Year 2, Week 2, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 2, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Amos 5-8.

Today’s reading continues Amos’ prophecy. Amos 5 are strong warnings aimed to prompt repentance: “Seek me and live; but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing.” Seek the LORD and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph” (Amos 5:4b-6a). While they were ungodly, they were still participating in worship; but the LORD detested their religious gatherings: “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies” (Amos 5:21). Amos 6 contains strong words for the privileged: “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria…Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall” (Amos 6:1a,4). The destruction would soon be upon them: “For behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD, the God of hosts” (Amos 6:14a). Amos 7 is a series of judgments by the LORD that are stopped through Amos’ intercession: “O Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” (Amos 7:2a); and: “O Lord GOD, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” (Amos 7:5a). Amos 8 indicates that judgment is imminent (like ripe fruit ready to pick): “This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit” (Amos 8:1-2).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was that one of the signs of grave judgment upon Israel was that they would experience a spiritual famine: “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11). A famine of God’s Word would soon spread across the land. This should be seen as the most devastating of judgments. A previous judgment of physical famine stirred no repentance: "I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD” (Amos 4:6). But a famine of God’s Word should be seen as even more essential to life than food: “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3). The Word of God was not simply God’s instructions for Israel, it was the very means of sustaining Israel with life and everything else. Without the Word of the LORD, there would be nothing to sustain Israel. God’s Word could supply bread to it, it had done it before; but mere bread could not sustain the soul.

This severe judgment was brought on by Israel’s disregard of and rejection of God’s Word. Since his people had rejected his Word, God would give them what they have chosen; the life-sustaining Word of God will be gone. There was an incident in Amos 7 that illustrated the deep rejection of God’s Word. Amaziah, a priest at Bethel (as false place of worship established by Jeroboam I), made slanderous accusations against Amos consisting of political conspiracy: “Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel” (Amos 7:10a). Amaziah went on to conclude: “The land is not able to bear all his words” (Amos 7:10b). The land and the people in the land would not exist apart from the Word of the LORD, but Amaziah declared that God’s Word was not good for the land. Such blasphemous words on the part of Amaziah illustrate the blatant rejection of God’s Word. It was not merely that they ignored the prophets of God, they declared that what the LORD's prophets said was bad for their existence. The LORD, through Amos, would speak curses on Amaziah: “Therefore thus says the LORD: “‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’” (Amos 7:17). And the curses that would befall Amaziah illustrated the curses promised in the Law, such as: “You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her” (Deuteronomy 28:30a); and: “Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless” (Deuteronomy 28:32); and: "You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity” (Deuteronomy 28:41); and: “And as the LORD took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it” (Deuteronomy 28:63).

The loss of God’s Word is a devastating thing. It is only when it’s can’t be found that the full awareness of what is lost can be felt: “They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it” (Amos 8:12).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe