Minor prophets-major message
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, October 1, 2014
By Neil Strohschein
In the world of professional sports, players who are not good enough to play in the major leagues are assigned to minor league teams within the parent team’s farm system.
No minor league player wants to spend his or her entire career on the farm. They want to sharpen their skills and do enough to get a one-way ticket to the major league team. Only a few are able to achieve that goal—those who aren’t will play for a while (usually for several different minor league teams) and then retire; letting their dreams and ambitions for a major league career retire with them.
Those who cover sporting events for major newspaper, radio and television networks focus on those who play for the major league teams. Minor leaguers are often overlooked until they join the big league team.
Biblical scholars often treat the Old Testament’s “minor prophets” in the same way. Their books are shorter—one (Obadiah) contains only one chapter. Their subject matter is often very specific. They are addressed to different people, in different periods of history. Some contain words of encouragement; the rest identify specific sins, name those responsible and announce the punishment God intends to bring on them.
But these books (12 in all) share one thing in common. They may be minor in size and scope, but they contain a major message—one to which people of all generations should pay attention.
No one expressed that message better than the prophet Micah. When asked what God requires of those who profess to believe in him, Micah replied: “He asks three things—do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8) Justice, mercy and humility are three things God asks of us all.
First is a commitment to build and maintain a “just” society; a society in which every person is treated with dignity and respect; a society in which everyone has equal rights under the law; a society in which those who suffer any form of injustice can count on the courts to hear their case and take appropriate action; a society free of racism, prejudice and all forms of discrimination. We must never leave the task of building a just society to governments alone. This is a task to which God calls all of us and we must take this responsibility seriously.
Second is a choice to abandon the “Don’t get back, get even” attitude that prevails in our world. Historians tell us that one of the major causes of World War II was the treaty that ended World War I and the conditions it imposed on Germany. That treaty, we are told, was the spark that lead to the rise of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party and catapulted Adolf Hitler into power. We all know what happened next.
I wonder how many school yard scraps, street fights, gang wars, civil wars or world wars could be prevented if people would just sit down, talk to each other, listen to each other, and work out their differences in a just and peaceful manner. If just one dispute could be settled this way, it would start a trend that would change society.
Third is a choice to walk humbly with God. I conclude with a quotation I came across many years ago: “Today is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God and to God’s world.” Walking humbly with God is where we begin. When we do that well, a just and caring society could well be the end result.
