The end began in 605 B.C., as the military might of Babylon challenged that of Egypt and Judah, the remnant of the people of God, was squeezed in the middle. Many of her nobility were carted off – prisoners of Nebuchadnezzar – hostages to peace. Babylon exerted her might again in 597 B.C., and finally in 586. In the end, Jerusalem lay in ruins, an empty, ghastly shell of her former self. Her wall lay on its side and her temple, the dream of David, was looted and burned. The once glorious Zion of God had been both witness and victim of some of the worst atrocities of human history.

God was responsible, but Judah was to blame. Even then, in the eyes of God, she’d received far less than her due.

But God’s grace abounded. In 539 B.C., Cyrus, King of the Persians gave permission for the exiles to return to Jerusalem to rebuild. It was in fulfillment of the specific promises of God through Isaiah (300 years before) and Jeremiah (nearly 100 years before). And if that were not evidence enough of His grace, Ezra tells us they returned as they had left Egypt – unexpectedly prosperous. Some fifty thousand returned in the first wave and within a year they set about rebuilding the house of God.

It was an exciting time.

But after a while, the new wore off. They encountered opposition from the people around them. The squatters didn’t like Judah returning to reclaim what they had appropriated for themselves. They’d rejoiced in the Jews’ misfortune, and they weren’t about to let them rebuild a nation they had so delightedly seen destroyed.

The people of God gave in and gave up. The temple foundation was as far as they got. After all, they had themselves to think about. When they had re-established themselves in the land, then they would see about rebuilding God’s house.

Nearly twenty years passed. Twenty years without the worship of God at the temple. Twenty years of trying to be the people of God without the proper worship of God. The important gave way to the tyranny of the urgent and success eluded them all. In 520 B.C., God sent two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to demand He be given His proper place in their lives.

In Haggai, God tells the people that their ‘never being able to get ahead’ was their own fault. They had not put God first. “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it. . . You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.’”

In a series of four speeches, all dated and providing an outline for Haggai, the prophet called Judah to repentance. The real surprise was that she really did repent. Construction was restarted and within four years, the temple was finished.

Haggai also makes it plain that building the temple was not Judah’s only problem. The lifestyle of her people fell far below any threshold for holiness. Continuing in that path would result in more frustration as God refused to allow them to succeed materially.

Does Haggai speak to our time?

Yes, in at least this way: God’s temple today is not a building of stone and mortar, but a building of living stones, the Church. When we get to wondering why we work so hard and never seem to be able to ‘pull ahead,’ it’s worth asking whether our lives are demonstrating that God is our first priority. The answer won’t always be “no.” But if it is, repentance is on order. Our task is to ‘build up the Church,’ by being involved in the community of faith to strengthen one another, and draw outsiders in. Failing to give God the priority He deserves by giving attention to His Church follows in the footsteps of the returning exiles. Success will be elusive. God will be responsible, but the fault will be our own.

Do you have a relative who is a “thorn in your side”?

No?

King Josiah did. The relative’s name was Zephaniah. He is the only prophet (except perhaps for Daniel) of royal blood – the great-great-grandson of King Hezekiah.

Josiah’s grandfather was Manasseh, the worst king in Judah’s history. He promoted the worship of idols and the assimilation of other religions into the religion of Israel. He burned one of his sons as a sacrifice to a pagan deity and enacted oppressive policies that resulted in the wholesale slaughter of all who opposed him. His corrupt monarchy led Judah into evil worse than any of the nations around her, in her own day or before. So evil was he that the writer of Kings blames him for Judah’s misfortunes and ultimate Babylonian exile (2 Kings 23:26).

Josiah, however, was not evil. At age 26, he began a series of reforms in Judah to lead the people back to God. It was a valiant effort, but in God’s eyes, and the eyes of Josiah’s cousin Zephaniah, it was too little too late. Judah was too far gone.

It must have been a source of great consternation to Josiah that, though he wanted his people to change their ways, his own royal house and the house of the priests was so corrupt his efforts were like putting out a forest fire with a garden hose. It must have been further discouraging to hear the negative message preached by Zephaniah.

By Zephaniah’s day, the Northern Kingdom was no more. Judah’s sins were so many that the anger of God overflowed. It’s almost as if God was on a rampage, his anger spilling out (though deservedly so) on other nations. Notice the determination of God: “I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth . . .” (1:2). “I will bring distress on the people . . . their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth” (1:17). “In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth . . .” (1:18). “The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger” (3:8).

What were the sins?

Idolatry (1:4), ignoring God (1:6), becoming too much like the world around them in their dress and lifestyle (1:8-9), focusing on material wealth and a willingness to mistreat others to get it (1:11-13,18), a belief that God simply didn’t care how they acted (1:12), and a ruinous prideful unwillingness to yield to God (3:1-4).

You begin to see how angry God is when you note that He repeatedly says he is going to destroy the earth and everything and everyone, and yet, He speaks of a “remnant” who will be left. It is a classic overstatement – and that’s how the book is to be read. Overstatement or not, however, a genuine day of reckoning is coming and it will be ruinous for the guilty.

Zephaniah has four parts:

1) The coming punishment of the people of God (1:1-2:3).
2) The coming punishment of other nations (2:4-15).
3) The coming punishment of the people of God (3:1-8)
4) The restoration of the remnant of God’s people (3:9-20).

Two points must not be overlooked: First, note that both the people of God and other nations stand condemned for precisely the same sins. God does not have two standards of expected behavior. The world may not acknowledge God, but God expects them none-the-less to follow His rules. Second, though God is supremely angry in Zephaniah, He still loves his people. When the punishment is over, God will take great delight in the righteous who are left, and he will quiet them with His love and rejoice over them with singing (3:17) – the image of a parent reaffirming love for a disciplined child.

I cannot help but think there is a message here for us as we face our own day of reckoning. Zephaniah is not quoted in the New Testament, but in the anticipated judgment day scene of Revelation 10:7, I cannot help but believe inspiration had at least Zephaniah in mind: “But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

Throughout the Bible many have questioned God – and not just for information. When the Lord declared his intention to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham replied: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? . . . Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:23ff).

During the Exodus, Israel complained to Moses, and Moses complained to God: “Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? . . . They keep wailing to me, . . . I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now . . . (Numbers 11:12).

Facing oppression, the sons of Korah cried out to God “Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?” (Psalm 44:23-24).

These are not the only examples. The list of God’s interrogators is not a short one.

As long as Judah had Israel to compare herself to, it was easy to overlook her own sins. But after the destruction of the Northern Kingdom, Judah was left to contemplate her own situation. Other prophets decried the injustice and materialism of Judah. At this time however, Habakkuk arose, not to condemn his people, but to ask God why He wasn’t condemning them. “How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?”

God replied (Habakkuk chapter one) that he was going to punish Judah by bringing against her the Babylonians, “that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own.”

This put a whole new twist on things. The Babylonians!? Why in the world would God punish Judah with people worse than Judah? Habakkuk was indignant. “I will stand at my watch,” he wrote, “and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me . . .” It was unjust of God, Habakkuk thought, for God to use sinners worse than Judah to punish Judah. Frankly, Habakkuk believed God had gotten himself in a moral bind on this one and Habakkuk was determined to hold God accountable.

In a lengthy reply (chapter two), God speaks to the arrogance of Habakkuk, which is very much like the arrogance of Judah and Babylon. Habakkuk is a product of his times. God affirms that he will hold both Babylon and Judah responsible for their sins. No one is getting a pass. The Lord ends his speech with a proclamation of His sovereignty.

Habakkuk, properly rebuked, spends chapter 3 of his book in prayer. He reviews God’s power, but also God’s faithfulness to his people. Habakkuk understands Judah must be punished for her sins. He knows the punishment will be inevitable. No matter who does it, however, God will not desert his people, and in that, Habakkuk can find hope. “I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

God has no problem with His people questioning Him, or even disagreeing with Him. But he insists, that at the end of the day, His people trust Him. He is God. We are not. Those who stand “right” in the sight of God are those who, in the end, trust God and demonstrate it with the life they live. Being “right” with God is supremely a matter of trusting God.

Likely the best known of all the Minor Prophets is the book of Jonah. Jonah was a prophet of the 8th century B.C. during the reign of Jereboam II and God called him to preach to the Assyrian nation to turn them from their wicked ways. Jonah was successful, the Assyrians repented, and calamity was averted.

For a while.

It didn’t take long, however, for the Assyrians to return to their wicked ways, and when they did, they returned with a vengeance. Old Testament scholar Jack Lewis writes of the Assyrian nation: “Assyria . . . was a nation largely geared for aggressive war. Its atrocities were proverbial as the records and art left by its kings make quite clear. . . Its victims lay prone under its tyranny . . . Nineveh saw men and nations as tools to be exploited to gratify the lust of conquest and commercialism. Assyria existed to render no service to mankind.”

Assyria attacked and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel less than fifty years after the time of Jonah. The southern kingdom of Judah also felt her cruelty at the hands of Assyrian kings Sargon II and Sennacherib (721 - 681 B.C.). Hezekiah foolishly tried to make a stand against Assyria and, had it not been for God’s intervention, would have lost his kingdom. The chutzpah of the kings of Assyria is most clearly heard in these words of an Assyrian field commander to the besieged people of Judah: “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from [my] hand; nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, "The Lord will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. . . Do not listen to Hezekiah . . Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? . . . Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

At this point, God had enough. The Lord struck 185 thousand Assyrian soldiers dead in one night, and about this time, the prophet Nahum appeared on the scene to announce to Judah Assyria’s end. “Trouble,” the prophet assured them, at least from Assyria, “will not come a second time” (1:9).

Nahum proclaims the absolute sovereignty of God: “He makes all the rivers run dry. . . The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it” (1:5). Though He is slow to anger, a refuge in times of trouble and cares for all who trust in Him, you don’t want to make him angry. “Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him (1:6-7). In no uncertain terms, the nation of Assyria stood condemned before God. “I will prepare your grave,” God says, “for you are vile” (1:14). “‘I am against you,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘I will burn up your chariots in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions’ [or princes - mt]. ‘I will leave you no prey on the earth. The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.’” (2:13).

Nahum catalogs Assyria’s sins. She is cruel, unprincipled, immoral, and dedicated to one thing: increasing profits for her merchants whose number rivals the stars of the sky. But her end is assured: “Nothing can heal your wound,” God says: “your injury is fatal.” No one will mourn her passing: “Everyone who hears the news about you claps his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?”

Less than fifty years after Nahum, Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, and the empire itself, fell under the onslaught of the Babylonians, Medes, and the Scythians (612 B.C.). Jack Lewis writes: “The destruction was so complete that when Xenophon and his 10,000 Greeks passed by the site 200 years later, they gave no indication of knowing that the capital had existed.”

All nations, including our own, exist by permission and design of God and no nation, indifferent to the will of God, exists for long. If Nahum teaches us anything, it is that those nations playing fast and loose with His rules of justice, fairness, compassion and ethics, will come to a short, certain, devastating and ignominious end.

In the final days of Judah, the prophet Jeremiah issued a stinging rebuke to the nation in the holy city of Jerusalem: “This is what the LORD says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth.”

For hundreds of years before Solomon, the city of Shiloh had been the home of the Tabernacle, and the presence of God. But Israel had been disobedient, believing that God’s presence would insure them against catastrophe regardless of how they lived. At one point, they even carried the Ark of the Covenant into battle, believing its presence guaranteed victory.

The ark was captured.

Shiloh was destroyed.

Now, Jeremiah was telling them the same thing would happen to Jerusalem if it’s citizens didn’t mend their ways.

The religious elite of Jerusalem arrested Jeremiah and brought him to court charging: “This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!” Jeremiah, in their eyes, was guilty of treason.

Fortunately, some of the older, respected men of the community stepped forward in Jeremiah’s behalf. They said: ‘Micah of Moresheth in the days of King Hezekiah said: ‘Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.’ No one put Micah to death. Instead, they repented.”

And so, Jeremiah’s life was spared – thanks to the work of Micah. Unlike the days of Micah however, the people didn’t repent.

The prophecy of Micah is found in the book the bears his name. He did his work about the middle of the 8th century B.C., just before the fall of the Northern Kingdom. His book describes the people of God in a most unflattering manner. They “lay awake at night plotting treachery against their neighbors.” They use their power to oppress people – just because they can. They “hate good and love evil.” They will do anything to make a dollar. Their lack of concern for others is vividly portrayed in these words addressed to the political leaders: “[Y]ou tear the skin from my people . . . break their bones in pieces . . . [and] chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot.” Religious leaders led Israel astray, preaching an “I’m ok, you’re ok gospel,” and they did it because that was precisely what the people wanted to hear. In God’s mind, His Church had been ruined “beyond all remedy.”

The result? “Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.”

It didn’t happen immediately of course. Jeremiah was still talking about the coming calamity two hundred years after Micah. But less than twenty years later, the end had come – just as God said.

What did God want from His people? Simply this: “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God” (Micah 6:8). If she would but do that, God would pardon and forgive them, hurling their sins into “the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).

Micah stands as a lasting rebuke to the People of God in every age who, remembering who they are, forget what they are about; people who, because of their relationship with God, believe they can get away with being inattentive to His will. Micah also has a message for the world: God is sovereign over the nations. They may deny His existence and repudiate His will, but God remains sovereign, and ultimately he promises to “take vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that have not obeyed me” (Micah 5:14-15).

Micah affirms that God delights to show mercy (7:18), but is unafraid to discipline the wayward.

Jonah is likely the best known “minor prophet”– the prophet who got swallowed by the whale (or “big fish,” depending on your translation). Could a fish swallow a man whole and the man survive? After three days in a whale’s belly? I’ve wondered what the inside of a whale’s belly looks like. Jonah probably couldn’t tell us since there would have been no light. What would it smell like? In fact, I’ve wondered how you could smell at all since I cannot expect there would be any air there (do fish burp?).

When you begin to focus on the story, I can’t imagine anything more horrible than Jonah’s condition, a situation much akin to being buried alive. In fact, that’s how Jonah described it: “From the depths of the grave I called for help . . . The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head . . . my life was ebbing away” (Jonah 2:1,5,7).

But actually, the book of Jonah is not “about” Jonah at all. It is a book about God.

Jonah lived during the days of Jereboam II in the northern kingdom of Israel. Though times were prosperous, political disaster lay just over the horizon. The world power was the Assyrian nation, and the world had seldom seen such power wielded with such cruelty. Their kings bragged about slaughtering their enemies and dying the mountains red like wool with their blood, burning young men and maidens alive, and covering the walls of conquered cities and the columns of local buildings with the skins of beaten people. Not surprisingly, no one liked the Assyrians.

And so, when God told the prophet Jonah to go preach to the Assyrians and tell them to turn from their wicked ways . . . or else, Jonah thought “or else” suited them just fine. Rather than make the 500 mile trek to Nineveh, Jonah caught a ship headed in the opposite direction for Spain.

That’s when “the weather started getting rough.” In an ocean storm, there are no atheists. Every passenger prayed to his god and when Jonah confessed that he was the reason for the storm, the passengers prayed to Jonah’s God – then threw Jonah overboard. The sea grew calm – just as Jonah told them it would. God caused the big fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah went to “time out.” It was there that Jonah realized: when God gives you a job, it’s easier to do it than refuse. Jonah repented, and the fish “vomited Jonah onto dry land.”

Jonah then went to preach to the Assyrians. They listened, turned from their wickedness, and Jonah got angry. He knew it would happen. The Assyrians would survive when, in Jonah’s mind, they deserved to die. In a fit of pique, he camped outside the city of Nineveh and pouted.

This is where you get to the point of the story.

God caused a plant to grow overnight to shade Jonah. Then, just as quickly, God killed it. Jonah, no longer sheltered from the sun, became furious. At that point, God sat Jonah down for a heart to heart. Jonah was angry because a plant he had neither planted nor cultivated had died. God said: “Shouldn’t I be concerned for a city filled with innocent children and cattle?”

Jonah is full of wonderful lessons. God loves all people. HIS people may be the people of blessing and promise, but He still loves everyone. Second, He expects all people (whether His or not) to submit to his will. Third, those who don’t (His or not) will find life exceedingly hard. But most of all, He is a God of grace and forgiveness. The people of Nineveh experienced it. So did Jonah. Fourth, God expects His people to speak to the people of the world to reveal his will.

Abraham had two sons: Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac had two sons: Jacob and Esau. Jacob became the father of the Israelite nation. Esau became the father of the Edomite nation. Jacob, the younger of the two, stole his brother’s inheritance. Years later, when all seemed forgiven, Jacob lied to his brother. No matter what the reasons or whose fault the feud was, God forbade Jacob’s descendants, Israel, to mistreat her brethren the Edomites.

When Israel left Egypt during the Exodus, the old animosity between the two families arose. Israel asked to pass through Edomite territory on the King’s highway, promising not to “go through any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will travel along the king's highway and not turn to the right or to the left until we have passed through your territory. If we or our livestock drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We only want to pass through on foot – nothing else.” Edom replied, "You may not pass through here; if you try, we will march out and attack you with the sword."

Edom never forgave Israel. She remembered every perceived slight, and never forgot an insult. Amos wrote: Edom “pursued his brother with a sword, stifling all compassion, because his anger raged continually, and his fury flamed unchecked.”

When Israel was conquered and Jerusalem burned by the Babylonians, the Edomites surveyed the situation from a distance, celebrating the defeat of her brethren. Obadiah recounts this scene in the book that bears his name, and delivers God’s promise of destruction for Edom’s treatment of Israel.

Two points should not be lost on the people of God: First, we must be forgiving. We are not allowed to hold a grudge and the severest punishment awaits those who do. Second, it is important to remember that God has not ordained any particular government, or any system of government, as his anointed on the earth. Nor are God’s people defined by particular political boundaries or philosophies. No government or system of government on the earth is eternal. They are all temporary, subject to the sovereignty of God. Obadiah reminds us however that the longevity of every nation is dependent on the attitudes and actions of its people, and those nations whose citizens find it hard to forgive and who rejoice in the misfortunes of others, are nations destined to be short-lived.