God sent His prophet Malachi to reveal the missing ingredient in Israel’s national life. The Lord asked the question, “Where is Mine honor?” and “Where is My fear?” The word “fear” both in the Old and New Testaments means “awe-inspiring,” to be afraid of, to reverence. The Bible does present God as Someone to have […]
“I will utterly consume all things from off the land” (1:2). Man had become obnoxious in the sight of God, polluting the land with his idolatry and violence, defiling the whole creation. There was nothing but for him to disappear under God’s judgment. “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth…it may be […]
The name Zechariah means Jehovah remembers. The prophet by that name was born in Babylon in the captivity, for when he returned to the land of his fathers he was but a child. Like some other prophets, he was a priest as well as a prophet. His work as prophet was commenced by him when […]
The prophecies by Amos were given in the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam II, king of Israel. He describes himself as a herdman of Tekoa, a town in the hill country of Judea, about twelve miles from Jerusalem. A desert town surrounded by solitude, it was a suitable place for men of […]
The book of Micah is composed of three chief divisions, ushered in by a call to listen, “Hear, ye peoples, all of you; hearken, O earth, and all that is therein” (1:2); “And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel” (3:1); and “Hear ye now […]
Habakkuk has been called “the doubting Thomas of the Old Testament,” “the grandfather of the Reformation,” “the prophet of faith,” and “the free-thinker among the prophets.” Had they known each other, there is no question but what Habakkuk and Job would have been bosom friends. It is evident that he lived in the period of […]
In his national prejudice against the Assyrian and in the pride that resented the cancellation of his prediction, Jonah objected to the grace of God to that city. What a sad and forcible reminder of the fact that the only hope for mankind lies in God; and what an exhibition of the flesh, even in […]
The identity of this prophet is uncertain. Nahum calls himself the Elkoshite. Elkosh was probably situated in Galilee; certainly Nahum was familiar with this particular part of Palestine. It is most probable that the prophet moved into Judah after the fall of Israel, when the northern territory was re-populated by Esar-haddon. It is not difficult […]
Haggai’s messages were addressed to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the high priest, clearly proving that the prophet was sent to the remnant of the Jews that returned to Jerusalem in the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, as recorded in the book of Ezra (Ezra 3:2). To understand the significance of these […]