Day of the Lord, Part 1
MINOR PROPHETS MAJOR PROFITS • Sermon • Submitted
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· 8 viewsSermon 1 in 2021 Minor Prophets series.
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Blow the ram’s horn in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the residents of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; in fact, it is near—
INTRO–
INTRO–
Why the “Minor Prophets?”
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Minor Prophets
Christians often divide the prophetic books of the Old Testament into Major Prophets and Minor Prophets. The Minor Prophets are known in Jewish tradition as the Book of the Twelve because in ancient times they circulated on a single scroll. They are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
They are ‘Minor’ with respect to volume of words.
…& why the Minor Prophets…for us…for today?
The Minor Prophets Importance of the Minor Prophets
The twelve authors of this collection preached and wrote at different periods ranging from the ninth to the fifth centuries B.C.. In this collection of books, then, are the earliest and latest prophetic testimonies concerning the future of the kingdom of God. Here also one can trace the development of that testimony. Taken together with the writings of the larger prophetic books they constitute the essentials of the prophetic word to ancient Israel. Here are the warnings that both the northern and southern kingdoms would fall to foreign powers. Here are the pleas for repentance as the only mechanism which might postpone those destructions. On the other hand, here the final touches are applied to the messianic portrait which began to emerge in rough sketch as early as the Garden of Eden (cf. Gen 3:15). To change the metaphor, these prophets “bring forth and sped on their way not a few of the streams of living water which have nourished later ages, and are flowing today.”
Let’s then set out...
First 3 Sundays…Minor Prophets overview (9 of the 12…themes…topical theme= “The Day of the Lord.”
Sundays after those involve a closer look at 3 of these prophets—Hosea, Habakkuk, & Amos.
TODAY, what we typically think of when we think about the OT prophets… “Righteousness, Sin, & Judgment.”
Righteousness [The Standard]
Righteousness [The Standard]
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth, who carry out what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be concealed on the day of the Lord’s anger.
7 “Since the days of your ancestors, you have turned from my statutes; you have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Armies. Yet you ask, “How can we return?” 8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!” “How do we rob you?” you ask. “By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions. 9 You are suffering under a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing me. 10 Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way,” says the Lord of Armies. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.
Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Sin [The Deviation]
Sin [The Deviation]
8 The word of the Lord came to Zechariah: 9 “The Lord of Armies says this: ‘Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’ 11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear. 12 They made their hearts like a rock so as not to obey the law or the words that the Lord of Armies had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore intense anger came from the Lord of Armies.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.”
12 He answered them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that it will calm down for you, for I know that I’m to blame for this great storm that is against you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn’t because the sea was raging against them more and more. 14 So they called out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.”
1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “The Lord of Armies says this: These people say: The time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.”
7 The Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways. 8 Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house; and I will be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord. 9 “You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?” This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. “Because my house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.
Judgment [The Consequence]
Judgment [The Consequence]
Blow the ram’s horn in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the residents of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; in fact, it is near—
2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is fierce in wrath. The Lord takes vengeance against his foes; he is furious with his enemies. 3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will never leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath his feet.
For the day of the Lord is near, against all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; what you deserve will return on your own head.
CONCL—
CONCL—
Righteousness…God’s command for his people.
Sin…doing—saying, acting, thinking—unrighteousness.
Judgement…God’s just consequences—for ALL—relating to sin.
Thankfully…like we read together earlier…I believe we see hope…even “The Day of the LORD” as an event of hope…in the midst of it also being a day of God’s wrath, judgement.
28 After this I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions. 29 I will even pour out my Spirit on the male and female slaves in those days. 30 I will display wonders in the heavens and on the earth: blood, fire, and columns of smoke. 31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 32 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for there will be an escape for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as the Lord promised, among the survivors the Lord calls.