September 24 Daily Discovery - Read Amos Chapter 5

This passage below is from the King James Version (ekjv.org).  

Remarks from the Berean Fellowship follow the passage below.

[1] Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.
[2] The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
[3] For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
[4] For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
[5] But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
[6] Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
[7] Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
[8] Seek 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:
[9] That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
[10] They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
[11] Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
[12] For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
[13] Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
[14] Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
[15] Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
[16] Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
[17] And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
[18] Woe 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.
[19] As 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.
[20] Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
[21] I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
[22] Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
[23] Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
[24] But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
[25] Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
[26] But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
[27] Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.

Woe unto You that Desire the Day of the LORD! 

I was a child during the time when the science fiction series started that was called Lost in Space. It certainly was corny and man how I despised that weasel Dr. Smith! These were space travelers from earth and they were out on exploring what we know is fake space, and the storyline was that they were lost. Today I am convinced that the vast majority of evangelical Christianity is LOST IN TIME.. They are anticipating the soon return of Jesus that is couched into apocalyptic revelation called the day of the Lord.

Most of them imagine that they,- the righteous are going to be secretly snatched away and then the tribulation is going to devastate the earth and they are looking forward to getting taken out.

I understand this position very well I was taught it soon after becoming a christian in 1976 or 1977 when I was 16 or 17 years old. I attended a bible school that fully embraced the pre-tribulation rapture position of eschatology which I ended up embracing and believing myself and teaching myself for 30 plus years. I have had a few times in my life where I had believed something and then was nailed to the wall by a bible verse or two or three or four or 20 or 30 that contradicted what I had believed.

I believe that the bible is absolutely the written word of god as much I believe that jesus is the living word of god. I do not believe that I have always properly interpreted it I'm not convinced that I am properly interpreting it now and I certainly don't believe that everyone that I have listened to teach it was giving me the proper interpretation either. However it is our lot, that some and sometimes much of the bible must be interpreted.

We have not only the the language change from dialect to dialect but also meaning that must be properly understood and we are also separated from the couching of the context of the histories that we read by I believe well over a thousand years and maybe a bit more and much more in some cases. These things do present challenges for us and interpretation which is important for us to be able to comprehend meaning.

• Learn about the great deception.

Don't Hate Truth Speakers

Those that are living in and walking in error rarely appreciate people that rebuke them with the truth. The scriptures tell us that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. So Jesus, who was God in the flesh resisted the proud and gave grace to the humble. He was tender towards the contrite and hurting and He was harsh with the hypocritical religious of his day. He was not appreciated, but hated by those he rebuked and they made sure that he died for it.

We need to learn to become grateful for the truth even though it is often painful to us.

Hate the Evil and Love the Good

This is the mark of a truly good man or woman.

Job 1:8

And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

God Despises Hypocrisy

God wants to be loved and served and worshiped but only from sincere hearts.

[21] I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
[22] Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
[23] Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

Isa. 1:1-13

[1] The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
[2] Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
[3] The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
[4] Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
[5] Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
[6] From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
[7] Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
[8] And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
[9] Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
[10] Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
[11] To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
[12] When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
[13] Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
[14] Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

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