Hosea & Joel
The Minor Prophets
As we kick off the month of December, we will officially be moving on from the Major Prophets to the Minor Prophets. And if you can recall from our study earlier last month, you know that the reason these two sections of scripture are titled as such is because of scroll length. That’s right, the Major Prophets were called major because they were longer and the minor ones were called minor because they were shorter. These titles have nothing to do with the importance of the message or the credibility of the author. All of these prophets were sent by God to give a message to a particular people that our Lord intended. No one is more vital than another. With that being said, we just went through the five Major Prophet books in scripture last month by taking each book and making it into a two-part series. But with the Minor Prophets, however, there are 12 books. This will make breaking all of this down into one month a bit more difficult. On the flip side, we have an advantage here because these books are shorter than the others. So for this month, we will be tackling two Minor Prophets per post and breaking down the overall idea discussed in both of them. This will take us through the first three weeks of December which will leave us with a week left at the end. What will we do with that week you ask? We will be taking that week and a bit of the next off in order to update our current website and add some new functions for the new year so stay tuned! For now, though, we will begin with studying the books of Hosea & Joel. Let’s dive in.
Hosea
To start, I want everyone to understand how difficult the life of Hosea, and many of these prophets must have been. We saw in many of the Major Prophets that God used these men as examples of how He felt treated by Israel. We see loved ones passing away, hardship falling upon those who love God, and even broken relationships that God ordained to portray a message. What is the point of all of this? If God hates these things, why do it to a prophet who is on God’s good side?! The point of this is to see just how wicked fallen mankind can be. Yes, God can just confront His people for their wrongdoing, but more so than that, He can show them their wrongdoing. This is exactly what He does with Hosea. The big aspect of Hosea’s life that stands out immediately when you read this book is the wife that God calls Him to go and marry. Hosea 1:2 says “When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife inclined to infidelity, and children of infidelity; for the land commits flagrant infidelity, abandoning the LORD.” You read that correctly. God has told Hosea to go and find a wife who will be unfaithful to him because this is what the people of God have done to the Lord. Imagine hearing God tell you to do this… Again, it might seem like God could communicate this differently, but it comes across much stronger when someone who has experienced this type of heartbreak is the one delivering the message. And this is exactly what Hosea will be able to do.
As the Bible Project says, “God has been like a faithful husband to Israel. He rescued them out of slavery in Egypt and entered into a covenant with them at Mount Sinai, where he asked them to be faithful to him alone. When God brought them into the promised land, however, Israel took all the abundance that he provided for them—such as grain, wine, and oil—and dedicated it to the worship of the Canaanite god, Baal.” Beyond all of this, we see God tell Hosea to go marry another woman in chapter 3 who is also an adultress. All this is to communicate how many times God has been faithful to His people, only for those same people to abandon Him and go serve someone else. The rest of this book communicates what the Major Prophets did such a good job at communicating as well. That Israel will be punished for their sin and they must put their faith back in the Lord if they wish to persevere. Hosea 10:2 says “Their heart is deceitful; Now they must suffer for their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars And destroy their memorial stones.” We’ve seen this pattern before, haven’t we? Of course, we have. And the same concept is in the book of Joel as well.
Joel
Now Joel is one of the shortest minor prophet books with just three chapters, but it packs a punch as well. God starts by telling Joel that locusts will come and devour the land of His people as punishment for their sin, and he uses this punishment in a two-fold way as He has with multiple other prophets. God tells Joel that this is a warning for the coming Day of The Lord and Joel pleads with the people to return to God. And how will God respond to the repentance of the sinful people who have fallen away? With grace. Joel 2:30-32 tells us “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire, and columns of smoke. “The sun will be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. “And it will come about that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD Will be saved; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, Just as the LORD has said, Even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.” So what is there to get from these two books? First off, we must understand from Hosea that when we abandon God and choose to serve something else, we genuinely hurt our Lord. Like a man or woman who continually cheats on their significant other, we as Christians can treat God when we leave Him. Furthermore, we must always know that while we in fact serve a God of justice, we also serve a God of grace and mercy. Yes, we may have wandered off from Him, but it’s not too late. Return to God, place your faith in Christ, and continue the rest of your days being sanctified and satisfied in Him.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2]BibleProject. (2024, August 8). Guide to the Book of Hosea. BibleProject. https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-hosea/
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