Major Points From The Minor Prophets - Book Review

MAJOR POINTS FROM THE MINOR PROPHETS
By John Blanchard
Evangelical Press. 286 pages
£9.99 ISBN: 978-0-852347829

“Please open your Bibles and turn with me to the clean pages”, a friend of the author’s once said when beginning a sermon! Pick up your Bible and look at the page edges. Are there maybe some ‘dirty’ ones at the beginning (Genesis), in the middle (Psalms) and later on (the Gospels), but are they ‘clean’ when it comes to the last twelve books of the Old Testament – the Minor Prophets?! I wonder…

The ‘minor’ prophets are not less important than the ‘major’ prophets, just shorter in length. I’ve read them lots of times, but confess I’ve never read them through consecutively in my Quiet Time, twelve days in a row. I decided to do so recently, using this stimulating book by John Blanchard as an aid, and this approach, and his comments, gave me a great idea of the common themes and issues in the Minor Prophets, the distinctives of each prophet, and their challenging application to us today. It was well worth the extra time involved.

Major Points from the Minor Prophets is unusual in that it is neither a verse-by-verse commentary nor purely thematic. Instead, John takes one main theme/passage from each prophet and explains, clarifies and applies it, which gives a great overview of the main themes of the Minor Prophets, but John also tells us about the prophet, when he lived, his historical background and the main thrust and themes of his ministry.

Furthermore, John gives us bonus gems on particular questions and issues raised by the text – e.g. Does God ever change His mind? If God knows everything, why pray? How does suffering relate to God’s sovereignty?

John is an evangelist, stimulating preacher and conference speaker, and author of many evangelistic and apologetic books and booklets. He is very well-read and, as always with him, there are many ‘quotable quotes’, touches of humour, much incisive analysis and no punch-pulling. He is very accessible, Bible-centred and thought-provoking. I can honestly say that I have never read a book by John that I have not found worthwhile and engaging.

I have given Major Points as a gift, recommended it at church (one person said to me recently how interesting and helpful they found it) - and it would also be a great aid if you were doing (or participating in) a sermon or home group series on the Minor Prophets.