Now, shall we turn tonight to the book
of Amos that I'd like to introduce you
to, if you've never met him before?
And I think, first of all, what I'll
just do is give the four main parts
of the outline of this book, and that
might help our tips a little, and then
we can depart from the outline to return
to it evermore.
There are four major parts of the book
of Amos.
The first is threatened judgment on eight nations.
If you look at chapters one and two,
you'll find that in those chapters Amos lists
eight nations and speaks of judgment which God
threatens on them.
Threatened judgment on eight nations, chapters one and
two.
Then the second section extends from chapter...oh, and
incidentally, you could leave space under that and
miss the eight nations, and that would be
a pretty complete outline of those two chapters.
The second section is the guilt and punishment
of Israel, and that extends from chapter three
through chapter six, the guilt and punishment of
Israel, and you could leave five lines under
that for subheading, if you'd like.
Chapters three through six, the guilt and punishment
of Israel.
Then the third major section of the book,
symbols of approaching judgment.
God uses a lot of object lessons in
his words, and here he uses some symbols
of approaching judgment.
Chapter seven, verse one, through chapter nine, verse
ten.
Symbols of approaching judgment, chapter seven, verse one,
through chapter nine, verse ten.
And then finally, the future restoration of Israel,
chapter nine, verses eleven through fifteen.
The future restoration of Israel, chapter nine, verses
eleven through fifteen.
Now, let's talk about Amos for a while.
We already mentioned that the land was divided
into two kingdoms, north and south.
Amos lived down in the south.
He was a herdsman, and a gatherer of
sycamore fruit.
He was just a humble peasant, and he
lived down in a little town called Tekoa,
near Bethlehem, T-E-K-O-A, and
he lived a very quiet pastoral type of
a life, and all of a sudden God
put his hand upon him.
He felt the divine tap on the shoulder.
God said, Amos, I want you to go
up to the capital of the north, to
Samaria, and I want you to cry out
against the sins and abuses that are prevalent
in the land of Israel.
Mind you, that was quite a commission, wasn't
it?
Here's a humble fellow dressed in the plainest
type of clothes, and God calls him to
go up and stand in the palaces, really
the palaces of Samaria, where the people are
lounging around, living in luxury, complacency and ease,
and this poor little old fellow from Tekoa
is going to go up there, and standing
in the presence of the king and the
royal family, and all the couriers, and all
the rest, he's going to be a voice
for God in it all.
Well, I want to tell you it takes
spiritual fine, doesn't it?
Thank God when he calls a man to
do a task, he gives the grace to
do it too.
The Lord's commands are his enablement, and so
Amos turned his back on Harvest and on
his herd, and up he traveled to the
city of Samaria.
Samaria was situated up on the top of
a hill, magnificent building at the time, and
he went up.
Talk about a fish out of water, eh?
Well, that was poor Amos.
He goes into the middle of that type
of a scene, and he begins to prophesy,
and he began prophesying against eight nations.
For instance, he started with Damascus.
Damascus was the capital of Syria, and Damascus
had been exceedingly cruel to the two and
a half tribes of Israel that were east
of the Jordan.
God hadn't forgotten, and so Amos stands in
the middle of the people of Samaria, and
he says, for three transgressions of Damascus and
for four, I'm going to visit this country
with judgment, says God, because they were cruel
to my people who were living in the
land of Israel, and all the people of
Israel really applauded.
They said, my, that's fine, we're glad to
see Syria take a licking from the hand
of God.
And then when Amos finished with that, he
started on Geza, which was one of the
cities of the Philistines, and he says, God
has a controversy with Geza and with the
Philistine people, because they turned over captives of
Israel to the cruel Ebanites.
Now, we don't know too much about this
from history, but all we know is that
the Philistines performed this act of cruelty to
God's people, and my, the people of Israel
applauded.
They were really enjoying it, and they put
down their cocktails, no doubt, to clap their
hands for Amos.
They thought he was rather a queer sort
of a fellow in many ways, but at
least he was denouncing their enemy, so they
let him go on.
And then he began on the city of
Tyre, which was one of the coastal cities
along the Mediterranean there, and he said, yes,
Tyre, God has a controversy with Tyre, because
Tyre also delivered captives of Israel over to
the Edomites, and not only that, but they
broke a treaty with the people of Israel,
and God has decreed judgment on Tyre, and
the people said, my, that's the best sermon
we ever heard preached.
Amos, he cried at it, and so he
began on the country of the Edomites, which
were really half-brothers of the Jews, you
know.
They were descendants from Esau, and the Edomites
were perpetually cruel enemies of the people of
Tyre, and so Amos cried out against the
Edomites and promised that God would punish this
wicked nation, and my, I tell you, he
was becoming more popular all the time with
the people up in the north there, the
people living in Samaria, living high off the
hog, living it to the hilt.
And so then Amos came to the Ammonites,
and he reminded the Ammonites that they had
committed atrocities on the people of God over
there in Gilead on the east side of
the Jordan again, and once again the people
were most grateful to think that the Ammonites
were going to receive their due from God.
And then he came to the Moabites, and
there's an interesting thing.
All it says about the Moabites is that
they burned the bones of the king of
Edom in line, and what I think it
simply means is that they denied the king
of Edom a decent burial.
You know, one of the worst things you
could do in Bible times as far as
inhumanity and seeming cruelty was to deny a
decent burial to anyone, and so God has
a controversy with the people of Moab for
all of that.
But then the shocker comes, because after mentioning
six Gentile nations, Amos goes on to speak
of Judah, and you know this was shocking.
Even to the Israelites, who were no special
friends of Judah at this particular time, you
know, separated, divided kingdoms, here was Judah placed
on the same basis as these Gentile heathen
nations.
How could that ever be?
Well, dear friends, it was because through their
sin they lost any special place of privilege
they might have before God.
God is no respecter of persons, and the
people of Judah, it says, did not respect
the law of the Lord.
They rejected the law of the Lord and
turned themselves over to idolatry, and God says,
Judah, I look at you now right alongside
the nations of the world, the Gentile nations,
the dogs of the world.
I have missed you right alongside.
Well, maybe the clapping among the people of
Israel was a little more subdued at this
point.
It was getting kind of warm under the
collar, and then dear Amos came out with
the last and final blow.
He said, the nation of Israel is next
on the catalog of God, and he cried
out against the nation of Israel and the
terrible sins that they had committed.
He says, why the, you Jewish people, you
people of Israel, you're so greedy for money
that you pant after the dust in the
head of the poor.
Imagine that.
I can think of them going out and
trying to buy land and getting as much
land as possible, but my, their greed and
their covetousness went even so far that they
panted after the dust in the head of
the poor, and then they committed terrible forms
of immorality that read about in verse 7
of chapter 2, and that the very significant
thing, God says, I raised up prophets to
speak to you, and you told the prophets
to keep quiet, and I raised up Nazarites
in your midst.
I raised up in your midst men who
lived separated lives, men whose lives were devoted
to God, and what did you try to
do?
You tried to corrupt them.
You tried to make them do the same
things that you did, so that their testimony
would be nullified, and so that their lips
would be silenced.
Now, just picture Amos up there in the
midst of this scene, with all the brocaded
curtains and garments, and all the luxury, the
golden and silver vessels, and here he is
crying out and announcing to these people that
God was sick and tired of it all,
and that God was going to visit them
with judgment, and the Assyrians would come in
and devour their nation.
Now, in chapters 3 through 6, you have
the guilt and punishment of Israel, and I'd
like you to notice at the beginning of
chapter 3 something very interesting.
First of all, in this section, you have
three summons to hear.
Notice verse 1.
Hear this word that the Lord has spoken.
Hear this word, chapter 4 verse 1, and
chapter 5 verse 1.
Hear this word.
And so, in outlining this section, I call
it the first summons to hear.
This is under the second main section.
The first summons to hear, chapter 3, the
second summons to hear, chapter 4, and the
third summons to hear, chapter 5 verses 1
through 17.
In other words, those words here you get
form kind of the outline of the first
part of this section.
First summons to hear, chapter 3, second summons
to hear, chapter 4, third summons to hear,
chapter 5 verses 1 through 17, and then
after that you have two rows.
The first row, chapter 5 verses 18 to
27, and the second row, chapter 6.
So, in this section you have three summons
to hear, and you have two rows.
First summons to hear, chapter 3, second summons
to hear, chapter 4, third summons to hear,
chapter 5 verses 1 through 17.
The first row, chapter 5 verses 18 to
27, and the second row, chapter 6.
Now, I wanted to point your attention to
verse 2 of chapter 3.
Here's Amos speaking again, a man of courage,
a man of conscience, a man of fearlessness,
because he was speaking the word of the
Lord.
And listen to what the Lord is saying
here, "...you only have I known of all
the families of the earth."
You'd think it would say, therefore I will
have mercy on you, wouldn't it?
It isn't what it says.
It says, "...you only have I known of
all the families of the earth, therefore I
will punish you for your iniquity."
In other words, this verse teaches us that
privilege brings responsibility, and the greater the privilege
conferred upon the people of God, the greater
will be their punishment if they fail in
the carrying out of that privilege.
And then God says, "...can two walk together
except they be agreed?"
And, of course, the two in that verse
are the Lord and his people.
Then the next verse is, "...will a lion
roar in the forest when he hath no
prey?"
And here the lion, of course, is the
Assyrian.
The Assyrian armies were practically at the gates,
you know, and it was as if a
lion were out there roaring, and God is
saying, is he roaring without a reason?
Well, he's not.
Just let me tell you that.
"...will a young lion cry out of his
gin if he hath taken nothing?"
The answer is, he certainly won't.
Then it says, "...can a bird fall and
a snare upon the earth, for no gin
is for him?"
And that bird, of course, is Israel.
So, will one take up a snare from
the earth and have nothing at all?
And the thought of this passage is that
every effect has a cause, and what's going
to happen to the nation of Israel is
going to happen because of the terrible sins
of the people.
And so the Gentile nations are summoned in
the latter part of this chapter to come
and view the oppression, and the violence, and
the injustice, and the robbery, and the greed
in the nation of Israel.
Then, in the beginning of chapter four, came
a speech of the people of Israel.
I'd like you to notice this.
Hear this word, you kind of bastion.
It wasn't easy to call them that.
Kind, of course, are cows, and bastions were
the rich, fertile fields over on the east
side of the Jordan, and cows that were
fed over there in bastions got fat and
unmanageable.
They were like the wild steers out in
the west where the cowboys had to go
with the sheep and catch them.
So, he likens the people of Israel to
the kind of bastion feeding on the other
side of the Jordan, and he gets after
them because they oppressed the poor, and crushed
the and lived luxuriously.
He says, I know, I see you're going
ahead and sacrificing that Bethel and Gilgal.
Go ahead with your sacrifices, but he says
to the people, I want you to know
this, I've given you a cleanness of feet.
And that didn't mean pestilence, that meant famine.
You wouldn't need to use any heat kicks
when you had cleanness of feet.
God says, I've given you cleanness of feet,
I've sent drought in your midst, I've sent
blasting, I've sent mildew, I've sent the farmer
worms, I've sent pestilence and swine.
And he says, since none of these things
seem to have moved you, prepare to meet
thy God, O Israel.
I tell you, they're solemn words, aren't they?
Once again, we're reminded of what we had
last night, that God speaks to people through
these visitations of nature, as we call them.
And then there comes that final summons to
appear before God himself.
And then in chapter 5, Amos takes up
a lamentation for the people of Israel, and
he says that when the destruction comes, and
when the Assyrians come in, only one out
of ten will survive in that day.
Verse 3, For thus saith the Lord God,
the city that went out by a thousand
shall leave an hundred, that which went forth
by an hundred shall leave ten for the
house of Israel.
It's going to be a pretty complete desolation,
pretty complete destruction in that day.
And then in the verses that follow, you'll
notice there's a repetition of the word seek.
He's saying, even at this last minute, seek
the Lord.
Don't go and seek the golden calf.
Don't go to Bethel and worship there.
Seek him that made the skies.
Seek the creator of the universe.
Verse 14, Seek good and not evil, that
ye may live.
And so the Lord God of hosts shall
be with you as he has spoken.
Then in this chapter also, he says to
them, Now you've been praying for the day
of the Lord.
You know, we spoke about the day of
the Lord last night, and these people had.
They had been praying for the day of
the Lord.
Why?
Well, they thought God's going to march forward
before us in victory, and he says to
them in this chapter, Don't pray for the
day of the Lord, because you're praying against
yourself when you pray for that.
The day of the Lord will be a
day of darkness, a day of night, a
day of suffering, and a day of tribulation.
He said, I know one evil will overtake
another in the day of the Lord.
He says, Verse 19, As if a man
did flee from a lion and a bear
met him, or went into the house and
leaned his hand on the wall, and a
serpent bit him.
In other words, when the day of the
Lord really did descend upon them, there wouldn't
be any escape.
Everywhere they turned, it would be calamity in
the city.
He says, I see you going through your
rituals, I see you going through your sacrifices,
your vain oblations.
I hate, I despise them, the Lord said.
I despise your feast days, and I will
not smell in your solemn assembly.
Why?
Because they thought that merely by going through
certain rituals, they thought that by doing so
many cartwheels and tennis, that they were pleasing
God, and God had nothing in it at
all, because their lives were corrupt and their
business dealings were shady, and God wouldn't be
fooled by any series of religious rituals that
they might go.
He reminded the people of Israel as they
lounged on their couches up there in Samaria,
and as the wine and liquor were flowing
freely, that even back in the wilderness, while
they professed to be worshiping the God of
Israel, actually they were worshiping Moloch and other
heathen, idolatrous gods.
And then in Chapter 6, he gives a
very vivid description, and I want you to
picture Amos standing there in Samaria.
He wasn't speaking to them over television or
over the radio or over the phone, either.
He was standing right there in their midst,
and he says, verse 3, He that put
far away the evil day, and caused the
seed of violence to come near, that lie
upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon
their couches, eat the lambs out of the
flock.
They'd only eat in Junkenheim's presence, you know,
in those days.
Lambs out of the flock, and the calves
out of the midst of the stall.
What is it?
Luxurious living.
You know, it's what you hear sometimes today,
that in some circles, I'm glad to say
not the assembly circles, but in some circles
you hear it among servants of the Lord.
Servants of the Lord going forth and living
in the utmost luxury, and there is nothing
too good for the servants of the Lord.
Pretty poor attitude for those who are followers
of the one who could say, foxes have
holes and birds of the air, but the
son of man hath not where to lay
his head.
The one who said the servant is not
above his master.
Well, this is the type of thing that's
going on today, and it's the type of
thing that went on in his day.
The chance of the sound of violin is
vexed with themselves just because of music like
Jesus.
They drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves
with a teapot, but they're not used for
the expression of Joseph.
They're in the living to cater to the
lusts of the flesh, and there's no spiritual
burden in their life.
You know, that's the meaning of the name
Amos.
His name means burden, and as you read
the book, it can help dealing with a
burden that he felt as he spoke to
these people.
And so he said to the people, the
Assyrian captivity is coming, and you might as
well get ready for it, and there are
going to be few survivors when God meets
in upon this people.
And then in the third section of the
book, God speaks to Amos through a series
of symbols, and the first symbol is the
devouring locust in verses 1 through 3.
He looked, and after the first mowing which
went to the king, he saw a plague
of locusts, the devouring locusts, come in, and
dear Amos should be for God and interceded
for the people.
This was a kind of a preliminary invasion,
you know.
It was the first trial of the Assyrians
into the land, and Amos took an eight
percent offering, as it were, before the Lord,
and he pled for the Lord to spare
this people, and you know the Lord did,
and the devouring locust was saved.
And so that was the first symbol of
judgment.
Perhaps that was one of the kings of
the Assyrians coming in.
And then he looked again, and he saw
a consuming fire sweeping into the land, and
this was kind of a second preliminary invasion,
a consuming fire.
Once again, Amos lifted up his hands to
God, and he cried out as a prophet
of the Lord, spare the people, Lord, and
the Lord spared the people, and the consuming
fire was saved.
And the next time he looked, he saw
the Lord standing upon the wall, and he
had a plumb line.
I don't know how to describe a plumb
line.
I'd have to use my hands, but anyway
there's a string, and there's a weight at
the other end of it, and I think
carpenters use it, and I'm pretty sure that,
I was going to say morticians, but that's
not the right word.
Masons use it to make sure that the
wall that they build is straight.
Well, God is holding the plumb line, and
the plumb line speaks to us of his
inflexible justice, and the idea is I'm not
going to pass by my people anymore in
mercy.
The plumb line is set, and judgment is
going to come upon the house of Israel.
Let's look at verse 8 for a minute,
and I think it'll help you in your
understanding of this verse if you add the
words in parentheses in mercy.
Not that they belong there, but just helps
to explain the thought.
The Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest
thou?
And I said, a plumb line.
Then said the Lord, behold, I will set
a plumb line in the midst of my
people Israel.
I will not again pass by them anymore
in mercy.
We have twice already in the previous two
symbols.
There's a symbol of the devouring locust, and
the symbol of the consuming fire.
We are passed by the people.
Now here's the third symbol, and God says
I'm not going to pass by them anymore,
and that means the Assyrians are going to
come in, and they're going to devour the
land.
And then in the middle of this section,
we have kind of a parenthesis, and I'm
so glad this parenthesis is there.
It tells about a little encounter between a
false prophet, Amaziah, and the true prophet, Amos.
Amaziah was a priest of Bethel, I should
say, and he said to Jeroboam, king of
Israel, he said, why this fellow is just
a public nuisance.
He's crying out against the people, and he's
predicting your death, and that people will carry
away into Assyria into captivity.
And then he said to Amos, look Amos,
all you're doing up here is causing trouble.
Why don't you go back down to Bethlehem
and earn your bread there?
You know what he was accusing him of.
He was accusing him of being in the
ministry before he got out of it.
In other words, he was judging Amos by
himself.
That's what he was doing.
And Amos said, listen here my friend, I've
got something to tell you.
I wasn't a prophet by choice, neither am
I a son of a prophet.
I'm a herdman and a gatherer of sycamore
fruit.
That's what I am.
But God put his hand upon me, and
God called me into this work.
And I want to tell you this Amaziah,
God has decreed judgment in your house, and
your wife is going to wander as a
harlot in the city, and your family, your
sons and daughters, will die by the sword.
The land will be divided by line, and
thou shalt die in a polluted land, and
Israel will surely go into captivity.
I thank God for a man that can
stand up with such fearlessness, such valor, such
bravery, and speak to a false priest at
a time like that.
And then the Lord came to Amos with
the hawk symbol.
He said, what do you see Amos?
Amos said, I see a basket of summer
fruit, Lord.
The Lord said, that's right, that's right, you
see a basket of summer fruit.
This is the beginning of chapter eight.
And he said, he said, that fruit is
ripe, isn't it Amos?
And he said, Israel's ripe for judgment too.
Don't you ever forget it.
And when the judgment comes, they'll carry out
the dead to bury them, and they'll bury
them in silence.
There'll be earthquakes and bitter retentions, and one
of the most serious things of all, at
the end of this chapter, God says, the
days are going to come, Amos, and there'll
be a famine of the word of God.
Notice verse 11.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God,
that I will send a famine into the
land, nor a famine of bread, nor a
thirst for water, but of hearing the word
of the Lord.
They shall wander from sea to sea, and
from the north even to the east, they
shall run to and fro, to seek the
word of the Lord, and shall not find
it.
You know, that's a serious thing, isn't it?
I wonder if in some way there isn't
a famine of the word of the Lord
today.
We have a lot of gospel preaching.
I don't suppose there's ever been a time
in the history of the world when the
gospel has gone forth as much as it
is today.
But, how much actual prophetic ministry is there,
such as Amos delivered in the palaces of
Samaria?
Is it possible that with all the gospel
preaching that we have today, that there is
a famine as far as this type of
prophetic ministry is concerned?
Then in the first part of chapter 9,
the Lord is seen standing upon the altar,
perhaps a steple, and he says, smite the
loophole of the door.
And this last symbolism is the final blow
on Israel, the descent of the Assyrians that
Israel carried away into captivity.
God has done it to other nations, and
he can do it to Israel as well.
And then the book closes with the ultimate
restoration of Israel in a coming day.
Isn't that lovely, that after all the storm
clouds have passed, God has spoken in a
voice of thunder, yet at the end of
the book we see Israel, a believing remnant
of the people, restored to the land.
I wonder what Amos would say if he
came back today.
Would he be like this, do you think?
Well, I think he is.
I think this is a very accurate description
of what we have in Christendom today.
Luxury, complacency, and ease, and a lack of
real fanatical, devoted, passionate reality in the things
of Christ.
Dear Christian friends, tonight we're wearing our crowns
instead of bearing our coffins, as it would
be.
The Apostle Paul said it before I did,
in 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
We'll just turn to that for just a
minute.
1 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 9 to 13.
For I think that God has set forth
us, the apostles, last, as it were, appointed
as death.
But we're made a spectacle unto the world
of the angels and of men.
We're fooled for Christ's sake that ye are
wise in Christ.
We are weak, but ye are strong.
Ye are honored, though we are despised.
Even under this present hour we boast hunger
and thirst, and are naked and abuffeted, and
have no certain dwelling place.
And labor, working with our own hands, being
reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we suffer it.
Being defamed, we entreat that we are made
as a filth of the world, and are
the off-powering of all things unto this
day.
What is the picture?
Well, the picture is this.
The Apostle Paul sees a stadium.
He sees a stadium.
Down in the middle of the stadium you
find the place where men are thrown to
the lions.
All around the stadium you find the box
seats.
And he says, you Christians and Christians, you're
sitting around there in the box seats, and
you all have your crowns on your head,
and we're down there in the stadium being
thrown to the lions.
We're the filth and the off-powering of
the earth, because you're reigning before the time.
You know, there is a day coming when
the people of God will put the crown
on their head, but that time hasn't come
yet.
It's often been pointed out that in circles
where they have a king or a queen,
when the king or queen is being crowned,
of course all the lords and ladies and
heirs and heiresses and all the others are
around there, but not one of them ever
puts on his diadem until the monarch puts
on his.
And there's a day coming, in fact, when
the Lord Jesus will be revealed to this
world in glory.
He'll be seen as the King of kings
and Lord of lords, and until then it's
premature for us to be reigning.
God's intention is that we should be pilgrims
and strangers to this world, and instead of
that we make a home in it.
We make a home in it.
Somebody has said, this world makes a mighty
poor home, but a mighty good school.
And that's what God intended it to be.
It intended to be our training time, but
not our home.
But I believe that Amos came back today
to have something straight to us about this.
You know, people who invest in a breaking
bank are not wise, as this whole world
is a breaking bank.
And people who build their nests in a
tree that's about to be cut down are
not wise, as this whole world's about to
be cut down.
A person was walking to his study one
day, and he passed a public park in
London, and he saw a little bird.
It was in wintertime, or perhaps in spring,
or whenever they build their nests, I don't
know.
But anyway, he saw a bird building its
nest in the tree, and when he came
back at five o'clock at night, he
saw a woodman down there with an axe
at the bottom of a tree.
He said, poor foolish little bird, building in
a tree that so soon to be cut
down.
You know, that's what a lot of us
are doing, I hear.
We're accumulating instead of forsaking.
Isn't that a strange thing?
You don't believe it, but figure it out.
Accumulating instead of forsaking.
The Lord Jesus said, forsake.
Now, that isn't a word that's very common
in our Christian vocabulary today.
We're laying up treasures on earth instead of
laying up treasures in heaven.
It was Anthony Norris Bowles that said, I
repeat it, some of you, that it's just
as wrong, just as contrary, I should say,
to the word of God to lay up
treasures on earth as it is to deal
or submit adultery or murder.
They're all contrary to the word of God
Jesus was the one who said it.
If the truth were told, Amos would remind
us that we're giving our fair evenings to
the Lord instead of our lives.
You know, I think it was Lennon who
said he wanted a group of men who
would give not their fair evenings, but all
lay ahead to the cause of Communism.
It breaks my heart to think that there's
more reality today visible in fanatical Communists than
there is in fanatical Christians.
Why is it that we don't want to
be fanatical Christians?
Will you please tell me?
Nobody wants to bear that reproach.
And even more serious still, dear friends, we're
raising our young people for the unworthy world
instead of for the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And in many cases we are raising them
for hell.
Why Christian parents don't want to hold the
work of the Lord before their children as
a worthy way for them to spend their
lives on their own.
But I could introduce you to some Christian
parents tonight who wish they had.
They wish they had.
The lifetime is gone.
These are some of the things I think
that Amos would speak to us about if
he should come back, and I think maybe
tomorrow morning, instead of going on with another
prophet, we'll just continue on perhaps with more
of the application of this book to our
own lives.
And I do hope that in just going
through these few books of the Minor Prophets
that we'll sweat our appetites a little, and
they do have a message for today.
It's all there.
I think it speaks very, very loudly, and
I can see why the devil would want
us to neglect them as books of the
Bible, because they do have a piercing, cutting
note for them that gets under your skin,
just the same as the Christ that gets
under your skin.
May the Lord speak to our hearts and
hearts.