Meditate on it

I13--Zechariah I14--Shallum assassinated Zechariah in public, reigned 1 month, then assassinated by Menahem. I15--Menahem,  assassinated Shallum, killed the entire population of a town that refused to surrender.ripped open pregnant women.  Reigned 10 years in Samaria. King Tiglath pileser of Assyria invaded land, Menahem, paid him off by extorting money from Israel.  I16--Pekahiah son of Menahem, ruled 2 years.  The commander of his army, Pekah, conspired against him. With 50 men from Gilead, he went to the Citadel in Samaria and assassinated him. I17--Pekah He began his reign in the 52nd year of Judah's king Uzziah's reign.  He reigned in Samaria 20 years.  During his reign, the king of Assyria came back, conquered towns and took Israel captive. J10--Jotham Son of Uzziah, was 25 when began reign, reigned 16 years.  He rebuilt the upper gate of the temple, was good--like his dad--except did not destroy pagan shrines.  He conquered the Ammonites, buit

Basket of Fruit, c 1599, Caravaggio A poignant interpretation of the agricultural imagery in Amos 8 by the Biblical Illustrator: A basket of summer fruit As God set before Amos a basket of summer fruit, as a sign or parable concerning Israel; so, at harvest-tide God sets before us a basket of summer fruit, to teach us lessons to our soul’s health. 1. In preparing the earth for a harvest crop, and our lives for a crop of holiness, we must expect hard labour, and often sorrow. Whether we cultivate the fields or our souls, we must do it in the sweat of our face, with hard labour. Both the ground and our nature need cultivation, and that implies labour, and frequently sorrow. After the great fire of London, a flower called the Golden Rocket appeared, and beautified places wasted by the flame, though it had never been seen in that district before. The seeds were lying in the ground, but it needed the fire to make them live and grow. Some times we need the fire of affliction to b

Among many of the grey areas in my Christian walk is the question of prayer.  The Word tells us that the Lord hears our requests to varying degrees. I remember some passages where the Lord turns a deaf ear to cries and recall others where He listens closely.  We can make choices that distance ourselves from Him through our actions and by the gradual hardening of our hearts.  He is not capricious in degrees of listening, but there are definitely degrees and precedence. It would make an interesting study---clearly the prophets have a more direct line from Abram, through Moses and Samuel. Here, Amos successfully sways the Lord away from destruction by locusts: In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Then I said, "O Sovereign LORD, please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel is so small."   So the LORD relented from this plan. "I will not do it," He said.  -Amos 7:2-3 From Constable's Notes: "The prayers of righteous individua

Amaziah then said to Amos, “Leave, you visionary! Run away to the land of Judah! Earn your living and prophesy there! Don’t prophesy at Bethel any longer, for a royal temple and palace are here!” Amos replied to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet by profession. No, I was a herdsman who also took care of sycamore fig trees. Then the Lord took me from tending flocks and gave me this commission, ‘Go! Prophesy to my people Israel!’ So now listen to the Lord’s message! You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel! Don’t preach against the family of Isaac!’ Amos 7:12-16 A Raindrop's Life , Neelesh Jain , Graphite on Paper Constable's comments on the Hebrew word for preach :  "Amaziah had told Amos to stop prophesying, namely, to stop preaching (v. 16). “Preaching” is from a verbal root meaning “drip” (Heb. natap ), as the heavens drip rain (Judges 5:4; cf. Amos 9:13). The idea is that Amos should stop raining down messages from heaven on his hearers. True prophets were people

North Fork of the French Broad River near Balsam Grove, photo by Duane McCullough But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name!          -Amos 5:8  For me, the seamless artistry and beauty of the natural world is one of the strongest evidences of God. The Lord is ever overseeing the ebb and flow of the seasons and natural cycles. How do rivers begin in obscurity yet tirelessly gather and flow to the seas? It seems effortless. In contrast, our own efforts at artificial rivers seem forced and require much mechanical engineering and human maintenance. Studying the French Broad River with the children has given me a greater appreciation for rivers.  Why does the French Broad flow across the Eastern Continental Divide?  How does a river emerge and chart its course?  The slope of the land is the largest d

Such sweeping imagery in Amos 5, it's no surprise that Martin Luther King, along with many others, have been mesmerized with the power of this chapter: "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing streams."  Amos 5:21-24 From Constable's Notes: "Instead of feasts and fasts, instead of offerings and sacrifices, instead of singing and playing musical instruments, the Lord said He wanted justice and righteousness (cf. v. 7). Instead of a constant stream of blood flowing from sacrifices, and an endless torrent of verbal and ritual praise from His people, He wanted these ethical qualities to

Chart by  Clarence Larkin , not sure what I think of it.  I wouldn't have pegged him as a Baptist, but I'm not a bit surprised that he had a background in Mechanical Engineering. "For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets." -Amos 3:7 Why does the Lord choose to reveal Himself and His plans through the prophets? Was it only during this particular period of history that he primarily spoke future plans through the prophets? The Biblical Illustrator points back to Abraham and Noah: Am I being biblical by de-emphasizing prophecy? There is a struggle also in the lives of Christians who become overly focused on prophecy to the point of seeing signs and visions in most every aspect of life. Again, this confuses me. Are we reading spiritual tea leaves? Why would some have this and entire denominations be without it? Has this gifting ceased? Way too many questions for this little book of Amos and the context t

fruit of a sycamore fig tree Amos was a profitable herdsman and grower of sycamore figs from the Judean town of Tekoa.   He was in charge of shepherds and large numbers of livestock. He prophesied under the reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah.  Under these kings, both enjoyed a season of expansion and prosperity second only to Solomon's era.  Amos was a contemporary of Jonah, Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea: “A flurry of prophetic activity was divinely inaugurated in the eighth century B.C., mainly to warn the northern kingdom of an impending destruction if she did not repent and reverse her way of life.” -Walter Kaiser His name means "burden bearer" or "load carrier."  Amos was also a bit of a Cincinnatus or Washington; he left his livelihood to pursue God's specific call on his life for a particular season: "Unlike other prophets, Amos was not a man whose life was devoted to hearing and speaking the Word of the Lord. He was

A gem from my NET notes on Jonah's assessment of the Lord: "...because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment. So now, Lord, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live!” The Lord said, “Are you really so very angry?” "Slow to anger" in Hebrew literally means "long of nostrils" --what a word picture! Psalm 103:8 In contrast, Jonah is angry to the degree that he longs for the Lord to end his own life.  What spite!   

First, the Backdrop Nineveh was a capital of Ancient Assyria, a hugely powerful civilization and a fierce enemy of Israel.  Constable's Notes provide more context:  "Nineveh stood on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. It had walls 100 feet high and 50 feet thick, and the main one, punctuated by 15 gates, was over seven and one-half miles long.[3] The total population was probably about 600,000 including the people who lived in the suburbs outside the city walls (cf. 4:11). The residents were idolaters and worshipped Asur and Ishtar, the chief male and female deities, as did almost all the Assyrians. Assyria was a threat to Israel’s security (cf. Hos. 11:5; Amos 5:27). This is one reason Jonah refused to go to Nineveh. He feared the people might repent and that God would refrain from punishing Israel’s enemy (4:2)."  -Constable's Notes Next, The Sideways Nature of Anger Later in the book, I  find God's question to Jonah amusing:  "Do you do well to be a

"But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry."  Jonah 4:1 Jonah's displeasure brings to mind the older son of the prodigal.  He resented his father's forgiveness as well. Why do we resent God's mercy to others? We do not hesitate to grasp that  we deserve mercy, but surely not that man or those people.  What did they do to deserve such a kindness?  When God extends mercy to the undeserving, the unfairness of it rubs us wrong.  It's nervy because He never made His mercy toward others our business--except to proclaim it, certainly not to question it.  But, we are a nervy people.  I suspect this impulse is an extension of our bottomless capacity for selfishness, vanity, and pride. We view ourselves as different, better, the exception to the rule. What if God desires to "save" everyone? What's it to me? Again, another parable comes to mind---that of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20). The nerve of God to pay them a

courtesy David Choate, Flicker Before I was a Christian, the book of Jonah struck me as a fable, along with the parting of the Red Sea and the worldwide flood of Noah's ark.  I've since become more open-minded, more comfortable with the grey spaces of this present world.  Yes, people do have a tendency to make things up and embellish history over time, but I've also come to allow that strange things DO happen in this world: "truth is stranger than fiction."   I've also come to accept that God, if He is really God, is quite capable of suspending or superseding the laws of His creation for His purposes and pleasure.  He does not need to be consistent in this regard.  Yes, a man in the belly of a fish for three days is bizarre, but if such a God can instantaneously create a universe by speaking, is He not equally capable of sustaining the life of an individual supernaturally if He so desires?  We need to leave room in our hearts for His mystery.  We also

I thought I understood Jonah. Although I puzzle over Israel and Judah's shortsighted kings, I had no such barrier when it came to understanding Jonah. The Lord commands him to go to a large foreign city, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it ." The Net Bible commentary notes that this phrase contains a double imperative of verbs, more along the lines of "Go, immediately."  Jonah's reaction is almost comical in its unpremeditated clarity: "But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord." Jonah 3:1 The notes describe the word play in these lines--the Lord asked Jonah to "arise," so he did "arise," but in the opposite direction! I was "with" Jonah.  Who wants to travel to a large foreign city to tell a groups of unfamiliar people that they are living in sin and far from God?   But actually, a sense of self-preservation, fear of the people, was NOT