Big Prophet, Little Prophet

I am still in the process of trying to recapture my many Bible-related thoughts during the craziness of wedding month (aka wedding/honeymoon/moving to Arizona/starting graduate school month). Life is still insane, but here is my attempt at getting caught up...

So during the many years of Israel and Judah's (divided kingdoms at the time) disobedience to the Lord after the reign of David, there were many, many prophets both warning the people of God's growing wrath toward the sin of His chosen nation and calling the people to repent to escape this wrath. Soon, Israel was exiled and taken off to foreign lands, and Judah still chose to live in disobedience despite the prophets' pleas: "Look what happened to Israel? Do you want that to happen to you too?"

The latter half of the Old Testament is filled with these prophets' stories, messages, and persecutions suffered as the warnings were not heeded by the indignant, sinful Israelite people. Not only has reading through the chronological Bible allowed me to put the scope of these years in perspective (who was preaching when? to whom? during which king's reign? what was the gist of each prophet's message?), but it has also taught me new things about God's character and His commands. Here are some of my thoughts:

Micah 6:8 - One of the most commonly quoted verses from Micah is from chapter 6, verse 8, "...what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?", but my book commentator's gave me a new perspective. This verse describes the three primary froms of love that God requires: 1. justice (do justice) 2. mercy (love kindness) and 3. faithfulness (walk humbly). I should be just and merciful to others, and faithful to the Lord if I truly love God.

Habakkuk 2:4 - I love the reminder here to live by faith even in the darkest of hours - because "the righteous shall live by faith" even when the world seems to be collapsing all around them.

Zephaniah 1:12 - Relating to Habakkuk's message, Zephaniah reminds Judah, who was facing exile and felt abandoned by God - "The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill" - that God is constantly active in history, despite circumstances that indicate otherwise. What a timeless encouragement for us today as we face the variety of sufferings that we face as humans living in a fallen world.