Introduction To The Twelve
Notes
Transcript
If you have your Bible this morning, and I hope that you do… Turn with me to Luke chapter 24. And let me just quickly put a plug in here… If you do not have a Bible, please let me, or someone from our church know… We would love to put a Bible in your hands before you leave today. There’s nothing more important than for us to have the very words of God in a language that we can understand. So please, let us know.
We’re going to begin in Luke 24 this morning… but before we do, I want to explain this to you. This is a picture of the ceiling in my boys’ room. If you notice, there’s a little square cutout right there in the ceiling. Can anyone tell me what that square cutout is? Right! It’s the entrance to our attic. Now… Here’s the deal. We moved into our house in May of 2011. That means… We have lived in our home for 10 years and 2 months… 10 years and 2 months… that’s a little over 3,700 days… and not once, in those 3,700 have I ever climbed up into my attic. Not once in over 10 years.
Why? Because it’s full of insulation… there are probably spider webs all over the place… it’s super hot up there… and really, I don’t see too much of a point in it. I mean really… all there is just a bunch of structural stuff up there that holds up the roof of my house, insulation to keep the house warm or cool… and ducts and wires. Why would I spend my time in a place like that… when I have a living room with a comfortable couch that reclines?
Here’s the thing though… My attic is very important. Like I said earlier… it’s home to a bunch of wires that I really don’t want straggled all over my house… it’s where my duct work is that carries the warm air in the winter… or cool air in the summer… it insulates… and it helps prolong the life of my roof. Without the structural integrity of my attic, my roof would just collapse on top of us.
This week, we’re beginning a new series through the attic of the Bible. It’s the place in the Bible that hardly anyone ever reads. It’s that section of the Bible that contains all those books that when you hear the names, you think, is that really a book of the Bible? This attic in the Bible, is a section called the Minor Prophets.
And we tend to think… Ah… It’s Old Testament… they’re tiny little books… pastors never really preach on them… and let’s face it… prophets just seem really weird… so… there’s nothing really to see there. I’ll just spend my time in the New Testament where it’s more comfortable. But actually, the minor prophets can teach us a lot.
In Luke chapter 24, some of the disciples were traveling on the road to Emmaus. And while they’re traveling, something happens… let’s look at it together. Luke chapter 24… beginning in verse 13.
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
That’s a difficult verse for us to understand… but somehow, these disciples, who had known Jesus before the crucifixion, were kept from recognizing him. And as they’re walking… Jesus asks them in verse 17… What are you talking about? Look at their response. Verse 18…
One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
“What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
So their response is to say… how do you not know? How do you not know about Jesus… Man… Jesus was this amazing prophet! In fact, he was so amazing, that we thought he was going to redeem Israel… but, then he was put to death. So… I guess we were wrong. However, now his tomb is empty… so we don’t really know what to think. How do you not know about Jesus?
I love Jesus’ response back to them. It’s almost like He says… How do I not know about Jesus? How do YOU not know Jesus? Look at verse 25 with me…
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Jesus sees spiritual ignorance in them. They’re not seeing clearly yet… they don’t know who’s in front of them… and they haven’t yet understood the events that have unfolded right before their eyes. And so… Jesus begins referencing the Old Testament… what was said through Moses… and what was said through the prophets. And what does Jesus say that the prophets tell us about? Him. The prophets tell us about Jesus. And so, Jesus basically gives them the best Sunday School class that’s ever been taught… through the prophets… showing how they speak of Himself.
So that’s our goal over these next couple of months… that as we walk through these seemingly unsignificant books, that no one ever looks at… we’ll see Jesus, and our faith in Him will be strengthened. Today… I just want to give a brief overview and introduction to the Minor Prophets. Actually, today will be more like a seminary lesson, rather than a sermon. I want to give us a kind of a big picture vision of the minor prophets. And we’ll learn together by asking a series a questions.
So, to begin… 1st question… Why study them? I mean it’s Old Testament… shouldn’t we spend our time in the New Testament? And the minor prophets have their own mysterious themes and mysterious language… they can be hard for us to understand. So why study them?
We study them because of their inspiration and their profitability. 2nd Timothy chapter 3, verse 16… Paul says…
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
Now… Paul was saying this to Timothy… and what Scripture existed when Paul said this? The Old Testament. Now… does that mean the New Testament isn’t inspired or profitable? Of course not. The reality is… ALL of Scripture is inspired… all of Scripture is sufficient… all of Scripture is in errant and infallible… all of Scripture is authoritative… and all of Scripture is profitable. That means then, everywhere in the Bible, New or Old Testament, we will benefit and learn more of our Lord and our Savior. That includes the attic of Scripture, where nobody really ever goes.
The 2nd question I want to ask is… Who were the prophets? Many people believe that they were men that told the future… they lump together they word prophet with prophecy… but that’s not necessarily the case. So who were the prophets?
They were 15 men… There are 3 major profits in the Bible… they have really long books in the Bible. Can you name them? Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Those are the 3 major profits. And then there are the 12 books of the minor prophets… Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, & Malachi. The 12. Many times they’re simply referred to as the 12… or the book of the 12. In fact, in the Hebrew bible, there is only 1 book… instead of 12 separate books. And whether or not they should be separated in our Bible has been a debate throughout the centuries.
And the reason it’s debated that they should be combined into one is because they share structure, and unity. There’s a common thread that works their way through each individual prophet. But we’ll talk more about that in just a bit.
These 15 men, the prophets, are men who had encountered God, received revelation from God, and were then commissioned by God to speak to His people on behalf of Him… giving the people God’s will for their lives. And their message was pretty simple… in fact, it’s the same message that you and I have today. They rebuked sin, and called people to repentance.
3rd question… What’s happening during the time of the prophets? I don’t want to spend a lot of time on the timeline, but I think it helps for us to have in mind the general timing of what’s happening during the time that the prophets spoke… what was happening in the history of Israel during this time.
Roughly, the the minor prophets began before the Assyrians would invade the northern kingdom in 740BC. And so, the prophets began speaking to the people about returning to the Lord before they were invaded… but none the less… the Assyrians take over the northern kingdom in 722. In the coming weeks, we’ll try and always remind you of what’s going on in history during each prophet… because it’s important for us to see each prophet in the context of what’s happening.
So the Assyrians take over the northern kingdom in 722… but then, the Assyrians are taken over by the Babylonians… and they become the dominant force the northern kingdom. And now the southern kingdom begins to be invaded right at the turn of the century… around 598. About 12 years later, the southern kingdom is overrun and Jerusalem is taken over. It’s during this time when Israel really experiences the darkest moments in the Old Testament history.
Then, about 40 or 50 years later, Cyrus, the Babylonian king, makes a decree that the people of God are allowed to return to the land in 538. And so from before to 740 BC… through the Assyrians and the fall of the north… through the Babylonians and the fall of the south… all the way through the return to Jerusalem in 538… all of these things are happening in this time span of the minor prophets. And then, once they’re back in the land… there’s some hope of restoration given to the people.
The Old Testament then closes and Israel enters into a time known as the 400 years of silence. Jewish history certainly continues… but for 400 years, God doesn’t say a word through a prophet. But then… at the end of those approximate 400 years… we see the birth of Jesus.
But during the time of the prophets… what they keep saying to the people… through all of the exiles… through losing their land… being driven from their homes… return to the Lord.
That’s the theme of the minor prophets… return to the Lord. The prophets showed up on the scene… You’ve broken God’s covenant… God has kept His covenant promises to you… but you’ve broken covenant… and so judgment is coming for you if you do not repent and return to the Lord. But if you do repent and return to the Lord, there will be a restoration. So, the overarching theme of the 12 is return to the Lord. And each of the individual book, each of the individual prophets are building blocks of restoration.
Let me try to explain what I mean by that… and this is where we’ll land in our introduction this morning. So as we’re working through the 740BC all the way through a 538 and the return to the land… a period of over 250 years in which the minor prophets are speaking… the people of God are hearing from Him through these prophetic warriors… what’s happening is we see individual building blocks towards restoration for the people of God.
I want to try to break that down for you using a portion of Scripture that you’re perhaps a bit more familiar with… the Psalms. The Hebrew Bible lays out Psalms a bit differently than we do. In the Hebrew Bible, there are 5 books of Psalms. Now, you might see reference to that in your Bible, but in the Hebrew Bible, there are literally 5 books of Psalms. Book 1 is chapters 1-41… Book 2 is chapters 42-72… Book 3 is 73-89… Book 4… 90-106… and Book 5… 107-150.
Psalms is laid out in a progression… a V progression if you will. In book 1 and book 2, we see this decline or this dissent… Things are bad in the Davidic kingdom. Things are getting darker… things are getting worse… the kingdom seems to be breaking apart. Several of the Psalms are written about David’s sin or about people who are trying to kill David. There is this darkness that the people of God seem to be in. We get to book 3… and all is absolute despair. We see David say things like… You have put me in the lowest pit… Your wrath lies heavily on me… your terrors have destroyed me… darkness is my closest friend.
But then… Book 4 begins… and there is an ascent. If you read the final 60 Psalms… you start to feel more hope… to see more light. Why? Because the last 2 books look forward to another Davidic king who will claim the throne and bring salvation and redemption to the people of God. So that’s the structure of the Psalms.
Well… take that same V pattern and overlay it on the 12. Here’s the structure of the 12 minor prophets. We’ve already said that the overarching theme of the 12 is “return to the Lord”. In that… we see the sin… the theme of judgment and the wrath of God… but then the theme of salvation and redemption.
That’s really the theme of the whole Bible right? It’s the story of the gospel. Sin enters the world… and because of sin, we are deserving of the judgment and wrath of God upon ourselves… but, salvation is provided for us through God’s grace if we return to Him.
How this breaks down in the 12… when we think about the theme of sin, although each of the prophets are going to address the people about their sin… we really see the theme of sin being the heaviest from Hosea through the book of Micah. So, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah… the first 6 books of the minor prophets deal most poignantly with the theme of sin.
The next 3 books, speak heavily about the wrath of God… His judgment. So, through Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah… the theme of judgment can more prominently been seen.
The final 3 of the 12, though, focus more heavily on the theme of redemption. Again… you’ll see redemption in all of them… but Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi seem to focus more on redemption and the Lord bringing salvation to His people.
So just like the Psalms… and just like the whole of Scripture, the 12 are arranged in such a way because the Holy Spirit inspired them to be written, and collected a certain way so that we might better understand the gospel.
I know… today was pretty different… we covered a lot of detailed stuff today that perhaps made your head hurt a little bit… but I thought it was important to lay this groundwork before we dive in to each individual prophet. I want you to understand the importance of this portion of Scripture. I want you to see that there’s a coherence… there’s a unity… there’s a structure… and their placement in the Bible means something. The book of the 12… the minor prophets really will show us the gospel and the depths of God’s love towards us.
So I hope you’ll jump in and be a part of these next couple of months… as we seek to understand what Jesus taught his disciples on the road to Emmaus… and we seek to deepen our faith in Christ, and the salvation that He’s provided for us through the cross.
Would you pray with me?