My Pastor has been doing a sermon series on the twelve “minor prophets.’ I was excited when he began. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to hear this part of the Bible discussed. Along with the book of Revelation, the minor prophets have gone out of fashion in many churches. The topics covered threaten many aspects of the house of cards that is modern theology. Therefore, the truth is not preached.
In late summer, my Pastor told the congregation that he was praying for inspiration to find a topic for his next sermon series. He asked us to pray for him and to email him with any suggestions of books in the Bible that we would like to study. I prayed and when he still did not find inspiration, I latched on to that opportunity to ask the Pastor if he would consider doing a study of the so-called “minor prophets.”
I hate the designation of certain short books in the Bible as well as certain people being relegated to the title of “minor.’ Especially, when word for word, these tiny books pack a huge wallop. Although every commentary and pastor will inform you that the term “minor” only refers to the size of their books, a certain sting of insignificance have always been assigned to their status.
The minor prophets are rich in meaning for us today. Their messages about following God and consequences for living an ungodly life are raw and uncensored. It is real spiritual news rather than the fake spiritual news that we are being spoon fed everyday in many Christian books and churches. Because of this, many pastors are afraid that their congregation can not handle these books.
Every Sunday, many congregations are getting carefully featured positive only lessons from their bibles. So, reading passages about the consequences of sin and evil is rather jarring. Isn’t “God love Pastor?” Or, but “God is merciful right Pastor?”
Pastors know how it ended badly for the minor prophets, either being stoned or killed. and they are not anxious to repeat that experience themselves. Other pastors, know that people will leave their church if they were to be so bold as to teach the full counsel of the Bible. Pastors may justify these omissions in their duties in various ways.
But, God will judge the nations. He has, and he will again. It seems like it will happen anytime now too. Interestingly enough, a recent survey indicates tht many pastors do believe it is the end times but, they are reticent to preach about it. Does that make any sense? Well, it would have to the minor prophets. They preached against false prophets and teachers who refused to illuminate the truth.
So, who are the twelve minor prophets and what did they teach? Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. The themes range from the evil that people do, God’s justice, God’s mercy, and prophecy. This is the story of life on this planet, the nature of God and of man. No filters. It is as vital today as it was when it was first written thousands of years ago.
Some themes and a few excerpts from these books will illustrate these points. Let’s start with the first few prophets. The theme of Hosea is God’s deep and abiding love despite Israel’s unfaithfulness to Him. Our Heavenly Father cleverly constructs Hosea’s life to be a living example of mankind’s betrayal of him. Hosea is living with a wife, Gomer, who neither loves nor respects him. She cheats on him and brings forth the product of that infidelity when she gives birth to other men’s children. Before we know that we are sinners, I think we regard Hosea as a reflection of ourselves. In time and spiritual maturity we can come to understand that we are really Gomer!
How painful it is to experience betrayal by someone we love. Cheating is a deep pain and scar that sometimes never heals. As Hosea goes thru this process we are asked to understand that this is how we conduct ourselves with God. No one can blame Hosea when he divorces Gomer but, God asks Hosea to take her back as his wife after a time which points to how God takes us back amid the treachery of our betrayals. “ Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land, because there is no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land.”-Hosea 4:1
Joel preaches against drunkenness, idolatry, sexual immorality and tells of a time when God will judge the nations. Joel preached about lifestyles that sound a lot like the way people are living now. We need Joel now more than ever. Joel brings out this theme in the context of a plague of locust that had arisen. As my Pastor read of the locusts that God brought as punishment for the sin of the people then, I was reminded of recent insect infestations around the world.
Whether it is locusts, killer bees, flesh-eating bacteria, ebola, avian flu or the viruses plaguing us, these events seem to be on the increase and overtaking our planet. Have we reached the judgement point as in the time of Joel? Joel goes on to compare the overtaking of the land by locust with the overtaking of the land by soldiers. That also rings true, our world is getting increasingly aggressive and it seems like a repeat of the fearsome armies of cruel Assyrians may be coming to get us. Even so, here is what God has in mind: “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”-Joel 2:28
My Pastor was doing an amazing job digging into the various prophets. I looked forward to each and every week of biblical truths to be explored. However, one recent Sunday I sensed the Pastor pulling back from the text. Trying to summarize some chapters so that we could move ahead to a more positive part of the book rather than focus on the continuing message of sin and judgement.
Was the Pastor feeling pressure from his congregation? Had someone made a comment? What if they did? I wondered if he himself was struggling as the prophets did when they had to bring God’s message of sin and judgement to the world. You can take the Christian Housewife out of Westchester but you can’t take the Westchester out of the Christian Housewife. I wondered if I should say something about this whole thing to the Pastor.
Over the years, in Westchester County, New York, I have learned that comments to the Pastor or elders on church matters are not welcome. Many Churches in Westchester have undergone a radical departure from the faith and the response from the congregation must be : don’t ask, don’t tell. The falling away is complete except for a remnant of the faithful who have kept the faith there.
That is why I left New York. I am in a different place now. But, I could not shake the idea that questioning of any type would be met with anger and denials. Still, I am a pushy New Yorker. After all, I do not really regret standing up for important biblical principles over the years, even if it has gotten me into trouble from time to time. Isn’t that being true to the faith? One way to stay on course is staying true to the full text of the Bible and not editing out things that you either do not like or that you are afraid your congregation won’t like. The whole bible tells us what God would have us know, any less shows us half-truths.
True to my direct New York style of communication, I later commented to the Pastor that he should never apologize for preaching what is in the Bible nor should he try to soft pedal a message that is vitally important for our times. He told me that he is merely trying to keep the message balanced and grounded in the full prophetic teaching. Now, I was worried. Was my new pastor going woke?!
The next Sunday, he continued in his sermon series on the 12 minor prophets. He doubled-down on the declaration that he is trying to keep the prophets message balanced when he discussed the next prophet we were studying, which was Amos. It was my distinct impression that he began to summarize and skip a few too many things. Okay so the prophet was describing God as judging Edom, Ammon and Tyre. The prophet definitely stated that God would not turn away his anger. How is this not important?
Either God has the right to judge or he doesn’t. Right now as the Judeo-Christian ethic gets overthrown and some weak on crime, abolish jails philosophy takes its’ place, we see the questioning of God’s authority and the power of the Bible no longer drives public policy. For some pastors this is a lot to wade into. Amos tells it straight when he says, “Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said.”-Amos 5:14.
Amos preached against the evil of sexual immorality, oppression of the poor, drunkenness and idolatry, These are all huge issues today and the minor prophets offered an anecdote to all these lifestyle errors. Repent, turn your life over to God, and follow him. Some of these passages outlining sin and judgement are hard to read. But, I feel the same way about reading the news too. However, no matter how hard it is to face the truth about our nation or our world, as it is outlined in the news or in the Bible, we must not put our heads in the sand. The thing is, God will not leave us nor forsake us if we follow him. Help us Lord to face the sin of our lives and that of this world. Strengthen us through the reading of your holy word the Bible. God bless our pastors.
Next week: Is My Pastor Going Woke? (Part 2)
