Description
This is Lesson 46 “I Will Love Them Freely”. This is a commentary on the text in Hosea and Joel, the first two of the twelve minor prophets which we shall consider as we wind down the year’s study of the Old Testament. They are called minor prophets because their books were shorter than the major prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. It doesn’t mean God liked them less or said less to them. They wrote sparingly (no wisecracks here).
In the Hebrew Bible these twelve books are called The Dozen and are on one scroll. These later prophets to the children of Israel were spread over three and half centuries—early 8th to late 5th BC. They aren’t presented in chronological order in our Bible, and we know very little about some of these prophets. For one of them (the last) we probably don’t really know his name. We can only make assumptions about them based on their subject matter, their writing styles and vocabulary, and try to match their message to various historical situations. Amos was probably the first of them and Malachi the last, but following the KJV order we will start with Hosea.
Their messages are not minor or incidental, but are very relevant to us even today. I hope to demonstrate that. We are not familiar with most of them, but their writings played a large role in the Restoration and significantly impacted the authors of the Book of Mormon (Nephi in particular) who had many of these writings on the brass plates with the exception of Malachi. However, Jesus later gave some of the text of Malachi to the Nephites—which is an indication of their importance. They are also quoted extensively by the New Testament writers. It’s worth making their acquaintance.
Hosea is a prophet who lived in scandal to demonstrate true love—his book is a tragic love story about the covenant of marriage that finishes with hope. Joel was a prophet who spoke out of times of ecological disasters and climate change—draw your own lines to our day. He drew those lines out to the signs of the times in our last dispensation. Some speculation, formerly only available in high priests quorums, is inserted here as well. pp.59
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