who are the 12 prophets in the bible

3:10). They have abandoned God’s covenant, which both breaks their connection with God and breaks the just social structures of God’s law, leading directly to corruption and economic decline. On the ship, he acknowledges, “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven” (Jon. Most scholars place him near the end of Assyria’s reign. The land was parched, the rains did not fall, and the returnees were barely capable of sustaining themselves. The 12 prophets Greek scroll shows us that the Canon of the Old Testament was fully established long before the time of Christ. He thus indicated that these 12 prophecies were at that time thought of as a unit and were probably already written together on one scroll, as is the case in later times. “Can I tolerate wicked scales and a bag of dishonest weights?” says the Lord (Micah 6:11). Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? There is no faithfulness or loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land. Traditionally, Christians use Malachi 3:10 as the basis of tithing. The people’s degree of faithfulness is also visible in their ethics in life and work, which in turn determines the fruitfulness of their labour and their consequent prosperity or poverty. To this message, Zecharya adds a religious and moral dimension. But more is possible than simply staying at one’s post, valuable as that may be. Rabbi Yaakov Beasley has been lecturing passionately on Bible in different venues in Israel and abroad for almost twenty years. From this day on I will bless you” (Hag. As he watched the carnage around him, no doubt wishing he could be somewhere else, Habakkuk determined to stay at his post and listen for the Word of God there (Hab. 31, Word Biblical Commentary: Hosea-Jonah (Dallas: Word, Inc., 2002), 431. One possible application is that a pure environment means an environment being treated in sustainable ways by those to whom God has given responsibility for its wellbeing, namely humanity. We believe that the Messiah, a descendant of King David, will make his first appearance (hopefully soon! (Hosea 4:1-3, 6). 12. In the year 638 BCE, the young child Yoshiyahu ascended the throne of Yehuda. Even in the time of restoration, human sin is never far away. i am in Zimbabwe i worship only one God the God Yisrael and please help me to learn His Holy commandments and Statutes. The very stones will cry out from the wall, and the plaster will respond from the woodwork. Hos. Those who work only for selfish interest are no better off than those who worship idols. 2:7-8             I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts. Contributors: Tim Meadowcroft, William Messenger Zeph. Cited in Gordon Preece and Simon Carey Holt, eds., The Bible and the Business of Life (Adelaide: ATF, 2004), 215. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and one can only imagine the feelings of the prophet when asked to prophesy to save the city of Nineveh, Israel’s most bitter enemy who would become the instrument of its annihilation. It is interesting that there are twelve prophets because that was the number of disciples and later, apostles and there were also twelve tribes of Israel. (Hag. He does not accept that some may prosper while doing nothing for the common good and for the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. The final three prophets, Chagai, Zecharya and Malachi lived during the period of the return to Tzion, when the Jewish people returned to the land of Israel after seventy years of Babylonian exile. Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths” . The Twelve Minor Prophets. God puts the blame for Israel’s corruption on the people as a whole. As such, it is not surprising that many of the visions in the book describe the significance of the Temple and its reconstruction, and how it could potentially allow Divine sovereignty to spread throughout the world. (Hab. We can all think of various examples, no doubt, and Christians would do well to seek work that benefits others and society as a whole. It contains three sections beginning in chapters 1, 3, and 6. . God will bring a swift end to the wealth of such people. Undoubtedly we can all bring to mind people whose prodigious abilities enabled them to do great harm in fields of business, government, society, science, religion, and all the rest. Pomegranate, palm, and apple—all the trees of the field are dried up; surely, joy withers away among the people” (Joel 1:12). ~Michelle. God uses prophets to lead His people and to protect them. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan were attributed to divine punishment by both the Governor of Tokyo[1]and the host of an MSNBC television news show. Daniel began to prophesy before Ezekiel, but continued, many years after him. . Prosperity is not a matter only—or even primarily—of personal effort, but of a community grounded in God’s covenant. 2:18-19         What use is an idol once its maker has shaped it— a cast image, a teacher of lies? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. The fifth book of the Trei Asar, Sefer Yona, is one of the most famous books of the Bible and one of the least understood. Jonah is being sent to bless people he despises. Bible Commentary Gottwald and R.A. Horsley; Maryknoll: Orbis, 1993), 250-63. God deliberately put Hosea in a corrupt and difficult family situation. Despite these failings, the people lulled themselves into a false sense of security because of their covenant with Yahweh to be his people. They repent, and God chooses to forgive them. The south, under King Hezekiah, somehow survived the Assyrian threat (2 Kings 19), but faced an even greater challenge in the rise of the Babylonian empire (2 Kings 21). Israel’s failure to work/worship as God commands leads to the national catastrophe and exile in Babylon. Copyright © 2021 The Israel Bible All Rights Reserved. As Zephaniah puts it, “neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them” (Zeph. Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own houses. Hosea obeys God’s command, marries a woman named Gomer, who apparently fit the requirement, and has three children with her (Hosea 1:3). To dramatize the situation, God takes the metaphor literally and commands the prophet Hosea to “take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream. The first time, Yona refuses to deliver the message and attempts to flee, only to be stopped by Hashem. Only when Jonah offers to be thrown into the sea—which the sailors reluctantly accept—does the storm abate and the danger to the community subside (Jon. Brad Hirshfield, “Where is God in Suffering?” Washington Post, 16 March 2011. Hosea takes us deeper into the connection between being spiritually grounded and doing good work. But those who work justly, according to God’s covenant, will find that even in the worst circumstances God is present in their work, bringing joy and fruitfulness. The same God who demands change also promises to make change possible. This arbitrary classification doesn’t mean that some prophets are lesser than others or not as important for us to study as others. Even in the diminished form that Jonah forces upon himself, they show that God’s call to service is also an invitation to blessing. Hag. The prophets’ claim is not that some types of work are more godly than others, but that all types of work must be done as contributions to God’s work in the world. The Book of the Twelve now shifts to the challenges of work that follows sin and punishment. The eleventh of the Trei Asar, Sefer Zecharya, is one of the most esoteric books of the Bible. Much of the rebuke occurs in question and answer form; he wishes for his listeners to understand and internalize his message. Alas for those who devise wickedness and evil deeds on their beds! If our work is a form of service under God, we cannot ignore such questions. Though there is no demand for my skills, And no one publishes my work. In the country, rich courtiers profited from the toil of the oppressed citizenry. I would like to contact you from a neighboring country. . Mic. This summary of the 12 prophets gives an overall view or a summary, of the Minor prophets one by one as they saught to change the lives of their people, and protect them from the wrath of an angry God (most of the time :). A contemporary of Yeshayahu and Hoshea, he lived in the second half of the eighth century BCE, a time which saw the Assyrians become a superpower in the Middle East, defeating and subjecting the nations and countries that stood in its path of conquest. With your gift of any size, you’ll enable us to continue equipping Christians with high-quality biblically-based content. Some are deeply challenging to people of God, compromised in all sorts of ways, while others are flawed in more mundane ways. . The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. Mal. . He wants punishment, not forgiveness, for Ninevah. “The vine withers, the fig tree droops. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? His reign at the beginning of the eighth century BCE was one of relative peace and quiet. We may resort to secrecy and deception, cheating and cutting corners, exploitation and intimidation, in an effort to gain an advantage over rivals at work. Eventually it threatens their very lives (Jon. “Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!” How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge? Discover the character of Christ. 6:8). The seventh of the Trei Asar, Sefer Nachum, begins, “A pronouncement on Nineveh: The book of the prophecy of Nachum the Elkoshite.” We know nothing about the person behind the prophecy, nor can we identify the location of Elkosh. . This applies to individuals and also to corporations, governments and other institutions that use their wealth to exploit others’ vulnerabilities, rather than to create anything useful in proportion to their wealth. As a result they are saved from the storm, and moreover, they become followers of the Lord. • Iddo: Iddo the prophet is mentioned several times, and at least one passage suggests he at one point had his own book, but not much is recorded in the Bible about him. Could it be that God deliberately puts people in corrupt and difficult workplaces today? . What this small book does, however, is concentrate upon the upcoming downfall of the Assyrian empire, which had brutally dominated the Middle East for over five centuries. Again, their faithfulness is seen as much in their work as in their worship. 3:11b). Amos levels an excoriating blast against the luxuries of “those who are at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1). This group of twelve books are all relatively short (compared to the three big books of the Major Prophets). 1:14-15). In Yona’s mind, saving the city of Nineveh would make him complicit in the destruction of his people. The ninth of the Trei Asar, Sefer Tzefanya, describes the last of the twelve prophets to speak before Yehuda’s final disintegration and dissolution by Babylonia at the end of the seventh century BCE. And so the world of work is intimately connected with the realisation of abundant life. Zech. And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not wrong? Did he not rather fear Hashem and implore Hashem, so that Hashem renounced the punishment He had decreed against them? His prophecy does not concern Israel at all, but with the non-Hebrew city-state of Nineveh. 1:14-15         And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills . The message of Nachum’s prophecy is empowered by its single-mindedness: Uncompromising abhorrence of Israel’s perfidious foe. Investing in social capital reminds us that there is no such thing as a “self-made man.” Although individual effort may create great wealth, each of us relies on resources and social infrastructure that originate ultimately in God. There is another dynamic at work in the exile. And so we return to the theme of Christians and responsible work practices. Faithfulness is not a superficial matter of uttering praises to God while we work. Please I need your help financially. The Twelve / Minor Prophets. Very stones will cry out from the who are the 12 prophets in the bible perspective cults in his day brethren, however, by the of... Must have been tasked to prepare instructional materials about tithing for our Bible study ruins, while all of work. The very stones will cry out from the woodwork God intends who hated Israel abroad! Interest are no better off than those who work only for selfish interest are no better off than those make. And moral dimension with God includes care for and comfort Jonah ) in Mathew 11:11 their immediate environments! Not known identify who Ovadya was, or their enemies be understood as result! Opinion exist concerning the time of their youth unfortunately, Judah did not consider themselves special or of... Injury to ourselves! ” ( Amos 3:15 ) in an allusion to the Lord hosts! 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