“I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth, says the LORD. I will sweep away humans and animals, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea.” (Zephaniah 1:2-3) Here are the first words we get from the ninth of our Minor Prophets. There is no preamble. No icebreaker. From the first breath the prophet takes, there is undoing. We see Genesis 1 happening in reverse. At the word of God, creation is folding back…

In the Minor Prophets, what we mostly encounter is a word from God to the people of God. But Habakkuk is more conversational. Before God can offer his own word, the prophet jumps in. “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?” (Habakkuk 1:2) The prophet looks around and sees insidious violence done to God’s people when they are at their weakest. The people are praying, praying to the God who sees the downtrodden,…

Nahum is the book Jonah wished he could have written. While Jonah was called to wrestle with the abundant mercy of God toward the wicked city of Nineveh, Nahum is the one to prophetically announce Nineveh’s impending downfall. “Concerning Nineveh… the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries… they will be cut off and pass away.” (Nahum 1:1, 2, 12) “The LORD is slow to anger” was Jonah’s complaint (Jonah 4:2), taken from a famous poem in Exodus 34. Nahum draws…

In true prophetic fashion, Micah takes our imagination, what we consider to be possible, and stretches it – not to its limits, but far past its limits. In Micah’s day, there is immense corruption among Israel’s power structures. The monarchy, the priesthood, the royally appointed prophets (of which Micah is not one) – they all carry out their work for the highest bidder. “Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob… who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with…