Saturday, December 6, 2014

DBRP_Dec07_2014 Amos5-6 Is47 3John


One device that Amos used in yesterday’s reading was rhetorical questions. He asked a whole series of them like this one:

4Does a lion ever roar in a thicket

without first finding a victim?

All of his rhetorical questions expect the unspoken answer, No. And all of those led up to

8The lion has roared—

so who isn’t frightened?

The Sovereign LORD has spoken—

so who can refuse to proclaim his message?

And, surprisingly, the message the Lord proclaimed next was an invitation to Israel’s enemies to come and witness Israel’s destruction. After the unforgettable denunciation against Israel’s wealthy women— whom he calls ‘cows’, he lists some of the previous acts of judgment against Israel— things like drought. And after each one are the words, “but you still would not return to me.” The chapter ended with these awesome words:

12“Therefore, I will bring upon you all the disasters I have announced.

Prepare to meet your God in judgment, you people of Israel!”

13For the LORD is the one who shaped the mountains,

stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind.

He turns the light of dawn into darkness

and treads on the heights of the earth.

The LORD God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!

https://www.bible.com/bible/116/amo.5.nlt

 


 

God continued speaking in Isaiah 46 about how He alone reveals his plans to mankind through prophecy. The section about Babylon’s idols being led off on a heavy ox cart was dripping with irony:

2Both the idols and their owners are bowed down.

The gods cannot protect the people,

and the people cannot protect the gods.

They go off into captivity together.

https://www.bible.com/bible/116/isa.47.nlt

 


 

I want to credit Constable’s Notes and recommend them as a good resource when you want to research something in God’s Word. One handy place to find Constable’s Notes is lumina.bible.org. Dr. Thomas Constable retired from teaching at DTS in 2011.

Constable points out that 3rd John is the shortest letter in the New Testament and it is also the most personal. Certainly 2nd Timothy, for instance, was an intensely personal letter, but at the end, Paul greeted everyone— showing that he knew his letter would be read to the church or churches. In 3rd John, the recipient seems to be Gaius alone, and this letter follows a pattern like a normal secular letter of the time— not including a ‘grace and peace’ salutation that Paul seems to have made standard for other Christian letters. The time of the writing and the themes of this letter are like John’s two other letters.

https://www.bible.com/bible/116/3jn.1.nlt

 

 

 



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