Micah

I have been reading the Bible for a while now, and yet there are still several sections that are akin to reading the phone book.  Leviticus, and the Major and Minor Prophets tend to have a soporific effect on me.  Lately, however, I have been reading the minor prophets through a new lens. 

Context can make such a difference in anything.  A statement about a murder in the news we find sad and disturbing, but in a mystery movie we find it intriguing.  Often what was written in the Minor Prophets is devoid of context; simply personal messages stripped of a background story.  So, where do you find the background on the one of the Minor Prophets like Micah?  Well, the book of 1 and 2 Kings (which inconveniently isn't even near the prophets) tells the history of what was going on in Israel at the time they wrote.  Essentially Kings provides the overview to the primary sources of the prophets.  Many of the names and stories that are briefly referred to in the prophets are described in depth in the book of Kings.  It provides a framework to which one can place the messages of the prophets such as Hosea, Joel, or Jonah. 

As a result of this I have found the prophets to be much less of a sleep inducer than I once did.  Instead they add a great amount of depth to an already rich story of the nation of Israel from which our Savior came.