God's love for His people is amazing. His covenant love for the people of Israel was faithful and true, and it moved Him to punish those who punish His people-the nation of Edom. But His people begin to take Him for granted. In Malachi, God calls the people of Israel to task and gives them two course changes He calls His people to adopt to get back on the right course with Him.

Haggai is the prophet who wrote to repatriated exiles who had come to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of God after 80 years of exile in a foreign land. Enemies from the surrounding people opposed them and they began to drift away from their purpose in returning to Jerusalem. Haggai challenged them to return to their purpose and the Spirit of God moved in their midst - and the people responded. The tmeple was rebuilt and the community grew and flourished.

Zephaniah is unique among the prophets as one having royal blood from one of the great kings of the Southern Kingdom-Hezekiah. He prophesied in the time after the Northern Kingdom had been taken into captivity by the Assyrians. His prophesy gives dire warnings concerning the imminent conquering of Judah soon to come from the Babylonians. But the book of Zephaniah doesn't end with only dire warnings; it ends with a message of hope.

The prophet Habakkuk's faith was being tested as he watched evil flourish around him, both inside his nation and outside in the pagan world. How could God, who is holy, allow such unholy things to be? Was God even listening to the outcry of His people? This book is a dialogue between God and Habakkuk. God takes the prophet's questions and gives insight into what He is doing and how He will address evil in His time and in His way.

The city that had repented after Jonah's preaching had turned back to their wicked ways. While God had been patient with them through their reign of terror, that patience had come to an end. Nahum is proclaiming the demise of a super power and the vengence of God who is jealous for His people. Nahum reveals the righteious response of a Holy God to the wickedness and brutaility of evil men. While the Assyrians absed the people of God, the people of God, the people of God cried out for Him to stop them.

During the season of Micah's prophecy, both the northern and southern kingdoms were overrun with idoloatry and the immoral behavior that went hand in glove with it. Idol worship in the ancient world promoted the polar opposite of what God wants from His people because idols aren't just pieces of wood or metal or stone, there are demonic forces behind them to draw people away from God and His truth.

In Chapter 1, Jonah was dead set on rebelling and running from the presence of God. Because of God's love for the prophet and His compassion for both Jonah and the people of Nineveh, God redirected Jonah to bring him back onthe path of obedience. After a heartfled paryer of repentance in Chapter 2, we find that Jonah obeys. But that's not the end of Jonah's struggle with seeking his own way repentance is reately a lone and done scenario. Changing our hearts and minds required continued growth in God - reshaping us and teaching us to focus more on Him and less on us!

Any nation or person on the wrong wide of God and His kingdom will find that they face terrible days ahead. Scripture reminds us that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

Amos was a simple shepherd from the southern kingdom. He was called by God to bring a message from God to a people who were living in a time of plenty for the wealthy, but a time of oppression and abuse for the poor. The nation prospered temporarily on the backs of the poor, but materialism, immorality, and spiritual decline was rampant. Amos' message to Israel was a call to repentance. While God had been patient with them and longsuffering, their sin brought consequences that would affect them all. The people of Israel needed to hear the word of the Lord and redirect their lives.

God protected Judah from the terrible things that had happened to everyone else because they were uniquely favored by Him. And even though they engaged in the very same sin of idolatry and ignored the warnings of several prophets, God was long suffering. Joes teaches us that while God is compassionate and gracious, He won't allow His people to continue on a path that leads them further and further away from Him - as a loving Father He calls us back to Him.