Greetings one and all! This past Friday my classmates and I finished the first term of this current school year. I’m sorry for not blogging much. But this week I’m going to write about my classes and what I learned. Today, I’m going to write about some of the Minor Prophets.
Studying the Minor Prophets was so interesting! Reading about what each of them encountered day in and day out mirrors almost exactly what we are dealing with in our own culture day in day out. It’s shocking.
One of the most interesting of the Minor Prophets was Hosea. I don’t know what Hosea’s marriage plans were, but God told him to marry a woman who would become a harlot, a prostitute. This woman was Gomer. Hosea’s marriage to Gomer mirrors God’s relationship with Israel. Gomer would run around seeking love and affection from other men just like Israel would run around seeking love and affection from other deities and idols. Gomer gave birth to three children each of whom Hosea knew weren’t his, but he still loved them as if they were his children. Hosea continually sought Gomer out and brought her home begging her to be his wife. That was an image of how God sought out Israel, dispite Israel going out seeking other idols and deities to follow. Israel, as a nation went out as prostitutes both physically and spiritually as well. But God still wanted Israel to be His wife. Just as Jesus wants the church to be His bride. Hosea’s heart breaks as he longs and yearns for Gomer to come to him and let him be a husband to her and for her to be a wife to him and a mother to the children. Just as he strives to be a father to the children he knows aren’t his. Likewise, God longs and yearns for Israel to honor Him as their God and creator and for them to stop seeking other deities that aren’t real and giving them the glory and honor that is due to God. It is such a heart wrenching story. The story of Hosea and God their yearning for their respective brides would make a great soap opera like no other.
The other Minor Prophets are real interesting as well. In all of them, God is trying desperately to get Israel’s attention and get them to repent and turn back to Him. To get Israel to be God’s people and to devote them selves to God and make Him their God. In Joel, God tells His people that if they will just turn to Him He would stop sending them calamity (eg, the locust plagues). In Obadiah, God tells His people to stop trusting in strong holds that aren’t really so strong. God promises to bring them down from the mountain tops where they thought they were so safe that no one could get them. In Malichi, God tells the people that He really does love them and protect them, even though the people ask, how have You loved us? And God tells them they are robbing Him. Even though the people asked, how have we robbed You? God promised them as He does us in the New Testament age, that if we seek Him first then He’ll take care of us.
I’m going to stop with the Minor Prophets now. Tomorrow, I’ll write about James and Peter. I hope and pray this post blesses each of you who read this. God bless you all. Grace and Peace to all of you in Jesus.
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