September 7–Amos 7-9

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for the hearing of the words of the Lord”(8:11).

“A word from the Lord was rare in those days; visions were infrequent” (1 Samuel 3:1).

The last three chapters of the book of Amos contain a series of five visions. Five pictures of God’s judgment. Locust swarm. Devouring fire. Plumb line. Basket of ripe fruit. Altar destroyed. Terrifying images, all.

In Chapter 8, God compares Israel to summer fruit, ripe, just at the turning point. Beginning to spoil. Soon of no value at all.

What crimes carried the nation to this dangerous point? Greed played a significant role. The eagerness to get rich. See 8:5-6. The same warning given by the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 6. The men of Israel were punctual in religious services. No fault there. But their enthusiasm was focused on the “work week” when they could get back to making money. It was their true love. Slowly this cancer of the heart separated them from God. Note their characteristic callousness toward the poor.

God’s response? A famine. Not of harvest, rain and bread, rather of the hearing of God’s word. The Spirit was grieved and quenched. Sermons were preached, but hearts were unmoved. No one heard a word from God. Nothing to shatter the conscience and sweep them into a radically new life. Cold souls. An absence of power. A famine in the land.

“Preaching is the public exposition of Scripture by the man sent from God, in which God Himself is present in judgement and grace” (John Calvin, italics mine). Friend, is God present when we gather for worship? Is there sufficient fire in our churches to draw people from their computer screens and sporting events to the place where God is present to save? If not, then we, too, are experiencing a famine.

“My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power”(1 Corinthians 2:4).

“Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?”(Acts 2:37).

September 6–Amos 3-6

“But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness as an ever flowing stream”(Amos 5:24).

Justice is God’s word. It implies a decision made by God. (The Hebrew word mishpat meant “judgment or decision.”) It points to a verdict reached in the mind and heart of the Holy One. When people and situations conform to HIS judgments of right and wrong, it is rightly called JUSTICE.

In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial, famously quoted Amos 5:24. Doing so, he interpreted God’s demand for social justice, justice in the way humans treat other humans. In this, Dr. King was in step with the prophet Amos who called ancient Israel to radically reorder their relationships toward the poor. See 5:12.

Even so, the LARGER, FULLER meaning must give focus to Spiritual justice. In today’s text, I hope you will notice how often Amos joins the ideas of justice AND righteousness. Unless a man is right with God, he is not just.

Our very idea of fairness, and our ability to do it, rises from God. Those who truly want justice in this generation must seek God or fail in their quest.

Racial and economic justice are only a part of God’s plan. His judgements regarding life and marriage and property are equally clear. Attempts to establish social justice apart from Spiritual justice will fail from lack of foundation and power. What a sad record secular human history provides! Human attempts to create utopia always fail. It is not revolution we need, but revival.

Justice is God’s word. Unless we seek Him, we will never achieve it. To be fair with people, we must first be fair with God.

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”(Micah 6:8).

September 5–Amos 1-2

“The words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders from Tekoa. . .’the Lord roars from Zion. . .for three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not revoke its punishment. . .for three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not revoke its punishment’ ” (1:1-3, 2:6).

Have you ever heard a lion roar? It is a sound that touches a primal fear in the human heart. The prophet Amos said God roars with the same purpose. He wants us to feel the fear, to receive the warning of His coming judgement.

Amos was a simple man. A shepherd. Not rich. Perhaps, it gave him special sensitivity to the misuse of wealth in a prosperous age. Uzziah was king in the south. Jeroboam was king in the north. Years of stability. Wealth accumulated. Leisure became possible. Religion became either idolatrous, or formal and powerless. Please note: wealth is often a significant spiritual danger.

As Amos’ sermon began that day, his hearers must have been pleased. They were glad to hear their neighbor nations called out for their sins. (The prophets were monotheists. ALL nations answered to Jehovah God.) How smug this congregation must have been that morning. “Go get ’em preacher! Give ’em hell.”

As the sermon continued, however, Amos aimed his words at their consciences, too. He called out Judah and Israel. Accused them of sin. Rejection of God’s law. Economic injustice. Sexual immorality. Idolatry. They had become secular, ignoring their obligations to the Holy One.

God has no favorites. Not in the sense that He ever lowers His holy expectations. The opposite, actually. “To whom much is given, much is required,” said the Savior. God’s blessings ought to make a nation zealous for good works, not comfortable and self-absorbed.

Do you hear the roar from heaven today? A holy warning to nations of the world? To our nation? God’s mercies OBLIGATE us to righteousness. The first human duty is worship. Without holiness we are in danger. We are to be passionate for justice. Advocates for the poor. Morally pure. Prayerful. Friend, do you hear a Lion roaring?

“Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds”(Titus 2:1).

“What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others” (Luke 20:15-16).

September 4–Joel 1-3

“Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. . .’Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning’. . .who knows whether He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him”(2:1-2, 12, 14).

In ancient Israel, the priests had a solemn duty. They were to blow trumpets. Both alarm and summons, trumpets were a call for God’s people to gather and prepare for march or battle.

Joel, one of the earliest minor prophets, called for trumpets to sound. The immediate threat was an invasion of locusts. He compared the swarm, in both numbers and devastation, to an enemy army. Faced with this invasion, Joel called the spiritual leaders to gather the people for repentance and prayer. They needed God’s help!

For Joel, the locust invasion was but a shadow and prefigure of, “the Day of the Lord.” Like the other prophets, he saw a coming day of God’s wrath against the universal rebellion of humanity. (See Revelation 9. Note the same imagery of a locust army).

Friend, do you believe the day of the Lord will come? SOON God will gloriously reveal Himself in both grace (His mercy offered in Christ) and government (wrath against all unrighteousness and unbelief)! A day is coming in which all men will give an account to God!

Like Joel, will you sound the alarm? Warnings can be very effective. Tornado sirens have power to move us out of lethargy into action! Who knows? Great mercy may still be available to thousands if the church sounded an alarm and men began to seek the Lord in genuine repentance!

“Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it” (Isaiah 13:9).

“Since all these things will be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?” (2 Peter 3:11).

September 3–Hosea 10-14

“Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in my arms. . .and bent down and fed them. . .How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you O Israel?. . my heart is turned over within Me. . .I will not execute My fierce anger”(11:3-4, 8-9).

In His holiness, God WILL abandon unrepentant people to sin-caused consequences. It is hard for us to imagine but given the clarity of Scripture on this point it is necessary that we do. God WILL give His own people (unrepentant) to severe discipline. Israel is proof.

Even so, God’s love remains. Judgement is His “strange work” (Isaiah 28:21). Never His preference. Even in His anger, God’s love is steadfast. Stubborn.

As Hosea probed the heart of God (much of it through his own personal experience of betrayal in marriage), he came to a deep understanding. God was NOT giving up Israel in any ABSOLUTE sense. It was morally impossible! Despite years of ingratitude, idolatry and unbelief, these people were still His children. Every parent understands this logic. Even when a child wanders away into God-rejecting sin, the love in the heart of the parent is permanent.

While this does not always mean exemption from consequences, it does mean that, in Christ, mercy is available to the very last. God’s love is stubborn. He actively pursues and is ready to receive the prodigal son or the thief in the cross. Or, me! Or, you!

Dear reader, should we give up on ourselves or others, if God never does? The truest truth in the universe is His stubborn love.

“Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him, ‘Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips” (Hosea14:1-2).

September 2–Hosea 6-9

“Come, let us return to the Lord, for He has torn us, but He will heal us. . . What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?. . .For your loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early” (6:1, 4).

There is a danger in church life. Something we should recognize. It is possible to learn the words/concepts of genuine faith, but without a true surrender of heart. No shift of loyalty from self to God. “Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers” (Wesley). Danger! It is possible to say (even believe) correct words with unconverted hearts.

As the promised judgments fell on Israel in Hosea 6, some in the kingdom began to call for revival. “Let us return to the Lord. He has torn us (a recognition that the difficulties they were experiencing were coming from Him). He will heal us.”

What is NOT heard, however, is any real sorrow for sin. No acknowledgement of it. No personal responsibility. The focus continues to be about their safety, their happiness.

God refuses this superficial appeal. He compares their words to dew on the morning grass. Temporary. Insufficient.

Teach your children, dear ones. Teach yourself. In the day of discipline, more will be required of us than the auto-pilot quoting of 1 John 1:9. Without true repentance and faith, neither confession nor prayer will have power to save us.

“The doctrine of justification by faith–a biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort–has, in our time, fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such a manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and with no embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be ‘received’ without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is ‘saved,’ but he is not hungry or thirsty for God” (A. W. Tozer).

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. . . Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Jesus, Matthew 5:4,6).

September 1–Hosea 1-5

“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, even though they turn to other gods” (Hosea 3:1).

It is an ancient and powerful metaphor. Communicated in Scripture and creation. God is a husband. His people are His bride. Human marriage is a visible/physical echo of this invisible/Spiritual reality. See Ephesians 5:32.

In 700 B.C., the first (and some say the greatest) of the Minor Prophets declared the truth and the implications of this reality. (Note, please. “Minor” refers to the length the writing rather than the value of the ideas). God is faithful husband. Israel (we) are unfaithful wife.

It was a message painfully written into Hosea’s own experience! Early in life, God told this young preacher to marry a woman who would prove unfaithful. Her name was Gomer. Hosea obeyed. A rocky marriage followed. Children were born. Gomer eventually left to become a harlot. With grieved hearts, we readers observe the unraveling of this sad home. Gradually, we also realize this story is about us, our homes, our nation, our infidelity.

Amazingly, Hosea was faithful. Patiently, and with broken heart, the prophet wooed his wife and family back into his love and protection. Just as God did for Israel!

There were conditions, however. Harsh realities. The second child’s name was Lo-ruhamah (“not pitied”). The meaning? A time would come when God would NOT pity his unrepentant children, nor spare them from discipline. God faithfulness does not equal an exemption from consequences. He calls us to repentance and faith.

A perfectly balanced picture of God and His relationship to us! Severe in government. Extravagant in grace. God is.

Who can even imagine a love like this? Despite our insults, after years of our stubborn pride and ingratitude and excuses, God still loves us and bids us return to His protective arms. He is a faithful husband.

Are we faithful to Him? Will we be? As a tender and grateful bride, will we relax in God’s love, receiving Him, releasing all other identities and ambitions? The book of Hosea calls us to return home with repentant hearts. True stability and true security are found in God alone. He is our faithful husband.

“What wondrous love is this, O my soul? What wondrous love is this?”(traditional hymn).

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself”(2 Timothy 2:13).

August 31–Daniel 11-12

“These words are concealed and sealed up until the end of time. Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly. . .but those who have insight will understand. . .But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into your rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age”(12:9-10, 13).

He is an old man now. Scholars think he is in his nineties. He has lived a remarkable life. In service to God, Daniel has been a counselor to kings and a man of prayer. With tender care, God is now releasing him from his duties, coaching him toward death.

GO! It is a command for Daniel to travel onward toward his own death. The glory of God is most declared by saints who face the end of life with calm and obedient hearts. “To live is Christ, to die is gain,” said Paul without a trace of fear. The same surrender of will that began your walk with God must continue to the very last day. Choose God’s path. GO all the way to the end.

Go YOUR way! The path will be different for each of us. Some of us will go suddenly. Some after long struggle. In great wisdom, God determines the, “kind of death by which he would glorify God.” See John 21. Was it hard for Daniel to release the responsibilites of life? Maybe. The visions he had seen were for a future time in God’s great story. “Let go of them, release them to My care. Your task is done,”whispered the Good Shepherd.

GO WITH HOPE! In v 13, God promises Daniel (and all of His faithful children) both rest and resurrection. Death is not the end! Just as He did for Daniel, God will someday call us to come to Him in an eternal place. “I go to prepare a place for you,” says the Lord. Walking forward when He calls, stepping over the threshold without fear, we will discover rest and resurrection.

Friend, do you trust Him with the last of life? Will you face the last challenge with faith and obedience? Will you go all the way to the end?

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who. . .has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time”(1 Peter 1:4-5).

August 30–Daniel 8-10

“Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard. . .but the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days. . .now I have come to give you understanding”(10:12-14).

I was a wrestler in high school. I loved it! No hard hits, as in football. Rather, an exhausting struggle against an always-near opponent.

No wonder Paul uses this word to describe the Christian life. See Ephesians 6. We wrestle against unseen forces of Spiritual darkness. This morning, dear one, every morning, your foes come to the mat with malice. They oppose you.

We hear this same testimony in Daniel 10. Moved to mourning by the terrible spiritual condition of the people of God (some had returned to Jerusalem, many had not), Daniel invested himself in prayer. For three weeks he prayed without much success or relief. Frustrating, exhausting work.

Then, an angel came to explain. His prayers had been heard from the very first moment. In the invisible world, however, there had been great conflict and opposition. Only the intervention of Michael secured the victory, allowed the messenger to get through with God’s answer for Daniel. Dear reader, will you note the lesson on perseverance in prayer? See Luke 18.

Do you struggle in prayer? Is it difficult and frustrating at times? Do you feel like you are not being heard? Keep going! Don’t quit! Never be confused or discouraged, Prayer may take longer than you expected, but victory comes to those who wrestle.

“At the timberline where the storms strike with the most fury, the sturdiest trees are found” (Hudson Taylor).

“All things can be done by importunate prayer. It surmounts or removes all obstacles, overcomes every resisting force and gains its ends in the face of invincible hindrances” (E. M. Bounds).

“Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night. . .however, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”(Luke 18:7-8).

August 29–Daniel 5-7

“Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this, but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven”(5:22-23).

When Jesus taught us to pray “Hallowed be Thy name”, He was reminding us of our FIRST duty. Our FIRST wisdom. Every day, for every person, HUMILITY is “job one”.

The humble man regards God with reverence. He acknowledges God’s superiority in rank and beauty and wisdom. The humble man sees himself in a low place relative to God’s greatness. “They did not honor Him as God or give thanks,” says Paul in Romans 1. Humility is the opposite.

In Daniel 5, God challenged Belshazzar. Ignoring the lessons his father learned from God through great pain, Belshazzar arrogantly disrespected the holy utensils (taken from the temple in Jerusalem) and used them as wine glasses at a party for his friends!

We sometimes hear the phrase “the handwriting on the wall”. It points to this story. What the hand wrote that night for Belshazzar will eventually be written on the wall of every unrepentant life.

“MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN!” Your deeds have been measured against an eternal standard of righteousness (mene, Aramaic word, “to measure”). In God’s evaluation, you have been found wanting (tekel, Aramaic word, “to weigh”). Therefore, judgement will now come (peres, Aramaic word, “to divide or break apart”).

True for king and slave, alike. Those who will not humble themselves before God will eventually be broken.

Friend, will you humble yourself before God today? On the path of life, it is job one.

“Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you”(James 4:10).

“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you” (Andrew Murray).