Ancient Truth: Minor Prophets
By Ed Hurst
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About this ebook
The Bible is Ancient Truth, but must be read in its own ancient context to be fully understood. Even the people among whom Jesus lived no longer understood their own Hebrew heritage because the leadership had embraced Western intellectual assumptions which were then foreign to Scripture. Where we stand today is even more foreign. The burden of responsibility is upon us to travel back into that world, to the context in which God chose to reveal Himself. This volume examines the Minor Prophets in light of those Hebrew mental assumptions.
Ed Hurst
Born 18 September 1956 in Seminole, OK. Traveled a great deal in Europe with the US Army, worked a series of odd jobs, and finally in public education. Ordained to the ministry as a Baptist, then with a non-denominational endorsement. Currently semi-retired.
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Ancient Truth - Ed Hurst
Ancient Truth: Minor Prophets
By Ed Hurst
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2013 by Ed Hurst
Copyright notice: People of honor need no copyright laws; they are only too happy to give credit where credit is due. Others will ignore copyright laws whenever they please. If you are of the latter, please note what Moses said about dishonorable behavior – be sure your sin will find you out
(Numbers 32:23)
Permission is granted to copy, reproduce and distribute for non-commercial reasons, provided the book remains in its original form.
Cover Art: Hebrew Sefer Torah scroll,
by Bejinhan. Used by permission; source.
Other books in this series include Ancient Truth: Isaiah and Ancient Truth: Old Testament History by the same author. Get your free copies at Smashwords.
Table of Contents
Introduction to the Ancient Truth Series
Introduction to the Minor Prophets
Introduction to Hosea
Hosea 1
Hosea 2
Hosea 3
Hosea 4
Hosea 5
Hosea 6
Hosea 7
Hosea 8
Hosea 9
Hosea 10
Hosea 11
Hosea 12
Hosea 13
Hosea 14
Introduction to Joel
Joel 1
Joel 2
Joel 3
Introduction to Amos
Amos 1
Amos 2
Amos 3
Amos 4
Amos 5
Amos 6
Amos 7
Amos 8
Amos 9
Introduction to Obadiah
Obadiah
Introduction to Jonah
Jonah 1
Jonah 2
Jonah 3
Jonah 4
Introduction to Micah
Micah 1
Micah 2
Micah 3
Micah 4
Micah 5
Micah 6
Micah 7
Introduction to Nahum
Nahum 1
Nahum 2
Nahum 3
Introduction to Habakkuk
Habakkuk 1
Habakkuk 2
Habakkuk 3
Introduction to Zephaniah
Zephaniah 1
Zephaniah 2
Zephaniah 3
Introduction to Haggai
Haggai 1
Haggai 2
Introduction to Zechariah
Zechariah 1
Zechariah 2
Zechariah 3
Zechariah 4
Zechariah 5
Zechariah 6
Zechariah 7
Zechariah 8
Zechariah 9
Zechariah 10
Zechariah 11
Zechariah 12
Zechariah 13
Zechariah 14
Introduction to Malachi
Malachi 1
Malachi 2
Malachi 3
Malachi 4
Introduction to the Ancient Truth Series
Mankind is fallen, in need of redemption. The one single source is the God who created us. He has revealed Himself and His will for us, the path to redemption. The pinnacle of His efforts to reveal Himself came in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Most of us understand easily enough that Divine Son was born into a particular historical and cultural setting, one that is frankly foreign to us, and we to it. The distance is more than mere years of time, or language and culture, but a wealth of things that fall between Him and us. At a minimum, we could point out the Post-Modern culture, Victorian feminism, Enlightenment secularism, European feudalism, and Germanic tribal mythology – so much we can point out without much difficulty. What no one in our Western world today seems to realize is the single greatest barrier to understanding Christ is the thing which lies under all of those obscuring layers of influence: Western Civilization itself.
That is, the ancient Classical Greco-Roman world is built essentially on Aristotle and Plato. Those two are not simply alien to the people of the Bible, but their basic view of reality is frankly hostile to that of the Bible. Aristotle rejected Hebrew Scripture because he rejected the underlying worldview of the people God used to write that Scripture.
This book is not a long academic dissertation on the differences; that has been very well covered by far better qualified writers. But this should serve as notice to the reader how our Western intellectual heritage, including our basic assumptions of how a human can know, understand, and deal with reality, is not what’s in the Bible. If you bring that Western intellectual heritage to Scripture, you will not come away with a proper understanding of God’s revelation. If the rules, the essential assumptions, by which you discern and organize truth about your world remain rooted in the West, you will not fully understand the precious treasure of truth God left for us in the Bible.
We do not need yet one more commentary on the Bible from a foreign Western intellectual background; we need something that speaks to us from the background of the Hebrew people. God spoke first to them. He did not simply find the Hebrew people useful for His revelation; He made the Hebrew people precisely so He would have a fit vehicle for His revelation. Bridging the divide between them and us is no small task, but to get readers started down that path, I offer this series of commentaries that attempt to present a Hebrew understanding for the Western mind. Not as some authoritative expert, but I write as another explorer who reports what he has found so far. I encourage you to consider what I share and heed the call to make your own exploration of these things.
A note about Scripture translations: There are dozens of English translations of the Bible. None of them is perfect, if for no other reason translation itself is shooting at a moving target. More importantly, it is virtually impossible to translate across the vast cultural and intellectual gulf between that of current English-speakers and those who wrote the Bible. This author recommends the New English Translation, AKA the NET Bible – http://netbible.org/
Introduction to the Minor Prophets
Their prophetic writings were of no little impact, but were generally shorter and more narrowly focused in scope compared to the four Major Prophets. While it’s possible Obadiah is the oldest, we can’t be sure. But those we know about range all over the history of Judah and Israel, beginning at least as early as 830 BC, and running to Malachi more than four centuries later. Nonetheless, each of these shorter prophetic books echoes the eternal principles, and the call of God to His people to come back and obey the Covenant.
Introduction to Hosea
Hosea was a Northern prophet to the Kingdom of Israel, though he did make reference to Judah. The approximate dates of his ministry were 760-720 BC, starting near the end of the reign of Jeroboam II, ending sometime past Fall of Samaria. He was a little younger than Amos, and somewhat older than Isaiah and Micah. Jonah was probably still alive when Hosea was a boy.
None of us would want to imagine taking Hosea’s place. From the text we gather he married a woman who should have been executed as an adulteress. God commanded Hosea to do what was contrary to good social order, though not precisely contrary to the Law of Moses. He obeyed, and experienced first hand the passion and sorrow of God who was bound by a similar covenant to Israel, both the nation and the kingdom. There are many instances where prophets were commanded to do things unlawful or at least socially shocking, so this is no different. We tend to think of the Law of Moses in Western terms and cannot quite grasp the ancient Hebrew understanding of such things. Hosea did as God commanded, even if he knew it was going to destroy his personal life. The whole point was noting that such a woman lived and operated openly in a kingdom which treated God the same. God also knew what was coming, but proved His own sacrificial love and faithfulness against the idolatry-adultery of the Northern Kingdom.
Hosea 1
Hosea dates himself during a period when the Northern Kingdom was at its peak of power and prosperity. It was also horribly perverted with several temples to the false gods established two centuries before. The temples were busy but it was the poor and defenseless that was being trod underfoot by all this traffic in false piety. Whatever religion they had was a worthless sham.
Not only were these temples an abomination and insult to God, but whole portions of the Covenant of Moses had been thrown out. While some of the rituals were familiar, the meaning was entirely pagan. It was back to the golden calf worship. So it was God commanded His prophet, Hosea, to go and marry a common prostitute. She would be the sort of woman who cared not a whit for genuine sacrificial love, or stability or any other thing among God’s covenant promises. She wanted what she wanted, the luxurious life of a popular hooker. She was a perfect symbol for the Kingdom of Israel.
Their first child was a son named Jezreel, to commemorate the sins of Jehu (2 Kings 10:1-28). Jeroboam II as reigning king was a descendant of Jehu. We have a hard time understanding how it could be said Jehu operated out of zeal for Jehovah, yet what he did to the House of Omri would be done to the House of Jehu. What is so easy to miss is how Jehu’s reform was political in purpose, not a Covenant renewal, because he continued in the sins of Jeroboam I. In other words, his reform was political in nature. The Omride Dynasty had drifted into worship of Baal and his associate, Melkart (then the god of Tyre and Sidon). All he did was reduce the pagan religious options to the original sin of Jeroboam, claiming to worship Jehovah at temples He despised. For this reason, not only the royal house, but the entire kingdom would be broken and taken away in exile.
Then came the daughter, named Lo-Ruhamah (Not Pitied
i.e., no mercy), to symbolize God’s vow to cease protecting the Northern Kingdom, even as He continues to protect the Southern. Judah would be delivered from the same Assyrians about to take Israel. They would be saved by God’s direct intervention, not by any human hand. Yet another son was born later, named Lo-Ammi (Not My People
). The Covenant was irreparably broken.
Yet God then turns and reasserts the promise He made to Abraham, that his descendants would outnumber the sand on the seashore. Since there would be no more Israel, the name would pass to another, New Israel with a New Covenant. Thus, the language at the end of the chapter is completely parabolic, because it would be literally impossible to fulfill any more.
Hosea 2
The first verse here actually belongs with the previous chapter, ending with the promise God shall make a new people for Himself, and they will receive all the mercy He wanted to give Israel.
Then we