September 11–Micah 5-7

“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah. . .from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity”(5:2).

September 11, 2001 was an unforgettable moment for Americans. We remember it today.

It came without warning. Afterwards, nothing was ever the same. Not all days are equal. Some are supersized in importance and impact.

In 700 B. C., the prophet Micah saw a supernatural moment coming. Larger, by far, than any historical event. A day planned by the Father from long ago, in eternity past. Micah prophesied the day when Israel’s promised king would step into history. The incarnation! The birth of the Messiah.

This prophesy was first spoken in a time of great fear. The siege of Jerusalem was coming. King Zedekiah would soon be humiliated, and the nation with him.

Looking beyond the trouble on the immediate horizon, the prophet saw the glory/success of a COMING KING. While no specific time is given, a baby would be born. See 5:3. In a moment, the Son would be incarnated into history and time. God with us!

Years later, in the time of Herod, the priests and scholars answered Herod’s question by referencing this verse. They knew the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. See Matt. 2:4-6. (They KNEW! When rumors came of angels and shepherds, why didn’t they go to investigate? I have no answer. Why don’t we?)

Friend, do you believe in God? Do you believe that in a moment of His own choice the Creator God revealed Himself to the world in the person of His Son? The baby born in the manger was (is) the Living Lord!

God has no limitations. No restraints. He is faithful to His own word and His own schedule. The world can change in a moment. It has done so in the past. Someday, it will again.

“O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie; above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight”(Phillips Brooks).

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. . .the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall all be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

September 10–Micah 1-4

“Woe to those who scheme iniquity, who work out evil on their beds! When morning comes, they do it, for it is in the power of their hands. They covet fields and then seize them, and houses, and take them away. They rob a man and his house, a man and his inheritance”(2:1-2).

Christianity is a restored relationship with God the Father, through faith in His Son, in the power of His Spirit. Capitalism is an economic system which predicts the creation of wealth through the use of capital and individual initiative. The second is useful. The first is essential. Our love and loyalty belong to God alone.

When the Old Testament prophet Micah declared the judgement of God on Samaria and Jerusalem (capitals of the Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom, respectively) he made this point very clear. In large part, God’s anger toward His people was economic. His judgment came on His people from their unfettered and unfaithful pursuit of wealth.

Remember Jesus cleansing the money-changers from the temple? One of our Lord’s concerns was that economic pursuit had captured and corrupted the godly purpose of the temple. Wealth was their true ambition. Is this not still a danger in our churches and nation?

Is economic gain forbidden? No. People who follow God are often blessed with great wealth. Abraham is one example. Even so, the pursuit of wealth must be carried out under a larger narrative of God’s care for all people and with a stewardship of all resources according to God’s law and will. We do business according to our theology, not vice versa. When we lose a Spiritual conscience, when we begin to operate out of selfish ambition, His judgment will come. Guaranteed.

Friend, do you hear this warning? Are you ethical in business? Are you generous with the poor? Is the invisible world your true ambition and goal?

“You cannot serve God and wealth” (Jesus, Matthew 6:24).

“Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed”(1 Timothy 6:17-19).

September 9–Jonah

“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish”(2:1).

It was a turnaround moment! Blessed breakthrough! In the midst of painful discipline, after days (months? years?) of avoidance and disobedience, Jonah prayed to the Lord. With honest words of humility and repentance, he reached out to God.

He recorded his words and thoughts years later. Likely reflected on this moment the rest of his life. He wrote his story as a guide for others who also struggle. Surrender and prayer are synonyms. To pray, I must surrender. To surrender, I must pray.

It is a detail often missed in the Jonah story. “I was so obsessed with what was going on inside the whale that I missed what was going on inside of Jonah,” said Thomas John Carlisle. Gradually, painfully, God drew Jonah back to Himself. Back to humility. Back to prayer. Back to obedience.

Like the prodigal son, the trip home for Jonah began with a shift in focus. In the darkness of his misery, he said to the Lord, “I will look again toward your holy temple.” See 2:4. God in His temple is God in His self-revelation. When Jonah focused his eyes there, he found grace.

To get well, our eyes must turn to something higher than ourselves. This is the great surrender. We stop looking at ourselves and look to God.

In v 2: 8-9, Jonah confessed the essential truths about God. No idols. Faith (and faithfulness) are required. Salvation is from God only. Whether Jonah expected to be vomited up safe on dry land, we cannot know. Even so, there was no bargain in this prayer, Jonah turned to God because it was right to do so!

Sad report. Later in the story, Jonah’s ego resurfaces. None of us is ever completely free from the downward pull of sin. Not in this lifetime. Self-denial is daily task for every believer.

Friend, is it time for YOU to go pray? Have you struggled long in your own stubbornness? Are you trapped in circumstances of your own making? Mercy is available. Much-needed answers. The Father invites you to seek Him in prayer.

“I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Who made the heavens and the earth”(Psalm 121:1-2).

“And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me (Paul), ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you do’ “(Acts 22:10).

September 8–Obadiah

“Do not gloat over your brother’s day, for the day of his misfortune, and do not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their destruction. . .for the day of the Lord draws near on all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you”(12, 15).

Long feud. Bitter. Brothers Jacob and Esau had a history of competition and tension. Sadly, it carried forward into their families. Like the Hatfields and McCoys. Like the Montagues and Capulets.

The descendants of Esau became the nation of Edom. Over years there were frequent episodes of conflict with Israel. The Edomites rejected Moses’ request to travel through their lands. See Numbers 20. They opposed Saul. See 1 Samuel 14. Ancient animosity. A repeating cycle of hate/hurt/hate.

When Jerusalem was attacked, the Edomites stood by, refusing to help. See v. 11. They rejoiced in Jerusalem’s defeat. They even participated in looting the city and took cruel advantage of the fugitives as they fled. See v. 13-14. God judged them for the malice.

The Scripture is very clear about my relationship to those who hate me. I am to LOVE my enemies and PRAY for those who despitefully use me. No matter the provocation, the Great Judge holds me responsible for any simmering resentment in my heart. No excuses. No exemptions.

“Father, forgive them,” said the Savior. His example to me. His expectation of me.

Friend, will you pray today for those who have wounded you? Stop! Will you actually DO this exercise, and not just think about it? Will you regard with HIS eyes those who have hurt/disappointed you? This is God’s wisdom. This is God’s command.

“Love. . .does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth”(1 Corinthians 13:6).

“See to it. . .that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble, (for) by it many people will be defiled”(Hebrews 12:15).

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).

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 Monday morning 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 are experiencing a famine of hearing the word of God.

“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 pointed 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 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 a right relationship with God. So, 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 also part. But 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! 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. It was gratifying to hear the 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 a Lord will come? That SOON God will gloriously reveal Himself in both grace (His mercy offered in Christ) and government (wrath against all unrighteousness and unbelief)? Are you convinced that 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 or trumpets 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!

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 imagine it. God WILL give His own people to severe discipline. Jerusalem 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 the consequences of sin, 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).