Milo

Micah

INTRODUCTION
Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah and Amos. He joined them in warning Israel and Judah of impending judgment just before the great Assyrian invasion of 722 B.C. which resulted in captivity for the Northern Hebrew Kingdom. Micah showed the necessity of that judgment by picturing the injustice rife in each society, and a religion corrupted by idolatry.
While grim warnings of doom dominate this book, Micah foresaw a future restoration of God’s people to their land. This will be accomplished by a Descendant of David, who was to be born in Bethlehem. The coming King will establish God’s kingdom on earth, and will rule it in the strength and majesty of the Lord.

TWO CORRUPT KINGDOMS
Micah 1–2

“They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance” (Micah 2:2).

Corruption in any society is a prelude to disaster. The people of Micah’s day did not want to hear that message. But it is vital for any people to hear, and heed.

Background
Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah and Amos, ministered near the end of the critical eighth centuryB.C Both Israel and Judah then experienced a resurgence of power and great material prosperity. For a few brief decades the great powers, Assyria to the north and Egypt to the south, were weak and indecisive. Under the aggressive leadership of Jeroboam II in Israel, and Hezekiah in Judah, the Hebrews extended their territory to include most of the land area held in the golden age of David and Solomon.
But prosperity was not universal. The newly rich in both kingdoms used their wealth to exploit the poor, and a time of great social dislocation resulted. Many families lost the land given their forefathers by God, and intended to be a family holding forever. The wealthy also controlled the courts, and fraud as well as bribery were tools used to perpetrate injustice. Many of the poor were forced to sell themselves and their families into slavery, and the rich disregarded the ancient Mosaic Law that required the release of a Hebrew slave after just seven years of service.
This aristocracy of wealth, which included the royal house and the leading priests, corrupted even the prophets, who proclaimed what their benefactors wanted to hear, rather than any uncomfortable words from God.
Religion too had suffered corruption. In Israel a non-Aaronic priesthood ministered at worship centers where bull-idols were supposed to represent God’s throne. In both countries pagan rites and practices had become elements in what was thought to be worship of God. In neither nation was moral purity or social justice viewed as essential to religion, which for most people was simply a matter of ritual observance.
Each of the great eighth-century-B.C prophets strongly condemned the sins of their society. Together they warned of impending doom, and urged God’s people to repent. Yet each was aware that Israel and Judah were too caught up in materialism and selfishness to give a serious thought to God. Each spoke of a judgment day about to dawn.
The warnings of the great prophets went unheeded, and the catastrophe they predicted did come. During the lifetime of Micah and Isaiah a resurgent Assyria invaded the Holy Land. The kingdom of Israel was crushed, and its population dragged away into captivity, along with some 200,000 of the people of Judah. Judah, saved temporarily through the revival stimulated by godly King Hezekiah, survived for another 136 years. But there was no real change of heart in the Southern Kingdom, and Judah suffered the fate of Israel when crushed by the Babylonians in 586B.C
Despite constant grim reminders of the sins that caused the destruction of the two corrupt kingdoms, each of the eighth-century prophets gave God’s people reason to hope. A remnant would survive exile, and would return to the ancient Jewish homeland. Isaiah draws our attention to a Servant of the Lord who, by His suffering, would redeem God’s people. Micah envisioned a coming King, a Descendant of David. Born in Bethlehem, this royal Person would rule a United Kingdom, and extend God’s glory to the ends of the earth.
The tale of the two corrupt kingdoms is not a total tragedy. It is a tale that affirms the sovereignty of the God who will judge sin, but who then will establish His own kingdom on earth. A kingdom of justice, peace, and joy. A kingdom incorruptible, that will endure forever.

Overview
God would soon judge Samaria and Jerusalem for their sins (1:1–7). Micah wept and mourned at the prospect (vv. 8–9a), but only the day of judgment would humble God’s people (vv. 9b-16). The oppressing classes would know ruin (2:1–5) despite the empty promises of false prophets (vv. 6–11). Yet one day God will regather His people (vv. 12–13).

Understanding the Text
“Samaria and Jerusalem” Micah 1:1. Capital cities named in the Bible often represent nations. Thus Nineveh represents Assyria, Damascus represents Syria, and here Samaria represents all of Israel, and Jerusalem the whole land of Judah.
There is, however, more implied in this simple literary device. The capital city was the residence of the royal family and the aristocracy: the ruling class that established policy and set the moral as well as political tone of the nation. In a real sense the capital city sums up the character of the nation it heads. This is why in biblical prophecy so many of the prophet’s condemning words are directed against capital cities and their inhabitants.
Today we often hear doubts about whether the “private life” of a candidate for political office should be examined in his or her campaign. What a foolish question. Of course it should! The personal and social morality of the individuals who lead any government will have a dramatic impact, not only by the examples they set, but also on the legislation passed.
Micah’s focus of his prophecy on Samaria and Jerusalem reminds us that we must examine the private lives and personal convictions of candidates for office. And must vote accordingly.

“The Lord from His Holy temple” Micah 1:2–7. Whenever the Old Testament pictures God speaking in or from His “holy temple,” the image implies divine judgment.
Holiness is one of the most important of all biblical concepts. In the Old Testament the holy is that which is set apart to God, separated from everything that is common or profane. Holy objects such as the golden vessels used in the temple, holy ground, and especially holy people, were considered God’s own and were to be for His use and service only.
God Himself is intrinsically holy. That holiness is displayed in two primary ways: in His own faithful commitment to what is good, and in His judgment of those who desert the way of holiness and turn away from their “set apart” condition.
Micah began his prophecy by showing Israel and Judah the God who is holy, and who stands in His holy temple. This God was about to exhibit His holiness by judging His wicked people. In the punishment for sin that Israel and Judah would experience, the holiness of God would be again displayed.
And so God said through Micah, “I will make Samaria a heap of rubble, a place for planting vineyards. I will pour her stones into the valley and lay bare her foundations. All her idols will be broken to pieces” (vv. 6–7).
What a reminder to you and me. We have been set apart to God too. We are to serve Him and to reveal His goodness through lives marked by this very quality. But if we turn away, and follow the path taken by Judah and Israel, God will still display His holiness in us. God will judge us, and in that judgment reveal His own holiness to all.

“Because of this I will weep and wail” Micah 1:8–9a. In biblical times individuals showed their humility before God, their grief over and confession of sins, by loud weeping, wailing, howling, and moaning. They also stripped off their finer clothing, and wore only the oldest and most threadbare of garments.
Here Micah expressed his own reaction to his vision of coming judgment. He realized how wicked his nation was, and responded immediately by actions which showed his own sense of guilt and grief.
What a lesson. This man who uttered God’s message of judgment identified with his sinning people.
It’s all too easy for us to be judgmental in our relationship with those who fall short of God’s standards of right and wrong. Yet Micah, rather than adopting a holier-than-thou attitude, was crushed by the enormity of the sins prevalent in his society. He was a member of that society, and therefore not guiltless himself. And so Micah, crushed by the realization that he in some way participated in the sins of his age, wept and moaned in grief and sorrow.
As godly persons, you and I are also to weep over the sins in our society. We are not guiltless, but bear some responsibility for all that happens in our nation and community. If we are to have an impact on our world, we must recognize that fact, humble ourselves as Micah humbled himself, and then set out to do all we can to effect change.

“Pass on in nakedness and shame” Micah 1:9b-16. Micah humbled himself at the vision of impending judgment. The people of Judah and Israel ignored the vision and rejected Micah’s preaching. Yet soon they would be humbled—by events. Israel would be humbled as her survivors, their heads bowed in shame, stumbled in chains along the road to Assyria (v. 11). Judah would be humbled as the last fortress city protecting the route to Jerusalem, Lachish, fell to Sennacherib (v. 12).
People always have a choice. It is not a choice between arrogance and humility, between proud independence and submission to God. Oh, no. The choice is to submit to God when He speaks to us through His Word, or to submit bent over in shame as circumstances crush our pride. How wise to submit to God willingly, and let Him lift us up. How foolish to arrogantly resist God, and make Him crush us.

“Woe to those who plan iniquity” Micah 2:1–5. Micah here gave a clear picture of the exploitation of the poor by the rich. Good businessmen, the wealthy lay out their projects carefully. They were able to get the fields they coveted because they were willing to defraud, and “it is in their power to do it.”
What the oppressors of the poor did not know was that even as they planned, God was making plans to overthrow them! And He most surely had the “power to do it”!
It’s a healthy reminder. Those who seem to have power to oppress and work injustice in our society are blind to the plans God is even now laying against them. We may suffer injury now. But we know that God’s day is coming, when the exploiters will say, “We are utterly ruined!”

“I will bring them together” Micah 2:12–13. Micah ended this first oracle on a positive note. The immediate future was dark with the gathering clouds of divine judgment. Yet those clouds would clear away, and God’s scattered people would be brought back together again, to live in a kingdom that was no longer corrupt. Then their king, the Lord, will be “at their head.”

DEVOTIONAL
Do Not My Words Do Good?
(Micah 2)
I suspect that many a preacher has lost his pulpit because the congregation didn’t like what he said to them.
It was something like this with Micah. And I can understand why. After all, Micah publicly lit into the well-to-do, who paid the bills then as now (vv. 1–5). You can’t say “God is going to get you!” to the community elite and expect to be urged to keep preaching.
Even Micah’s fellow prophets tried to rein him in. “Do not prophesy about these things,” they told him (vv. 6–7). Let’s have sermons that comfort, not confront. Let’s have positive preaching, not negative.
Micah was incensed. You could hear him mutter, “If a liar and deceiver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’ he would be just the prophet for this people!” They wanted someone who would just tell them what they wanted to hear, not what God wanted to say.
I’ve been impressed as I’ve worked with the prophets in preparing this book, that often God doesn’t have comforting words to say. Often He confronts. Often He demands. Often He forces us to look at our lives, and to look at our society, with unclouded eyes. We don’t want to hear that sinful societies cry out for judgment, and we don’t want to face the injustice, the crime, the moral corruption, that mark our own nation today. And yet, God says to us through Micah, “Do not My words do good to him whose ways are upright?”
If we are committed to God and to His ways, won’t His words do us good?
They did not do good to the people of the kingdoms to which Micah preached so long ago. They did no good, beause the people of Israel and Judah were unwilling to walk uprightly. They were unwilling to take God’s words to heart, and to act on them. But if you and I do take God’s uncomfortable words to heart, and act on them, those words will surely do us good. And do good to our nation.

Personal Application
Let God’s uncomfortable words do you good. Listen to them carefully, and obey.

Quotable
I sought Him in the still, far place where flowers blow
In sun-bathed soil;
I found Him where the thousand life-streams flow
Through sin and toil.
I listened for His step within the still, deep-cloistered shrine
Of secret thought;
I heard it o’er the world’s heart tumult, still divine,
The Voice I sought.
I thought, far off, alone, to feel His presence by my side,
His joy to gain;
I felt His touch upon life’s weary pulse beside
A bed of pain.
So those who seek the Master following their own way—
Or gain, or loss—
Will find Him where their dreams of self are laid away,
And there—a cross.—Dorothy Clark Wilson

GOD OF COMPASSION
Jonah 3–4

“Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (Jonah 4:11)

God has compassion for all. We need to develop an attitude that mirrors His—not Jonah’s!

Overview
When Jonah preached in Nineveh, the Assyrians repented (3:1–10). Jonah, upset and angry, asked God to let him die (4:1–4). Instead, God used a vine to teach Jonah a lesson in values (vv. 5–11).

Understanding the Text
“Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time” Jonah 3:1. Jonah had willfully disobeyed God’s call to preach in Nineveh. Now God gave him another chance.
We need to remember three things about second chances. God’s will is going to be accomplished. God intended to warn Nineveh, and Nineveh would be warned, whether Jonah or some other person was God’s agent. Jonah’s disobedience merited discipline, not rejection! God gave His prophet a second chance. Usually He gives you and me many opportunities to respond to His guidance. It is much better to respond to God when His word first comes to us. Jonah would have avoided the terror of being thrown into the sea and being swallowed by the great fish if only he had been willing to do God’s will when he first learned it.
Let’s not count on second chances. But if we do fall into disobedience, Jonah’s experience reminds us that we can still turn back to God and be used by Him.

“Now Nineveh was a very large city” Jonah 3:3–4. The size of Nineveh at this period has been established by archeologists as a maximum of 175,000. This compares to 30,000 in Samaria, the capital of Jonah’s nation. The figures match well with the mention in Jonah 4:11 of 120,000. The reference to three days to go through Nineveh may mean it took Jonah three days to go through the fields and suburbs that surrounded Nineveh, rather than through the walled part of the city.
The point made in the text, however, is a simple one. Jonah’s mission was to a metropolis: a city teaming with human beings. This emphasis helps us see why Jonah’s mission was so important. Thousands of lives were at stake.

“The Ninevites believed God” Jonah 3:5–9. Amazingly, Jonah’s warning of imminent destruction was taken to heart by all in Nineveh. The king abandoned his throne to publicly sit “in the dust” in the rough clothing which in that culture indicated sorrow and grief or repentance. He issued a decree that summoned all to fast, to call on God, and to “give up their evil ways and their violence.”
Given the dating of Jonah to the time of Jeroboam II in Israel, the Assyrian Empire, of which Nineveh was the capital, was then seriously threatened by warlike northern tribes known as the Urartu, Mannai, and Madai. The enemy had pushed its borders to within a hundred miles of Nineveh, and the very existence of the ancient empire was threatened. A sense of weakness and of impending doom may have helped create openness to Jonah’s message. Yet the spontaneous response of the whole population to a foreign prophet who wandered unannounced into the city with an unpopular message, underlines the fact that response to any word of God has supernatural roots.
God was working in the hearts of the pagans of Nineveh. When they heard, they believed.
We need to count on a similar work of God when we preach, teach, or share the Gospel conversationally. God may well have been at work preparing others to hear His Good News. His Spirit can bring that Good News home to their hearts in a compelling way, whatever the inadequacies of the messenger.

“He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened” Jonah 3:10. One of the most clearly established principles in Old Testament prophecy is that most prophetic warnings of doom are contingent. They invariably come true—unless the people to whom they are addressed repent. We see this principle in earlier incidents, such as those recorded in 2 Samuel 12:14–23; 1 Kings 21:27–29; and 2 Kings 20:1–6. Repentance can cause God to relent.
This should not be misunderstood as a change of the divine mind. It’s more like the red flashing lights and ringing bells that warn of a train’s approach. Anyone on the tracks will be crushed. But a person who gets off the tracks will be safe.
When Jonah preached, he said in effect, “You people of Nineveh are about to be run over!” When the people of Nineveh repented, they in effect got off the tracks! The juggernaut of divine judgment rushed on—and passed them by!
What an object lesson for Israel. The prophets of God, not strangers but fellow countrymen, had shouted out warnings of impending doom for decades. Here, in the experience of Nineveh, a pagan nation, was an object lesson for God’s own people. If only Israel would listen to the prophets and repent, God would relent in their case too.
The tragedy is that the people of Israel did not repent. The object lesson was wasted on them. The irony is that the very people that Jonah’s preaching saved, the Assyrians, were the agents God used to bring judgment on an Israel too hardened to heed.

“Now, O LORD, take away my life” Jonah 4:1–4. When the city was not destroyed, Jonah was upset and angry. Like many of us, Jonah thought God should behave as he wanted Him to. More was involved in Jonah’s case (see DEVOTIONAL), but isn’t such a reaction all too typical?
We have it all figured out, and are sure that God should solve one problem this way, and another that. When He doesn’t do it our way, we sulk or become angry. What we should do in such a case is thank God that He didn’t do it our way!
Our notion of how things should be is limited by our lack of knowledge—and often by our lack of caring. God not only knows what is best, He loves always. Thanking God even when His decisions do not reflect our first choice is a sign of spiritual maturity. And common sense.

“Jonah was very happy about the vine” Jonah 4:5–6. Sullen and angry about Nineveh’s repentance, Jonah settled down on a distant hill overlooking Nineveh, to wallow in self-pity and see what would happen to the city. As he sat under a typical desert lean-to shelter, a vine sprang from the ground, and grew large enough to provide shade. Jonah was happy for more than the shade. Such a little thing, and yet here was something green and living, and Jonah was comforted by its presence.
Often God provides some similar little thing to comfort us when the big things in life seem to have gone wrong. Jonah was right to be happy about the vine. And we are right to be happy about the little things that remind us of God’s love. If we’re wise, whenever suffering comes we will look actively for some such little thing, let it remind us of God’s love, and let it bring us some happiness despite our sorrow.

“God provided a worm” Jonah 4:7–11. The end of the Book of Jonah at first appears strange. God took away the vine that gave Jonah that little bit of happiness, and when Jonah became even more despondent, God asked, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” We can understand why Jonah answered, “Yes!”
But God had a reason. Jonah had “been concerned about this vine” that sprang up one night and died the next. Jonah had been happy that it was there beside him. But Jonah had cared nothing at all for the lives of the thousands upon thousands of people of Nineveh, to say nothing of the cattle there.
What a contrast with God, who is concerned about all His creation, and cared for the thousands of Nineveh. Even though they were idolaters, and the enemies of His own people, they were important to the Lord.
The challenge to Jonah was clear. Jonah, you cared about the vine. Why don’t you care about other human beings? You were happy for the vine’s existence, even though it was fleeting. Why aren’t you happy about the life given to the thousands in Nineveh, rather than eager to see all those lives taken away?
There is a challenge here for us. What do we care about? What makes us happy? Is it the insignificant things of life? Or do we share God’s values, and care about what is important to Him?

DEVOTIONAL
Right, but Wrong
(Jonah 4)
Christians correctly tend to place emphasis on right doctrine. After all, we are to hold fast to what the Bible teaches. But the story of Jonah reminds us that we can be totally right, and very, very wrong.
Jonah 4 begins with a statement by Jonah of some of the rightest doctrine there is. “I knew,” Jonah said, “that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (v. 2). That statement by Jonah is one of the Old Testament’s central affirmations of faith; a characterization of God found first in Exodus 34:6–7, but repeated in Numbers 14:18; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalms 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; and Joel 2:13! And the phrase “gracious and compassionate” is found many, many more times in Old Testament descriptions of the Lord.
So Jonah’s doctrine was about as pure as can be.
There was only one problem. Jonah said, “I knew . . . that is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish” (Jonah 4:2). And that’s why Jonah was angry now. Those rotten people of Nineveh went and repented! It would be just like God not to destroy them after all.
And again, Jonah was right. His doctrine was as pure as can be. It was just like God not to destroy Nineveh, and He did not.
In fact, it is because Jonah was right that he was so wrong. You see, the believer is not simply called to know about God. The believer is called to be like Him. We are not simply to know God is compassionate. Because God is compassionate, we are to be compassionate too. It’s not enough for us to know that God cares for the pagan or the poor. We are to care for them too.
The doctrinally correct Jonah was about as far from harmony with God’s heart as a believer can be!
What a reminder for you and for me. A person who is totally right about God intellectually can be totally wrong. Knowing about God is no substitute for being like Him in character, values, and concern for others.

Personal Application
Ask God for heart as well as head knowledge as you study His Word.

Quotable
“A man’s heart is right when he wills what God wills.”—Thomas Aquinas

Jonah

INTRODUCTION
Jonah is the narrative report of a prophet from Israel and his mission to Nineveh, capital of Assyria. Fearing that his nation’s enemy might repent if warned of impending judgment, Jonah tried to flee. God dealt with His reluctant prophet, and Nineveh humbled itself and was saved, teaching Jonah and us a lesson about the compassion of God.

THE PATRIOTIC PROPHET
Jonah 1–2

“But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish” (Jonah 1:3).

Jonah had what he thought were good reasons to run from the Lord and from the mission God had given him. His story reminds us never to substitute “good reasons” for God’s will!

Background
The patriotic prophet. Second Kings 14:25 identifies “Jonah son of Amittai” as a prophet who lived in the days of Jeroboam II of Israel, and who predicted that king’s many victories. In the days of Jeroboam II the boundaries of the Northern Kingdom were extended almost to the borders achieved during the golden age of David and Solomon. As the prophet called to preannounce the king’s victories, Jonah must have enjoyed great popularity, especially as life in Israel had been bleak before Jeroboam’s vigorous rule. No doubt the prophet felt a great deal of personal satisfaction as well, as he watched his fellow countrymen begin to prosper in accord with the word of the Lord which he had been privileged to deliver.
God’s command that Jonah go to preach against Nineveh, however, was something else again! Assyria had been, and still was, a threat to Israel’s very existence! Jonah wanted no part of a ministry to that particular bunch of foreigners! All Jonah wanted to do was to keep on preaching his positive message of prosperity in his homeland.
Jonah’s patriotic motivation, which is further explained in chapter 4, was so great that he determined to flee God’s presence. It is at this point that Jonah’s story begins.

Overview
Jonah was told to preach against Nineveh (1:1–2), but tried to flee to Tarshish (v. 3). Identified as the cause of a great storm that threatened his ship, Jonah was cast overboard (vv. 4–16), where he was swallowed by a great fish (v. 17). From inside the fish Jonah prayed, and was delivered (2:1–10).

Understanding the Text
“Go to the great city of Nineveh” Jonah 1:2. There is no indication that God explained the purpose of Jonah’s mission to him. But chapter 4 indicates Jonah suspected. There Jonah said, “I knew that You are . . . a God who repents from sending calamity” (v. 2). Jonah suspected that if he went to Nineveh the city might repent of “its wickedness,” and God would withhold the threatened destruction.
Jonah’s explanation helps us understand the exact nature of the prophet’s flight. He did not run from God because he failed to understand the Lord’s purposes, but because he did understand them! Jonah simply didn’t like those purposes.
God doesn’t ask us to agree with what He plans. All He asks is that we acknowledge that He knows best—and obey.

“A ship bound for that port” Jonah 1:3. Most commentators believe that the port in question was Tartessus, in Spain. Looking at a map reveals its significance. Nineveh lay to the north. Tarshish was as far south on the Mediterranean as a vessel could go.
It’s typical of young people who decide to abandon the faith and lifestyle of their parents to go as far in the opposite direction as they feel they can. If one of your children has taken the route to Tarshish, the story of Jonah is comforting. There was no way Jonah could get away from God. God will pursue our young people, even as He pursued His prophet.

“The LORD sent a great wind” Jonah 1:4–6. In the eighth centuryB.C vessels that plied the Mediterranean stayed close to the coast, ready to run for shelter in case of a storm.
The storm that struck the ship terrified the sailors, and apparently made the landsman Jonah groggy. Jonah was aroused and urged to pray by the desperate seamen.
It’s possible Jonah was unaware of how desperate the situation was, while the experienced sailors knew full well the extent of the danger.

“Who is responsible for making all this trouble for us?” Jonah 1:7–9 As the storm worsened, the sailors cast lots to find out who was responsible for the calamity. This was more than superstition. It reflected the sailors’ awareness that such storms never struck during that particular season. It seemed clear to them that some supernatural cause was involved. The problem was, the sailors felt themselves innocent bystanders, caught in the conflict between some deity and someone on board the ship.
Jonah’s disobedience had brought a shipload of innocents into grave danger. This illustrates a basic principle of all human life. Our lives and the lives of others are woven together. We cannot disobey God without in some way affecting others for ill. Nor can we obey God without affecting them for good.

“I know that it is my fault” Jonah 1:11–16. Jonah knew that he was responsible for the danger they were all in, and showed he was willing to accept that responsibility. He told the sailors to throw him overboard, and promised that then the storm would stop.
We can admire this in Jonah. So many who make mistakes are unwilling to accept responsibility, and try desperately to avoid the consequences of their choices. Jonah was ready to accept those consequences, which he realized was necessary to save his shipmates.
But we can also admire the sailors. Despite Jonah’s confession, they were unwilling to throw him overboard until every other hope was exhausted. Finally, begging God not to punish them for taking Jonah’s life, they did as the prophet demanded and threw him over the side.
This too is an important reminder. It’s easy to develop a “we/they” view of others, as though there were no moral or good persons in the world beyond the church. The sailors, all worshipers of other gods, and in terror for their own lives, still did all they could to save Jonah. We should appreciate such qualities in others. In fact, such qualities should make us all the more eager to share the good news of the salvation available to all in Jesus. (See DEVOTIONAL.)

Archeologists have established the kind of fragile ship that sailed the Mediterranean in Jonah’s time. The single-sailed cargo vessel might carry a few passengers, but most of the crew worked and slept on deck. Most ships in this era refused to put to sea during the Mediterranean’s storm season, and the unexpected storm that struck Jonah’s vessel was viewed as a divinely caused calamity (Jonah 1:7).

“The LORD provided a great fish” Jonah 1:17. The Hebrew does not indicate a whale, despite the familiar King James rendering (Matt. 12:39–40). This makes all those stories of whaling men swallowed and later found alive (or dead) in a whale’s stomach irrelevant. It’s understandable that those determined to prove the reliability of the Bible would appeal to such evidence. But it is entirely unnecessary. Why? Because the text says that the Lord “provided” the great fish. This was no ordinary fish, but a Goliath among fish, prepared especially for the task of swallowing Jonah. Just as the appearance of the fish on the scene in time to swallow Jonah, and Jonah’s survival in the stomach of the fish, were miraculous, so was the giant fish itself.

“I will look again toward Your holy temple” Jonah 2:4. Jonah 2 is a poem recapitulating Jonah’s experience. He pictures for us the currents that swirled around him, and the clammy seaweed, some of which grows to a height of 50 feet or more, that wrapped around his head as he sank.
Near death, “I remembered You, LORD, and my praise rose to You, to Your holy temple.”
These references to the temple recall Solomon’s prayer at its dedication. In that prayer he asked God to restore any of his sinning people, “aware of his afflictions and pains, and spreading out his hands toward this temple” (2 Chron. 6:29, cf. vv. 26–27). Jonah’s prayer was a tacit confession of his sin of disobedience, and a tacit commitment to be obedient. Then, rescued and rejoicing, Jonah openly affirmed, “What I have vowed I will make good.”
How often we see it in the Old Testament. Whatever the sin, however great the disobedience, God is willing to accept the sinner who returns to Him. Upon confession the sinner is restored not only to fellowship, but in the case of Jonah, still entrusted with his original mission.
Your past failures, or mine, do not disqualify us from participation in the great purposes God is working out even now in our world. What a motive to surrender to Him, and once again be fully committed to doing His will.

DEVOTIONAL
Make Me a BIG Blessing
(Jonah 1)
Every once in a while I run across the notion that unless a Christian is really in close fellowship with the Lord, God can’t use him or her to bless others.
Actually, that’s not true, as the story of Jonah illustrates. Jonah was just about as far out of fellowship as a believer can get—running away from God—when that terrific storm hit his ship and frightened all aboard. And then look what happened. Jonah admitted he was responsible for the storm, got the sailors to throw him overboard, the storm stopped—and the sailors, convinced by all this of the power of Jonah’s God, “greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to Him” (v. 16). God used a disobedient Jonah to introduce Himself to a shipload of pagan sailors! And the pagan sailors believed.
Of course, Jonah wasn’t around to enjoy his “success.” He was drowning: sinking into the sea, his lungs bursting, sensing the clammy touch of the seaweed entwined around his head.
I think this is the message preachers should get across to Christians. Can God use a carnal or disobedient believer to accomplish His purposes? Of course! But— will such a believer experience the blessing that usually comes with serving God? No. Like Jonah, the believer out of touch with God misses the blessing, for he’s drowning in the sea of his own troubles and sorrows.
Oh, yes. There’s one more thing to note. When Jonah was out of fellowship with the Lord, God used him to save a shipload. But when Jonah was back in fellowship, and went on to Nineveh, God used him to save a whole city.
Conclusions? I think I want to ask the Lord to make me a BIG blessing. He can use me more if I stay in fellowship with Him. And I’ll sure enjoy it a lot more too.

Personal Application
Serve God wholeheartedly, and enjoy!

Quotable
“There is more joy in Jesus in 24 hours than there is in the world in 365 days. I have tried them both.”—R.A. Torrey

VISIONS OF JUDGMENT
Amos 7–9

“Then the Lord said, ’Look, I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel: I will spare them no longer’ ” (Amos 7:8).

Amos looked ahead, and he foresaw the certain judgment of a people who had refused for decades to heed God’s call to repent.

Overview
Three visions of certain judgment (7:1–9) are interrupted by an account of Israel’s reaction to Amos’ preaching (vv. 10–17). The sinful kingdom, ripe for judgment (8:1–14) would surely be destroyed (9:1–10), yet one day Israel’s prosperity will be restored (vv. 11–15).

Understanding the Text
“I will spare them no longer” Amos 7:1–9. In a vision Amos saw destructive judgments God was preparing to unleash on Israel. He successfully diverted the first two. But finally God refused to delay any longer.
The plumb line is a tool used by carpenters. It is simply a weight attached to a line, that is held against a wall or other construction to measure uprightness. Old Testament prophets frequently used the plumb line metaphorically as a tool used by God to measure the moral uprightness of a generation.
God’s plumb line indicated that the judgment of Israel could no longer be delayed.
The New Testament helps us understand the principle of delayed judgment. It is an expression of God’s kindness, tolerance, and patience. Yet the person or nation that persists in showing contempt for God’s forebearance stores up wrath against “the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom. 2:4–6). Israel was not “getting away with” the wickedness entrenched in her society. Each failure to seize a new opportunity God gave His people to repent simply made the coming judgment more certain.

“The priest of Bethel” Amos 7:10–17. The attitude of the people of Israel toward Amos is illustrated in the reaction of Amaziah, who apparently functioned as high priest at the Bethel worship center. Amos was clearly challenging the social order. So the priest informed the king that Amos was “raising a conspiracy against you.”
Amaziah then expelled Amos, commanding him not to prophesy because, “This is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom” (v. 13). What a revealing statement! The sanctuary did not belong to God, but the king, for religion in Israel was dedicated to maintaining the social status quo, not to challenging social evils!
Biblical faith is never a truly comfortable faith, for it calls us to constantly examine our lives and our society. Biblical faith is radical, in that it is never to be identified with a political theory, political party, or national ideology. Scripture calls us to stand outside our culture, and to judge it when it is wrong.
This the high priest of Israel’s religion was unwilling to do. He willingly subordinated religion to politics, and when Amos stood up and announced God’s judgment on Israel’s sinful society, the high priest angrily demanded he leave town!
But it was not the radical Amos who was judged by this priest. The priest judged himself by his actions. And God announced that he would live to see the consequences of conformity (vv. 16–17).
As for unrepentant Israel, the people “will certainly go into exile, away from their native land.”

“The time is ripe for My people Israel” Amos 8:1–14. My wife watches bananas set out on the kitchen counter carefully. She wants them just right—not too green, not too soft.
God through Amos announced that Israel had the “just right” stage: just right for judgment (see DEVOTIONAL). Israel had rejected justice. God will “never forget anything they have done” (v. 7). All will mourn in bitterness, and even if they should seek the world over for a word from God, “They will not find it” (v. 12).

“I saw the Lord standing by the altar” Amos 9:1–10. The altar and coals from the altar symbolize judgment in the Old Testament. A priest might take his stand at the altar to appease God by offering a sacrifice. But in this vision Amos saw God Himself at the altar. He stood there not to receive a sacrifice but to execute judgment.
The text makes this abundantly clear. God would kill the wicked with the sword. “Not one will get away, none will escape” (v. 1). God was committed to “hunt them down and seize them,” for the Lord has fixed “His eyes upon them for evil and not for good” (v. 4).
This awesome picture of a God committed to execute judgment is an appropriate corrective to an overemphasis on the love of God. Yes, God is love. God eagerly desires to extend the benefits of salvation to all. But those who refuse to respond to a God of love must and will face Scripture’s God of judgment and justice.
Those who live in a sinful kingdom may be completely sure that God “will destroy it” and that “all the sinners among My people will die by the sword” (v. 10).

“In that day I will restore” Amos 9:11–15. In a few brief verses Amos, as the other Old Testament prophets, added a word of hope. This unjust generation of God’s people must fall. But God will restore the chosen race.
Amos specifically links that restoration to the appearance of a Ruler to come from David’s family line. This is the meaning of “I will restore David’s fallen tent” (v. 11). When He appears, the Jews will be regathered to their land, and know an age of unparalleled prosperity. And how graphically Amos portrayed that time: “The reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes” as “new wine” drips “from the mountains.”
Israel rejected God, but God had not abandoned them. Calling Himself “the LORD your God,” God promised, “I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them” (v. 15).

DEVOTIONAL
Ripe for Judgment
(Amos 8)
One of the best marketing gimmicks I’ve heard about was thought up by the fellow whose crop of Yellow Delicious apples was ruined by hail. Every place a hailstone struck, a brown mark developed, making the apples almost worthless.
But the clever orchard owner found a way to turn his disaster around. He launched an advertising campaign warning customers to buy only apples with those brown spots that show they were tree-ripened!
Israel too bore distinctive spots. But there was no way the nature of those spots could be disguised. Such spots on any society mark it off as truly ripe, but ripe for judgment.
There is trampling on the poor.
There is indifference to true religion.
There is dishonesty in business.
There is exploitation of the weak and socially powerless.
Perhaps these marks are not yet visible on the surface of our society. But should you observe them, don’t let yourself be fooled. They’re not evidence of “tree-ripened” quality.
They are signs that our society too has become ripe for judgment.

Personal Application
Spots appearing in any society tell Christians it’s time to repent, and pray.

Quotable
“Making an open stand against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness which overspreads our land as a flood is one of the noblest ways of confessing Christ in the face of His enemies.”—John Wesley

A JUST, MORAL SOCIETY
Amos 3–6

“You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine” (Amos 5:11).

The Old Testament’s vision of a just, moral society was warped and twisted in Amos’ day. Now as then, an immoral society must and will fall.

Overview
Israel’s sins required punishment (3:1–15). Amos cried out against the pampered wives of the wealthy (4:1–3), corrupt worship (vv. 4–5), and indifference to God (vv. 6–13). The nation had to seek the Lord and do justice (5:1–15), or face the dark “Day of the LORD” (vv. l8–20). God hated Israel’s corrupt religion (vv. 21–27), and would judge her for her complacency and pride (6:1–14).

Understanding the Text
“You only have I chosen” Amos 3:1–2. God would deal strictly with “the whole family I brought up out of Egypt,” for He had established an intimate relationship with them alone. It is far worse for a people who know God to give themselves over to evil than for those who have had no personal contact with the Lord.
Today too relationship with God has responsibilities as well as privileges.

“Plunder and loot in their fortresses” Amos 3:3–14. In this passage Amos developed a simple theme: causes are related to effects. Thus people walk together because they have agreed to do so (v. 3), no bird falls into a trap unless one has been set (v. 5), and the sounding of a watchman’s warning trumpet causes a city’s citizens to tremble (v. 6). What cause then did God send His prophet to link with what effect?
Hostile nations were called to witness a strange thing. Normally a nation loots its enemy’s fortresses. But Israel, which did “not know how to do right” plundered and looted “in their [own] fortresses” (v. 10). Because the society was corrupt and the rich unjustly looted the poor of their own land, “an enemy will overrun the land” (v. 11). The cause of the coming disaster was the injustice that was deeply entrenched in Israel’s society.
Exercising his prophetic gift, Amos foresaw a day when Israel would be punished for her sins, when her worship centers would be razed, and the mansions of the rich would be left smoldering ruins (vv. 14–15).
Cause and effect operate in the moral as well as physical realm. This is the impact of Amos’ teaching, and we need to take it to heart today. Any individual or nation that abandons justice as a guide to personal and social action in effect loots his or its own fortresses. One’s only sure defense against disaster crumbles, and ruin will surely follow.

“You cows of Bashan” Amos 4:1–3. With pointed sarcasm Amos compared the sleek wives kept in luxury by their wealthy husbands with the fat cattle of a district famous for its cows. The charge that they “oppress the poor and crush the needy” implied that the wives’ hunger for luxuries motivated their husbands to use any means to get the money needed to satisfy their demands. It’s much like the modern fable of the young accountant driven to embezzle to keep the “love” of his girlfriend.
Yet Amos established an important principle here. The person who profits from an injustice is as guilty as the person who perpetrates it. One who benefits in any way from injustice is rightly subject to judgment.
Thus Amos pronounced God’s judgment. The sleek wives of the wealthy would be dragged away into captivity, every luxury lost.

“Go to Bethel and sin” Amos 4:4–5. Amos pictured the wealthy of Israel, dressed in their Sabbath best, standing outside the sanctuary after a service, boasting to each other about their donations. What a modern scene! Oh, yes, you meet so many of “our kind” of people at services. And make such important business contacts. And of course it helps to be seen as an active supporter of the community by the “best people.” This is part of the reason Amos struck out at Israel’s worship. The well-to-do of Israel did “love to” (v. 5) boast about their offerings, using religion as a form of polite social competition. But the other reason for Amos’ condemnation was that God never ordained worship centers at Bethel or Gilgal. In fact, Old Testament Law required He be worshiped only at the Jerusalem temple, and that sacrifices were to be made only on its altar.
If you and I truly want to worship God, our motives must be pure. And our worship must be in accord with God’s revelation of His will.

“I gave you empty stomachs in every city” Amos 4:6–13. At first it seems a strange “gift.” Especially as God went on to remind Israel through Amos that He withheld rain (v. 7), struck gardens with blight and mildew (v. 9), sent plagues (v. 10), and ordained defeats in battle (vv. 10–11).
We see the reason that these are a “gift” when we see their purpose. God sent these disasters in hopes that Israel would awaken to its sinful condition, and return to the Lord.
The old story tells about the city fella’ who tried to drive an old mule. He shouted “Git up” and “Go.” He ranted and raved. But the old mule never moved a muscle. Finally a farmer came over, picked up a two-by-four, and hit the mule on the head as hard as he could. The farmer then told the mule, “Git up,” and sure enough, it got! Drawling, the farmer explained. “That mule will go, all right. But first you got to git his attention.”
That’s what Amos 4 is saying. God hit Israel with two-by-fours. But even then, the Lord couldn’t get His people’s attention. They were too intent on doing evil to pay any attention to His voice.
What a reminder for us. We can give God our full attention, and be responsive to His voice. Or God, in love, may hit us with some two-by-four to get our attention!

“Seek Me and live” Amos 5:1–16. The Bible makes a distinction between God hitting His own on the head with two-by-fours in order to get their attention and divine judgment. Sometimes when we think we are being punished, all God really is doing is shouting to us in a loud voice in an effort to help us hear what He has to say.
Amos now warned the people of Israel that God was about to actually judge them. Unless there was a radical change in their values and behavior (vv. 4–15, see DEVOTIONAL), the nation would be decimated (vv. 1–3) and every family would wail in mourning over the death of loved ones and of the nation itself (v. 16).
We need to learn to welcome any suffering that draws us closer to the Lord. Such pain is insignificant in comparison with its benefits—and in comparison with the judgment we might suffer if we stubbornly refused to turn to Him.

“Beds inlaid with ivory” Amos 6:1–7. Amos now returned to the lifestyle of Israel’s complacent rich. They lounged on expensive couches and feasted daily on meat, entertaining each other with musical instruments and drinking wine by the bowlful. Yet it was not luxury itself that was wrong. What was wrong was that they “do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.” There was absolutely no concern for the poor; no sense of any obligation to use their wealth to aid those less fortunate.
Genesis 4 reports that after being confronted by God, Cain who had murdered his brother Abel, muttered, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God’s Law had answered that question with a decisive yes! We are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to display that love in practical ways. The complacent rich of Israel denied this fundamental principle by not only being indifferent to their poor neighbors, but also by exploiting them.
The angry prophet announced God’s verdict. “You will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and your lounging will end.”



Archeologists have found pieces of ivory inlay in Samaria, the capital of Israel, from couches like those mentioned by Amos. While the poor of Israel starved, their rich exploiters continued to meet for daily banquets, indifferent to the suffering of their fellow citizens.


“I abhor the pride of Jacob” Amos 6:8–11. It’s not wrong to feel good about our accomplishments. This is not the pride that Amos condemned. Rather Amos spoke against the arrogance of men and women who have prospered at the expense of the poor, and now gazed smugly about themselves at their lands, mansions, and luxuries.
Individuals who live in any society marked by institutionalized injustice should weep and repent, not look with pride at what they might possess.

“Do horses run on rocky crags?” Amos 6:12–14 The Hebrews, like other ancient peoples, loved riddles. So when concluding his indictment, Amos used such a saying. Do horses run on rocky crags, or do cattle plow there? The answer of course is, never. Horses would fall, and no crop could grow in such soil.
Israel, in turning justice into poison, had guaranteed her own downfall, and planted a crop destined to produce bitterness. There was no explaining such a choice. And there was no avoiding its tragic consequences. The Lord would “stir up a nation against you, O house of Israel,” and that nation, Assyria, will “oppress you all the way.”
Like Israel you and I are free to choose our own course. But we are not free to avoid the consequences of any choices we make. How important that we choose wisely, then, and willingly go God’s way.

DEVOTIONAL
Seek Me, and Live
(Amos 5:1–17)
Amos 5 describes a people whose values are turned upside down. The chapter is a powerful call to God’s people to establish the just, moral society the Lord yearned to see. It’s a chapter relevant to us today, because like ancient Israel, prosperous America is confused about basic values.
What is necessary for any people or society to be truly just?
We are to seek God, and live (vv. 4–6). Note that the text emphasizes seek “Me.” It’s not religion that produces a just society, but personal relationship with the living God.
We are to lift up righteousness (vv. 7–10). The text pictures a people who “cast righteousness to the ground” rather than lift it up. Yet God, who established the natural laws that maintain the physical universe, is the source of just as sure moral standards. Israel’s values were a reverse of the divine: the people “hate the one who reproves in court and despise him who tells the truth” (v. 10). No society that abandons biblical standards of righteousness or shows antagonism to them can build a just society.
We are to care for the poor. In Israel the poor were oppressed by such institutions as the courts, and by individuals, who extorted money from them. The slumlord is guilty, but so is any social system which denies the poor the rights accorded under law to the well-to-do. No society that exploits the economically deprived can be just or moral.
But what can you or I do about “society”? How can an individual have an impact on his or her world? Perhaps there is little we can do. But Amos showed us that we can do something.
Amos said, “Seek good” (v. 14). The verb is active, and you and I are to actively search for any good that we can do, and do it.
Amos said, “Hate evil, love good” (v. 15). Again the verbs are active. We are to be aware of what is warped in our society, and to really care. We are to hate evil and love so passionately that we act on our convictions, and take a stand.
Amos said, “Maintain justice in the courts” (v. 15). Again the verb is active, and the call is clear. There may be little we can do, but we are to do the little we can!
It’s fascinating that Amos gave us no blueprint for social revolution. What he did do is to call on us to care. To care so deeply, so passionately, that we do whatever we can to hold up justice as a shining ideal.

Personal Application
Though there may be little you can do, do the little you can.

Quotable
“If you add little to little and do this often, soon the little will become great.”—Hesiod