Major Points from the Minor Prophets

After fourteen Christian apologetics titles in the past ten years, John Blanchard has turned his attention to what a friend of his used to call the Bible’s ‘clean pages’ — the Minor Prophets.
Although the Minor Prophets occupy about twenty-five per cent of the Old Testament they rarely get Christians’ close attention, which is a great pity because although they were written between 400-400 BC their message is powerfully relevant in the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Some were directed to Israel prior to the nation’s exile in 722 BC, some to Judah prior to its exile over a century later, and some to Judah after its return from exile but Blanchard shows that they pressed home five important themes. These were God’s sovereignty, his inevitable punishment of sin, his amazing love, his passionate call to true repentance and faith and the glorious promises of coming of the coming of Messiah and of his final return to the earth.
In nearly 300 pages Blanchard sketches in each author’s background, burden and style, then in each case pinpoints one particular sentence that qualifies as a ‘major point’ and expounds it in such a way that it contemporary relevance cannot be missed.