This week at the Institute, we had a speaker, Blake Holmes, come in and give us a detailed overview of all the prophetical books of the Old Testament. He took us through the prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi, in chronological order. It was incredible to get a quick but in-depth overview of each book, looking at the author and what his name meant, the audience and time, the purpose of the prophet’s message, the images used to convey the message, key verses and phrases, and the overall outline of the book. All of those things together gave me so much insight into books of the Bible that I otherwise have never really studied in much detail.

Let’s be real. When I’m having a quiet time or studying my Bible, the prophetical books are never really the ones I go for. If we’re honest, I’d say most of us tend to stick with the New Testament or the poetical books of the Old Testament. But, there’s so much more to the Bible than just those books. The prophets didn’t just prophesy about future things, although God did use them for that very purpose from time to time and often used them to warn of His impending judgment. However, a lot of the time God chose to use prophets primarily to communicate truth, the unpopular truth of God that the people rejected 9 times out of 10. The prophets had the toughest job in their day – they had to go to wicked people who were rebelling and wallowing in their sin to preach the truth of God’s Word that they knew would most likely be ignored or rejected.

It’s so frustrating to see how God chose prophet after prophet to go to the pagans and offer them the opportunity for repentance and forgiveness yet see how they rejected it over and over. Like what was wrong with these people? How could they be so set in their ways to reject so much fair warning and continue to mock God without proper fear of His judgment and wrath? Y’all, the same is true today. America is in the place that many of these pagan nations were. Our nation as a whole is living in wickedness and rebellion against the truth of God’s Word without fear of judgment. Our God is a God of unfailing love and mercy, but that does not undermine the fact that He is also holy and just.

It’s depressing to think about the state of our nation and world today honestly, but there is so much comfort we can find as believers. First of all, no matter what the state of our nation is and what’s going on in the world, God is sovereign over all and He is returning one day to build His new kingdom and reign forever. Along that same thought, we can find comfort in the fact that Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, which really puts “President of the United States of America” into perspective. When we go to vote in November and find that our only two options are a reality and not just our worst nightmare, we can rest in knowing that God is not surprised and His will is done regardless of who’s in the White House.

What else can I learn from the prophets? How can I inform my actions in view of what I’ve studied this week? I can be encouraged to be willing to be used by God to communicate Truth in a society that wants to reject it and run in the opposite direction. God doesn’t call us to change people; He just calls us to be obedient. When we are obedient to fulfill our role in proclaiming the gospel and well-representing Christ, the Holy Spirit will do His role to compel, convict, and change hearts.

Lastly, if you feel like reading on, I’ll share a quick list of take-aways from each of the prophets:

Obadiah – I am my brother’s keeper – I’m not called to be indifferent to the suffering of others; I’m called to stand up against injustice.

Joel – God disciplines His children. When I disobey my Heavenly Father, I can expect Him to discipline me.

Jonah – God wants us to have the same heart for the lost that He does – to show compassion, mercy, and patience, and to take every opportunity to preach the gospel.

Amos – Don’t be consumed with materialism and miss out on the needs of others – seek out ways to minister to the least of these.

Hosea – We are an unfaithful bride to Christ over and over again but He never fails to pursue us. None of us can be the exception to God’s grace; from that grace we experience, we should extend grace to others.

Isaiah – God accomplishes His purposes no matter what control man thinks he has.

Micah – Humility is so important. God is not most interested in what we can do and what people think of us; He is all about the heart.

Nahum – God, in His justice and holiness, cannot turn a blind eye to sin; however, He warns us of judgment and offers us the chance for repentance and forgiveness. The Lord’s justice doesn’t undermine His love, and vice versa.

Zephaniah – We cannot get away with sin and rebellion; rather, we must have humility in understanding the sovereignty of God. We must not belittle the judgment of God.

Jeremiah – In ministry, we must not fail to recognize the distinction between our role and God’s – God asks us to be faithful to Him and He is the One who touches hearts and transforms lives. Our success is in our faithfulness and obedience, not in numbers; we don’t always get to see the fruit. The goal in ministry is not to be big, but to be biblical.

Habakkuk – We cannot allow our circumstances to determine our theology.

Ezekiel – It’s up to us, the church, to be watchmen and communicate the gospel.

Haggai – We shouldn’t allow our priorities to get jumbled and forget God as our first and foremost priority in life.

Zechariah – We don’t have to have the task of doing everything in our own strength – the Lord asks us to depend upon Him in all things.

Malachi – We are to be good stewards of all God entrusts to us – our time, money, and resources.

 

This study has been so exciting for me and has really helped me to further dive into the Old Testament prophets with a much better understanding of how to properly interpret them. I hope this similarly encourages you and gets you pumped about Scripture, because God’s got a whole lotta good stuff in there for us to read and apply to our lives! Habakkuk is just as relevant as Romans – both are equally God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). We just have to know the context so we can understand it and correctly discern what God’s saying. But that only comes through reading and studying. So, let’s get to it.