Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 201 and 202

Jul21

NOTE: Sunday and Monday studies are posted together on MONDAY.

Day 201 – Reading – Hosea 1 – 7

Day 202 – Reading – Hosea 8 – 14

Read today’s Scriptures.  

Day 201, Hosea 1.

Hosea was a prophet in the time of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and good King Hezekiah in the south (and while evil King Jeroboam II reigned in the north).  Hosea means “salvation,” like Joshua and Yeshua.  Although he addressed both Israel and Judah, he referred to the king of Israel as “our king.”  Only he and Jonah were “writing prophets” from the northern kingdom.  He prophesied for 45 years and was a contemporary of Isaiah.

Hosea was instructed to marry a woman and experience her unfaithfulness, much as God with His beloved Israel, and then to show forgiving love.

  • The LORD:  “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom (unfaithfulness) and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom (unfaithfulness) by forsaking the LORD.

And so Hosea obeyed and married Gomer.  She bore a son.

  • And the LORD said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.”

Then Gomer gave birth to a daughter.

  • The LORD said, “Call her name ‘No Mercy,’ for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel.”

When the daughter was weaned, Gomer had a second son.

  • The LORD said, “Call his name ‘Not My People,’ for you are not my people (Israel) and I am not your God.”

And yet God tells him of a time when Israel will be like the sand of the sea, and where it was said, “Not my people,” they shall be called “Children of the Living God.”

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Hosea 2.

God tells Hosea to “plead with the nation of Israel (also in language reflecting Gomer, Hosea’s wife), that she put away her whoring and adultery, lest “I make her like a wilderness, a parched land, and kill her with thirst.”

Israel went after her “lovers” (false gods), praising THEM for the food, drink, and clothing she had, angering God.

  • “She did not know that it was ‘I’ who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold… WHICH SHE USED FOR BAAL.”
  • “Therefore, I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take my wool and my flax which were to cover her nakedness.  I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers.”
  • “I will punish her for when she went after her ‘lovers’ and forgot me,” declares the LORD.

Oh, but see the mercy and tenderness with which He will one day treat Israel!

  • “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And I will give her her vineyards and make a door of hope.”
  • And in that day, you will call me “My husband.”  I will betroth her to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth her to me in FAITHFULNESS.”
  • ‘And I will have mercy on “NO MERCY.”  And I will say to “NOT MY PEOPLE,” ‘You ARE my people.”

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Hosea 3.

  • The LORD:   “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, EVEN AS the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods. “

So Hosea bought Gomer back with 15 shekels of silver and some barley.  And he told her, “You must dwell as mine. You shall not play the whore or belong to another man.”

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Hosea 4.

Then, through Hosea, the LORD comes down hard on Israel, especially her priests.  “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.  Because YOU have rejected knowledge, I reject YOU from being a priest to me.”

Then an entire section where God rants on His people for being unfaithful to husbands and to Him, worshiping idols with cult prostitutes.

“Though YOU play the whore, O Israel … let not JUDAH become guilty!”  (But alas, they follow Israel’s lead.)

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Hosea 5.

  • “Hear this, O priests!  Pay attention, O house of Israel!  Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you!  I will discipline ALL of them.”
  • “Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt:  JUDAH also shall stumble with them….”
  • “I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. 

God then issues a warning, “I will return again to MY PLACE until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.”

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Hosea 6.

The prophet writes Israel’s FUTURE words. – “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that He may heal us; he has struck us down, and He will bind us up. Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD.

But until then, God sees their unfaithful ways.  “For I desire steadfast love and NOT sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than offerings.

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Hosea 7.

There seems to be no hope for Israel. Their judgment of doom is set. 

  • “Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!  Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!  I WOULD redeem them, but they speak lies against me.  They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds. They rebel against me.”      

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Day 202, Hosea 8.

Assyria, like a vulture, hovers over the house of Israel. 

God says, “I have spurned your calf, O Samaria.  For it is from Israel; a craftsman made it; it is not God. the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.

Israel… sows the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind. 

Israel has forgotten his Maker….

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Hosea 9.

  • Hosea declares, “The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come: Israel shall know it.” 
  • “He will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.”
  • “Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird — no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! (Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.) Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till NONE is left.  Woe to them if I depart from them.  Yes, even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death.”  
  • “My God will reject them because they have not listened to Him.“

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Hosea 10.

Prosperity resulted in spiritual corruption.

  • “Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars. 
  • Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and destroy their pillars. 

The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for “the calf.”  The people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests, for it has departed from them.  THE THING itself shall be carried to Assyria as tribute to the king. Ephraim shall be put to shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.

And Hosea cries out!

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

And then the solemn declaration:

  • “At dawn, the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.”

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Hosea 11.

This chapter shows Israel’s refusal of God, and God’s extreme LOVE FOR THEM. 

“When Israel was a child, I loved him… I taught him to walk, I took him up by his arms… I led him with cords of kindness and bands of love… I became to him as one who eases the yoke.. I bent down to him and fed him…

  • How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?  My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.”

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Hosea 12.

In this chapter, the LORD reviews the history of Jacob/Israel from Rebekah’s womb till the time they came up from Egypt. 

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Hoshea 13.

The LORD relentlessly pours on words of judgment of the ungrateful and proud Israel.  They sinned more and more, making images for themselves and offered human sacrifices, and “kissed calves” (devotion to their idols).

“But I AM the LORD your God. You know no God but Me, and besides Me there is no Savior.”

“Samaria shall bear her guilt because she rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword.

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Hosea 14.

And in the final chapter, Hosea reveals God’s heart – a plea for Israel to return to their God.

His promise,

  • ‘I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. 

And Hosea adds his own epilogue. 

  • Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them … but transgressors stumble at them.

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Good words for us too – from Hosea’s closing epilogue, to God’s weeping heart over the sinner, to His offers of restoration. Don’t you just love Him so much!!  But also that sin is unfaithfulness to our God, and must be stopped or judged.

LORD, Help me to look in my own heart.  Are there idols there?  Do I depend on my own strength rather than Yours?  Do I praise others for what YOU do for me daily? Help me to be faithful!  Oh, turn my heart wholly towards You, O my God!  Thank you for your faithfulness, care and love for me!

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 200 (An addendum)

Jul19

 I forgot to include the lovely Psalm 48 from today’s post.

It goes with the history in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles so well!

 I thought I MUST write it in a “PS” post.

Psalm 48.

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God!
His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth.
Mount Zion, in the far north, is the city of the great King.
Within her citadels, God has made Himself known as a fortress.

We have thought on Your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of Your temple.
As Your Name, O God, so Your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with righteousness. Let Mount Zion be glad!
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of Your judgments!

Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers.
Consider well her ramparts. Go through her citadels,
That you may tell the next generation that this is God.
Our God, forever and ever. He will guide us forever!

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 200 (wow)

Jul19

Day 200 – Reading – 2 Kings 18, 2 Chronicles 29 – 31, and Psalm 48

Do you see connections?

2 Kings 18:1-8 and 2 Chronicles 29

First, we learn that in the third year of Israel’s King Hoshea’s nine-year-reign, Hezekiah began his 29-year reign in the southern kingdom of Judah.  HE DID WHAT WAS RIGHT IN THE EYES OF THE LORD.  Praise God!  (In all the sons that King Ahaz’s burned on that pagan altar … God kept Hezekiah safe.) Praise God!

Hezekiah “trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. He held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following Him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses. And the LORD was with him.”

And King Hezekiah began to “clean up Judah.” In the first year of his reign,

          2 Kings:

  • he REMOVED the high places, BROKE the pillars, and CUT DOWN the Asherah.
  • he BROKE IN PIECES THE BRONZE SERPENT that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it. (WHAT??)  (See Numbers 21:4-9)

           2 Chronicles 29:

  • he OPENED the doors of the House of the Lord, that his father, King Ahaz had permanently shut (See 28:22-25). 
  • he CALLED BACK the priests and Levites and charged them to consecrate themselves and the House of the LORD.  (Take out the filth that was in the Holy Place!!)
  • he REMINDED them that the LORD had chosen THEM to stand in His presence and to minister to Him.

And the three clans of Levites consecrated themselves went into the inner part of the House of the LORD to cleanse it. They brought out all the uncleanness they found in the court and the Temple. For EIGHT DAYS they consecrated it. Then they told the king it was done.

And Hezekiah rose early and had sacrificed to the LORD many sin offerings and burnt offerings … to make atonement for Israel.  And with musical instruments, they sang to the LORD, and worshiped Him.  They sang the praises of David and Asaph, with gladness. They bowed down and worshiped! 

WOW. Halleluia!

And so the service of the House of the LORD was restored.

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2 Chronicles 30.

Then Hezekiah sent letters to ALL of Israel AND Judah, that they should come to the House of the LORD at Jerusalem to “keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel.”  It was going to be a month late, because of the time it took to cleanse the Temple, but the plan seemed right to the king and the assembly.

So the proclamation went out – from Beersheba to Dan. (ALL the country of the united Israel from the southern tip to the most northern boarder.) “Come to Jerusalem. Come and keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel.”

“O people of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that He may turn again to you. The LORD your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away His face from you, if you return to Him.”

WOW, what a message!!!  PREACH IT, Hezekiah!!

But …………………………… they laughed the messengers to scorn and mocked them.

However, some of the men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. And many from Ephraim and Issachar came.  They had not cleansed themselves, yet they came to eat the Passover lamb. 

  • FOR HEZEKIAH HAD PRAYED FOR THEM SAYING, “May the good LORD pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the rules of cleanness.”
  • And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.  And the people of ISRAEL who were present kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with GREAT GLADNESS.
  • And the Levites and priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with all their might to the LORD.

And the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and the sojourners who came out of the land of Israel, and the sojourners who lived in Judah… REJOICED.  So there was GREAT JOY in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. 

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2 Chronicles 31.

And when it was finished, Judah, and their brothers from Israel went out into the cities of Judah and Benjamin, and ….

  • broke in pieces the pillars
  • cut down the Asherim poles
  • broke down the high places and altars
  • … until they had destroyed them all.

Then Hezekiah commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and Levites … that THEY could give themselves to the Law of the LORD.

And people begin to bring in their offerings IN ABUNDANCE. And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities brought in the tithe too.  And the priests reported, that since the contributions began, “we have eaten and had enough and have plenty left, for the LORD has blessed the people.”

“Thus Hezekiah DID throughout all Judah, and he did WHAT WAS GOOD AND RIGHT AND FAITHFUL before the LORD his God.  And every work he undertook in the service of the house of God, seeking his God, HE DID WITH ALL HIS HEART, and prospered.”

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2 Kings 18:9-12

Meanwhile … In the 4th year of Hezekiah’s reign in Judah, and the 7th year of King Hoshea’s reign in the north, Shalmaneser, King of Assyria came up to Samaria (northern capital) and besieged it for three years. 

In the 9th year of King Hoshea of Israel, SAMARIA WAS TAKEN and the Israelites (who had not gone to Judah) were carried away to Assyria and put into cities of the Medes …….. BECAUSE they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His covenant.  They neither listened or obeyed the LORD’s commandments.

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What a contrast between Israel and Judah with the godly King Hezekiah!

O LORD, may I always set my heart to SEEK YOU. May I hear and obey Your Word!

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 199

Jul18

Day 199 – Reading – Isaiah 23 – 27

Read today’s Scriptures.  (Yes, they are hard to understand!)

Isaiah 23.

This “oracle” is directed at Tyre and Sidon (modern-day Lebanon). They were famous for their ships and shipping industry, as far west as Tarshish (modern-day Spain). The King of this country assisted Solomon in supplying building materials for his palace and the Temple of the LORD.  Later, relations were broken.

Now Isaiah predicts doom for these proud people. “The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.”

“In that day, Trye will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king.”   

“At the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre…. Her merchandise and wages will be holy to the LORD. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the LORD.”   Tyre’s sinful gain was to support Judah when they returned.

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Isaiah 24.

The horrific judgments in this chapter, against the WHOLE WORLD, reflect the tribulations as described in Revelation 6+.  The LORD God is to deal with the whole earth MORE SEVERELY than He did at the Tower of Babel and Noah’s Flood!

  • “Behold, the LORD will empty the earth and make it desolate, and He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
  • “The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the LORD has spoken this word.
  • “The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken.
  • The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut.

And the PEOPLE of the earth languish. The inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.  WHY??

  • Because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the EVERLASTING COVENANT.

What is “the everlasting covenant?”  See Genesis 17:7, 13, & 19 and 1 Chronicles 16:15-17.

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Isaiah 25.

Isaiah now praises the LORD for the wonderful things He’s planned (judgment and future restoration).

  • “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His People He will take away from all the earth.”
  • “It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, that He might save us.  This is the LORD, we have waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.'”

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Isaiah 26.

The prophet continues praise for that day of final restoration.

  • “In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. ‘Open the gates, that the righteous nation that KEEPS faith may enter in.”
  • “You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
  • “Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.”
  • “The path of the righteous is level; You make level the way of the righteous.
  • “O LORD, You will ordain peace for us, for You have indeed done for us all our works. (“It is finished,” said Jesus.)

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Isaiah 27.

And then that great promise of the final destruction of that Great Serpent, Satan…

  • “In that day, the LORD, with His hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the DRAGON that is in the sea.

And then there is ANOTHER VINEYARD SONG.  How different this one is from the sad tale of a wasted one in Isaiah 5:1-7.  This one is called “a pleasant vineyard.”

  • “In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots, and fill the whole world with fruit.”  (In Messiah’s kingdom)
  • “In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel.  (Matthew 24:31)
  • “In that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem”

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(Promises of the horrors of Revelation, and the promises of the beautiful restoration of Israel in the Millennian Kingdom.  God can be trusted to fulfill each … in detail.  I believe the “beginning of sorrows”
has, or is about to start.   LORD, Thank you for your word that tells us to PERSEVERE to the end… the glorious end.)

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 198

Jul17

Day 198 – Reading – Isaiah 18 – 22

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

Isaiah 18.

Cush (Ethiopia), a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide. (The Nile River and its tributaries extend south through Ethiopia.)  

At that time (Messiah’s Kingdom) tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide …. to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of hosts.”

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Isaiah 19.

Behold the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt (to execute judgment); and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

“I will confound their counsel; and they will inquire of the idols and sorcerers, and the mediums and the necromancers; and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king (Assyria) will rule over them,” declares the LORD GOD of hosts. 

‘And the river will be dry and parched, and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away…..

  • And the fishermen, who cast hooks and spread nets will mourn and lament…
  • The workers in combed flax and weavers of white cotton will be crushed and grieved….
  • And there will be nothing for Egypt to do.

Nevertheless, “in THAT Day” (Messiah’s Kingdom)….

  • “there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts…. 
  • And there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of Egypt…
  • And the LORD will make Himself known to the Egyptians…
  • And the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship….
  • They will return to the LORD and He will listen… and heal them.

IN THAT DAY, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria (through Israel), and the Egyptians will worship (the LORD) with the Assyrians. 

IN THAT DAY, Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth whom the LORD has blessed.  “Blessed be EGYPT my people, and ASSYRIA the work of my hands, and ISRAEL, my inheritance.

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Isaiah 20.

But, BEFORE the Day of the LORD comes, Egypt and Ethiopia will be shamed and conquered by Assyria, and taken captive.

The LORD told Isaiah to strip off his clothes and sandals and walk about naked. WHAT??  Often the prophets of God did things to “symbolize” what they were also speaking.  This nakedness was to show the shame of Egypt and Ethiopia being conquered and taken away.

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Isaiah 21.

Then suddenly, we go past Babylon’s conquest of Jerusalem and captivity of the Jews, to a time IN PROPHECY, that Babylon itself will be conquered by the Medes 

Isaiah says, “A stern vision is told to me; the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam (Persia); lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she (Babylon) has caused I will bring to an end.

Then God reveals to Isaiah the wicked feast of Belshazzar (Daniel 5), “They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink…” when amid the celebration the call to fight the attacking enemy invading the city came. (Remember the writing on the wall?)

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon…”

Isaiah finishes the chapter with Oracles against other smaller nations.

Isaiah 22.

And then… Isaiah circles back to Israel, and JERUSALEM.  He portrays a picture of destruction (without a sword, for Babylon starved the people of Jerusalem) and of capture. But all the while Jerusalem is celebrating with wild parties.  THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN SACKCLOTH, REPENTING!!

Judah is shown trying to withstand the enemy by their own methods (which will surely fail) instead of looking to God for help.

The LORD:  Weep and mourn, shave your heads and wear sackcloth (evidence of repentance).

The people of JUDAH:  Joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, saying, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
The LORD:  Surely this iniquity will NOT BE ATONED FOR YOU until you die.”

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From Egypt and Cush in the south, to Assyria, to Babylon’s fall, and the refusal to repent in Jerusalem, Isaiah proclaims the truth of God, hard as it may be (or as embarrassing as when he’s naked). 

God had asked for a servant to proclaim His message, even they wouldn’t listen,  Isaiah had said, “Send ME!”  Now God was using this faithful prophet to predict His purposes. 

(And Isaiah would one day pay for his faithfulness with martyrdom.

He would be sawed in half by a wooden saw under wicked King Manasseh.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 197

Jul16

Day 197 – Reading – Isaiah 13 – 17

Read today’s Scriptures. 

Isaiah 13.

Isaiah’s prophecies of judgment now turn to the surrounding nations, particularly those that God used to discipline His own people.  Isaiah prophesies about Babylon, first as a great nation and then as having fallen to another.  He told about this 100+ years before Babylon became a world power.  Unbelievable as it was, they would overthrow the brutal and powerful Assyrian empire.  

Judgment was coming to them, by the Medes in a couple of centuries, and then in the end-times, when all the godly will rejoice that “Babylon the Great” has fallen forever.  Much of this passage is about when the Messiah comes. 

“I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.“

In verses 15-17, Isaiah turns to the immediate future, when the Medes will commit all kinds of atrocities on Babylon, which they had done in the past.  Infants killed, houses plundered, wives ravished, and the young men slaughtered without mercy.

“Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah.” 

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Isaiah 14.

A brief light begins this chapter, prophesying the release and return of the Jews to their land.

“The LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land….”

Then Isaiah switches from the upcoming physical Babylon to the future evil millennial nation, and the celebration of the Jews when Babylon the Great falls.

Then Isaiah turns toward Assyria in his prophecy.  Yes, he drew them to Israel to judge His people, but now THEY will be judged by God.

“As I have planned, so it shall be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder.”

Next, in the year that the wicked King Ahaz of Judah dies, Isaiah prophesies against Philistia, another of Israel’s enemies.  

“Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.  Wail, O gate, cry out, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!”

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Isaiah 15 and 16.

Isaiah’s following “oracle of doom” concerns Moab.

Isaiah prophesies of Moab being laid waste in the night, being undone, weeping, wailing, wearing sackcloth, and melting in tears.  They cry out, they tremble, they weep at the destruction that has come upon them.

Isaiah actually “cries out” in sympathy for Moab (verse 5) and his “inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab” (verse 11).  Wow!

“The LORD has spoken, saying, ‘In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, despite all his great multitude … those who remain will be very few and feeble.” (Assyria was not allowed to completely overrun Moab.)

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Isaiah 17.

Isaiah’s “oracle” now turns to Damascus (the capital of Syria). Its destruction by Assyria is addressed in this chapter.

Syria, which had joined with Israel (“Ephraim“) to resist Assyria, would fall as they did.  But a small remnant of Syria would remain. (The picture is of an olive tree harvested, with two or three fruit left on the top branches.)

God’s judgments are to awaken Ephraim to their failure to depend on the Lord. 

“For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger, though you make them grow on the day you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow … YET the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.”

Then Isaiah turns to the coming armies of Judah’s enemies and pronounces a “woe” on them. 

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God uses pagan armies to discipline his people, but THEY will then suffer and be defeated.  Everything and everyone are like instruments in God’s hands. He will bless and he will “spank” His people.  But for His OWN, all things work for their good and His glory!”

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 196

Jul15

Day 196 – Reading – 2 Chronicles 28 and 2 Kings 16 – 17

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

2 Chronicles 28 and 2 Kings 16.

Both chapters are about King Ahaz in Judah (south).  While the next-to-the-last king (Pekah) was reigning in Israel, Ahaz too the throne in Judah.  He was 20 and reigned for 16 years.  He DID NOT DO WHAT WAS RIGHT IN THE EYES OF HIS GOD, AS HIS “FATHER” DAVID HAD DONE.  Ahaz imitated the kings in the north. He even burned his sons as offerings like the nations God had helped them to drive out. 

“He sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.” 

The King of Syria and King Pekah of Israel (former enemies) got together and came against Judah. Together, this force killed hundreds of thousands of Judahites and carried many away captive, and took a lot of spoil. 

But Obed, a prophet of the LORD, was in Samaria and went out to meet the returning army.   

  • “Because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand, but you have killed them in a rage that has reached up to heaven. And NOW you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, AS YOUR SLAVES. Have you not sins of your own against the LORD your God?”
  • “Now hear me and SEND BACK THE CAPTIVES FROM YOUR RELATIVES WHOM YOU HAVE TAKEN, for fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you.”  And certain of the chief men of Israel agreed with Obed.

Along with the people of Israel, the Edomites and Philistines invaded and defeated Judah. (The Lord was humbling them because of evil King Ahaz.)

So…. instead of repenting and asking God for help, King Ahaz sent to the King of Assyria for help!!!  Are you kidding?  That would be like the U.S. sending and asking the terror group, Hamas, for help with a few raids. You can tell how far away from God he was.

Ahaz took the silver and gold he found in the house of the LORD and i the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it as a present to the King of Assyria.   The Assyrian King listened to Ahaz (and had plans of his own), so he marched to Damascus, killed King Rezin, and took captives. (A nice deal!)

But…. the insane Judean King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyrian king.  And there, King Ahaz SAW the pagan altar that was there.  He decided THAT god must be powerful to have defeated him, so he sent “a model” to Uriah the priest, with all the details.  And Uriah built the altar before Ahaz got back from Damascus. 

The great Bronze Altar, which was before the Temple of the LORD, was removed, and this pagan altar was put in its place!!!!!!!  Ahaz commanded Uriah to burn offerings on it morning and night, and throw on it all the blood of the sacrifices.  (Ahaz claimed that the god of Damascus was more powerful than the LORD. After all, it had defeated him!)

Ahaz also desecrated the other items outside the Temple. And he cut the vessels into pieces, and shut the doors of the temple. And in every city of Judah, he made offerings to other gods … PROVOKING TO ANGER THE LORD, THE GOD OF HIS FATHERS.   (NO WONDER God destroyed Jerusalem and took the people into captivity!)

And Ahaz died (thank God!) and his son, Hezekiah, reigned in his place. King Hezekiah DID WHAT WAS RIGHT IN THE EYES OF THE LORD! 

(How he could have been a godly son and escaped the vile acts of his father was only by the protection of God!)

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2 Kings 17.

Meanwhile, up north, the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pilser, came and captured most of the northern area of Israel.  Hoshea (not the prophet) made a conspiracy against King Pekah (inspired by the Assyrian?), and killed him. Hoshea reigned in his place.  Hoshea was the LAST king of Israel.  He reigned nine years and was EVIL in God’s sight.

The NEXT king of Assyria, Shalmaneser, came against him and made him pay tribute. But Hoshea sent to the Egyptian Pharaoh and offered the tribute money, if he’d come and fight the Assyrian king.

REALLY??? Was Hoshea nuts?

Shalmaneser learned of it and threw the king into prison. Then he came south and besieged Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. After three years he captured it and carried the Israelites to Assyria. He spread them out in the cities of the Medes, even as far as Susa, where the book of Esther is set.. 

They never returned to the promised land.

God did what He said in Deuteronomy 28.   God’s word is absolutely true, whether for blessing or curse.

Israel’s epitaph:

“This occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt … and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. And the people of Israel did SECRETLY against the LORD their God things that were not right…. and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, ‘You shall not do this.'”

“YET the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, ‘Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants, the prophets.’

  • “But they would not listen…
  • “They despised His statutes and His covenant…
  • “They went after false idols…
  • “They abandoned the commandments of the LORD their God….
  • (They) made images and worshiped the host of heaven…
  • They burned their sons and daughters as offerings..
  • They used divinations and omens…

“Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of His sight. NONE was left but the tribe of JUDAH only.

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The Assyrians sent other peoples they’d conquered to the land of Israel, to settle in it and keep it from going wild. And to pay him tribute.  These “other” people did not fear the LORD, so He sent LIONS  among them to kill some of them. (Don’t you see that the “land” is precious to God as well?)

The king of Assyria sent back one priest from Samaria (corrupt), to teach these “foreign” peoples the “law of the god of the land.” He settled in Bethel and taught that they should fear the LORD.

But all these people from other nations served their own gods along with the LORD.   AND NOW THE PROMISED LAND WAS ONCE AGAIN FILLED WITH FOREIGN NATIONS!

All Joshua’s work was undone. 

 “So these nations feared the LORD AND also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children, as the fathers did.”

They became the hated Samarians of Jesus’ time, mixing Judaism with paganism.

NOTE:  Knowing this, now read the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.  John 4:1-42.

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 194 & 195

Jul14

NOTE: Sunday’s and Monday’s studies are posted together on MONDAY.

Day 194 – Reading – 2 Chronicles 27 and Isaiah 9 – 12

Day 195 – Reading – Micah 1- 7

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

Day 194 – 2 Chronicles 27.

We step back from the prophets for a chapter in history, looking at the southern kingdom of Judah.  Uzziah has died, and his son Jotham, who has been managing things for his father since God gave Uzziah leprosy and they put him in isolation.  Now, Jotham becomes king in his own right. He was 25 and he reigned until he was 41.  He did what was RIGHT IN THE EYES OF THE LORD, as Uzziah had done in the early part of his reign. 

Jotham did a lot of building and fortifying of cities. He warred and won with the Ammonites and so received a lot of tribute from them for Judah.   Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God.  

Jotham was buried in the City of David, and his son Ahaz reigned. Ahaz was a nasty, idol worshiping man, who even sacrificed his son to a pagan god.

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Isaiah 9.

These chapters in Isaiah alternate from predictions of TERROR by invasion, destruction, exile, and death … and the HOPE of the coming Messianic Kingdom.

So much is familiar here about the birth, ministry, and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  • Verses 9:1-2 are quoted in Matthew 4:12-16, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali is where Jesus’ primary ministry took place.
  • The people who walked in great darkness have seen a great light. John 3:19-21 and 8:12 reveal that Jesus is the light of the world. Follow Him and you’ll not walk in darkness.  However, some will HATE the light, while others love it.
  • Verse 9:6 are very familiar words to us at Christmas time.  “For unto us a child is born.” See Luke 2:11-12.  “…Unto us a Son is given.”  See John 3:16.  And then those beautiful titles for Jesus: “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  He was and IS all of these, THANK YOU, Jesus!

Isaiah’s prophecy foretells Jesus’ glorious reign on earth: with no end… on the throne of David… with justice and righteousness, and forevermore. 

No wonder the Jews and the disciples of Jesus’ earthly ministry expected him (If he was really the Messiah) to rise up in rebellion against Rome and rule on a throne.  From OUR view, we know there is a great “time valley” between the two “mountains” of his comings..  And this glorious kingdom is YET TO COME. 

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Isaiah 10.

The LORD continues with Woes to the arrogant and proud people of Israel, naming specific groups or sins, in the last part of chapter 9, 10, and into 11.  His response?  “For all this, His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still.”

Then Isaiah predicts a horrific judgment on the arrogant Assyria (who had repented for a short time under Jonah).  They turned back to even MORE wicked ways only a generation later.  They were known for their barbaric cruelty.

BUT FIRST, God will use this cruel nation to judge Syria, Israel, and then Judah. 

THEN, “When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.”

The Assyrian Empire was massive. No wonder Israel felt so small and HOPELESS.  Here’s a map of the approx. 200 years of their rule.

Then Isaiah turns once again to HOPE. He prophesies of the “Remnant of Israel” and her survivors.  

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Isaiah 11.

Isaiah writes of the Righteous Reign of the BRANCH (or root of David). 

  • And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.   These are the qualifications that will enable Jesus the Messiah to rule justly.  (Also compare Revelations 1:4.)
  • Then Isaiah writes of the Idyllic  Millennium Reign, when: wolf & lamb, leopard & young goat, lion and calf, and cow & bear shall all graze together and lie down together in safety.  AND A LITTLE CHILD WILL LEAD THEM.   In fact, a nursing child will play with a cobra, a weaned child with an adder. (both deadly snakes) and they shall not be hurt.
  • Instead of a scarcity of the Word of God, “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the water covers the sea.
  • “In that day the Lord will extend His hand yet a second time to recover the REMNANT that remains of His people, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath and from the Coastlands of the sea.”
  • “And he … will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”

Oh, my, what a dream the people of God had to hide deep in their hearts, and collectively remember in that Day.

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Isaiah 12

And then the beautiful Psalm-like chapter. Can you hear Isaiah singing…..

"You will say in that day;
I will give thanks to You, O LORD,
for though You were angry with me,
Your anger turned away,
that You might comfort me.

Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song,
and He has become my salvation.

With joy you will draw water 
from the wells of salvation.
And in that day, you will say;
Give thanks to the LORD,
call upon His name,
make know his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that His Name is exalted.

Sing praises to the LORD, 
for He has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel."


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Day 195 – Micah 

Micah (Who is like God?) was a contemporary of Hosea and Isaiah, but he prophesied mainly to the southern kingdom of Judah. (The northern kingdom was about to fall to Assyria.)  God used him in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Like Amos, he was a “country” man from a small town near the Philistine border. 

His message was primarily to the princes and people of Jerusalem, condemning the social injustice and religious corruption he saw there. When Israel fell, northern refugees flooded into Judah, bringing their idol worship (Baals) with them. Micah  addresses this briefly, especially since King Ahaz was a part of it.

Like Isaiah, Micah prophesied horrific doom to Judah from the Assyrians and then the Babylonians.  But he alternates his dark messages with passages of HOPE for the coming Messiah-King and a restored Israel in the Millennial Kingdom.

 

 Micah 1 – 3.

Micah calls the world to witness what God is going to do in Israel and Judah.

Samaria (capital of Israel) will be made into “a heap.”  Then he bewails that Israel’s idolatry has come to Judah.  Now, “disaster has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.”

Micah condemns those who devise wickedness “on their beds” and then perform it in the morning … because it’s in their power to do so.  These rich and powerful “covet” fields and “seize” them (a reminder of King Ahab and the vineyard of Naboth?). They covet houses and take away a man’s house and “his inheritance,”  which was forbidden in the Law.

Micah tells them that it will happen TO THEM TOO in the time of disaster, when the LORD will “allot OUR fields to an apostate.”

Micah, in God’s name, rails against the heads and rulers of Jacob, for hating good and loving evil, committing horrendous injustice against the poor, which he pictures as butchering animals!

He also condemns the false prophets for misleading the people and prophesying “Peace.” They are led by greed, saying anything pleasing … for money.  God promises THEY will be struck blind for “blinding” the people with their lies.

  • Rulers detest justice and make crooked that which is straight.
  • Heads of the house of Jacob give judgment for a bribe.
  • Priests teach for a price
  • Prophets practice divination for money.

Therefore, Zion (Jerusalem) will be plowed as a field with nothing left but a heap of stones.

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Micah 4 – 5.

Micah also prophesies HOPE about what will come to pass “in the latter days.”

God will establish the “mountain of the House of the LORD, and people will flow to it 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.”
  • “They will beat swords into plows… neither shall they learn war anymore.
  • “They will sit every man under his vine and his fig tree, and no one will make them afraid....”

Then the prophecy that is still TWO HUNDRED YEARS OFF —

  • “Writhe and groan, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for NOW you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to BABYLON.  THERE you shall be rescued, THERE the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies!”

And then that prophecy we know so well….

  • “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from YOU shall come forth for me One who is to be Ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”    (See Matthew 2:6)
  • “And He shall stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the Name of the LORD his God. And He shall be their peace.“

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Micah 6 – 7

Another courtroom scene, with the LORD, the people, and the prophet speaking as the lawyer for God.

The LORD’s appeal.

  • “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!

The LORD reminds them of all the good things He has done for them, from deliverance from Egypt to help in conquering the Land.

MICAH, speaking for the people.

  • With what shall we come before the LORD?  With calves? Rams? Rivers of oil? Our firstborn?

MICAH speaking for God.

  • “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

And because they did NOT do the above, God would send judgment to them as punishment.  All the terrors that fell on their sister nation of Israel would be coming to them as well.  As they walked in the wicked ways of Omri and Ahab, so God will make them a desolation, a hissing, and a scorn.

The MICAH, sounding a bit like Isaiah here, cries, “WOE IS ME!”  for all the evil he sees in Judah.  But he gives his own testimony, “But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.

Then the PEOPLE confess their sin and their faith in the LORD. 

They acknowledge the justice of God’s punishment.

And they look forward to His restoration. 

Then MICAH pleads to God.

  • “Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in days of old.

Then the repentant PEOPLE praise the LORD’s grace and mercy.

  • “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?
  • “He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love (mercy).  He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot.
  • “YOU will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea, You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from days of old.”

.

(**** O LORD, I love this prayer and confession of the people. They know they have sinned, and finally, after Your chastisement, they acknowledge their sin.  They turn to you, confess, and trust in your faithfulness and the promises in Your Word.  LORD, let this be our story too)

 

 

 

 

 







			


	



			
				


	

		
Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 193


					
Jul12
			


	

		
Day 193 – Reading – Amos 6 – 9




Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?


Amos 6.


Amos cries “WOE” to the rich and fat who have a life of ease; those who lie on ivory beds and stretch themselves out on couches, eating the tenderest of lamb and veal. Those who sit around strumming harps and singing lovely songs, while drinking wine … from bowls, and are perfumed with the finest oils and ointments.  THEY WILL BE THE FIRST TO GO INTO EXILE!


“Behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD, the God of hosts; “and they shall oppress you from ‘the north clear to the south.'”


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Amos 7.


Amos next tells about FIVE VISIONS from the LORD.


    

  • 1.  God prepares LOCUSTS to destroy the latter growth of grass, the people’s portion, after the king has taken his part. They will all be wiped out, and Amos intercedes for them, “O Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!“  And the Lord relents, for the remnant’s sake.
    • 

  • 2.  Next. God calls a judgment of FIRE to eat up the ‘great deep’ and all the land to produce a devastating drought.  Again, Amos intercedes for them, “O Lord GOD, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” The Lord relents.
    • 

  • 3.  God showed Amos a vision of God himself with a PLUMB LINE, measuring Israel. “I will never again pass through my people, Israel. The high places will be made desolate, the sanctuaries laid waste, and I’ll raise a sword over the house of Jeroboam II.”
    • 



The priest at Bethel (where one of the golden calves is set up) complains about Amos to King Jeroboam. “The land is not able to bear all his words!”  


The priest told Amos to go away, to the land of Judah, and prophesy there.  He was never again to come to Bethel, for it was “the king’s sanctuary.”  HA!


Amos whipped right back, “The LORD took me from following the flock and TOLD me to go, prophesy to Israel.  Now hear THIS! 


    

  • Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be divided up, and you, yourself, will die in an unclean land, and … Israel shall surely go into exile away from this land!’
    • 



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Amos 8.


    

  • 4.  The LORD then shows Amos a BASKET OF RIPE FRUIT.  Then God show him that Israel is ripe for judgment. “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them. The songs of the Temple shall become wailings in that day.  So many dead bodies!  They are thrown everywhere!  “Silence!”
    • 

  • Then the LORD lists their sins: False worship, waiting impatiently till they can again go and indulge in rich food and rip off the poor with false balances, and buy them for slaves.. “Surely, I will NEVER forget your deeds. O you proud of Jacob!”
    • 

  • “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD God, “when I will send a famine on the land — not a famine of bread or a thirst for water but of HEARING THE WORDS OF THE LORD; They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the Word of the LORD … BUT THEY SHALL NOT FIND IT!”
    • 



Whoa!


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Amos 9.


And then the 5th vision…


    

  • 5.  God is standing beside the altar at Bethel. “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.
    • 

  • …..”And if they dig into Sheol….  if they climb up to heaven…. if they hide themselves on Carmel…. if they hide at the bottom of the sea….  I will find them and take them and kill them.”
    • 

  • ….. “EXCEPT … I will not UTTERLY destroy the house of Jacob, “declares the LORD.”
    • 



And then God gives Amos a wonderful picture of the Restoration of Israel in the Millennial Kingdom, when the Messiah will reign.


    

  • “I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and in habit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.  I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out ot the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God. 
    • 



 


(This is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, and will occur when Jesus Christ is reigning on earth in the thousand years of promise.  Israel will be “shaken by a sieve throughout the nations,” but only the “chaff” will be punished.  Israel won’t return to the land, as the southern kingdom of Judah does 70 years after exile to Babylon.  But the righteous remnant of Israel and Judah will live under Christ’s reign for one thousand years.  And Abraham will be satisfied.)


 


 


 





			


	



			
				


	

		
Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 192


					
Jul11
			


	

		
Day 192 – Reading – Amos 1 – 5




Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?


Amos 1.


Amos was a contemporary of Jonah, Isaiah, and Hosea.  Even though he was from the southern kingdom of Judah, he mainly prophesied to the dying northern kingdom of Israel and a few surrounding peoples. (He was a shepherd and an orchard keeper (figs). He prophesied two years before “a memorable earthquake!” Whoa! One did happen in 755 B.C.


Amos’s two main “prophecy arrows” were against Israel’s hypocrisy in worship and their lack of justice toward the most vulnerable (the poor, widows, orphans) because of greed.  He aimed them at the wicked Jeroboam II.


Amos begins by prophesying against the surrounding nations.


    

  • Damascus (capital of Syria).  Because of their cruel advances on the northern parts of Israel, he sends destruction on King Hazael and Ben-Hadad. 
    • 

  • Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron (Philistia).  Because they delivered the people up to Edom.
    • 

  • Tyre (north of Israel). Because they also delivered the people up to Edom.
    • 

  • Edom (south and east of the Dead Sea). He warred against and betrayed “his brother,” Israel.
    • 

  • Ammonites (east of Jericho and the Jordan River). They brutally attacked  Israel at Gilead.
    • 

  • (And in Amos, chapter 2). Moab (east of the Dead Sea, bordering Edom). They were extremely brutal in war.
    • 



(Notice that Assyria is not mentioned.  They are the people who will eventually come, brutally attack, destroy, and carry captive the northern kingdom of Israel.  They seem subdued at this time of Amos.  Perhaps because of their repentance after the preaching of Jonah!)  WOW!


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Amos 2.


And then Amos aims his scathing prophecy at JUDAH!  God has four things against them, and “will not revoke the punishment!”


    

  • They have rejected the law of the LORD.
    • 

  • They have not kept His statutes.
    • 

  • Their lies led them astray.
    • 

  • They walked in the evil ways in which their fathers walked.
    • 



And so FIRE will come on them as well and shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.


And finally, to ISRAEL, in the center of the Bull’s Eye, is judged. 


(NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A MAP of the area at that time, mark the countries and cities mentioned in these chapters. See how they spiral in and end, right smack dab on Israel in the center.)


    

  • They sell righteous people for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the afflicted.
    • 

  • They engage in uncontrolled sexual passion; a man and his father with the same girl … so that God’s Holy Name is profaned.
    • 

  • They take the pledges and fines from the poor and use them for themselves…even in God’s house.
    • 



Amos reminds them how God fought for them, protected them, brought them out of Egypt to possess the “promised” land, and raised up some of them to be prophets and Nazirites.


    

  • But they made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.
    • 



And so god will weaken them and press them down so they cannot fight or escape “in that day” of judgment.


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Amos 3.


“Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel….”  


Whoa!  Can you just hear that echoing voice of God? I would be terrified!!


“YOU ONLY have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”


Then in verses 3-8, God gives a series of questions to show that – as some things are certain in nature – surely NOTHING happens in Israel that is outside God’s sovereignty.  And God makes it VERY CLEAR what is going to happen.


“An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.”


And then God gives a vivid and horrible description of the small remnant left in Israel after the Assyrian invasion.  “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion… two legs or a piece of an ear… so shall the people of Samaria be rescued….”  YIKES!


And on to the details!  “Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob, declares the Lord God, the God of hosts, ON THE DAY that I punish Israel for his transgressions… I will punish the altars of Bethel…  I will strike the winter house (Jezreel) along with the summer house (Samaria), and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses … shall come to an end.”


NOTE that verse 7 of that chapter says, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.”  Even in His wrath, God is merciful; He warns, warns, and warns again.  PEOPLE!!! Hear and repent!


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Amos 4.


See how the LORD speaks to the women of Samaria who lived luxuriously. “You cows of Bashan, who oppress the poor and crush the needy; who say to your husbands, ‘Bring me something to drink.'”


“The LORD has sworn by His holiness that they shall take you away … with hooks, even the last of you with fish hooks!”  Yikes.


Then God condemns them for their hypocrisy in worship – doing it all “just to be seen,” as the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. 


Then God lists all the things He did to WARN THEM and bring them back to Himself.


    

  • I gave you a lack of bread, YET you did not return to me.
    • 

  • I withheld the rain … YET you did not return to me.
    • 

  • I struck your gardens, vineyards, and orchards with blight and mildew and locusts, YET you did not return to me.
    • 

  • I sent pestilence among you, and killed your young men with the sword, YET you did not return to me.
    • 

  • I overthrew some of you, and I plucked you out of the burning fire, YET you did not return to me.
    • 



“THEREFORE, thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you … PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD, O ISRAEL!”


WOW.


.


Amos 5.


This chapter is a LAMENTATION for Israel, as if she were a virgin who just died, and this is the funeral procession.   And His sorrowful Call to them, over and over…


    

  • Seek me and live…
    • 

  • Seek the LORD and live…
    • 

  • Seek good, and not evil, that you may live…
    • 

  • Hate evil, and love good…
    • 

  • Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
    • 



“Take up the images you have made for yourselves… and I will send you into exile BEYOND Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts.”


.


God judges the heathen nations, but the greater judgment is for His own people – those he loved and rescued, and taught, and helped. 


It reminds me of 1 Peter 4:17-18 – “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God. ‘If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?'”


**** O LORD, may I always hear and yield to your call!  Please soften my heart to love and obey you supremely. Thank You for all the good and merciful ways you love me.