365 Reflections

Micah 5 is an appropriate passage to examine around Christmas. One day late, but better late than never. Micah 5 is where the scribes turn to inform Herod as to where the Christ might be born when the Magi come from the east to find him. Herod didn't like the idea of a replacement king one bit and sought to destroy the child in the same manner Pharaoh tried to wipe out Moses. He failed, as all earthly kings and potentates ultimately do.  Micah 5 opens not with hopeful anticipation of the Messiah's coming but rather the doomsday announcement that Jerusalem will be sacked.  Micah 5:1 (ESV) Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. The Message translation gives us insight into why Herod may have been worried. Micah 5:1 (MSG) But for now, prepare for the worst, victim daughter! The siege is set against us. They humiliate Israel’s king, slapping him around like a rag doll. Just as Israel's k...

The prophet Micah modulates between oracles of woe and prophetic announcements of hope. By following this pattern, Micah continuously offers an ultimate perspective on what God is doing in punishing His people. For instead of long testaments to the discipline of the Lord to come, Israel is given hope beyond the hurt of God's wrath. Micah 4:1–2 (ESV) It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, 2 and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. It's amazing how accurate his hopeful portrayal of Israel's future has become. Today, what is mentioned in these two verses is happening. Because of Jesus...

Micah 3 contains the prophet’s rebuke of Israel’s leaders. The case is made in all the prophetic books that a people’s leaders are responsible for the increased wickedness of a culture and they will be held responsible.  Micah 3:1–2 (NLT) I said, “Listen, you leaders of Israel!  You are supposed to know right from wrong, 2 but you are the very ones who hate good and love evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh from their bones. Notice the first line. Leaders are supposed to know right from wrong. They are leaders for that very reason. America is a democracy. Unfortunately, that means the leaders have to follow the cultural trends if they want to get elected. Today’s leaders show very little moral courage to buck popular opinion and do what’s right.  Micah 3:3–4 (ESV) who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron. Then they will cry to the Lord, but...

How grave a sin is greed. And yet the most damaging reality about greed is that no one actually sees the greed in themselves. It's always the other person who has that problem. With greed, it can be an inward desire for something that is not necessary or belongs to another. The object of our greed doesn't even have to be touched or in our possession. It's just a longing inside. Adultery requires some sort of action with another, murder as well, but greed can hide in the heart far more successfully than almost any other sin. Greed can be renamed. It can be ambition, we call him a go-getter (more appropriate), or she could even be very shrewd as a connoisseur. Greed is hard to see in me. Thus Jesus warned in Luke 12 to a man who did NOT have the money his brother was keeping: Luke 12:15 (ESV) “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Micah pulls no punches in his condemnation of greed in h...

The prophets at the end of our Old Testament are not necessarily in the order of their ministries. Micah follows both the books of Amos and Hosea, yet his ministry falls in a generation between Amos and Hosea. He prophesied during the same time as Isaiah, whose visions are long before the book of Micah in the order of the canon. Whatever the case for the ordering of his book, we do well to recognize the time in which Micah prophesied. It was a time of extreme income inequality. The rich were exploiting the poor and seizing up lands to pad their own pockets. Like Isaiah and Amos, Micah did not cater to the wealthy elite by speaking well of their lot in life. He called them to account and considered the soon-coming judgment on the land, as written in Deuteronomy 28.  Micah’s name means, “Who is like Yahweh?” An appropriate name for a man raised up to challenge the rampant love for increase and spiritual adultery so prevalent in the nation at the time of his ministry. He took the Lord...

One of the most damaging things to our souls is to forget God's sovereignty. That He is ultimately over all things and that from His hand come all that we could have, every breath, every moment.  To this end, we come to the final chapter of the book of Jonah. As far as prophetic books go, Jonah is a true outlier. There are no judgments, no descriptions of torment in harsh conditions as God unloads on sinners among the nations. Jonah is unlike the rest of them, for the book of Jonah is a referendum NOT on nations but on Jonah. You would think a prophet whose message was heard and abided by would be thrilled at the success! Not Jonah. He sees Nineveh repent and the Lord spare them, and wants to die. Jonah 4:1-3 (ESV) But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger a...

Why didn’t Jonah want to go to Nineveh? He knew God would be merciful to them, as we find out in chapter four. With that framing in mind, we should consider why Jonah assumed they would be repentant in the first place to receive that mercy. By this time, the people of Nineveh had experienced a famine, two plagues within 7 years, and an earthquake (according to history and as mentioned by Amos). They were primed for a message that destruction was imminent.  Yet these were hardened sinners of the most sordid type. We have written testimony of Ashurnasirpal II, king of Nineveh (at the time of Jonah), in 883–859 BC. This king's inscriptions describe in detail how he had enemies flayed alive, impaled, and decapitated. He boasted of burning cities and piling up human heads into pyramids as monuments of his victories. Moreover, they lacked the Law of God. Why would they have fear of their actions?   Remember that Romans 2 tells us the non-believers have a natural law written on their...

Jonah 2:8–9 (ESV) Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!” Before we leave Jonah's ordeal in the belly of the great fish, we should look at these last lines to understand the power of God's salvation. He first confesses, "those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope." An idol is anything that takes our hearts away from God. They can be things, people, places, or even our own emotional needs. What idol may Jonah be renouncing in his own life at this point? Perhaps it was the idol of ethnocentrism. The sense that those evil Ninevites did not deserve the grace of God when his own nation was playing the fool with the preface to those same sins! Maybe it was the idol that God was wrong, and he was right. Perhaps it was the idol of self-love, the source of almost every other sin. Whatever the case, Jonah acknow...

Jonah 1 ends with the prophet's disobedience, defiantly running from God, and insisting on his own way. He will not head to Nineveh, and even death will not threaten him. But Jonah won't get away with his plan. God can provide for His people in strange ways.  Jonah 1:17 (ESV) And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. What do you do in this situation? You do the only thing you can: Pray.  Jonah 2:1–2 (ESV) Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, “I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. Interestingly, this is the first time you hear the prophet speak to God. Prophets were known for their regular back and forth with the Lord.  God says in Numbers 12, Numbers 12:6 (ESV)  If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him i...

The book of Jonah forces us to ask some difficult questions. Here's one more.  Is it true that sometimes non-believers are better than believers? Chapter one makes me ask this. Jonah is on a ship headed away from God's presence. God will not let him go quietly into that good night.  Jonah 1:4–6 (ESV)   But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea , and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” Already, the picture is troubling. Being on the sea is already a tense environment. To be in such a storm and be dropping cargo to survive ...

Here's a question: If God saves, if God elects, if God brings people to Himself in a supernatural work of His grace, can people really run away and miss out on that saving grace?  Of course, that question is still hotly debated by many, many theologians and experts. No one answers the question better than Jonah. A prophet who DID run, who tried to get away not only from his calling but from his very ministry and life. And yet, God did not let him go. If you've ever purposely tried to go your own way, the book of Jonah is a wonderful reminder that God's grace is greater than our sin.  Jonah 1:1–3 (ESV) Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 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 f...

We now turn to the second half of the short prophetic work of Obadiah. He has already pronounced the problem with Edom (pride), and the result (broken alliances leading to their destruction), we learn why our Lord allowed this nation to suffer such trouble.  Obadiah 10–11 (ESV) Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. 11 On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. Edom’s ancient rivalry and bitter hatred for Israel (their brother through Esau and Jacob) never died. In fact, it grew over time. When the Babylonians came for Judah, in an act of God’s judgment for His people’s sins, Edom HELPED the Babylonians, first, by sitting idly by and watching it happen.  Obadiah 13 (ESV) Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his...

When we come to Obadiah after Amos, we have to fast-forward over 100 years. Not only has the Northern Kingdom long fallen to Assyria, but the Southern Kingdom of Judah has fallen to the Babylonians. Of course, there's much writing in the prophets between these two books; they just happen to follow each other in the Old Testament Canon.  Obadiah writes to a nation called Edom, the ancient descendants of Esau, the older and vengeful brother of Jacob. These two brothers were at war in their own lives, and their offspring carried that hostility forward, although Edom seemed to hang on tighter to the animosity than Jacob.  Now, the context of this book is important. It's a prophetic oracle that nations are gathering together to attack and decimate Edom. Why? Because the time of judgment has come from the Lord, and God uses the international diplomacy of the nations to bring about His purposes on the Earth.  Obadiah 1–2 (ESV) The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord GOD conce...

Amos ends with a picture of great judgment followed by a picture of incredible grace and restoration. Once again, the prophetic ministry is rehearsed wherein God punished strongly but restores most graciously.  Amos 9:1 (ESV) I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said: “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away; not one of them shall escape. The Lord standing beside the altar is a striking image. Amos has already decried the empty religious practices of the nation.  Amos 5:21–22 (ESV) “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them... They might have assumed the Lord was there to bless them for their empty rituals. He was not. He was there in judgment. When God shows up, it's not always a happy ev...

What do you think is the worst form of judgment from God? Boils and pains on your body? The loss of your financial stability? Perhaps social isolation and the loss of friends? How about the death of a loved one? When you think of those things, I'm sure one of them strikes you as the worst form of punishment God can offer. Amos 8 teaches us something different. Amos 8 unpacks that God's judgment is climactically experienced in His silence.  Before we proceed, we must examine the spiritual state of Israel at the time of this writing.  Amos 8:1–3 (ESV) This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them. 3 The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” declares the Lord GOD. “So many dead bodies!” “They are thrown everywhere!” “Silence!” So far in Amos, the prophet has e...

Often times, when we think about the prophets of the Old Testament, we perceive them as a sort of grumpy, dour, negative doom and gloom sort of individual. But have you ever thought where the nation, and even the world, would be if it were not for a prophet willing to tell us the truth?  Amos 7 introduces us to the response of the prophet as God declared His intentions to judge faithless Israel. He is first presented with the image of a locust plague devouring the nation. The prophet, who we may mistake as an angry doom-sayer, intercedes on behalf of the people.  Amos 7:2–3 (ESV) When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, “O Lord God, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” 3 The Lord relented concerning this: “It shall not be,” said the Lord. Another prophesy of doom comes to the prophet from the Lord. This time fire swept across the land and devoured it. Once again, the prophet intercedes.  Amos 7:4–6 (ESV) This is what the Lord God show...

Again and again the prophets warn that ease and comfort are sometimes the most notable signs of approaching doom. is that where America is? In Amos 6, the prophet chides the noble leaders of Israel, who assume their luxury and notability are signs no distress is coming.  Amos 6:1 (ESV) “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes! The judgment first comes for the rich in Amos. Usually in antiquity, the rich avoid the hostilities of takeovers and wars because they have the means by which to escape. God here makes certain that it shall not be the case for His people. The rich will not avoid disaster through their abundance.  Amos 6:7 (ESV) Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.” God asks them to consider the nations already toppled by the hand of the Lord....

Delayed post. I’m in Greece with a group of people from my church. Today we travel from Athens to Corinth. We will be taking in the sights of Pauls travels around the Mediterranean for the next few days. I will post as possible, but that’s where I’m at. As I think about it, I’m traveling the world of the New Testament while writing about Amos the prophet who lived in the sliver of land in the Old Testament. God’s vision for the people of Israel, fulfilled in Christ and carried forward by Paul was bigger than anyone in Amos’ day even dreamed.  Amos 5:18-20 (ESV) Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, 19 as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?  The people of Israel longed for the day of the Lord. But they were unaware that...

We continue to see that the prophet Amos was not some hillbilly country bumpkin but a skilled orator, writer, and convicting prophet sent from God. Never judge a book by its cover. In Amos 5, the prophet writes a lamentation over Israel, which would be an ancient funeral dirge.  Amos 5:1–2 (ESV) Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel: 2 “Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.” The prophet is predicting the end of Israel. And in the next verse, he sheds more light on the trouble to come.  Amos 5:3 (ESV) For thus says the Lord GOD: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.” Now these words were fulfilled later, but at the time of their statement, they must have sounded like nonsense. Even one chapter earlie,r we heard about the "cows of Bashan" who lived in luxury and the "vibrant"...

Amos didn't mince words with self-centered people. He called out the women in the higher end of society who specialized in wine drinking and exploitation of the poor with some of the most shocking words in the book.  Amos 4:1 (ESV) “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan , who are on the mountain of Samaria , who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’ Notice these "society" women are referred to as cows, grazing and eating to their hearts' content, along with drinking excessively and ordering their husbands around. A sign of judgment upon a land is when women dominate men.  Amos is calling out the state of the nation. They lived in luxury while exploiting the needy to suit their own desires. Luxury can be just as dangerous as poverty. For it deadens the senses of the heart away from the Lord and makes people expendable. Those who use people for their own overindulgence will have to give account to the Father who sent ...

What does it take to be a prophet? Amos is a case study as he declares God's word to the slumbering nation of Israel .  A prophet must be willing to hold people to account for the terms they have broken with the Lord.  Amos 3:1–2 ( ESV ) Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt : 2 “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Amos calls out Israel's failure as God's chosen. They had an exclusive relationship with the Lord. And their relationship and knowledge of the Lord required extraordinary faithfulness and loyalty. They were to live according to the New Testament principle , to whom much is given, much is required . Many talk of the privileges that are ours in the Lord, but what about the responsibilities? The Lord asks: Amos 3:3 (ESV) “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet? Israel was i...