400. Majors and Minors, part 2. Israel's prophets were not the type of people to include on your invitation list to a party. The Hebrew prophets denounced evil, corruption, and immorality. The three longest prophetic books, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, along with Daniel and Lamentations, have traditionally been labeled the "Major Prophets." The other twelve books are called the "Minor Prophets."
401. Jonah was cast into the sea by the sailors around him in order to stop the raging sea. The prophet knew God had sent the storm after he refused to go and minister to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. When he was thrown overboard, the sea calmed, but Jonah was swallowed by a huge fish. Many believe the fish was a whale, but it is also possible that it was a shark that "saved" Jonah. He returned to Nineveh after spending three days in the belly of the big fish.
402. The plant that God appointed to grow and shade Jonah after he finished preaching at Nineveh is sometimes translated a "gourd plant" and sometimes a "plant." It is believed that the writer meant for his readers to imagine the castor bean. In hot climates it grows very fast and often seems like a tree, with huge umbrella-like leaves that make wonderful shade. The Hebrews valued the oil of its beanlike seeds and used it widely in lamps and ceremonial rites.
403. Nineveh's demise in 612 B.C. brought the city to its end. Nineveh fell after a two-month siege carried out by an alliance among Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians. The attackers destroyed Nineveh by releasing the Khoser River into the city, where it dissolved the buildings' sun-dried bricks. This was a remarkable fulfillment of Nahum's prophecy: "The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved" (Nah.2:6). Nineveh was lost for well over two thousand years.
404. At the forefront. In the period of the divided kingdom, the focus of the Bible books moves away from the kings to the ministries of a series of "prophets," those who spoke on behalf of God after receiving divine messages through dreams or visions. Prophets tried to counsel-usually with little success-to the rulers and people of Israel and Judah. The prophets became crucial Biblical characters who overshadowed the kings and took their message to the entire nation.
405. Hosea suffered greatly as a prophet. His name means "Save, oh God!" His was a unique task: to marry a prostitute and live as a faithful husband to her. Their relationship paralleled what Israel was doing to God-God was a faithful husband to a harlot nation. Hosea thus could speak from experience and feel personally what great pain God must suffer when His people abandon Him repeatedly.
406. Gomer was the wife Hosea was sent to marry. She bore three children to Hosea, though none of them were likely his own children. God provided names for each of the children, but they were not names to rejoice over. Rather they were fateful reminders of what Israel had become. Their names were Jezreel (in honor of a massacre that took place in Jezreel for which God was going to punish the Israelites); Lo-Ruhamah, which means "not loved'; and Lo-Ammi, which means "not my people."
407. God's chosen people. One of the most significant lines in Amos is the prophet's message to Israel from God: "You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins" (3:2). This is the essence of the Jews' designation as the "chosen people." God's covenant with the people did not entitle them to special favors; rather, being chosen increased their responsibility
408. Amos was the first prophet to have his words written down. One of the more interesting facts about his book is that he used the lion to emphasize that his mission was to bring the Hebrews back to righteousness. No other wild animal is mentioned so often in the Bible as the lion. It appears in thirty-one of the sixty-six books of the New Testaments.
409. Lions were still abundant in the Bible lands when Amos lived, and they ranged from Africa across the Near East to India. In the Holy Land itself, the lion was exterminated by about the time of the Crusades in the Middle Ages. It vanished from Egypt in the last century, and the last wild lion was seen in the Near East was captured in Iran in 1923. Hunting lions was an ancient sport in the Bible lands, and many pictures show them being captured in nets and pits. Like many other Near Eastern monarchs, King Darius of Persia kept a den of lions-into which Daniel was cast.
