Hosea - book summary
Hosea was a prophet who was asked,
by God, to marry a prostitute… and you
may be wondering why? Well, I did too! So I did some research and of course,
read the book.
Let’s go back in time for a minute:
according to the SourceView Bible’s Insights page on his own book (p.1139),
Hosea was a prophet to the Northern Kingdom [1st clue: divided
Kingdoms of Israel and Judah] and started prophesying around 750 BC and
continued until the Fall of Israel by Assyria [2nd clue: 722BC]. So
I can see that the period when he was at work was not an easy time for the
Kingdom, in fact it was one of the worst and definitively the last leg of the
Northern Kingdom!
Now, back to the question… why did
Hosea marry a prostitute? Well, back in the day, sometimes prophets would do
“enacted symbols” to represent something that God wanted to tell the people of
the time. For example, “When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, He said to him: ‘Go and marry a
prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted
like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.’” (Hosea
1:2) And, believe or not, Hosea did it and he pursued his unfaithful wife and
loved her, no matter what, just like God has loved Israel (and us) since the
beginning of times and until today.
However, the original readers,
people of the time right before the fall of the Northern Kingdom, did not
belive what Hosea was saying, they said to him and other prophets: “The
prophets are crazy and the inspired men are fools!” (Hosea 9:7) So, Hosea did
not really have an easy job! Just saying, for all of those who really hate
their job: it could be worse.
God is:
Loving even
of those he has called “not loved” ones (Hosea 2:23)
Our maker, even when people has forgotten that (Hosea 8:14)
Compassionate protector, He does not want to give up on loving and protecting his people, even
after they turned their backs on Him! (Hosea 11:8)
Holy, and He
lives among us (Hosea 11:9)
A rescuer, in Hosea He reminds people that He rescued them from
slavery in Egypt (Hosea 12:9)
And he does restore His people once they repent! The very last section of the
book is exactly that: repentance (Hosea 14:2,3) and forgiveness and restoration
(Hosea 14:4-8)
Joel - a book summary
The book of Joel, like all the other
prophet books, has a vision of destruction, a call to repentance and a promise,
just like it should be! There’s not a lot of information on Joel’s book’s
dating, but I want to believe that it is at the time when Joash was appointed
King, because Joel talks about leaders and elders and mentions no real king in
his book. And at the time Joash was declared King he was only a kid, so
basically the priests led with him. So, this account was written to the people of Judah. Just a thought: Joel is a contemporary of Elisha (prophet to Israel).
Character of God:
Basically Joel 2:13 sums it up: “Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate, slow to get
angry and filled with unfailing love”
And all of these characteristics are represented in the book because He is
always presenting His people with the opportunity of repenting so that they can
attain forgiveness! And all of this, because He loves them!
He is faithful and He will demonstrate it by sending rain! (Joel, 2:23)
But don’t get me wrong, He is also just. He is calling people to the
Valley of Jehoshaphat “to pronounce judgment on them all”! (Joel 3:12)
The redemptive plan of God is presented by Himself in this book!
“Turn
to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” (Joel 2:12)
But God does not want phonies, He
wants people to come to Him with their hearts ready to repent and receive His
unfailing grace!
Amos - book summary
This book situates itself in the years when Uzziah was King of Judah and
Jeroboam II was king in Israel, two years before the earthquake. (Amos 1:1) Such earthquake must have been very big
to be mentioned next to two kings as a landmark of time! Don’t you think? We
also know, from the same verse, that the prophet Amos wrote it.
I really liked Amos’ book for two main reasons: he’s a shepherd from the city of Tekoa in
Judah (Amos 1:1) with no known ministry credentials! (SourceView Bible p.1162)
And that shows that God can use anyone
to deliver His messages! The second thing is that Amos has a conversation with
God. God asked him what he saw in his vision… and after Amos answered what he
saw, God gave him the interpretation of his vision! (Amos 8:2)
I also liked the fact that God gives Amos messages of judgment for all
the Kingdoms around Israel [even Judah!] first, as to get them all excited that
all of their “enemies” are under God’s judgment and will burn to ashes! BUT
just when they thought they were off the hook, Amos drops the bomb… This is
what the Lord says: “The people of Israel
have sinned again and again and I will not let them go unpunished!” He sets
them up, just to let them fall into the sudden knowledge of their oncoming
judgment and destruction!!!
God is:
Merciful:
Calling people back to Him, “Come back to me and live” (Amos 4:5)
Just: “Come
back to the Lord and live! Otherwise,
he will roar through Israel like a fire, devouring you completely.” (Amos 5:6)
Creator: “It
is the Lord who created the stars,
the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into morning and day into night. He
draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The Lord
is his name!” (Amos 5:8)
Sovereign and
Holy: The Sovereign Lord has sworn this by his holiness: “The time will come when you will be led away with hooks
in your noses. Every last one of you will be dragged away like a fish on a
hook! (Amos 4:2)
God’s redemptive plan:
And after all the visions of
destruction and punishments for the people of the world and the people of God,
He decides to restore the relationship He has with them: “In that day I will
restore the fallen house of David. I will repair its damaged walls. From the
ruins I will rebuild it and restore its former glory.” (Amos 9:11)
Jonah - book summary
I was very surprised when I read
Jonah [I need a big parenthesis here, because a lot of my Bible reading right
now is actually RE-reading. When I was a little kid, I read a lot of the Bible
in Sunday School, I also read the stories from my mom and the seasonal pastor
at my seasonal church experience while in my teen years. And never before had I noticed, or been
told, that Jonah was trying to “escape” God when he started to go in the
opposite direction of Nineveh - enough of this parenthesis for now, but I know
I’ll come back again] because he is trying to “get away from the Lord” (Jonah
1:3) Hmmmmmm, I want to ponder on this idea for a moment… because Jonah, son of
Amittai, was “a Hebrew” who “worships the Lord” (Jonah 1:9) and he knew how
vast God is… so, how exactly did he pretend to escape God? Oh yeah, “He bough a
ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to
Tarshish” (Jonah 1:3) Do you see what I mean? That’s not smart… especially
because Jonah knew that God created the sea and the land! And of course,
there’s the question of the profession of Jonah: a prophet… come on! But, I kept reading, hoping to get the
answer of how in the world [and why] Jonah was escaping God. And according to
our last week’s teacher, Jonah maybe did not want to go to Nineveh because he
did not like the Assyrians and was, very likely, afraid of prophesying their
end! Because they could get angry at him, right? And then I got to chapter 4!
Where Jonah actually says why he did not want to go to Nineveh and it is pretty
shocking, not what they told me at age 6 in Sunday School a few years ago…
“Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I
knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and
filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.”
(Jonah 4:2)
Character of God:
“…you are a merciful and compassionate
God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.”
(Jonah 4:2)
God’s redemptive plan:
Nineveh was the capital of the
Assyrian empire, and God told Jonah to go tell them that in 40 days He was
going to destroy the city because He had seen how wicked the people were.
(Jonah 1:2) However, God changes His mind when He sees that everyone has
repented, even the leaders! “When God saw what they had done and how they had
put a top to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the
destruction he had threatened.” (Jonah 3:10) This shows God’s heart for
repented hearts, and how fast He forgets and forgives!
Micah -
The name Micah means “Who is like
the Lord?” (SourceView Bible p. 1181) and the book of Micah shows that there is
no one like God, not only in His endless power and justice but also in His
immeasurable love and mercy for His people! Micah from the little town of
Moresheth heard from God in the years when Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah were kings
in Judah (750BC - 686BC) but the prophecies concerned both Jerusalem (Judah)
and Samaria (Israel). And the book is divided into 4 prophetic sequences and
each one includes Judgment and Destruction then Mercy and Restoration. This
portrays how much God loves His people because it’s represented like a cycle:
People sin, the prophet is sent to tell them that there will be judgment and
destruction [if they do not repent] and when they repent, God demonstrates His
unfailing mercy and restores them as His beloved people.
I also found very interesting that
there is a foreshadowing of Jesus in this book as well. In chapter 5, verse 2,
it talks about the little Bethlehem and it refers to it as “only as a small
village from Judah.” and it continues to say “Yet a ruler of Israel will come
from you, one whose origins are from a distant past.” And then it finishes the
image, in verse 3, by adding that “the people of Israel will be abandoned to
their enemies until the woman in labor gives birth.”
God’s character:
The Lord is righteous and He demands no less from His people: “No, O people,
the Lord has told you what is good,
and this is what He requires from you: to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with the Lord”
(Micah 6:8)
He is also mighty, miraculous and a
deliverer! (Micah 7:15)
The redemptive plan:
Micah 4:8 tells us that God has not
forgotten Jerusalem! It calls it the
Citadel of God’s people and He promises that its royal might and power will come to you again. It even says that its
kingship will be restored. What a
promise! But what could be better than that? Well, I believe this other couple
of verses is a bit better:
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
are only a small village among all the people of Judah.
Yet a ruler of Israel will come from
you,
one whose origins are from the distant past.
The people of Israel will be
abandoned to their enemies
until the woman in labor gives birth.
Then at last his fellow countrymen
will return from exile to
their own land.”
(Micah 5:2,3)
This last one points to Jesus! It’s
a prophesy that even says where He was going to be born! Exciting, huh?
Nahum - book summary
The book of Nahum made me think of
Jonah a lot, because when we left our fellow prophet Jonah, he was quite upset
because the city of Nineveh was spared by God… well, here we are back in
Nineveh, 100 years later… and this time around… it gets destroyed!!! I hope I
did not ruin the ending of the book for you, but that was bound to happen! The
Assyrians had gotten very proud and wicked, because they had conquered Egypt (663BC:
SourceViev Bible p. 1191)! So, God sent them another prophet to warn them about
changing their ways or to pay with their lives, and they chose the latter. We
need to remember that the Assyrian empire was the super power at this very
time! Therefore they had several allies but mainly enemies… and God himself is
one of the enemies. (Nahum 2:13 & 3:5) However, this was not God’s view in
the book of Jonah! He wanted to save the people and the town!
According to the SourceView Bible (p. 1191) God’s character is
described by Nahum as infinitely holy and
just (1:2), awesomely all-powerful (1:3), full
of goodness and mercy (1:7), and
true to His word (1:14), all of this
in the first chapter!
I can also see that God’s plan of
redemption is not for the Assyrian’s this time around but for Judah, as He
directs this words to them:
“Though the Assyrians have many
allies,
they will be destroyed and disappear.
O my people, I have punished you
before,
but I will not punish you again.
Now I will break the yoke of bondage
from your neck
and tear off the chains of
Assyrian oppression.”
(Nahum 1:12)
Isaiah -
Isaiah is not a “minor” prophet! I
just needed to get that out of my chest… now, on with the book review.
This is a very interesting book, it was
written by the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, who had several visions regarding
Judah and Jerusalem. [He even gives us dates!] He saw these visions during the
years when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah were kings of Judah. (Isaiah 1:1)
Isaiah was urging the people of
Judah to change their ways so they would not follow the terrible fate that the
people of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) suffered.
One of my favorite quotes from this
book is “Here I am, send me.” (Isaiah 6:8) and the idea of comparing the
character and calling of Isaiah and Moses, who basically said “here I am, send
someone else!” However, both men are impressive men of God, I just found
interesting how our perspective changes our reactions most of the time.
God is:
A master (1:3), a mediator
(2:4), a glorious King (2:19), a just, holy and righteous God
(5:16), a refuge and a shelter (24:5), a wonderful teacher (28:29), an unchangeable
God (31:2), a judge, lawgiver, king,
caring savior (33:22), eternal (40:8),
the first and the last (41:4)… to
mention some of His characteristics mentioned in Isaiah…
God’s redemptive plan:
It is impressive to me to think
about God’s memory… just think about it for a moment: He has been here since
the beginning and before that too! And will be around forever… yet, He chooses
to forgive our sins. Here’s some evidence of my point:
“Let us review the situation
together,
and you can present your case to prove your innocence.
From the very beginning, your first ancestor sinned against me;
all your leaders broke my laws.
That is why I have disgraced your
priests;
I have decreed complete destruction for Jacob
and shame for Israel.
“But now, listen to me, Jacob my servant,
Israel my chosen one.
The Lord who made you and helps you
says:
Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my
servant,
O dear Israel, my chosen one.
For I will pour out water to quench
your thirst
and to irrigate your parched fields.
And I will pour out my Spirit on
your descendants,
and my blessing on your children.
They will thrive like watered grass,
like willows on a riverbank.
Some will proudly claim, ‘I belong
to the Lord.’
Others will say, ‘I am a descendant of Jacob.’
Some will write the Lord’s name on
their hands
and will take the name of
Israel as their own.” (Isaiah 43:26-44:5)
I was very surprised to read about Adam but even more surprised about
reading that even when our first ancestor sinned against God, He has been
faithful to forgive us and even promises to bless our descendants… it does not
get better than: forgiveness + blessings.
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