Malachi

Malachi ministered in the days of Nehemiah and directed his message to a nation plagued with corrupt priests and practices, and a people that had lapsed into a false sense of security in their privileged relationship with God.

Using a question-and-answer approach, the prophet revealed deep underlying problems of superficial devotion and worship, self-centered lifestyle, blatant mixed marriages and divorces, and a prevailing arrogance of self-conceit in the leaders and people. The nation as a whole had sunk so low that God's Word no longer had any effect on them. As a result, no prophetic voice was heard for four hundred years after Malachi—until John the baptist appeared.

What had caused the returned Jews to degenerate to such a sad spiritual state? It seems that the people were impatient to wait for the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah to be fulfilled, and had become disillusioned and doubtful their faith gave way to cynicism. Like many Christians today, the Jews wondered if it's worth fearing and serving God, while outwardly they carried on a meaningless empty ritual fraught with insincerity and irreverence. They offered God blind and lame sacrifices, short-changed God on tithes and offerings, and exhibited temerity against Malachi's protest on their callous attitude: "Oh, come on, it's not that bad!"

When our view of God grows dim, materialism and externalism invariably supplant true devotion, and we end up with either ritualism or rationalism. Obligations and duties soon replace our love for God and devotion becomes a drudgery instead of delight. No wonder Malachi ended his message with the bitter word 'curse' as the final word in the Old Testament!

OUTLINE OF MALACHI

1. God the Prosecutor (1:1-2:9)

a. Against the Priests who despise God's Name

b. The Priests are cursed

2. Malachi the Prosecutor (2:10-3:15)

a. Against the People

Idolatry | Divorce | Rob God | Doubt God

b. God will judge the People at His coming

3. Commendation of the Righteous (3:16-4:4)

a. The Righteous are heard

b. A distinction will be made

c. The Day of the LORD shall come

d. The Righteous shall prosper

e. Remember the Law of Moses

4. Coming of the LORD's Messenger (4:5-6)

a. Elijah shall come

b. He shall bring restoration

 

Zechariah

Zechariah was a young contemporary of Haggai. Haggai's approach was more concrete and concise in addressing the present concerns through reprimand and exhortation, whereas Zechariah's was more abstract in portraying future promises as he reminded and encouraged the people.

Though young in age, Zechariah was fearless and firmed in proclaiming God's message, and ultimately paid the high price with his life, as mentioned by Jesus in His indictment against the Jews of His time:

Matthew 23:35
That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you slain between the temple and the altar.

Zechariah is the major Minor Prophet, being the longest among the twelve, and is second only to Isaiah in terms of messianic passages. The book is rich and varied in content, with a total of eight visions, four messages, and two burdens. The focus shifts from Gentile dominion to Messiah's rule, from persecution to peace, and from impurity to holiness.

The prophet appealed to the people to repent and return to God, and not to repeat the failure of their forefathers who rejected God's Word and warnings. About three months later, he received eight visions in one night, five of which are visions of comfort, and three of judgment.

Zechariah's visions covered the work of the Messiah in both advents, and his oracles outlined God's program for His people from the times of the Gentiles until the reign of Messiah on earth. Let's look forward to reading this great prophetic book.

OUTLINE OF ZECHARIAH

1. Eight Visions (1:1-6:15)

a. The Call to Repentance (1:1-6)

b. The Collection of Visions (1:7-6:8)

1:  Horses among the Myrtle Trees

2:  Four Horns and Four Craftsmen

3:  Man with the Measuring Line

4:  Cleansing of Joshua the High Priest

5:  Golden Lampstand and Two Olive Trees

6:  Flying Scroll

7:  Woman in the Basket

8:  Four Chariots

c. The Crowning of Joshua (6:9-15)

2. Four Messages (7:1-8:23)

a. The People's Inquiry on Fasting (7:1-3)

b. The Lord's Response (7:4-8:23)

Rebuke : Spiritual Hypocrisy

Repent : Disobedience

Restore : The People and the Land

Rejoice : Revival of True Worship

3. Two Burdens (9:1-14:21)

a. Rejection of Messiah (9:1-11:17)

Judgment on Surrounding Nations

First Advent | Second Advent | Rejection

b. Reign of Messiah (12:1-14:21)

Salvation—Physical | Spiritual

Final Siege of Jerusalem

Second Coming of Messiah

Messiah's Kingdom

 

Haggai

Haggai was one of the three prophets that ministered in the post-exilic period of Judah's history. Zerubbabel led the first group of returning Jews—42,360 of them—in the first year of Cyrus, the Persian king.

The new generation of Jews, with some of the elderly Jews who survived the captivity, looked forward with great anticipation and hope to their homeland. But optimism soon gave way to despair as they witnessed the desolation of the city and temple —70 years since Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Jerusalem. To make matter worse, their attempt to rebuild the temple was met with oppositions from neighboring nations.

Consequently, the temple rebuilding work stopped soon after the foundation was laid, and the people became preoccupied with building their homes and cultivating their fields. Living conditions were tough and the land unproductive from years of neglect, compared to the comfortable lives they left behind in the Babylonian province that is now under Persia. Pessimism led to spiritual lethargy and the people carried on with their daily life while the temple stood neglected and unfinished for another 16 years.

God sent Haggai to rebuke the people of their spiritual apathy and challenged them to rekindle their fervor for the restoration of the temple, as well as to renew their faith in the God who could restore their livelihood now and bring forth hope of a brighter future in the Messianic kingdom.

OUTLINE OF HAGGAI

1. 1st Message: Rebuke–Reflection (1:1-11)

Nice homes | Neglected temple

Much labor | Little harvest

2. 2nd Message: Obedience–Assurance (1:12-15)

Leaders obeyed | The people feared

God encourages | God enables

3. 3rd Message: Courage–Glory (2:1-9)

Man's perspective—Insignificant

God's perspective—Glorious

4. 4th Message: Question–Action (2:10-19)

Attitude—Ceremonial or Committed?

Rewards—Feeble or Abundance?

5. 5th Message: Judgment–Promise (2:20-23)

Man's kingdom shall fall

Messiah's kingdom shall rise

 

Zephaniah

Zephaniah was the great grandson of King Hezekiah, one of the few good kings of Judah and a reformer of the nation to true worship of God. Unfortunately, after the corrupt and idolatrous influence of the next two kings, Manasseh and Ammon, Judah had sunk to a new spiritual and moral low.

Despite Josiah's best effort to restore the nation—his untimely death at the hands of Pharaoh Neco in the battle of Megiddo proved to be the final nail on Judah's coffin. Under such ailing spiritual circumstances, with contamination in worship and corruption in leadership, and the people adopting a lukewarm and nonchalant attitude towards God, Zephaniah set forth to proclaim the swift arrival of the day of the LORD, urging the people to repent and return back to God.

Zephaniah's message, however, was not meant for Judah alone; it was also directed to the surrounding nations who were just as guilty in blaspheming God, being boastful of their abilities, and constantly battering God's people on all sides. Ultimately the day of the LORD will descend upon all people and nation, to bring an end to sin and unrighteousness.

But like the other prophets, Zephaniah ends his message with a promise of salvation. The day of the LORD is not all gloom and doom; rather, it serves to cleanse away the filth of mankind's sin and establish Messiah's kingdom and rule. Indeed, for the meek and poor in spirit, it is a day of joy and comfort; but for the unrepentant, it is a day of grave reckoning.

OUTLINE OF ZEPHANIAH

1. Day of Wrath—Judgment (1:1-3:8)

a. The Whole Earth (1:1-3)

b. Judah the Nation (1:4-2:3)

Reasons | Repercussions | Repentance

c. Surrounding Nations (2:4-15)

Philistia—West | Moab and Ammon—East

Ethiopia—South | Assyria—North

d. Jerusalem the City (3:1-7)

Her Injustice | God's Justice

e. The Whole Earth (3:8)

2. Day of Joy—Salvation (3:9-20)

a. Joy of Conversion (3:9-13)

Cleansing of Filth and Pride

b. Joy of Restoration (3:14-20)

Celebration of Favor and Peace

 

Habakkuk

Are you troubled by the evil and injustice in this world? Have you ever wondered why God seems to be silent and inactive, or turning a blind eye to the atrocities and pains around us and in the news? If God is real, shouldn't He be doing something about it and eradicate all evils from the face of the earth?

Habakkuk's faith was severely disturbed as he witnessed what was happening among his own people in Judah. The rich and powerful got away with their crimes and wrongdoings, while the poor and helpless suffered the brunt of injustice at the very hands of their own brethren turned oppressors. The southern kingdom had sunk into the depths of spiritual and moral decay and God did not seem to care or put a stop to it.

In exasperation the prophet cried out to God for an answer, but what he received in reply was even more shocking: God would punish His people using a more wicked nation—the Chaldeans. This was not what Habakkuk had expected to hear and could not reconcile his faith to. However, God assured the bewildered Habakkuk that He knew what He was doing because He is in full control of everything, even though the prophet could not understand His ways:

Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

In the end, Habakkuk learned an important lesson—we are not to question God's ways but to trust His wisdom in whatever He does—and that was enough to make the prophet regained his faith and broke forth into praise of God's glory and power.

OUTLINE OF HABAKKUK

1. The Prayer of Exasperation (1:1-17)

Faith in Crisis—Why?

a. The Prophet's Doubt (1:1-4)

Why does God allow injustice among His people?

b. The LORD's Reply (1:5-11)

God will surely punish His people via the Chaldeans

c. The Prophet's Dilemma (1:12-17)

Why does God use a wicked nation to do His work?

2. The Prayer of Endurance (2:1-20)

Faith in Calm—Because…

a. The Waiting (2:1-3)

Habakkuk's reaction | God's response

b. The Answer (2:4-20)

Babylon's collapse decreed | Cruelty denounced

God is still in control

3. The Prayer of Elation (3:1-19)

Faith in Celebration—Therefore!

a. Prayer (3:1-2)

The tune | The theme

b. Praise (3:3-19)

God's glory and power | Faith's rejoicing

 

Nahum

Who were the Assyrians? They were a Semitic people with a long history of civilization spanning from its old empire (2025-1750 BC) to the new (911-605 BC). Culturally, linguistically, genetically and ethnically they were distinct from the middle eastern people.

The Assyrians, however, were more well known for their war-like nature and greatly feared for their extreme cruelty. It was not uncommon to dismember their enemies out of pleasure, to cook them in boiling oil, burn them in bitumen, being skinned alive, used their enemies' heads to build towers and bodies as the supporting frames. Such inhumane acts soon brought down God's righteous judgment on that nation.

Not long after Nahum's prophecy, in 612 BC, a torrential downpour burst the banks of the Tigris river and collapsed a section of the wall of the impregnable city. The Babylonians took advantage of the breach and plundered the capital. Ironically, the Chaldeans employed the same cruel treatments on the defeated Assyrians. The city was captured, destroyed and it never recovered.

The name Nahum is a short form of Nehemiah which means 'comfort' or 'consolation', but it was not meant for the wicked city but those who were oppressed by it. Nahum's message is an indictment of all who commit acts of atrocities to humanity —past, present and in the future, and a reminder that God will not hesitate to exact revenge on those who spun His grace and disregard His righteousness.

OUTLINE OF NAHUM

1. Proclamation of Destruction (1:1-15)

a. God's Awesome Glory (1:1-7)

He will not tolerate sin

b. God's Awesome Judgment (1:8-15)

He will punish sin

2. Portray of the Destruction (2:1-13)

a. Nineveh's Siege (2:1-5)

God will do what He said

b. Nineveh's Breach (2:6-13)

God will bring it to completion

3. Predestined for Destruction (3:1-19)

a. The Sins of Nineveh (3:1-4)

Cruelty | Whoredom | Incorrigible

b. The Doom of Nineveh (3:5-19)

God's final verdict

 

Micah

Micah prophesied in a period when social injustice was at its peak in Judah. False prophets preached for riches instead of righteousness, priests ministered for gain rather than God, the rich and powerful oppressed the poor and helpless, while deceit and dishonesty abound in all forms of business dealings. Corruption had permeated the whole society. Sounds pretty much like what's going on in today's world, doesn't it?

The simple prophet saw through the veil of Judah's aristocratic sophistication and voiced out God's concern for the sufferings of the common people as he was gripped by the Spirit of the LORD to condemn the sin that's plaguing the nation (3:8-12). Though he directed his message primarily at southern Judah, the fall of Samaria was also predicted against northern Israel as both nations came under the threat of Assyria. And while Judah was temporary spared while her neighbor Israel fell, it too was destined for captivity by the Chaldeans which was under Assyrian dominion at the time.

In the midst of divine judgment and punishment, Micah saw a ray of hope in the coming of a kingdom where righteousness reigns under Messiah's rule. Corruption, violence and pride will be replaced with justice, love and humility—these are the very attributes that God desires in all those who know and love Him. The God who executes judgment is the same God who delights in mercy, just as Micah whose name means 'who is like God' declared:

7:18 Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retains not His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.

OUTLINE OF MICAH

1. First Controversy: Punishment (1:1-3:12)
a. Judgment on the People (1:1-2:13)
Samaria | Judah
Reason | Restoration
b. Judgment on the Leaders (3:1-12)
Princes | Priests | Prophets
Presumption | Penalty
2. Second Controversy: Promise (4:1-5:15)
a. The Coming Kingdom (4:1-13)
Established | Exalted | Empowered
b. The Coming King (5:1-15)
Birth | Rejection | Reign
3. Third Controversy: Pardon (6:1-7:20)
a. Guilt of the People (6:1-16)
Ungrateful | Ungodly | Unscrupulous
b. Grace of God (7:1-20)
Lament over Sin | Look for Salvation

 

Jonah

Jonah is unlike any Old Testament prophet, not because he was a role model to follow or that he had a great ministry to admire and emulate. On the contrary, he was the antithesis of what a god-fearing and obedient prophet should be.

By definition, a prophet is God's appointed messenger sent to a specific group of people to deliver a specific message. There is no room for bargain nor bias against the intended recipients, whether they deserve a hearing and second chance, or to act on God's behalf to decide their fate. The prophet is only a medium and mouthpiece; his role and responsibility are to do the job well and do it faithfully.

There are those who defended Jonah's decision to disobey and run away, citing national interests and his love for his own people as the basis behind his actions. There are also those who derided Jonah's motive as selfish and self-righteous, since he considered the godless nation of Assyria to be unworthy of God's mercy and compassion.

The focal point, however, seems more on God's dealing with the wayward prophet rather than the wicked city. Perhaps God wants us to learn from Jonah the important lesson of looking at people that we dislike or are different from us, that there is no ground to judge or discount them from God's salvation plan, and that God loves them just as much as He loved us, when He sent His only begotten Son to save a fallen mankind. Indeed, the heartbeat of God is best summarized by the fisherman turned apostle:

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise… but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

OUTLINE OF JONAH

1. Jonah's First Commissioning (1:1-2:10)
Man's Heart
a. Disobeyed (1:1-3)
Mission | Missing in Action | Man Overboard
b. Disciplined (1:4-2:10)
Swallowed | Supplication | Survived
2. Jonah's Second Chance (3:1-4:11)
God's Heart
a. Recommissioned (3:1-10)
Jonah Repented | Sent
Nineveh Repented | Spared
b. Rebuked (4:1-11)
Jonah's Anger | The Heat | The Gourd | The Worm
God's Angle | His Patience | His Compassion

 

Obadiah

Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament, but it has one of the most important messages for all of humanity. A cursory read appears that the prophet was focusing on the Edomites, a near kin of the Israelites, not only for their pride due to their natural geological advantages and strong political alliances, but also their treachery against Israel because of an ancestry feud that goes all the way back to Esau and Jacob.

The first half of Obadiah deals with Edom in specific, but then God shifts the focus to all nations in the second half. Edom's pride and self-exaltation is an example of the condition that plagues the human heart, and its downfall points to a time when God will eradicate this root problem with the coming of His kingdom, as it takes up residence in those who recognize and receive His rule over their lives (Luke 17:21).

It is noteworthy that Obadiah is placed after the writings of Joel and Amos. The former declared that after the day of the LORD, God will save Jerusalem and all who called upon His Name (Joel 2-3), while the latter affirmed that God will restore David's line and include Edom and all nations in His kingdom (Amos 9:11-15).

OUTLINE OF OBADIAH

1. Prophecy of Edom's Destruction (v1-9)
The Present:
a. Geological Advantages
b. Political Alliances
c. Military Intelligence
2. Reasons for Edom's Destruction (v10-14)
The Past:
a. Colluding with Israel's Enemies
b. Withholding help to Israel
c. Gloating over Israel's Misfortune
d. Taking advantage of Israel in her distress
e. Cutting off the Remnants
3. Prophecy of Edom's Destiny (v15-21)
The Future:
a. Judgment on Edom
b. Restoration of Edom and Israel

 

Amos

Hypocrisy and spiritual indifference defined the days of Amos in his ministry to northern Israel, basked in an apparent sense of peace and prosperity. But underneath the appearance of health and wealth, the nation was rotten to the core and ripe for judgment.

A herdsman and keeper of sycamore trees by profession, Amos was called by God to leave his rural hometown in Judah with a message to Israel's aristocrats and nobilities, including their well-dressed and well-fed socialites whom he dubbed 'the cows of Bashan'.

Under the reign of Jeroboam II who won several battles and extended Israel's borders, abundance and affluence gave rise to apathy and atrocities. The rich and powerful displayed callousness towards God and cruelty towards the poor. These social elites had abused their positions and privileges instead of reaching out to help their fellow men in need.

Amos saw through the outward religiosity and false piety and confronted the corrupt leaders and landlords with a series of prophecies and well-crafted messages. He first disarmed them by pronouncing judgments on the surrounding nations, making them think he was on their side. And before they realized it, he zoomed in on their sins of injustice and idolatry, proclaiming God's judgment on the nonchalant nation, which came to pass forty years later by the hands of the Assyrians.

True worship of God should always lead to a right relationship with fellow humans, backed by concrete actions that safeguard justice and looks after the well-being of the underprivileged. Amos message is just as applicable today as it was then:

5:24 Let justice flow like a river, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

OUTLINE OF AMOS

1. Eight Judgments (1:1-2:16)
a. Amos' Background (1:1-2)
b. Against the Surrounding Nations (1:3-2:3)
Damascus | Gaza | Tyre | Edom
Ammon | Moab
c. Against God's People (2:4-16)
Judah | Israel
2. Three Sermons (3:1-6:14)
a. Israel's Present (3:1-15)
Judgment Deserved | Described
b. Israel's Past (4:1-13)
Judgment Deserved | Demonstrated
c. Israel's Future (5:1-6:14)
Judgment Deserved | Determined—Double Woes
3. Five Visions (7:1-9:10)
a. The Nature of Judgment (7:1-6)
Locust | Fire
b. The Standard of Judgment (7:7-17)
Plumb Line | Opposition of Amaziah
c. The Maturity of Judgment (8:1-14)
Rotten Summer Fruits
d. The Certainty of Judgment (9:1-10)
Smitten Doorpost
4. Three Promises (9:11-15)
a. Reinstate the Davidic Line (Messiah)
b. Renew the Land (Kingdom)
c. Re-establish the People (God's Elect)

 

Joel

Joel is a short collection of poetic prophecies that is powerful yet puzzling. This obscure prophet alludes to the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Obadiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, which makes it all the more interesting to read but somewhat difficult to grasp without referencing the works of these Old Testament prophets.

Israel's sin and rebellion had led to disaster in the past when God judged them in the day of the LORD. The locust plague was a devastation unlike anything in the history of Israel, a terrible resemblance of the eighth plague God performed upon Egypt. Joel called out to the people to repent because a future day of the LORD is coming, in which a more fearful locust host in the form of a menacing, merciless army will devour the land and its inhabitants.

Human sin and failure often reap devastating destruction in this fallen world, and only when we are willing to own up to our faults can we experience forgiveness and favor, for God's mercy and love is more powerful than His wrath and judgment (2:13; Exodus 34:6).

The message of Joel brings hope to all of humanity that one day God will rid the evil that is rampant in our world as well as inside of us, and bring His healing presence among us and make all things new:

2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.

 

OUTLINE OF JOEL

1. The Day of the Locust (1:1-20)
a. Destruction by the Plague (1:1-12)
b. Desolation from the Plague (1:13-20)
2. The Day of the LORD (2:1-3:21)
a. Message to Israel (2:1-32)
The Coming of the Day of the LORD
The Calling of the LORD
The Comforting of the LORD
b. Message to Gentile Nations (3:1-21)
The Gathering of the Nations
The Pouring out of Judgment
The Promise of Blessing

Hosea

Hosea ministered to northern Israel in the reign of Jeroboam II at a time when the nation was enjoying material prosperity and peace outwardly, but morally decayed and spiritually dead inwardly. Good times, however, didn't last and with the passing of Jeroboam II, the wayward nation began to feel the pressure asserted by the growing threat of Assyria.

The last six kings that followed—from Zechariah to Hoshea— did not fare any better either. Four were murdered by their successors and one was taken captive to Assyria. As the nation buckled under the weight of external political pressure and its own spiritual stupor, Hosea spoke out against the northern kingdom's root problem—unfaithfulness to God—and pleaded with the adulterous nation to repent and return to the One who was both faithful and forgiving.

God is portrayed as a spouse that was spurned by the very people He redeemed and loved, who yet pleaded earnestly for them to change their ways before it was too late. Arrogance and disobedience ultimately sealed their doom and led to the dispersion of the nation under the dire leadership of Ephraim, just as Hosea prophesied:

8:7 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

But God is a faithful Lover who will not give up easily. In the imagery of Hosea's broken marriage, God firmly expressed His love to His wayward people after He is done disciplining them out of righteous anger:

14:4 I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.

 
OUTLINE OF HOSEA

1. Hosea and Gomer—A Personal Tragedy (1:1-3:5)
a. Broken Marriage (1:1-9)
Harlot for a Wife | Children and their Names
b. Restored Marriage (1:10-3:5)
Future Hope | Present Hurt
Prosperity Removed | Privilege Restored
Gomer Redeemed | Israel Reformed
2. God and Israel—A National Tragedy (4:1-14:9)
a. Spiritual Adultery (4:1-6:3)
Sins—Unfaithfulness | Idolatry
Severance—Rebuke | Enmity | Separation
Salvation—Return | Revive | Refresh
b. Israel's Stubbornness (6:4-8:14)
Treachery | Obstinacy| Idolatry
c. God's Judgment (9:1-10:15)
Dispersion | Barrenness | Destruction
d. Israel's Restoration (11:1-14:9)
God's Love | Israel's Waywardness
God's Promise of Restoration

Minor Prophets

'The Twelve', or Trei Asar, refers to the last twelve books of the English Old Testament, but is regarded by the Jews as one book or scroll. These prophets are designated 'minor', not because they had a less important role, but because their writings are much shorter which in a way also reflected the durations of their ministries.

Hosea and Amos were prophets to the northern kingdom of Israel though they certainly were not the only ones; there were Elijah and Elisha too, despite them not having written any book that carried their names but were mentioned in the book of Kings nonetheless.

Jonah and Nahum prophesied against Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, while Obadiah pronounced judgment on Edom for its treachery against Israel despite the two sharing a common ancestry. These three prophets are God's 'emissaries' to the surrounding nations.

The remaining seven prophets ministered to the southern kingdom of Judah—Joel, Micah, Habakkuk and Zephaniah pre-dated the Babylonian captivity, while Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi ministered in the post-exilic period.

Some of these prophets were contemporaries of each other, as with Haggai and Zechariah; most were identified as either the son of someone or a clan, though a few were simply introduced by name alone. Whatever background or occupation these men came from, they were men sent by God with a message to the nation or people facing divine judgment for their moral failures and sins.

Their messages are just as applicable to us today because God still rules and judges from heaven on His throne.