What is the core message of the Major Prophets?

And here it was that the ministry of the prophets came in. They testified against the sins of the nation and its kings, foretold the judgments by which those sins were to be punished, and called both kings and people to repentance. Further, for the comfort of any who, either then or afterwards, should hearken to their voice, they foretold the glories of the coming kingdom of the true Son of David, the heir of all the blessings promised to David and his seed. This prophetic ministry in its most definite form began with Isaiah (in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah), and includes his prophecies, with those of Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Micah.

The major and the minor prophets, and the many prophetic psalms, clearly reveal God’s mind for His people, and foretell the captivity and restoration of Israel. Israel’s blessing in the future would be based on the new covenant, and this because of the Person and work of Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The rise and fall of the great empires is clearly foretold in Daniel, as is also the judgment of the nations in Zechariah and other prophecies.

The references to preceding prophecies by Isaiah, Amos, and Joel, are numerous in so short a prophecy. The harmony and entire agreement in the prophetic books of the Old Testament are well worth consideration, as evidencing that one Divine mind and purpose characterise all Scripture. The great themes of all the prophets are iniquity, judgment, and glory, and Zephaniah finely descants on these subjects. In the main the burden of his prophecy is the "great day of the Lord," the day of Jehovah's anger — an expression common to all the prophets, and signifying the future period of judgment. It is, therefore, pre-eminently a book of judgment, but glory triumphs in the end. The judgments predicted by this prophet are not only general and universal in their range and extent, but are also minute and particular — none escape. Thy land and people, O Immanuel, will yet be the objects of Thy joy, and the rest of Thy love!

As to the scope of Isaiah's prophecy, it has a rich comprehensiveness and grandeur in keeping with his style. Beyond all others he takes in the vast range of divine plans for the glory of Christ, and a minute as well as a most extensive view of the necessary judgement of the nations. Jeremiah and Ezekiel, though speaking of the Gentile judgements, are not occupied as Isaiah was, with the crisis of Jerusalem when God gave up His people, even the portion who still clung to the house of David and the sanctuary in Jerusalem, now alas! rebellious and idolatrous beyond remedy. Daniel, starting from the same crisis, fills up the gap they leave, and reveals the Gentile powers entrusted with the government of the world outwardly, whilst Jehovah no longer governs directly within His people on earth, before Israel is restored to more than pristine righteousness, peace, blessing, and glory. Hosea, Amos, and Micah variously traverse part of the ground occupied by Isaiah, as they also were more or less contemporary. Obadiah, Jonah, and Nahum testify judgement to the world in one form or another. Joel and Habakkuk concentrate their witness on the last days, one starting from the great northern army that ravaged Israel, the other with the faith that if the Chaldean is the needful chastiser of the guilty people, God will assuredly deal with his oppressive wickedness, and glorify Himself in His people whatever appearances may say. Zephaniah, in predicting this judgement of guilty Jerusalem and of the nations, proclaims their blessing when God converts and delights in the restored remnant of Judah. The three prophets of the return, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, only speak of the Jews as God's prophetically. Haggai encourages them to build Jehovah's house in view of His coming glory, when He will shake all nations. Zechariah, in noticing the Gentile powers, returns in a measure to symbol like Daniel, and does not abandon this mystic style even in depicting the Jews throughout the first prophecy (Zech. 1—6) In the next, to the end of the book (Zech. 7—14) Christ is brought in, both in His humiliation, and in the glory of His second advent, when the nations are judged, Jerusalem sanctified, and Jehovah reigns. Malachi testifies to the hypocrisy and corruption of the returned Jews, but distinguishes a godly remnant, and recalls to the law in view of the speedy coming day of the Lord.

We find thus in the prophets (taking a moral view of their subjects), first, the judgment of the people in general, the house of David being spared for a time, God raising up Hezekiah; and on this occasion the true Son of David is announced. This is contained in Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, and Micah. Secondly the judgment of Jerusalem, and the substitution of the Gentile monarchy, the people of God being entirely set aside; Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel; the last discussing all the great principles of relationship with God, and the destiny of all Israel as a land and nation. Thirdly, the judgment of the world—Jonah, Nahum, and Obadiah. Fourthly, the desolation of the last days, by the northern army, and the judgment of the nations; followed by the temporal blessing of Israel, and, in the Spirit, of all flesh. This is Joel. Fifthly, the chastisement of God's people by the successful violence of the man to whom God allows power for this purpose. The spirit of the prophet, overwhelmed by the evil which he beholds in the people, and yet, still more so when they are oppressed by their haughty enemies, understands that the just shall live by faith; and that this oppression was needed to chastise the evil, and to allow the pride of man to reach that height of iniquity which leads to the judgment that annihilates his pride for ever. This is Habakkuk. The last chapter is the expression of the sentiments produced by this instruction—the desires, the recollections, and the confidence of faith; a faith that rests on God Himself, in the midst of all those exercises of heart to which the history of His people gives birth in the faithful. Precious consolation, when we think of all that invests itself with the name of God! We next find, sixthly, that which appertains to the special circumstances of the Jews, who have been brought back to Jerusalem in view of the coming of Christ, and the consequences of that coming, as well as of the people's own responsibility with respect to the circumstances in which they already stood:—Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

Whatever the character of "the present testimony" of the prophets was, as varying to suit the declension and final departure marked on the sliding-scale of Israel's apostasy; yet the original testimony to Jehovah Himself, and His purpose to lead and establish His people in unfailing blessing (as well as to judge and destroy all their enemies, from Pharaoh to Anti-christ) was introduced, and shone out brightly here and there, to sustain the faith of the remnant, and guide their hopes to a yet future day.

Thus reads the beginning of the book. The Lord makes known to those escaped of Judah that He has been very wroth with their fathers because they had not listened to His prophets. Would these few who remain also fall into the errors of their fathers, or would they now listen to the word of the Lord? Here there is actually no mention of the law, for we ought not to confuse the prophets with the law. Doubtless, the prophets set the law and the testimony before the people so as to make a serious appeal to Israel’s conscience during a time of ruin. But simultaneously they brought God’s grace and mercy to the attention of the people. Israel had failed, but the Lord could not fail.

Although His judgments had become necessary, He wanted to realize His counsels of grace toward the people. The prophecy does not merely consist of a series of words of the Lord to the guilty people to awaken the conscience and to announce the judgments that would come over them, but it has also as purpose to encourage the heart of the faithful ones by making known to them what God will do for them. “Return to Me,” we read in these verses, “and I will return to you.” That goes much farther than the principle of the law. During the dispensation of grace these words are just as true as they were then, and we too ought to pay them serious attention.

“Return to Me, and I will return to you.” What have we done with the testimony the Lord has entrusted to us? Is there much difference between our decline and that of Judah’s fathers? Did we keep what God has given in our hands? There is no doubt about the answer. Did we labour on the house of the Lord, or have we built our own houses, the thing of which Haggai accused the nation? Alas, just like those who had returned from Babel, so we have sought to make ourselves comfortable in the world. What are we to do now? Return to Him! The way is open. Is it then entirely impossible to judge ourselves and to take up again that of which we should never have let go? If we heed this call we will receive a reward: “I will return to you, says Jehovah of hosts.” If the search for our own interests has caused us to lose fellowship with the Lord, it is essential that we seek it again. If, due to our failure to look after the Lord’s interests our hearts have become dry through the world’s influence; if we have given entrance to “idols,” then let us judge are ways and return to Him. Then He will return to us and we will once again enjoy the riches we did despise.

"He is preeminently the man that hath seen afflictions (Lam. 3:1). He witnessed the departure one by one, of all his hopes of national reformation and deliverance. He is forced to appear as a prophet of evil, dashing to the ground the false hopes with which the people were deluded. Other prophets, Samuel, Elisha, Isaiah, had been sent to arouse the people to resistance. He has been brought to the conclusion, bitter as it is, that the only safety for his people lies in their acceptance of that which they think is the worst evil, that brings on him the charge of treachery. If it were not for his trust in the God of Israel, for his hope of a better future to be brought out of all this chaos and darkness, his heart would fail within him. But that vision is clear and bright, and it gives to him, almost as fully as to Isaiah, the character of a prophet of glory. He is not merely an Israelite looking forward to a national restoration. In the midst of all the woes he utters against the nearby nations, he has hopes and promises for them also. In that stormy sunset of prophecy, he beholds, in spirit, the dawn of a brighter day. He sees that, if there is any hope of salvation for his people, it cannot be by a return to the old system and the old ordinances, divine though they had once been. There must be a New Covenant. That word, destined to be so full of power for after ages, appears first in his prophecies. The relations between the people and the Lord of Israel, between mankind and God, must rest, not on an outward law, with its requirements of obedience, but on an inward fellowship with Him and the consciousness of entire dependence. For all this the prophet saw clearly there must be a personal center. The kingdom of God could not be manifested but through a perfect righteous man, ruling over men on earth. They gather round the person of Christ, the Jehovah Zdidkenu--THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, the Son of David, Israel's coming king."

Like the other minor prophets, judgment is announced first, followed by exhortations to repentance, with the promises of glory for the remnant of His people when the day of Jehovah is passed and the Lord is King over all the earth. He proclaims the judgment to come for the whole earth, as well as upon Judah and Jerusalem, and then gives a fuller description of the day in which that judgment is to be executed, the still future day of Jehovah. As we have seen, Obadiah and Joel are the earliest prophets, and both announced the day of Jehovah. The last of the prophets before the captivity bears his additional testimony to the same day, describing it as a day of wrath, of trouble and distress. This is the first chapter.

First, various nations are summoned, as it were, for judgment; the Syrians, Philistines, Tyre, Ammon, Moab, and Edom. But if God must in justice judge the nations, then Judah and Israel must also be brought before His throne, and judgment be meted out in perfect truth and impartiality. Yet the prophecy, in common with all prophecy, ends with the victory of God over evil, and the eventual restoration of Judah and Israel by the power and grace of God.