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True & Beautiful Things About the Bible--Old TestamentSample

True & Beautiful Things About the Bible--Old Testament

DAY 28 OF 30

Jonah, Micah, Habakkuk: God gets personal

God’s messages through the prophets . . . were personal. They were real people with relevant questions who delivered these messages for God, mostly to people who weren’t listening.

Sometimes God first had a message for the prophet.

Like Jonah. Jonah lived shortly after the prophet Elijah in northern Israel. He had seen God do some dramatic ‘call down the fire’ moments and couldn’t wait for God to judge the wicked Assyrians in Nineveh. Trouble was, God called him to preach to Nineveh because He wanted to save them. What? Jonah didn’t want God to save them; He wanted God to reign down fire on them. So, Jonah ran in the opposite direction from Nineveh and, supposedly, from God. The story of the great storm and the fish who swallowed him whole is familiar, but the ending is not. God’s grace surprises us all.

We have Micah to thank for telling us about Bethlehem, 700 years before Jesus showed up there, wrapped in swaddling clothes tucked into a feeding trough. Micah was from just a tiny village, too, but was asked by God to go to Israel’s royalty with the doom and gloom warning that things had to change. Of course, they blew off Micah’s calling out their injustice, greed, and religious leaders who exploited the poor while pretending to follow God. God has told us what He really wants from us, Micah says, “To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” And nobody did that better than the one Micah told us was coming to Bethlehem.

Unlike the other prophets, Habakkuk out right questioned God. He got mad, maybe even stomped his feet. To be fair, Habakkuk lived right before Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. Evil ran like a river, even through God’s people. Habakkuk wondered why God wasn’t doing anything about it. This short book is a long conversation between Habakkuk and God. The biggest lesson we learn is that God’s mercy is a mystery. Our truth, even today, must be defined by God’s final question: Will you trust me with what you don’t understand? Habakkuk’s song at the end is beautiful beyond words.

The lesson from these personal journeys of Habakkuk, Micah, and Jonah are not unique. We can all struggle yet still believe. God still does things His own way. And understanding why isn’t our right, or our job. But trusting Him is our way through.

Next: God’s love doesn’t change, but His methods do.

About this Plan

True & Beautiful Things About the Bible--Old Testament

God’s Word is both. True. In a time when you have to question if it’s real, here’s something you can trust. Verified. Worthy. But it’s also beautiful. So lovely, in fact, you sometimes have to ask, "God loves us like that?" Trace the Bible’s story through 66 books and you’ll see how God is up to something true and beautiful in your life, too. Start here in the Old Testament.

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We would like to thank Barb Peil for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/barb.peil.author/