The Book of the Twelve for Lent 2016
Hosea (1) No, the Book of the Twelve is not some new archaeological discovery, fantasy novel or self-help program. It is the name scholars give to what most of us call the twelve books of the “Minor Prophets.” You know, there those short books tucked in the very end of the Old Testaments after the longer, “Major Prophets,” of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Daniel is not considered a “prophetic” book in the Hebrew Bible even though it is included among them in our Bibles. The twelve “Minor Prophets” are considered to be one book, and hence, a fourth prophetic “book” along with the three “Major Prophets.” We read them, then, both as individual writings and then as “chapters” in a larger book. It is these chapters we will use to guide our Lenten reflections this year. The great theme and pattern of the Bible is Exodus – Exile repeated over and over again through Israel’s ...