Tuesday, June 22 - Miriam

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Amos 7-9; 2 Kings 14:28-29; 2 Kings 15:8-29; 2 Kings 15:6-7; 2 Chronicles 26:22-23; Isaiah 6:1-13.

From bible.org - The Minor Prophets has a brief overview of each of the "smaller" prophetic books of the Bible, including Amos.  Here is an excerpt:

The divine message given to Amos was primarily one of judgment, though it ends with words of hope. Amos warned that the Lord God, the sovereign Ruler of the universe, would come as a Warrior to judge the nations that had rebelled against His authority. Israel in particular would be punished for her violations against God’s covenant. Amos sought to bring the prosperous and materialistic northern tribes under Jeroboam to repentance as the only escape from imminent judgment. In the process, the book demonstrates God’s hatred of evil because of His holiness and that His justice must act against Israel’s sin for He cannot allow it to go unpunished.
 However, even though the nation would be destroyed, God would still preserve a repentant remnant and one day this remnant would be restored to their covenant blessing and political prominence when the Lord would then also draw all nations to His Himself.

Chapter 9 is a key chapter because of its focus on the restoration of Israel. Set in the midst of the harsh judgments of Amos are some of the greatest prophecies of restoration of Israel anywhere in Scripture. Within the scope of just five verses the future of Israel becomes clear, as the Abrahamic, Davidic, and Palestinian covenants are focused on their climactic fulfillment in the return of the Messiah.
 
Amos presents Christ as the One who will rebuild David’s dynasty (9:11) and as the one who will restore His people (9:11-15).

The part that stood out most for me personally was in Chapter 7 where Amaziah tells Amos to take his prophesying elsewhere.  I don't imagine it was easy being a prophet, especially as the bearer of bad news.  No one ever likes to tell someone something bad.  Sometimes because the messenger knows the news will cause the other person pain and sorrow, and sometimes because there is a tendency in human nature to blame the messenger for the message he or she brings. 

"Now then, hear the word of the LORD,"  was the particular phrase that really pricked me while reading.  We have the Bible readily available to us.  We need look no further for instruction.  And yet we sometimes want to pick and choose the parts that we want to follow and do what we want the rest of the time.  We don't want to read or "hear" the parts that tell us something we're doing is wrong.

It's hard to hear when someone corrects or rebukes us.  It's hard to have a humble heart and accept correction - meaning actually learning from it and trying to change it going forward. 

I watched "Inedible to Incredible" last night.  It was the very first time it was on (TLC, I think?).  There were two episodes and both cases the husband called in an award-winning chef to tell his wife what he didn't have the heart to tell her - that her cooking was awful - and teach her some better cooking techniques.  I have to say, I was impressed with both women and their attitudes towards the "experiment".  It must have been hard for them to hear that their husbands hate the food they cook.  Especially since both of them prided themselves on being creative cooks.  The first woman's ingredient creativity was extremely bizarre (strawberry cornflake hamburgers, anyone?).  The second woman used more normal combinations, but a lot of fat and sweet with little flavour.  Both of them accepted the challenge to learn to cook three new dishes.  Both of them graciously accepted the chef's help and learned about new and wonderful things like measuring ingredients and following a recipe.  Both of them ended up preparing three delicious dishes for their husbands, families and friends to try and it was a raging success.

I can only pray that when my areas of weakness are brought to my attention, that I can be as gracious in accepting help and learning to correct them as were these women.

The passage from Isaiah right away touched on a couple of my favourite things about that book.  How incredible to have a vision of God and angels.   Even if Isaiah was being given bad news to bring to the people of Israel, what an absolutely unimaginable thing it must be to have even a glimpse of such amazing glory and holiness.

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

How could one say anything else, when faced with the awesome glory of God?  I hope that we all respond to His call, even without a vision of Him or angels.  I pray that as we go about our daily lives and duties, following His will to the best of our knowledge and abilities, that we will always say "Here am I," when He is searching for someone to do something for Him.

Tomorrow's reading is 2 Kings 15:32-38; 2 Chronicles 27:1-9; Micah 1:1-16; 2 Kings 16:1-9; 2 Chronicles 28:1-15; Isaiah 7:1-25.