What’s the Deal with the Minor Prophets? [UPDATED]

I’ve been kicking around the idea of sharing Bible teaching/notes on Mondays–for example, posts inspired by or based on my teaching/preaching notes. Consider today’s post a sneak preview of this new blog series, called “S(m)unday School”! 

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This fall, we began a Sunday school series at church on the Minor Prophets. I’ve been wanting to teach through this much-neglected portion of the Old Testament for a while now, and it’s been a blast so far.

If you’re not familiar with the Minor Prophets, they consist of 12 letters/documents located at the end of the Old Testament. Historically, they were written over the course of about 400-500 years, after the high point in Israel’s royal history, during the period of the Divided Kingdom and the two Exiles.

The Minor Prophets are called “minor,” not because they’re less important, but because they are shorter than the four prophetic books that precede them in the Old Testament (called “major” prophets). These 12 books (varying in length from 21 verses to 14 chapters) are warnings to God’s people in Israel and Judah (as well as those in exile) and/or the nations who have oppressed and defeated them.

You may be asking yourself, Why study the Minor Prophets? Let’s get real: For most Christians, these are the pages in your Bible that still stick together and crinkle when you turn them, because they haven’t been cracked open before (except for perhaps Jonah and a few passages in Micah or Malachi).

At any rate, I’m so glad you asked! Let’s start with 3 great reasons for studying the Minor Prophets: 

• They’re in the Bible. This should be obvious, but: If you’re a Christian and you affirm that the entire Bible is God’s word given for God’s people to point us to the Gospel of Jesus, bring us to repentance and faith in Him, and then show us how to live as His followers, then the Old Testament matters. All of it. So we shouldn’t pretend like some sections of it are optional.
• They’re often overlooked or cherry-picked. This is a terrible way to read and interpret Scripture. Rather than just picking out the half-dozen verses or sections to visit repeatedly, we should be studying these books as a whole, in context, to understand fully what God was saying to His people then, and what He says to His people now.
• Their message still resonates. The writings of the Minor Prophets still resonate today, not only because they are divinely inspired (though that surely is enough) but also because they were delivering truth in the midst of troubled and troubling times. As we face troubled days of our own, we can find hope and help from these short books.

So maybe a better question is, why don’t we read the Minor Prophets more often? My guess is it’s usually one of these reasons:

• The poetic language can be confusing. I mean, locusts? Plumb lines? Random priests? Calling people cows? It’s all very strange to modern ears. Plus, there are references to people and cities that we aren’t familiar with, so the strangeness of it all can be a turn-off.
• The Minor Prophets don’t seem to be organized chronologically. The fact that the Old Testament is organized by genre rather than by time period makes it a little more challenging to figure out who these prophets are and when they served.
• Frankly, they’re kind of depressing. Lots of wrath, lots of suffering, lots of hopeless language. If you don’t know where to look for light, the Minor Prophets might feel like a bit of a drag.

While these reasons are understandable, they’re just not good enough to justify avoiding this theologically rich and deep section of Scripture.

So, here’s my aim in this series: Each week, I’ll upload a post covering one book of the Minor Prophets that will provide you with the tools to read and understand these books for yourself, so that you will grow to love God and His Word more.

In each post, you should be able to find 5 things:

1. Context (authorial/historical background)
2. Message (what the book says)
3. Meaning (what it meant to the original audience)
4. Application (what it teaches believers today)
5. Anticipation (how it serves as an arrow pointing forward to Jesus)

Next Monday, Lord-willing, we’ll look at the book of Hosea. I pray it’s a blessing to you.

If you have follow-up questions, feel free to ask those in the comments. I’ll do my best to address those when I have opportunity.

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10/5 UPDATE:

I realized I should have put a few more details in this intro post, so here you go:

My Study Tools: I don’t have a lot of resources at home, so most of my study tools were the notes found in the ESV Study Bible, the MacArthur Study Bible, the Gospel Transformation Study Bible, Dr. Jim Hamilton’s God’s Glory in Salvation Through Judgment, and Matthew Henry’s Bible commentaries. I also pull a few articles from the Crossway, 9Marks, and Gospel Coalition websites for context. I’ll try to note sources whenever I include quotes, but since I’m pulling from teaching notes that aren’t annotated, I ask that you forgive me for the lack of detail and assume any good stuff came from someone else.

My Assumptions: I try to be mindful of the assumptions I make going into teaching/writing, so I figured I should clarify a few of those now.

I’m an evangelical Christian, so I believe that the Bible is the word of God–authoritative, inerrant, infallible, perfect in all it teaches, and fully trustworthy. That means I approach the Scripture from a historical-grammatical hermeneutic, seeking to exegete the text rather than read my own perspectives into it. I will always try to interpret Scripture with Scripture, and if anything is unclear or confusing, that’s my lack of understanding or communication, not the text’s.

Engaging in Debate: If you have a different interpretation of the text, or want to disagree on some of my details or historical context description, please engage respectfully in the comments, and I will seek to respond in the same manner. We may not always agree on these matters, but I’m willing and happy to address questions as best I can. I may not always know the right answer, but I’ll do my best!

Please note: Comments that are profane, obscene, insulting, or unproductive may be blocked, removed, or disemvowelled. My page, my house. Play nice.

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Your Turn: Do you have a favorite book of the Minor Prophets? Why is it your favorite? Post it in the comments below!