Crystallization-Study Outlines The Minor Prophets 2012 Summer Training Banners 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. We believers in Christ are members of the Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God, and we should aspire to be the overcomers, the mighty ones, who will enlarge the manifestation of Christ by walking according to the mingled Spirit, who will return with Christ to deal with Antichrist at the battle of Armageddon, and who will be His co-kings in the millennium. The church as the house of Jehovah, the Father's house, is the dwelling place of God—the place where God can have His satisfaction and rest and where God lives and moves to accomplish His will, to satisfy the desire of His heart, and to carry out His eternal economy to consummate the New Jerusalem as His eternal goal for His eternal expression. We can live in the divine history within human history and enter into a new revival to end this age by arriving at the highest peak of the divine revelation of the eternal economy of God through the ministry of the age, by living the life of a God-man, and by shepherding people according to God for the building up of the church as the house of God, the mutual abode of God and man. Crystallization-Study Outlines The Minor Prophets Message One The Centrality and Universality of Christ and the Union of God and His People to Be a Universal Couple Scripture Reading: Micah 5:2; Joel 3:16-18; Amos 9:11; Mal. 4:2; Hosea 2:19-20 Micah 5:2 (But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, / So little to be among the thousands of Judah, / From you there will come forth to Me / He who is to be Ruler in Israel; / And His goings forth are from ancient times, / From the days of eternity.) Joel 3:16 And Jehovah will roar from Zion, / And from Jerusalem He will utter His voice, / And the heavens and the earth will shake. / But Jehovah will be a shelter to His people / And a stronghold to the children of Israel. Joel 3:17 Thus you will know that I am Jehovah your God, / Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. / And Jerusalem will be holy, / And strangers will pass through her no longer. Joel 3:18 And in that day / The mountains will drop down fresh wine, / And the hills will flow with milk; / And all the waterways of Judah / Will flow with water, / And a fountain will go forth from the house of Jehovah, / And it will water the valley of Shittim. Amos 9:11 In that day I will raise up / The fallen tabernacle of David, / And I will wall up its breaches / And raise up its ruins / And build it up as it was in the days of old; Mal 4:2 But unto you who fear My name will the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings, and you will go forth and leap about like well-fed calves. Hosea 2:19 And I will betroth you to Myself forever; / Indeed I will betroth you to Myself / In righteousness and justice / And in lovingkindness and compassions; Hosea 2:20 Indeed I will betroth you to Myself in faithfulness, / And you will know Jehovah. I. 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: Micah 5:2 (But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, / So little to be among the thousands of Judah, / From you there will come forth to Me / He who is to be Ruler in Israel; / And His goings forth are from ancient times, / From the days of eternity.) Joel 3:16 And Jehovah will roar from Zion, / And from Jerusalem He will utter His voice, / And the heavens and the earth will shake. / But Jehovah will be a shelter to His people / And a stronghold to the children of Israel. Joel 3:17 Thus you will know that I am Jehovah your God, / Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. / And Jerusalem will be holy, / And strangers will pass through her no longer. Joel 3:18 And in that day / The mountains will drop down fresh wine, / And the hills will flow with milk; / And all the waterways of Judah / Will flow with water, / And a fountain will go forth from the house of Jehovah, / And it will water the valley of Shittim. Amos 9:11 In that day I will raise up / The fallen tabernacle of David, / And I will wall up its breaches / And raise up its ruins / And build it up as it was in the days of old; Matt 19:28 And Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you that you who have followed Me, in the restoration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Acts 3:21 Whom heaven must indeed receive until the times of the restoration of all things, of which God spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets from of old. Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea is no more. 1 Rev 21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. A. World history is displaying the fulfillment of what was prophesied through the prophets; for twenty-six centuries Israel has been suffering under a long, divine chastisement—Joel 1:4. Joel 1:4 What the cutting locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; / And what the swarming locust has left, the licking locust has eaten; / And what the licking locust has left, the consuming locust has eaten. B. God’s chastisement of Israel has been for the purpose that Christ would be manifested as everything, as the centrality and universality in God’s economy; this manifestation will bring in the age of restoration—2:25; 3:16-18. Joel 2:25 And I will restore to you the years / That the swarming locust has eaten, / The licking locust and the consuming locust and the cutting locust, / My great army / That I sent among you. Joel 3:16 And Jehovah will roar from Zion, / And from Jerusalem He will utter His voice, / And the heavens and the earth will shake. / But Jehovah will be a shelter to His people / And a stronghold to the children of Israel. Joel 3:17 Thus you will know that I am Jehovah your God, / Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. / And Jerusalem will be holy, / And strangers will pass through her no longer. Joel 3:18 And in that day / The mountains will drop down fresh wine, / And the hills will flow with milk; / And all the waterways of Judah / Will flow with water, / And a fountain will go forth from the house of Jehovah, / And it will water the valley of Shittim. C. God is moving, working, and managing the world affairs to fulfill His eternal economy, that is, to make Christ everything to mankind for the bringing in of the kingdom, the age of restoration—Hosea 14:1-9; Amos 9:11; Micah 4:1-4. Hosea 14:1 Return, O Israel, / To Jehovah your God, / For you have fallen by your iniquity. Hosea 14:2 Take words with you, / And return to Jehovah; / Say to Him, / Forgive all iniquity, / And take us graciously; / Thus we will render our lips as bulls. Hosea 14:3 Assyria will not save us; / We will not ride upon horses. / Neither will we say again to the work of our hands, Our God! / Because in You the orphan finds compassion. Hosea 14:4 I will heal their apostasy; / I will love them freely; / For My anger has turned away from him. Hosea 14:5 I will be like the dew to Israel; / He will bud like the lily / And will send forth his roots like the trees of Lebanon. Hosea 14:6 His shoots will go forth; / And his splendor will be like that of the olive tree, / And his fragrance, like that of the trees of Lebanon. Hosea 14:7 Those who sit under his shade will return; / They will revive like grain / And will bud like the vine; / His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon. Hosea 14:8 Ephraim says, What have I yet to do with idols? / I respond and look on him. / I am like a green fir tree; / From Me your fruit is found. Hosea 14:9 Who is wise? / Then let him understand these things. / Who is intelligent? Then let him know them. / For the ways of Jehovah are right, / And the righteous will walk in them, / But the transgressors will stumble in them.