So we are getting our Old Testament overview again this evening. And we are going through the minor prophets. And so that's our focus for this evening. And that means that for this session we have introductions and then we're going to study Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, That's why the words are so small up there to get it all on the screen. That is a lot right there. I don't know. It's going to be a little bit of a fire hose tonight. Sorry about that. I'm going to have to affix that fire hose though to the fire hydrant if we are going to get through all of the minor prophets this evening. I did teach once through the minor prophets, just an overview, and that overview took probably about nine weeks. and we're going to try to do that in one night, in one hour specifically. So we'll see how well that goes. I do want to just give this as a review. This is a large time period. Now last week and the week before that I was noting that the Minor prophets are post-exilic, but I don't want you to be confused by that. Not all of them were written post-exile. Some of them, in fact, were written pre-exile. So there's a wide range of books. collected post-exile probably by Malachi who's of course the last one there and there are some unifying themes that run through the minor prophets which make them a unit it can be sat down and read or you can sit down and read the minor prophets in a single sitting and if you do that you'll probably pick up on some themes that run through there but just to back up and see what I'm talking about here. This is the graphic I've been giving for the last couple of weeks. We had the pre-exile then we have the exile from Jerusalem to Babylon and then we have post-exile. Well, the 12 here, the minor profits, they cover this entire time period. And so it is a pretty wide range that we are dealing with. In fact, here I have that range. It's from 845 BC to 430 BC. And so that is quite a bit of a range, and I have listed here the names of each of the 12, what their names mean, and roughly when they are ministering. We'll touch on each of these as we go along. But they do all have these interconnecting themes. This is just one. Dr. Keith Essex says he is teaching through the Old Testament survey course that is offered there at the Masters University. seminary, excuse me, the master seminary. He was highlighting a lot of the unifying themes that are there. And so, like, for instance, you have judgment and restoration that's present in Hosea, but also present in Zechariah and Malachi. You have the day of the Lord being highlighted in Joel, but also in Zephaniah. And so you can see these unifying themes. And these are just some of the themes. There are a lot of themes. that are interwoven and show that these books can also be taken as a single unit, not as just separate books. But obviously they can be read as separate books. So what do each of them have to tell us? Well, let's start with Hosea. Let's turn to Hosea chapter 4, Hosea chapter 4 and verse 6. This is a verse that's often quoted from Hosea. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being my priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. Oh, my. Well, that is God speaking to Israel. Israel, of course, is supposed to be serving as a priest of God to the nations so that the nations will know the Lord. Well, the Lord says, I will now reject you. Well, what is this message? This is a message that was given again around 746 724 and it is that's during the divided Kingdom. Remember we're talking about the United Kingdom divided Kingdom. This is for the northern Israelites and he They are in trouble. What's going on here? Well, Hosea is talking about the need for loyal love, for faithfulness, because they have not been faithful. They have not been keeping the covenant of God. This is what will eventually lead to their deportation, to the Assyrian exile, which they don't come back from. But God is giving the warning here in Hosea. As well as in the other prophets, but Hosea is usually known for the adulterous wife, the adulterous wife, and that is a very difficult picture to see a man who has to go in and get his wife, who is who is. not being faithful to him. And as he brings her back home and he is having children with her, we are grieved to see the lack of respect and lack of honor that this woman gives to Hosea. She is a wife of harlotry, but she is a picture of Israel. I mean, if we think about the people of God, this this is exactly what the people of God have been doing. God has to go and he has to go fetch them because they've been going after other gods. They have been playing the harlot after other gods. The old King James, as the old King James would say, they've been whoring after other gods. You say that's a really strong word. Well, it's a really serious spiritual matter. And we today need to know it as well. We need to see that we can't be pursuing other gods, other philosophies. We need to pursue what God has for us. And so he says, yes, the adulterous wife here is a picture of Israel. What was Israel been doing? You know, just to highlight one thing. You remember the whole golden calf episode? Well, they have two of them at this point, one in Bethel and one in Dan. They now have two golden calves. This is where Israel is in Hosea's day. And just like us, they were successful, they were wealthy. They had success in everything except worship. And so it's a message really that our whole country needs today, as well as the church, which does have so much money and does have so much success. Are we worshiping the Lord? We want to make sure that we are dedicated to him and to his ways, because we don't want to be like the adulterous wife here. And so Hosea deals with that. Hosea has the adulterous wife and the faithful husband. Of course, if the adulterous wife is Israel, then God is the faithful husband, right? And he's keeping her, or the prodigal wife, we could say. And he highlights it in chapters four through 14 with adulterous Israel and the faithful Lord. So, it's explained right here in the book what's happening. You have the prodigal wife and you have the prodigal nation. And so, God gives this picture to us. Now it is good to see that just as Gomer was restored to Hosea. So too will Israel be restored to the Lord. If we look at chapter 3 here chapter 3 verses 4 and 5. For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without King or Prince without sacrifice or sacred pillar and without ephod or household idols afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their King. This is something that northern Israel needed here. They will seek Yahweh. They will seek David their King They will come trembling to the Lord and to his goodness in the last days. And so this is something that that they needed to hear. And this is actually a prophecy that will still yet be applied later on to in the future. We believe that this will happen in the in the millennium. So so it is something that we're moving toward. Jose or excuse me, Joel also picks up with some of these themes that that our future in essence. He deals with the day of the Lord. That's one of the major themes in the book of Joel. Let's turn to Joel next. Joel chapter 3 starting in verse 9 proclaim this among the nations. Prepare war. Rouse the mighty men. Let all the soldiers draw near. Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am a mighty man. Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down, O LORD, your mighty ones. Let the nations be aroused, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. This is talking about Armageddon. Nations will be gathered together. They will be armed, ready for conflict. And then the Lord will come for the harvest. Well, this is something that is predicted Joel again. He deals with the day of the Lord. That's one of the major themes here. He's writing in 810 to 795 and as he's dealing with the day of the Lord, he is dealing with it. not just in the future, but of course, also as Israel needs to hear it as as Judah needs to hear it as well, because there has been there have been plagues that God has been sending. Why has God been sending plagues? If you remember. Back when we were talking about the Torah, we were saying that God had given that bilateral covenant to Moses and to the people that they had to fulfill certain requirements of faithfulness if they wanted to be in the land. Of course, the land's been given to them, but the Lord might remove them from the land if they don't fulfill those requirements. And that's where we get to Deuteronomy 28, the chapter on the blessings and the cursings of Yahweh. And one of the curses of Yahweh, Deuteronomy 28, 38 is a locust plague. If you don't honor me, I will send a leg of plague of locusts. Well, guess what happened in Joel's day? There is a plague of locusts that come and destroy the crops. And if you've ever seen a video of these things, these things can be very destructive. They can eat away at everything and not leave anything left. Well, the destruction of the locusts is just the beginning, God says. We also see the comparison of the nations to locusts. He says, I will send the nations like locusts upon you. And so they need to hear this. But the nations themselves, that doesn't mean that they are righteous, because then God will gather them up and he will destroy them. if they don't honor his ways. And so Joel is giving a very, very hard message here. He is giving a lot of bad news with his word, and he is highlighting here the day of the Lord. And that's a big theme in the in the Old Testament when we are dealing with prophecy. But it's also the day of the Lord when God is punishing a nation. And so we see like if we will, smaller days of the Lord. And then there's the day of the Lord that's coming one day. The day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision, he says. This is something they needed to hear back then, even though this is still talking about a future event. But what is the outline of Joel? The day of the Lord in retrospect, chapters 1 through chapter 2, verse 17. and the day of the Lord in prospect chapter 2 verse 18 through chapter 3. Now, it's not all bad news here. Joel does give some good news Joel chapter 2 verse 28 through 32. You might recognize this this passage as the promise of the spirit that Peter later quotes in Acts chapter two, where he says, I will pour out my spirit on all mankind. Now, it's not completely fulfilled in Acts. It's not completely fulfilled in our on Pentecost, but it is beginning that last day's stage. And God will still bring some of these things to fruition where he's yes, he's pouring out a spirit. All of us now can enjoy his spirit. Doesn't matter. male, female, it doesn't matter, free or bond. We will all receive the spirit of the Lord. But he continues on to say, I will put wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. There are certain things that just have not yet been fulfilled. And so this is still looking forward to the coming of the Lord. The good news is, if you are someone who has the spirit of God, then you will be protected from the from the day that is coming upon this world. So that's Joel. So we see this movement from Hosea to Joel dealing with these prophecies. And then we get to Amos, Amos. And that's the next book in your Bibles there, Amos. And let's look all the way to Amos, Chapter nine. Amos 9 8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and he will destroy it from the face of the earth. Nevertheless, I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob declares the Lord. This is something that is Israel's going to have to hold on to during the mid 8th century. We have Amos coming to minister. He is ministering during the reigns of Uzziah the king of Judah and Jeroboam the second the king of Israel and so he's he's ministering during both of their reigns. And his theme is social injustice in Israel, social injustice in Israel. Someone said one of the ways that you can remember what Amos is about. You can remember it this way. Israel was a mess, a mess, a mess. And so there you go. That's how you can remember what's going on there. There's so much happening in Israel that is dishonoring to the Lord that he is destruction. You see here, He's repeating this theme of judgment that is going to come. And remember, as we're getting into these centuries here, we're talking about the Assyrians about to come upon Israel. We have the Babylonians who are about to come. And so God is predicting these things, and God's people need to wake up and see this. God is not pleased when we are not applying his word consistently, when we are using unequal weights and measures, when we are not being faithful to live out all of the commandments of the Lord to all of the people of God and to even our neighbors who aren't the people of God. We are not a good witness when we don't do these things. And that's what Israel needed to learn as well. And they they see this through the throughout the book. You have the eight prophecies of judgment and the three sermons and then the five visions of punishment and then the five promises. And so that's nine chapters of movement of of oracles that are given there. And that is the book of Amos. Whoo, we are making it we're we're getting through this. Let's let's move on to Obadiah, you know, it's interesting as I was going through my ordination process, of course, you know, you you have to know the Bible. If you're going to if you're going to be a minister, you have to know the Bible. And that's something that was told to me. And he said, you know, you really need to be a master of the Bible. And he said, you need to even know what even some of the obscure books are about. And then he paused for a moment and and he he looked at me and he said, do you know what the book of Obadiah is about? just off the cuff. And I did at one time until he asked. I completely forgot. I completely blanked at that moment. Obadiah, what is that about? Oh, can I look at my Bible? So, it is important. to know these things as we're going through them, especially if you want to be a teacher of God's Word. But Obadiah, let's take a look at the opening verses here, just verses 1 through 2. We have the vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom, We have heard a report from the Lord and an envoy has been sent among the nation saying arise and let us go against her for battle. Behold, I will make you small among the nations. You are greatly despised. Who is he talking to there? Well, he is talking to Edom. Now, if you remember, Edom is kind of a cousin country to Israel, right? Because you had Jacob and then you had Jacob's brother Esau. And Obadiah will even go through this and point out from Genesis 25 the struggle between Jacob and Esau. This struggle comes forward through time and you see Edom or Esau, which means red. Of course, they were moving to the Redlands, kind of like our Redlands. They had the Redlands there, too. They had moved up into the mountains around Mount Seir, and they were they were using the powers at that time to to to oppress and to steal from Israel. And God eventually announces a judgment against Edom. And so this is something that God's people have been waiting for in Israel. It is the shortest book. It's only two hundred and ninety one words in Hebrew. And so, of course, you see it is just the one chapter there. I could have messed with you and said, turn to Obadiah two or something like that. But I'm not mean I wouldn't do something like that to you. Other people might. Steve might do something like that, but I wouldn't do something like that to you guys. But as I said, there's a little bit of poetic justice happening here with Edom, because Edom had oppressed and even looted Jerusalem. We see there that in verse 15, your dealings will come upon your own head and they become a symbol of what will happen to all the nations who are gloating over Jerusalem. God's about to send his own judgment on Jerusalem. But there are people who are going to be clapping their hands, saying, yes, see, that's not righteous behavior, though. Right. That's not what God would want of people. And so he says, look, if you if you're going to try to participate with this, you're going to try to bring down God's people. You yourself will be judged. He's dealing with his people. He is not allowing the other nations to just oppress the people. outside of His control. And so, you see how God is even in His punishment, restricting the severity of the punishment, because He could just allow, as He had said in Joel, all the nations to come upon them like locusts, where they're just all the bones have been picked, right? There's nothing left. But He doesn't allow that. And so, yes, there is judgment on Edom, but there is also going to be predicted there a restoration of Israel. And so that's Obadiah, Obadiah. And now I think I can answer that question. Obadiah is about judgment that is about to come upon Edom. And so with that, we get to Jonah. Jonah. And this one is one that we know a little bit better. Some of you may have grown up a little bit on VeggieTales. It's a little bit different in inspired scripture than what you saw in that movie. But there are some some key themes here that we want to see as we go through this. Let's look at chapter four, verse two. Jonah prayed to the Lord and said, Please, Lord, was this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is where he sees God beginning to show or show compassion on the Ninevites. Therefore, in order to install this, I fled to Tarshish. for I knew that you are gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, the one who relents concerning calamity. It's like Jonah, I could have read that with a different tone of voice, right? This is a good thing. The Lord is gracious. He's compassionate. This is a good thing. Jonah says like it's a bad thing. Why? Because he didn't want mercy for the Ninevites. He knew that the Ninevites were going to be a people who would oppress Israel at some point because God has already been predicting that he's going to raise up the Assyrians to oppress Israel. Jonah doesn't want. the Ninevites to be forgiven. When God says in Jonah that he's about to overthrow Nineveh, Jonah says, that's a great thing. And then God says, so I want you to go preach to them so they'll repent of their sins and turn back to me. Jonah says, no, I don't want them to repent. I want them to be wiped out. He's over there already popping the popcorn, getting ready for the show. He wants to see God overthrow Nineveh. And this is the way it is sometimes with God's people. You see people get full of hate toward their enemies, and that's not how God wants us to operate. God wants us to operate with grace and compassion. And so here in around the year 760, during the reign of Jeroboam II, we have God showing mercy upon the repentant Gentiles. Now, again, we're taking all these minor prophets as a unit. What have we been talking about so far this evening? We've been seeing the judgment of God, the judgment of God, the judgment of God. Here in Jonah, we get this change, of course, and we see God saying, but There's good news for those who repent. There's going to be grace. And the people repent and they are shown grace and mercy. This is good news. And it is good news to read after the bad of the previous books. book and books. Jonah is also a bit of a break because it's not just a collection of oracles, but it reads much more like history. Of course, I do believe it's history. I do believe that it's real, that these things did actually happen. It's much more reminiscent of reading about Elijah And that's that's what we see in Jonah. It's a so great book to read through. There's a couple of outlines I provide here. We have God's mercy upon Jonah in chapters one and two and God's mercy upon Nineveh in chapters three and four. But I kind of like this outline better. Chapter one, I won't go. Chapter two. I will go. Chapter three, I'm here in chapter four. I shouldn't have come. I kind of like that outline better because it shows Jonah's attitude. You say, how can how can someone with such a bad attitude be God's servant? Well, God in C2 and chapter four, verse 11, should I not have compassion on Nineveh? That great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and their left hand. Who might those people be? Those might be children, right? They don't know the difference between their right and their left hand, and as many animals. Why should I not show mercy on the city? You say, did Jonah learn his lesson in all of this? Well, the answer to that question is found in another question who wrote Jonah. It's probably written by Jonah. And so it does appear that at some point Jonah comes to his senses and says, ah, I've not had the right attitude here. And so he writes this with his warts showing throughout the book, with his faults, his errors, his sins. And he lets us see what the true heart of the Lord is, despite what our hearts are sometimes when we see the enemies of the Lord and our enemies. And this is how we should operate. We should operate with compassion wherever we can. Of course, that's something that said in Micah do justly walk mercy or do justly love mercy and walk humbly with your God. That's not the verse. I highlighted though. Let's turn to Micah 4 3 Micah 4 3. Each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree Is that right? No, no, that's four, four. And he will judge between many peoples and render decisions for the mighty or for mighty destinations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Now, does that sound familiar? Just pausing there for a moment. That's the opposite of what we just read a few books ago, a couple of books ago. So you see, this is something that God is promising for the latter days. This is a piece that he is offering here. By the way, this is a verse that is found carved into stone at the U.N. right now. They will hammer their swords in the plowshares. And it sounds like a great verse, and it is a great verse, but it's not something that we can just will into being. This is something that God has to bring about. And so this is something that God does promise. And he promised it back in around the eighth century, early seventh or late seventh century. during Isaiah's day. In fact, Micah was probably a younger contemporary of Isaiah. And he was prophesying just before the fall of the northern kingdom to Assyria. You say, well, what happened to Jonah? Well, we're going to get to that in in the next book here. But eventually, Nineveh, eventually, Assyria goes back to its evil ways. And so they do invade. They do take over Israel here and at the Northern Kingdom. And so God is highlighting that and he's highlighting the injustice of Judah and the righteousness and justice of Yahweh because they have been unjust because they didn't heed the warning of Amos and the rest. He is now saying there is this invasion that's happening. But it's happening within the will of the Lord. The discipline of the Lord is always hard, but it's never more than we need. And he will even do that to his nation of people. We see that throughout the book as as we outline it here, we have the prediction of retribution in verse or chapters one through three, chapters four and five, the project prediction of restoration and chapter six and seven, the plea for repentance, the plea for repentance. And so that is the book of Micah there. And you guys are doing great keeping up. I told you this. This is this was this is probably the hardest session right here going through 12 books. But we're going to we're going to see if we can do it. We're making pretty good time. And we get to Nahum, which is the next book. And this will answer the question of what happened to Nineveh. What happens here? Well, Nahum chapter one. The Oracle of Nineveh, and we'll go through verse three here. Verse two, a jealous and avenging God is the Lord. The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and he reserves wrath for his enemies. See, the Lord will take care of his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger. This is a good thing and great in power. That can be a scary thing. And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. And there's where our hearts sink. In a whirlwind and a storm is his way. And clouds are the dust beneath his feet. He says that He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. This is something that we have to see in our own lives. Do we understand that our sins need to be paid for? If we do, then we can trust in Jesus Christ who does pay for our sins. If we don't, if we don't understand that, then we will have to pay for our sins ourselves. And this is where he gives these warnings. And this is what we see with the nations who refuse to repent. This is the inverse book of Jonah. This is the inverse book of Jonah. Of course, you have Nahum who does go and he does preach, but his message is not one where they are going to repent. He has a message of destruction just like Jonah did, but they don't repent like they did with Jonah. And so this book is the inverse of that. It comes a generation later, 663, 654, and it is Nineveh's judgment or destruction. Some have said it's Jonah's wish come true. God does now send judgment on Nineveh. The city did repent in 760. So this is a hundred years earlier with Jonah. The city did repent, but it soon returned to her violence, idolatry, and the rest. And so in 612, now see God did give time here. If Nahum's writing in 663, 654, remember we're counting down as we are counting down to Christ before Christ, the later in years you're counting down. And so in 612, Nineveh finally falls to the Babylonians. So God does give Nineveh a space for repentance. And this is something we also have to see that that the reason punishment doesn't come right on us the moment we sin is for us to have space for repentance. And God always grants that because God is a gracious God that like Jonah recognized, although he was kind of complaining when he said it. God is a gracious God. God is a God who is slow to anger. And so they could have repented if they wanted to, but they don't. And so the city falls to the Babylonians. And this is something that Nahum highlights. Now, a lot of people have trouble with Nahum. Why? Because it's a gory book. Um, and, and that's, that's difficult. It's difficult to reach certainly. Uh, but people have trouble seeing God as a God of wrath and say, well, God's got to love. That's true. God's also a God of wrath. We have to see both, uh, because you don't have true love without wrath. If, if I say I love my wife and then you see something, let's say a drunk driver, you know, plow into her, God forbid, you know, and she get killed. I say, oh, well. You say, well, how can you have that attitude? I thought you loved your wife. Aren't you mad at the drunk driver? See, that's what we understand, that there should be some wrath if there is love. If someone is hurting God's people, God is going to show wrath. If God's people are doing injustice to others of God's people or to the neighbors of God's people. God's going to show his wrath because that's not the way that God wants us to live. And so God is also a God of wrath. We have to see that. The one thing is, though, that God is not a God who is given to emotional outbursts He's not a whimsical God like the false gods of Greek mythology. He is a God of patience. He's a God of loving kindness. But He will show His wrath if it is time to do so. And so, we have the destruction of Nineveh decreed in Chapter 1. We have the destruction of Nineveh described in Chapter 2. And we have the destruction of Nineveh deserved. chapter 3 and so that is Nahum and then we get to Habakkuk Habakkuk we're making it we're making it so so we are continuing on here and let's go to Habakkuk 2 verse 4 Habakkuk 2 verse 4 behold As for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith. I wanted to highlight that because that is a verse that is repeated in the New Testament three times. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. But here come the Babylonians. And I don't mean the sounds of stomping you hear those are the kids but the Babylonians are coming upon the people of Israel upon the people of Judah here. We have around the year 608 to 598. So we are moving forward in history. And the theme of this book is faith judgment on Judah through deportation and doubt. So so so Habakkuk is dealing with faith and doubt. He's he's writing a lot poetic. A lot of this poetically here we see, but it is something that is needed to be seen. As we see this verse quoted in the New Testament, it's fascinating to see how the New Testament focuses on this verse. Someone else pointed this out, and so I added it here because I think it's something worth seeing. In Romans 1 17 it says the righteous shall live by faith and Romans describes what the righteous is, what the righteous man is, what the just is, what it means to be just. And so that's interesting to see that quotation and see it focused on in that way in Romans. Galatians also quotes it, Galatians 3, 11, but Galatians focuses on how we live. How should we then live? How shall we then live? So the righteous shall live by faith. And so we have Galatians focusing on what it means to live. Then we have Hebrews focusing on, especially in the 11th chapter, which is the transition there, what it means to live by faith. And so we have the righteous shall live by faith. And so it's interesting to see how it's not only quoted three times in the New Testament. In each of those instances, the surrounding context focuses on a different section of that quotation. What it means to be righteous, what it means to live and what it means to have faith. And so that's Habakkuk right there. And I guess I should give an outline here. Habakkuk, of course, wanted to purify his own people. He's praying for that, but he complains that the coming Babylonians are worse. And we can certainly see that because they don't honor God. But we see his faith tested, chapter one, faith taught in chapter two, faith triumphant in chapter three. So that's Habakkuk. All right, you guys are doing so well here keeping with me on this, I know this is a lot of information I did say it was going to be like a fire hose tonight, the good news is so. we're taking a couple of weeks off here so so all. all of this can kind of sit and marinate for a little while before we get back and have our next session here. And so let's go ahead and tackle these last few books here. Zephaniah, and let's look at chapter one of Zephaniah. Starting in verse 14, near is the great day of the Lord, near and coming very quickly. Listen, the day of the Lord, in it the warrior cries out bitterly. A day of wrath is that day, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities, against the high, corner towers, and will bring distress on men, so that they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord, and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the day of God's wrath on the day of the Lord's wrath. And all the earth will be devoured in the fire of his jealousy, for he will make a complete and indeed a terrifying one of all the inhabitants of the earth. This is a terrifying prophecy that he gives here, and he gives it through Zephaniah, who is a royal descendant through Hezekiah. In fact, it may have been this Hezekiah who influenced King Josiah. If you remember, he was the king who instituted the reforms and kind of brought Israel back to to worshiping the Lord, or I should say Judah back to worshiping the Lord. But then those reforms were reversed. So he's writing from around the year 640, 630. He's contemporaneous with Jeremiah's ministry. And if you'll notice, I have highlighted there the PH. This is a book about the prophecies of the future. There's another of the 12 here, Zechariah. We can keep it straight by seeing that Zephaniah focuses on prophecies. Zechariah, as we see, will focus on Christ. And so these are prophecies of the future of global judgment, sinners in the hands of an angry God kind of stuff. And these are these prophecies are given about 100 years after Joel's prophecies, which are also discussed in the Day of the Lord. And so what's the outline here? We have prophecies of judgment versus one and two on Judah and the surrounding nations and prophecies of future blessing. See, it is not all bad news. Every single book gives bad news, but it also gives some good news. It's always important to see that it's not just the bad news. There is the good news that's given. God always gives that gospel word. And here we see it in chapter three. And really, you know, you could focus in on verses 14 through 20. Shall for joy, O daughter of Zion, shout and triumph, O Israel, rejoice and exult in your heart, O daughter of Zion. For the Lord has taken away his judgments against you and has cleared away your enemies. He's going to clear away the Assyrians. He's going to clear away Edom. He's going to clear away the Babylonians. He's going to clear all of these away. And so this is what God has said to them. And there will be that restoration. And so that's Zephaniah. Then we move to Haggai, Haggai. Haggai. Ezra mentions Haggai. This is definitely a post-exilic book. Let's look at chapter 1, verses 5 and 7. Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways. You have sown much, but harvest little. You eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied. You drink, but there is not enough to become drunk. You put on clothing, but no one is warm enough. And he who earns earns wages to put into a purse with holes. For thus says the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways. Consider your ways. This is something that we need to hear as well. Consider your ways, especially as we enjoy all the things that God has given to us. We need to consider our ways. It's OK to enjoy things. But if we enjoy things to the exclusion of worshiping God, that is the problem. And that's the problem that we see highlighted in Haggai. They've been back in the land about 16 years after the exile, after the Babylonians had taking them after the Persians take over Babylon. They return back to the land. They were doing well, but then they ceased work on the temple and started working on their own homes. Well, God wanted the temple to be rebuilt. This was why they were out of the land, was because they hadn't been worshiping God. And so God wanted them to focus back on the temple, get that built, and get back to worshiping rightly. This was written about the year 520. It's about a year span here, and it is a call to reconstruct the temple. They have misplaced priorities. And so Haggai rebukes their disobedience in chapter one. Then we have the rebuilding of the temple, the return of God's glory, the religious questions in chapter two there. and then the reign of God. It is mainly a collection of sermons, though there are a few references to two dates. And so that is the book of Haggai. It's a short book. And then, as I mentioned a moment ago, we get to Zechariah, Zechariah, Zechariah 1210 gives us that good promise. You can look there. It says they will look upon me. whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him." Now, just thinking about those pronouns for a second. They will look upon me, and they will mourn for him. That's interesting. It's also interesting that he chose the word pierced. This is a prophecy of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who was nailed to a cross. And Zachariah prophesies that there is coming a time when not only will Christ come and be and be sacrificed, but they the children of Israel will eventually look upon Christ whom they have pierced who is not just Christ, but he's God. They will look upon me and mourn for him. You see this this interesting interplay that's happening already in Zachariah. And Zachariah begins this ministry about the same time as Haggai. And he is writing the revelation of the Old Testament with the clearest prophecies about Christ. Of course, as I said a moment ago, you want to keep Zachariah and Zephaniah straight in your mind. Zephaniah has the prophecies concerning the future. Zachariah has the prophecies concerning Christ. And so that's how how I keep it straight anyway. around the year 520 to 480 this is being written and this is about the limit of prophecy. This is something that Dr. Dr. Gasanti points out at the Masters. He says that Matthew 2335 sets the limit of prophetic writing at Zachariah the prophet. There's not going to be any more prophetic writing until we get to the New Testament. And so we are very close to the end is what that means. This is Israel's comfort and glory is preparation for Christ. And here we have the outline here. It is a call to repentance. And then, of course, there are the visions, the messages and the burdens. And we see the Messiah in chapter nine. through 11, we see the Messiah's first advent and rejection. And then we see the Messiah's second advent and acceptance. Christmastime, we are celebrating his first advent. We are looking forward to his second advent. That's what we see with Zachariah. If you want more information on this, this on this book in particular, Dr. John MacArthur just finished a great commentary on the Book of Zechariah that I would recommend to you. A very detailed book on the Book of Zechariah. If you want to study this, this is a good companion book to know if you want to understand the Book of Revelation. You should also know the Book of Zechariah. And so as I said a moment ago, we are near the end. We are with the last book of the prophets. You guys made it. We are at the end here. This is this is definitely the the the hardest of the hardest study we have gone through with the amount of material that we haven't had this much material that we've covered in previous sessions. Malachi Malachi one six. I am a father, God says, but where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my respect? I don't know why I have the name Daniel there. That is not correct. It is Malachi. Sometimes I copy and paste things and I forget to replace something. But this is Malachi. He's writing about 450 to 430. And we have, according to Dr. Hassani, Josephus, the Jewish historian, considered the time from Moses to Malachi as the prophetic period. Only the books written in that period were considered canonical. Anything written after that period was considered not canonical. And so this is the end of the canonical books of the Old Testament. The Babylonian Talmud also notes this, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel after this book. And this book is talking about the disintegration of the nation. Dr. David Hague, he gives a good outline of this book. He says the people are at rest, but they are in peril of complacency and he has the peril of vain worship. or ritualistic worship, the peril of corrupt leadership, and the peril of willful disobedience. And so these are the points for the book of Malachi. And we made it. This is it. This is the end. We made it through 12 books. That was a lot. That was a lot. But we made it through all 12 of the minor profits. As I said, we're taking a couple of weeks off. We need to have a couple of weeks after all of this. But next time when we do get back, we'll talk about the final writing schedule. because even though we did get through the minor prophets here and we did kind of reach the end, we skipped over three books. And so we're going to go back and talk about those three books, which would have been around that time of post-exile, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah. And then we'll talk about