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.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:1
His Love Endures Forever
Many, if not most, psalms in the Bible were designed to be sung or spoken antiphonally—that is, the first half of each verse is sung by a leader or choir followed by the congregation responding with the second half. If you open your Bible to Psalm 136, you’ll notice that the second half of each of the 26 verses is exactly the same: “His love endures forever.” The entire psalm encourages us to give thanks to the Lord, the one true God, who powerfully created all things and who mercifully provides for his people. And with every mention of the Lord’s many mighty acts, the people interject the refrain: “His love endures forever.”
And it’s not just in this psalm. The first time this phrase is found in the Bible is in 1 Chronicles 16, when King David is bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. The people sang and praised God with a psalm that included these same words. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” A generation later, in 2 Chronicles 5, when King Solomon completed construction of the temple, a great number of musicians played while the choir sang praise to the Lord: “He is good; his love endures forever.”
Someone might ask, “Why the repetition?” But consider why it is that we repeat anything. Usually, because it’s important or because we keep forgetting it—or in this case, both. The Hebrew word translated as love here calls to mind God’s loyalty and grace in dealing with us. Despite our frequent ingratitude and lack of love for God, he is unwaveringly devoted to his love for us, simply because of who he is. In everything he does—starting with the creation of the world, all the way through human history, right down to the way he watches over and provides for us today—God does it out of his commitment to love us. His promise of grace finds its fulfillment in his own Son, Jesus Christ, who came to save us from certain death by taking our punishment upon himself. It is truly a love that endures forever!
Prayer:
Lord God, you have been good to me in so many ways. Let me never forget your grace but always give you thanks, for your love endures forever. Amen.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, [Jesus] 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
With Jesus There is Always More
With Jesus, there is always more. More than five thousand people were fed with just five loaves and two fish. And there was more food left over than they had at the beginning.
This miracle is a big deal. Other than Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, it’s the only miracle recorded in all four gospels. The repetition means Jesus really wants us to know about it. Why?
Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). In other words, Christians are to trust God to provide. And what Jesus teaches, he demonstrates by feeding the five thousand. He takes care of us and provides everything we need.
This is a simple lesson to learn, but it is difficult to believe. Your sinful nature wants you to think that you take care of yourself. The devil does not want you to trust God. He wants you to trust yourself and say, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” (Deuteronomy 8:17).
But is that true? Who gives you time to work? Who gives you the strength to work? Who gives you the skills to work? “Remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18).
Jesus doesn’t work miracles to flaunt his power. He works miracles to show that he is God Almighty in human flesh. Jesus gives health and wealth because that is what Jesus does—he gives. He provides his life, death, and resurrection for your salvation. If he can do that, he can do something as simple as provide daily bread.
Because with Jesus, there is always more. Jesus’ compassion for you knows no bounds. No need is too impossible for Christ to meet. No sin is too big for Jesus to forgive. You can trust him with anything and everything!
Prayer:
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his mercy endures forever. Amen.
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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.
1 Woe to [1] you who are complacent in Zion, you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you distinguished people of the leading nation, to whom the house of Israel comes. 2 Travel to Kalneh and look. Go from there to Hamath Rabbah, and go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than those kingdoms? Are their territories greater than your territory? [2] 3 You who are trying to put off the evil day, you bring near the session for violence! 4 Those who lie on ivory beds, sprawling upon their couches, eating lambs from the flock and calves straight from the stall, 5 improvising tunes on the lyre, composing music for themselves on musical instruments like David, 6 drinking large bowls of wine— they slather [3] themselves with the most expensive perfumed oils, but they do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. 7 That is why they will go into exile as the first of the exiles. Those who sprawl out at their feasts for the dead will depart.
Certain Destruction for Proud Israel
8 The Lord God swears by himself, declares the Lord, the God of Armies: I detest the pride of Jacob, and I hate his citadels, so I will hand over the city and everything in it.
9 If ten men happen to survive in one house, they will die. 10 When a relative who burns the bodies [4] comes to take away the bones from the house, he will say to whoever remains in the recesses of the house, “Is there anyone else still with you?” And they will say, “No one.” And he will say, “Silence! For you must not invoke the name of the Lord!” [5]
11 Look, the Lord is indeed giving a command, and he will smash the largest house into fragments and the smallest house into splinters.
12 Do horses run on a rocky cliff? Does anyone plow the sea with an ox? [6] Yet you turn justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. 13 You are rejoicing over Lo Debar. You are saying, “Was it not by our strength that we captured Karnaim for ourselves?” 14 Indeed, I am about to raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel, declares the Lord, the God of Armies. They will oppress you from Lebo Hamath to the Canyon of the Arabah. [7]
Footnotes
Amos 6:1 Or how terrible it will be for
Amos 6:2 The line of thought is difficult to follow here. The context seems to require that the two lines of the verse be parallel statements, each of which requires the answer “no.” The context therefore seems to call for reversing the second comparison, but there is no manuscript evidence to support such a switch.
Amos 6:6 Literally anoint, but the reference is not to anointing to office.
Amos 6:10 Or who prepares bodies for burial
Amos 6:10 Verses 9 and 10 are difficult. Translations vary greatly.
Amos 6:12 The translation follows a re-division of a word of the Hebrew text. The main Hebrew text reads does one plow with oxen, a reading which calls for the answer “yes,” but which does not fit the context. Another solution is to repeat the object rocky cliff from the first half of the verse: does one plow a rocky cliff with oxen?
Amos 6:14 Lebo Hamath is far to the north in Syria. The Arabah is the rift between the mountains of Edom and the mountains of Sinai, south of Israel.
1 Listen to this word that I am raising against you as a lament, [1] O house of Israel:
2 Virgin Israel has fallen, and she will not rise again. She is abandoned on her own soil. There is no one to lift her up. 3 For this is what the Lord God says: A city that marches out with a thousand will have a hundred left. A city that marches out with a hundred will have ten left for the house of Israel.
Seek the Lord and Live!
4 Listen, this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel:
Seek me and live! 5 But do not seek Bethel. Do not go to Gilgal. Do not travel to Beersheba, because Gilgal surely will go into exile, and Bethel will become nothing.
6 Seek the Lord and live, or he will rush upon the house of Joseph like fire. The fire will consume, and no one will extinguish it for Bethel.
7 There are some who turn justice into wormwood, [2] who throw righteousness to the ground.
8 There is one who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns the shadow of death into morning, who darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the seas, who pours them out upon the face of the earth— the Lord is his name. 9 He causes destruction to flash against a stronghold, and destruction comes upon a fortress.
10 There are those who hate an arbitrator [3] in the city gate. [4] They despise anyone who speaks honestly. 11 That is why you trample on the poor, and you collect taxes on their grain. You have built houses of cut stones, but you will not live in them. You have planted choice vineyards, but you will not drink their wine. 12 For I know that your rebellious deeds are many, and your sins are numerous, you who are enemies of a righteous man, you who take bribes. They thrust away needy people in the city gate. 13 That is why a prudent man will be silent in that time, because it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil, so that you may live, and then it will be like this for you: The Lord, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you claim. 15 Hate evil and love good. Establish justice in the city gate. Perhaps the Lord, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. 16 Therefore, this is what the Lord says, the God of Armies, who is the Lord: In the city squares there will be grief, and in the streets they will say, “Woe, woe!” They will summon the farmer to mourn and the professional mourners to sing laments. 17 In all the vineyards there will be grief, because I will pass through your midst, says the Lord.
The Day of the Lord Brings Darkness
18 Woe to those who long for the Day of the Lord! What good will the Day of the Lord be for you? It will be darkness and not light. 19 It will be as if a man flees from a lion, but a bear meets him, or he enters a house and rests his hand on a wall, but a snake bites him. 20 Will not the Day of the Lord be darkness and not light, gloom without a trace of brightness?
The Lord Hates Faithless Worship
21 I hate, I reject, your festivals! I do not delight in the aroma of the sacrifices at your sacred convocations. 22 Even if you offer up to me your whole burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. I will not pay any attention to your fellowship offerings of fattened calves. 23 Get the noise of your songs away from me! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 But let justice roll like the waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 25 Did you bring me sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? 26 You lifted up images of Sakkuth, your king, and of Kiyyun, your star god, which you made for yourselves. [5] 27 So I will exile you beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of Armies.
Footnotes
Amos 5:1 Or sad song
Amos 5:7 Wormwood is a toxic, bitter-tasting substance (absinthe).
Amos 5:10 Or a mediator
Amos 5:10 The city gate served as the courthouse.
Amos 5:26 The form and meaning of several of the terms and names referring to gods in verse 26 are uncertain. The terms seem to refer to astral deities, most likely including Saturn.
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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 […]