 verses but presents the prophetic message to the nation of Edom (a Gentile nation). God has always been interested in all nations, not just Israel. This prophetic book proves it. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the son of Isaac, who sold his birthright for a bowl of cereal.
The Edomites were continual foes of Israel. When Babylon assaulted Jerusalem, Edom joined the Babylonians in the assault. (Psalm 137:7). If there is one thing clear in the Bible, it is that those who oppose Israel oppose God Himself. Such was the case for the nation of Edom and God sent Obadiah to deliver the message of judgment.
The first nine verses of Obadiah relate the humiliation of Edom for their treatment of the Jews. Verses ten through fourteen relate the crime Edom had committed against the nation of Israel. And verses fifteen through twenty-one relate Edom’s impending doom and the blessing for Israel.
The Book of Jonah
All of us know the story of Jonah and the whale, but few know the doctrine behind it. The story of Jonah was used by Jesus to illustrate the fact that He would be in the grave for three days and three nights after His crucifixion. (Matthew 12:39-41) Jonah was called by God to be a prophet to the Assyrian city of Nineveh (a very wicked Gentile city). Actually, Nineveh was the capitol city of Assyria and probably the largest city in the world at that time with approximately one million people. When Jonah got the news from God, he packed up his belongings and went the exact opposite direction. Jonah apparently did not object to being God’s spoken, but he wanted to be sent to his own people, not the wicked Assyrians. Perhaps he was even afraid that they would kill him or run him out of town.
So, Jonah boarded the first ship to the city of Tarshish on the opposite coast from Nineveh. It is interesting that Jonah actually thought he could run and hide from God. As the story goes, Jonah is the cause of a great storm while the ship is at sea and is eventually thrown overboard in order to calm the storm. Immediately Jonah is swallowed by a great fish (perhaps a whale) and finally deposited on dry land after three days and three nights in the fish’s belly.
Now the Lord tells Jonah to go to Nineveh the second time and immediately Jonah headed for Nineveh. Amazingly, the entire population who were able to understand the message apparently came to know Jesus Christ as their Savior as a result of Jonah’s preaching. (Jonah 4:11)
Was Jonah happy at the result? No, he was upset with God for sparing the city. Even though Jonah had a million come to know Christ, he still wanted God to destroy the city. So, Jonah leaves the city and builds a lean-to of sorts to sit under in order to wait to see when the Lord would destroy Nineveh. Apparently, the lean-to didn’t work out, so God prepared a gourd tree for Jonah to sit under. Then God used that tree to teach Jonah a valuable lesson regarding the grace of God.
Jonah was happy with the gourd tree, but not with the fact that all those people that God loved had come to know Jehovah (Jesus Christ). So God prepared a worm to come and destroy the gourd tree (symbolic of the people of Nineveh). Why would Jonah choose to be angry about a tree and unhappy at the grace of God in saving all those people. If God did destroy the city of Nineveh Who He loved, it would be like the worm destroying the tree that Jonah “loved.” Remember that the priority for the nation of Israel was to preserve the Word and God and disseminate the Gospel to other surrounding nations. Apparently, Jonah had forgotten.
The Book of Micah
Micah prophesied to Israel during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah and was a contemporary to Isaiah. Like God’s other prophets, Micah gave the nation warnings against the idolatry, hypocrisy and rebellion of the nation. And Micah also prophesied the restoration of Israel as a nation.
In predicting the future millennial kingdom, Micah prophesies the birthplace of the Messiah, Jesus Christ in Micah 5:2. Constantly encouraging the nation of Israel to “hear (the Word of the Lord)” seems to be the theme of this prophetic book of only seven chapters. The first part of Micah denounces the violence and oppression of God’s people by the rulers and national leaders. Micah 3:11-12 says, “Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, Her (Israel’s) priests instruct for a price and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord saying ’Is not the Lord in our midst? Calamity will not come upon us.’ Therefore, on account of you Zion (Israel) will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, And the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest.”
We also have a reference to the enduement of the Holy Spirit in Micah 3:8, “On the other hand I am filled with power. With the Spirit of the Lord and with justice and courage to make known to Jacob his rebellious act, even to Israel his sin.” So, we see the servants of God were from time-to-time endued with the power f God the Holy Spirit especially those whose prophesies would become part of the Canon of Scriptures.
Micah 4 is a beautiful outline of the Millennium. It says that the messianic kingdom will be supreme, it will be universal, it will be peaceful, it will be prosperous, it will be a time when Israel is regathered into the Promised Land. We also see the remnant according to grace standing forth in faithfulness to God.
As with the other prophets, Micah predicts the coming destruction of Assyria, while predicting the victory of believers who go into the millennial kingdom of God.
The application for us is seen in Micah 6:6-8, “With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”