Introduction to the Minor Prophets

Jesus in His temptation responded to the Devil that people live by every word from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). The prophets, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God (2 Peter 1:21) giving a message not their own. Regularly they began their statements, "Thus saith the Lord." The person who in his study neglects the prophets is missing a part of all things that God gave us that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). He is overlooking a significant part of what has been written for our learning that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope (Romans 15:4). The prophets were written for our instruction (1 Corinthians 10:11). Their words were preserved by the Lord's plan for a day beyond their own (Isa.30:8). The Dead Sea people valued and cited the twelve prophets as a part of their scriptures. They left us a series of fragmentary manuscripts both in Hebrews and in Greek of their text. Jesus knew the twelve prophets well and cited them when their words were apropos to the lesson he was giving. The same is true of Paul and other writers of the New Testament. The prophets were a part of the sacred writings that Timothy had known from childhood which were able to instruct Him for salvation through faith (2 Tim. 3:15)

Many people erroneously suppose that when one speaks of studying the prophets he is talking about speculation over the Lord's Second Coming and the end of the world. Though there are Messianic statements in the twelve prophets, this element (which should not be neglected) is a quite minor theme in what they had to say. They spoke to the problems and concerns of their own day, concerns that are universal in their nature.

The twelve prophets over a period of about three centuries called people to repentance from the common sins of their time, warning that persistence in sin brings calamity. The sins they denounced are also sins of the 21st century. People are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Where people do not know God there is swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery (Hosea 4:1-2). Amos, speaking for the Lord, threatened Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2) How America needs to hear that!

The study of Jonah makes one ask himself, "Am I, in the way I am going, headed toward Tarshish or toward Nineveh where the Lord told me to go?" Through the prophets, the Lord reminds us when we feel far from God, "return to me and I will return to you" (Malachi 3:7).

We are called back from the materialism of the 21st century by Haggai's rebuke of his contemporaries who excused their neglect to rebuild the temple. "Is it a time for you, yourselves, to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?" (Haggai 1:4) Or, there is Malachi's searching question, "Will a man rob God?" (Malachi 3:8).

Where could one find a better summary of God's requirements than in Micah? "He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

People have spiritually impoverished themselves by their neglect of the prophets. These prophets are "minor" only in the sense of their brevity when compared with books like Isaiah and Jeremiah. They are in no sense "minor" in their importance. Their messages will never be out of date.

You are to be congratulated as a congregation in undertaking a study of these prophets!

- Dr. Jack Lewis

(Dr. Jack Lewis has two PhD. degrees from Harvard University and one from Hebrew Union College. He has published over a dozen books, edited others and has lectured on every continent except Antarctica. He has been a professor at Harding University (1954-58) and Harding Graduate School of Religion (1958-1989). He is married to the former Annie May Alson, one of the top religious studies librarians in the South.)