Survey of the Minor Prophets

All right, everybody we better get started.

It's three minutes after time and if there's anything I know about tonight's lesson it is this We got a lot to do and a short time to do it in Because we are going to be doing our survey of the minor prophets now my assumption And I know that that's a dangerous thing to assume anything But my assumption is that you actually watched last week's video Because last week was on the major prophets Isaiah through Daniel if you did not watch that Let me encourage you Please go back either watch it or go on to sermon audio and listen to it because I know we didn't have an in-class meeting Last week I filmed it.

I did it just like I would have taught regular The only thing was it was a little shorter because I didn't have any interactions and any questions And I went kind of fast Jackie told me I went so fast She had to pause it part of the way through which is fine.

At least you could do that So if you haven't seen it go back and watch that But just for a quick overview of what we talked about last week because it does relate to this week We talked about the subjects of the prophets We break the prophets down into two categories the categories of the prophets in the English Bible are the major prophets that is Isaiah Jeremiah lamentations Ezekiel and Daniel it's five books and four authors because Jeremiah is the author of Lamentations.

So when we say Jeremiah and Lamentations, it's two books one author And then we come to the minor prophets and the definition of a prophet is One who speaks for God The priest was the one who spoke to God for the people the prophet was the one who spoke to the people on behalf of God and Prophetic voices go all the way back to the earliest Passages of Scripture but the period that we refer to as the prophetic period is Typically begun with the life of Samuel and the writing prophets Began or begin around the first Kings and take us through the history around Nehemiah, so that's the historical window in which we are working and the methodology of the prophets as I discussed last week Is twofold the prophets had two different ways that they expressed their message one was by foretelling foretelling means to tell the future or say something is going to happen and that was the test of a prophet if a prophet said Something was going to happen and it did not happen The Bible says you need not fear that person because he's not Speaking on behalf of God because God does not fail when God says something's going to happen it happens So that's foretelling But there's also something that we identify as forth telling and that is the concept of not telling the future but interpreting the present and the best way to describe that in a Context maybe that we better understand Preaching is a type of forth telling you're not telling what's going to happen.

You're you're speaking of what is and What's interesting when you read the prophets much more of their writing was talking about what was happening than what would happen They would challenge them about their sin They would call them to repentance and they would tell them of the consequences for not repenting Doesn't that sound a lot like a pastor preacher today? That's why we say the the prophetic voice Lives on today in the voice of the pastor the preacher the man of God who stands behind The Word of God and speaks to the people of God.

He is the prophetic voice Not speaking the future but speaking and Interpreting the times interpreting where we are and what needs to happen The classification of the prophets we've talked about there's the prophets that we say are pre-exile There's the ones that preach during the exile and there's the ones that were after the exile well tonight we don't have to worry about during the exile because the only two that we would call Exilic or the ones during the exile were Daniel and Ezekiel and we talked about them last week So tonight we'll be dealing with almost exclusively pre exile Prophets or pre-exilic, but the three that come after The exile or the last three in your Old Testament Zephaniah, Malachi Those are the three What we would call or excuse me Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi I said Zephaniah meant Zechariah.

Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi are the three post-exilic prophets So the vast majority of the prophets that we're going to look at tonight are speaking to the people of God prior to the exile and And Three of them speak to the northern kingdom That would be Hosea Amos and Jonah two of them speak to the Nations surrounding those would be Nahum and Obadiah and some might also say Jonah spoke to the nations around because Jonah did prophesy to Nineveh and Then the rest would be to the southern kingdom that would include all of the others so the vast majority of the minor prophets are Before the exile and the vast majority of the minor prophets are preaching to the southern kingdom that's the point that I'm trying to make so it gives you just a little bit of a Context for who they are when they are and what they're saying who they're saying it to The minor prophets are twelve books.

They contain some of the most and Least well-known books of the Bible Let's say that again the minor prophets the twelve books of the minor prophets contain some of the most and least Well-known books of the Bible for instance just about everybody knows the story of Jonah It is one of the most well-known books of the Bible.

It's been preached in every church.

It's been Painted on nursery walls with Jonah and the whale and we understand even the Marvel movie the Avengers I don't know if you're a fan of movies But in that movie when they're fighting at the end and Iron Man flies into the mouth of the big Alien ship he says I'm going to be like Jonah and he goes into the mouth of the ship And so that tale that story that book is so common it shows up even as a word of pop culture however, there are other books that I would imagine not many people could even Give an explanation of who the person is maybe not even know they were in the Bible like Obadiah a Lot of people have no idea who he is And even Christians I have found some with 20 years in the Lord or more are sometimes ignorant of the minor prophets So what we're going to do in this lesson is I'm going to as I have been I'm going to give you an overview This is our largest attempt yet because 12 books 12 different books and You may think it was a fool's errand to try to do this, but I do have a plan So just follow me and I think we'll we'll hold together But I but I will I will warn you now don't expect a break Because we're going to be moving through this and hopefully we'll get through it all in our time allotted All right.

So first things first is the book of Hosea Oh and by the way if you are trying to remember the books of the Bible all 39 Old Testament 27 New Testament if you're remembering the books a Lot of the way and one of the ways that helped me Because the place I would always get mixed up was in the minor prophets And I could get through Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Look, yeah, Joshua judges Ruth get through all that get to the minor prophets and I start So I looked at him in groups of four Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi.

So if you look at them in three groups of four, it's easier to remember And it just in my in my mind it was a way of sort of putting them together So we're going to sort of look at them tonight in that sort of same way We're going to look at three groups of four and the first four are Hosea Joel Amos and Obadiah the book of Hosea is about the spiritual adultery of Israel if you want to remember what I said was going to give you one sentence for each of the books That's the sentence The book of Hosea is about the spiritual adultery of Israel Hosea emphasizes the importance of the covenant and the results of breaking the covenant Israel sought other gods they committed spiritual adultery So Hosea is called by God to be faithful to an unfaithful wife Gomer and he stands as an illustration of the covenant-keeping God with a covenant-breaking people And the covenant-breaking people are represented by an adulterous wife the word Hosea means salvation he was a prophet during the decline and fall of the Northern Kingdom and Since Ephraim was a central and influential tribe in the Northern Kingdom His book is often addressed to Ephraim.

But when he addresses Ephraim, he's not addressing them only He's addressing them as a microcosm of the larger nation some believe he prophesied about 30 years until the fall of the Northern Kingdom and One of the quotes of the New Testament that references the book of Hosea is Matthew chapter 2 and verse 13 Through 18 where it refers to the passage when it says out of Egypt I will call my son remember when Jesus went to Egypt to avoid King Herod the parents flip Fled to Egypt to protect Jesus and then when he came back Matthew saw his coming out of Egypt as a prophetic thing Matthew interpreted Jesus returning from Egypt as a fulfilling of prophecy because Hosea had said out of Egypt I call my son And so this was a way that the New Testament writers the New Testament author Matthew interprets Hosea's message under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God and Again, Jesus redeems us even though we are unfaithful so Hosea becomes in that way a type of Christ loving the unfaithful and giving himself for the unfaithful so Hosea is a picture of God's faithfulness and our unfaithfulness So that is the book of Hosea And now we'll move to the book of Joel again.

We have 12 to get through.

So that was one the book of Joel The best way that I can describe this is the focus of Joel is the great and terrible day of the Lord the great and terrible day of the Lord Not much is said about Joel himself As a prophet we know he was the son of Pethuel We don't know much else about him that's about all the book tells us about him as a person he was probably the first of the prophets to write making his book the oldest of the minor prophets and he has been called and And understand what I'm saying now he's been called the John the Baptist of the Old Testament Why? Because it is a call his his ministry was a call to repentance Remember what John the Baptist ministry was repent make straight the paths of the Lord his ministry was a call to repentance and a Reminder that reckoning is coming.

What did John the Baptist say the axe is laid at the root of the tree The winnowing fork is in his hand and Joel was in the very similar way a preacher of repentance and A preacher of judgment would have been very unpopular today Preachers that preach repentance and judgment are often Hated today, but let me just tell you this just so you know, they weren't real popular than either There's never been much quarter given to those who are willing to preach hard messages a Remarkable feature of the book of Joel is A plague of locusts that is mentioned in the book and the question that often comes up Well, is this plague of locusts literal or is it symbolic of armies that are surrounding and going to come and overtake? Israel And here's the interesting thing.

It could be both because God often used pictures of real events Because locust swarms were very real.

And in fact, I don't know.

Did you guys see just a few months ago? when the Covid Was like at its peak and I guess we're still in it So we might hope hopefully it doesn't peak again But when it was added sort of at the worst and everybody was hanging out at the home nobody was allowed to go anywhere all the restaurants were closed and then you open up your your computer or your phone and Like there's a few nations in Africa that are covered in locusts You may see that.

I saw the pictures and I was like I Mean because it's one of those sort of biblical pictures, right? But it's a real thing is my point and it's very easy to imagine that Joel would have seen such a thing in his lifetime and that becomes the picture of the of the true Meaning and the true meaning being the the coming of the attack of the invading armies Joel speaks of the day of the Lord as I said The great and terrible day of the Lord is the focus of Joel's book and This is the thing about the day of the Lord Often often we think of the day of the Lord as a bad thing We think of it as God's judgment falling but when Joel speaks about the day of the Lord he talks about the day of the Lord as the day when the Lord will pour out his spirit on all nations and It was Joel who Peter Quoted on the day of Pentecost Joel was the if you think of that the he that was the passage Peter preached That was the text that Peter chose to say is in Acts chapter 2 he talked about this is this great day where the Lord will pour out his spirit on all flesh and He did and men and women spoke other languages so that people that didn't know the language was able to hear it in their language and there was a miracle of tongues and it was not a miracle of of Speaking where no one can understand but it was a it was speaking so that everyone could understand now There is a distinction in the book Up until chapter 2 verse 2 the prophet speaks of desolation and Then from then on he speaks of deliverance This is why the day of the Lord is called great and terrible Because for those who will be delivered it's a great day But for those who will be destroyed it's a dreadful or terrible day Therefore it is referred to as the great and terrible or the great and dreadful day of the Lord So that is the book of Joel, hey, maybe I'm going too fast like slow down Anybody have any questions so far Here's the other thing too If you do as we go through each of these books if there's something about it that you want to ask feel free to ask But know this there's so much information Especially like in Zechariah, which is a longer book.

There's so much information I might not be able to answer your questions, but I'm happy to entertain that if you have a question as we go through these That's part of why we do this in class.

If it was just me talking we could do that on video I want to hear your input or if you need me to slow down if you need me to repeat something, please don't feel Inhibited to do that All right, so we have Hosea he is speaking of the spiritual adultery of Israel we have Joel who's speaking of the great and terrible day of the Lord and now we have Amos and Amos is About and get this because boy how Amos is is so relevant to right now because Amos is about society gone awry Or you could say astray Society has Gone awry.

May I ask you this? This is a good question What should a prophet say to a people who are both prosperous and peaceful you're in trouble Where were we six months ago But where were we Huh, okay you and phase one Think about the end of 2019, where were we we were at a state where the stock market had never been so prosperous at least not in the last 40 years the job market was great the Unemployment rate was the lowest that had been our our GDP and all that was very good it was all great and how quick it has plummeted all because of a unseen threat and That unseen threat has sparked many visible threats It's amazing how quick you can go from everything to nothing They Say the story is about rags to riches.

Well, what about riches to rags? Well Amos is a prophet who is prophesying to the northern kingdom That had corrupted the worship of God but yet was experiencing a time of prosperity and peace But in that prosperity they were mistreating the poor They were practicing injustice and Worse than all of that.

They had broken their covenant with God Their disobedience would bring destruction by the hand of foreign enemies But God would be merciful and he would return a remnant to the land But the word Amos means burden Amos had the burden of preaching a hard message to a happy people We are told nothing of his family pedigree we know that he was a shepherd from a town in Judah near Bethlehem, but But we know this he was commissioned to speak to Israel about their sin and This is the passage if you want to write one passage down that sort of encapsulates the book It's Amos chapter 8 verses 11 and 12 and again Hear this and think about today I preached through Amos a few years ago because it was so relevant I almost want to do it again because it's so relevant to now People are out there crying out for justice and people don't even know what justice is people don't even define what justice means and The Prophet this is what he says in Amos 8 Behold the days are coming declares the Lord God When I will send a famine on the land not a famine of bread nor thirst for water But for hearing the words of the Lord They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it God was going to shut the mouths of the preachers.

He was going to close The ears they would not have the Word of God The famine would not be food or water, but for the Word of God Think about how many pulpits there are in our land where there's a famine for the Word of God Where the Word of God is not preached, but instead some kind of a self-help Some kind of a personal empowerment message Men and women are not called to repent.

They're called to see themselves as good enough Amos said there'd be a famine in the land a famine for the Word of God so we now move to Obadiah the last of the first four and Obadiah I Will give you is simply it's a short book.

It's a vision against Edom Now who is Edom Edom, huh? No, no, go ahead brother if you had it Yes, it's the Edomites they are the descendants of Esau Remember Jacob I've loved Esau I have Hated and what is that? Where does that passage come from? It's it's Romans 9 13, but he says as it is written Jacob.

I'd love Esau hated.

Where's he quoting it from? No, Malachi chapter 1 gotcha But good guess no, it's and the reason why my point is this is When when it says Jacob, I love Esau hated in Romans 9 That is referring to the two individuals because it talks about them being in the womb and God choosing them before But when you compare it to the passage that Paul is quoting it's not talking about the individuals it's talking about the nations the nation of Jacob is Israel and the nation of Esau is Edom and Amos is the shortest book in the Old Testament and it is written as a judgment against Edom against the descendants of Esau We Know nothing about Obadiah We know nothing about him as a prophet or a writer except that there were many men called Obadiah in the Bible And so there you might read and see Obadiah and wonder if that's the problem.

Well, it's a fairly common name But the book assures Judah that God will keep his promises to them and he will bring judgment upon their enemies Judah or Obadiah, I often think of Obadiah sort of like the book of Jude You know you read through the New Testament you read read all the Gospels and they're so full of history and so full of Information you get to Acts and it's it's so long and full and you get through the epistles of Paul and then you well I mean, I guess Philemon you get this little Philemon, you know, then you get like these little letters, but yet they're still very important One page might even be a half a page in your Bible depending on how big the font is and yet it's still an important book and the vision against Edom against the descendants of Esau that is the Focus of Obadiah.

All right, so that ends our last Our last ends our first four.

It's the last of the first four Any questions on the first four? Man, that's great Yeah All right, so now we're going to move on to Jonah Now I told myself that depending on how far I've gotten thus far was how much time I was going to devote to the book of Jonah because This is what I put in my notes for the sake of time.

I will not give a long explanation of Jonah That's literally what I wrote But I got a little extra time.

I Love Jonah.

I preached through Jonah.

If you're familiar with the book Moby Dick There is a sermon in Moby Dick that the preacher in the narrative preaches from Jonah chapter 2 when Jonah is in the belly of the great fish and It's a wonderful sermon one time years ago when I was preaching through the book of Jonah.

I preached that sermon I just came in and read the sermon that was written in Moby Dick because it's such a great sermon and a true sermon and It wasn't my idea.

I actually got that idea from R.C.

Sproul because Moby Dick is his favorite book Or at least it was outside of the scriptures, of course Most of us know what Jonah is about at least in the basic sense Jonah is about a Prophet who doesn't want to do what God commands But that's not the sentence that I want you to that.

I want you to carry Because here's what I think of when I think of Jonah.

I think of Jonah as a picture of a gracious and compassionate God you see the whole point of the book of Jonah is That Jonah did not want God to be merciful God did not Jonah did not want God to be compassionate He didn't run away Because he was afraid the Ninevites wouldn't listen He ran away because he was afraid they would He did not want God to be compassionate to the enemies of Israel and I honestly, let me just bring this to maybe a modern context on The Wednesday following 9-11 I Imagine many of us probably did not want To wrap our arms around those Who had attacked our nation on? the days following the attack of Pearl Harbor, I imagine not many servicemen were ready to extend a hand of forgiveness To the Japanese You understand what I'm saying? so when we look at Jonah, and we see a man who God says go and preach and He says I don't want to go We can understand his heart.

I'm not saying he was right.

I'm saying I understand I'm not saying you should have done it.

I'm saying I understand One of the things about Jonah that most people take great issue with is the question of whether or not it should be placed into the category of mythology Because it does include one of the great miracles of the Bible the miracle of the first submarine ride.

I Always love that to say that because that's really what you have and there's actually when I was studying through Jonah I found something very interesting because there's a lot of talk about whether or not Jonah How could a man survive in the belly of a fish a Lot of people debate, but was it a whale whales not a fish whales a mammal trust me at that time They didn't make that kind of distinction if it was in the water with fish so whether it was a whale or a shark some people believe it was a whale shark some people believe it was a Fish that God created just for the purpose of holding Jonah in its belly.

I Looking through Jonah and studying Jonah one of things I found is that there's actually a way of reading Jonah chapter 2 Where it is a an idea that he died and was resurrected That rather than living for three days in the belly of the whale that the belt the whale swallowed him and he died and instead Of living for three days that he actually died and was resurrected now again.

I'm not saying that's the way I interpret I'm saying there's a way of reading it in that way However you particularly want to read it the point is it was a miracle nonetheless It's a miracle nonetheless whether he died and was resurrected or whether he spent three days Soaking up the gases of that because by the way some people say well, you know whales breathe air And maybe that's how he survived he breathed air you don't breathe into your stomach You breathe into your lungs and last time I checked you don't swallow into your lungs you swallow into your stomach So, however, he was preserved.

It was a miraculous preservation We have to agree with that.

And so as I said some interpret it there's a poor passage in it Chapter 2 of Jonah is poetic and there's a part of the poem that refers to what could be death And that's if you want to go home read it look at it You see what I'm talking about and some people believe rather than living three days and think of it this way to what did Jesus? Say just as just as Jonah was three days and the fish so will I be three days near what happened to Jesus? He died and was raised.

And so there's a lot of connection points on that.

I'm not again.

I'm not trying to convince you I'm just providing you with a another way of looking at it because no matter how you understand it, it's miraculous after three days the whale fish submarine, whatever vomits him up on the shores of Nineveh and You gotta imagine what he looked like Bleached white from the gases in the stomach of the fish Seaweed all in his hair Hadn't eaten in three days if he had been alive.

He'd been living off of nothing So he's gaunt and white and He walks into town and he says repeat And you know what they did? They repented because that's what you do when you see something like that And the great miracle was they repented from the top down everything everyone repentance to a nation of evil people by the way God showed this is why I said it's about God's compassion as God shows compassion to a nation of evil people But here's the point if God didn't show compassion to evil people you would never receive compassion.

I would never receive compassion Jonah didn't understand that now I'm letting time get away from me again.

I'm not preaching Jonah tonight, but I love this book Because again, I understand the prophets lack of desire.

I understand the situation at least I know how I would feel if this were my enemies God sends him to preach to his enemies and then when God gives them the reprieve from the punishment Jonah gets angry and we know about the gourd and the Worm that eats the gourd and he gets mad because there goes a shade It's all the whole issue with Jonah is is God is gracious and compassionate to whom he chooses Jonah didn't want God to be gracious and compassionate to him he chose All right.

I bet I better move on.

So that's the first of the second four Jonah and then the book of Micah Now you'll remember a moment ago I talked about Amos and I said Amos was preaching in a time where there was injustice and mistreatment and Especially regarding the poor That was happening Well, Micah is also in a situation very similar and he prophesies against the leaders of the people for Primarily for their injustice for their greed and for their pride He says in Micah chapter 6 In fact, I'll read it to you Micah 6 6 through 8 With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high shall I come before him with burnt offerings? With a calf a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams with ten thousands of rivers of oil Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you old man What is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice to love kindness and to walk in Humility with your God.

So that is if you said what's Micah about do justice Love kindness and walk in humility That's the that's the summation of Micah's prophecy.

Yes, sir do justice love kindness and Walk humbly with your God And that's Micah 6 6 through 8 Micah prophesied about the fall of Samaria the capital of Israel at the time and he prophesied about the fall of Jerusalem the capital of Judah Micah is one of the larger books of the minor prophets and it is quoted five times in the New Testament The most famous quotation is Matthew chapter 2 verse 6 which quotes Micah 5 to You Oh Bethlehem Ephrata you who were the smallest Out of you will come the one who will rule my people That's the prophecy of Jesus is coming that he would be born in Bethlehem My Matthew in Matthew chapter 2 verse 6 quotes Micah 5 2 and he says this is why Jesus was taken by the decree of Caesar to go to Bethlehem Remember that isn't where Jesus lived.

That isn't where his parents lived That's where he had to go for the census Caesar sent out a decree We learned about this in Luke chapter 2 that there was a decree that went out from Caesar that all the world should be registered and they had to go to their hometown and the hometown of Jesus's earthly father was Bethlehem because he was of The tribe of David he was of David's lineage and that was the city of David and by the way The word Bethlehem means house of bread Well, I had bread Beth house of Bethlehem is house of bread and it was there that was born the bread which came down from heaven The Prophet proclaimed a vision of redemption and forgiveness he promised the remnant would return and worship the Lord and He provides an outline for the people of God even today to walk in if the people of God could learn to seek true justice to love mercy and to walk humbly We would certainly Be better for it the third of the second four is Nathan Now I love Nathan Because I love Jonah as I already as you you got me want to preach Jonah now the next time I get a break I don't think I'm gonna preach through Jonah again I just love it But the book of Nahum is the sister to the book of Jonah if you didn't know that that's a look that's that's a key one of those little key indicators to help you because Nineveh is the capital of Assyria and Nineveh was where Jonah went and prophesied They were the nation that repented remember Nineveh repented But in Nahum God plans to destroy Nineveh you say well didn't he plan to destroy Nineveh before yes But this book is happening later the people who repented Well, I think I don't necessarily think they have recanted.

I think we're looking at another generation Understand this a faithful people is only ever one generation from extinction because if they do not teach their faith to their children a Faithful people is only ever one generation from extinction if they do not teach their faith to their children And I believe Nathan is the example of the people of Nineveh though They repented under the preaching of Jonah.

They did not teach their children and their children the next generation fell Under the judgment of God If you've ever And some of you may have ever heard you ever heard Billy Graham preach like I mean in Person, I heard him preach in person, which was an amazing thing But I also used to every Saturday night He would come on the Christian station and back when I was in seminary and wanting to learn how to preach wanting to learn how Proclaim the gospel I would look forward to that You got here George Beverly Shea sing and you got that sometimes you see Johnny Cash because these are old I mean these are 40 year old videos Right, and these were old Crusade videos and I've watched Billy Graham preach and what I learned about Billy Graham is that he had about eight sermons that he repeated over and over That's what an evangelist does they think it's sort of like a politician They get a stump speech that works and if it worked in Duval County, it's going to work in Nassau County It's going to work in Clay County, you know If I got a stump speech I can ride that speech for a long time And and what what I noticed about Billy Graham was there was a rotation of speeches.

Remember Lott's wife.

That was one of his favorite sermons Remember Lott's wife.

What was it? She looked back She was more concerned about the world than about God and that was it That was that was his that was the text and boy once he said the text he would run and that was his sermon But another sermon that he would preach was on Nahum he would start in Jonah And he would show how the people repented and then he would go to Nahum.

He said but remember Nahum and how one generation Is all it took Nahum stands as a reminder of this truth.

God will eventually destroy the wicked God people always ask why do the wicked prosper? they will not forever and Nahum is a reminder that the wicked will not prosper forever God is patient and slow to anger, but his patience does not last forever and his anger will come one day Again not wanting to be too prophetic about our current time in which we live but think about the day in which we live Have we not been postponing The judgment of God Nahum is the third Habakkuk is the fourth of the second four Habakkuk Habakkuk is about this question and this is the way I try to remember Habakkuk.

Habakkuk is about a question Why? Do the evil go unpunished? It's funny because it rides on the heels of Nahum which promised that the evil are going to be punished But Habakkuk and there's different ways of saying it by the way The one thing about Habakkuk is it's depending on what church you're at.

It's how they say it.

Some people say Habakkuk some people say, you know, just say it different ways when I For years.

I didn't even say Habakkuk.

I said Habakkuk Because that was the way my Sunday school team used when I was a kid She used the last K it was sort of like a silent letter.

There's Miss Hoffman Pat remember Miss Patsy She always said Habakkuk Habakkuk, and I always thought like tobacco like what you chew or smoke, you know, it's a tobacco But but I think the way I say it now is Habakkuk Habakkuk.

I think there is there should be a Emphasis on the cook the Habakkuk at the end.

But again, however you say it.

This is not a Phonetic lesson.

I don't you know, however you whatever whatever pleases you Maybe you had a Sunday school teacher that taught you to say it a different way but Habakkuk Spoke to Judah prior to the Babylonian captivity in 586 Remember Judah is the southern kingdom and he asked the question which often perplexes all of us Why does God allow evil to continue? Why does God allow the wicked to prosper and that the question that so and that what atheists often ask? How can you believe in God when there's so much evil in the world? How can you believe in God when there's so much wickedness and you think that's a you think that's something that oh They just came up with that This book is 2,500 years old and They were dealing with that question then Habakkuk wonders why God tolerates wickedness among his people He grapples with how God's love and mercy relate to his anger and his justice man.

How relevant is that? Many people There's a whole There's a whole theological system not not system rather but a whole theological School of thought it's the question called theodicy Theodicy is the question of God's righteousness.

How can God be righteous and allow wicked to occur? How can how can God remain good and this is often how the question is posed? People say if God is good Then he wouldn't allow evil And if God were powerful enough, he wouldn't allow evil so that so God is either not good or he's not powerful But if he's good and powerful, we wouldn't have any evil That's the argument He's either not all good or he's not all powerful if he was all good He would stop evil and if he was all powerful He could stop evil and the fact that he doesn't shows that he's either not all good or he's not all powerful No, my answer is I've had people ask people have said that to me directly.

I didn't invent that question I've heard people say it people have said it to me if your God was all good By the way, another reference.

This is actually in another movie You ever see the movie? Batman vs.

Superman came out a few years ago Lex Luthor is arguing with Superman at the end and he says that if God is all good and he's all powerful Then I wouldn't have dealt with what I dealt with as a kid.

I was Mistreated I knew God wasn't real because if he was good he would have stopped it So what I'm saying is this is this is a pop culture question very common question and this is the response It doesn't take that much thought because when somebody says if God was all good, he would destroy all evil and The response is what are you? Do you believe that you should be destroyed? Well, no Well, then aren't you glad God doesn't destroy all evil because you deserve it too Aren't you glad he's merciful See because that's the reality of the issue People look at everyone else's evil if God were all good.

He would do something about all evil You know, what's funny about that is you know what those same people often argue about from the Bible The parts where God did deal with the evil people I Think about the Canaanites Go and destroy every one of them.

We don't like that, but he's doing what you wanted.

You wanted him to destroy evil He sent him in To do what you wanted.

Well, we didn't want him to be done that way So the problem is not that God is not good.

The problem is you think you're better You think your morality is better than God's morality That's the problem A back it deals with The question of how or why does God allow the wicked to continue and a back at 2-4 Is the one that I would say you want to write down as a major verse because this verse It's quoted three times in the New Testament And I and if I read it to you you'll think about where it's quoted because this is a back at 2-4 Behold his soul is puffed up.

It is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by faith Paul quotes that verse twice Romans 1 17 and Galatians 3 11 both in reference to the gospel The righteous shall live by faith.

This was the passage that changed Martin Luther's life Because he's been trying to live by works and he came to Romans 1 verse 17 The righteousness of God is revealed from heaven or rather Romans 1 I Was I was in verse 18 Romans 1.

He says that the Just shall live by faith.

I have to look at it now because it just it just jumped out of my mind Romans 1 16 and 17 Thank you.

Thank you.

The gospel is the power of God in the salvation everyone who believes to do first and also to the Greek and Then he says The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith he quotes back at 2-4 So, how do we how does the just person live in a world where wickedness exists? He lives by faith He trusts that God has a plan for all things even the wickedness of wicked men It's also quoted in Hebrews 10 verse 38 Habakkuk reminds us that the Lord will always render a righteous judgment the prophet is comforted in the truth that God will always redeem his people and Punishment for the wicked will not be held back forever.

There is a day of reckoning coming You know what? I hate people saying I hate when people say all that guy escaped justice You know because some guy will be put on trial maybe you think back to the mid 90s when OJ Simpson went to his case I watched the miniseries about the OJ Simpson case and it went through all the events that happened and and how the there was so much evidence so much physical evidence for his guilt, but because of many mitigating circumstances he was able to be Let off he was he was acquitted of the deaths of his ex-wife and the waiter from the restaurant that she had been at and so People say well there he escaped justice understand this no man escapes justice Justice may be put off But it will never be put under and so we get to the last of the second four Which was I'm sorry, that was the last of the second four Habakkuk Any questions on those four? Yes, sir John Yeah, and remember what the answer is at the end of joke Where were you and I form a world where were you and I laid the foundations of the earth the answer God gives to the question Why is I am God? The reason why men don't like that is because we want to be able to say I am to Men want to be God that was the sin of the garden eat of the tree you will be like God It's been this it's it's always that I don't understand why God doesn't answer my questions Who are you old man to ask a question to the God who created you? Well, that's convenient no, that's The reality of the existence of one who is greater than you We have such a backwards view of God We we have created a God in our land who is subject to us Because we have never been subject to Authority we have always had authorities over us that were by our choosing We're a Democratic Republic We choose our authorities.

We choose our president you understand the concept of the sovereignty of God was much better understood a Few hundred years ago when people understood the concept of a monarch Because the monarch had authority That didn't require your approval He was king He was the ruler See with us today, it's all about well, you know the of the people for the people Bible and it's a great system I'm not denouncing what we have blessed by God to live in the system that we have Monarchial rule was often, you know again power crops absolute power crops.

Absolutely.

It was often tyranny It's why we fought the Revolutionary War was to get to avoid the tyranny of King George, but the point that I'm making is under a king you understood what authority was You didn't have to vote for him.

He was king People see the word election in the Bible and they think that's their choice election is always something God does Okay, I'm getting into a sermon now the topic so let me let me back up a little God is sovereign and That's that's all I'll say about that.

Okay, so let's go to the last four and remember what I said earlier the the three of these are Post Exile, so the last the last one that we're going to look at that's pre-exile is Zephaniah Zephaniah Like many of the prophets we know little of Zephaniah And if you want your one sentence that you can try to remember repent or be destroyed that was Zephaniah's message repent or be destroyed Zephaniah was the son of cushy a descendant of Hezekiah This would mean that he was part of the royal line or could mean that he was part of the royal line and if so He would have been familiar with the royal courts His name means Yahweh or Jehovah Hides or protects that's what Zephaniah means Yahweh protects or treasures He prophesied His prophecies rather were directed at the southern kingdom He warns them of the coming judgment of God and he calls them to repent and he is the last of the pre-exilic prophets Among the minor prophets and this means he would have been prophesying around the same time as Jeremiah Again, some of you weren't here last week, but Jeremiah prophesied into the exile That's what the whole book of Lamentations is about the Lamentations means to wail or to cry to lament and Lamentations is about seeing the temple destroyed Seeing Jerusalem Destroyed And Zephaniah would have been a contemporary of Jeremiah He uses the term the day of the Lord seven times in his short book and The theme is the judgment of God On a disobedient people this again if you think of it from a timeline perspective, this is the last prophet Along with Jeremiah that's preaching them into the exile The call is to repent or you will be destroyed and they're about to see that on display think about somebody today who stands on the street corner and Calls people to repent they think he is a fool One day that person will not be a fool One day he may be The person we wish we were to listen to the most Zephaniah says repent or be destroyed and This leads us to our last three and hey Hasn't been a lot of questions and a lot of interaction tonight, so we might even finish early We'll see how that works I'm not good at finishing early We're gonna look now at Haggai And again, another one that's name is said different depending on where you are.

Some people say Haggai some people say Haggai.

I say Haggai again I'm sure that There is a right way And I don't know that mine is necessarily right so it's up to you Haggai The thought of Haggai is this That we ought to give careful thought to our ways we ought to give careful thought to our ways because in Haggai's day the Jews had returned after 70 years of exile and At first they were enthusiastic about rebuilding the temple, but then they fell into apathy and they stopped Isn't that often how it is That people will become excited With a new venture or excited for a new opportunity but over time it becomes apathetic and they become Lazy and they stop.

I mean you guys ever seen somebody do that? They're real on fire Doesn't Jesus have a parable about that? The seed that fell among the rocky soil and it sprung up for a time But it quickly withered because it had no root Haggai says give careful thought to your ways God's message through Haggai was a challenge Wake up from your spiritual slumber He reminded them God is still among you and He should be your first priority.

What is the book of Revelation say? It says there was one of the seven churches that had left what? Their first love Again they start strong, but they abandoned so easy to do It's so easy to drift off the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Jesus said right and It's so easy to fall into a state of spiritual lethargy and spiritual slumber and Haggai is the challenger who challenges them to wake up and Remember that God is active and that might be a better phrase if you want to if you I know I said give careful thought To your ways, but here's another here's another phrase or thought from Haggai God is active in this world and here I'll give you I'll give you several different examples Chapter 1 verse 12 God sins chapter 1 verse 14 God stirs up chapter 2 verse 6 and 21 God shakes Chapter 1 verse 10 God withholds chapter 2 verse 7 God fills chapter 2 verse 17 God strikes chapter 2 verse 23 God chooses in chapter 2 verse 19.

God blesses.

God is active throughout the book Haggai and Haggai is saying God is active.

Therefore you should be active God has not slumbered.

He has not fallen asleep.

Neither should you give up, but you should continue forward So he's in a sense or like a coach at halftime He's got them He's got the the boys in the locker room and he's got him sat down on the benches and he's saying now listen now It's not the time to give up now.

It's the time to persevere and move forward You've got to press on Give careful thought to your ways.

I know in my life.

I need that message Every once in a while my wife and I will take Take time to go to a Bible conference When I first became a pastor, I would go to Bible conferences two or three times a year Because I had no kids You know Ashley and Cody we adopted them, but they were older and so even then it wasn't so much going to a Bible conference Jennifer could be home with them I could go I drive down to Orlando spend three days with RC Sproul and Steve Lawson and all these great guys just sitting around talking to these guys was a pastor's come to some of the best days of my life And I would come home and I would be ready to go Because those men that was the purpose of those conferences was to to stoke that fire that may be starting to wane They would blow oxygen like a like one of those things you use in a Fireplace, I don't know what they're called What? Yeah, where you blow the air in hmm Bellows, okay, and it blows the air in and it stokes the fire and that's what going to that conference is You know, I miss I said now that we've had the babies and the kids are smaller.

I don't get to go anymore as much But it was always a great time and so this guy had guy he is the He's encouraging the people he's calling them out for their complacency He's calling them out for their laziness.

I Remember one time years ago hearing dr.

John MacArthur.

Now.

This was not in person.

This was I heard him I Don't remember the context of where he was or where I heard this But he said the problem with so many of you preachers is you don't keep your knees under the desk long enough to make a difference What he was saying that if they weren't studying enough And man that hit me hard You're not keeping your knees under your desk long enough to make a difference It's powerful thought right and that's the kind of thing that stokes you to whoo.

I got to get back to my desk I got to open my Bible.

I got to get out my pen and my yellow pad and I got to get to work Haggai is Calling the people of God out of complacency two more Zechariah Zechariah Stands as the longest of the minor prophets The short sentence of Zechariah is this the Lord will reign over all the Lord will reign over all Along with Haggai Zechariah encouraged the people to continue rebuilding the temple and he reminds them that God is faithful to his covenant with them and He looked forward to a day when God's sovereignty will be recognized throughout the world all people Jew and Gentile will worship the one true God.

Listen to this.

This is Zechariah chapter 2 verse 11 and Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in their midst and you Will know the Lord of hosts has sent me to you Hear that again and many nations Shall join themselves to the Lord think about how powerful that is Because this is at the time where there was that one nation Israel who was the apple of God's eye that one Nation that was the focus of God's redemptive work But when the gospel came through Jesus, it was meant to be preached to all people Go therefore into all nations and preach the gospel and so Zechariah Promises or rather prophesies that there is coming a day when many nations shall join themselves to the Lord the content and style And this is important and if you if you didn't hear last week this same thing happens in Isaiah The content and style of Isaiah 1 to 39 is different than the content and style of Isaiah 40 through 66 And the same is the case for Zechariah 1 through 8 and Zechariah 9 through 14.

In fact Zechariah's name isn't mentioned after chapter 8 and Some people believe that that's because there was a different author who authored the latter half of the book That could be I don't think it's necessary It could simply be as I explained last week with the book of Isaiah It could simply be that this is written over a longer period of time and therefore there are two Focuses but yet still the same author I mean think about if you read the book of Galatians and then you read the book of 2nd Timothy They're both written by Paul, but they're they're very different because one is one of the earliest if not the earliest of Paul's writings Galatians and the other is the latest or among the latest 2nd Timothy you have one where the church is just being established and you have the other where the churches are flourishing and and Fighting persecution and dealing with issues.

And so the messages are different because the context has changed.

I Don't believe there were two Isaiah's I said that last week In fact, I can prove at least I can prove to my satisfaction There's not two Isaiah's because if you read the New Testament, you'll notice that they quote from the first 39 Chapters and the second 27 chapters in the same quote and they attribute both of them to Isaiah So that makes me think there's not two Isaiah's and the same goes for Zechariah I don't think Zechariah has to have two authors if you want to argue that it does again I'm not going to fight you over it.

But in my opinion, I don't think it's necessary Even if it did it wouldn't call into question its inspiration because as we've talked about in weeks previous We don't know who the Chronicler was, but we know there was likely more than one Chronicler because chronicles cover such a large vast period of time Probably had several hands that inputted information because it's such a long historical narrative and so the idea that there could have been a second hand involved is not necessarily a Any kind of damnable heresy, but it's I don't think it's necessary.

It's one of those things where it's You know depends on how you look at it Chapter 9 verse 9 of Zechariah is about the triumphal entry in Facts Just look at it if you have your Bibles turn to Zechariah 9 9 It says in chapter 9 verse 9 rejoice greatly.

Oh daughter of Zion shout aloud.

Oh daughter of Jerusalem Behold your king is coming to you Righteous and having salvation as he humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt the foal of a donkey You guys remember that passage? That's the passage that is quoted in the Gospels when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the back of the donkey So they the writer of the New Testament the writers of the New Testament saw this passage as a specific prophecy of the coming of the King Jesus And if you look just a couple chapters over to chapter 11 and verses 12 and 13 It says then I said to them if it seems good to you Give me my wages But if not keep them and they weighed out as my wages 30 pieces of silver Then the Lord said to me throw it to the potter the lordly price at which I was priced by them So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter That was a prefiguring of what would happen in the life of Judas Iscariot The New Testament writers look back at that and say see that Happening it was prefiguring what would happen because remember what did Judas do with his money? He threw it back And what was it used to buy Potter's field so again, there's a lot what's that name for I have to look I Okay, you guys got me going in a different direction now, I'm not quite sure what you're referring to it might just be something I haven't heard of so I had to talk about later, but It's just interesting that we see Zechariah Giving us these pictures of what would happen in the life of Christ and the gospel writers are not missing this Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

They point these things out see this this was about this It was about this Next week, by the way Next week.

Our lesson is seeing Christ in the Old Testament we're going to spend an hour and a half looking at types and symbols and figures of Christ and the Old Testament I don't think you can look at the Old Testament without Looking for Christ and seeing him because Luke 24 tells us beginning with Moses and all the prophets He showed them the things that pertain to himself So that's what next week is about But we see in the prophets what the New Testament writers saw They saw this and they said see that was Jesus's That was a mark that was pointing to Jesus some are direct prophecies.

He will be born in Bethlehem.

That's a direct prophecy The thing about the 30 pieces of silver is not necessarily a direct prophecy.

It's a reference.

It's a type It's looking forward to something that would happen All right, finally Malachi Last book of the Old Testament last Prophet of the Old Testament the next person who will speak a prophetic voice and Israel will be John the Baptist 400 years after Malachi Malachi's Statement very similar to one we've already seen the day of the Lord is coming that was the message of Malachi the day of the Lord is coming and He has the distinction of being the last and the last Old Testament prophet and the bridge to the New Testament Nothing is known of him personally To the point that some even question whether or not he really is a person or If Malachi is a title because the word Malachi means messenger My messenger So Some have said that this could be and I'm not saying it is I'm saying it could be Ezra I'm going under the title of messenger or my messenger so We know this was during the lifetime of the ministry of Ezra.

So Again just giving you that as a as a thought The prophet Malachi will proceed as if that is who it is The prophet Malachi calls for spiritual renewal among a people who have largely given up on God Again, how relevant is this? like for real He's prophesying to a people who have largely given up on God, why don't we just go read Malachi in the street, huh? Well, we did yeah He was in a generation that followed Haggai and Zechariah it had been decades since the people had returned to the land and rebuilt the temple and The promises of blessings had not materialized yet.

So the people were saying does God really matter? That was the question Does God really matter does it matter if we serve God or not? I know the answer is yes The question think about how many people ask you that how many of people have you ever heard does it really matter if you pray Have you seen the hashtags after the shootings? We don't need your thoughts and prayers We don't need prayer.

We need gun control.

That's the answer Because prayer doesn't work Just ask Richard Dawkins.

He'll tell you prayer is speaking to your imaginary friend Again everybody thinks they're so Everybody thinks they're so wise and new.

These are the same issues.

They were dealing with 2,500 years ago Does serving God really matter? the problem in Malachi is Like the problem in Nehemiah, and I know again It's been several weeks since we looked at Nehemiah, but the problems were mixed marriages with pagans unjust financial practices the withholding of God's tithes that's actually brought up in Malachi people who do not give to the Lord and a general spiritual apathy and here's what's unique about Malachi Malachi is given in the dialogical expression a Dialogical expression means a back and forth He asks the question and then he answers the question Paul does this in Romans 9, you know? Does this mean there's unjustice with God? No for he will have mercy on him.

He has mercy So he asked the question then he answers the question.

That's a dialogical expression it's it's expressing a back-and-forth conversation and here's what Malachi says I Have loved you.

This is chapter 1 verse 2.

I have loved you says the Lord, but you say how have you loved us? You see he's playing both parts as if he were in a play He's saying I have loved you says the Lord, but you say how have I loved you? And then he says it's not Esau Jacob's brother declares the Lord yet I have loved Jacob and I hated Esau I have laid waste to his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.

That's how I loved you I laid waste to your enemies and I prospered you Malachi 2 17 you have wearied the Lord with your words But you said how have we wearied him? By saying everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delights in them Boy, isn't that like today everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord.

That's how you wearied the Lord That's how you weary God call evil good and good evil Malachi 3 8 will man rob God yet.

You are robbing me, but you say how are you robbing me in? tithes and offerings I don't want to get into the Concept of New Testament tithing and those things but the point of the matter is And I heard a preacher said this years ago He was preaching this text and he said yeah bunch of you guys are just God robbers.

You got God's money in your pockets God robbers That's that's cool as a funny it's just a funny way of saying it but that's what he's saying you robbing God because you're holding back What belongs to him and it's dialogical it's back and forth he's he's giving the quiz giving the statement He's giving the question.

He's returning fire.

Boom But Malachi also gives us something else that we must not miss and this is going to this is going to bridge into next week's lesson Malachi gives us the promise of Elijah to come Malachi chapter 4 verse 5 behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction You say well is Elijah come and something you realize that in a Jewish Passover Seder when they have a Seder To this day if a Jewish family has a Seder and they do them every year.

They set a place for Elijah Because they believe Elijah still has to come Before the day of the Lord will come Elijah has to return so when they make their Seder meal they have one setting That's for Elijah and it's based on Malachi 4 5 & 6 behold I will send you Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord.

But what did Jesus say? Matthew 17 verse 10 the disciples asked him Why did this why did the scribes say that first Elijah must come Well, the reason why they said it was because it was what Malachi said they were quoting Scripture Jesus said verse 11 Elijah does come and he will restore all things but I tell you Elijah has already come and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist For he was the one who came in the spirit of Elijah Malachi ends with a powerful reminder the day of the Lord is still coming So it is not the end Even though it ends the Old Testament It's not the end of the story It leaves us with anticipation Elijah is still coming and 400 years later.

He would come and He would say make The the Lord is coming make his paths straight so in the next lesson that we do we're going to look at that one who the spiritual Elijah John the Baptist preached about Jesus and how did John the Baptist preacher Jesus? How did all of the old or the early church preacher Jesus before there was a New Testament? They preached him from the Old Testament when Paul said all Scripture is given by inspiration of God He was talking about the Old Testament because That's the Bible they had Now it's not leaving out the New Testament, but the focus of to Timothy 316 is the Old Testament And he says it is profitable for rebuke For reproof for correction and for training and righteousness the Old Testament We can use it to preach Jesus and next week.

We'll see how all right any questions.

Yes Well, we had this the daughters of Who is it the daughters of Philip who were also called prophetesses and the promise of Joel was the pouring out of the Spirit on on Men and women your sons will prophesy your daughters will prophesy So there was a there was an expression of that gift of prophecy that was given but Anna preceded that because you're talking about prior to the time of the Prior to the time of the coming of the Spirit in Acts chapter 2 because he would have been was that Luke 3 Luke chapter 2 When I say that Malachi is the last prophetic voice before before John the Baptist last that we know of Whether or not there were there were non writing prophets in that time who spoke for God or in that time We can't know because they weren't talked about there's some biblical extra biblical literature that comes in there But a lot of that we don't recognize as having authority and so we can't give it the same weight But are you happy? Let me make sure I understand the question that you're asking.

Are you asking? Where does she fit in or is it because she's a lady prophet? Or is it because that she is a prophet in general and I Don't know I know that part.

I don't know.

I don't know What other things she did other than speaking To Mary, I don't know what other prophecies she gave and I don't know.

I don't know how she operated Other than maybe just that we do know this sometimes Prophets were used for very specific tasks at a very specific time, but we don't know anything else about him So we can't give any information about it.

Sorry As I can do Anyone else have a question So it's a good question, by the way, let's end with a prayer father.