A New Song Zephaniah 3:14–20 The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst. Zephaniah 3:15 Assuming that you are God’s child and are growing in holiness, what follows? In chapter three of Zephaniah, what follows is a song of joy. That is, you are invited to sing and shout aloud, because: “The Lord…

Living by Faith Habakkuk 2:4–5 The righteous shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4 The way of the righteous is the way of faith in God. The way of the wicked is the way of drawing back from faith in God. The first submits to God and trusts God. The second submits to no one….

Waiting for an Answer Habakkuk 1:12–2:1 I will take my stand at my watchpost. Habakkuk 2:1 Habakkuk has gone as far in his reasoning as he can. Now he needs to know more if he is to make progress. So he waits to see what God will say to him. This is worth looking at…

Judgment Nahum 3:1–7 Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts. Nahum 3:5 This is a dreadful thing. It is terrible to have the great God of the universe say, “I am against you.” But it is not only to Nineveh that he speaks those words. He speaks them to all who sin…

A Mighty Ruler Micah 5:2–5 From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel. Micah 5:2 The prophecy of a ruler becomes quite personal. For the issue is not merely whether the one born in this small Judean town so long ago really was a great ruler, but whether…

Wideness in God’s Mercy Jonah 4:1–11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city? Jonah 4:11 God asks Jonah a final question with which the book closes. God said: “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished…

Prayer from the Depths Jonah 2:1–9 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish. Jonah 2:1 Jonah’s prayer has four characteristics of all true prayer. The first is honesty. He acknowledged his trouble and that it was God who had caused it. Then there is penance, which means “confession,”…

Ironic Conversions Jonah 1:1–16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly. Jonah 1:16 Jonah 1:16 seems to mean that the sailors were converted. It means that in an ironic way God was already accomplishing his purposes in spite of the prophet Jonah’s stubborn rebellion. The fact that the sailors were saved is evident in practically…

Your Brother’s Keeper Obadiah 10–15 Do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune. Obadiah 12 The sin of unbrotherliness has small beginnings but it grows. First, there is the sin of standing aloof when your brother stumbles. This first offense leads to a second one—looking down on your…

Are you at ease in Zion?