"For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit."— 2Peter 1:21 (ASV)

Prophecy covers fully one-fourth of the Bible’s pages. The prophet in ancient Israel was a commentator on current events and often functioned as the conscience of the nation. As a result, he generally spoke to the situations of his time. However, as Peter notes in the text above, they were moved in these utterances by the holy spirit. This overruling gives their prophecies significance to later events. Thus a study in prophecy requires at the same time a study in history, linking the events of the past to the greater realities of the future.

Professor Unger in his Bible Dictionary says of the prophetic office, "The prophets frequently appeared in the role of social and political reformers, stirring preachers of righteousness and religious revivalists, in addition to being predictors of judgment or blessing, as the occasion demanded. The prophet’s message was ever religious and spiritual, announcing the will of God to men and calling for complete obedience. . . . The genius of prophecy was . . . a prediction of the future arising from the conditions of the present and was inseparably connected with the profoundly religious and spiritual message the prophet was called to proclaim to his own generation."

They were bold men. They spoke out relentlessly against national sins and individual laxity. They were often persecuted by those in authority. Ignoble kings replaced them with false prophets whose loyalty they bought by putting them on the royal payroll. God’s prophets were, perhaps, the most influential men in ancient Israel.

The last twelve books of the Old Testaments are called the "minor prophets." The term "minor" hardly fits the group. Their message had a major effect. The term is given, perhaps, to distinguish them from the much longer books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Two of these "minor prophets," Hosea and Zechariah, even contain more chapters than Daniel, the last of the major prophets.

In this issue of THE HERALD several of the books of these prophets are examined. These are not meant to be exhaustive treatments, nor is there space to scrutinize all of their writings. The choice of which ones to look at in detail was arbitrary. You will find articles on Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Haggai.

Not all "minor" prophets wrote books. A few are not even mentioned by name. Not all were men. Deborah and Huldah were notable among the female prophets. The verse by verse Bible study deals with one prophecy by an unnamed woman, probably Bathsheba, whose prophetic words are recorded in the last chapter of the book of Proverbs. The article examining her words is entitled Wise Words to a Wayward Son.

Hopefully this issue can incite our readers to a more diligent study of these shorter books of the Bible as the editors place these articles before you. As one of these so-called "minor prophets" has written, "Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7).