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Hosea 1:2

When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”

Thought for the day – Welcome to the Minors

Well, yesterday we finished the Major prophets of the Old Testament. Today we start the Minor prophets. Minor prophets (Hosea through Malachi — twelve books) are "minor" purely in terms of length. Obadiah is one chapter. Most run 3–14 chapters. In the Hebrew canon they were traditionally copied onto a single scroll and referred to collectively as "The Twelve," precisely because individually they were short enough that they might otherwise get lost or damaged. It’s also a Christian term. Not something Jewish folk would understand.

And "Minor" is a genuinely unfortunate label if it's misheard as "less important." Amos on justice, Hosea on covenant love, Micah's "act justly, love mercy, walk humbly" — these punch well above their chapter count theologically. It's worth noting because people quietly assume the short books are the theological B-team which they most definitely are not.

So read them with the same attention and value we give other books. They will be difficult in places, but I believe they demonstrate God’s continued involvement in the life of people and even if that’s the only take away. What a takeaway. So welcome to the Minor Prophets folks.

This blog post is part of the Walking the Way Podcast series. All views expressed in this essay are those of the author. This essay is freely available under Creative Commons License with Attribution-ShareAlike, allowing users to share it in other mediums/formats and adapt/translate the content as long as an attribution link, indication of changes, and the same Creative Commons License applies to that material.

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