Isaiah 6; Isaiah 1-2

Let’s see… What should we talk about today?

Maybe we should talk about Isaiah’s glorious vision of the LORD on His throne with seraphim crying, “Holy, holy, holy!” (Isa. 6:3) Or maybe we should “gin up” enthusiasm for missions, with an appeal to Isaiah’s words: “Here I am! Send me.” (Isa. 6:8) Or maybe we should note that 99% of the time that people reference Isaiah 6, they stop at verse 8; no one seems to want to hear Isaiah 6:9-13, which then confirms that we — even within the Church — are just as dull of hearing as Isaiah’s original audience. We don’t want to hear the entire Word of God, just the nice bits, thank you very much.

Maybe we should recognize how similar Isaiah’s message is to Hosea’s, though Isaiah is mainly addressing the Southern Kingdom of Judah, while Hosea preaches primarily to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Maybe we should also note the similarity of Isaiah 1:11-17 to Amos 5:21-24, that we read just the other day.

Maybe we should rejoice that the LORD in Isaiah 1:18 offers to wash our sins away! But maybe we should also peek at the following much less familiar verses, Isaiah 1:19-20, which speak of the need for repentance — and the consequences of refusal. (Just the nice bits, thank you very much!)

Maybe we should focus on Isaiah 2:2-4, with its portrayal of peace in the latter days — a vision that has yet to be fulfilled, looking forward to the reign of Christ. Maybe we should provide a teaser for our future reading of Micah, who contemporaneously says almost exactly the same thing in Micah 4:1-3.

Maybe we should mention the LORD’s coming day of judgment against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up. (Isaiah 2:12) (And what nation is now more lifted up than the U.S.A.?) Maybe we should see that those who now indicate no fear of the LORD, will one day cringe in utter terror of Him. (Isaiah 2:10,19,21)

Or maybe we should just highlight today’s final verse:

Stop regarding man
in whose nostrils is breath,
for of what account is he?

Isaiah 2:22

I don’t know. I just can’t seem to think of much to say today.

Hosea 10-14; II Kings 15:1-7

As we come to the end of Hosea, what’s our takeaway? It’s one thing to gain an academic understanding of Israel’s idolatrous rejection of God and His subsequent pronouncements of judgment, but letting God’s Word penetrate our own hearts is quite another. How is the Holy Spirit speaking to you personally? Is He convicting you of anything, some way in which you are (or have been) pushing Him aside, looking elsewhere for satisfaction? Is He calling you to repentance? Do you hear His voice, assuring you of His tenderness and compassion, His mercy and forgiveness? If there is anything standing between you and the LORD, now is the time to get rid of it. Only in Him do we have hope.

Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the LORD,
that He may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Hosea 10:12

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One more thing…

In his book, Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund highlights Hosea 11:8-9 a couple of times. (pp. 72-75; 141-142) Ortland uses these verses to reinforce his thesis that, contrary to popular belief, God’s heart’s desire is to show mercy. That is a message many of us need to hear, and I think Ortlund is very much on target, so if you have not read the book, you should. But we need to be careful (as Ortlund actually is) not to pull these verses so far out of context as to miss the overall message of Hosea. Let’s not interpret “I will not come in wrath” (Hos. 11:9) as somehow obviating repentance and entirely negating the clear warnings of assured wrath to the unrepentant.

Hosea 5:8-9:17

For they sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind.

Hosea 8:7

If only the people who quote (or paraphrase) this verse had a clue! And if only our own country’s political leadership had a clue! We have the lessons of Israel’s history. We have God’s revelation through the prophets. We even have the revelation of Jesus Christ, God Incarnate. Yet, as a nation, we walk down Israel’s path, turning our back on God and refusing to listen to Him. (Let me see, what month is this? Is it Christian Heritage Month? No. Is it Celebrate Humility Month? No, not that either…) How, then, can we expect His continued blessing?

Make no mistake. We cannot pretend that moral issues are somehow peripheral to who we are as a nation and how God deals with us. We cannot push God to the side and exclude Him from the public sphere and then act surprised when He is hard to find. We cannot elect godless officials and then expect godly government. God is not mocked. We sow the wind. If we as a nation do not turn to the Lord in repentance, then we — like Israel — shall reap the whirlwind.

Hosea 1-5:7

Adultery. Harlotry. Whoredom.

That is how the LORD describes Israel’s unfaithfulness to Him, and He uses Hosea’s relationship with his unfaithful wife, Gomer, to illustrate the point in dramatic fashion. Israel should be utterly devoted to her one true God — as a wife to her husband — but she is not. Israel runs after other gods (e.g., the Baals), believing that they give her all the things she enjoys — food and drink, clothing and wealth — forgetting that it is the LORD Who actually provides it all. (Hos. 2:5,8) Hosea’s family life illustrates not only Israel’s unfaithfulness, but also the LORD’s love and compassion for her, His desire to win her back, His desire to shower her with blessing.

If only she would listen…

Amos 5:16-9:15

But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Amos 5:24

Sound familiar? I’d like to think that we know this verse because we all read our Bibles all the time. But I suspect that our familiarity with this verse may come more from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s quoting of it in his “I Have a Dream” speech. Just a hunch…

Note that this verse starts with “but”, setting it in contrast with the preceding verses:

I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

Amos 5:21-23

All of that goes to say that no amount of religiosity, no amount of sacrifice, or tithing, or liturgy, or music or any other outward form of “worship” can substitute for true justice and righteousness. If our Sunday morning worship isn’t coupled with right relationship with others — in justice and righteousness — then we’re fooling ourselves.

But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Amos 1-5:15

Before we do anything else, let’s note the historical context of Amos’s ministry:

The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Amos 1:1

It seems to me that we have jumped into Amos a bit prematurely. That is, although we met this Jeroboam (i.e., Jeroboam II of Israel, not the Jeroboam that was the first king of the Northern Kingdom) in II Kings 14:23-29, we have not yet met Uzziah of Judah (aka Azariah in II Kings 15:1). Oh well. At least Uzziah/Azariah is not otherwise specifically mentioned in the rest of Amos, so I guess that’s OK.

Amos himself is a shepherd, not a professional prophet. (See also Amos 7:14.) He is from Tekoa, south of Jerusalem, which goes to say that he is from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, but he prophesies primarily to the Northern Kingdom of Israel — where Elijah and Elisha previously operated. But Amos does not speak only to the Northern Kingdom. He addresses the surrounding nations and Judah, too.

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Most of what Amos has to say is a strong indictment of the evil practices he sees all around him: brutality, injustice, oppression, idolatry. But today’s reading ends with a remedy:

Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Amos 5:14-15

Will the people of Israel heed all the warnings and pursue the remedy?

Will we?

As we begin to read the prophets, it will be helpful to bear in mind the following:

• “Israel” and “Jacob” are synonymous
• “Israel” (or “Jacob”) may refer to the entirety of the Hebrew people (i.e., all 12 tribes) or may indicate only (or primarily) the Northern Kingdom
• Although “Ephraim” may refer to that specific tribe, it usually means the Northern Kingdom as a whole (i.e., synonymous with “Israel”)
• “Joseph” (being the father of Ephraim) is likewise often synonymous with the Northern Kingdom
• “Judah” generally means the Southern Kingdom
• Israel and Judah have a long history of (mostly) adversarial relationships with surrounding nations:
  • Edom (= Esau = Seir)
  • Ammon
  • Moab
  • Syria
  • Philistia (Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, Gaza)
  • Phoenicia (Tyre and Sidon)
• Capital cities are often used as synonyms for their respective nations:
  • Samaria = the Northern Kingdom of Israel
  • Jerusalem (or Zion) = the Southern Kingdom of Judah
  • Damascus = Syria
  • Nineveh = Assyria
  • Etc.
• The cities of Bethel and Dan are corrupt centers of worship, homes of Jeroboam’s golden calves that are falsely worshipped as “the LORD”

More importantly, we should recognize that the prophets each preach into their own historical and geographical context. Reading these prophets chronologically, together with the corresponding historical narratives, should help us understand that context and thus gain a better appreciation for their message. But we should not then think that their message is limited to their immediate context. We, too, have much to learn from them.

Oftentimes the prophets preach a message of God’s judgment and wrath, which we may be tempted to hear simply as condemnation. But that misses the point. These messages should instead be seen as warnings and as calls to repentance. For those who heed that call, there is also hope — hope of redemption, of restoration, of grace, and of mercy. God is — always has been and always will be — a God of steadfast love. Were it not for God’s love and mercy, we would get no such warnings through the prophets, no such pleading to turn back to God.

So let’s receive what the prophets have to say to us. Let’s heed their call.

Jonah 1-4

I’m guessing we all have at least a passing familiarity with the story of Jonah and the whale (or fish). But what about Jonah and the worm? Though the worm may not seem as spectacular as the whale, it is every bit as much a part of the story, and every bit as much God’s instrument.

So what is going on in this book? The LORD calls Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian empire, an enemy of Israel. But Jonah rebels against this call, not out of a fear of failure, but out of a fear of success. That is, Jonah knows that the LORD is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster (Jonah 4:2), and that rubs Jonah the wrong way. He’d rather see the Ninevites destroyed as punishment for their brutality. So when Nineveh repents and the LORD relents of the disaster He would have brought upon them, Jonah sulks. The LORD then uses a plant — and a worm — to illustrate to Jonah how utterly out of step Jonah is with the LORD. His priorities are all out of whack. Jonah has more concern for a plant destroyed by a worm than he does for 120,000 people.

Let’s not maintain Jonah’s bad attitude. Jesus tells us that we are to love our enemies, which goes entirely against our nature. Loving our enemies does not mean that we support the evil that they do, but it does mean that we should hope and pray for their repentance, that they, too, might experience the grace and mercy of God.

II Kings 14; II Chronicles 25

Imagine this… Your favorite NFL team wins the Super Bowl. Hoorah! The team owner then immediately trades the entire team — coaching staff, star quarterback, everybody — for the team with the worst record in the league. Sports commentators go nuts. Everyone jeers. Boo! Hiss! But against all better counsel the owner persists and seals the deal. Predictably, the Super Bowl Champions drop to the bottom of the league the next season. Who could be so stupid?

Apparently, Amaziah, king of Judah, is:

After Amaziah came from striking down the Edomites, he brought the gods of the men of Seir and set them up as his gods and worshiped them, making offerings to them. Therefore the LORD was angry with Amaziah and sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you sought the gods of a people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?”

II Chronicles 25:14-15

Just as with our imagined football team, things do not go well for Amaziah after that, especially when he picks a fight with big brother Israel. But this is no game. It is deadly serious.

Unfortunately, Amaziah is not alone. Our choices may not present themselves quite so obviously to us as our silly football example or Amaziah’s idolatry. But which of us can say we haven’t made similarly bad choices in one way or another? We know that money, for example, cannot buy happiness, yet we pursue it as if it could. We know that status and prestige do not really satisfy, yet we pursue those, too. We know that our true identity and worth is in Christ, yet we look for identity everywhere else. We know that physical beauty is only skin deep, yet we spend enormous resources on apparel, make up, hair care, cosmetic surgery, etc., bowing down to our own vanity. We look for approval from our fellow humans, and we neglect to please the only One Who really matters.

Surely Amaziah has plenty of company.

II Chronicles 22:10-24:27; II Kings 13

“Treason! Treason!” (II Ch. 23:13)

So screams Athaliah, who herself treasonously stole the throne of Judah — how familiar that sounds! — when Jehoiada the priest reveals Joash/Jehoash as the rightful king of Judah. Joash, rescued as a baby by Jehosheba/Jehoshabeath, Jehoiada’s wife and Joash’s aunt, grows up hidden away in the Temple. Under Jehoiada’s protection, Joash comes to his throne at the age of seven. The first order of business is the execution of Athaliah, so for her fans it may indeed look like treason, but in reality it is restoration — restoration of the Davidic line to the throne, as well as restoration of the worship of the LORD. (II Ch. 23:16-21)

Growing up under Jehoiada’s godly tutelage, Joash does well, making repairs to the Temple, replacing utensils and vessels of gold and silver, and otherwise practicing the proper sacrifices to the LORD. (II Ch. 24:14) But when Jehoiada dies, Joash falls away into idolatry. He even kills Jehoiada’s son, Zechariah, in the Temple courts. (II Ch. 24:17-22) Again we see a good beginning — but a poor ending.

So what about us? Am I living someone else’s faith and convictions? Am I going through the motions of Christianity to please my parents or my spouse or my pastor/priest or anybody else? Am I just doing what someone else is guiding me to do? Or is my faith truly my own? Am I convinced within my own heart of God’s love? Do I, myself, truly believe in the Resurrection? No one else’s faith will do.