Getting Biblical in Daily Life
Sexuality
The Minor Prophets raise touchy questions about sexual ethics and the nature of traditional family values.
The big fish in this particular sea is the book of Hosea. God orders Hosea to marry at least one adulterous woman, which would seem to imply either that God is violating his own standards of holiness or that our present understanding of these standards is not consistent with his own. Hosea doesn’t even bother to sugar-coat this by making his wife Gomer the clichéd hooker with a heart of gold, which would have made him a lock for a best adapted screenplay Oscar.
Hosea also engages in behavior that would get him arrested or roundly criticized today. Slut-shaming is the least of the book’s possible problems. Not only does the prophet marry a woman he publicly despises for pining after polyamory, but there are indications that her relationship with Hosea was based on his buying her from another man, not her own personal consent. From there Hosea moves to divinely sanctioned domestic violence and child abuse in order to break her will.
Theologians have wrestled with these controversial passages for centuries—what say you, faithful Shmoopers?
The 1%
From Amos to Zechariah, the Minor Prophets aren’t too happy with the concentration of wealth. Priests and officials who enrich themselves at the expense of the poor and needy are Public Enemy #1 in these books. Everyone deserves his vine and fig tree, not just wealthy landowners. The Minors seem to recognize that wealth corrupts, that it’s addictive, that it doesn’t necessarily turn people into philanthropists. The books are filled with warnings from God about the dire consequences of greed and wealth-hoarding. The Assyrian and Babylonian invasions, for example.
Like the idea of Israel itself, the Minor Prophets were in one sense on the cutting-edge of change, which can be a rather painful place to sit if you’re not careful. Instead of a dominant Metropolis and a web of less well-off allies, or vassals, the ideal for the twelve tribes of Israel was an e pluribus unum affair, a unified identity emerging out of many roughly equal parts.
In its day it was a pretty radical idea, since it called for lots of folks with something as opposed to a few big kahunas with most of everything. This idea really picks up steam in the time of the Minor Prophets. The Occupy Movement could have used the Minors as their Little Red Book.
The prophet Joel ratchets this egalitarian idea up to 11 by saying that in God’s perfect order everyone gets to prophesy, although if YouTube and reality TV had been around he might have had second thoughts.
Israel and the Middle East
Now here’s a touchy subject. For instance, check out this prophecy from Obadiah:
The house of Jacob shall be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor of the house of Esau; for the LORD has spoken. Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephelah the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. The exiles of the Israelites who are in Halah shall possess Phoenicia as far as Zarephath; and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the towns of the Negeb (NRSV 1:18-20).
Some conservative Christians and Jews contend that it is Israel’s God-given promise and destiny to take all of the land currently occupied by the Palestinians, a belief that has had some impact on public policy. Should verses such as this be considered historic evidence in resolving current territorial disputes? If you come up with an answer to this question that makes everyone happy, you may be the first Shmooper to win a Nobel Peace Prize!