Thanks Be To God…for Jesus

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THREE : Hosea 6 v. 1 – 7 v. 16; Romans 7 v. 7 – 25; Psalm 88 v. 9b – 18

HOSEA
Israel Unrepentant – the call is for Israel to return to the Lord, after all the destruction, ‘He will heal us…He will bind up our wounds…He will revive us..He will restore us…Let us acknowledge the Lord…He will come to us like spring rains’
In return, though, Ephraim and Judah have a love which is like the early dew which disappears quickly. God brings destruction upon them because of their disloyalty and disobedience. ‘I killed you with the words of my mouth.’
‘For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings’
They have been like Adam – breaking the covenant, and being unfaithful.
Gilead is singled out as a city of wicked people. The priests are singled out as a band of ambushing marauders.
‘I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel…Ephraim’s prostitution and Israel defiled’
Although Judah is also under God’s spotlight, it is Israel which is being charged with
- crimes of deceit, theft, robbing
‘Their sins engulf them; they are always before me.’
- the kings and princes are impressed / delighted with the wickedness and sin
- adultery is rife
- the princes drink too much, and the king joins them in smouldering passions (like a hot oven devouring rulers with its flaming fire)
- Ephraim has mixed too much with other nations, such that foreigners sap its strength
- Israel does not return to the Lord, or even search for Him
- ‘Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless’, turning instead to Egypt and Assyria for help
- God will catch them like birds in nets, as they fly, straying from Him
- ‘I long to redeem them, but they speak lies against me.‘
- they wail and mourn, but don’t cry out to God anymore
- ‘I trained them and strengthened them, but they plot evil against me’
- they will fall by the sword and be ridiculed in Egypt because of their insolence

ROMANS
Struggling With Sin - Paul is not saying that the ‘law is sin’, but that the law informs us about sin, sets the boundaries, and highlights sin.
‘Sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.’
The commandment which was meant to bring life, actually brought death.
‘The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good’.
The commandment produces ‘death in me’, sin twists even what is good, and makes it as death.
The law is only possible if you live the spiritual life – the naturally sinful life experiences only the impossibility of the law.
‘For what I want to do I do not do; but what I hate I do….it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.’
‘For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.’
There is an inner battle going on, and Paul knows that ‘evil is right there with me’.
There is a war on! Something / someone ‘making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members’.
Paul cries out for a saviour, someone to help him in this struggle.
‘Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!’

He, alone, makes all things possible.

PSALM
My Lord, my God, I cry out to You, I lift my hands to You, every day
Do You occupy Yourself with the dead? Do the dead respond to You?

(pause for reflection)

Does the grave know Your loving faithfulness, or just Destruction?
Does the darkness know Your right and glorious deeds, or just Oblivion?

My Lord, my God, I cry out to You,
from first thing in the morning.
‘Help me!’
But it feels like You’ve rejected me, turned away from me.

It’s been like this since I was young:
I have been sick to the point of death
I have suffered, been terrified, and despaired
I have felt the full force of Your anger, Your terrible destruction
I have experienced drowing in the flood of it all
I have lost my companions and loved ones
My best friend now is Darkness.

The grace-gift of God : Eternal Life

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWO : Hosea 3 v. 1 – 5 v. 15; Romans 6 v. 15 – 7 v. 6; Psalm 88 v. 1 – 9a

HOSEA
Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife – Hosea is instructed by God to go to his wife and love her again, even thought she has committed adultery and is loved by another. ‘Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.’
So Hosea goes and buys her back (15 shekels of silver, and a ’homer and a lethek of barley’), and tells her not to go with another man (either for money, or just for the intimacy), ‘and I will live with you.’
Israel, too, will be forced to live many days without offering itself away from God to king, prince, sacred stones, ephod or idol. Then Israel will ‘return and seek the Lord their God and David their king’. They will return, trembling, seeking God’s blessings in the end.

The Charge Against Israel – God brings His charge against His people :
- ‘there is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land’
- there is plenty of cursing, lying, murder, stealing, adultery, breaking boundaries, shedding blood
- the land is mourning, its people are wasting away, all its beasts, birds and fish are dying
- stop bringing charges against one another, stop accusing one another; you’re all the same, stumbling around, day and night
- I will destroy your mother (the nation), because of your lack of knowledge, understanding
- you have rejected my knowledge, wisdom, so I reject your priestly calling (set apart amongst the nations)
- you have ignored my laws, so will ignore you and your children
- you have increased in number, o priests, and in sin : ‘exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful’
- feeding on sin, relishing wickedness; and as the priests behave, so the people behave !
- now is the time for punishment and repaying your wickedness
- they will go hungry, they will diminish (visiting prostitutes does not increase the population)
- they have given themselves to ‘old wine and new’, which confuses the people (‘takes away their understanding’)
- they are consulting wooden idols, and they have a ‘spirit of prostitution’ which leads them to be unfaithful to God
- sacrificing to false gods and prostitution and adultery are God’s main, recurring complaints
- women are no more to blame than the men, who consort with harlots and visit shrine-prostitutes
- ‘Though you commit adultery, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty’
- Judah is urged not to involve itself with Israel’s idolatry, to leave Israel (Ephraim) well alone

Judgment Against Israel – the priests and all Israel are called to pay attention to the judgment of God.
‘Israel is corrupt.’
They cannot return to God while they still have this ‘spirit of prostitution’, and are consumed with arrogance.
Though they go with their flocks to seek the Lord, they won’t find Him, because of their unfaithfulness.
‘He has withdrawn Himself from them’.
Listen for the trumpet sound, the battle cry in Gibeah, Ramah, Beth Aven, for Ephraim (Israel) will be laid waste.
Both Ephraim (Israel) and Judah will suffer defeat. Ephraim has turned to Assyria for help, but no ‘cure’ came from there.
‘I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah; I will tear them to pieces and go away…’
Then they will seek God’s face again, from their place of deep misery.

ROMANS
Slaves to Righteousness - Next, Paul moves on to another question he must have heard asked - ’if we are not ‘under law’ than, but grace, it doesn’t really matter if we sin or not, does it? We can sin as much as we like, surely?’
Paul argues, though, that when we offer ourselves we become slaves to whoever we choose to obey – so, which are we - ‘slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness’?
We used to be slaves to sin, but thanks to God, we have put our whole trust in the teaching which has been passed on to us in trust.
‘You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.’
We are urged to offer our bodies in slavery to righteousness which leads to holiness (not to impurity and ever-increasing wickedness).
There is no ultimate benefit in slavery to sin - nothing but death.
The benefit of slavery to God is holiness, and eternal life.
‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

An Illustration From Marriage – the argument follows that people are only under ‘law’ as long as they live. The example is in marriage. If a husband dies, the woman is released from the law of marriage, and is not committing adultery if she marries again.
Being ‘in Christ’ means we have died to the law, ‘that you might belong to another’, to be Christ’s ‘in order that we might bear fruit to God’.
Controlled by sinful nature, sinful passions are stirred by the law working in us, so we bear fruit for death.
‘But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit…’

I like the imagery of being released from bondage to sin, and freed to belong to Christ, to be in Him, to serve in the new way of the Spirit.
Lord, let it be so, in me today.

PSALM
A song from the Sons of Korah, a maskil of Heman the Ezrahite
Musical direction : according to mahalath leannoth

My Lord, my God,
You save me as I cry out to You day and night.
Listen to me, hear my prayer and answer me.

I am deeply, deeply troubled,
My life is ebbing away from me.
I am on death row, in line with others nearing their end.
A weakling, struggling with no strength at all.
Put out with the garbage,
Laid to rest like the dead.
Do You even remember me?
Do You still care?

Why have You put me in this position,
laid my in the lowest pit, the darkest depth?
You seem to be so angry with me,
like a heavy weight pressing down on me,
overwhelming me like floodwaters; I’m drowning beneath its waves.

(pause for reflection)

You have cut me off from my very best friends
turned them away from me completely – they despise me.
I am trapped – I can’t escape
My eyes are fading – I can’t see through my upset and grief.

To have and to hold…new life in Christ

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND ONE : Hosea 1 v. 1 – 2 v. 23; Romans 6 v. 1 – 14; Psalm 87 v. 1 – 7

HOSEA
Hosea is writing in the northern kingdom of Israel during the 8th Century BC, against the backdrop of Baal worship. Israel had attained great power and wealth, but was under threat from Assyria. Both Amos and Hosea try to warn Israel that its only hope is to turn back to God. The main theme of the book is God’s mercy (in spite of Israel’s adulterous relationship with Baal) – ‘hesed….involves loving loyalty to covenant commitments, well illustrated by the marriage vow.’

Hosea’s Wife and Children - Hosea’s time of writing the ‘word of the Lord’ is identified by the kings of Judah and Israel. God instructs Hosea to ‘Go, take yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, for the land is guilty of the vilest adultery by departing from the Lord.’
Hosea’s experiences in marriage are to help him and others understand God’s experiences in relation to Israel.
He marries Gomer and they have a son, whom God calls Jezreel, signifying judgment on the house of Jehu, for the massacre at Jezreel.
They next have a daughter, whom God calls Lo-Ruhamah (meaning ‘unpitied’) to indicate that He will no longer show His love for Israel, but rather for Judah, who He will save.
Next followed a second son, whom God calls Lo-Ammi (meaning ‘not my people’), stating a reversal of the covenant pledge ‘you will be my people’.
‘Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore…in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people’, they will be called, ‘sons of the living God’.
God’s love will bring Israel and Judah together again, reunited under one leader, and they will become ‘brothers’ and ‘loved ones’ once again.

Israel Punished and Restored – God pours out His rebuke and condemnation – a husband (God) bringing the case against his wife (Israel) :
- ‘rebuke your mother…for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband’
- she has an adulterous look, and is unfaithful
- God will expose her infidelity, and will make her like a desert
- God will withdraw His love from her children, born out of adultery, infidelity, conceived in disgrace
- She has chased after her lovers, who have showered her with good things
- God will confuse and block her way, walling her in, so that she cannot catch her lovers
‘Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’
- She has forgotten all God’s provision – new wine and oil, silver and gold – now used for worshipping Baal
- The grain will be taken away, the new wine will disappear
- Wool and linen intended to cover her nakedness will be taken back, and she will be exposed
- God will stop all the celebrations (new moon, sabbaths etc.), and vines and fig-trees will be ruined
‘I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals…she went after her lovers, but me she forgot.’

- God wants to lure her back, leading her into the desert to speak tenderly to her
(‘true in our lives as well : trouble becomes an opportunity for God to call us back to Himself…Israel’s punishment will open the door to a bright future if she responds in repentance’ Wesley Study Bible)
- The Valley of Achor is where Achan paid for his sin (Josh. 7)
- She will sing as in the days of her youth…when she came up out of Egypt
- She will call God her husband once again, not merely ‘master’ (play on words, too, with ‘master’ in Hebrew being ba’al)
- This will be a turning away from the Baals, no longer speaking their names
- A new covenant will be made for them (with the animals and birds); bows and swords will disappear from the land;
‘I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion, in faithfulness…and you will acknowledge the Lord.’
- There will be a beautiful harmony in nature – skies and earth, grain, wine, oil, all responding to this new covenant relationship
‘I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called, ‘Not my loved one’.
‘I will say to those called, ‘Not my people’, ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God’.

ROMANS
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ – Paul next asks a key question – if God is full of grace, should we be testing its boundaries by sinning more and more ?
‘By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?’
Those who have been baptised, were baptised into Christ’s death, buried with Him in baptism, so that we may be raised to new life, united with Hum in resurrection.
The body of sin is done away with, ‘so that we should no longer be slaves to sin’.
We died with Christ, we will also live with Him. Death has no more mastery over Jesus.
‘The death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God.’
We are to count ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus.
Sin is to have no reign or rule in our lives, so that we give in to its temptations and desires.
We are to offer ourselves not to sinful desires, but to God, as people given a new life, and to offer our bodies as ‘instruments of righteousness’, before God.
‘Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.’

PSALM
A song from the Sons of Korah
My Lord, my God,
Your foundation is set firmly on the holy mountain,
through the ever-loved gates of Zion,
more loved than any home.
Glorious things are spoken of you, Zion, city of God

(pause for reflection)

Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, Cush all pay tribute to you, honouring those born in Zion.
Others will say about Zion
‘This one and that one were born in her,
God Himself will make her great,
He will register those born within Zion’

(pause for reflection)

They will rejoice and sing a great song, saying
‘Every fountain I know is in You.’

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

Madison Square Garden can seat 20,000 people for a concert. This blog was viewed about 63,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Madison Square Garden, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Ripe fruit, a Remnant, and a Redeemer

DAY TWO HUNDRED : Amos 8 v. 1 – 9 v. 15; Romans 5 v. 12 – 21; Proverbs 17 v. 15 – 24

AMOS
A Basket of Ripe Fruit - God shows Amos a basket of ripe fruit and asks the prophet, ‘What do you see?’. I do love the way the prophets, and then Jesus in the NT, speak God’s truth through observing the ordinary, lilies of the field, birds in the air, the potter at his wheel etc..God still whispers to us, ‘What do you see…?’
Obviously, Amos replies that he sees a basket of ripe fruit. Then the message follows :
‘The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.’
and He foretells the turning of temple songs into wailing, with numerous bodies strewn all over the place, then a deadly silence.
His message is particularly for those who trample the needy, and reject the poor, keen to earn a quick buck, cheating with dishonest scales, keen to end the Sabbath to get on with their dirty dealing, ‘buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals…’. God is truly distressed by the inhumane treatment of the poor and needy within Israel, and He won’t forget what people have done.
There is a punishment coming to Israel – the land will tremble, its inhabitants will mourn, the land will sink into the river.
The sun will go down at midday, the earth will be dark; religious celebrations will become funeral wakes; sackcloth and shaven heads will abound.
A famine is coming – not of food or water, but ‘a famine of hearing the words of the Lord’. Could there be anything worse? A silent God?
People will stagger and search in vain for God’s word.
Young men and women will grow weak, thirsting, and those who swear by other gods will ‘fall, never to rise again.’

Israel to Be Destroyed - Next, Amos ‘sees’ God, standing by the altar, and the Lord says
- the pillars and the thresholds will shake, and fall on the heads of all the people
- others will die by the sword; no-one will escape
- can’t dig deep enough, can’t climb high enough, the Lord will get them, on sea or on land
- even when exiled by the enemy, they will not escape the sword
- ‘I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good’
The Lord God is Almighty, and can do all these things He has warned. His palace is in the heavens, its foundation on the earth. He commands the seas. ‘The Lord is His name.’
Just as God drew Israel out of Egypt, so God draws Israel’s enemies against them. His eyes are on His sinful kingdom, and it will be destroyed.
‘Yet I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob’.

Israel’s Restoration – God does foretell a restoration of ‘David’s fallen tent’, the broken places will be repaired, the ruins restored. The remnant of Edom will be reclaimed, and one day all nations will bear His name.
‘The days are coming when…
- the reaper will be overtaken by the ploughman, the planter by the one treading grapes
- new wine will drip from the mountains, flowing from all the hills
- I will bring back my people Israel
- ruined cities will be rebuilt, vineyards replanted, gardens replanted with fruit
- ‘I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them’

Destruction is coming to Israel, but a remnant will return and rebuild the city….

ROMANS
Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ – Paul’s argument moves on:
- sin entered the world through one man, and through him, death (death came to all men, because all sinned…)
- death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses
- ‘But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!’
- the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation; the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification
- ‘how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through one man, Jesus Christ.’
- one trespass brought condemnation for all men, one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men
- the trespass of one man made many sinners, the obedience of one man will make many righteous
- sin has increased, so that ‘grace increased all the more…so that grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’

PROVERBS
God hates injustice, where the guilty get off free, and the innocent are condemned.
Money is pointless in the hands of fools.
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
He who loves a quarrel, loves sin…
A man of perverse heart does not prosper; he whose tongue is deceitful falls into trouble.
There is no joy for the father of a fool…
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Bribes are wicked, as are those who accept them.
A discerning man keeps wisdom in view…

The Plumbline ? We’ll never measure up….but Jesus straightens us up.

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE : Amos 6 v. 1 – 7 v. 17; Romans 4 v. 16 – 5 v. 11; Psalm 86 v. 11 – 17

AMOS
Woe To The Complacent - this is a warning to the complacent in Zion, those who feel too comfortable on Mt. Samaria, noteworthy, respectable people. They are told to go and visit Calneh, Hamath and Gath, and to see if their land is better, bigger.
‘You put off the evil day, and bring near a reign of terror’ – their life of luxury has blinded them to the dangers on their doorstep.
They have spent too much time on their ivory beds and couches, fine dining, playing their harps and various other instruments, drinking and drinking fine wine, covering themselves in ‘the finest lotions’, paying no attention to the ‘ruin of Joseph’.
‘Therefore, you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.’

The Lord Abhors The Pride Of Israel - The Lord makes an oath (in His own name) declaring that He abhors Jacob’s pride, detests his fortresses, and will deliver the city up to enemies, and everything within it.
Not one person will be left in a house; everyone will perish, and the name of the Lord will not even be uttered through fear.
‘For the Lord has given the command…’
great homes will be smashed to pieces, small homes utterly destroyed,
(v. 12, God asks two questions designed to show that trying to please Him, to earn righteousness, is as impossible as horses running on craggy rocks, or oxen ploughing there)
because they have turned justice to poison, righteousness into bitterness,
claiming with pride that the conquering of Lo Debar and Karnaim was all down to their own strength.
God will stir up a nation to rise against Israel, to oppress them all the way from Lebo Hamath to the Arabah.

Locusts, Fire And A Plumb-Line - Amos tells how he was allowed to see that God was preparing a swarm of locusts to devour the second crop (after the first crop, which was always the king’s share – royal taxes). Amos could foresee the whole land stripped clean by the locusts, and cried out to God for Him to forgive and not punish little Jacob so harshly. ‘So the Lord relented’.
The Lord planned to send a judgment-fire to dry up the waters, and devour the whole land. Amos cried out to God for Him to stop, for little Jacob could not possibly survive that. The Lord relented, and said it wouldn’t now happen.
The Lord showed Amos a plumbline, and a wall that had been built true to plumb.
God used this visual to tell Amos, ‘I am setting a plumb-line among my people Israel – I will spare them no longer’. Israel was being judged to be like a dangerously leaning wall.
God announces that Isaac’s high places will be destroyed, Isaac’s sanctuaries ruined, and a sword will be raised up against Jeroboam.

Amos And Amaziah – So now, Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, rises up against Amos, sending a message to Jeroboam, king of Israel, stating that Amos is conspiring against Israel and the king, quoting Amos’s words about Jeroboam facing death by the sword and all Israel being exiled.
Amaziah confronts Amos directly, telling him to get back to Judah, and practise his ‘profession’ there (a paid prophet). He tells him to leave Bethel, the king’s sanctuary and temple.
Amos replies ‘I was neither a prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees’. Amos is certainly not a paid, professional prophet. However, his testimony is that the Lord took him from his shepherding, with a message to prophesy to Israel. Amaziah is told :
- your wife will become a prostitute
- your children will die by the sword
- your land will be divided up
- you will die in a pagan country
- all Israel will be exiled, taken away from their native land.

ROMANS
Abraham – Paul reiterates that the promise came to Abraham, not as a result of his keeping the law, but because of his faith. ‘Abraham is the father of all’ (of those who are ‘of the law’, but also of those who ‘are of the faith of Abraham’). He is indeed the Father of many nations.
‘Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations’ – the promise of a child in their old age seemed hopeless, yet Abraham believed in a God who ‘gives life to the dead’ and who ‘calls things that are not as though they were’ (i.e. creating things from nothing, making things exist).
Against all the odds, ‘he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised’. Abraham’s faith in God grew, rather than diminished, as he waited for this unlikely promise to be fulfilled. It is this very faith which is credited to Abraham as righteousness, and is an everlasting sign or example for us ‘who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead’.
Jesus died for our sins, and was raised to life so that we may know true forgiveness (justification), our sins dealt with, our life set free.

Peace and Joy - Jesus’ actions in His death and resurrection have justified us, who believe, and have led to :
- a life of peace with God
- a grace in which to stand (a firm footing in life)
- a hope in which to rejoice, the glory of God, His blessings upon us
- a path to victory, through suffering, perseverance, character-building, to hope
- a love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (which will continue to grow to complete holiness / sanctification)
‘You see, at the just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly….God demonstrates His own love for us in this : While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ - the glory of the gospel, eh!
The blood of Jesus has dealt with our sin, and so we have no fear of the coming judgment.
The death of Jesus has reconciled us to God, and so we can be sure we are saved though His life.
‘We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation’.

PSALM
My Lord, my God, teach me to walk in the ways of Your truth;
Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name.
My Lord, my God, I will praise You with every part of my being, with all my heart,
I will bring glory to Your name for ever and ever.
For Your love towards me is very great; You have saved me from the punishment of death itself.

My Lord, my God, see how the arrogant attack me -
The ruthlessness of those who pay You no thought.
But You, my Lord, my God, are
compassionate
gracious
not easily angered
overflowing with love
overwhelmingly faithful.
Take a look at my life, once again, Lord.
Show me mercy, grant me strength, save me.
Give me a sign so that -
I may know Your goodness,
and my enemies may know You and be covered in shame.
My Lord, my God, You are my helper.
You are my comforter.
Thank You.

Walking in the footsteps of faith

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-EIGHT : Amos 5 v. 1 – 27; Romans 4 v. 1 – 15; Psalm 86 v. 1 – 10

AMOS
A Lament And Call To Repentance - Amos cries out a lament, as if at a funeral for all Israel:
‘Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land, with no-one to lift her up.’
Amos says that the Sovereign Lord announces that cities of thousands will be reduced to hundreds, cities of hundreds will have only tens. But there’s still a chance:
‘Seek me and live’
they are to turn away from the false gods of Bethel and Gilgal (they will be destroyed completely)
‘Seek the Lord and live’
or the devouring fire will sweep through the house of Joseph.
The Lord sets himself as the creator of all, with the power to turn day into night, who summons the waters of the sea, who can destroy strongholds, against the people of Israel, who have turned justice into bitterness, chucked their righteousness in the gutter, and who have despises those who speak the truth.
God is angered by their trampling of the poor, so God says they will no longer live in their posh stone mansions, and they will not drink the fantastic wine produced by their lush vineyards.
‘For I know how many are your offences, and how great your sins’ :
- oppressing the righteous
- depriving the poor of justice
- making the wise stay silent, instead of confronting evil
‘Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say He is.’
They are to turn from loving evil, to rather hate evil and to love good. Then the Lord God Almighty may show mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

God foresees and foretells
~ wailing on the streets
~ anguished cries in public squares
~ farmers weeping
~ mourning will get louder and more intense
~ wailing in the vineyards
”for I will pass through your midst’ says the Lord.’

The Day Of The Lord – the coming day of the Lord (‘the earliest discussion of an important theme among the prophets. The people evidently expected a time when God would deliver them from all their enemies, but Amos condemns their faulty expectations’) will not be good news for Israel in the state Amos is addressing:
- it will be darkness, not light
- like fleeing from a lion, into the grasp of a bear
- like having a snake bite you in the safety of your own home
- it will be pitch-black, with no ray of brightness
‘I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.’
The offerings they bring are unacceptable to God, their songs are just noise to Him, because of the unrighteous, unholy lives.
‘But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!’

Rather than remember God’s faithfulness, and celebrate continually the deliverance God brought Israel (through the wilderness, from Egypt), they have built altars to false gods, raised up ‘the shrine of your king’. God will send them into exile.
‘He is the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.’

(‘as successive prophets spoke, it became clear that there would be a whole series of ‘days’ when God’s judgment and intervention would be seen. Such ‘day’s’ included the fall of Jerusalem, the return from exile, the coming of Christ, and the giving of the Holy Spirit. Each of these leads us closer to the final day when all things will be consummated (2 Thess. 1 v. 9, 10) – The Wesley Study Bible).

ROMANS
Abraham Is Justified By Faith -  Paul goes right back to Abraham to back up his argument. He quotes ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness’ (from Gen. 15 v. 6).
The argument is that if a man earns his wages, then they can’t be seen as gift, but obligation.
If, however, it’s not through works, but through trust, then ‘his faith is credited as righteousness’.
Paul also quotes Psalm 32, to show that David too knew how blessed he was to know the gracious forgiveness of sin (rather than by any works).
And to add weight to the argument that God favours neither the circumcised or uncircumcised, Abraham had righteousness credited to him BEFORE he was circumcised.
‘So, then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.’
He is also the father of all who are circumcised, but ‘who walk in the footsteps of the faith’ Abraham exercised pre-circumcision.
Not through law, but through faith-righteousness, was it that Abraham received the promise to become heir of the world.
‘Where there is no law, there is no transgression’; again, the law points out the sin, but does not provide the antidote.

PSALM (one of David’s song)
My Lord, my God,
hear my prayer and answer me
be my guard – I devote my life to You
be my God – I put my trust in You
be merciful to me – I call out to You all day long
 be my joygiver – I lift up my soul to You
My Lord, my God.

You are forgiving, You are good
You are abounding in love, You delight to hear prayers for mercy
You answer when I cry out to You with my troubles

There is no god like You, my Lord, my God
There are no deeds to compare with Yours
Every nation will worship You
Everyone will glorify Your name
For You are great, and Your works are amazing,
You are the only true God,
My Lord, my God.