Who Are The "Minor" Prophets?
The books of these minor prophets are not assembled in chronological order, which makes it a little more challenging to assess their role in the history of Israel and Judah. Some prophets are known because of the actions they took at God’s direction to lead a tribe or the whole nation to accomplish God’s will, such as Elijah and Elisha.
Other prophets proclaimed a message that was recorded and eventually came to be included in the Hebrew scriptures. For prophets whose message became part of the Hebrew scriptures, those prophets have come to be called “the writing prophets.” Among the writing prophets, those with the longer messages are referred to as the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah & Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel). Writing prophets with a shorter message (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi) are referred to the Minor Prophets.
Prophets of the Northern Kingdom (the Northern 10 Tribes of Israel)
As a result of Solomon’s sins, God split the 12 tribes of Israel into 2 nations (931 B.C. and 1 Kings, chapter 12). The northern 10 tribes were called “Israel,” or “Samaria” (and sometimes called “Ephraim” after the largest tribe), and the 2 remaining southern tribes (Judah & Benjamin) became known as “Judah” (part of the tribe of Benjamin was loyal to the northern 10 tribes, and the other part of Benjamin was loyal to the tribe of Judah).
Almost as soon as the 10 tribes became their own nation, their leader, Jeroboam, made 2 molded images of calves for the nation to worship so that the people would not go to Jerusalem to worship (1 Kings 12:25-33). God warned the 10 tribes of Israel that if the tribes did not repent from their sins, especially the sin of idolatry, that He would pull the nation out of the Promised Land and transport them to a foreign land (1 Kings 14:1-15).
The prophets that God used to warn Israel began with Elijah (around 850 B.C.) and then Elisha (around 850-800 B.C.). Between the end of Elisha’s ministry (around 800 B.C.) and the time that the northern 10 tribes (“Israel”) were deported into Assyria (722 B.C.), God sent 2 prophets (Jonah & Nahum) to warn Israel’s foremost enemy, Assyria. During that same period (800 B.C. to 722 B.C.), God sent 2 other prophets (Amos & Hosea) to rebuke and instruct the nation of Israel itself.
God sent the prophet of Jonah (784-760 B.C.) to the Assyrian city of Nineveh (Israel’s enemy) to warn them of coming destruction if they did not repent. Indeed, Assyria was known for its cruelty. Of course, Jonah was a reluctant prophet since he refused to go to Nineveh when God first instructed him to do so. Jonah knew that God was merciful (Jonah 4:2), and Jonah may have thought that repentance by Assyria would lead to God postponing judgment. And if Assyria escaped judgment, then Assyria might eventually destroy Israel.
God sent Jonah to confront the nation of Assyria with the message, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4). This intervention did result in Nineveh’s repentance (Jonah 3:5-10) demonstrating that God’s grace and forgiveness was not just for Israel but was also available to the Gentile people (Jonah 4:11). God also demonstrated that while a pagan city would repent at the preaching of a foreigner, Israel would not repent despite several messages by her own prophets.
As Jonah’s rebuke to the enemy nation of Assyria was coming to a close, God sent the prophet Amos (763-755 B.C.) to Israel itself to warn Israel of their idolatry. The first 2 chapters of Amos proclaim judgements against Israel’s enemies (1:2-2:5), and eventually against Israel itself (2:6-16), using the phrase, “For three transgressions … and for four.” Then in chapters 3-6, Amos proclaims God’s description of the sins of the nation of Israel. Of course, to walk with God we must confess our sins, and therefore, we must agree with God on what He defines as sin. Therefore, Amos asks “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed (Amos 3:3)?
Finally, in chapters 7-9, Amos talks of the judgements that God will bring on the nation of Israel, but also how one day in the future God will restore Israel (Amos 9:11-15). That restoration of Israel appears to take place in the millennial kingdom when Christ returns to rule as king of this earth. The restoration will include a time of such great abundance that when it comes time to plant crops, the farmers will still be harvesting the previous season’s crops! (Amos 9:13)
After Amos finished his ministry to Israel, God then sent Hosea (755-710 B.C.) to warn Israel of their sins. In the book of Hosea, God instructed the prophet Hosea to marry a woman who would eventually become guilty of adultery (Hos. 1:2-3), then to buy her back as a slave (Hos. 3:1-2), and bring her back into a loving, faithful relationship (Hos. 3:3) by speaking words of comfort to her (Hos. 2:14). God then uses this relationship as a metaphor to illustrate that Israel was unfaithful to God, but that after a period of judgement, God will one day (in the future) bring Israel back to a faithful relationship with Himself (Hos. 2:19-23). Hosea’s unfaithful wife, Gomer, clearly symbolizes unfaithful Israel.
Hosea, chapter 4, details Israel’s sins, and chapter 5 describes Israel’s coming judgment. After a brief request for repentance (Hos. 6:1-3), chapters 6-10 further describe Israel’s sins and approaching captivity. That captivity occurred in 722 B.C. when Assyria conquered Israel’s 10 tribes and relocated them to Assyria. Hosea, chapters 11-14, look forward to a time in the future when Israel is restored to a faithful relationship with God. However, this may not happen until Christ returns at His 2nd coming to set up His millennial kingdom.
The book of Nahum returns to the setting of Nineveh in Assyria. When God used Jonah to confront Nineveh (probably around 760 B.C.), the people and leaders of Nineveh responded in repentance and the Lord graciously granted revival. However, after approximately a hundred years, the people and leaders of Nineveh gradually returned to idolatry, arrogance and violence (Nahum 3:1-4), and the Lord sent Nahum to predict God’s judgement on the people of Nineveh. That judgement eventually occurred when the rising power of the Babylonians, led by king Nabopolasser (and his son Nebuchadnezzar), crushed the Assyrians at the battle of Nineveh in 612 B.C. The book of Nahum is the sequel to the book of Jonah.
The kingdom of the northern 10 tribes fell in 722 B.C. after the Assyrians completed a 3-year siege of the Samaritans (2 Kings 17:5). Scripture records that the Lord threw the northern tribes out of the Promised Land (2 Kings 17:6) because of their idolatry, child sacrifices, and the practicing of witchcraft and fortune-telling (2 Kings 17:7-23).
(Note: all scripture quotations are from the New King James Version).