Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3
Blessings That Never Run Out
The Bible tells us that Jesus once fed a crowd of more than five thousand people with just five loaves of bread and two fish. He multiplied that little lunch until everyone ate and was satisfied. It was a marvelous gift. But consider this: the next morning, every one of those people woke up hungry again.
That is the nature of earthly blessings. Food fills us for a few hours. Paychecks are spent. Health, as we all eventually learn, fades. Even the happiest earthly gifts—family, friendships, home—are ours for a lifetime at most. We thank God for all of them, but none of them lasts forever.
That is what makes the apostle Paul’s words so remarkable. He praises God for blessing us “in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Notice what he says. Not some blessings, but every blessing. Not stored far away, but already given to us. And these gifts are not kept in a pantry or a bank account, where moths destroy and markets crash. They are kept in the heavenly realms, beyond the reach of anything that could take them away.
What blessings are these? Through faith in Jesus, you have the forgiveness of all your sins. You have peace with God. You are adopted as his dear child. The Holy Spirit lives in you and there is an inheritance in heaven with your name on it. Nothing on earth—not inflation, not illness, not even death itself—can drain that account. Christ earned every bit of it for you, and God has signed it all over to you in your baptism.
So enjoy your daily bread with thanksgiving; it is a gift from your Father’s hand, new every morning. But your greatest treasures are not on the table or in the bank. They are in Christ—forgiveness, peace, and life that never ends. The child of God is rich beyond counting, today and eternally.
Prayer:
Praise to you, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for blessing me with every spiritual blessing in your Son. Keep my heart treasuring what can never be taken away. Amen.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children. Matthew 14:19-21
Grace Before an Empty Table
Imagine a family of five gathered around the table for dinner. The problem is, there is hardly anything on it—one slice of bread, a bit of fish, nowhere near enough for everyone. Now imagine the father folding his hands and praying, “Thank you, Lord, for this abundant feast.” Wouldn’t that strike you as strange? We give thanks for what we have received, not for what is missing.
Yet that is very nearly what Jesus did. Before more than five thousand hungry people, he took five small loaves and two fish—a meal for maybe a couple of people—looked up to heaven and gave thanks. He gave thanks before anyone had eaten. He gave thanks before there was enough to go around. Then he began to break the bread, and it did not run out. Everyone ate until they were satisfied, and twelve baskets of leftovers remained.
How could Jesus give thanks over such a small supply? Because he was not measuring the food. He was trusting his heavenly Father, whose love and generosity have no limit.
Our prayers often run in the opposite direction. We wait to see the provision before offering thanksgiving. When the account balance is low, or the diagnosis is uncertain, gratitude may be the last thing on our minds—as if God’s goodness depended on what we can see on the table in front of us.
Look instead at what God has already graciously given. He did not spare his own Son but gave him up to die for your sins and rise again. If God has already given you his greatest treasure, will he fail to give you your daily bread? Jesus’ thanksgiving was not wishful thinking but confidence in his Father’s promises. Through Jesus, that same confidence belongs to you.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, teach me to thank you before I see your answer, trusting that you will provide all that I need. Amen.
As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Bring them here to me,” he said. Matthew 14:15-17
Bring Him Your “Not Enough”
Have you ever sat down with your monthly budget and found that the numbers refuse to cooperate? No matter how many times you add them up, there is more month than money. It’s a helpless feeling to be staring at a problem too large for the available resources.
Jesus’ disciples knew that feeling. Thousands of hungry people had followed Jesus to a remote place, and evening was coming. The disciples did the math and proposed the only sensible solution: send everyone away to fend for themselves. Instead, Jesus gave them an impossible assignment: “You give them something to eat.” All they could find among the crowd were five small loaves of bread and two fish. The numbers didn’t add up.
But Jesus never intended for his disciples to solve this problem out of their own pockets. He was inviting them to bring their “not enough” to him. When they did, he took that little lunch, gave thanks, and multiplied it until everyone ate their fill—with twelve baskets left over.
You and I often do the same math the disciples did. We look at our resources—our money, our time, our strength, our goodness—and conclude they will never be enough. They won’t be. That is especially true of our standing before God. We owe him a debt of perfect obedience that we could never begin to pay.
That is why Jesus came. He did not send us away to fend for ourselves. In his compassion, he supplied what we could not—his perfect life and his innocent death—to pay for our sins completely. The Savior who satisfied a hungry crowd with bread has satisfied God’s justice for you.
So, bring him your little. Bring him your “not enough.” His supply never runs out.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, when my resources run out, teach me to trust your compassion and power to provide everything I need for my body and soul. Amen.
Five newly elected district presidents join the Conference of Presidents The Conference of Presidents, chaired by the synod president, also includes 12 district presidents, the first and second synod vice presidents, and the non-voting synod recording secretary. The respective districts […]
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Resources to help keep teens connected “This year’s rally was meant to be more than just an event. It was a catalyst to seek deeper faith commitment.” As memories from the 2026 WELS Youth Rally this […]
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Faces of Faith: Meet Lynne Lynne embarked on a lifelong search for truth that led her from atheism and hostility toward Christianity. Through the ministry of two WELS home mission congregations, God quenched Lynne’s thirst […]
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New director named for WELS Foundation and WELS Investment Funds Mark Maurice began serving as executive director of WELS Investment Funds and WELS Foundation in June. Maurice brings more than 30 years of experience in Christian stewardship, charitable gift planning, […]
»
Tornado damages WELS church and school Around noon on Monday, July 27, a tornado ripped through northeastern Wisconsin, causing damage to Bethel, Menasha, a bilingual WELS church with about 500 members. The tornado also damaged the […]
1 Hear the word of the Lord, you people of Israel,
because the Lord has charges to make against the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land. 2 There is cursing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery. They break out in violence, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. 3 Therefore the land mourns, [1] and everyone who dwells in it wastes away along with the wild animals and the birds in the sky. Even the fish of the sea have been removed. 4 Yet no one should bring charges. No one should accuse, because your people are like those who dispute with a priest. [2] 5 You will stumble by day, and the prophet will also stumble with you by night. I will also destroy your mother. 6 My people have been destroyed because of lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from serving as a priest for me. Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 7 The more they increased, the more they sinned against me. I changed their glory into shame. [3] 8 They feed on the sin of my people. They set their desire on things that make them guilty. 9 So it will be the same for people as for priests. I will punish them for their ways. I will repay them for their deeds. 10 They will eat, but not be satisfied. They will engage in sexual immorality, but not increase. This will take place because they have abandoned the Lord to devote themselves to 11 sexual sin. [4] Wine and new wine take away their understanding. [5] 12 My people consult their wooden idol, and their fortunetellers wand gives them information, because a promiscuous spirit has led them astray, and they behave like a whore instead of following their God. 13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops. They burn incense on the hills, and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is pleasant. That is why your daughters commit fornication, [6] and your brides commit adultery. 14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit fornication, or your brides when they commit adultery, because the men consort with prostitutes and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes. So the people without understanding will come to ruin. 15 Though you, Israel, practice sexual immorality, Judah should not follow your guilty way. Do not go to Gilgal. Do not go up to Beth Aven. Do not swear, “As surely as the Lord lives.” 16 For Israel has become as stubborn as a heifer. How can the Lord feed them like a lamb in a meadow? 17 Ephraim is joined to idols. Let him go his own way! 18 Their alcoholic drinks are used up, but they keep practicing sexual immorality anyway. Their rulers, who should be their shields, instead love shame. 19 The wings of the wind will sweep them away, and they will be put to shame because of their sacrifices.
Judgment on Israel’s Priests and Kings
Hosea 5
1 Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, house of Israel! Listen, O house of the king! For this judgment applies to you, because you were a trap at Mizpah and a net spread out on Mount Tabor. 2 The rebels sink deeper into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them. 3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me. Now, Ephraim, you still practice sexual immorality. Israel is defiled. 4 Their deeds do not allow them to return to their God. For a spirit of prostitution lies within them, and they do not know the Lord. 5 The arrogance of Israel testifies against them. Israel and Ephraim will stumble over their guilt. Judah also will stumble with them. 6 They will go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, but they will not find him. He has withdrawn from them. 7 They acted treacherously against the Lord. They even gave birth to illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them along with their allotted land. 8 Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah and the trumpet in Ramah! Raise a battle cry at Beth Aven: “Lead the way, Benjamin!” 9 Ephraim will become desolate ruins on the day it is punished. [7] What I have made known among the tribes of Israel will certainly happen. 10 The officials of Judah are like people who move a boundary stone. I will pour out my wrath on them like water. 11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to pursue worthless idols. [8] 12 I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah. 13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the Great King for help, but he is not able to heal you, and he will not cure your wound, 14 because I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. Yes, I will tear him to pieces and go away. I will carry them off, and there will be no one who can rescue them.
Footnotes
Hosea 4:3 Or dries up
Hosea 4:4 The verse is difficult. The translation follows the Hebrew and Greek texts. Translations that render the third line my contention is with you, O priest emend the text to obtain this rendering. The point of the verse seems to be that it is useless to bring charges against these people, because they would not accept the judgment even of a priest.
Hosea 4:7 A Hebrew variant is they changed my glory for something shameful.
Hosea 4:11 Or prostitution
Hosea 4:11 The proper dividing point between verses 10 and 11 is uncertain. Though the words sexual sin are in verse 11 in the Hebrew text, these words belong with verse 10.
Hosea 4:13 The same Hebrew word elsewhere translated sexual immorality or prostitution is used here in reference to unmarried girls, so it is translated fornication.
Hosea 5:9 Or rebuked
Hosea 5:11 The translation follows some ancient versions. The Hebrew reads human commands.
The Prophet’s Reconciliation With His Wife:
A Picture of the Lord’s Love
1 The Lord said to me, “Go again. Show love to a woman who is loved by another man, a woman who keeps committing adultery. Show love just as the Lord loves the people of Israel, even though they keep turning to other gods and loving the raisin cakes.” [1]
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and nine bushels [2] of barley. 3 I said to her, “You will stay with me for many days. You must not be promiscuous. [3] You must not be with any other man, and I will also be for you.”
4 So the people of Israel will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred memorial stones, and without the special vest [4] or family idols. [5]5 Afterward the people of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
Footnotes
Hosea 3:1 Raisin cakes were sometimes shaped into images of the goddess Asherah.
Hosea 3:2 A homer and a lethek, that is, six bushels plus three bushels
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Be’eri, [1] in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, the king of Israel.
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go. Take for yourself an immoral wife and children produced by sexual immorality, [2] because the land has been committing flagrant immorality, turning away from the Lord.”
3 So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim. She conceived and gave birth to a son for him.
4 The Lord said to him, “Name him Jezre’el, [3] because in a little while I will inflict punishment on the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezre’el. I will destroy the ruling power of the house of Israel. 5 In that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezre’el.”
6 She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.
The Lord said to him, “Name her Lo Ruhamah, [4] because I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel. Indeed, I will certainly not forgive them. 7 But I will have compassion on the house of Judah. I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.” [5]
8 Gomer weaned Lo Ruhamah. Then she conceived and gave birth to a son.
9 The Lord said, “Name him Lo Ammi, [6] because you are not my people, and I will not be the Lord for you.” [7]
A Promise of Future Blessing
10 Nevertheless, the number of the people of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. Then, in the place where they were told, “You are not my people,” they will be told, “You are children of the living God.” 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be gathered together. They will appoint one head for themselves, and they will go up from the land, for the day of Jezre’el will be great. [8]
Hosea 2
1 Say to your brothers, “My people,” [9] and to your sisters, “She has been shown mercy.” [10]
Israel Rebuked, Punished, and Restored
2 Plead with [11] your mother! Plead with her, because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her sexual immorality from her presence and her acts of adultery from between her breasts. 3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her as she was on the day she was born. I will make her like a wilderness. I will cause her to be like a dry land. I will cause her to die of thirst. 4 I will have no compassion on her children, because they are children of promiscuity, 5 because their mother has been promiscuous. [12] She who conceived them has acted shamefully. She said, “I will chase after my lovers, the ones who give me my food and my water, my wool and my flax, my olive oil and my drinks.” 6 Therefore, this is what I will do: I will block your [13] way with thorns. I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. 7 She will chase after her lovers, but she will not reach them. She will seek them, but she will not find them. She will say, “I will go back to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now.” 8 But she would not acknowledge that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil. I gave her large amounts of silver and gold—her people used it for Baal! 9 That is why I will take back my grain during harvest time, and my new wine in its season. I will also take away my wool and my flax that were given to cover her nakedness. 10 Then I will expose her shameful nakedness in the sight of her lovers. No one will deliver her from my hand. 11 I will put an end to all her celebration: her pilgrimage festivals, [14] her monthly new moons, and her weekly Sabbaths— all her appointed festivals. 12 I will devastate her vines and her fig trees, about which she said, “These are the payment [15] that my lovers gave me.” I will make them into a scrub forest, and the wild animals will eat the crops. 13 I will punish her for the days with the Baals, on which she repeatedly offered incense to them. She adorned herself with her rings [16] and her jewelry, and then she chased after her lovers, and she forgot me, declares the Lord. 14 But watch! I am going to court her. I will bring her into the wilderness. I will speak tenderly to her. 15 There I will give her vineyards back to her. The Valley of Achor [17] will be a door of hope. She will respond there as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up from the land of Egypt. 16 In that day, declares the Lord, this is what will take place: You will call me “my husband.” You will no longer call me “my master.” [18] 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth. She will no longer call them by their names. [19] 18 In that day I will make a covenant for the Israelites with the wild animals, with the birds of the sky and the things that creep on the ground. I will break the bow and the sword. I will abolish war from the land. I will allow the people to lie down safely. [20] 19 I will pledge you to myself in marriage forever. I will pledge you to myself in marriage— with righteousness, justice, mercy, and compassion. 20 In faithfulness I will pledge you to myself in marriage, and you will know the Lord. 21 In that day this is what will happen: I will respond, declares the Lord. I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth. 22 The earth will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil. They will respond to Jezre’el. 23 I will sow her for myself in the land. I will have compassion for Lo Ruhamah, [21] and I will tell Lo Ammi, [22] “You are my people,” and he will say, “You are my God!”
Footnotes
Hosea 1:1 The stop mark ′ indicates that Be’er – should be pronounced as two syllables.
Hosea 1:2 Or prostitution. The Hebrew term includes paid prostitution, but it also includes promiscuous sexual immorality which is not done for money. It also includes sexual misconduct by perpetrators who pay their lovers instead of the other way around.
Hosea 1:4 Jezre’el means God sows, and it is the name of both a valley and a city in Israel. Ahab and Jezebel murdered Naboth at the city of Jezre’e l, and Jehu destroyed the dynasty of Ahab there.
Hosea 1:6 The Hebrew name Lo Ruhamah means no compassion or no pity.
Hosea 1:7 Or charioteers
Hosea 1:9 The Hebrew name Lo Ammi means not my people.
Hosea 1:9 The Hebrew reads I am not I am for you, an allusion to the Lord’s gracious name, I am.
Hosea 1:11 English verses 1:10-11 are verses 2:1-2 in the Hebrew text. All the subsequent verse numbers in chapter 2 are two numbers lower in English than they are in Hebrew.
Hosea 2:1 Hebrew Ammi
Hosea 2:1 Hebrew Ruhamah
Hosea 2:2 Or bring charges against. Also in the next line.
Hosea 2:5 Or been a prostitute or acted like a prostitute
Hosea 2:6 Your is the reading of the Hebrew. The Greek and Syriac read her.
Hosea 2:11 That is, Passover, Pentecost, and Shelters
Hosea 2:12 Or gifts
Hosea 2:13 Either earrings or nose rings
Hosea 2:15 Valley of Achor means Valley of Trouble. It refers to the location of the incident caused by Achan in Joshua 7.
Hosea 2:16 Hebrew my baal
Hosea 2:17 Or call on their names
Hosea 2:18 Or securely
Hosea 2:23 The Hebrew name Lo Ruhamah means no compassion.
Hosea 2:23 The Hebrew name Lo Ammi means not my people.
4 Listen to this, you who trample on the needy to wipe out the oppressed from the land, 5 who say, “When will the New Moon be over so that we can sell grain? When will the Sabbath end so that we can open the grain bins? Then we will make the bushel [1] smaller and make the shekel weight heavier. [2] We will cheat with dishonest scales. 6 We will buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. We will sell the chaff with the grain.”
A Famine of the Lord’s Word
7 The Lord swears by the Pride of Jacob, “I will never forget any of their deeds!” 8 Because of this, the land will shake, and everyone living in it will mourn. The whole land will rise up like the Nile. It will surge and sink down again like the Nile of Egypt. 9 Here is what will happen on that day, declares the Lord God: I will make the sun set at noon, and I will bring darkness on the earth when it should be light. 10 I will turn your festivals into mourning and all of your songs into a lamentation. I will put sackcloth on all your waists and baldness on every head. I will make that day like the mourning for an only son, and it will end like a bitter day. 11 Look, the days are coming, declares the Lord God, when I will send a famine into the land— not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but rather a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 People will stumble from sea to sea and from north to east. They will roam back and forth seeking the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. 13 On that day the beautiful virgins will faint, and the young men will grow weak from thirst. 14 Those who swear by the shameful guilt [3] of Samaria, those who say, “As your god lives, Dan,” or, “The way of Beersheba lives”— they will fall, and they will never rise again.
The Fifth Vision: The Lord Topples the Temple
Amos 9
1 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said:
Strike the capitals on top of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Cut them off so that they fall on the heads of all the people, and those who survive I will kill with the sword. No one who flees from there will get away, and not a single fugitive from among them will escape. 2 Even if they dig down to hell, [4] from there my hand will seize them. And even if they ascend to heaven, from there I will bring them down. 3 Even if they hide themselves on the top of Mount Carmel, from there I will search for them, and I will seize them. Even if they hide themselves from my sight at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them. 4 Even if they go into captivity in the presence of their enemies, from there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. And I will set my eye upon them for disaster and not for good.
The Lord Shakes the Earth
5 The Lord God of Armies is the one who touches the earth, so that it melts. All who dwell on it mourn. All of it rises like the Nile, and like the Nile of Egypt it sinks down again. 6 He is the one who builds his upper chambers in heaven. He set the foundation for his vault upon the earth. He is the one who summons the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the earth— the Lord is his name.
The Final Judgment
7 Are you not like Cushites [5] to me, you children of Israel? declares the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor [6] and the Arameans from Kir? [7] 8 Look, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will never completely destroy the house of Jacob, declares the Lord. 9 Listen! I am giving a command, and among all the nations I will shake the house of Israel as the contents of a sieve are shaken, and not even one pebble [8] will fall out to the ground. [9] 10 By a sword, all the sinners among my people will die, those who are saying, “Disaster will not overtake us. It will not confront us.”
The Restoration of David’s Fallen Shelter
11 In that day I will raise up the fallen shelter of David.
I will repair the broken parts of its walls,
and I will raise up its ruins.
I will rebuild it as in days of old,
12 so that they will possess what remains of Edom,
that is, all the nations who are called by my name,
declares the Lord, who is doing this.
13 Look, days are coming, declares the Lord,
when the plowman will catch up with the reaper,
and the one who tramples grapes will catch up with the one sowing the seed.
The mountains will drip sweet wine, [10]
and all the hills will wave with grain. [11]
14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and they will rebuild the desolate cities and dwell in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant them in their soil,
and they will never again be uprooted from the soil
that I have given to them,
says the Lord your God.
Footnotes
Amos 8:5 Literally the ephah
Amos 8:5 Merchants cheated by measuring out the grain they were selling with an undersized bushel and weighing the silver they received with an overweight shekel.
Amos 8:14 Possibly a distortion of the name of the goddess Ashima/Asherah
Amos 9:2 Hebrew sheol
Amos 9:7 Cushites are black Africans from south of Egypt, from the territory that today is Sudan.
Amos 9:7 That is, Crete or some other location in the Mediterranean
Amos 9:7 The location of Kir is unknown. It is probably far to the north.
Amos 9:9 Or kernel of grain
Amos 9:9 The people of Israel are being sorted through a sieve. It is not clear whether those kept in the sieve are the pebbles that cannot escape judgment or the grains that are being separated from the chaff, which will be burned. The judgment is the same in either case.
Amos 9:13 Sweet wine refers to wine that is still sweet because it has not yet been soured by continued fermentation.
1 This is what the Lord God showed me: I saw that he was forming a locust swarm at the time when the late crops [1] were beginning to sprout—the crops that were planted after the cuttings of hay for the king.
2 When the swarm had finished consuming the vegetation of the land, I said, “Lord God, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? Look, he is so small!”
3 The Lord changed his decree about this. “It will not happen,” said the Lord.
The Second Vision: The Fire
4 This is what the Lord God showed me: I saw the Lord God calling for a trial by fire, which devoured the great deep and started to consume the land.
5 I said, “Lord God, please stop! How can Jacob stand? Look, he is so small!”
6 The Lord changed his decree about this. “This will not happen,” said the Lord God.
The Third Vision: The Plumb Line
7 This is what he showed me: I saw the Lord standing by a wall that had been constructed with a plumb line. He had a plumb line in his hand.
8 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?”
I said, “A plumb line.”
Then the Lord said:
Look, I am about to set up a plumb line next to my people Israel. I will no longer overlook their sin. 9 The high places of Isaac will be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined. I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
Amos and Amaziah
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: [2]
Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to endure all of his words. 11 This is what Amos says: “Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile away from its own soil.”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “You seer, get out of here! Flee to the land of Judah. You may eat food and prophesy there. 13 But you must never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the sanctuary of the king and the national temple.”
14 Then Amos responded to Amaziah:
I was not a prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet. Rather, I was a sheep breeder and I took care of sycamore fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending flocks, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”
16 But now, hear the word of the Lord, you who are saying, “Do not prophesy against Israel” and “Do not preach [3] against the house of Isaac.”
17 This is what the Lord says: “Your wife will be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be parceled out with a measuring line, and as for you, you will die upon unclean soil. And Israel will certainly go into exile far away from its own soil.”
The Fourth Vision: The Basket of Summer Fruit
Amos 8
1 This is what the Lord God showed me: I saw a basket of ripe summer fruit. 2 Then he asked, “What do you see, Amos?”
I said, “A basket of ripe summer fruit.”
Then the Lord said to me, “The end is coming upon my people Israel. [4] I will no longer overlook their sin. 3 The singing women of the palace [5] will wail on that day, declares the Lord God. Many corpses—all over! Silence!”
Footnotes
Amos 7:1 The late crops are the crops that grow at the time of the last spring rain, as the rainy season is coming to an end. Since the king has already collected all the taxes for the whole year from the first cuttings, if the spring rain fails, it is the people who will come up short.
Amos 7:10 Jeroboam II ruled from about 793 to 753 bc. This encounter was probably near the end of his reign.
Amos 7:16 Literally drip
Amos 8:2 The Hebrew words for summer fruit and end sound alike. Just as the summer fruit is ripe, Israel is ripe for judgment.
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The Conference of Presidents, chaired by the synod president, also includes 12 district presidents, the first and second synod vice presidents, and the non-voting synod recording secretary. The respective districts […]
“This year’s rally was meant to be more than just an event. It was a catalyst to seek deeper faith commitment.” As memories from the 2026 WELS Youth Rally this […]
Lynne embarked on a lifelong search for truth that led her from atheism and hostility toward Christianity. Through the ministry of two WELS home mission congregations, God quenched Lynne’s thirst […]
Mark Maurice began serving as executive director of WELS Investment Funds and WELS Foundation in June. Maurice brings more than 30 years of experience in Christian stewardship, charitable gift planning, […]
Around noon on Monday, July 27, a tornado ripped through northeastern Wisconsin, causing damage to Bethel, Menasha, a bilingual WELS church with about 500 members. The tornado also damaged the […]