Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Amos 5:1–17
Set – Amos 5; Titus 1
Go! – Amos 4–6; Psalms 86; Titus 1
Amos 5:1-17
1 Hear this message I sing about you;
it is my dirge for you, people of Israel:
2 The virgin Israel has fallen,
fallen never to rise again;
Forsaken in her land, forgotten where she lies.
No one is there to help her rise again.
3 So says the Eternal Lord:
Eternal One: The city that sent out a thousand soldiers
will see only a hundred of them survive;
And the town that sent out a hundred
will see only ten remain for the house of Israel.
4 So says the Eternal to Israel:
Eternal One: Turn back to Me and you will live. There is still time.
5 But don’t hang your hopes on Bethel,
Or travel to Gilgal or Beersheba or any other sanctuary expecting help,
because Gilgal will surely be sent into exile,
And the shrine at Bethel will come to nothing.
6 Turn back to the Eternal One, and you will live.
If you don’t, He will flame up like fire against the house of Joseph,
Burn it to the ground, and no one in Bethel will be able to put it out.
7 Listen, you who distort justice and make it taste bitter
and trample righteousness to the ground.
8 The One who set the Pleiades and Orion in the heavens,
who turns night’s shadow into morning and darkens the day with night,
Who calls forth the waters of the sea to pour down rain and flood the earth—
the Eternal One is His name,
9 Who destroys the mighty in a flash,
and crashes against the fortress with the force of a tidal wave.
10 Those of you who hold power now hate the one who judges in the courts at the gate
and detest anybody who speaks the truth.
11 So because you have climbed to success on the backs of the poor
and your wealth comes from taxes you impose on their harvests,
You may well build mansions of expensively-cut stones,
but you’ll never occupy them.
You may plant beautiful vineyards,
but you’ll never enjoy their delicious wine.
12 For I know the depth of evil that you’ve done,
and I see the gravity of your sins:
You persecute those who do the right thing, you take bribes,
and you push the poor to one side in the courts at the city gates instead of helping them.
13 So the wise may decide to keep quiet just then,
because truly, it is an evil time.
14 Search for good and not for evil
so that you may live;
That way the Eternal God, the Commander of heavenly armies, will be at your side,
as you yourselves have even said.
15 Hate what is evil, and love all that is good;
apply His laws justly in the courts at the city gates,
And it may be that the Eternal God, the Commander of heavenly armies,
will have mercy on those descendants of Joseph who survived.
16 So says the Eternal God, Commander of heavenly armies, the Lord of all:
Eternal One: Get ready to hear wailing from every street,
people crying out in pain and sorrow along every highway.
The farmers will be pulled away from their fields to mourn,
and those who are trained to grieve will wail with them.
17 In every vineyard, there will be mourning
because I will pass through the middle of you.
Says the Eternal One.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
Israel didn’t listen to My prophets when I warned them against the evil they were doing. They turned away from My law. They didn’t treat each other justly. The leaders took advantage of the people taxing them into poverty and making themselves rich on the backs of the people they were to care for.
I sent My prophets to warn them, but they wouldn’t listen. They continued to do as they pleased and they paid a heavy price for their disobedience. Israel was crushed under the might of Assyria and Babylonia and Persia and Greece and Rome. For centuries, Israel could not hold its own leadership, but lived under the occupation of another country whose leaders did not believe in Me. The Israelites were forced out of their homes and lived in exile as I allowed them to suffer because they abandoned Me.
The United States’ early documents talked about Me. Most of the founding fathers of the country talked of My providence in bringing the people of this country together to form a new nation with the hope of freedom from the tyranny of evil men. Churches grew up in every city and men and women prayed. The first book printed by Congress was the Bible to be used as a reader in schools.
In just two centuries, you have fallen just as Israel fell. Your prosperity caused you to look to other gods and forget Me. I have sent prophets to you, but your churches are empty except for those who tell you what you want to hear. Those who agree with your perverted sense of justice and twist My words to please you.
So I will come soon and bring justice for the righteous. I will again bring peace and hope to My world. But this time, as prophecies have foretold, the new heaven and new earth will come from the purging of all evil. I will come again and the great battle will punish the evil one and all who follow him forever. My people will be brought to live with Me and will feast with Me through eternity.
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