August 6 | Application (‘God’s Holiness and Justice Are Major Issues’)

By David Faust 

The last 12 books of the Old Testament are known as the Minor Prophets, which might imply these books are somehow inferior. Who wants to play baseball in the Minor Leagues if you could play in the Majors? What actor wants a minor role in a movie if he could be a star?  

We call these books the Minor Prophets because of their small size, not because they are unimportant. All 12 books, when combined, equal less reading material than the book of Jeremiah. The ancient Hebrews lumped them all together as one large book, though they were written by 12 different authors.  

Big Lessons from Little Books  

The Minor Prophets are short in length but large in significance. Here are four benefits of reading these books: 

1. They help us appreciate the contributions of lesser-known servants. Characters like Nahum, Zephaniah, and Haggai aren’t well-known like Moses and Jeremiah, but in God’s eyes no one is insignificant. Small contributions matter.  

2. They remind us to respect the gift of conciseness. Don’t you appreciate writers and speakers who express themselves effectively in a few words?  

3. They show us how to exercise the art of confrontation. The Minor Prophets pull no punches. They speak the truth in love while boldly confronting sins like injustice, hypocrisy, complacency, materialism, idolatry, and corrupt leadership. 

4. They remind us to trust God with the future. The Minor Prophets reveal that no matter how bad things become, there is still hope when we turn to the Lord.  

God’s Less Popular Attributes 

Nahum’s name means “compassion” or “comfort,” but his prophecies were hard-hitting. He predicted God would unleash his wrath on the mighty city of Nineveh. About 150 years earlier, Jonah’s preaching led to a far-reaching revival there, but when Nineveh fell back into rebellion and cruelty, Nahum didn’t mince words. He said, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. . . . The Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished” (Nahum 1:2-3). 

We hear a lot of talk about justice today, but seldom does anyone mention that justice is rooted in the nature of God. And we certainly don’t hear much about God’s wrath—his righteous indignation toward sin. In his book Knowing God, J. I. Packer wrote, “To an age which has unashamedly sold itself to the gods of greed, pride, sex, and self-will, the church mumbles on about God’s kindness, but says virtually nothing about his judgment.”  

As a result, we have settled for a tame, lame, less-than-biblical concept of God. Many today view God as an easygoing Grandpa in the Sky—a jolly nonjudgmental Santa Claus. But it’s not our job to tell God who he is. He tells us who he is. Scripture reveals that God doesn’t ignore evil and dismissively wave off injustice.  

There are things we don’t enjoy thinking about, but we need to think about them anyway. Unpleasant truth is truth nonetheless. God is holy and he cannot tolerate sin. Thankfully, he is a gracious, loving Father who doesn’t want to condemn the world (John 3:17), so he sent his Son to save us “from the coming wrath” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). Nahum caught a glimpse of this good news. He wrote, “Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace!” (Nahum 1:15). And there’s nothing minor about that. 

Personal Challenge: Have you ever praised God for his wrath (his righteous indignation toward evil and injustice)? Write or say a prayer and praise the Lord for being holy, just, and fair. Ask him to help you have righteous anger, not the sinful kind, and to show mercy toward others, leaving vengeance in the capable hands of God.