Day 193—We are in the seventh month of Bible reading, continuing with Amos.

    Day 193 – Amos 6 – 9. (More of the southern prophet’s words of woe from God to the northern kingdom of Israel.)

Chapter 6. Woe, woe to the lazy, rich people of Israel who have gained their wealth by cheating and stealing and abusing the poor.

Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory,

and stretch themselves out on couches,

and eat lambs from the flock,

and calves from the midst of the stall,

who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,

who drink wine from BOWLS,

and anoint themselves with the finest oils,

BUT ARE NOT GRIEVED OVER THE RUIN OF JOSEPH.

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.

.

Chapter 7. Then, the LORD gives Amos a series of visions of disasters He has planned. (Locusts, fire, and exile)  Amos pleads for mercy,  “O Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!”   “The LORD relented concerning this; “It shall not be,” said the LORD.

Then Amaziah, a false priest of Bethel, sends a message to Jeroboam the 2nd. “Amos conspired against you. The land is not able to bear his words because he said, “Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from this land.”

Then Amaziah told Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah and eat bread there, and prophesy there….. but NEVER again prophesy at Bethel…”

But Amos spoke back. I didn’t plan to be a prophet; God called me. And I will say what He has told me. “You yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel surely will go into exile away from its land.”

After that, the LORD showed Amos a series of visions of the coming and future “Day of the LORD”—and it would be horrible.

Interestingly, Chapter 9:2-4 reminds me of Psalm 139 but in a negative way. The verses in Amos say that wherever Israel hides, God will find them and judge them – down to the grave, up to heaven, up a mountain, to the bottom of the sea. Amos 9:4b says, “I will fix my eyes upon them FOR EVIL and not for good.”  But, similar verses in the Psalm speak of God’s love and knowledge of His people in all those places and more.

The last 5 verses of Amos promise hope.  Israel WILL be restored. God will raise them up. “I  will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the LORD your God.”