Hosea is the prophet of compassion. He prophesied to Israel shortly after Amos, but unlike Amos who preached a message of condemnation and judgment for a short time, Hosea preached a message that not only challenged people to repent from their sins, but one filled with God’s love and compassion for over 50 years–until the […]
Category Archives: Prophets
This week we studied the Prophet Amos—and he is not an easy prophet to study or to teach. God gave him the difficult task of leaving his homeland in Judah and his job of tending sheep and fig trees to go north to Israel to prophecy God’s judgement. At this time Israel was doing well […]
Homer Hailey went home to be with the Lord in 2000, but his book still teaches in a scholarly and yet very gentle way about God’s truth found in the minor prophets. I’m reading lots of books and online materials in preparation for teaching our Live Life by the Book class, but many of the […]
Godly Justice – Amos 5 This is an excellent commentary on justice that goes along well with Amos. The issues talked about in this ancient book are just as applicable today. It was a time of peace and plenty. The northern kingdom of Israel in 770-750 BC, under the rule of King Jeroboam II had […]
Though most people are familiar with Jonah, you may not have thought about his story in in combination with Obadiah, but both books are about how God expects us to treat people who are unkind to us. He wants us to treat them with mercy and leave the vengeance to Him. Of course it isn’t […]
In this and last week’s readings, two passages show the dangers of pride. One describes Edom, the nation that descended from Esau and the other, the fate of King Uzziah, a good and godly king initially, but one whose pride God judged with leprosy. C.S. Lewis described pride as “the essential vice, the utmost evil. […]
Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament, only one chapter long, but it tells a very old story. It relates the continuing fight and result of the battle between two brothers, Jacob and Esau. God foretold before the twins were born that the older would serve the younger, but no one in the […]
In our introduction to the Prophets, we learned that though we often think about them as primarily telling us about the future, that is not their primary message. Though fulfilled prophecy confirmed their divine inspiration and origin, it makes up a small percentage of their message. Their primary message to their audience and to us […]
There are few things worse than finding out after you’ve done something you thought was OK, that it wasn’t. “Why did I do that? What was I thinking?” we sometimes ask ourselves. To make these times of regret less in your life is one of the reasons to study the prophets. Below are some quotes […]
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