Jesus in the books of the Minor Prophets

Jesus in Malachi

Jesus in the book of Malachi – OUR KING OF GLORY! ✝️

Months ago, I set out to find Jesus in every book of the Old Testament. This morning I find myself at the end of my quest, with the book of Malachi. 70 years of exile had ended, and Israel was granted the right to return to their homeland. But during their exile, many had lost their faith. And Malachi was a messenger who warned them. Their problem was nothing new. And it is the same problem we face today.

THE HEART OF THE HUMAN PROBLEM IS THE PROBLEM OF THE HUMAN HEART.

Malachi was a MESSENGER, an AMBASSADOR for God. And he told of another MESSENGER, who would come hundreds of years later, to PREPARE THE WAY for the KING:

“Behold, I send My MESSENGER, And he will PREPARE THE WAY before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His TEMPLE, Even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. BEHOLD, HE IS COMING,” Says the LORD of hosts.” – Malachi 3:1

“There was a man (MESSENGER) sent from God whose name was John. He came as a WITNESS to testify concerning that light, so that all through him all might believe.” – John 1:7

Jesus rode as a King of peace, with palm branches before Him, to the TEMPLE in Jerusalem. A week later, He laid down His life for our sakes. Paul says in 1st and 2nd Corinthians that we as believers are the TEMPLE of the HOLY SPIRIT. Peter calls us as believers “Living Stones”. Indeed, Paul calls us “AMBASSADORS for Christ”.

After rising from the grave, Jesus appeared to the disciples on several occasions. Be for He left them to join the Father, He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. THEREFORE GO and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Folks, we have been commissioned by the King Himself. We have been given a MOST IMPORTANT assignment. Indeed, aside from turning your life over to Him, this is the most important thing YOU will ever do. THEREFORE GO. Make disciples. GO. Go to your job. Go to your Facebook. Go to your friends and neighbors. GO. Go out into the world as a MESSENGER, an AMBASSADOR for Jesus Christ.

When John was still in his mother’s womb, he leaped for joy as He heard the news that his cousin, Jesus was to be born. We share a message of JOY to the world. Of REST for the weary. Of HOPE for the brokenhearted. And we are commissioned to PREPARE THE WAY for the KING OF GLORY to return. BEHOLD, HE IS COMING! – Revelation 1:7 ❤️

Don2021-12-22T21:09:12+00:00Jesus in the books of the Minor Prophets|

Jesus in Zephaniah

Jesus in the book of Zephaniah – OUR MUSIC ✝️

The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. – Zephaniah 3:17

The Prophet Zephaniah preached in Jerusalem in the time of king Josiah, after Josiah discovered the long lost Scrolls of the Law. Those must’ve been exciting times. To find something long lost, to rediscover something that had once been so important. Something of great value; of tremendous worth.

600 years later, Yeshua Jesus told a story:

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” – Luke 15:4-7

My friend, are YOU the lost sheep? Have you strayed far from your Shepherd? The Bible says that the angels in heaven, and indeed God Himself, will rejoice over finding YOU! God paid the GREATEST price imaginable for YOU. It was His perfect plan, for His Glory. For He is The Mighty One who SAVES!

He will rejoice over YOU with gladness, He will quiet YOU with His love, He will rejoice over YOU… with singing. And in return, you will join the heavenly hosts of Angels in worship of the King and sing,

“Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” – Luke 2:14

GLORY TO GOD! ❤️

Don2021-12-22T20:15:49+00:00Jesus in the books of the Minor Prophets|

Jesus in Micah

Jesus in the book of Micah – OUR ETERNAL RULER ✝️

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” – Micah 5:2

The Prophet Micah lived about 150 years before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and 700 years before Yeshua Jesus walked the earth. Yet his prophecies stretched from the beginning to the end of time. For he heralded the one, the Alpha and Omega, The King of kings, the Lord of lords. Micah prophesied of not only the first but the second coming of our Messiah, our Deliverer, Yeshua Jesus.

As magnificent and glorious as Micah’s prophecy is, there are many today who fail to recognize their perfect Messiah. There are those that believe that somehow, Yeshua Jesus was a human genius, or perhaps inspired by a divine force that enabled Him to time each of the more than 300 prophecies He fulfilled…including His birth…perfectly!

Mathematically speaking, the odds of anyone fulfilling this amount of prophecy are staggering.

Mathematicians put it this way:

1 person fulfilling JUST 8 prophecies:
1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.
1 person fulfilling 48 prophecies: 1 chance in 10 to the 157th power.
1 person fulfilling 300+ prophecies: ONLY JESUS!

Friend, their is no human logic to explain it. There is no other religion, no other science, no other philosophy… NO OTHER. Only HIM. ONLY JESUS.

So, dear friend, I humbly submit this to you: If your truly understand the significance of Yeshua Jesus’ fulfillment over 300 prophecies, and the significance of these Prophets, many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, accurately predicting these things, how can you not turn your life over to your Messiah, your Sin – Bearer, your Savior and King, Jesus Christ?

My friend, even now you give me many reasons. But they are all based on human pride, even those cloaked in humility! Deep in your heart of hearts, YOU KNOW I speak the truth. Friend, run to Him, embrace Him, receive Him and His glorious forgiveness.

In the timeless words of the Prophet Micah,

“Where is the god who can compare with you—
wiping the slate clean of guilt,
Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear,
to the past sins of your purged and precious people?
You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long,
for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love most.
And compassion is on its way to us.
You’ll stamp out our wrongdoing.
You’ll sink our sins
to the bottom of the ocean.
You’ll stay true to your word to Father Jacob
and continue the compassion you showed Grandfather Abraham—
Everything you promised our ancestors
from a long time ago.” – Micah 7:18-20 ❤️

Don2021-12-22T15:17:39+00:00Jesus in the books of the Minor Prophets|

Jesus in Jonah and Nahum

Jesus in the books of Jonah and Nahum – OUR MERCY ✝️

“BUT HE answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed, a greater than Jonah is here.” – Matthew 12:39-40

Nineveh was SIN CITY. The Prophet Nahum said this of Nineveh:

The Prophet Jonah said, “… Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.” – Jonah 3:8

Some things never change. Sin is nothing new. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 3:23: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Two things stand out here. First, “ALL have sinned.” We are ALL guilty, like Nineveh was. Second, we ALL fall short of God’s GLORY. Yahweh God desires and deserves GLORY. In fact, Isaiah 49 tells us that OUR SALVATION IS FOR GOD’S SAKE! HE CREATED US FOR HIS GLORY! The Bible is clear: Yahweh God desires, for His own GLORY, that we be restored to a right relationship with Him.

Jesus gave us a sign. A “greater than Jonah”. He “was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. HE DESCENDED INTO HELL. THE THIRD DAY, HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.” – From the Apostles Creed.

Folks, we are hopeless sinners, in desperate need of redemption. We are buried under the disorienting blindness of our sins (Ephesians 2:1), BUT GOD. We are ruled by our self-determination; deceived by the devil (Ephesians 2:2), BUT GOD. We are enslaved to the passions of our flesh (Ephesians 2:3), BUT GOD. We are God’s enemies (Romans 5:10), hating Him (Romans 1:30), and children of His wrath. BUT GOD.

“BUT GOD, being so very rich in MERCY, because of His great and wonderful LOVE with which He loved us, even when we were spiritually dead and separated from Him because of our sins, He made us spiritually alive together with Christ”– Ephesians 2:4-5 amp

My friend, Yeshua Jesus left us a sign, the RESURRECTION. It is well documented in History. Don’t look for another! Jesus said, “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because THEY REPENTED at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed, a GREATER THAN JONAH is here.”

My dear friend, the hour is late. Repent. Yahweh God has left you a WAY BACK HOME… for HIS GLORY. ❤️

Don2021-12-19T13:38:50+00:00Jesus in the books of the Minor Prophets|

Jesus in Obidiah

Jesus in the book of Obadiah – OUR IMMANUEL

“Though you (EDOM) soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD – Obadiah 11:4

King Herod the Great came from the land of EDOM, South of Bethlehem. He married into Judaism for political gain. The Kingdom he built in Jerusalem and Southern Israel was like none before or since. But the Prophet Obadiah predicted the fall of this great King some 600 years before he was born!

EVERY KINGDOM HAS A KING

King Herod tried to kill a newborn in a manger, who was worshiped by Magi and Angels, two centuries ago. He was doomed to fail. The book of Matthew records the royal lineage of Yeshua Jesus. But His credentials exceed human genealogy. The Bible tells us that Jesus “had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of Himself that He had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, He set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, He stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, He lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.” – Philippians 2:5 msg

His birth was supernatural. He life was WITHOUT SIN. His death ATONED FOR THE SINS OF HUMANITY. These are His credentials. It’s one thing to be a Son of David. It’s quite another to be THE SON OF GOD.

Emmanuel, “God with us”, was infinitely rich yet became utterly poor, assumed our humanity, entered our sinful world without ever being tainted. He took our guilt, bore our grief, carried our sorrows, was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our inequities. And by His stripes, we are healed. Emmanuel. God with us. Our King.

EVERY KING HAS A THRONE

Friend, a choice lies before you. Like King Herod, you can remain KING on the THRONE of your own life. And your end will be the same. Or, you can give your life, your throne and your crown to the one who created the universe, the I AM who brought it all into being with a simple WORD. Your rewards will be eternal. Who then, will you choose to serve?

Don2021-12-21T22:21:59+00:00Jesus in the books of the Minor Prophets|

Jesus in Amos

Jesus in the book of Amos – OUR GOD OF THE ANGEL ARMIES

I love the story of the birth of Jesus. I love that each December, hundreds of thousands are retelling that story of the very first Christmas through beautiful pageants, songs, and manger scenes. I love that His story is read out loud by millions of families each Christmas eve. What’s not to like? It is a story of mystery, a star, of angels, of kings and magi. And from the beginning, there was a plot to murder Him by no less than the king himself. Indeed, Jesus was unexpected, unwanted, even hated from the time of His birth by King Herod… who desired to TAKE HIS LIFE.

The prophet Amos was a lot like Yeshua Jesus. He was an unknown, from out of nobody and nowhere important. He was unwanted. Indeed, he was ordered to pick up and go home by the priest of Bethel. But he had an important message for the people. A message of that could GIVE THEM LIFE.

My friends, there are thousands, millions in fact who, like the Christ Child, are unwanted. They will never hear the story of the first Christmas. They will never hear their mother’s loving voice. They will never see their grandchildren in a Christmas pageant. THEY WILL NEVER TAKE A BREATH OF LIFE. Like Yeshua Jesus, they are unexpected, unwanted, even hated. And like the Christ Child, there is a plot to murder them by the rulers of our land.

This Christmas season, the story of the Christ Child challenges us to think about the most unwanted in our society today…. our unborn children. The story of Christmas is the story of the unwanted child. There was no room for Him in the inn. There was no room for Him in the kingdom. No room for Him in the hearts of men. He came, not as the God of Glory that He is, but as a tiny, defenseless, voiceless child. Completely vulnerable. And He felt what it is to be unwanted.

The Prophet Amos looked forward to that first Christmas, centuries later, when a star led the wise men and angels spoke to shepherds about the birth of the Savior: “Behold!”, he said,

“Look who’s here: Mountain-Shaper! Wind-Maker!
He laid out the whole plot before Adam.
He brings everything out of nothing,
like dawn out of darkness.
He strides across the alpine ridges.
His name is God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies” – Amos 4:13 msg

Don2021-12-21T19:13:48+00:00Jesus in the books of the Minor Prophets|

Jesus in Joel

Jesus in the book of Joel – OUR AVENGER

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand– a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come. – Joel 2:1-2

Whenever I think of Yeshua Jesus, I think of Love. I think of what He did for me on the Cross. Indeed, there IS no greater Love than His. He is the Suffering Servant. The innocent Lamb. But the Bible shows us another Jesus, still a man, still bearing the nail scars, as He returns to the earth He created and was crucified upon. This Jesus is riding a white horse, all powerful, commanding a legion of angels. This is what the Prophet Joel predicted, centuries before:

“Before them the earth shakes, the sky trembles, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine. The LORD thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey his command. The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?” – Joel 2:10:11

The Prophet Isaiah also spoke of this day:

“See, the day of the LORD is coming –a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger– to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins… I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger.” – Isaiah 13:9-13

And Yeshua Jesus Himself spoke of it:

“But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken… And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory.” – Matthew 24:29-30

The Prophet Joel looked forward through the Cross, through the Millennia to a time in our future. Yeshua Jesus said of that day,
“no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” – Matthew 26:36

But He also said this:

“You fools! You know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the present times.” – Luke 12:56

My friend, can you see the signs of the times? Can you see the clouds beginning to form on the horizon? We live in a rapidly evolving world. Up until 1900 human knowledge doubled every century. By 1945, it was doubling every 25 years. By 1982, every 12-13 months. Today, human knowledge is doubling EVERY 12 HOURS. The world is changing quickly… But God never changes.

The Bible says,
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” – Hebrews 13:8

Friend, Jesus is your constant in a world that is spinning out of control. Reach through the darkness to find His hand. Colossians 1:17 says He “Holds all things together”. Cling to Him now. Take hold of His nail-scarred hand… before it is too late.

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Jesus in Hosea

Jesus in the book of Hosea – OUR SALVATION

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my Son. – Hosea 11:1

So he (Joseph) got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my Son.” – Matthew 2:14-15

The name Hosea means “Salvation.” The prophet Hosea lived some 700 years before the birth of Yeshua, who’s name also means “Salvation”. Most of us remember this long suffering Prophet for the story of his unfaithful wife, Gomer. God told him to marry her, yet she became an adulteress. Yet Hosea remained faithful to his bride, even as she cheated on him and eventually left him. But God said, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress.” So… he BOUGHT HER with a PRICE. And he loved her back.
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How so is the love of our Lord! When we, by our very nature, throw God’s love away, He redeems us. For GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD… that He gave us Yeshua Jesus. He called Him to humble Himself, become a man… and pay the ultimate price for His bride.

Friend, have you been faithful to Him? How long has it been… since you talked with the Lord, and told Him your heart’s hidden secrets? Has it been so long that you have found other loves? Or have you left him completely?

Ephesians 5:2 tells us, “He (Jesus) didn’t love in order to get something from us BUT TO GIVE EVERYTHING OF HIMSELF TO US.” What kind of Love is that? A tender, longsuffering love that passes all understanding. That is His love for you.

How long has it been? Can you call him your friend? How long has it been…since you knew that HE CARED FOR YOU?

Don2021-12-21T14:49:27+00:00Jesus in the books of the Minor Prophets|