Minor Prophets

After King Solomon's death, the kingdom divided. The 10 northern tribes become known as Israel and the 2 southern tribes as Judah. Right around the time of the divided kingdom, the fog begins to creep into my memory as to what comes next. Even though we are only two-thirds of the way through the Old Testament, the stories and characters are jumbled into disjointed events. I had no idea historically how the remainder of the Bible stories and characters fit or their relevance to the theme of the Bible. Happily, sprinkled into the mixture of Sunday school fog are the great stories of Elijah and the 'showdown' at Mount Carmel with the false prophets of Baal. I even recall Elisha calling a 'she bear' to maul some mean boys for calling him "baldy" and if I remember correctly, Elisha did have a bald head. Every one remembers the story of Daniel in the lions' den although probably could not tell you where it fits into God's big picture of the Bible, and then...and then...well, now we come to the problem. For some reason all those great Old Testament stories with their colorful characters come to a sudden stop. Students find themselves leaping over a giant gap of several hundred years right into the New Testament to be introduced to the births of John the Baptist and baby Jesus.So, what happened? How did we get from Old Testament into the New Testament so quickly? What's in the gap? What is the deal with those 12 little books, the Minor Prophets, located behind the lengthy books known as Major Prophets? Other than a quick lesson about Jonah and the big fish, I couldn't tell you what those 12 little books are about or even why the Holy Spirit bothered to have them written and placed in the Bible.The Minor Prophets are packed full of references to the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. These books should give hope and comfort to God's faithful. They teach us that even though man's sins require punishment, God cares for His faithful, even during the hard times of judgment. God loves us so much that He sent His only Son, the perfect sacrifice, to die as payment for our sins (John 3:16).