Week 34, August 17–23: Hosea 12–14; Joel 1–3; Amos 1–9; Obadiah; Jonah 1–4

• Sun      Aug 17 Hos. 12–14
• Mon     Aug 18 Joel 1–3
• Tue      Aug 19 Amos 1–2
• Wed     Aug 20 Amos 3–5
• Thu      Aug 21 Amos 6–7
• Fri        Aug 22 Amos 8–9, Obad.
• Sat       Aug 23 Jon. 1–4

Joel is a short book that centers around a prophetic message of judgement, which is depicted as a locust plague, and of salvation on the day of the Lord. Joel’s name means “The Lord (Yahweh) is God”. Unlike Hosea and some of the other Minor Prophets, this book gives no clear indication of its historical context or the date it was written. Some have suggested this is because it was meant to function as a liturgical lament, repeated across time in various contexts.

The three chapters can be broken down into a two-part structure, divided between 2:17 and 2:18. The first half speaks of the day of the Lord and gives a call to repentance, and the second half looks ahead to restoration and the final day of the Lord. As we have observed before, often the perspective of the OT prophets is of a future that appears to unfold all at once, but as history unfolds, we realize later that the events the prophet was anticipating may take place in different eras.

We see an example of this principle in Acts 2:14–21. There Peter (and Luke the author) observes the miraculous phenomena of the Holy Spirit coming upon believers in Jerusalem, and we see this beginning of the Church as the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy about the coming day of the Lord. However, there is more envisioned in the prophet’s message of what will take place in the coming days; there is further eschatological fulfillment beyond what was fulfilled in Acts. The day of the Lord has come, and we still await its final consummation.

We will also be reading Amos this week. Amos was a shepherd and did not consider himself a professional prophet (Amos 7:14). His prophetic ministry overlapped with Hosea’s and he prophesied in the time of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam, king of Israel. Amos’s message calls out the sin of Israel, particularly focusing on their idolatrous practices and the social injustice of the rich and powerful oppressing the poor and needy.

Rather than going through the motions of religious practice, what God wants from his people is true justice and righteousness.

“I hate, I despise your feasts,

     and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

     I will not accept them;

and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

     I will not look upon them.

Take away from me the noise of your songs;

     to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

But let justice roll down like waters,

     and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:21–24)

As we see throughout the prophetic books of the OT, Amos includes some elements of hopeful anticipation within the proclamations of judgement against Israel and Judah. The book ends with a promise that the Lord will raise up the booth of David that has fallen, the king in David’s dynastic line will come and “restore the fortunes” of his people (Amos 9:11–12). This passage is quoted in Acts, highlighting especially the part of verse 12 that says all the nations, or Gentiles, will be called by the Lord’s name (Acts 15:16–17). This is a promise of restoration for those who put their faith in the Messiah, Christ, from all peoples and nations.

The next of the Minor Prophets is Obadiah, the fourth part of what is called the Book of the Twelve. Obadiah is very short, only one chapter, and it has a singular focus. It is an oracle of judgement against the nation of Edom. In some ways it would be appropriate to consider Edom an estranged brother nation to Israel, a brother that has now become a bitter enemy. Jacob’s brother Esau is the father of the Edomites, and, like the enmity between Jacob and Esau, Israel and Edom have had a violently contentious history ever since the sibling rivalry of their founding fathers. Obadiah is a prophetic declaration against Israel’s enemy Edom.

The short book is introduced under the brief heading “The vision of Obadiah.” (Obad. 1:1) Obadiah is one of the Minor Prophets that explicitly mentions the prophet for whom the book is named, and his name means “servant of the Lord (Yahweh).” We do not know exactly when Obadiah was written, but some have suggested it may have been shortly after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and brought the people of Judah into exile in Babylon. Verses 10–14 depict Edom gloating as their brother nation Jacob is carried off into exile and Jerusalem is destroyed. Psalm 137, which we will be reading later in the year, addresses this same situation. But judgement is coming for Edom too, for they will be judged for their boasting over Jerusalem’s calamity.

Like we have seen in Joel and Amos, Obadiah envisions the coming day of the Lord, and the prospect of this coming day is not good news for Edom or for any other nation that has opposed God or his people. (Obad. 15–16). The violence they have committed shall be done to them, and on the coming day of the Lord the house of Esau shall be consumed by fire (Obad. 17–18).

This declaration of judgement against Edom is one instance of a recurring motif we find all through the prophets, which was mentioned in an earlier write up too. The prophets repeatedly pronounce a set of oracles against the nations. These are strong statements of rebuke and prophetic promises of coming judgement against those peoples and nations who have wickedly opposed God by oppressing his people at various stages throughout the history of Israel and Judah. These oracles of doom show up in the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) as well as here in the Book of the Twelve. Much can be said about the details in these sections, but three general principles characterize the oracles against the nations in the prophets:

• 1) They express the universal rule of the Lord. He is not only the God of Israel and Judah, but he is the Sovereign Lord of all nations. And his word is powerful wherever it is proclaimed.
• 2) They express the outworking of the Abrahamic covenant and God’s promise, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse” (Gen. 12:3).
• 3) They portray Israel’s prophets as key agents in God’s purposes for his people. As messengers of the Divine Warrior, they bring the weapon of God’s word against the nations.

Jonah may be the most well-known of the Minor Prophets. Unlike the others in the Book of the Twelve, Jonah is mostly narrative, with just chapter two being written in poetic style. We know from 2 Kings 14 that Jonah was a prophet in Israel during the reign of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel (2 Kgs. 14:23–27). This was before the fall of Israel, the northern kingdom. But it would not be long after Jeroboam’s reign, and Jonah’s prophetic ministry, that Israel would be destroyed and sent into exile at the hand of their Assyrian captors. This historical background, which we know of from the biblical context, is important to keep in mind as we read Jonah. Nineveh, the city to which God sent Jonah, was the capital city of Assyria. So Jonah’s reluctance to obey God and go to Nineveh was understandable, though his disobedience was still unacceptable.

There are many interesting and mysterious things about Jonah, with several striking and even humorous details. It presents the Israelite prophet in a negative light, whereas the Gentile characters in the book are, in many ways, more commendable than Jonah. We see this perhaps most clearly in the immediate and comprehensive repentance of the Ninevites. The text makes a point to highlight explicitly their full repentance. They responded to Jonah’s brief oracle by believing God, fasting, and putting on sackcloth “from the greatest of them to the least of them.” (Jon. 3:5) The king of Nineveh put on sackcloth, sat in ashes, and demanded every animate being in his realm to put on sackcloth, fast completely, and repent from their evil ways (3:6–8). God looks favorably on this and freely chooses not to destroy the city.

On the other hand, Jonah disobeys God, flees from him, reacts with apparent apathy at God’s judgment (while the Gentile sailors fear God), and displays petulant despair at his own discomfort while mourning the preservation of the lives of the Ninevites in response to their wholesale repentance. Jonah’s most egregious offense is his anger at God for being “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (4:2) This is an almost-verbatim quote from Exod. 34:6–7, God’s own self-declaration of his name and his character. This statement from Exodus 34 is quoted or at least alluded to in each of the twelve Minor Prophets, but Jonah cites it as an angry accusation against the Lord. The story of Jonah is an instructive indictment about a rebellious Israelite prophet who cares more about himself, his comfort, and his people than about the Lord’s compassionate character and loving plan for all peoples.