How much do you know about the minor prophets? Have you read or studied Habakkuk? What is the message of Amos? What does the one chapter book of Obadiah tell us about the Gospel?

The minor prophets are so-called not because they are less important than the major prophets, but simply because their writings are so much shorter than theirs. Yet their ministries were anything but minor – Hosea, for example, ministered for fifty or sixty years.

I suspect that we neglect the minor prophets simply because their world is so foreign to ours, and feels so dark and strange.

For that reason I welcome this book. Anthony Selvaggio  is a pastor in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, and teaches New Testament at the RP Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh. It may seem strange that a New Testament scholar should be writing on Old Testament books – but that is how it should be. Peter tells us, after all, that the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets, and that it was for our benefit that they wrote as they did (1 Peter 1:10-12).

Selvaggio tells us that there are three ways to see Jesus in the minor prophets. The first is by studying prophecies which are cited in the New Testament and which find their fulfilment in Christ, like Hosea 11:1 cited in Matthew 2:15.

A second way is by way of typology, for example, by seeing Hosea’s love for unfaithful Gomer as a type of Jesus’ love for his unfaithful church. The author is aware of the limits and dangers of typology, but he uses this lens well.

A third method is to see how themes can be traced through the Bible; we can see, for example, an emphasis on repentance in the Book of Joel – this is a major theme throughout the Bible, and especially in the ministry of the Lord.

The result is a great exercise in Bible study – twelve relatively short chapters, full of great devotional insight into the Christ of all the Scriptures. Read it for your profit!

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