Dr. Will Wood explains that although the Minor Prophets are among the least preached and taught portions of the Bible, they are an essential part of God’s word. Through their accounts of sin, judgment, faithfulness, and restoration, these books offer rich spiritual truths for the life of every Christian.
The following is a transcript of the video above.
Why study the Minor Prophets?
The Minor Prophets are probably among the least preached and taught portions of the Bible. You have likely heard a sermon on Jonah, but probably not many sermons on Habakkuk or Obadiah. Yet it is to the church’s great spiritual harm that we do not teach, preach, or read this portion of Scripture.
As a broad answer, we can say that the Minor Prophets are part of God’s word and are therefore profitable for our reproof, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16. They are an essential part of our training in godliness.
More particularly, if we avoid the Minor Prophets in our reading, teaching, and spiritual lives, we are functionally cutting off one of our own spiritual limbs, if you will.
We miss the potency with which Hosea communicates the relationship between the people of God, their sin, and the Lord. He uses the imagery of marrying a wife of whoredom and having children whose names represent the nature of sin and the disruption it causes in our relationship with God.
We miss Habakkuk’s wrestling as he lives surrounded by a wicked and adulterous generation and seeks to remain faithful in the midst of a faithless time.
We miss the beauty of Zephaniah. After addressing the Lord’s just judgment against Judah for its sin, Zephaniah looks with hope toward the day of the Lord, restoration, and reunion with the Lord as King. In Zephaniah 3, we see that the Lord even rejoices over his people with gladness.
We also miss the hope of dwelling in the presence of the Lord of glory found in Zechariah 1–6.
These books and the truths they communicate from God to his church are of immense spiritual value for your life as a Christian. I commend them to you as an essential part of God’s word, given for your good.
