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Major Lessons from the Minor Prophets

Major Lessons from the Minor Prophets. Amos  Hosea  Zephaniah  Zechariah. Theme of Hosea. God’s relentless love for Israel is unrequited by the faithless and adulterous nation.

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Major Lessons from the Minor Prophets

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  1. Major Lessonsfrom the Minor Prophets Amos  Hosea  Zephaniah  Zechariah

  2. Theme of Hosea God’s relentless love for Israel is unrequited by the faithless and adulterous nation. •   When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea: "Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the LORD.“ • Hosea 1:2

  3. Outline of Hosea I. God’s love and Israel's adultery, illustrated by Hosea's experience with a wife of harlotry (1-3) A. Hosea's adulterous wife Gomer (chapter 1). B. God's adulterous wife Israel (chapter 2). C. Hosea's "tough love" restores his wife, as God's love would restore Israel (chapter 3). II. Prophetic discourses on adulterous Israel and her faithful God (4-13) A. Israel's sins detailed (chapters 4-8). B. Israel's punishment determined (chapters 9-11). C. Israel's continuing sin provokes a jealous and loving God (chapters 12-13). III. Israel's restoration decreed (14)

  4. The Lord’s Charges Against Israel There is no truth, mercy, or knowledge of God (4:1-19) • Immorality and violence are rampant (4:1-5) • The land and its creatures will feel the affects (4:3). • No one had the moral high ground; no one could rebuke another for all were at odds with God-ordained justice (Like those who contend with the priest, Deut. 17:8-12). • “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (4:6-10) • The priests and the people were ignorant of God’s law and had set their hearts on iniquity. • God would “reward them for their deeds” (4:9).

  5. The Lord’s Charges Against Israel There is no truth, mercy, or knowledge of God (4:1-19) • A spirit of harlotry prevailed throughout the land (4:11-14) • People were enslaved by it as by alcohol (4:11, 18) • They sought idols instead of God (4:12; Isa. 44:14-18) • They enjoyed a religion of sensual pleasure; women and men were equally guilty (4:13-14) • Judah is warned not to offend like Israel (4:15-19) • The name of the LORD must not be invoked in the places of idol worship [Note: Beth Aven = house of vanity] • The glory of the rulers was their shame (cf. Phil. 3:18-19)

  6. The Lord’s Charges Against Israel Priests & Kings would be judged for ensnaring souls and for their insolent pride (5:1-15) • The Lord is fully aware of the harlotry of Israel, Ephraim, and Judah (5:1-5) • They will seek the Lord, but not find Him (5:6) • Sudden destruction is upon them (5:7-9) • The rulers of Judah are like those who remove a landmark, and Ephraim has “walked by human precept” (5:10-11; Deut. 19:14; 27:17) • When they saw they were decaying, they reached out to foreign nations instead of God (5:12-13) • Like a Lion, God would rip them to shreds till they acknowledged their offense (5:14-15)

  7. The Lord’s Charges Against Israel Hosea’s appeal to return to the Lord is contrasted with Israel’s unfaithfulness (6:1-11) • Hosea appeals to Israel to return to God on the basis that God would heal and revive her (6:1-3) • The reference to being raised on the third day is primarily symbolic (as in the Valley of Dry Bones vision of Ezekiel 37:1-10). • There may be an oblique Messianic reference – Christ raised on the third day, and His people ultimately raised with Him (Luke 24:46; Eph. 2:4-6; Rom 6:3-4). • The early and the latter rain had indeed been promised to those who truly sought the Lord (Deut. 11:11-14).

  8. The Lord’s Charges Against Israel Hosea’s appeal to return to the Lord is contrasted with Israel’s unfaithfulness (6:1-11) • Israel was as faithless as a morning cloud (6:4, Jude 12) • God’s judgment was just and firm (6:5) • God desired mercy and knowledge from Israel more than sacrifice and offerings (6:6; cf. Psalm 51:16-17; Matthew 9:11-13; 12:7-8) • Like Adam (men, NKJV), Israel had broken covenant and must be expelled from the land (6:7-10) • Cities of refuge had become havens for robbers, thieves and murderers! • Judah would also reap what it had sown (6:11)

  9. The Lord’s Charges Against Israel Symbols of the fullness of Israel’s Transgression (7:1-16) • God’s desire to heal Israel was thwarted by the pleasure that her rulers and citizens took in wickedness (7:1-3) • God does not forget wickedness when there is no repentance! • Evil influences were working throughout Israel like heat in dough that is carefully prepared (7:4-8) • Note: Four of the last six kings of Israel were murdered (2 Kings 15)

  10. The Lord’s Charges Against Israel Symbols of the fullness of Israel’s Transgression (7:1-16) • Israel is like an aging man who is losing his strength but is too proud to admit it (7:9-10). • Ephraim is like a silly dove calling out and flitting about seeking food, heedless of the net (7:11-16) • God would cast His net and bring her down! (7:12) • They spoke lies against their redeemer! (7:13) • They did not cry out to the Lord in time of need (7:14) • They returned, but not to God (7:15-16) • They are like a “treacherous bow.”

  11. The Lord’s Charges Against Israel Israel has sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind (8:1-14) • Assyria will swoop down on Israel like and eagle on its prey (8:1-3).

  12. The Lord’s Charges Against Israel Israel has sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind (8:1-14) • Assyria will swoop down on Israel like and eagle on its prey (8:1-3). • Israel would protest that she knew God, but she had transgressed and rebelled! • Israel’s idols would be shattered in pieces (8:4-6) • They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind (8:7) • “The sowing of seed always anticipates a yield greater than the sowing” (Bobby Graham). They’d sown “the wind” (vanity, emptiness) and would reap less than nothing! (Proverbs 22:8; Galatians 6:7-8)

  13. The Lord’s Charges Against Israel Israel has sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind (8:1-14) • Israel’s fate in captivity • She would be swallowed up among the Gentiles (8:8) • Like a stubborn, wild donkey, Ephraim would flee her master to seek less favorable conditions – she would “hire lovers” who would become her captors! (8:9-10; Ezekiel 16:28-42).

  14. The Lord’s Charges Against Israel Israel has sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind (8:1-14) • Israel’s false religion ensures its doom • Ephraim had erected altars to expiate sin which were themselves sinful! (8:11) • “Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning.” (NIV) • False religion does not remove sin; it compounds it! • God’s laws were considered strange (8:12; 1 Peter 4:3-4) • In response to their self-serving religion, God would send them back to “Egypt” (8:13; Deut. 28:47-48) • Judah would suffer a similar fate (8:14)

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