The Message of the Twelve: Hearing the Voice of the Minor Prophets

By Al Fuhr and Gary Yates

Although they ministered for more than three centuries during some of Israel’s most tumultuous days, the Minor Prophets remain a mystery to many Christians in the 21st century.
 
Old Testament scholars Richard Alan Fuhr, Jr. and Gary E. Yates believe that the message of the twelve Minor Prophets is relevant for the church today, and they re-introduce these important books of the Bible to contemporary Christians. Ideal for use as a textbook as well as for personal study, The Message of the Twelve surveys the historical background of each prophetic book, the prophet’s message and themes, as well as the book’s place in the biblical canon. The authors also provide in-depth exposition of each book—from Hosea’s metaphor of Israel’s infidelity and Nahum’s warnings of foreign judgments, to Haggai’s postexilic call and Malachi’s vision of future restoration. The Message of the Twelve goes beyond typical biblical surveys to examine the key interpretive issues in each book, including important literary insights from the Hebrew text.
 
Drawing on the prophets’ proclamations to ancient Israel and Judah, the authors emphasize that the church today must heed the call to reject apathy and return to a vibrant relationship with the living God.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: BH Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781433683770

Book preview

In The Message of the Twelve Fuhr and Yates invite students of the Bible into the world of the Old Testament prophets. Conversant with the best of scholarship, they orient readers to the historical and literary intricacies of the shorter prophetic books, without losing sight of their theological riches. This is essential reading for those who want to understand the message of the prophets and relay it to a new generation.

—Mark J. Boda, professor of Old Testament, McMaster Divinity College and professor, faculty of theology, McMaster University

The twelve relatively short books known as the Minor Prophets give us a vision of God that pierces the darkness of our world and should evoke both healthy fear of, and humble submission to, this sovereign King of the world. Yet because these books were written in a much different time and place, they prove to be challenging to modern readers. Professors Fuhr and Yates are to be commended for producing a reliable guide to these books that will enable modern readers to grasp their profound message and to gain a greater appreciation for the God who is the central character therein. They explain with clarity and insight the message of these prophets in their ancient setting and then show us how that message is relevant in our modern context. This book will serve as an ideal introductory textbook for courses on the Minor Prophets.

—Robert B. Chisholm Jr., department chair and senior professor of Old Testament studies, Dallas Theological Seminary    

Some parts of the Old Testament desperately need helpful resources to assist students of the Word to grow in their understanding of God and his expectations for his people. The prophetic books, and the Minor Prophets in particular, offer the interpreter of Scripture unique challenges, but also tremendous blessings. Fuhr and Yates have provided a superb resource that explains the text of each book, includes clear visuals that facilitate a reader’s understanding of key features, and connects expositional details with the theological message of those books. I look forward to having this book in my personal library and making it available to my students.

—Michael A. Grisanti, professor of Old Testament, director of Th.M. studies, and director of TMS Israel Study Trip, The Master’s Seminary

Al Fuhr and Gary Yates have written a clear, succinct, and engaging book on the Book of the Twelve (Minor Prophets) that provides a delightful introduction to the ancient world of these fascinating, yet often neglected, prophets. The authors bring to light the irony, metaphors, and Hebrew wordplays that were employed in calling for a return to the Lord and to covenantal obedience in order to avoid judgment and foster restoration. As master teachers, Fuhr and Yates powerfully communicate the message and modern relevance of these prophets whose words and literary expressions were often like ‘a bucket of ice water poured upon a bleary-eyed people.’

—Ted Hildebrandt, professor of biblical studies, Gordon College

The Message of the Twelve is an excellent treatment of the meaning of the Minor Prophets and their messages. The book thoroughly surveys the historical background of each Minor Prophet and correlates the teaching of each book to other sections of Scripture, including the New Testament. Each book is carefully outlined, with each section of the book given titles that are as appropriate for application in our present age as in the time the prophets presented their messages. This book is destined to be an excellent resource for serious students of God’s Word as well as for modern preachers and teachers. I highly recommend this work and look forward to using it in the classroom.

—Mark F. Rooker, senior professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

The church owes Fuhr and Yates a debt of gratitude for The Message of the Twelve. Focusing exclusively on these neglected texts, they have given students and pastors an extended introduction that covers so much more than the usual survey. With excellent summaries of the historical background, literary features, and the role of the prophet, in addition to the exploration of each book, Fuhr and Yates provide a complete guide to their riches. The Message of the Twelve  is thoroughly conversant with the latest scholarship, solidly conservative, and rich in literary and theological insight. I highly recommend this text for anyone interested in getting better acquainted with the wonderful, yet oft-neglected treasures that are the Minor Prophets.

—J. Michael Thigpen, executive director of The Evangelical Theological Society, associate professor of Old Testament, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University

The Message of The Twelve: Hearing the Voice of the Minor Prophets

Copyright © 2016 by Richard Alan Fuhr, Jr. and Gary E. Yates

Published by B&H Academic

Nashville, Tennessee

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4336-8376-3

Dewey Decimal Classification: 224.9

Subject Heading: PROPHETS / BIBLE. O.T. MINOR PROPHETS / BIBLE. O.T.--­BIOGRAPHY

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations taken from Contemporary English Version® Copyright © 1995 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV® Text Edition: 2011. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission."

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Old Testament Figures, Rebecca, Biagio (1735-1808) / © Courtesy of the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford / Bridgeman Images

Cover design, Darren Welch. Art direction, Jade Novak

Printed in the United States of America

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BM

For Marilyn, Erin, Kallie and Brett ~ Gary Yates

For Alex and Max ~ Al Fuhr

Acknowledgments

A project such as The Message of the Twelve is the result of the cumulative efforts and influence of many individuals, and we want to offer our thanks to all who have helped make this work possible. We are grateful for our faithful teachers who instilled within us a love for the Old Testament prophets that has profoundly influenced our spiritual journeys and academic pursuits. We are thankful for the encouragement and support of our colleagues in the School of Divinity at Liberty University and for the students we have had the privilege of teaching over the years that have sharpened our understanding of the prophets with their questions and insights. This work on the Minor Prophets reflects decades of godly counsel and instruction from peers and professors alike.

Others were involved in a more tangible way in the production of this book. Heather Bradley carefully assisted with editorial work under significant time constraints, and Chris Thompson and the team at B&H provided invaluable assistance for each step of this project. Graduate assistants helped us as we juggled the demands of teaching and writing, and our students graciously allowed us to express in class what we were developing on paper. Most of all, we are grateful to our families for their patience as we worked on this project and for how they remind us every day of the greatness of God’s love and blessing on our lives.

Preface

We offer this work on the Book of the Twelve (or the Minor Prophets as they are known in the English Old Testament) with the conviction that the message of these prophets is especially relevant for the church in the turbulent times in which we live. The Minor Prophets offer a compelling portrayal of God through vivid and dramatic metaphors. In judgment, the God of Israel is like a fierce warrior, a roaring lion, a raging whirlwind, and a consuming fire. And yet, the same prophets who employ these frightening images also assure us that in his work of salvation, the Lord is a faithful husband, a loving Father, a healer who restores, and a compassionate shepherd. David Wells wrote some time ago,

It is one of the defining marks of Our Time that God is now weightless. I do not mean by this that he is ethereal but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life. Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God’s existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television, his commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence, his judgments no more awe-inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertiser’s sweet fog of flattery and lies.¹

The prophets remind us that God cannot be pushed to the margins of our lives or trivialized and manipulated into fulfilling our personal agendas. The prophets restore a vision of God’s immensity and challenge us to worship and revere him above all else.

Popular approaches often treat the prophets primarily as prognosticators and search their messages for connections to current events or for predictions about the end times. The prophets often spoke of the last days and enlarge our vision of the future kingdom of God, but they concentrated their preaching on confronting the sins of their culture and instructing the people about how to live in faithfulness and obedience to the Lord. In speaking to the crises and moral dilemmas of their day, the prophets addressed ethical issues that remain crucially important in the contemporary world, including the proper use of wealth, treatment of the poor, legal justice, war, violence, and the responsibilities of leadership. Just like Israel and Judah, the church must take to heart the prophets’ call to reject religious formalism and spiritual apathy and to return to a vibrant relationship with the living God.

The prophets also help to inform a faith-filled perspective on world events in our troubled times. The God of the prophets is not a nationalistic deity merely presiding over his own people and territory but is One who judges both Israel and the nations. If the Lord exercised his sovereignty over the nations as the Assyrians and Babylonians led his people into exile, then he is equally able to accomplish his purposes in the midst of current global unrest and the threat of international terrorism. The prophets advocate trust in the Lord instead of military power and political alliances as the ultimate source of peace and security. The prophets’ vision of the nations beating their swords into plows and streaming to Zion to worship the Lord offers real hope in place of empty political rhetoric that offers no real solutions for the world’s problems.

We have written this overview of the Book of the Twelve for students, pastors, and all who seek to understand this neglected segment of God’s Word. This part of Scripture remains obscure and unfamiliar for many Christians, and in teaching the prophets over the years, we have learned that many of our students would agree with Luther’s assessment that the prophets have a queer way of talking, like people who, instead of proceeding in an orderly manner, ramble off from one thing to the next, so that you cannot make head or tail of them or see what they are getting at.² Yet the message of the Twelve is extremely relevant, and its material, while challenging, is quite approachable with a little direction. Sermons and lessons from the Old Testament Minor Prophets are not common in our churches today, and we find this to be shortsighted, keeping the people of God ignorant about a significant portion of the Word of God. This is a tragedy. The Minor Prophets present unique interpretive challenges, but the blessings that come from careful and diligent study of this part of Scripture are worth the time and effort.

This book is divided into two major sections. The opening four chapters provide background material for the study of the Book of the Twelve as a whole. The first chapter explains the historical setting of the Book of the Twelve and the individual prophets who stand behind this corpus. The prophets deliver specific and concrete messages concerning the Assyrian and Babylonian crises facing Israel and Judah and the hopes and challenges facing the people of God in their return from exile after the Persian period. Locating the prophets within their proper historical context is foundational to proper interpretation of their message.

The second chapter explains the prophets’ role as messengers of God’s covenants and offers a theological context for understanding the prophetic books. Throughout the Old Testament, God exercises kingship through a series of covenants, and these covenants are central to the message of the prophets. The prophets announce judgment against the nations for their violations of the Noahic covenant and against Israel and Judah for their failure to live by the covenant commands given in the Mosaic law. The prophets were not innovators in condemning Israel’s idolatry or in highlighting the need for social justice, but rather were calling the people to put into practice the original directives of the Mosaic law regarding how to love God and their neighbors. The prophetic vision of Israel’s future restoration in the eschatological era of salvation is shaped by the Lord’s promises of seed, land, and blessing to Abraham and his abiding commitments to the house of David. The prophets also anticipate a new covenant that would bring about the spiritual renewal and transformation of Israel when the Lord pours out his Spirit on his people. The Lord would then enable his people to obey his commands so that they might fully enjoy the blessings that were associated with the Mosaic covenant.

The third chapter focuses on the literary features of prophetic literature. The oracles of the prophets are quite different from the sermons we hear from pastors today, and the prophetic books are not like the kinds of books we are used to reading. What enables the reader to see artistry in the place of disarray is an awareness of the literary genres or forms of prophetic literature, as well as the literary and rhetorical tools used by the prophets to make their messages memorable and convincing to their often hostile or indifferent audiences. These techniques include poetic parallelism, extensive use of figurative language, wordplay, irony, and sarcasm.

This book not only seeks to offer informed literary interpretations of prophetic texts but also to help readers do the same in their own study of the Prophets. Recognition of the patterning of prophetic predictions in which they refer to near and far events together will enable readers to better grasp how the prophets inform our understanding of the future kingdom of God and how their oracles of judgment against the foreign nations of their day might apply to current nations. Awareness of how the prophets use stereotypical and figurative language to speak of the coming Day of the Lord or the future age of salvation helps the reader to avoid using the Prophets to construct a detailed road map of future events. Pastors and teachers aware of the literary and rhetorical features of the prophetic books will be better prepared to help this part of Scripture come alive for their audiences and to make applications that are faithful to the message of the text.

The fourth chapter examines the themes, motifs, and patterns that emerge from reading the Book of the Twelve as a literary unity. Scholarly study over the past thirty years has particularly focused on the Twelve as a single work rather than merely a collection of twelve separate compositions. Some of these studies have attempted to reconstruct the compositional history of the Twelve, which is beyond the scope of this book. The purpose of this chapter is to examine how the recognition of unifying themes like the Day of the Lord or the call to return to the Lord contribute to a deeper reading of the Book of the Twelve. The limited examples of repentance in the Twelve document Israel’s unbelieving response to the Lord and his messengers. One of the few instances of repentance comes from the hated Ninevites, who respond to the rather reluctant preaching of the prophet Jonah, and intertextual links between Joel and Jonah particularly stress the idea that the Lord is willing to treat the nations with the same compassion and mercy that he exhibits toward his people Israel.

The second major section and the bulk of the book consist of individual chapters examining the message of the individual books of the Minor Prophets. Collectively, the prophets preach of judgment and salvation, but each has his own unique features and distinctive emphases. Hosea’s family is a metaphor of Israel’s infidelity. Amos warns a complacent Israel that the Lord is about to break out against them like a roaring lion and a raging storm. Joel and Zephaniah warn of an imminent Day of the Lord in times of national crisis and also look forward to the future Day of the Lord that will bring the ultimate judgment of the nations and restoration of God’s people. Obadiah and Nahum preach messages of judgment against specific foreign nations. The message of Jonah is uniquely conveyed in the form of a story that recounts the surprising repentance of the Ninevites and a prophet’s anger over a positive response to his preaching. In Habakkuk, dialogue between the prophet and the Lord serves as the medium for the announcement of the Lord’s intention to use Babylon to judge Judah and then to subsequently judge Babylon and save his people. Haggai and Zechariah call on the postexilic community to resume rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem and to fully return to the Lord so that they might enjoy all of the blessings he has promised for his people. Malachi concludes the Twelve with a dispute between the Lord and his people that reflects the postexilic community’s ongoing alienation from God, yet continues to look forward to the future restoration and the final Day of the Lord when all will be made right.

Each of these chapters examines the historical background and structure of the individual books and then provides a detailed exposition of the message of the book. The final section of each chapter analyzes the theological themes of the book and issues related to the contemporary application of the book in light of the whole canon of Scripture. Christian reading of the Twelve requires attention to connections between the Prophets and the New Testament but only after first attempting to understand the message of the prophets on their own terms and in their own historical settings. The exposition of each book provided in these chapters seeks to go beyond the standard Bible survey by presenting key interpretive issues in each book and including literary insights from the Hebrew text (with informal English transliterations for those without training in the biblical languages). The reader will need to consult exegetical commentaries and technical studies on the Twelve for more detailed discussions of interpretive issues, but in hearing the voice of the Minor Prophets, we have been careful not to sidestep interpretive points of interest. Insets, maps, photos, and charts are provided to further assist the reader in navigating the individual chapters.

Abbreviations

AB Anchor Bible

BAR Biblical Archaeology Review

BBR Bulletin for Biblical Research

BLS Bible and Literature Series

BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft

CTQ Concordia Theological Quarterly

HBM Hebrew Bible Monographs

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement

NAC New American Commentary

NIBC New International Biblical Commentary

NICOT New International Commentary on the Old Testament

NIVAC New International Version Application Commentary

NSBT New Studies in Biblical Theology

OTL Old Testament Library Commentary

SBLSymS Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series

TB Tyndale Bulletin

TOTC Tyndale Old Testament Commentary

WBC Word Biblical Commentary

1

The World of the Twelve: The Historical Background and Setting of the Book of the Twelve

Introduction

The lives of the prophets in the Book of the Twelve span a period of more than three centuries (c. 770–430 BC), and they ministered in some of Israel’s most tumultuous days. The Lord had promised through Moses that he would send prophets to communicate his word to his people (Deut 18:15–22), and he kept his promise even as he prepared to bring judgment against Israel and Judah for their unfaithfulness, which had persisted for hundreds of years. The specific mission of the Twelve was threefold: to call the people to repentance so that they might avert divine judgment, to warn them of the judgment of exile when there was no repentance, and then to offer hope for the future as the people returned to the land following the exile. The Lord sent prophets to Israel and Judah during the Assyrian crisis before the fall of Samaria in 722 BC and then sent more prophets to Judah in the Babylonian crisis before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The postexilic prophets challenged the people to rebuild the temple and to fully return to the Lord so they might experience all the blessings of restoration and renewal that he had planned for them. The Book of the Twelve reflects disappointment that full restoration had yet to occur, but holds forth the hope that the Lord would never abandon his people or his commitment to fully bless them and to extend the blessings of salvation to the nations.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an historical survey of the times in which the Twelve lived and ministered.³ It is important to understand the historical setting of the prophets because they preached more about their own times than they did the last days. The prophets reminded the people of God’s sovereign control over the chaotic events of their day. When the Lord roars like a lion, his judgments extend beyond Israel to all the nations (Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2). The Lord controls the forces of nature, whether to direct a disobedient prophet like Jonah or to send drought and locusts to get the attention of his rebellious people. The Lord also directs the kings and armies of the nations to accomplish his purposes and to execute his judgments. Assyria was the rod of Yahweh’s anger (Isa 10:5), Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon his servant (Jer 25:9; 27:6), and Cyrus of Persia his shepherd and anointed one (Isa 44:28–45:1). The destruction of Israel, Judah, Edom, and Nineveh were days of the Lord and not simply geopolitical events. The prophets also sought to turn the people away from military and political solutions to the crises they were facing and to help them recognize the only way they would survive was to return to the Lord before it was too late.

This chapter attempts to place the prophets in their historical context and setting, while recognizing that there was likely a lapse in time between the actual ministries of the prophets and the composition of the books bearing their names. The prophets were primarily preachers who delivered their oracles orally rather than literary authors. Aaron Chalmers notes that the process by which each prophet’s words became a book is unclear but likely involved three distinct movements: (1) from oral words to written words, (2) from written words to collected words, and (3) from collected words to prophetic book.⁴

The Prophets and the Assyrian Crisis

Israel’s Classical Prophets

*Minor prophets’ names are in bold.

When Israel separated from Judah just after the time of Solomon in 930 BC, Jeroboam I, as Israel’s first king, plunged the nation into apostasy by setting up sanctuaries that centered on the worship of golden calves (1 Kgs 12:25–33). Jeroboam sought to keep his people from going down to Jerusalem so they would not give their loyalties to the house of David, but in the process, he also led Israel away from worship at the place where the Lord had chosen to dwell among his people. Israel would walk this path of apostasy for its entire history, and 1–2 Kings notes that every Israelite king followed in the sins of Jeroboam, his father. Ahab was remembered as Israel’s worst king because he and his wife Jezebel promoted Baal worship in Israel (1 Kgs 16:30–33). Even though Elijah and Elisha as prophets and Jehu as military commander and king helped to purge Baal worship from Israel, the northern kingdom never fully abandoned its idolatry, syncretism, and pagan worship practices.⁵

In many ways, Judah to the south was no better. The people worshipped at the temple in Jerusalem, but syncretism and idolatry plagued the southern kingdom as well. A handful of godly rulers reigned among the kings, but the majority of them neglected to walk in the ways of their father David or do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Social injustice and disregard for the Lord’s commands were problems in both Israel and Judah. Through the prophets, the Lord would provide one final opportunity for both Israel and Judah to return to him, but 2 Kings 17:13–18 reminds us that Israel would not listen and became obstinate like their ancestors who did not believe the Lord their God. Judah likewise would fall under judgment because its people did not keep the commands of the Lord their God but lived according to the customs Israel introduced (2 Kgs 17:19–20).

Assyria began to look westward and to put military pressure on Israel in the ninth century BC. Ahab and a coalition of kings halted the advance of Shalmaneser III at the Battle of Qarqar in southern Syria in 853 BC, but the Assyrians exacted tribute from Jehu of Israel in their western campaign in 841. The military actions of Assyria also greatly reduced the kingdom of Aram-Damascus. This freed Israel from the domination of the Arameans, a people with whom Israel constantly fought. Just after the turn of the century, Assyria began to decline as well, forcing its rulers to deal with internal threats at home rather than focus on military expansion. The weakening of both Aram and Assyria allowed the northern kingdom to enjoy a time of unprecedented prosperity under the long and effective reign of Jeroboam II (793–753 BC).⁶ Jeroboam II recovered the territories that Israel had lost to the Arameans and brought most of southern Syria under Israelite control. Walter C. Kaiser comments, In less than twenty-five years, Jeroboam II was able to take a nation that was just about to die and turn it into one of the great powers of his day.⁷

Territorial expansion was prophesied by Jonah (2 Kgs 14:25–28), but Jonah resisted when he was sent to preach to Nineveh, fearing that God might extend the same mercy to the hated Assyrians that he had shown to Israel (see Jonah 4:2). Many have viewed the Ninevites’ favorable response to Jonah’s preaching as highly implausible. However, Assyria’s troubles—including military threats, revolts by vassal states, political division, and particularly intense food shortages during the years 772–755 BC—likely made the Ninevites receptive to a message of divine judgment.⁸

While Israel thrived under Jeroboam II, Judah experienced similar prosperity under the long and stable rule of Uzziah (also called Azariah) (792–740 BC). Uzziah was also able to enlarge Judah’s army and to carry out successful military operations against the Philistines, Ammonites, and Edomites (2 Chr 26:6–15). This time of unparalleled blessing should have led the people of Israel and Judah to gratefully seek and serve the Lord, but their prosperity instead led to spiritual complacency and an even greater disregard of the Lord’s commands. The wealthy in the land exploited the poor and needy while pretending to worship God. Despite the Lord’s blessing on his kingdom, Jeroboam II did evil in the eyes of the Lord and carried on the apostate practices of his predecessors (2 Kgs 14:23–24, NIV). Uzziah sought the Lord until pride led to his downfall at the end of his reign (2 Chr 26:16), but Judah as a nation also drifted from the Lord because of its wealth and military strength.

Near the end of the reign of Jeroboam II, the Lord sent Amos, a wealthy landowner from Judah, to warn Israel that its apostasy and social injustices would lead to military defeat and exile. The use of an outsider to announce Israel’s judgment reflected both the seriousness of the message and the corruption of Israel’s spiritual leaders. Amaziah, a priest at the sanctuary in Bethel, ordered Amos to stop preaching against the king’s sanctuary and to return home to Judah (Amos 7:10–17). Hosea also began to prophesy in the last days of Jeroboam II, and his ministry continued through the turbulent years that led to the fall of Samaria in 722 BC. Hosea then migrated to Judah and continued to prophesy into the reign of King Hezekiah. Hosea’s symbolic marriage and messages sought to convince the people of Israel that they needed to repent for their spiritual adultery against the Lord through their worship of false gods, disobedience to God’s commands, and entangling alliances with foreign nations.

National disaster seemed like a remote possibility as Israel reveled in a golden age of prosperity, but circumstances quickly changed. An earthquake remembered in later generations occurred two years after Amos’s preaching as a further warning of divine displeasure (see Amos 1:1; Zech 14:5). Jeroboam’s II lengthy reign was followed by a series of bloody assassinations and violent regime changes. The major problem facing both Israel and Judah in the second half of the eighth century BC was the resurgence of the Assyrians under the energetic leadership of Tiglath-pileser III (745–727). In Judah, the Lord called Isaiah to prophesy in 740 BC, which was also the year that King Uzziah died. Isaiah’s vision reminded him that Yahweh was Judah’s true King (Isaiah 6), and he warned the people that getting right with the Lord and trusting in him as their protector was the only way they would survive the coming crisis.

At the zenith of its power in the seventh century BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire controlled all of the Fertile Crescent.

Seeking to throw off Assyrian rule because of the heavy tribute they were forced to pay, Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Damascus formed an alliance. When Ahaz of Judah refused to join the coalition, the armies of Israel and Aram attacked Ahaz in an attempt to replace him with a ruler supportive of the alliance. The resulting Syro-Ephraimite War in 734–732 BC had disastrous consequences for both Israel and Judah.⁹ When the more powerful armies of Israel and Aram attacked Judah, Isaiah counseled Ahaz to trust in the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. Instead, the king appealed to Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria for assistance by sending him treasures from the temple (2 Kgs 16:7–8). The Assyrian army defeated the Syro-Ephraimite coalition, destroying Damascus, killing Rezin, and greatly reducing the territory of Israel (2 Kgs 16:9). After suffering the loss of many troops in the conflict, Ahaz was delivered from the immediate threat, but Judah was now also a vassal of Assyria. Ahaz was one of Judah’s most wicked kings, and during his reign Judah’s apostasy rivaled that of Israel to the north.

The Capture of Samaria (722 BC)

The annals of Assyrian King Sargon II record the capture of Samaria and the subsequent capture of the people of Israel:

The ruler of Samaria . . . defaulted on his taxes and declared Samaria’s independence from Assyria. With the strength given me by the divine assembly, I conquered Samaria and its covenant partner, and took 27,290 prisoners of war along with their chariots.

Israel survived for another decade as a vassal of Assyria, but Hoshea, in conspiracy with Egypt, rebelled against Assyria and refused to pay tribute. Assyrian King Shalmaneser V took Hoshea prisoner and then marched on Samaria in 725 BC, capturing the city three years later (2 Kgs 17:3–6). The Israelites were taken away into captivity, and Samaria became an Assyrian province. Exile was the consequence of Israel’s flagrant apostasy and disregard for the warnings of coming judgment from prophets like Amos and Hosea (2 Kgs 17:7–18).

Judah barely avoided the same fate. Ahaz was succeeded by his son Hezekiah (716–686 BC), who, unlike his father, followed the Lord and refused to submit to the king of Assyria (2 Kgs 18:1–7). The death of Sargon II motivated Hezekiah to rebel against the Assyrians early in his reign. In these early years, Hezekiah wavered between trust in the Lord and reliance on political alliances and military strategies. Isaiah warned that alliances with Egypt would fail (Isa 30:1–3; 31:1–3) and rebuked Hezekiah for showing off the temple treasures as a way of convincing Merodach-Baladan of Babylon that he was a worthy ally against Assyria (Isaiah 39). The Assyrian response to Hezekiah’s revolt was severe. Sennacherib captured forty-six cities in Judah, most notably the military stronghold of Lachish some twenty-five miles southwest of Jerusalem.¹⁰ Hezekiah paid a heavy fine to the Assyrians to spare the city of Jerusalem, but Sennacherib still sent his army to Jerusalem, demanding the surrender of the city in 701 BC (2 Kgs 18:14–35). With Jerusalem surrounded, Hezekiah turned to God and prayed that God would deliver the city (2 Kgs 19:14–19; Isa 37:14–20). Through Isaiah, the Lord assured the king that he would defend it (2 Kgs 19:20–34; Isa 37:21–35). The angel of the Lord destroyed the Assyrian army, and Sennacherib withdrew from the city (2 Kgs 19:35–37; Isa 37:36–38). Critical scholars have viewed the account of the miraculous deliverance as legendary, but for whatever reason, it is clear that the Assyrians did not capture Jerusalem.¹¹

The prophet Micah, from the small village of Moresheth-gath, was a younger contemporary of Isaiah who also ministered in Judah during the days of the Assyrian crisis. Micah warned that because of Judah’s apostasy, Jerusalem and the temple would be reduced to rubble (Mic 3:12) and announced that the only way to avoid judgment was for the nation to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly before the Lord (Mic 6:8). In the following century, the elders of the land recalled that Micah’s preaching influenced Hezekiah’s repentance that had led the Lord to relent from destroying Jerusalem (Jer 26:17–19).

Hezekiah’s courageous faith helped to save Jerusalem, but Judah remained firmly under Assyrian control throughout the seventh century BC. After Sennacherib’s assassination, the Neo-Assyrian Empire remained strong under the rule of Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (669–627 BC). Esarhaddon carried out a number of military campaigns against Egypt and was able to capture Thebes in 671 BC. He died and was succeeded by his son Ashurbanipal while on his way to attack Egypt two years later. In 664 BC, Ashurbanipal recaptured Memphis and destroyed Thebes. In Judah, Manasseh (687–642 BC) succeeded Hezekiah and set about to overturn his father’s religious reforms. Ironically, Manasseh reigned the longest of any king in the Davidic line (fifty-five years) but is also remembered as the worst of Judah’s rulers and the leader who caused Judah to do more evil than even the people who had lived in the land before Israel did (2 Kgs 21:9–11). Manasseh promoted idolatry, filled Jerusalem with violence and bloodshed, and even offered his own son as a sacrifice to the false gods (2 Kgs 21:1–9). Jewish legend states that Manasseh killed the prophet Isaiah at the beginning of his reign, and the years of his rule were characterized by an absence of prophetic voices.

Manasseh became a vassal of Assyria as early as 667 BC. He appears to have remained a loyal vassal to that nation throughout his reign, except for the incident recorded in 2 Chronicles 33:11–13. There, Manasseh was arrested by the Assyrians, taken to Babylon, and then released after affirming loyalty to his Assyrian overlord.¹² The Chronicler also states that the Lord allowed Manasseh to return to Jerusalem in response to the king’s repentance and prayers for mercy. The writer of Kings makes no mention of Manasseh’s repentance, perhaps in order to highlight the wickedness of the king’s character and conduct. The apocryphal Prayer of Manasseh gives expression to what Manasseh’s words of repentance might have been included. The Lord announced that because of Manasseh’s evil he would wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl (2 Kgs 21:13; see Jer 15:4).

The Prophets and the Babylonian Crisis

Reviews for The Message of the Twelve

[lcjohnson1988_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Title: The Message of the Twelve (Hearing the Voice of the Minor Prophets)Author: Richard Alan Fuhr, Jr. & Gary E. YatesPages: 384Year: 2016Publisher: B & HMy rating is 5 stars.A timely commentary if there ever was one! Why? So many focus on the New Testament to the exclusion of the Old Testament; some don’t understand the Old Testament and there are those who struggle through reading let alone studying it. The reason I wanted to read this book was twofold: one is because, “All Scripture is God- breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV). The second reason is that being curious I wanted to read, learn and hoped to use what the authors said as a means of growing in my walk with the Lord.Right from the Preface readers will be able to glean nuggets of truth in the easy manner of the presentation of the material. I would recommend reading the sections that they are teaching from in the Bible before reading the commentary. I found it really encouraging when reading the Preface to learn the authors’ purpose in writing The Message of the Twelve, which was “We have written this overview of the Book of the Twelve for students, Pastors, and all who seek to understand this neglected segment of God’s Word…….Yet, the message of the Twelve is extremely relevant, and its material, while challenging is quite approachable with a little direction.” (pg. XIV-XV).Here is commentary that is written with the academic community in mind, but more for the everyday person seeking to understand what the Word of God is saying and what it speaks to their hearts today. I found that making time to read and study the Word with such aids as this book really helped me grasp the message of the Word. We don’t have to have doctorates to read or understand the Word, God used ordinary, and in many cases, unlearned men to be His vessels to speak the Word and then to write the Word.Thankfully, we now have another tool to help us see that while these twelve books are in the Old Testament they are just as chock full of meaning today as they were way back when. I appreciated the purpose and hard work the authors put into the message the commentary contains so I can expand my understanding. Plus, above all, with The Holy Spirit indwelling believers we have the best Teacher of all to lead us into all truth. I can’t recommend this commentary enough. In the coming year (2017), perhaps you can gift this book to someone you know or ask for it when people want to know what you want to see under the tree!Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255. “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

[lamb521 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Title: The Message of the Twelve (Hearing the Voice of the Minor Prophets)Author: Richard Alan Fuhr, Jr. & Gary E. YatesPages: 384Year: 2016Publisher: B & HMy rating is 5 stars.A timely commentary if there ever was one! Why? So many focus on the New Testament to the exclusion of the Old Testament; some don’t understand the Old Testament and there are those who struggle through reading let alone studying it. The reason I wanted to read this book was twofold: one is because, “All Scripture is God- breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV). The second reason is that being curious I wanted to read, learn and hoped to use what the authors said as a means of growing in my walk with the Lord.Right from the Preface readers will be able to glean nuggets of truth in the easy manner of the presentation of the material. I would recommend reading the sections that they are teaching from in the Bible before reading the commentary. I found it really encouraging when reading the Preface to learn the authors’ purpose in writing The Message of the Twelve, which was “We have written this overview of the Book of the Twelve for students, Pastors, and all who seek to understand this neglected segment of God’s Word…….Yet, the message of the Twelve is extremely relevant, and its material, while challenging is quite approachable with a little direction.” (pg. XIV-XV).Here is commentary that is written with the academic community in mind, but more for the everyday person seeking to understand what the Word of God is saying and what it speaks to their hearts today. I found that making time to read and study the Word with such aids as this book really helped me grasp the message of the Word. We don’t have to have doctorates to read or understand the Word, God used ordinary, and in many cases, unlearned men to be His vessels to speak the Word and then to write the Word.Thankfully, we now have another tool to help us see that while these twelve books are in the Old Testament they are just as chock full of meaning today as they were way back when. I appreciated the purpose and hard work the authors put into the message the commentary contains so I can expand my understanding. Plus, above all, with The Holy Spirit indwelling believers we have the best Teacher of all to lead us into all truth. I can’t recommend this commentary enough. In the coming year (2017), perhaps you can gift this book to someone you know or ask for it when people want to know what you want to see under the tree!Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255. “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”