Daily Bible Reading Monday 24th March 2025
by William Moody
Amos 4
4:1 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,
who are on the mountain of Samaria,
who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
2 The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness
that, behold, the days are coming upon you,
when they shall take you away with hooks,
even the last of you with fishhooks.
3 And you shall go out through the breaches,
each one straight ahead;
and you shall be cast out into Harmon,”
declares the LORD.
4 “Come to Bethel, and transgress;
to Gilgal, and multiply transgression;
bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days;
5 offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened,
and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;
for so you love to do, O people of Israel!”
declares the Lord GOD.
Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord
6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
7 “I also withheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
8 so two or three cities would wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
9 “I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
10 “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and carried away your horses,1
and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
11 “I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were as a brand2 plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
13 For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
and declares to man what is his thought,
who makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!(ESV)
The women of Israel are likened to cows that will be taken into captivity with a hook in their nose (v1-3). People who live for themselves and for their luxuries need to be warned that God will judge.
The Lord speaks of how these people loved their worship (v4-5), but that did not make what they did or who they were acceptable to God. If our worship does not lead to a life of consistent obedience to the Lord, then God does not take joy in our worship.
The Lord speaks of five situations of trial He has brought on His people (v6-11) so that they would come back to Him. But each time He finishes with the words, “yet you did not return to me.” Here we see the stubbornness of the human heart. Is your heart stubborn?
If the people will not come back to the Lord, He warns that He will come to them (v12). People can only ignore God for so long. God call on people to take time to consider who the Lord is (v13), the God of hosts.
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