2024 Week 45

Hello, Springers!

My favorite ice cream shops are the ones that let you try a bite of a particular flavor before you choose. First I sample. Then I choose my favorite flavors. I may get a double scoop just to combine two great tastes.

We have completed our sample scoops of 11 out of 12 minor prophets in our Hit the Books sermon series. Each week, we looked at one passage from each of these prophets to get a sample scoop of the book as a whole. What are you taking with you from this brief overview?

I wanted to make sure you have two more things:

First, you may be a student of history and wonder about the timeline of these prophets and when they spoke to particular kings and kingdoms. Follow this link, and it will take you to a chart that is in the ESV Study Bible that lines up these things.

Secondly, prophets in the Bible always point forward to a fulfillment in Christ. I’ve made my own summary of how we can see this in each book of the 12 minor prophets. How do the 12 minor prophets point us to Christ? But take a minute now and read through the list below.

How do the 12 minor prophets point us to Christ?

Hosea
God pursues his unfaithful people for marriage, ultimately in Christ, the bridegroom of the church.

Joel
Christ is the Lord who will restore the years the locusts have eaten.

Amos
Christ is the prophetic Shepherd who gathers God’s covenant people to himself.

Obadiah
There is a kingly rule on Zion in Christ.

Jonah
Christ is the ultimate prophet who cares for the earth’s great cities.

Micah
God’s justice was accomplished on our behalf at the cross of Christ so we can walk humbly, do justice, and love mercy.

Nahum
Christ is our comfort who has victory over our enemies.

Habakkuk
The righteous live by faith in Christ.

Zephaniah
Christ gathers church for restoration on the Day of the Lord & sings over them.

Haggai
Christ is the one we touch who makes us holy. We are living stones built into a temple where Christ is the chief cornerstone – he is our foundation.

Zechariah
Christ is salvation/high priest; he is both kingly governor, & priest.

Malachi
Christ is the refiner’s fire, launderer’s soap, purifier of priests, & desire of nations.

This week, we will look at our twelfth minor prophet. We skipped over him in the series, but only so that we could come back to his story now. Even people outside the church with little knowledge of the Bible have heard about Jonah, the runaway prophet who was swallowed by a big fish.

We’re going to slow down the pace, and instead of looking at just one passage, we’re going to take four weeks and preach the entirety of Jonah.

If you’re like me, you’ve experienced a time when you felt God calling you, but instead you’ve resisted or run away. This series is for you. God chases down us runaways in order to show us how far his compassion extends.

Do you want to know the God of compassion? See you Sunday!

in Christ,

Pastor Tag