Week 34 Habakkuk 1
The books begins: this is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received from the Lord in a vision.
Since I assumed that all the prophets were prophets I wondered why that phrase was used – the prophet Habakkuk.
I decided to do a quick survey of the introductions to the Short Prophets to see whether the others followed the pattern – “the prophet _________”.
In the process I found a couple of other things:
Three of the books say the message came in a vision: Amos Obadiah & Habakkuk
Hosea Joel Jonah & Zechariah identify the prophets’ father
Half of them name the king at the time: Hosea Amos Micah Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah (which is a useful tip for telling the date)
Micah & Nahum say where they came from
Four say who the message was for: Obadiah > Edom. Jonah > Nineveh. Micah > Samaria & Jerusalem. Malachi > Israel
I think only Amos is identified by his regular job – shepherd
I just found one thing repeated in all twelve books: the Lord gave them their message. So the source was important.
Anyway – the question I started with was who-were-called-prophets? The answer: Haggai Zechariah & Malachi (along with Habakkuk).
The rest were prophets too but for some reason weren’t called prophets up front.
Note: quote from Habakkuk 1:1 (NLT). This was a hurry-up exercise so if I missed a couple of things I’m blaming the hurry.