19 Apr The Heart of God
A prophet is one who speaks for God. Stepping into the Major Prophets is like stepping into a war. There is a nation heading in a direction away from God whose people are bent on moral and spiritual depravity and ultimately destruction. On the other side is the prophet, a courageous, dynamic man who is trying desperately though powerful messages and examples to turn the people back to safety, to spiritual vitality, to peace and joy. Throughout the pages one can sense the prophet’s deep love for the people, a love that is willing to sacrifice reputation, time, energy… sometimes his own life.
The five Major Prophets consist of four books written by some pretty impressive men: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. These men lived in different periods and wrote from different places yet their messages all cry out from the heart of God. The little book of Lamentations is a book of laments, of poetry written by Jeremiah as he witnessed the horrific destruction of Jerusalem. It is included in the Major Prophets immediately following the Book of Jeremiah. These prophets clearly disclose man’s sin (then and now) but also paint in vivid detail the gracious, loving and longsuffering God who will not allow sin to go unpunished, for He is a God of justice, tenderly wrapped with strands of grace and forgiveness. These five books are called “major” simply because they are considerably longer than the remaining twelve prophetical books.
The five books of the Major Prophets cover a significant time span and present a wide array of messages – from warnings 150 years before the exile into Babylonia, encouragement during the exile, and eventual restoration. Workbook on Amazon