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Zephaniah 1:2-3, John 3:16-17, Hebrews 2:3

Forewarned is Forearmed!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 26, 2023

Zephaniah brought a very unpopular message to the children of Judah. Judah was God’s chosen people and yet this warning was addressed to them. The message, however, was concerning the whole world. Zephaniah 1:2-3 says, “‘I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,’ declares the Lord.” During the days of Noah, God wiped away all the living creatures except those in the ark with Noah. The fish, of course, survived the flood. But Zephaniah’s prophecy included the fish as well. His prophecy involved a more thorough house cleaning than what occurred in the days of Noah. It’s a shocking way to begin a prophecy. Don’t you agree? “I will sweep away everything.” Bruckner says, “The image ‘sweep away’ refers to the wind that ‘sweeps’ chaff away from grain during threshing. The verb is doubled in Hebrew for emphasis (‘utterly sweep away’), indicating that the coming wind is no ordinary wind that will separate the grain and chaff. Rather, it is a storm wind that will ‘sweep away everything,’ the chaff mixed together with the grain.”[1]

When God created the world according to Genesis chapter 1, mankind was the last thing he created. In Zephaniah’s prophecy, man is the first to go. The beasts go next. Birds are next, and fish are next. God reverses the order in which he created all life. Barker notices this and writes, “Zephaniah artfully reverses the order of creation, letting man the last made become the first destroyed. The two verses of the present section testify to the intention of God to undo creation. Everything would be swept away from the face of the earth. All living things are to be destroyed in this scouring of the world, so a picture of emptiness is projected. By this picture, Zephaniah is proclaiming man’s loss of dominion over all the earth, and more importantly, the reversal of creation.… Yahweh’s ‘sweeping’ will be just as bleak as his creating was abundant. Nogalski notes that ‘the allusions to the creation and flood accounts are specifically selected for their emotional impact.’”[2]

Such a devastating prophecy might cause us to question God’s love. The truth is, however, that such a devastating prophecy is evidence of God’s love. As in the days of Noah, to warn people of a coming disaster is to offer an opportunity to escape. It’s often said “forewarned is forearmed.” Hurricane Ida struck the southeastern gulf states between Florida and as far west as Alabama last year. When the weather channel exhorted people to flee inland many heeded the call and saved their lives. But according to Wikipedia 107 deaths were attributed to Hurricane Ida. Among the reasons many didn’t heed the warning, researchers found several answers to that question. Among them are they underestimated the crisis, or they simply waited too long. Bridger says, “I believe that those who give these warnings are people who have our best interests at heart. I am eager to hear what they have to say. I don’t want to be ignorant about any possible future disaster. I want to respond responsibly to these warnings. In the same way, God has my interests at heart when with great love and compassion he warns me about judgment to come. If we did not know about the wrath to come, we would not flee from it. It’s an essential part of our humanity that we are to live in the light of foreseen consequences. Zephaniah helps us to do so.”[3] God’s love is more than just a warning of coming danger though. It also includes deliverance. The most famous passage in John’s Gospel tells us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17).  In Hebrews 2:3, The writer asks us all “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”

[1] Bruckner, James. 2004. Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[2] Barker, Kenneth L. 1999. Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah. Vol. 20. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[3] Bridger, Gordon. 2010. The Message of Obadiah, Nahum and Zephaniah: The Kindness and Severity of God. Edited by Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.

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Habakkuk 1:2, Matthew 10:29-31

Taking Our Vitamins

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 25, 2023

Habakkuk is full of questions for God. He asks them with much passion. Habakkuk 1:2 contains the first question, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” The book of Job, possibly the oldest book in the bible, deals with the issue of bad things happening to good people and how to wrestle with that issue. It has always been a problem. In 2022 you cannot watch the news or read a newspaper without hearing about bad things, violence, happening to innocent people. We are frustrated with our justice system that has let us down. Every human being will wrestle with the problem of evil in the world. The problem is we usually do it after the fact. When we see violence and injustice in the world we will ask “Why did God allow such a thing to happen?” There will be no rational answer to that question in the middle of the suffering. No one can think straight during great pain. The time to reflect deeply on the existence of evil in the world is before it overtakes us. God’s truth works best as preventative medicine. It should be seen more as a proper diet, exercise, and vitamins, rather than radiation therapy or chemotherapy, or other drugs taken to cure the disease once acquired. The person who is well grounded in God’s truth is much more likely to be able to bear up under suffering than the one unprepared. The truth is suffering is going to come to each of us in one way or another, at one time or another. Many people in the world have had their Covid vaccinations. The are supposed to make the disease, if we get it, less serious. With the vaccine we can fight off the negative effects much better.

The Bible presents us with an all-powerful and all-loving God.  Therefore, we like to expect God to prevent all evil and stop all suffering. But He doesn’t. Our emotions then drive us to think that God has abandoned us. We must be charged with the truth of scripture. We must arm ourselves for such battles with the Sword of the Spirit which is God’s word. The Word tells us clearly that God loves us, and He has our best interest foremost in mind regardless of our circumstances. Isn’t this what saving faith is all about? But, in the midst of our suffering, that’s a hard pill to swallow.

All the Prophets make it clear that righteousness is not an issue of religious ritual. It’s an issue of relationship. We must trust God amidst it all. God wants us to trust Him totally with our future. He is in charge, and nothing has reached us, like what reached Job, without his permission. And like he brought about redemption with Job in the end, He will bring about our salvation as well. He has promised to deal with evil and we must trust Him to do so in His time. Here is a great vitamin for today. Matthew 10:29-31 says, “But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.”

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Nahum 1:3, Various

God is Slow to Anger!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 24, 2023

Nahum comforts God’s people by pronouncing serious judgment on His enemies. Nahum 1:3 says, “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” God’s “slow to anger” nature is the subject of a lot of different passages in the Bible. I did a search on “slow to anger” and found that this exact phrase shows up 16 times. Fifteen times it’s in the Old Testament. The only time it shows up in the New Testament is in James 1:29 where we are exhorted, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” But the idea of God’s patience with sinners is not absent in the New Testament.  Peter tells us about this disposition of God toward sinful man in both of his letters. The idea is that God is patient, and slow to anger, with sinners. In 1 Peter 3:20 he says, “They formerly did not obey when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah.” In 2 Peter 3:15, as he closes his letter says (New Living Translation), “And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved.”

Nahum wants us to know that there is another truth regarding God. He will not let the guilty go unpunished. I wish the district attorneys of many of the large cities in America would get this message. Nahum seems to be referring to Exodus 34:6-7 which tells us, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” God was patient with the world of sinners at the time of Noah, but finally, because of his love for his chosen people, He destroyed the world. I think Noah’s use of the natural weather events of whirlwinds, storms, and clouds shows us that God is greater than any of the storm gods worshipped by Israel’s enemies. Just as God acted against all the Egyptian false gods in the ten plaques, so too will he act against the false gods of Israel’s enemies. God is the real warrior who rides on storm clouds into battle. The clouds are the dust of His feet as he roars into battle against his enemies.

The point of Nahum’s prophecy was to comfort those who are suffering at the hands of evil people. It also warned the persecutors that God will eventually bring judgment like He did in the days of Noah. To believers, this is comfort knowing that God will bring judgment on the wicked one day. To unbelievers, what are you waiting for? God’s patience, and His “slow to anger” nature will not last forever. He sent another ark into the world. It’s his one and only son, Jesus. The Psalmist prophesied this in Psalm 103:8-12. It says, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.  He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” In Christ, we find this forgiveness along with eternal life. Christ is the “Ark of God” for you and me. Paul addresses this issue regarding his own conversion to Christ. In Philippians 3:8-11 he says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

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Nahum 1:2, Proverbs 31:8-9, Isaiah 61:1-2

Defending the Defenseless!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 23, 2023

We learn some important things about God in Nahum 1:2. It says, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.” First of all, we see that God is a “jealous” God. Anderson reminds us that “God is totally different from us. He alone creates, sustains, and controls everything that exists. We must not project on to him human characteristics unless the Bible gives us the license to do so. So, when Nahum wrote that God is jealous and avenges himself, he was speaking of the perfect way that God acts, and he was not describing the rash behavior of humanity. In speaking of God as jealous, Nahum is not saying that God is: capricious—he does not have any unreasonable change of mind or character; malicious—he is not spiteful; vicious—he is not cruel. God alone is holy and pure, and works all things in accordance with his unchanging nature, as it is recorded in Genesis 18:25: ‘Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?’”[1] My old seminary advisor, Dr. Elliott Johnson, says that it might best be understood in this context as meaning God is “zealous to protect what belongs to Him.”[2]

God is zealous for the people He loves and will step in to defend them against evil. Not only Is He zealous, but He will also avenge. In this case, he is referring to the people of Judah. Nahum addressed Assyria with this warning. They had already brutally taken Israel, the northern kingdom, into captivity along with other nations around them. They now were threatening Judah also. God’s message to Judah was one of comfort. In essence, God says, “You belong to Me. You are my chosen people and anyone that steps out to do you harm will face my wrath.” Bruckner says, “His wrath is a circumstantial response to those who destroy what God loves.”[3]

It appears that God takes Assyria’s endless cruelty on a defenseless Judah as a personal attack on Himself. God has this strong love for those who are His and He promises to avenge the wrong done to them. Judah is helpless before the great army of Assyria. God will take up their cause for justice. Jesus takes up the cause of the helpless. He explained his purpose when he quoted from Isaiah 61:1-2. He said that God had anointed him to “bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God.” I love the way the Living Bible translates Proverbs 31:8-9, “You should defend those who cannot help themselves. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” Barker says, “In every age and against every oppressor, the Lord is a jealous and avenging God. All those who oppose the Lord receive the brunt of his wrath.”[4] I really like what John Thune, Senator from South Dakota said last year before the reversal of the Roe/Wade decision. “It’s impossible to look at an unborn baby kicking her feet and sucking her thumb on an ultrasound and see her as anything but the human being she is.” When he spoke on the Senate floor on November 30, 2021, he “noted that Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear this week, is the best opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade, but regardless of the outcome, he will continue to be a tireless advocate for the unborn.”[5]

[1] Anderson, Clive. 2005. Opening up Nahum. Opening Up Commentary. Leominster: Day One Publications.

[2] Johnson, Elliott E. 1985. “Nahum.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, 1:1497. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

[3] Bruckner, James. 2004. Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[4] Barker, Kenneth L. 1999. Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah. Vol. 20. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[5] https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2021/11/thune-we-must-stand-up-for-the-human-rights-of-unborn-americans

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Micah 1:2-3, John 3:17-18

Here Comes the Judge!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 22, 2023

I remember Miss McNamara at Blessed Sacrament School in about 1955. She would come into the room and clap her hands real loud to make us 4th graders settle down. She had to get our attention, but it never worked. Then she would rap her desk with her pointer. We would all hear it but never took it seriously until Sister Emily walked into the room. We had all been pulled by the ear or had our hands slapped with rulers, or our arms nearly ripped out of their joints by sister Emily.  She had a powerful effect on us. Miss McNamara hadn’t earned that kind of respect yet. The boys making the trouble, me included, would all sit down and shut up then. When Sister Emily was around, we knew immediately that she meant business. Most of the Old Testament prophets are like Miss McNamara. They shouted out their warnings to the world but the bad boys didn’t listen. The interesting thing about the Prophet Micah is that they did listen to him. They repented of their sins which postponed God’s judgment on the people for over a hundred years.

Micah called for their attention and like Sister Emily, he got it. This is clear in Micah 1:2-3, “Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.” Prior says, “The double command to hear and to listen, issued with such peremptory suddenness at the beginning of Micah’s prophecy, is directed to you peoples and addressed to the earth, and all that is in it (2). Everyone and everything in the entire world is required to pay attention to these words. They may be concerned with one small area at one specific point in time, but they contain crucial lessons for all people at any time.”[1]

We often view God as being way off in space and removed from the daily events of the world and our personal lives. Yes, God is transcendent in his glory and majesty, but He is not removed from the events in our world and has promised justice to all people. He will appear in history. Kaiser says, “Here is the great Old Testament theme of theophany, the appearance of God. It depicts our Lord suddenly coming in all His power and majesty to help His beleaguered people or to dispense justice regardless of the persons upon whom that judgment must come. So awesome is His presence that even nature itself threatens to come apart as it responds to Him.”[2] Those who listen and repent can be saved. Those who reject the message will meet Sister Emily. Of course, this is a minor illustration of the vast destruction God’s judgment will bring to the “bad boys.” God breaks into the events of history to either save people or to judge them for their sins. After affirming God’s love for the whole world, John 3:17-18 tells us, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

[1] Prior, David. 1988. The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God. Edited by J. A. Motyer and Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.

[2] Kaiser, Walter C., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. 1992. Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Vol. 23. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

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Jonah 1:3, Acts 10:28

The Wonderful Grace of Jesus

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 21, 2023

God called Jonah to go to a pagan nation and call them to repent. We’re seeing here God’s focus on the salvation of the gentile nations. God has love for “all” the people of the world, but Jonah does not share that affection for the sinners in Nineveh. Instead, we read in Jonah 1:3, “But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So, he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.” Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian nation. That nation would be the one that would conquer the northern kingdom of Israel and scatter the ten tribes of Israel to the world. They then would settle the land with their own people as well as those taken from other parts of the world. We end up with the land of the northern kingdom being occupied by foreigners who would intermarry with the remnant of the Israelites that remained in the land. These are the ancestral roots of the Samaritans of Jesus’ day. Jonah represents the attitude of the religious Jew toward the gentile people around them. This attitude persisted throughout history. Jews, like Jonah, would go out of their way not to have any contact with their neighboring Gentiles.

How can a supposed “prophet” of God disregard God’s call on his life? But Jonah does just that. Richison writes, “This is the only occasion in the Old Testament where a prophet refused to do the will of God.  God told Jonah to ‘go’ and he went all right – in the opposite direction…Tarshish was 2500 miles to the West in the southern tip of Spain.  It was a merchant city.  Nineveh was 550 miles to the northeast while Spain was 2000 miles to the West.  Jonah was willing to go four times as far out of the will of God as he was in the will of God!”[1] I can’t help but compare Jonah with Peter as we read in Acts chapter 10.  Peter is called to go to Cornelius, a gentile living in Caesarea. Being a good Jew who would have nothing to do with gentiles, needed his own “great fish” to move him from this prejudice. God sent a vision of unclean foods and commanded Peter to eat. Peter professed his determination never to break the laws by participating in such feasts. God tells Peter never to call something unclean that God has cleansed. After visiting with Cornelius and his family, Peter finally gets God’s message. Peter says to them in Acts 10:28, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” Jesus made this clear also in the Gospel of John where he met the Samaritan woman at the well. She was stunned that a Jew would have anything to do with her. Jesus offered this gentile woman the water of life from which if she would drink, she would never thirst again.

It’s the same offer to all people in the world today. God so loved the world that he sent his Son, Jesus to die for their sins. Does God love gentiles? Yes. He loved the gentiles in Nineveh. He loves the gentiles in Caesarea. He loves the gentiles in Samaria. He loves the gentiles in the USA. He loves all people. He demonstrated the depth of that love on the cross where when we were still sinners, Christ died for us. What matters to you and me is that God’s love reaches us. God was reaching out to the gentiles in Nineveh with Jonah. He was reaching out to those in Caesarea through Peter. His love is still reaching out today. Right through the chaos of modern life and the confusion in our minds, Christ is reaching out to us. One of our favorite old hymns was written by Haldor Lillenas in 1918. You’ll still hear it sung occasionally today, “Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin; how shall my tongue describe it, where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free, for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.”

[1] Richison, Grant. 2006. Verse by Verse through the Book of Jonah. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems.

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Obadiah 1:2-4, Proverbs 16:18-19

Pride Precedes a Fall!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 20, 2023

Edom, Ammon, and Moab were the permanent enemies of Israel. They exchanged control of the area as one rose in power and the other fell. When Israel and Judah had hard times, Edom would align themselves with Israel’s enemies and enjoy a season of victory. This seems to have been part of the story of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah especially. God would send prophets against them when they abused the two nations of God’s people. Obadiah is the prophet God sent to Edom. I always remember that because of the little saying, “Edom was bad, so God sent Obadiah.” There was something about Edom that caused them to be the more disliked nation in the area. It was probably because of Obadiah’s word from God about them. Obadiah 1:2, speaking for God, says, “Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.” They were boastful and arrogant, and God wanted them to know that He would humble them. They lived in a very safe environment and thought nothing and no one could reach them.

Edom was an ancient people group that inhabited the land south of Judah and the Dead Sea. The Edomites, also called Idumeans, descended from Esau, the twin brother of Jacob. They were of great historical importance as descendants of both Isaac and Abraham. The word Edom in Hebrew means “red,” a reference to Esau’s reddish look at birth and possibly the “red” stew that he traded his blessing for. Yet, despite their shared ancestry, the Edomites and Israelites lived in almost perpetual conflict. In Genesis, we learn that while Israel was a slave in Egypt, Edom established a nation of its own and became a force in its own right. The prominent city in Edom was Petra. This city, accessible only through a narrow canyon within cavernous mountain walls, was featured in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. God’s prophecy against Edom came as a result of their constant hatred of Israel during the time Israel came back from Egypt. They had prospered while Israel was gone and had no intention of letting them come back from Egypt and take over the promised land. In the fifth century B.C., a people called the Nabateans defeated the Edomites and removed them from Petra. The Edomites were forced to move south of Israel to an area that would become known as Idumea. In the New Testament, Herod the Great, who commanded the murder of all boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem was an Idumean. He is the last of the Edomites to be mentioned in history.

Proverbs 16:18-19 give us some great advice. The Edomites might have survived had they paid heed to it. It says, “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.” Talking about this passage in Proverbs, a web blogger says, “The Edomites serve as a classic example of the adage, ‘pride goes before a fall.’ Because of the arrogance of heart, Edom fell never to rise again: ‘The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, who can bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down declares the LORD” (See Obadiah 1:3–4). Many biblical prophets echo this theme: ‘The proud one shall stumble and fall, with none to raise him up’ (Jeremiah 50:32, ESV; see also Isaiah 28:3; Ezekiel 31:10–12; Zephaniah 3:11; Zechariah 10:11).”[1]

[1] https://www.gotquestions.org/pride-goes-before-a-fall.html

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Amos 1:1-2, Psalm 18:13, Job 37:5

God Roars!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 19, 2023

In 1 Kings 19:12, we read that God speaks to Elijah in a “still small voice.” But Elijah was expecting to hear from God in the “great strong wind.” Then he listened for God to speak in an earthquake and then in a fire. We really can’t blame Elijah for expecting to hear from God in the wind, earthquake, and fire. The Psalmist tells us that God speaks that way when he needs to get our attention. Psalm 18:13, “The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones, and coals of fire.” Job confirms this also. In Job 37:5, “God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.” We have more biblical evidence of God speaking from fire, thunder, and other calamities than we have of His “still small voice.” C. S. Lewis said, “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”[1] We hear God speak in the opening verses of Amos with his megaphone. Amos 1:1-2 says, “The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. And he said: ‘The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.”

Amos held no official title in Israel. He was just a Shepherd of Tekoa, and not a very significant one because the text points out that he was “just one of the many” among the shepherds of Tekoa. He was a common person, like you reading this, and me writing this. Yet, he saw something that others could, or would not see. Notice that the “words” of Amos, are described as being those that he “saw” during the reigns of Uzziah in Judah and Jeroboam II in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The thing to notice about this timing is that it was the most prosperous time in both NNatio’’shistories. Amos was from Judah but prophesied against the northern Kingdom of Israel where Jeroboam II reigned. It was a prosperous time, but an evil time for Jeroboam II continued the pagan worship begun by his namesake, Jeroboam I.

It doesn’t take a college degree to recognize the similarities between Amos’ day and ours. We face very similar problems. Jesus himself addressed the dangers of prosperity on several occasions. He warns us much more about the dangers of pleasures than the dangers of pain. True, I’ve seen many who have turned from God because of pain in their lives, but I agree with John Piper who says, that more are lured away from God by their pleasures. Pleasures seldom awaken people to their need for God; pain often does.  The first danger of prosperity is complacency. I’ve seen many churches with huge endowments and debt-free buildings forget about their mission of making disciples. Another problem is arrogance. Prosperity often leads us to wrongly believe there is some kind of quality in us that makes us better than others. The third danger of Prosperity is self-sufficiency. Full barns often lead us to think we don’t need anyone, including God. All three of these dangers are addressed by Amos. But Amos was alert to the fact that God wanted to break through all the luxury and financial security and prosperity in the land. Thus Amos tells us that “God Roars.”  Of all the things in that agricultural economy that could not be ignored was a roaring lion. That’s the picture that Amos uses to describe God’s message to the healthy and the wealthy nations.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/422142-we-can-ignore-even-pleasure-but-pain-insists-upon-being

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