We are now in the Crystallization Study of the Minor Prophets, and this morning I was impressed with the fact that Christ is the centrality and universality in God’s economy and in His move to accomplish His economy.
If you read the Minor Prophets (from Hosea to Malachi) you may be impressed with a lot of prophecies, judgements, chastisements, and punishments. Here and there, you see something concerning Christ and His economy, but what hits you may be all the outward things…
But as we read the Bible, and especially as we read the minor prophets, we need to have the glasses of God’s economy on. Here’s what’s going on,
Like the Major Prophets, the Minor Prophets unveil that God’s economy in His loving chastisement of Israel, in His governmental dealing with Israel, and in His judgment upon the nations issues in the manifestation of Christ as the centrality and universality in God’s economy to bring in the kingdom, the age of restoration, which will usher the old and ruined universe into the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem (Micah 5:2; Joel 3:16-18; Amos 9:11; Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21; Rev. 21:1-2). (from the life-study of Hosea, msg. 1)
what do the Minor Prophets talk about?
The Minor Prophets are a group of books of the prophets in the Old Testament which firstly are short, and secondly they may not utter major prophecies like the Major Prophets but rather speak concerning specific situations and cases in the people of Israel. This is NOT an official definition, but it is my understanding of the Minor Prophets as to now.
As we read the books of the Minor Prophets we see several matters related to God’s economy like:
- God’s loving chastisement of His people Israel – He loves His people and He does His best to bring them back to Himself, correct them, adjust them, perfect them, and make them His loving wife as His counterpart.
- God’s governmental dealings with Israel – because of their sins, they are under God’s judgement, and He uses the nations to deal with them to purify them, judge them, and turn their heart toward God from any idols or preoccupations.
- God’s judgement upon the nations – the nations used by God to deal with His people became haughty and were too rough / did too much damage to the people of Israel, so God comes in again and again to judge them and punish them.
Outwardly, this is what you see – God’s loving chastisement of His people, His govermental dealings with Israel, and God’s judgement upon the nations.
But if we receive light from the Lord we will see that there’s a divine history within the human history, and these three matters are part of the unfolding of God’s economy.
The issue of these matters is the manifestation of Christ as the centrality and universality in God’s economy to bring in the restoration. The issue of all the dealings and judgements is the manifestation of Christ as the center and circumference of God’s economy!
The centrality and universality of Christ
In God’s economy, Christ is the center and Christ is the circumference. In all that the Triune God is and does, Christ is the center and Christ is everything.
We see this in the books of the minor prophets – the central point of all the prophets (see Luke 24:44) is Christ. Don’t look too much at all the details of history and judgments – take care of Christ!
We need to open to the Lord again and again that He may grant us to see that Christ is the center and Christ is everything. Such a seeing should affect our being to the point that our center and our everything would be Christ!
Today God is moving and working, and He is managing all the world affairs for the fulfillment of His economy – that is, He is making Christ everything to mankind for the bringing in of the kingdom, the age of restoration (see Hosea 14:1-9; Amos 9:11; Micah 4:1-4).
As we see in Haggai 2:7, Christ is the Desire of all the nations – even though they may know Christ or they may not realize this, all the people in the world DESIRE TO HAVE CHRIST!
God wants to make His Christ our center and our everything! For this He arranges everything in the world and in our personal universe that His Christ may be our center and our everything!
Lord Jesus, we praise You and we worship You! You are the center and the circumference in God’s economy, and You are everything to God. Lord, grant us that we may see You to such an extent that to us personally You become our center and our everything. Save us from focusing on any other thing, person, or matter than Christ. Christ is our center! Christ is our everything!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, Life-study of Hosea (msg. 1), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of the Minor Prophets, week 1 (entitled, The Centrality and Universality of Christ and the Union of God and His People to Be a Universal Couple).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Christ is God’s centrality / And His universality;
# Christ is the one reality of all, / Of Godhead and of man and all things else;
# We have found the Christ who’s all in all; / He is everything to us; - Picture source: Minor Prophets.
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