Do NOT read these books with children and young people
I've spent much of this year teaching and studying the Old Testament prophets — at Youthworks College, at St Patrick's Theological College in Madagascar, and now as I’m preparing a unit on Isaiah and LIT talks on Micah. Along the way, I've discovered several reasons you probably shouldn't read these prophetic books with children and young people.
Firstly, the prophets use the ‘s-word’. A lot. Much of their preaching consists of accusations of ‘sin’ — wrongdoing, unfaithfulness, and serious moral failings. Reading the prophets with children and young people means that you will have to teach the uncomfortable doctrine of sin, explaining that it is not just ‘breaking the rules’, but a personal betrayal of God (e.g. Hosea 1–3). This will make it hard for the young people you teach to ignore their spiritual condition, justify it, or pretend it isn’t a problem.
Secondly, the prophets make it difficult to maintain a comfortable ‘Sunday Christianity’. They repeatedly condemn the respectable religious lives of God's people, insisting that he is more interested in what is happening in a person's heart than in the quality of their public worship. They even suggest that caring for the weak and vulnerable matters more to God than fancy prayers and extravagant sacrifices (e.g. Micah 6). This kind of teaching is sure to unsettle young people who have neatly divided their lives into the sacred and the secular.
Thirdly, the Old Testament prophets encourage scepticism. They frequently denounce the popular ideas of their day. Jeremiah, for example, comes up against false prophets like Hananiah (Jeremiah 28), who tell their hearers exactly the kinds of things they want to hear. Reading the prophetic books may encourage children and young people to evaluate every popular opinion against God's word rather than simply believing whatever everyone else believes. Standing for deeply unpopular truths didn't exactly work out well for Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 20; 26; 38).
Fourthly, reading the prophets might cause young people to stop interpreting world events the way everyone else does. Rather than fretting over Assyria and Babylon like everyone else, the prophets insist that history is actually directed by the Lord. They even claim the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians was the work of God himself as he brought judgement upon the people of Judah (Ezekiel 9–11). The prophets also naively suggest that one day all nations will gather to worship the Lord under God's chosen king (Micah 4). Sharing this implausibly optimistic vision with young people might lead them to live confidently and hopefully at a time when the world thinks we should surely be anxious and fearful!
Finally, the prophets bring comfort and good news... at this point, I’m struggling to maintain the satire. I had planned one more reason not to read the prophets with young people. Unfortunately, the prophets themselves ruined it. How can you put a negative spin on Isaiah’s promises of a child who will reign forever (Isaiah 9), a God who comes to comfort his people (Isaiah 40), a servant who bears our sins (Isaiah 53), and a new creation where the former things are forgotten (Isaiah 65–66)?
On second thoughts, perhaps that's exactly why children and young people need the prophets. They need books that tell the truth about sin, show them what wholehearted worship of God looks like, teach them to recognise falsehood, remind them who really rules history, and point them to the coming King who brings forgiveness and a new creation.