Tell a friend you are using the Minor Prophets for your Bible Study, and if they don’t say, ‘Who are they?’ may well ask, ‘Whatever for?’ Why bother with some relatively unknown scraps of text, by entirely unknown authors, 2,500 years ago, in a language grasped by very few, living and working in a totally different culture and environment from today?
But when Rowan Williams was asked whether the church should make comments on secular issues (‘Bishops would do well to stick to religion and keep out of politics’), he said, ‘if the comments on matters of public interest, it can trigger the question, 'Where does that come from?' Can you trace it to something distinctive in the religious heritage?’
The Bible is one crucial part of that Christian heritage (church tradition is another) and the prophets made a significant contribution to it. They also formed a substantial part of the Jewish faith in which Jesus was nurtured and was formative in the history of the early Christian church. To study them is to dig back into Christian roots for guidance and enlightenment and when we do we find that they were addressing fundamentally the same issues as we are addressing today and still still have something positive to say on the subject.
For example, in twelve small books you can
Explore Relationships with Hosea or face Disaster with Joel
Turn to Amos, Obadiah Nahum for Human Rights
or listen for the Voice of the Voiceless with Micah
When answers don’t come let Habakkuk teach you how to wonder and wait
Malachi and Haggai offer a different vision, Zephaniah has a Charter for Change
and Zechariah offers the Marks of a New Age
Finally let Jonah help you to identify your Nineveh Moment.