Obadiah~ prophet to Esau's descendants

The next picture we see is Obadiah. Obadiah was a prophet to Edomites who were descendants of Esau. They lived in the land of Edom which was in the mountain region southeast of the Dead Sea. It's capital was Sela was set high on a mountain which could only be gotten to by a narrow gorge. This made those who lived there thinking that they could not be attacked at all, and was proud of the fact . So it was quite unthinkable to them when Obadiah  prophesied that they would indeed be invaded and destroyed.

Obadiah was sent to the Edomites after they had attacked Judah.This made God angry, so he sent Obadiah to preach to them of their sin and God's judgement if they did not change their ways. It was God's last try to get them to come to Him. This took great faith and courage as Obadiah was from the land in which they had attacked. Most people would have not gone to the enemy and delivered God's message to them, But Obadiah did.

Unfortunately, the Edomites did not listen to Obadiah and they were destroyed in the 3rd and 5th century's. King Herod, of Jesus' day, was a descendant. But, you could not find them there at all after 70AD, and the land became part of the Israelites' land. So Obadiah's prophecies came true.

Amos~ a brave prophet

Next on the wall of the great hall of faith, we see the prophet Amos.

Amos was a lowly herdsman and gatherer of figs when God called him to be a prophet of God unto Israel (Amos 7:14-15). Amos must have been pretty close to God for God went and spoke to Amos one one one (Amos 1:3, 6, 13; 2:1, 4, 6). Amos was obedient in delivering the hard messages to the Israelites after they had split from Judah and turned to a false God. These messages spoke of the judgements that Israel would endure because of their lack of faith. We can read these messages all thorough the book that carries his name. Amos had to have a lot of faith to obey God and deliver these message during the time that both King Uzziah & King Jeroboam son of Joash  were kings as both were evil men, and were having prophets killed during that time. Yet Amos remained true to his calling. That is why he is in the great hall of faith!

Joel~ the prophet who was called to deliver a fatherly message from God to the people of Judah

The next man we see here on the wall is Joel. Joel was the son of Pethuel. Joel was a prophet during the reign of Uzziah over Judah ( Joel 1:1; 2 Chron. 26). Joel was called to deliver a message form God.. As "I" read the book that Joel wrote,"I" think that" I" am seeing God in a Fatherly role trying to lovingly warn his children of the punishment that they will endure if they don't turn from their wicked ways and obey Him. This message was before they were carried off into exile."I" believe that this took a lot of faith as he was called to do so during a time when the kingdom seemed to be doing fine, because Uzziah had started out being a king that did right in God's eyes (2 Chron. 26:4). But Joel was not called to minister to the king, but the people of the land, and that is exactly what he did.

Because God didn't want His people to be without hope, He had Joel tell of how He would deliver them when the time of punishment was over (Joel 3). So Joel left them with the promise of being restored back to a relationship to God. What a wonderful way to end your ministry!

Note from Author

Hi!

If you are enjoying this blog, you might want to check out my other blog. You can find it at

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Blessings!

Toni Whitacre-Kratochvil

Hosea~ A prophet's whose marriage was an example of Israel's unfaithfulness.

Another prophet we see the picture of on  the wall of our long hallway is Hosea. Hosea was the son of Beeri. Hosea was called & served as a prophet during the time that Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah reigned in Judah & Jeroboam son of Joash reigned in Israel. His calling was to not only sound the alarm to the people about their spiritual adultery to other gods, but to show them a real live example of what they were doing. So God told Hosea to go and marry a prostitute. So he went and married one named Gomer. Gomer did not stay true to her marriage vows, but went back to being a prostitution time and time again. But Hosea kept taking her back. This was the perfect example of how God's people had repeatedly sold themselves to other gods, yet God kept bringing them back to himself. Then Hosea would tell the people how they were just like his unfaithful wife.

It is fitting that Hosea means deliverance, since that is the message that he was preaching to them about. he spoke of the judgement & take over that they would experience, yet he also comforts them with the promise that God would "deliver them and bring them back to their home some day. Though Hosea spoke of Judah in this sermons, he mostly referred to the kingdom of Israel and the northern kingdom. God has Hosea call the land where the capital Jerusalem was by it's old name, Ephraim. I believe that this was to remind them of his covenant to them and their respectability's to hold up their side of it. You see, Where Jerusalem is was the land gave to the tribe of Ephraim when the land was divided up between the 12 tribes after God gave them the land, fulling his promise to their Fathers generations before hand. 

The nice thing about the book that bears Hosea's name is that it ends on a note of encouragement   and promises that God promises to bring them back after He has punished them. 

Prophets~ God's watchmen on the wall

" I have made you a watchman" (Ez. 3:17 NCV).

As I read the Bible preparing to write about the prophets. I have found that many of the prophets were told this. This made me wonder what the watchmen job involved, so I looked it up. this is what I found out.

A watchman for a town or village would be put in a tower near the crops to watch over them near time of the harvest to watch over them day and night to make sure that no animal or thieves would steal the harvest. This was a VERY important job as they would starve without the food.

A watchman on the wall of a city, would daily stand guard watching all that was going on in his part of the city. Much like a policeman  would these days.As he watches over the people, he gets to know how business and daily life flows. This knowledge helps him to know when something isn't right, like when bad weather is coming or when an enemy is approaching on a road, in a gate, or among the people. When he saw these dangers it was his job to sound the alarm warning the people of it.

With that in mind, I looked closer at the prophets. What I found was that most of the prophets played the role as spiritual watchmen for God's people. god gave them a clear view of the trouble that was coming, so that they could sound the alarm warning them of the it, and how to keep it from coming. Their job also was to encourage the people during the time they were in bad situations like, exile. I found it interesting that man of the prophets were ministering to God's people just before, during, and after the exile. No wonder God called them, watchmen!

Let us keep that in mind as we look at the prophets.