[Darris McNeely] We’ve been going through a series on the Beyond Today Bible studies through the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. I recently did one on the prophet Amos, covering that book, and Gary just recently completed the study on the prophet Hosea. And Gary, what I was really struck by as we were going through both of those, listening to yours here recently, that those two prophets were near contemporaries as they both went and prophesied to the ancient nation of Israel. And the message that they gave there has some important implications for our world today.

[Gary Petty] Real important. When Hosea and Amos went to Israel, it was during the time of Jeroboam II, and Jeroboam II helped have a great economic revival inside of Israel. They were rich and there was money coming in, and they were making all kinds of deals all over the country or all over the world, all over the Middle East, and as they did, they actually did not respond to God. All this wealth had them so sure of themselves and they accepted all these other religious ideas, and the result was it seemed like a major, positive time in Israel, and yet these prophets come along and say, “No, God is not happy with you.”

[Darris] What it was was a period of revival, an economic revival. In reality, the nation Israel did literally become great again –

[Gary] Yes.

[Darris] – under Jeroboam II. It was a global trade period. I mean, the highways were bustling with traffic, Israel was trading with foreign nations and everyone was getting wealthy. But there was also the have-nots of the nation. There were deep social problems. And what I found interesting was, I was going through Amos and looking at it – Amos prophesied for about ten years, and yet the good times kept rolling, but within 40 years, less than a generation after Amos, Israel didn’t exist any longer. Deep issues.

[Gary] Right, yes. And what you also see is a political collapse. Because after Jeroboam II, you see where each king came along, and most of the kings for the next 70 years were assassinated. And so what you have is an economic boom, but political and social, religious, moral collapse that eventually leads to them being invaded twice by Assyria, and the third time the Assyrians totally destroyed them.

[Darris] The ancient prophets, those Minor Prophets, have a message that’s very, very important for us in the modern world today. We encourage you to go online at beyondtoday.tv and look for our Beyond Today Bible Studies on the Minor Prophets to go deeper into these topics that Gary and I and Steve have done. You’ll learn a great deal and they will help you to understand the biblical application and connection to our world today.

That’s BT Daily. Join us next time.