Archive for the ‘Minor prophets’ Category

Scripture reading for September 15th: Amos 6-7

I have always liked the story of Amos and the plumb line.  I’ve used a plumb line in building several times in my life.  As a farmer, I used simple tools to build facilities for my animals.  The plumb line was used to make sure walls were straight up and down and posts in buildings were in their proper alignment.  The plumb line works by gravity.  A heavy pointed brass “bob” suspended by a line always pointed straight down and the line is perpendicular to the earth.  It was simple and worked to measure vertical alignment!

“This is what He showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand.  And the Lord asked me, “What do you see Amos?”  “A plumb line,” I replied.  The the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel; I will spare them no longer.” (Amos 7:7-8)  Amos had a vision of the Lord holding plumb line.  This vision represented God’s measuring His people’s vertical alignment with Him and His law.  God gave them His law to help them but they were complacent and spent their time in luxury, feasting and drinking. (Amos 6:1-7)

God also sent prophets like Amos and Hosea to call the people back to this proper vertical alignment and warn them where their lives were out of plumb! In a sense, Amos was God’s messenger holding the plumb line of His word to warn the people that God was going to judge them!  The truth that Amos spoke was not well received by the leaders of the nation.  Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, sent Amos away!  “Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out you seer! Go back to the land of Judah.  Eat your bread there and do your prophesying there.  Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, for this is the king’s sanctuary and temple of the kingdom.” (Amos 7:12-13)

When the Lord warns His people, it is better to listen and obey than try to eliminate the prophet with the plumb line.  How does your life line up?  Are you in alignment with God and His holy word?  Are you trying to shut up the voice of God by avoiding church or Bible reading?  Why not make some changes today?

Scripture reading for September 14th: Amos 3-5

If you knew that you would die today and face God, how would you spend your last hours?  Do you have issues that you need to settle?  Are you prepared at this moment to deal with God concerning your life, conduct, stewardship, and state of your soul?  As we read the words of Amos today, let these thoughts examine your heart.

Having a close relationship with God is a blessing, but also brings great responsibility.  God had chosen to dwell with Israel above all families of the earth.   (Amos 3:2-3)  They knew Him, His laws, and His ways better than any other peoples of the earth.  There was a covenant agreement that was made at Mt. Sinai through Moses that bound them together.   They had agreed to walk together!  Because of this, God had a responsibility to punish Israel for her sins.  He also promised to warn His people about the coming punishment by raising up prophets who would speak clearly for Him.  (Amos 3:7)

Amos began to speak to God’s people as God spoke to him.  Amos warned the people of coming judgment by war.  (Amos 3:11-12)  They would be overrun by the enemy.  Their altars at Bethel would be destroyed and their mansions demolished.  The women of Israel were also singled out because of their oppression of the poor and needy.  They loved to drink alcohol and live a luxurious lifestyle, but neglected God’s law.  The people went through religious motions, but their hearts were far from God.  (Amos 4:1-5)

God had tried often to get their attention.  He withheld rain from the land and brought famine.   He struck gardens with blight and mildew and sent plagues among them.   Some he overthrew like Sodom and Gomorrah, and snatched them from the fire!  Yet the people failed to get the message and return to Him!  (Amos 4:7-11)

“”Therefore this is what I will do to you Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.” He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals His thoughts to man, He who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth–the Lord God Almighty is His name! “ (Amos 4:12)  Take time today and examine your life.  Has God been trying to get your attention?  Are you harboring sins and living in luxury and complacency?  Repent while you can!

Scripture reading for September 13th: Amos 1-2

Amos was a shepherd from Tekoa who God called to be a prophet to His people.  Amos was given a vision of God’s judgment on all of Israel’s neighbors for their specific sins.  He listed sins by name and then specific judgments.  He also listed specific sins for Judah and Israel.   Can you imagine Amos speaking to God’s people and leaders and exposing sins by name?

Our tendency would be to get excited about God seeing the sins of our enemies!  We seem to be prone to seeing sin in others but not in ourselves.   We get this from our first parents, Adam and Eve!  This blame game is a way to deflect viewing our own sins.  However, God is loving toward His people and talks directly to them.  He warns them to give them time to repent so they do not perish!

Judah had four specific sins that God noted.  They had rejected the law of the Lord and broken His decrees.  They were led astray by false gods and followed the gods of their ancestors.  For these sins, God would send fire upon the fortresses of Jerusalem.  (Amos 2:4-5)

Israel  also had four sins that God noted.  They sold righteous people for silver and needy people for a pair of sandals.  They trampled on the heads of the poor and denied justice to the oppressed.  They committed adultery and profaned God’s name.  They misused offerings and wine!  God had been merciful to them and delivered them.  He had sent prophets to them and raised up Nazirites to minister to them under vow to God.  They defiled the Nazirites and commanded the prophets not to speak!  (Amos 2:6-12)

When we look at the time of Amos, we note the similarity with our own time.  There is rampant disregard for God’s law and decrees.  Idolatry is rampant, even in God’s church.  Social injustices are still prevalent in our culture and church people are involved in racism and neglect of the poor and needy.  Sexual sins are also prevalent in the church, even among the clergy!  When the word of God is spoken in power and purity, the man or woman of God is often maligned!  But God is still the judge and will bring judgment!  What will we do in the end?

Dear Friends,

We are living in the exciting times of the last days mentioned often in Scripture.  These are days of great trials and troubles.  Earthquakes and wars are common news.  There are signs of the coming of the Lord in the news and we can feel an urgency in our hearts to be ready and help others get prepared.  The greatest event of history is the coming of Jesus Christ as King of Kings and it could happen any day!

In the last week’s readings, the prophet Joel had much to say in his short book.  He initially saw the destruction of the land by a swarm of locusts that represented the army of Assyria.  Later, he was given a vision of the restoration of Israel after its destruction and judgment.  The autumn rains would come and abundant showers would restore the parched and barren land.  God would repay His people for the years that the locusts had eaten!  (Joel 2:23-25)

This rain was really a picture of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Last days!  (Joel 2:28-32)  (Acts 2:16-21)  God was planning a Holy Spirit outpouring that would cause men and women, young and old, Jew and Gentile to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  They would prophesy, dream dreams and see visions.  God would do miracles, signs and wonders and everyone who called on the name of the Lord would be saved!  There would be a great deliverance for Jerusalem and Mount Zion.

We are living in these very days!  There is deliverance for all who will call on the Name of Jesus Christ!  We who know Him are filled with the Holy Spirit and have power to share the Gospel; the Lord can use us to bring healing and miraculous acts of His grace to those who are being witnessed to.  Let’s allow the Lord to use us daily and expect Him to confirm His word with supernatural signs!  We serve an awesome God!  The best is yet to come!

In His Love,

Pastor John

Scripture reading for September 11th: Joel 1-3

Joel spoke to Israel during a time of natural disaster.  A swarm of locusts had invaded Israel and was devouring their crops.  (Joel 1:4)  Joel saw in this locust plague a picture of another coming judgment on the nation.   An army from the north was coming to bring God’s judgment.   This time of coming judgment was called “the day of the Lord”.  (Joel 1:15, 2:1,11 31, 3:14)

Joel called the people to fast and pray for God’s mercy.  God gives grace to the humble and if God’s people will humble themselves and pray and seek His face, turning from their wicked ways, He will hear from heaven and heal their land.  (2nd Chronicles 7:14)  “Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly.  Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.  Alas for that day!  For the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.” (Joel 1:14-15)

Desperate times call for passionate intercession and heart-felt repentance! “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”  Rend you hearts and not your garments.  Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity.” (Joel 2:12-13)  God will always respond to a people who are demonstrating a genuine repentance.  God has been known to change His mind about judgment when His people call out.   He even responds when Gentiles call on Him, as the book of Jonah demonstrates!

Joel also saw God gathering the nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat for judgment concerning how they treated His inheritance.  There would be a great army gathered there and God would sit in judgment. ” “Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.  Come, trample the grapes,  for the winepress is full and the vats overflow–so great is their wickedness!” Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!  For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.” (Joel 3:13-14)  Many think of this verse as viewing the people who have opportunity to decide for the Lord.  That is not the case!  These people have decided against God and God is making His decision to judge them!  This is a place to avoid by repentance!

Scripture reading for September 10th: Hosea 12-14

“Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.  Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord.  Say to Him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.” (Hosea 14:1-2)

God’s always calling out to those who will hear.  He desires none to perish, but all to come to repentance. (2nd Peter 3:9)  Repentance is a change of mind and direction.  It is turning from rebellious and selfish ways back to the Lord.  This turning comes when we recognize that our actions and attitudes constitute “sin” and that this sin is the cause of our downfall.  The next step is to come to God with words that come from a broken and contrite heart.  Asking God to forgive us and receive us again is the path back.  God waits joyfully to receive His people back who come sincerely.  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1st John 1:9)

Hosea describes the Lord’s mercy and compassion to his countrymen.  “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them.” (Hosea 14:4)  God longs to heal His people and His love goes out to them even as His wrath and anger went out against their sin and rebellion.  He would much rather show mercy in love than punish in anger!  Repentance is the key element needed to draw God’s love and turn away that anger!

“Who is wise? He will realize these things, Who is discerning?  He will understand them.  The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.” (Hosea 14:9)   God’s ways are always right and just.  When men are in rebellion, they are ignorant and lack the discernment because of the darkness that covers their hearts.  When God’s people willfully reject an understanding of God’s ways and refuse to follow, they are destroyed by this willful lack of knowledge.  (Hosea 4:6)  True prophets turn God’s people back to the Lord and His mercy.  They expose sin and lies.  Check your own heart today.  Do you need to “return to the Lord”?  Simply take words and ask Him for His mercy!

Scripture reading for September 9th: Hosea 9-11

As a farmer, I learned that my farmland sometimes needed a rest.  This was called letting the ground lie “fallow”.   Occasionally we would be seed it down with a cover crop and let that crop grow and the land rest for a year.  When it rested, weeds would also grow.  Before they could go to seed in the fall, we would go out and plow that ground and turn all the cover crop and weeds under.  That way the soil could be full of decaying plants and the next year it would produce a better crop.

“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed (fallow) ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers righteousness on you.  You have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception.  Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors.“  (Hosea 10:12-13)

Right living according to God’s law and word brought a good crop for the Israelites.  God’s unfailing love would bring blessing and a good harvest.  But the Israelites had let their hearts rest and weeds of sin had grown up.  Their land needed plowing!  That fallow ground needed broken up.  Hosea’s preaching was like the plow and God’s word was the plowshare that went into their hearts to break up the hardness and turn over the weedy growth!  They had planted wickedness instead of righteousness and had eaten the fruit of deception.  This is a reference to the Garden of Eden and the forbidden fruit that Eve and Adam ate!  They depended on their own strength instead of God!

How like today this is in our own land!  People have sown wickedness and our land is full of broken promises and false oaths.  Lawsuits spring up everywhere. (Hosea 10:4)  Guilt is upon the land and it’s people.  Thorns and thistles, representing the curse of Genesis 3 are growing over the altars of wickedness. (Hosea 10:8)  The fear of terror and war and economic hardship is in the air.   The ground needs plowing!

How God yearns to love and have compassion on His wayward children!   Let this ancient word from God do the work of the plow in the weeds of your heart!  Sow righteousness and reap the crop of everlasting love!  God will rain His righteousness upon you!

Scripture reading for September 8th: Hosea 7-8

“Put the trumpet to your lips!  An eagle is over the house of the Lord because the people have broken My covenant and rebelled against My law.  Israel cries out to Me, ‘O our God, we acknowledge You!’  But Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him.” (Hosea 8:1-3)

God told Hosea to warn His people with prophetic preaching about the coming judgment!  A trumpet was used in Israel to call the people to war.  Remember that the Lord does nothing in judgment unless He warns His people!  (Amos 3:7)  His people gave a vocal commitment to the Lord by publicly acknowledging Him, but in their daily lives rejected God’s law and word.  Their covenant relationship was violated by going after other gods and committing spiritual adultery.  They put princes in office without God’s approval!  (Hosea 8:4-6)

Because of their hearts full of adultery and iniquity, they sowed the wind and would reap the whirlwind!  (Hosea 8:7)  This is an example that paints an interesting picture.  Wind is invisible but has consequences that we cannot see.  A whirlwind is visible because of it’s destructive consequences.  It is wind that has accelerated and brings visible destruction.  The people should get the message clearly!

In the midst of all of this, the people were still religious.  They built altars for sin offerings, but these became “altars for sinning”.  (Hosea 8:11)  They failed to follow God’s specific instructions for atonement of sins.  They did things in their own way and God was not pleased!  The result was disastrous, the reaping of the whirlwind!   “Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has fortified many towns.  But I will send fire upon their cities and consume their fortresses.” (Hosea 8:14)

As we contemplate this message of Hosea to God’s people, we can’t help but think of our own land and it’s people.  Many claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.  They make professions of faith but live far from God’s law.  They live in spiritual adultery and elect leaders who God would not approve of because of their lawlessness!  They want leaders who will validate their lifestyles, not blow a trumpet!  They look for pastors who will tickle their ears and soothe them with smooth words.  This works for a while, but God eventually sends the whirlwind!  Take time to examine your own heart today and pray for our nation!

Scripture reading for September 7th: Hosea 4-6

Israel had an amazing legacy of God’s revelation of His nature and character to them.  They had experienced God’s presence in their midst and knew personally of His love and mercy and powerful deliverance of the nation from slavery and bondage in Egypt.  Yet, in Hosea’s time, they lacked knowledge and were being destroyed!

“. . My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.  Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.” ( Hosea 4:6)   This lack of knowledge came from God’s priests ignoring and rejecting the law of God.  When a people willfully rejects knowledge that it has, blindness and judgment come their way.  Consequences of rejecting God’s law bring judgment on the people and their offspring.  Could this be happening in America today?

The consequences of the priests rejecting God’s law were evident in Israel.  “Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.”" In reading Hosea Chapter 4, seven of the ten commandments are listed as broken by the Israelites!

In America today, there is an assault on the law of God.  God’s word has been removed from the public school system and much of the business and political world.  Posting of the ten commandments was once common and it has now been declared illegal by many states and court systems.  Teaching the basic laws of God was once the foundation of our education system and it is now illegal in our public schools.  In fact, many of God’s laws can be “legally” broken because people and government have rejected the knowledge of God.

According to Hosea, the priests were to blame in Israel.  Christians must take responsibility in America!  We now have a knowledge of God through the Holy Spirit and must live and vote to keep God’s knowledge fresh in our country’s remembrance.  The rejection of knowledge resulted in judgment:  “Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone.” “A whirlwind will sweep them away,” (Hosea 4:17,19a) What will happen in our nation?

Scripture reading for September 6th: Hosea 1-3

The life of a prophet of God was not an easy road.  God called Hosea to marry an adulterous woman named Gomer. (Hosea 1:2-3)  She was a prostitute with many lovers.  Gomer was a picture of Israel and her affairs with many foreign gods.  Hosea obeyed God and obediently lived with this woman and had three children by her.  These children were given names by God that gave a prophetic message to the Israelites!  God used Hosea and his unfaithful wife to be an object lesson to His wayward people!

Hosea’s first child was to be called “Jezreel”, which means “God plants”.  God was going to uproot the planted house of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.  The second child was a girl to be named “Lo-Ruhamah”, which means “not loved”.  God was going to cut off his show of love for Israel but not for Judah.  The last son was born and given the name “Lo-Ammi”, which means “not my people”.  God was going to cut off His relationship with His people and this child would be a sign of His word to them. (Hosea 1:4-9)

In spite of this hard message of judgment and rejection, God gave Hosea a word of hope and encouragement as well.  He was told that though the Israelites would go into captivity, they would multiply and be brought back to Israel and again be called “sons of the living God.”  (Hosea 1:10)  He was told that the “Valley of Achor” (trouble) would become a door of hope. (Hosea 2:15)  They would again call God “my husband” instead of “my master!  (Hosea 2:16)  They would forsake the Baals and again become faithful to God.

Gomer left Hosea and went back to a life of prostitution.  She sold herself into slavery and bondage.  God told Hosea buy her back.  “So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and lethek of barley.  Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.” ” (Hosea 3:2-3)  This again was a picture of God’s unfailing love for His own adulterous people.  In the last days they would return to Him and enjoy His blessings again!  Take a moment and reflect on God’s faithful love for you and thank Him for it!