Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the books of Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, as well as Psalms 132 to 150.

Covering a broad stretch of history from before, during and after the exile of God’s people, the last minor prophets in the Old Testament are sharing words from God in different situations, looking from a broad range of viewpoints.

The different angles of their approaches might even mean that the work they saw God doing looked surprisingly different to them.

Bern refers to a physical picture of this - a sculpture with a complex shape that looks like a pair of giraffes from one angle but like an elephant from a different angle a short walk away. (This is hard to imagine, so have a look here: https://youtu.be/S2iq8fYVNt4)

Some people in history have seemed to dig in and defend particular viewpoints, giving them certainty that God’s kingdom was all about how it looked from their angle - for example, the Sadducees saw it about life centred on a physical temple, while the Pharisees saw it more about what God was doing to bring temple-like life into every home. We can think of modern examples where we’ve heard conflicting groups argue about what church should be focusing on today.

God’s people had to move and change their perspective during the time of these prophets, and God seemed to deepen the understanding of people who would listen. A picture of where God was taking people and what his promised Messiah would be like were emerging. But would anyone really understand until they met him?

In the next and final part of our boxset, we finish the Bible by listening to the book of Revelation. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.