Minor Prophets

What we call the Minor Prophets the Hebrew canon calls The Book of the Twelve, a single book in the Latter Prophets with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Within this book I’d like to focus on 3 Creation passages, 1 each in Amos, Jonah, and Zechariah.

Amos 5.8

Amos is one of the earliest of all the writing prophets. He is writing to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, calling them to confess and repent of their sins in light of the coming invasion by Assyria. He begins chapter 5 by predicting their downfall (Amos 5.2), a literal decimation (Amos 5.3). He gives them yet another chance to repent (Amos 5.4-6), culminating with a reminder of God’s great power to do all his will:

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion,
And turneth the shadow of death into the morning,
And maketh the day dark with night:
That calleth for the waters of the sea,
And poureth them out upon the face of the earth:
The LORD is his name:
9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong,
So that the spoiled shall come against the fortress (Amos 5.8-9).

As we’ve seen earlier, God here presents not only his power to create (the seven stars and Orion), but his power to direct both cosmic (day / night, sea / land) and political (spoiled [looted] / strong) forces.

The God who can—and does—do these things can both overwhelm the unrepentant in judgment and deliver the repentant.

Jonah 1.9

Jonah, writing at roughly the same time as Amos, demonstrates the truth of his prophetic colleague’s words by his own actions—and disobedient ones at that.

Jonah rejects God’s command to preach the destruction of Nineveh—as we later learn, because he knows that God will forgive those who repent (Jonah 4.2)—and purchases a boat fare in the other direction, to Tarshish. God then hurls a storm upon the Mediterranean, one so fierce that seasoned sailors believe they’re done for. They cast lots to determine who is being judged by the storm, and the lot falls to Jonah. When they ask him for an explanation, he replies,

I fear [worship] the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land (Jonah 1.9).

The God who created the sea, and separated it from the land—boy, would these sailors love to bring them back together right now!—can bring overwhelming judgment. But, Jonah says, he will also deliver them if they obey him.

Just what Amos said.

Zechariah 12.1

The Creation theology of the Hebrew Scriptures ends* on a positive note. Zechariah is a post-exilic prophet, an exact contemporary of Haggai. Both of them worked together to encourage the returned exiles from Babylon to rebuild the Temple, initiating the Second Temple Period. A major theme in both prophets is the blessing and even glory that lie ahead for God’s people in Jerusalem.

Here Zechariah describes God as the one who

stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth,
And formeth the spirit of man within him (Zec 12.1b).

To these returnees, who have been rebuilding the Temple, Zechariah speaks of a God who knows something about laying a foundation and using a measuring line, who has invested mankind with his very breath (and thereby his image [Gen 1.26-27]), will take notice of their obedience in building and will demonstrate his love for them by blessing them in the days ahead. He even looks ahead to the day when the Shepherd will be smitten and the sheep will be scattered (Zec 13.7), and beyond even that to the Day of the Lord, when his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives (Zec 14.1-4), and God will usher in a day when “every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts” (Zec 14.21).

All will be well, because the God who began it all, powerfully and intelligently, will bring it to his benevolent and designed conclusion.

Creation matters.

* Malachi makes a brief reference to Creation (Mal 2.10) as the unifying basis for God’s covenant people—a fitting closure to the Older Covenant.

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Dan Olinger

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Why Creation Matters, Part 8: Minor Prophets