Day 66 Reading the Bible in 90 Days

Good morning; we are reading day 66 of the Bible in our 90 day readings here and will begin where these books are called minor prophets. I beg to differ as these books are just as major as any other in their message. Let us begin!

Obadiah (has one chapter)

¹The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.
²Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.


If you remember our readings during the times of Elijah, you may remember the name of Obadiah, who hid a number of prophets that Jezebel was attempting to kill. The Lord was speaking to him and this single book prophecy is concerning Edom, the twin brother to Jacob. Today, we do not hear of such a nation; but they are out there hiding and have done an awesome job in being invisible to the world. The Lord said they are small among the nations and are greatly despised. Nations and people do not like these people generally speaking.


These people have a lot of pride and arrogance and are very rich people; but the Lord said He will bring them down.


¹⁰For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
¹¹In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.


Eventually, the Lord is going to uncover their ways and show people who they are. Nations that these people believe are with them will suddenly be against them. Shame will be with the children of Esau because of their violence against Jacob, his brother. When the children of Israel were being taken out by Nebuchadnezzar; Edom stood by and caught anyone escaping of the children of Israel and delivered them to the Gentile. Not only with Nebuchadnezzar; but also with Titus the Roman general who tore Jerusalem down in 70 AD.


¹⁵For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.
¹⁶For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.


The Lord told us in Proverbs not to cheer over our enemies when He is taking them down; and Edom should not have rejoiced over Israel when their destruction came upon them. Edom should not have gone into the gates of Israel during their calamity, and should not have taken their belongings.
All the pictures of the high ranking officials, and all the temple artifacts and other things did the Edomites take out of Jerusalem during the siege of Jerusalem (v12-14). As verse 15 says, the Lord will do to all the nations as they have done to Jerusalem and other people.


²¹And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD's.


For all this the Lord will visit Edom and make their mountains plain and restore Israel in the north (Samaria) and the cities of the south (Judah); and at that time, not just a savior will come; but saviors will come up on mount Zion to judge Esau and other nations also. This is speaking of the first resurrection where all those who make it will be given judgment and will not stand in judgment.

Jonah 1

Now we're all probably familiar with the book of Jonah or at least heard the story. Jonah was a prophet like Paul who was told to go prophesy to another nation, in his case the citizens of Nineveh, the great city in Assyria. They started to become a Sodom and Gomorrah in behavior and the Lord saw it. Instead of Jonah going to the city and giving the warning; he took off attempting to run from the Lord.


So the Lord brought calamity on the ship; and Jonah was there sleeping when the ship master woke him up to call on his God. Apparently everyone else had and their gods of course were not answering them.


They cast lot to see who is responsible for the storm and it fell on Jonah, and after telling the men who he was and where he was from; he told them to throw him over board in order to stop the storm (v7-12).


¹⁷Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.


The men didn't want to do that, being sure he would die so they tried to out maneuver the storm but they couldn't fight against God. They didn't want to cross God because they thought they'd be in trouble with Him; so they prayed for innocent hands and tossed Jonah in the sea and the storm calmed. The men feared God "exceedingly." On Jonah's foolishness to run from God, men were converted.


In Jonah's captivity, other men saw the power of God and delivered themselves. There is a message in this. The Lord had a whale waiting for Jonah and he was swallowed up and in the belly of the whale for 3 days and 3 nights. This 3 days AND 3 nights is important as Jesus made a crucial reference to this in the New Testament.

Jonah Chapter 2

Now Jonah is in the belly of the whale and he knows why he's there so he begins to pray for mercy and confess to God why he disobeyed. Verses two through seven, is Jonah praying but it sounds like Jesus on the cross praying to the Father.


The Lord answered and had the fish vomit Jonah out on the earth. The Lord spoke to the fish; the Lord knows all languages.

Jonah 3

¹⁰And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.


Now why he is on shore, probably happy to be alive, the Lord spoke to him again and told him go speak with the people of Nineveh. What do you think he did this time?


He got his butt up and went to Nineveh as the Lord commanded. What the Lord did with Jonah is what He is doing with the entire nation of Israel. They are the priest of the Lord and are suppose to teach other nations the ways of the Lord. What happened along the way is that they thought they were chosen because they were great or because they had great fore fathers and they refuse to teach people about the Lord.


Therefore the Lord sent them in captivity and roughed them up; and will ask them again, go be my priest. What do you think they will answer this time? Yes sir Lord, my God!


Jonah went and told the people of Nineveh that in forty days the Lord is going to throw this city down; and he taught them what God wanted. The people believed and fasted unto the Lord, even the animals fasted.


God saw they humbled themselves and repented and He also repented of the evil He was going to do to them. Verse ten tells us that God saw their works; they had to believe because their works showed it. It's like a man knows his wife loves him by her works. She prepares food, provides support, takes care of his children, her works shows him that. This is why faith without works is dead.

Jonah 4 ¹But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

²And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
¹¹And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?


Jonah was unhappy that the Lord would not destroy this city; and probably with fair reason. Here is Jonah a Hebrew captive and the Assyrians were very mean and vicious towards Israel and He knew the Lord was merciful and gracious and would deliver the people if he preached to them. We must put our personal differences down and do the Lord's will together. The Lord is God to all people, rather He created all people for His will; and it is not up to us to make a decision to give up on a person for things they have done to us or others.


Then the Lord performed a parable for Jonah for him to see how his thinking was off. He had more mercy for a gourd than he had on a people that have not known the Lord's ways and needed to be taught it. In other words, if you know better and someone else does not; have mercy in your heart for them until they know better.


An example I will never forget is when I was in grammar school; I came to class 3 minutes late and the teacher came down on me hard. I was upset. I was a good student; so she corrected me. Twenty minutes later, another student, known in school as a bad student, came in and the teacher didn't utter a word. I got upset with the student and started a fight with him right there in the class.


The fact of the matter is that I knew better, I had good parenting, many coaches, teachers, and administrators that knew me and expected well of me. This other student may not have had that, I am sure he didn't have faculty adoring him. So with Israel the Lord will be harder with his punishments for them than He would with a nation He hasn't taught.

Micah chapter 1

Micah was a prophet of the Lord during the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings over Judah and he preached concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Although he spoke to Israel, Micah begins by addressing the entire earth; that the Lord is going to come down and deal with everyone accordingly.


Starting with Jerusalem, will the Lord hurt the earth. I've noticed, perhaps you have too; that when the Lord punishes, He always begins in the church. The church is suppose to teach the people; so if the people are wicked in the earth; it began in the church!

Micah 2

Warnings to the people of Jerusalem and the earth that devise iniquity and work evil on their beds. This is not just committing adultery; but just laying in bed thinking of evil things. You do not want to the Lord to sit around and devise evil against you; because that will be straight 100 percent evil.


¹¹If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.


The people are so bad the Lord said depart because the land is too polluted. The children of Israel listen to a man who comes with wine and whiskey in his breath to preach to them. Their prophets they want are drunk and give false doctrine.


The Lord is going to straighten all this mess that was started in the Garden of Eden; but again in Jerusalem when He brings back the captivity of Israel.

Micah 3 ⁷Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

⁸But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
Micah in this chapter is asking the rich and the "higher-ups" of the children of Israel who oppress the poor, shouldn't you know judgment? They should know and do better. And to the prophets that teach lies to the people about peace and there is no peace; the Lord is going to put their eyes out and make darkness their covering. They won't get any visions; nor have any answers from God. It's rough to be the answer man and have no answers.


If you're suppose to be a computer whiz; and people ask you what's a monitor and you have no answer; that rough. That's what Israel's preachers are like today. Ask them if you can find one; a simple question like "is my deceased mother in heaven" and they will tell you "yes; smiling down on you brother" or sister. However, we've read that the dead are in the ground resting. You ask is Jesus taking us to heaven in a rapture; and they will answer yes, beyond the sky. But the bible as we've read over the past sixty days indicates Jesus will reign out of Jerusalem, here on the earth. This is what having no answers from God has done to these seers and prophets.


¹¹The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
¹²Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.


Look at this that went on then and privately think about this in your mind, student and preacher together, does this still go on today? Do people judge for reward? Do priest and preachers, preach and teach for a salary? Do prophets divine for money (they call them psychics now days)? They do this but lean on the Lord; put it all in Jesus name and actually fool the people. For this, Jerusalem will be plowed like snow in a parking lot in the dead of a winter snow storm.

Micah 4 ¹But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

This chapter sounds like Isaiah chapter 2; in the last days the government of the Lord will be established on top of all other governments and all people will flow towards it. People will be going to Jerusalem asking to the Lord to teach them His ways because the law is going to go out from Jerusalem.


Jesus will correct strong nations and they will get rid of nuclear weapons of war go back to farming and social programs and forget warring. People will be at ease and at peace because everyone will walk in the way of God; keeping His commandments. Right there we have people honoring their parents, not killing, not stealing, not lying, not sleeping with another man's wife and vice versa, and not jealous of any other person and their belongings. I can see the world at ease right now if every one did just that.


It's at this time the Lord will gather all that He has scattered and afflicted, that is Israel and bring them back to their land. This will happen in the last days; what are the last days of the week? Day six and seven, we call those Friday and Saturday; on the Lord's day of rest is when all this peace will occur.

Micah 5 ²But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Micah now gives the prophesy of the coming Messiah, the coming of Jesus Christ. Micah tells us that they are going to hit the judge of Israel (Jesus) with a rod on His cheek. Do you see how they treated the Lord? Are you doing the same mentally?


Out of Bethlehem of Judah, will come to the Lord a ruler over Israel, Jesus was born in Bethlehem and was a Jew. And it is Jesus that will feed the people of the Lord and He will be great from the ends of the earth.


¹³Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.
¹⁴And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities.
¹⁵And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.


When the Lord recovers Israel; He will pluck a lot of evil out of their hands so they do no more wickedness, and will execute much vengeance to the nations; so bad it has not been heard of of what He will do in that day.

Micah 6

Micah is doing what every other prophet of the Lord did; tell the people the Lord has a problem with them; that they need to fix quick. He gave Israel years, much more than 40 days to fix their sinful ways.


All the Lord ever wanted from man is to be just, have mercy, and walk humbly with your God. The Lord never asked for one cow as a sacrifice.



⁸He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Because people do not walk humbly with God; He will have them eat but not be satisfied. That is the worse feeling to eat a 3 course dinner; and get up and look in the refridgerator for more food because you're not satisfied. Israel is getting this because they walked in the way of horrible kings (v16).

Micah Chapter Seven (7)

Micah warns that things will be bad for Jerusalem and the earth. There is no good man in the earth any longer. Everyone is set on evil, judges ask for reward, great men are constantly caught in scandals. So the Lord admonishes us, through Micah, to not put any trust even in our friends. We are not to even put confidence in our guides (preachers, parents, teachers, etc.).


We should not share much with people because they will lie; and there will be a day where the son will dishonor his father and vice versa, and your main enemies in life will be the people in your own household, and mainly over the word of God will this come.


⁸Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
This is what the children of Edom and other neighboring countries failed to remember when Israel was being sieged.


⁹I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.


When the Lord is upset and punishing you; you have the bear with it and get through the chastisement of the Lord. He will shine light on you again; just as He did with the children of Israel coming out of Egypt; He showed them marvelous things.


¹⁶The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
²⁰Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.


The nations will see the works of the Lord and be afraid; they will be astonished at the return of Israel. This is something the Lord will do as a promise He made with the fathers.

Nahum 1

⁷The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.


Nahum was a prophet of Judah and spoke against Nineveh. His message was stern, disobey the Lord and be punished, obey Him and be saved.
The Lord takes revenge even though He is slow to anger. You know how a man is slow to anger; but once he is angry there is no stopping Him. That's how man is; God has that in the Godly realm.

Nahum 2

¹He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.
²For the LORD hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.


By the hand of Assyria has the Lord taken away the excellency of Israel.
⁸But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.


The Lord has something for Nineveh for their treachery against Judah.


¹³Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

Nahum 3

¹Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;
⁴Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.
⁵Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame.

⁶And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.


This is against Nineveh; they were doing a lot of wickedness, witchcraft, whoring, and paganism. The Lord is always going to find that out and cast it aside. The day is coming when their great city will be laid waste.


⁸Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.
¹⁹There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?


Every nation that suffers, suffers at the hand of their shepherds or pastors. This is universal because if they sought the Lord, He would deliver them. A chaotic world is born out of chaotic religions; even in nations without the true and living God.


This concludes the reading for today; recharge and we'll be back at it tomorrow.


--
Peace & Grace

Day 65 Reading the Bible in 90 Days

Good morning, we're on number 65 and it does not mean we can retire. Anyhow, let's begin our reading and we're going to start in Hosea chapter 14!

¹O israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
²Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.


The Lord tells Israel how to come back to Him; by simply speaking the words that confess your sins and keeping His commandments. Repent first, and then return. It is not like you can come as you are, you must confess with your lips and He will have mercy on you.


In the latter days, the children of Israel will say, what business do they have with idols. The wise will understand that the Lord's ways are right and the just will walk in them; but sinners, breakers of His laws will fall.
We're going to move right into the book of Joel.

Joel Chapter 1 ¹The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

Joel is speaking to Israelites and telling them to pass this information to their children from generation to generation. A harsh nation has come up on Israel, they are strong and have destroyed the Lord's vineyard. It is time to lament, it is time to howl, it is time to weep, ministers because the Lord is getting ready to do a thing on the earth.


What the Lord is getting ready to do upon the earth; even the cows will suffer at having no pasture. What is this? It is the day of the Lord; it is at hand where destruction comes from the Almighty God.

Joel 2

¹Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;


A trumpet is blow in Jerusalem and everyone that lives there at this time will certainly be trembling; because the day of the Lord is getting closer and closer. Verse two tells us what kind of day it is; it is dark, gloomy, clouds, thick darkness; the way it will be has never been and will never be again. I do not like clouds period; so to have a dark gloomy thick darkness day is not going to be pleasing.


Verse three expands on the Armageddon war and when Gog and Magog and her allies deploy against Babylon the great in Jerusalem. When the approach Jerusalem, in front of them it will be a fruitful garden, as the Garden of Eden, but when they finish with it; it will look like a desolate wilderness and nothing will escape from them.


They are going to come down quick, and will not have any mercy.
The time of this is right before the Lord returns because the heavens will tremble, the sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars will appear to fall to the earth. Then the Lord will speak to His army, all the holy angels in heaven to prepare for a big war. If the day of the Lord or the Lord's day was Sunday, then according to Joel, it is a great and terrible day that no one can abide in.


The Lord knows what's going to happen on this day; and urgently commands that we repent and be humble before God on this day especially, who knows if He will repent of His evil and leave you a blessing?


¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
Priest and preachers are suppose to pray for their people and pray the Lord has mercy, especially ministers and priest of the children of Israel. If this is done by many preachers, the Lord will have pity on His people that He has scattered and peeled.


²⁷And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.
²⁸And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:


The Lord is going to restore Israel. All through our sixty-five day reading we have seen the same story; Israel transgressed the commandments of God; and did not teach the law to the other nations; He has destroyed and scattered them into slavery in every nation, but in the end will return them and treat them better than they were ever treated. That's the story on Israel by every prophet and when we read it in the New Testament, every Apostle.


The Lord will pour His spirit on His people as His second coming approaches and who ever calls on the name of the Lord (in truth) will be delivered. The deliverance comes out of mount Zion and Jerusalem, where the Lord will be on this earth (v29-32).

Joel 3

¹For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
²I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.


During the time that the sun and moon and stars go through a big change, that is when the Jesus Christ will return to the earth; it is at that time He will bring again the captivity of Judah. It is also at this time He will gather all nations and bring them on down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, which means the valley where Jehovah will judge, and He will war with the nations for His people and for Israel who they scattered and parted their land after scattering them.


The Lord is going to deal with these people; all of them, all nations are guilty for being over zealous in their chastisement of the children of Israel. People have sold them, sold a boy for a night with a prostitute, and sold a girl for a bottle of wine and the Lord ask can anyone repay Him for their evil?


The nations have taken all of the children of Israel's substance and took them out of their temples and brought to their own pagan temples and sold them to the Greeks; far from Jerusalem; but the Lord is going to bring them back.


⁹Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.


The Lord is going to sell the children of the nations into the hand of Judah, who will then sell them to a people called the Sabeans, and they are far off; and it must be told to the Gentiles; because the Lord wrote to proclaim it to them. So to the Gentiles, prepare for war, turn your social programs and farming instruments into spears and weapons of war. Let weak nations tell the world they have nuclear weapons and let all nations come on down to the valley of Jehoshaphat and let the Lord kill you.


Bundles, and bundles, multitudes and multitudes of people and nations will be in the valley of decision; the valley of decision is where it will be decided who will run the earth, man or God.


¹⁵The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.


Verse fifteen again tells us the time this all will happen; because we see the sun every day shining in strength, and the moon, and stars; so this has not happened yet. The Lord is going to roar out of Jerusalem, being hope to His people; and will do a lot of killing, it will actually be a world wide killing tour. Egypt and Edom will be a total wilderness when the Lord is finished with them because of their violence against the children of Judah.


I fret that regular church-goers do not know of such a violent Jesus; if you do not read the bible; you won't know of such a violent Jesus. It is good to find out now while you have time to sanitize your house (your behavior), and learn the ways of God. It is better to clean your house before the guest arrive than to do it as they ring the door bell.


We are moving into the book of Amos.

Amos chapter 1

¹The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen 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.
²And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.


Amos was a prophet of the Lord and his book as you will find spoke against many nations along with Israel. He prophesised during the days of Uzziah king of Judah, two years before the big earthquake. He picks up where Joel left off concerning the Lord roaring out of Jerusalem. Here is that world wide killing tour every prophet spoke of concerning the return of the Lord. Amos will go into details of each country or nation. He starts with Damascus and Gaza (v3-6).


¹¹Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever:


Next up, the inhabitants of Ashdod and the Philistines. They will perish and many of these "middle eastern" nations have a hand in delivering the children of Judah, who escaped, to the children of Esau. The Lord speaks against the children of Edom because they pursued their brother Jacob with the sword and had no pity, and has kept his father's wrath for ever. Whose next? We see the children of Ammon in verse thirteen; they did some bad evil in ripping the child right out of the belly of a pregnant woman.

Amos 2

In chapter two, we move on to the children of Moab for their evil to the children of Edom. It's not just for what people did against Israel; it is for all the evil they have done. In verse four, the Lord is punishing Judah, because they disregarded the law of the Lord, ignored His commandments. Then we move right on along to Samaria or Israel, they were evil in selling their own people for a pair of shoes, a man and his dad will sleep with the same woman, just wickedness.


This is stuff that is going on now and that went on in the past.
The Lord especially did well by Israel, destroying the Amorites from before them, and these were a mighty people, the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt. People think this is a light thing; but image for a moment the Lord torpedoing a nation by the hand of two men who speak destruction against lets say the United States. 


These two men tell President Barack Obama to all the Filipinos to return back to their native land with riches and substance of the US; and if not plagues will fall on the US. Finally, the US gets beat up with things like Hurricane Katrina, and other like disasters until the US is flying every single Filipino out on first class jets, first class cruise ships. That is unheard of and amazing. That is what took place in Egypt; and Israel turned their back on such a God.

Amos 3

¹Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
²You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
³Can two walk together, except they be agreed?


The first three verses are worth marinating and really letting it soak in for all people and not just the children of Israel. The Lord says that the children of Israel are the only families on the earth that He has known. The Lord may address individuals of other nations; but He has never met an entire nation on a mountain and passed down His laws to them with His own mighty voice. Because He has done this with them; He is going to punish them for all of their sins.


They can't get away with as little as a "white lie" without someone grabbing them and snatching their job from them. Then He asked a rhetorical question; can two people walk together except the agree? No they cannot because of the one person says he does not want to walk and the other says he wants to walk, they won't take one step together until they agree to both walk.


Today we have this thing called, "agree to disagree" and we think it is all good. Even if you agree to disagree, you still disagree. Israel couldn't walk with the Lord because they disagreed with His laws.


⁶Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
⁷Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.


The Lord makes more rhetorical questions to make another point that people do not think the Lord does. He ask can evil come on a city and the Lord have not done it? The answer is no. Even evil comes from the Lord. But He warns you before any evil comes; we just have to be wise enough to adhere to it. In verse seven; He will surely do nothing but reveal His secrets to His servants the prophets.


You want to know what the Lord is doing; read the books available by His prophets as we have been doing the last 65 days.
⁸The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?


If you are bathing and a lion comes up about 20 yards from you and roars, who will not fear that? Likewise, if the Lord has spoken, of true servants, who can but prophesy?

Amos 4

⁶And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
This is addressing the ten tribes of Israel; Samaria for their oppressing of the poor and other sins. The Lord lets them know He has had enough of them and is ready to take them out of the land. He has already given the clean teeth because they don't eat but they will not return to the Lord and serve Him.


¹¹I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
¹²Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.


They have been hit with a famine; remember the 3 year drought on rain that Elijah called on Ahab? Ahab still did not repent of his evil. The Lord slaughtered 70,000 in three days in the days of David; Israel just shook it off; and the Lord has sent pestilence like those in Egypt to them; but they still have not repented and sought the Lord their God.


He has even done some of them like He did Sodom and Gomarrah; but it did not matter; so the Lord tells them to prepare to meet their God, O Israel, in a way that will make not just your ears tingle; but your entire body.

Amos Chapter five (5)

⁴For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
⁵But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.


It is almost tiring to read over and over how horrible Israel has been and how the Lord is going to severly punish them; but this is a message from the Lord that hopefully wakes up His people. They may realize first who they are, why they are being punished, and that will give them the opportunity to correct themselves. Search for the Lord and His ways and live. That is a common theme through out the bible.


⁸Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
¹⁴Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.


If the Lord is telling the children of Israel this; others should jump the gun and get a leg in on doing right by hating evil and loving good.


Many people at times wish for the Lord to return; but to wish for that means a great deal of things must happen; such as, the great tribulation, the war of Armageddon, the Lord sitting in the sky watching, and then the massive killing all around the world. That is a lot to want to come down on the earth. So the Lord tells us in verse 18 not to desire the day of the Lord, because you don't know what it is going to be like to you. It will be a frantic day; like a man running from a lion and turns and sees a bear, then dived into his house and leaned on the door and a snake jumps up and bites him. In that day something is prone to get you; so do not desire it; just wait on the Lord.


¹⁸Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
¹⁹As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

Amos 6

Warnings of trouble to those who are at ease in Jerusalem and Samaria; they will be the first to go captive when the Lord brings trouble on the land.


⁸The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.


I just found out that the Lord can abhor or hate. He hated His own people because of their unlawful behavior. The God of the Universe can hate because He put in motion a plan to make more powerful beings like Him; yet His people want to be destroyed and hardheaded.

Amos 7

Amos is asking the Lord to repent of His evil toward this people, Israel.
¹¹For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.
¹²Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:

¹³But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court.
¹⁴Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:
¹⁵And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.

¹⁶Now therefore hear thou the word of the LORD: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac.
¹⁷Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.


The Lord is not trying to hear it; He has given them chance after chance. The faithful are going into captivity with the faithless. Why is this? Because those who knew better should have revolted against kings who set up an evil administration.


Amaziah, a priest, told Amos to scram out of town prophesying against Samaria. He told him to go talk that "nonsense" in Judah. However, Amos let him know he is doing the work of the Lord and cannot help be on the job and do the Lord's will, which was to speak to the children of Israel.


Amos further told him his wife will be a harlot in the city and his children will be killed and he will die in a polluted land and Israel is still going into captivity. I wonder if he kept talking against Amos then?

Amos 8

The Lord showed more visions to Amos, a basket of summer fruit. The Lord said the end is on His people Israel; there will not be songs in the temple; but instead people howling and dead bodies will be everywhere. People would see the Sabbath and couldn't wait till it passed so they could get back out there and sell their stuff in the market. The Lord is watching this, even today.


⁹And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:
¹⁰And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
¹¹Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:


The Lord will cause the sun to go down at noon and will darken the earth on a clear day. He will turn their feast into mourning and the songs sung will be lamentations, you know like the blues. He will make it like it is the morning of someone's only son; a very bitter day (v9-10).


Soon enough, the Lord will send a famine in the land and it won't be for bread or water, but of the hearing of the words of God. People will wonder from nation to nation, looking for the word of the Lord and won't be able to find it at that time. Believe that this all has happened. The Lord caused the sun to go down at noon and it was completely dark in the earth, when Jesus died on the cross. We'll read about it later. And since Jesus died on passover, the feast immediately after the passover (Leviticus 23) was the unleavened bread, was a feast full of mourning, instead of joy. It was like the mourning of the death of an only son; and it was the death of an only son; the only son of the living God.

Amos 9

⁴And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.


Amos saw the Lord standing on the altar telling the fate of His people and how no one is going to get away. He'll go into the earth to get them, in heaven to bring that back. But no one is getting away scotch free; even if they go into captivity He will chase them with violence in the countries they go to and will look over them to do evil and not good.


⁷Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?


The Lord compares His children, the Israelites, physically to the Ethiopians. Ethiopians are Cush, Cush was a son of Ham, the land of Ham was renamed by a Roman General, to Africa. The name Ethiopia ʾĪtyōṗṗyā and its English cognate are thought by some recent scholars to be derived from the Greek word Αἰθιοπία Aithiopia, from Αἰθίοψ Aithiops 'an Ethiopian', derived in turn from Greek words meaning "of burned face." The would mean they are dark skinned people.


Egypt was conquered in 6th century by Arabs and today Arabs inhabit Egypt. This is why Amos compared them to Ethiopians because they have stayed in their land and complexion has not changed much.


⁹For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
The Lord sprinkled Israel like wheat into all nations, just sifted them like a woman would do cereal grains. Sinners will die by the sword.


¹⁴And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.


Just as God sent them into captivity; He will surely bring them back out of their captivity; and as in Isaiah 61 they will build the old waste cities and live in them. The children of Israel will no longer study pagan gods, nor pollute the Lord's Holy name.


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Peace & Grace