 Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today's session. Before we could start with our session, we can have a word of prayer. Can I request one of us to please lead us in prayer? Yes, please, Elijah. For the Master Jesus, we are most grateful to you this month to see that we thank you for the birth of life that is manifesting in all of us here. So that you pray, commit these moments into your home so called, you pray that your fellow spirits can maybe help us to understand and appreciate what the Lord has shared with us here in Jesus' mighty name. You pray, commit the Master Jesus, God, grant the wisdom and father the revelation to share with us the mysteries of your word in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Elijah. A class is recorded. So today, we're going to study on two very interesting books. One is the, we're starting with the minor prophets before I could say, let me share the presentation with you so that we all can be on the same page. Yeah. So we are, we have completed the major prophets on the five books that is Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentation, Ezekiel and Daniel. And now we are moving to minor prophets. So from initially we see that we covered on the Torah that is the first five books, then we covered on the history books, and then we covered on the five wisdom poetry and the praise book, and we moved on to the books of the prophets. Now, in the books of the prophets, we completed the five major prophetic book. And now we are moving on to the two minor prophetic books. Okay. So when we, when we say about major prophet and minor prophet, what does it relate to? What does it relate to? Can anyone answer? What is the difference between the major prophets and the minor prophets? Are they very less in, you know, the calling or how is it? Why, why, why have they mentioned like these are the major prophets and they are the minor prophets? Anyone in the class? Anyone? That's okay. You can just answer. Like, what is your view? I will hear you, Elisha, your voice is a little lower. Please can I share my view? Yes, yes, please. I think it is with the content of their books, as in the major prophets wrote more lengthy books than the minor prophets. The minor prophets probably wrote smaller books. Their books were not large in contents. That is my understanding. Yes. Elisha, well said. Thank you so much. You exactly said the right thing. Yes. The message in that book, you know, the message, it's not that less important or no, but the size, the content of the book. The major prophets as the content was much higher. They had many chapters in that book. Well, the minor prophets. Yes, the message is very equally important to the major prophets. But then it was not the content as much, not a much bigger as compared to the major prophets because the contents were less in these books. They have categorized them as the minor prophets, but not in the attribute wise or, you know, there was something called major prophets or minor in the scale or the way they ministered, no, not at all. The message is equally important. They all were in the same level ground. It's just on the content which has been recorded. They have categorized. Okay. So with that, we will move on to study the book of Hosea. Well, the book of Hosea is a prophetic book, and it has 14 chapters. And the author of this book is Hosea himself. And the very theme of this book we see is the unfaithfulness, the sin and forgiveness. And we also see the condemnation for unfaithfulness and there's prophecies relating to Christ and the latter days. And the major character in this book is, yes, God. Second would be Hosea and Goma, the couple in this book where God, you know, compares them to Israel and himself, okay, figuratively, and the three children. And then the kings of the Northern Kingdom. Well, Hosea, whose name means salvation and he ministered in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, also called as the author also calls the Northern Kingdom as a friend, or after its largest tribe, or some places you also mentioned it as Jacob. So the names called Hosea, Joshua and Jesus are all derived from the same Hebrew root word, which is the word Hosea means salvation. God's messenger Hosea offers a possibility of salvation is only the nation will turn from idolatry back to God. So the book of Hosea has 12, sorry, the minor prophets are the 12 books of these minor prophets and these 12 books are called, you know, they have an important message. They have a calling and they have an important message to share with us and that's the reason they have been included in the Old Testament. And the book of Hosea were written hundreds of years before Daniel and his address to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Well, the book describes the early years of the Israel became divided Kingdom with Jeroboam I second and running in the north and use the ruling in the south. And the names of Israel was Ephraim in those days and Samaria and also refers to the Northern Kingdom and Hosea sent a prophet around 750 to 700 BC. These are the time period that he lived in and when the apostasy of his people became manifest and God sent him to condemn the people's sin and call them back to true God, call them back to himself. And the Lord made Hosea's family into a living example of God's relationship to Israel. Well, in the book of Jeremiah, we see how God portrayed himself as, you know, a father carrying a heart for his children. We see the father's love demonstrated through Jeremiah's life where Jeremiah cried and wept looking at Israel, rebellion nature in them and he wept. So he is also known as the weeping prophet and, you know, we see the heart of father in the life of Jeremiah. Then when we studied the book of Isaiah, yes, he also, yes, he also spoke about the rebellion nature of Israel and we see how he gave a hope message of hope like the Messiah has messaged Messiah, Isaiah portrayed. But in the book of Ezekiel, we see how God made Ezekiel to enact every message that Ezekiel shared with the people of Israel, every prophecy. When he wants to share it, he shared it with an, he enacted it by tying his hand, tying his leg or shaving his beard and burning it them or breaking a clay pot. Many, many demonstration. We saw how he demonstrated. Okay. But then Hosea is something very different the way he prophesied to the people of Israel. Pastor, one second. Can you please, I think she's. Okay, okay. Did they join the call? Okay, just give me a minute, please. Were they able to join? Yeah, they are joining now. Okay. I guess most of them joined. Okay. So those who joined much later. We started the class with the introduction for the book of the minor prophets. Yes, they've joined. Rosalind has joined. Good. Good. Good. Okay. So those who joined much later, I'll just give you a brief intro. We were starting about the book of Hosea. We were talking about the starting of the minor profiting book and we're starting with Hosea. If time permits, we will also cover Joel. Well, Hosea is a very interesting book. Okay. He's the author of this book. And we covered about how God is carrying the heart for the people of Israel. And we studied a little bit briefly about the major prophets, like how Jeremiah shared the prophecy with people carrying the burden, like the Father's love. And later we saw Isaiah shared the prophecies, like the need of Messiah. He gave a word and he said the need of Messiah and he clearly prophesied about the coming of Messiah. And then when we read the book of Ezekiel, we saw the way how God demonstrated, made Ezekiel to demonstrate the prophecies, like, you know, tying himself, his hands, his legs, shaving off his beard. And the way he conveyed the message to Israel was very different in the way, like, you know, breaking the clay bar and saying like, this is how God is going to destroy you. This is how the wrath of God is going to come upon you. You know, many ways he demonstrated. Well, as we studied on these major prophetic books, we also moving to the minor prophets. And we see how God is asking Hosea to demonstrate his love for Israel and how he is sharing the message to them. Where in Hosea's life it is very different. God is asking Hosea to demonstrate in action. You know, he is going to demonstrate in action the love of God towards the people. And here in the very first chapter, as we study, we'll see that God is preparing Hosea. Though he is a man of God, he is a prophet, God is saying, listen, Hosea, you're going to demonstrate the love of God. You're going to demonstrate to myself the heart that I carry for the people of Israel. Now, Hosea, just like the other prophets, he is going through is, you know, he could feel, he could sense the heart of God. He has the burden for the people of Israel and even he's moved, he weeps, he cries, all that is there. At the same time, personally, he's also been afflicted because when God asks him, you know, to go marry a prostitute, go take her as your wife. He finds it difficult, but then in obedience and submission, he does it. He does it. And later, when we read the story, you know, I will unveil it in the heart of Hosea, the heart of God for his people. Okay. And also we can see the metaphor, the comparative language of how God compares Israelites to Gomer. Okay. Well, the book got sent in to condemn the people sin and call them back to the true God. And the Lord made Hosea's family into a living example of God's relationship to Israel. And God commands Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer to make an example where Hosea represents a faithful God, while Gomer represents unfaithful Israel and adultery, which is equal to idolatry at the same time. And they have together in marriage relationship, they have three children. And, you know, God is illustrating, God gives three names to these three children. Okay. And it is a symbolic meaning to it. Let me put that on the chat. For the chat, I'll just change the slide. This is how the book has been divided, the first 14 chapters. The first three talks about, you know, the personal life of Hosea, the agony of the unfaithful spouse. And later part it talks about the strategy, tragedy of an unfaithful people. In the first three chapters talks about, you know, the first three chapters talks about Hosea's marriage, his children and talks about the separation, and then back to the reunion. Well, later part we see the, it gives us a model message of Hosea remains true to his wife in spite of her identity. And God is declaring the sin of people and the character of God. And yeah, it goes on. And the very theme throughout is God's faithfulness, love towards his unfaithful people. And there are some key verses that we can look in. And yes, Christ in Hosea, the portrayal of Christ, the shadow of Christ in this book. One minute, somebody's come, let me admit it. Yeah. So we see that Christ been called out from hiding in Egypt as a child is pictured in Hosea's record of Israel's exodus from Egypt. And in Hosea's redemption of Gomer from the slave market, Christ is pictured, pictures as the loving faithful redeemer of sinful humanity. And with this, we will move on to the three children that was God blessed Hosea and Gomer with the first son. God gave him a name of Jezreel. It's also a name of a valley or a place in that the place where they lived in. It says it's a son God scatters a seed because people of Israel, they dependent more on the pagan country, which God and wanted them, but then they dependent to the political power of Egypt and Assyria. And because they dependent on that Assyrians eventually scattered Israel and God pictured the defeat, the valley of Jezreel. So God asked Hosea to name his son as Jezreel. And the second child, a daughter, we asked him to name him as Loh Ruhama, means not loved. God chose his name to show Israel no longer the love to the house of Israel. God would show love to Judah indeed. Judah, yeah. The southern kingdom was called as Judah. The northern kingdom was known as Israel or Samaria or it was also called as Ephraim or Jacob. There are many ways where the author is calling the northern kingdom of Israel. Well, so the third son he names as Loh Amin, a son, which means not my people. So these are the symbolic names which through which God will be illustrating. Okay, so we'll go back to the book of Hosea where it says, you know, Hosea lived in the northern kingdom of Israel, which sometimes, as I said, it's called in different names. And we are going back to the book of kings in the period of first kings, chapter 14 to 17. We see that Hosea was called to speak to the people of God to the Israelites on behalf of God, because during the reign of one of Israel's worst king, King Jeroboam II, the nation was descending into chaos, into disaster. And in that year, 722, the Assyrian Empire swooped in. They destroyed, they demolished Israel. And again, in the story, we see that in second kings, Hosea had seen all of this coming. The book of Hosea is a collection of the story of about 25 years of his preaching and writing. It's almost all the poetry in this book where the whole collection has been written in the three main sections of this book, or the two main sections of this book. Okay, so let's see. So the opening part tells us the story of Hosea as a broken marriage to a woman called Gomer and who commits adultery. And God asked him to get married to her. And then they had three children and things were not going very smooth in their life. Things were falling apart. And the important point here is God is telling Hosea that despite Gomer's unfaithfulness in her marriage life, he is going to find her, to pay off her debts. She paid off her debts to her lovers and she had made a credit around whom she committed adultery with and she paid the debts and he says, you bring her back. You pay, God is asking Hosea to go bring a wife. Though she left and went and she has committed adultery with many men, but God is instructing Hosea, go and get back your wife, pay off their debts and lover as though she is not single. The important point here is that God is telling Hosea that despite what she is, lover. And God says of this, the broken, repaid marriage, all the brokenness in this marriage and God is giving a prophetic symbol. The story of God's relationship with Israel, no matter what, no matter how Israel is sinful, God's love will never change. Yes, sometimes God is upset, God gets angry, God's wrath comes upon people. God allows other kingdom to come destroy, conquer, take them into exile. All that is there. But then is angers for a moment. Angers for a moment, but the grace abounds more than God's wrath. And we see with abundance of His grace and abundance of His love, God is moving on the people of Israel. And yes, he's demonstrating that love through Hosea. He's saying go bring her back, go pay her debts and bring her back. And we ask Him to be faithful. Even if in spite of her nature, in spite of Gomer's nature, God is asking Hosea, you be faithful. You be faithful to the covenant. I want you to keep that covenant. See, this is what God does with you and me, no matter we are unfaithful, no matter what shortcomings we are going through in our life or no matter what Israel did. We all know what Israel is going through at the season that they failed God. They ran after other gods. They were committing idolatry where Gomer is coming. The adultery is also compared to Israel's idolatry, worshipping other gods, perverting the nature. They have put the idols in the temple of God and started worshipping the gods of that place like the Baal or other Assyrians and the Egyptian gods. And they're not seeking God and all their nature but they're running behind the political power of people. And they're seeking them. So when God saw this nature in them that there's no first place given to God but then it's been given to Egypt and the pagan people. God's wrath is increased on these people and yes, he gives it to Assyrians to conquer Israel and Assyrians come, demolishes Israel and you know, they're completely and yes, and take them to exile. Then we see God's nature of, you know, trying to save his people and that's when he sends, he raises these prophets and he asks them to speak to the people of Israel that one day you will repent. One day you will again repent and come back to worship. God's OSIA says he places over them a new messianic king. He gives them a future. He gives them a hope about Christ. He says there's a messianic king will rise from the line of David will bring God's blessing so this opening, he opens the idea of a messianic king, a messiah. We are in need of messiah because we have rebelled not against the man but against God himself. So that's the reason we are going through the severe consequences but then when we repent from our sin, when we repent and God will have mercy upon us and here he's demonstrating in his life saying the covenant of love that he made with Gomorrah. Okay, no matter how many times she runs but then he will go and bring her back. He's clear all the depths. When we read the story that Gomorrah leaves and gets separated, she goes back into the prostitution and then she's been put in the slave market. Clear demonstration. Now she is at a price in the slave market but all she, nothing is hidden. They all look down upon her. People who enjoyed the pleasure with her now they're looking down upon her. They are pointing at her for the bad nature. She's been condemned. She's at the worst situation. She has no hope and she looks herself so much down. She's almost like given up on herself saying that everything is over. I've brought shame upon myself and nothing good can come for me. I'm destroyed. Everything is over in my life. At this stage there's an hope. We may come across that stage. Israel is at this stage. I mean in those days and then we can also relate to our self, to our situation. Sometimes we may condemn ourselves so much that there is no hope of forgiveness. We may think like even God cannot forgive us for the sin that we have committed and here God is saying there is nothing big that I cannot forgive you. There's nothing that is much greater than what Jesus has died on the cross can cover. And God shows his love that I'm a covenant maker and a covenant keeper. He sends Hosea to keep up the covenant of marriage with Gomer when she's in the slave market. God sends Hosea saying pay her debts, clear her debts and redeem her. And here he goes, pays all her debts, redeems her, carries her from the shame. He carries her and he says, I love you just the way I loved you in the first time when I got married to you. When Gomer is not worthy to look at Hosea, she feels the shame is covered all over her. She says like I'm not worthy even to live. She is like that. But then you see the love of Hosea. We see that God poured out his love. He's just demonstrating an action. He loves her. He just carries her like that. He says you are as precious as the day I got married to you and I love you. We see the action been demonstrated saying that I love you with all my heart and I don't see you with any of the sin. I love you. I would like to embrace you just the way, just as if that you have never said before. We see the justification of God there and this is the way that God is embracing Israel. God is saying no matter how far you have gone, no matter what you have done. But God is saying, listen, when you repent, I will just love you. I just love you. So for them to repent, God is raising the prophets. Even that Israel is not ready to do on their own. God is sending his prophets and saying when they are in the exile, God is sending these prophets and telling them, listen, when you repent, there is a hope. There is a future. God will love you. God will save you. God will accept you. God will send a Messiah to save you and me. Time and again, we see how God's love has been showcased. You know, maybe before we would have had the picture of angry God and asked, you know, oh God punishes. He punishes his people. But then when we study in depth, you see God is not punishing the people of Israel. It's their own sin nature is opening doors for these type of consequences. Disobeying Torah, disobeying the law of God, worshipping the other gods, going away from God is nothing but you're moving away from the grace of God. It's the grace that protects us from the hand of the enemy. But then when we willingly, willingly move away from God, move away from his grace, that is when we had to face the consequence. And here God is saying that even though you have moved away, even though you have gone away, God is saying, I'm still waiting. We see the Father's love. Again, we see the later part of this book. We see the prodigal son. How the son rebelled against the father took away the portion of wealth for him. And he went. He destroyed and, you know, he was in complete trouble. And when he repented, when he looked at God, when he asked for forgiveness, the love was restored back to him. The relationship of father was restored back to him. Father hugged him with all his love. In fact, the father was waiting for the son. It's the same picture we see when we read through the book of Isaiah. Like he is demonstrating that God's love like a father is waiting to embrace us, to restore us back. To restore us back. And he loves us. Though we are unfaithful, though Israel was unfaithful, but here God is a faithful God. He's a covenant keeper. He loves us. So I feel the book of Isaiah is only the book of love. God's love been portrayed through Hosea. Today, we may look at ourselves. How are we seeing ourselves? Yes, we have our own weaknesses. But then God is saying, I love you. You may have broken the covenant. We may be living in sin or certain things that we're not pleasing God. But then God is saying, just like the way I asked Hosea to forgive Gomer and accept her and embrace her with love. Same way, God loves you and me. He is ready to forgive us our sins. Not only ready to forgive, but he's ready to restore us back. And restore us back to that love relationship that we had with him. The first love that even the book of Revelation talks about restoration of their first love. We can be restored back to him in full. And today we see that in Christ, we have been restored. Restored back to him in Christ. When we receive Jesus as a Lord and Savior, Jesus died on the cross for our sins. To forgive our sins. We are sanctified. We have been cleansed. We have been restored back to the relationship that we have in God. Where we can freely call God our Father. With all our heart, with all our love. We have this access that God is faithful to us. Despite our weakness, God has redeemed us back to him. And the relationship is restored back. And today when we live, we live in the identity of the daughter. Identity of God's daughter. His son. His son and his daughter. We are the child of God. And that's what the book of Hosea says. We have been restored back to the relationship that we have with Christ. So with this, we complete the book of Hosea. I open to the class if you would like to add or share anything. And we can move on to the next book. These are some of the highlights. This is a reflection of God's faithfulness towards us and times of our unfaithfulness. And our obedience to God. When he is asking us to do difficult things for the kingdom. Just like how God has Hosea to get married to two things. One to get married to a prophet was very difficult. And the second thing when she's in the slave market, even after marriage and after children separated and going back to the adultery. And now God is saying, go pick her up. Clear her debts and pick her and tell her, I love you. So these are very difficult things as a human to do. But then by God's grace, God is filled Hosea with the love of God to demonstrate that. And we see that nature of willingness, submission, obedience to God completely. Now as a servant of God, you and I, God can ask us also to do some things which may be difficult for us in a human nature, in our situation to do. But when we obey, when we obey, the scripture says there's blessing in obedience. Not in sacrifice, but in obedience. When I say sacrifice, not sacrificing some things, like not offering anything to God. Talking about, you know, the obedience being submission, submitting to God, to what he's saying us to do. And when we, sometimes it may be very silly things. It may be very difficult to our human understanding. But then when we submit, simply because God is asking us to do. Just like how God asked Hosea to do certain things. In the same way, it may be different things what God is asking us to do. It may be very simple, like it can be asking us simple sorry to somebody you may have hurt. Or maybe that person have hurt you, whatever the reason is. But God is asking you to go and ask an apology. And that is very difficult, not very easy. It comes, you know, asking sorry does not come easy. That's not in the human nature, but that's a God nature. When God's asking us to submit to restore the relationship, you know, for the sake of God, not for a human sake, for the sake of God. When you submit yourself there and say, listen, I'm very sorry. Not because they have committed mistake or you have committed mistake, just an obedience of God to restore the relationship. When we obey and go, I'm sorry, even if it is not our mistake and you see the blessing of God and you're like this restoration. It can be any area. I just gave you an example of sorry. It can be any area. God is asking us to step in and do something. And when we do it with all obedience, we see the blessing of God. The hand of God upon our life. Okay. Is there anything that you would like to share? Yes. Nothing faster. Okay. So yeah. So I will just move on to the next book. Yeah. The Book of Joy. The Hebrew name of Joel is Yahweh is God. And this name is appropriate to the theme of the book, which emphasizes on God's sovereign work in history. The course of nature and the nations are in his hand. And this book is dated 800 BC and it has three chapters. And the book has a theme, the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord. And there's a restoration ofs upon Judah and hope and restoration. When you repent, there is a hope of future restoration. Most of the prophets have written this. There is a hope. When you repent, there is a hope for restoration. And we see the major character in this book is, yes. First is God. Second, we see the author, Joel himself. And then the people of Judah. Now who's Judah? The southern kingdom. The author's background. Nothing much has been known about the author. But in the chapter, we see that his father's name was Pethio. He's the son of Pethio, meaning persuaded by God with his fervent references to Zion and the house of the Lord. We see that he was lived very close to Jerusalem because of the statements about the priesthood made in the book. We see that some of the scholars believe that Joel would have been a priest as well as a prophet. So in this case, Joel was a prophet and he was also preaching and asking people to repent so that you will be saved. So that your sins will be forgiven and you will be saved. Well, the very purpose of this book is the coming judgment, the plagues. It talks about the plagues of locus and then famine used as an object lesson to exhort the Israelites for the need of repentance. And we also see the warning. If you do not repent, the day of the Lord is coming. The judgment will come upon you. And again, we see there's a, and we also see that he's exerting, like when you repent, there's a days of blessing and there's a days of restoration. But if you don't, there's a judgment. But if you do, you'll inherit the blessing. Well, with this, we will move on to the introduction of this book of Joel. It says it is a short collection of the prophetic poems that are both powerful and it is also a warning. And Joel is a unique book among the prophets for few reason. First of all, they are no explicit indication of when this book was written. And it was likely to be known as in the period of Ezra and Nehemiah after the return from the exile because there's a mention of Jerusalem and the temple, but it's not very clear. And yeah, with that, we also see that there's a unique in this book of Joel is that the, the familiars with many other scriptural books, he includes the quotes from the book of the prophets like Isaiah, Amos, Zephaniah, Nahum, Obadiah, Ezekiel, Malachi. So he takes the quotes from all these books and even from the books of the Exodus. And there is a connection that the author is making with the, with the unique features of the place that is from the Exodus to now. And that's Joel. That's how he portrays and accuses Israel of any specific sin that they are committing. So like many of the other prophets, he announces God's judgment is coming to confront Israel's sin, but he never says why. And that's most likely because Joel assumes like, you know, we are reading this book with continuation of other prophets and we know the reason because Israel's rebellious nature, because he has been relating to the other prophets. So as when we, it is a continuation of other books. Now, and all together we put, there are three features that helps us to understand this book is that he immerses himself earlier to the biblical writing and with the reflection of them, he helps us to understand the sense of the tragedies of Israel, what they are going through. And these are also relating if they repent again and again, most of the prophets, this is what they say, looking at the rebellion nature of Israel is when you repent, there is a hope and there's a future. But if you stay in this, there's a judgment. There's a day of the Lord, he's talking about the day of the Lord, where the judgment will come upon them. So this is how it is. And we will move on to the chapter wise in chapter one and two, Joel mainly focuses on the day of the Lord, the judgment. This is a very key theme in the prophet, where it describes the events in the past when God appeared in a very powerful way to save his people, to confront evil and also about the plagues in the book of Exodus. But the prophet saw in these past events where, you know, how God, when people confronted the evil doing of people and when they repented, how they were saved and, you know, Joel is actually making, he is trying to get those reflection, reminding the people of Israel, listen, people rebelled and they were punished. But when they repented, God was merciful to save them. So today, when we repent, when we repent, when we come out of this idolatry, what they are and God will forgive and, you know, you will inherit the blessing of God. So this is what Joel is continuously telling the people. And Joel also is drawing a parallel line to the poems in focus on the theme. So in chapter one, he talks about the past days that is in the book of Exodus, how God brought the plagues, the disasters and the earth. Again, there's a plague of swan of locusts coming into the field and coming into the land. And here he says, God is sending this in judgment of people. So when we repent, he can save us. So Joel is calling all the elders and priests to lead the people in repentance and pray. And then Joel actually himself repents. He is putting himself in the people of Israel and he's saying, Lord, I don't know about others, but here I'm repenting for this. And, you know, he also represents himself as a priest. So he's repenting and he's saying, you know, save us. And in chapter two, we see that alongside, you know, in the public, he also announces that there's another day of the Lord, except this time it's future not past. And he says the disasters coming on Jerusalem and he begins describing what seems like another way. So there's a second way of locusts that would come and that will come in the form of, you know, military and the cosmic imagery of the locusts becoming God's army. And, you know, they'll come to destroy everything that's there and the sun will be darkened and there'll be earthquakes and Joel says the day of the Lord is dreadful, dreadful. Who can stand God's wrath? He's asking. Who can endure it? So once again, we see that Joel is warning, warning people to pray and repent. And he says how to repent. Rend your heart, not your garment, not the outwardly putting up the ash and rending your garment or sitting in the sack lock. No. Rend your heart. Let your repentance come from within. What matters more is your heart condition. Is your heart attitude? Is that seeking God? Is that earnestly seeking God or just for a time moment just overcome this emotional situation and then go back to the same old thing? No. Joel is saying rend your heart. Let your heart be changed. Let your heart repent because God is pleased not at the outer nature, not at what you are speaking or saying how you dress, but then your heart condition. Is that truly seeking God? Is that truly repenting that you will never sin against God? You will never go behind other God's because our God is a zealous God, we need to seek Him with all our heart, all our heart, mind and soul. And here Joel is making a point to Israel saying listen, there are many times you have repented, but you have gone back at the same time, but then now again as the judgment, as the day of the Lord is here at hand, I want you to change, repent from your heart, repent from within because God is a God of grace. God is more gracious and compassionate. He is slow to anger and is full of love. You see how the prophet is describing God again and again because in people's mind, people look at God as a God who punishes, but they are not able to understand. It's the sin which is causing the consequence of what they are going through. It is not God, the sin nature, that they own action against God as a consequence of whatever trouble they are going through. But then the prophet at the point of time and again the love of God is describing how much God loves you, that God is gracious and compassionate to accept you again, to embrace you with all his love. Again, there's a message of love in the book of Joel showing that God is gracious, God is compassionate. When we repent, when we repent, God is gracious to save us, to redeem us and there is a future of hope. And VCE is also quoting from the book of Exodus like how God forgave Israel. They made the golden calf and he reiterates many stories, many stories from the Torah to remind the people. That's the reason many of the prophets again, time and again they remind the story because yes, there's many generations who passed by. Now for us we are reading why so much repeat but then there are many generations who have come and gone, come and gone. There may be some of them who would have never heard about God, the miraculous things that he has done to save them. To save them and also to show that God is mindful of Israel. He don't want to give up on them and we are the people of God to put that word in the heart and mind of God. Sorry, heart and mind of Israelite. God raises prophets time and again. So it's not only then, it's even now. God raises leaders. God raises pastors, all the five fold ministry and not only that others also He puts this burden into our heart. Listen, you experience the love of God, how I forgive you as how I have redeemed you and I have restored the relationship with you. Now, will you speak for me? Now today God raised, we studied about Hosea and we are studying about Joel. Now God is looking at us. Yes, Hosea and Joel demonstrated my love to people. They were ready to share the good news. They were ready to share that God is compassionate and merciful. When we repent, we'll forgive and restore us back. Now they did. Now it's your time. Are you doing it? Are you ready to share this gospel that I've sent to my son? They were waiting for the Messiah but you and I have got Messiah. Jesus came into this world. He died on the cross for us. He restored us back. But are we sharing this news, this good news with others? Can we be that mouthpiece? We don't have to have this five-fold ministry of title saying I'm the prophet, pastor, teacher, evangelist. No, God is asking if you believe in me. Can you share the good news with others? Can you share the God's love with others? The love with which I loved you. The love with which I have redeemed you as I restored you even though you would have broken, broke the covenant just like Gomer and you've been unfaithful like the Israelites, what Joel is saying. If you and I have done that and God has restored us back, what is the lesson that we can learn from these two books that we read today is God is calling us and God is also asking us a question. Will you demonstrate God's love to others? I'm a God of love. I'm a God of love. And I love you and I've restored you back just as if you have never said. I died on the cross for you and I have redeemed you and I will redeem everyone whoever comes to me and I'm a God of mercy, grace and compassion. Now, will you be my mouthpiece? Will you go share the good news with others? Yes, Israel rebelled. Israel, the people of Israel never listened to any of the prophets. They were mocked. They were looked down. But in spite of that, they were people who listened to them. They were people who repented. They were people who turned to God. Let's leave that action to God. Let's leave that to God and let's do what God is asking us to do. Like how Osir submitted himself, he obeyed himself, surrendered himself to God and just obeyed. Okay, Lord, I will do what you're asking me to do. Just that we should not be very comfortable in the zone where we are. If you're getting comfortable, then there's something not right. Help us. We need to pray. Lord, help me to do what you wanted to do. Help me to go to the place where you wanted to go. Help me to share the good news to others what you wanted to me to speak. Help me to be a mouthpiece. And God, as he said to Isaiah, I'll put my words into your mouth and I will speak the same way. God will put his words into our mouth and he will speak in and through us. God has never failed us. The God who promised Joshua that as I was with Moses, we'll be with him. The same God says, I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. The God who was with all these prophets, even the prophets that we are going to study, the God who was with them is with us. God will say, will you carry this good news and share with others? Will you embrace me with all your shortcomings? Because I have embraced you. I love you. And I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. So with this, I will leave the class for open to class discussion for five minutes. If there's anything that you would like to share from the learning of these two books, please feel free, go ahead, share. We are running out of time. I would request one of us to, okay, if there's no question, then maybe we can, or you can share what you learned, what touched you, what has impacted you, in what way God has spoke to you personally, because every book has a personal connection with God. God speaks to us to our heart. The Spirit of the Lord was with us. He will awake at us with this word. Yes, Divya, please go ahead. Thank you, Pastor. It was really informative. Yeah, as you mentioned in the last, in the book of Hosea, how Hosea obeys, you know, surrenders completely. That's really amazing. It would have been really tough for him to do that. But yeah, it's, and to show that forgiveness. Yeah, that really touched my heart. And also in Joel, yeah, we always code those scriptures, right, which has been kind of fulfilled in acts, like I'll pour out my spirit. Pour out my spirit. On all flesh. And I believe that even these days, yeah, it's being fulfilled. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, yes. Thanks, thanks, Divya. That is a very important point. Yes. It was fulfilled in the day of Pentecost and also now that, you know, I'll pour out my spirit and everyone and the young ones will see visions and prophesy. Yes. It is very important. It has been fulfilled. Every prophecy has been fulfilled in and through us in our time as well. Anyone else would like to add on to what Divya said. Anything that we have not covered because in one hour, we cannot cover. But still, I would recommend each of us to go through these books. Read so that we can understand better. Brother Isaac, Brother Elisha, John, please go ahead. Just share if you would like to. Okay. We will end this session with the word of prayer. Can I request John to lead us in prayer, please? I mean, Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. the voice of the Holy Spirit and be sensitive to what you're trying to teach as a God and help us to reflect this to the people around us, Master. We give you praise, you're also a certain person, diamond, your hands. Thank you for enabling her to share your word to us. We pray, O God, that this week would be fruitful to us and help us to be more rooted and grounded in your word and your love. Yes, Lord. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, John. Thank you. See you all tomorrow. God bless. Have a blessed day. Ma'am, I have a question. Yes, Aradha. You gave a final assignment of Holy Testimony. One second, please. I'll stop there for a minute.