May the mumbling commence!
We are embarking on the last three
days of our year through the Bible. Now
is the time to sprint through the “minor” prophets, who are only minor because
of the brief length of their books.
Today we will finish Amos, read Obadiah and Jonah, and then dig five
chapters into Micah. That’s fifteen
chapters! That’s our pace for the next
several days. Wee!
Just look at these wonderful
passages, which are built around the theme of repentance. Some chronicle what we should not do. Some chronicle what we are doing. And some chronicle what we should be
doing. Read them below:
Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel: "Come back to me and live! Don't go to worship the idols of Bethel, Gilgal, or Beersheba.
For the people of Gilgal will be dragged off into exile, and the
people of Bethel will come to nothing."
Come back to the Lord and live! If you don't,
he will roar through Israel like a fire, devouring you completely.
Your gods in Bethel certainly won't be able to quench the flames! You wicked people! You twist justice, making it a bitter pill
for the poor and oppressed. Righteousness and fair play are meaningless
fictions to you. (Amos 5:4-7)
"I hate all your show and
pretense – the hypocrisy of your
religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won't even
notice all your choice peace offerings. Away
with your hymns of praise! They are only noise to my ears. I will not listen to
your music, no matter how lovely it is. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, a
river of righteous living that will never run dry.” (Amos
5:21-24)
Listen to this, you who rob the poor and trample the needy! You can't wait for the Sabbath day to be over
and the religious festivals to end so
you can get back to cheating the helpless. You measure out your grain in false measures and weigh it out on dishonest scales. And you mix
the wheat you sell with chaff swept from the floor! Then you enslave poor people for a debt of one
piece of silver or a pair of sandals. (Amos 8:4-6)
But as the ship was sailing
along, suddenly the Lord
flung a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to
send them to the bottom. Fearing
for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw
the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. And all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. So the captain went down after him. "How
can you sleep at a time like this?" he shouted. "Get up and pray to
your god! Maybe he will have mercy on us and spare our lives." (Jonah
1:4-6)
How terrible it will be for you
who lie awake at night, thinking up evil plans. You rise at
dawn and hurry to carry out any of the wicked schemes you have power to
accomplish. When you want a certain
piece of land, you find a way to seize it. When you want someone's house, you
take it by fraud and violence. No one's family or inheritance is safe with you
around! (Micah 2:1-2)
Should you talk that way, O
family of Israel? Will the Lord
have patience with such behavior? If you would do what is right, you would find
my words to be good. Yet to this very
hour my people rise against me! You steal the
shirts right off the backs of those who trusted you, making them as ragged as
men who have just come home from battle.
You have evicted women from their homes and stripped their children of
all their God-given rights.
Up! Begone! This is no longer your land and home, for you have filled it
with sin and ruined it completely. (Micah 2:7-10)
Many nations will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of
Israel. There he will teach us his ways, so that we may obey him."
For in those
days the Lord's teaching and his
word will go out from Jerusalem. (Micah 4:2)
Let’s wake up to what the Lord is
doing in the world. Let’s leave behind
our hypocrisy and take up the Way of the Lord.
Let’s start with our hearts and attitudes and allow God’s Way to grow
naturally from our lives. That is true
repentance!
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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