Friday, August 20
Amos 3.1-22: This next section of Amos is made up of sermons that begin with “Hear!” (3:1—5:6) or “Woe!” (5:7—6:14). They are all directed against Israel, its capital Samaria sometimes serving as the equivalent.
The previous chapter had ended with a reminder of God’s redemptive favors toward His people (2:9-11). Israel is now chastised for failing to respond to the Lord’s generous call. They alone, of all the peoples of the earth had the Lord acknowledged as His own. Therefore, of them was more expected, and their punishment will be correspondingly more severe (verse 2).
We suspect that the people of Israel, at this point, challenged the credentials of Amos to address them in such terms, because we suddenly find him defending his mission to speak (verses 3-8). As we shall see, this was not the only occasion when Amos was thus challenged, and in this respect he puts the Christian reader in mind of the Apostle Paul who, beginning with the Epistle to the Galatians, seems always to have that preoccupation in at least the back of his mind. Prophets, apostles, pastors – they all have their credentials challenged from time to time.
In his own apologia Amos compares himself to a lion, which roars from instinct in certain situations. He can’t help it. When it is time to roar, the lion roars (cf. 1:2). It is the same with the prophet. When it is time to roar, he can’t help it. He roars, as though by instinct. And in the present time, Amos observes, there is plenty to roar about.
That point settled for the time being, the prophet returns to the attack, decrying the violence and oppression prevalent in Israel (verse 9), where a recent spate of prosperity has destroyed the people’s moral sense 9verrse 10).
From his experience as a shepherd (1:1), Amos knows about finding the body remnants of sheep devoured by wild beasts. This, he says, is an image of what will be left of Israel after the departure of the invader who is to come. His prophecy was fulfilled scarcely a generation later, when Israel fell to the Assyrian in 722.
Amos finishes this chapter with references to the luxurious lifestyle of Israelites that own more than one home, all extravagantly adorned (verse 15). His testimony on this point is amply illustrated and proved by the modern archeology on the sites of Israelite cities of the period.
Saturday, August 21
Luke 3.21-38: Luke, in his description of Jesus’ baptism, took care not to isolate him from the rest of humanity: “. . . when all the people were baptized . . .” The evangelist’s stress on this point indicates Jesus’ solidarity with the rest of humanity.
This emphasis is important to Luke’s theology of the Incarnation. In the immediate context, Jesus’ organic solidarity with the human race is addressed by Luke’s inclusion—immediately after the baptism—of the Savior’s genealogy, in which his ancestry is traced all the way back to Adam (Luke 3:23-38). In other words, the mention of “the people,” in this baptismal scene, pertains to Luke’s larger interest in the humanity of Jesus: He is at one with the whole human race, descended from the fallen Adam.
Whereas Matthew’s genealogy stresses the Lod’s royal ancestry, Luke’s emphasis lies elsewhere. We observe, for instance, that Luke traces Jesus’s descent from David without/i> through a line bypassing Solomon!
In receiving John’s “baptism of of repentance” (Acts 19.4), God’s Son aligns himself with the human race in its fallen state.
Amos 4.1-5: Continuing his theme on the life of the pampered, Amos turns next to idle wives of wealthy Israelites, whom he rather harshly compares to well fed cattle. (These comments arouse a suspicion that Amos was rarely invited to soirees and other get-togethers in these ladies’ homes. There is reason to believe that John the Baptist later had the same experience.)
It is particularly curious that Amos here mentions alcoholism as characteristic of this set. In this respect he sounds fairly contemporary to our own times, when alcoholism and drug addiction are commonly associated with wealthy, indolent women.
Naming the cities where it takes place, Amos next condemns the hypocritical worship of those that live for themselves and use worship in order to salve their dirt consciences (verses 4-5). We know that he preached these sermons at those very shrines (7:10-17), causing consternation among the worshippers. (These latter were also reluctant to invite Amos to coffee hour after the service.) We know that Isaiah, at about the same time, was making identical remarks about the worshippers further south (Isaiah 1:10-15).
Sunday, August 22
Luke 4.1-15: In contrast to Matthew, Luke places Jesus’ final temptation on the pinnacle of the Temple. This is consistent with a larger pattern of his imagery; he both begins this work (1:9) and ends it (24:53) in the Temple. Luke’s infancy narrative culminates in the Temple (2:46). Jerusalem, for Luke, is the place of climax and finality. Only in Luke do we read that Jesus “steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” (9:51; cf. 13:22; 17:11; 18:31).
In all these temptations, what is at issue is Jesus’ identity as Son of God. The tempter invites him to prove it. Change stones into bread, he says, and step off the top of the Temple.
Two things we may observe about these temptations: The tempting demon, however, is not permitted to dictate what is or is not appropriate to God’s Son. The Slanderer knows nothing about it. Jesus does not argue the point with him. Eve, we recall, did argue with the demon (Genesis 3:1-5), and things did not go very well. For Jesus, this demon is not important; he is powerless, a nobody to be dismissed with a backhand brush from Deuteronomy. He treats the Tempter with contempt.
Jesus is no invulnerable, unthreatened superman, however. What authority and power he has as Son of God, is for the benefit of other people, not himself. He will not “cash in” for personal advantage. We observe him maintaining this rule throughout his ministry, to the very end.
Amos 4.6-13: On occasions hitherto, declares Amos, the Lord has attempted, to chasten and instruct His people by sending various trials upon them, all to no avail (verses 6-11). Five times in these verses the prophet speaks of the people’s failure to “return.” Each opportunity missed, of course, rendered future repentance more unlikely, and Israel is about to run out of further chances. Although God’s mercy has no limits, His patience does.
In considering these afflictions described by Amos, it is instructive to recall that these climatic and environmental conditions rose easily in the mind of a rural man (7:14), who knew by experience the truly precarious state of human survival. A delayed rain, an especially fertile year of locusts or caterpillars, and many a farmer has watched his crop wither or be devoured in an afternoon, destroyed while he stood watching, unable to do anything about it.
Let the prosperous cities of Israel remember, then, the lot of Sodom and the fate of Gomorrah (verse 11), overthrown in an hour and gone forever. Amos here may have an earthquake in mind (cf. 1:1).
In the ministry of Amos, then, the Lord mercifully offers Israel one last chance to repent (verse 12).
Monday, August 23
Amos 5.1-15: To the prophetic eye of Amos the downfall of Samaria is so imminent that he speaks of it as already accomplished (verses 1-2). The impending devastation will bring about a dramatic decline in population (verse 3).
The next several lines (verses 4-6) are arranged in a chiastic structure:
A–seek Me and live (verse 4)
B–not Bethel (verse 5)
C–not Gilgal
D–not Beersheba
C’–not Gilgal
B’–not Bethel
A’–seek Me and live (verse 6)
Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba were all ancient cultic shrines founded by the Patriarchs (Genesis 21:33; 26:23; 28:10; 46:1-5), at which unfaithful Israel has been accustomed, says the prophet, to “seek” (darash) guidance for individual decisions (cf. Exodus 18:15). However, this seeking has not been a search for God Himself, who is found only through repentance and a “life” of communion with Him.
The poet Amos engages in paronomasia: “Gilgal shall go into exile”–Haggilgal goleh yigleh.
The “house of Joseph” (verses 6,15) is synonymous with the northern tribes, since the two largest of them, Ephraim and Manasseh, are descendants of Joseph (cf. 6:6).
The final part of this chapter recognizes the city gate (verses 10,12) as the normal place of adjudication and the administration of justice. Israel is here condemned for its perversion of justice by the oppression of the powerless. The poor and oppressed man knows better than to seek justice in such a court (verse 13).
Joshua 14: This chapter begins the section in which the land of Canaan is divided by allotment, in accordance with the command that Joshua received in the previous chapter (13:1,7).
We already know from Numbers 36:16-29 that Eleazar, Aaron’s son and heir in the priesthood (Numbers 3:32; Deuteronomy 10:6), is to assist Joshua in this allotment.
Prior to this allotment, however, the reader is again reminded that territory has already been set aside, east of the Jordan, for two and a half of these tribes (verse 3). The writer likewise mentions once again that special provision is to be made for the tribe of Levi (verse 4).
In addition, before any allotment to the remaining tribes can be made, provision must be made for Caleb, the other of the only two spies who had remained loyal, decades earlier, when Moses had dispatched them for an initial inventory of the Promised Land (Numbers 13—14; Deuteronomy 1:35-36). Caleb officially belonged to the tribe of Judah (Numbers 13:6; 34:19), and his inheritance will fall within that tribe.
Forty-five years have elapsed since Caleb, a mere lad of forty at the time, had received Moses’ promise that he would inherit property in the land of Canaan (verses 6-10). Except for Joshua, he was the only surviving adult of the multitude that had marched out of Egypt, so it was entirely fitting he should be the first to inherit real estate in the land that he had inspected nearly half a century earlier. Caleb stands forever in the Bible as the model of such perseverance as leads to a great reward.
Tuesday, August 24
Luke 4;31-44: Jesus now begins to heal the rest of humanity. Although the gospels testify that Jesus worked numerous miracles and performed all manner of healing, these stories never portray him as a thaumaturge of the sort we find among the biblical prophets. If I were to use corresponding opposite adjectives to summarize the difference between Jesus and the biblical thaumaturges, the words that come to mind would be “arduous” and “easy.”
That is to say, those miracles that seem to take a certain measure of effort among the wonderworkers appear to be effortless in the case of Jesus. Elijah, for instance, prays for some time, and it starts to rain (1 Kings 18:41-45), whereas Jesus instantly stops a storm without a single syllable of prayer (Luke 8:22-25).
Even though Simon Peter (in Luke’s account, at least) has not yet been called to be an apostle, we already find Jesus at his home, where he proceeds to cure Peter’s kinswoman of her fever. Jesus “rebukes” the fever, just as, in the previous scene, he “rebuked” the demon. As we pursue the Gospel story, we will find quite a bit of “rebuking” on Jesus’ part. It is an essential component of the Gospel itself.
Jesus rose early the next morning—while it was still dark, perhaps—apparently seeking a secluded place to pray. In all the gospels, but most particularly in that of Luke, Jesus is described as someone much given to prayer. Inasmuch as we find Jesus praying this way from the very beginning of his public ministry, we are surely justified in thinking this recourse to prayer was already the habit of a lifetime.
Indeed, we suspect it began in childhood; Jesus was able to read the heavens before he knew how to read the scrolls in the synagogue. We should think of the young Jesus standing under the stars, most of all, when we recall another line from Psalm 8: “Out of the mouths of babies and nursing infants / You have perfected praise.”
Amos 5.16-27: Following the second “woe” (hoy–verse 18), this section contains the Bible’s earliest instance of the expression, “the day of the Lord,” meaning the day of the Lord’s judgment. The identical meaning of this expression is found in the rest of prophetic literature (Hosea, Isaiah, Zephaniah).
Like the other prophets of the eighth century, but most notably Isaiah, Amos condemns empty worship that has become a mere formality (verses 21-23), separated from the social demands of the moral life (verse 24).
Like Hosea (2:16) and Jeremiah (21:1-3), Amos looks back on the period of Israel’s wandering in the desert as the golden age of its worship (verse 25). This fact shows that Amos does not condemn ritual worship in itself, but only the moral perversion thereof.
Wednesday, August 25
Luke 5:1-11: Luke’s account of the calling of the Apostles is followed immediately by the story of the miraculous catch of fish. Christians have long seen in this juxtaposition—the calling of the Apostles and the miraculous catch of fish—a hint of the large crowds who would come to faith in Christ through the preaching of the Apostles.
This image of the overflowing nets ties the story to the large crowds of converts Luke records in the Acts of the Apostles. On the day of Pentecost itself, Luke tells us—on the basis of a single sermon delivered by a Spirit-filled fisherman—three thousand people presented themselves for Baptism.
These included people all the way from Persian Gulf to Italy. Luke described them: “Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs.” We observe that this list includes converts from three continents—all on the very first day of the Church.
No wonder Luke says in today’s story, “They caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.”
Amos 6.1-14: This short chapter is the prophet’s third “woe,” which foretells destruction and exile for the socially irresponsible, pleasure loving, and self-satisfied rulers of both Israel and Judah (verse 1). If they doubt Amos this point, let them consider the plight of other unjust nations (verse 2).
There is a chronological problem here, inasmuch as all three of these cities were destroyed after the lifetime of Amos (Calneh in 738, Hamath in 720, and Gath in 711), though he speaks of their destruction as something that his listeners can go and inspect for themselves. Since this latter consideration seems to exclude the possibility that Amos is simply speaking of a future event in the past tense (which, as we have seen, he sometimes does), it is likely the case that a later editor of this book may have adjusted verse 2.
The northern tribes—that is, “Joseph”—yet enjoy their luxurious living (verses 4-6), but not for long (verses 7-8). The prophet’s reference to a feast conducted during “the affliction of Joseph” puts the attentive reader in mind of Genesis 37:23-25—“So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat a meal.”
The people’s exile will be preceded by siege and famine (verses 9-11).
By his rhetorical questions (verse 12) Amos appeals to the people’s sense of what is normal, conceivable, and possible. Horses and oxen need soil, not rock, on which to walk and work. Israel is showing less sense of reason than these dumb beasts.
Thursday, August 26
Luke 5.12-16: The narrative sequence of the Synoptic Gospels places Jesus’ healing of a leper very near the beginning of his ministry at Capernaum, shortly after the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. In all three accounts, the leper approaches Jesus with the same abrupt request: “If you wanted to, you could cleanse me.”
t is significant that Jesus touches the poor untouchable here. By this extra gesture of intimate reassurance, he assumes the leper’s uncleanness, as it were, the man’s condition of ostracism. Henceforth, Mark observes, “Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places.” Jesus symbolically took the leper’s place as an outcast.
Afterwards, Jesus once again retires to pray in solitude.
Psalms 138 (Greek & Latin 137): The exiles in Babylon have hung up their musical instruments on the weeping willow trees, sad, homesick, and dejected. Apparently, moreover, they were being taunted by their captors: “For those who took us captive sought from us some lyrics, and they who enslaved us asked to hear a song. ‘Sing for us,’ they said, ‘from the canticles of Zion.’”
And just how can this be done? That is, “How shall we sing a song of the Lord in a land far away?” Impossible? Well, not entirely. It is a striking irony of Psalm 136 that, having asserted the impossibility of singing a song of Jerusalem in the foreign land of Babylon, we nonetheless go on to do so! “Should I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be enfeebled! May I choke on my tongue, if I fail to think of you! If I do not hold Jerusalem as the wellspring of my joy.”
This is a psalm of two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem, nor were Ezekiel and Daniel the last visionaries to write of them. The beloved John likewise beheld both of these cities in mystic vision. The first, Babylon, he describes as the “great harlot who sits on many waters” (Rev. 17:1), the source of her great wealth and power. “The waters which you saw,” he was told, “where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues” (17:15). Such are the rivers where we sit and weep, when we remember Zion.
Amos 7.1-9: Each of the next three chapters contains at least one “vision,” in which Amos perceives various dimensions of his own vocation and the divine judgment to which the Lord has summoned him to bear witness.
The first of these is a vision of locusts, one of man most threatening natural enemies (verses 1-3). In response to the intercessions of the prophet, this plague is canceled.
The second vision is the brush fire, another formidable enemy of man (verses 4-6). Once again the people are spared by God’s mercy at the intercession of Amos.
The third vision is the plumb line (verses 7-9), an instrument designed to determine “uprightness.” This tool is a metaphor for the standard of righteousness that will guide the divine judgment. Whereas the locusts and the brush fire were images of irrational destruction, the plumb line is the symbol of objective, detached assessment. Amos here does not pray. Plumb lines, like all instruments of measure, enjoy a dispassion and objectivity that are without remorse or personal feelings.
Friday, August 27
Luke 5.17-26: Matthew, Mark, and Luke all agree that Jesus was teaching when this remarkable scene began to unfold. None of them, however, records what Jesus was teaching. Nobody remembered what Jesus was teaching, because nobody was paying attention! How could people pay attention to anything going on in the room, while the roof was being removed from over their heads?
At length, the hole in the ceiling grows pretty big, and the sky is visible. After a few minutes more of commotion on the roof, the people who opened the hole are beginning to lower a sort of sling, on which lies a paralyzed man. They have ropes on this sling, which permit them to lower the man all the way down to eye level with Jesus.
Jesus, however, is not looking at the man himself. He is looking at those men who are still on the roof. And what does he see? He sees “their faith,” today’s story says. That’s what Luke calls it—faith.
This truly brassy act of the men on the roof is of a piece with other instances of faith in the Gospel stories: the Canaanite woman, who pleaded on behalf of her daughter, for example, and the man who brought Jesus his epileptic son.
It is unfortunate that faith is so often regarded as something a Christian can have apart from action. I confess to a suspicion that some Christians would have objected to what was done by those men on the roof. It might strike folks I know as a rather show-offy form of “works righteousness.” What they did was, after all, a labor, a “work.” Indeed, by this time, they were probably worn out from the effort.
Amos 7.10-17: While Amos has been preaching in the shrine at Bethel, he seems to have drawn a significant crowd. Now the apostate priest of the shrine complains to King Jeroboam II (786-746) about the prophet’s activities and his message (verses 10-11). This priest also reprimands Amos, telling him to head back south where he came from (verse 12-13). Amos suffers the usual accusation leveled by insecure governments—conspiracy.
By way of response the prophet tells of the rural circumstances and agricultural conditions of his calling (verses 14-15), adding a few choice words about what the accusing priest might expect in the near future (verses 16-17).