DBRP_343 AMO.9 ISA.49.1-13 REV.2.1-11

AMOS 9:
In Amos 7 we heard of how the priest of Israel’s pagan shrine, Amaziah, told Amos to go away, and Amaziah even tried to get king Jeroboam the 2nd to move against Amos.

There were sad words at the end of chapter 8, which indeed happened during the 400 year inter-testamental period:

11 NLT “The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign LORD,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread or water
but of hearing the words of the LORD.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from border to border
searching for the word of the LORD,
but they will not find it.

ISAIAH 49a:
In Isaiah 48 God said,

3 Long ago I told you what was going to happen.
Then suddenly I took action, (past tense)
and all my predictions came true.

Such words may be hard to understand. There is a trait of some prophetic writings where the past tense is used instead of the future tense. Since Cyrus had not yet come, this section may well have meant in Isaiah’s time “suddenly I will take action.” Remember that all times are alike to God, and it is natural for Him to speak of future things (from our perspective) as already happening (in the present or past from HIS perspective). We see this trait also in Revelation.

 

REVELATION 2a:
The first chapter ended with Jesus’ explanation of what John saw:

20 NLT This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

The word ‘angel’ in Greek can also mean ‘messenger’. It could be that the angel for each church is the pastor, but at this time, churches did not have just one pastor. So this can be translated as the messenger (probably one of the elders) to whom the Lord gave the responsibility of conveying His message.

We now come to a very special section: the letters to the seven churches in Asia. Some have tried to see church ages in these letters. It is better to see them as representative of churches at any age. Each letter has the same form. First there is a highlighting of one of the characteristics of Jesus as seen in chapter 1. Then Jesus shows that He sees and knows each church intimately. He gives whatever rebuke or commendation that is deserved. Then the Lord exhorts each church appropriately according to their condition. Finally there is a repeated warning, and a special promise appropriate to each church.

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DBRP_342 AMO.7 AMO.8 ISA.48 REV.1

AMOS 7-8:
Our reading in chapter 6 of Amos included these words quoted in Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 in the New Testament:

25 NLT “Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel?
26 No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—…

This makes it sound like the Israelites never gave sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness, which we know is false. So we should understand Amos’ and Stephen’s words an exaggeration or hyperbole.

Translation notes:
12 Amaziah then said to [me//Amos], “That's enough, prophet! Go on back to Judah and do your preaching there. Let them pay you for it.
14 [I//Amos] answered, “I am not the kind of prophet who prophesies for pay. I am a herdsman, and I take care of fig trees.

ISAIAH 48:
In Isaiah 47, we heard how God criticized the Babylonians just like Amos criticized the people of Judah and the Northern Kingdom for living in uncaring luxury built upon the unjust treatment of others. And God taunted the Babylonians to use their magic charms to try to charm away his coming judgment.

REVELATION 1:
This book is also called the Apocalypse. The apostle John clearly tells us that he is the author of this book and that he was at that time in exile on the island of Patmos.

Four early church fathers affirm that John was exiled to the island of Patmos during Domitian’s reign. They wrote that the government allowed John to return to Ephesus after this emperor died. And I have seen a picture of John’s tomb at Ephesus. Domitian died in A.D. 96. Consequently many interpreters date the writing of this book near A.D. 95 or 96.

Estimates vary that from 278 to 500 allusions to Old Testament verses are found in the book of Revelation. John never actually quotes from the Old Testament, but just make obvious allusions to it.

The book of Revelation has the reputation of being a hard book to understand, and people have often said to me that it must be hard to translate. On the contrary, Revelation is a rather easy book to translate! And John’s main points in writing this book are not at all hard to understand. To help us understand,  here are two important points:

• Remember that this book is full of symbolism and that many things are not to be taken literally.
• Realize that most of this book is not arranged chronologically. What we have instead is a series of visions that show the same events from different perspectives.

Translation notes:
1 This book is the record of the events that Jesus Christ revealed. God gave him this revelation in order to show to his servants what must happen very soon. Christ made these things known to [me,] his servant John[,] by sending his angel to [me//him],
2 and [in this book I have told all that I saw//John has told all that he has seen]. This is [my//his] report concerning the message from God and the truth revealed by Jesus Christ.

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DBRP_341 AMO.5 AMO.6 ISA.47 3JN.1

AMOS 5-6:
One device that Amos used in yesterday’s reading was rhetorical questions. He asked a whole series of them like this one:

3:4 GNT Does a lion roar in the forest unless he has found a victim?

All of his rhetorical questions expect the unspoken answer, No. And they all led up to this one:

8 NLT The 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 GNT “So then, people of Israel, I am going to punish you. And because I am going to do this, get ready to face my judgment!”
13 God is the one who made the mountains
and created the winds.
He makes his thoughts known to people;
he changes day into night.
He walks on the heights of the earth.
This is his name: the Lord God Almighty!

ISAIAH 47:
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:

46:1 GNT “This is the end for Babylon's gods!
Bel and Nebo once were worshiped,
but now they are loaded on donkeys,
a burden for the backs of tired animals.
2 NLT Both 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.

3JOHN:
Thomas 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 Christian letters. The time of the writing and the themes of this letter are like John’s two other letters.

 

Translation notes:
3 I was so happy when some [fellow believers//Christians] arrived and told me how faithful you are to the truth—just as you always live in the truth.
5 My dear friend, you are so faithful in the work you do for other [brothers and sisters in Christ//Christians], even when they are strangers.
8 We [believers//Christians], then, must help these people, so that we may share in their work for the truth.
10 When I come, then, I will bring up everything he has done: the terrible things he says about us and the lies he tells! But that is not enough for him; he will not receive the [travelling brothers who minister in the name of Christ//Christians] when they come, and even stops those who want to receive them and tries to drive them out of the church!

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DBRP_340 AMO.3 AMO.4 ISA.45.22-25 ISA.46 2JN.1

AMOS 3-4:
As I said about Amos yesterday, he was wise in his methods. He condemned Syria, the Philistines, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab before coming around to Judah and finally the northern kingdom, Israel. We also heard some of the wonderful word pictures Amos used.

ISAIAH 45:22-46.
Remember that in the last chapter Cyrus’ name was repeatedly mentioned. God’s motivation for making such bold predictions is clear:

19 NLT I publicly proclaim bold promises.
I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner.
I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me
if I could not be found.

I particularly like those lines. Some of the prophets the world now looks to do indeed utter obscurities and purposefully choose to keep their followers in the dark. And God refutes the contention that he is hard to find, that he has left the world and doesn’t care about humans or pay attention to us. Bear that in mind as we start today at chapter 45, verse 22.

2JOHN:
I wish we knew if Timothy made it to Rome in time to see Paul before he died. Was Luke still there? Paul needed that warm coat as winter was approaching. And he wanted the parchment papers in particular, which were probably Old Testament Scripture. That was happening around AD 67.

Things were even even worse for Christians around AD 90 when John wrote the two little letters of 2nd and 3rd John. 2nd John is written to the ‘chosen lady’, but this is a euphemism or a code word for a church. The ‘children’ of the ‘lady’ are the church members. We find several echoes from the book of 1st John in these two letters. Mears points out four basic beliefs that John keeps coming back to, which are visible in these two little letters also:

1. We must believe that Christ came ‘in the flesh’, meaning, with a real human body.
2. At the same time we must believe that Christ is deity, that is, fully God.
3. We must believe that “God is love.” This is both a major characteristic of God and the way followers of Christ must live.
4. We must believe that Christ is our Savior. The only way to have eternal life is to know Christ personally— not just know information about Him.

Translation note:
4 How happy I was to [meet//find that] some of your children [who] live in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.

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DBRP_339 AMO.1 AMO.2 ISA.44.24-28 ISA.45 2TI.4

AMOS 1-2:
If you are new to reading the Bible, I hope that you will remember the events and expressions that Joel used. One or two ideas were repeated by Jesus in the Gospels, and we will soon see how important Joel’s predictions are in Revelation.

We turn now to Amos, whose name means ‘burden bearer’. Amos— like David and Gideon, started out as an ordinary guy going about his business as a shepherd and grower of sycamore figs. He was not a priest or a man with training as a prophet when God called him. Because of the mention of a great earthquake and king Uzziah, it is likely that Amos was working as a prophet around the year 760 BC. This makes him a contemporary of Jonah, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah.

Although Amos’ home town of Tekoa is only 12 miles south of Jerusalem, Amos prophesied primarily about the Northern Kingdom of Israel. He was wise in his delivery. First he prophesied judgment for Israel’s enemies before lambasting Judah and Israel themselves. Although from a humble occupation, Amos was very gifted as a writer, using very graphic and unique figures of speech. Amos would have had a difficult ministry because he prophesied horrible events that would have been unimaginable for his comfortable and prosperous listeners. The fulfillments were 50 years away, so he was quite ‘ahead of his time’. Mears quotes someone else in saying, “Amos proclaimed a message so far ahead of his time that most of the human race— and a large part of all Christendom, have not yet caught up with it.”

Translation notes:

1 [I am Amos, and I was a shepherd//These are the words of Amos, a shepherd] from the town of Tekoa. Two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel, God revealed to [me//Amos] all these things about Israel.  
2 [I//Amos] said, “The Lord roars from Mount Zion; his voice thunders from Jerusalem. The pastures dry up, and the grass on Mount Carmel turns brown.”

ISAIAH 44:24-45:
Because the prophecy at the end of chapter 44 is so stunning as to mention Cyrus some 150 years before his birth, skeptical scholars claim that this portion of Isaiah was not written until after the events happened and by a different author. But what then? If you say something like that, are you going to claim that Isaiah 53 was written after Christ came and died?

2TIMOTHY 4:
There are more than one wonderful 3:16 verses in the Bible, and we read one of them in chapter 3 yesterday:

16 GNT All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living,
17 so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.

Translation notes:
3 The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will [just] tell them what they are itching to hear.
8 [PET 8 So now the time has almost come for me to receive the victory crown which has been prepared for me. That crown will show that the just Judge, the Lord, acknowledges me as a person who has lived rightly. I long for that day of victory when I meet Him and receive that crown. And the crown of victory isn’t prepared just for me but also for everyone who longs for the day of His return.//GNT And now there is waiting for me the victory prize of being [totally] put right with God, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day—and not only to me, but to all those who wait with love for him to appear.]
15 Be on your guard against him yourself, because he [is//was] violently opposed to our message.  21 Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, and Claudia send their greetings, and so do all the other [brothers and sisters in Christ//Christians].

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DBRP_338 JOL.2.28-32 JOL.3 ISA.44.12-28 2TI.3

JOEL 2:28-3:
An attack by an army of locusts must be so frightening! What descriptions! And even worse when God is bringing the attack as an act of judgement. Yet Joel offers hope. He encourages the people to come back to God and beg for the Lord’s help. We will pick up today re-reading the famous part of Joel 2.

ISAIAH 44b:
In the first part of this chapter God said:

3 NLT For I will pour out water to quench your thirst
and to irrigate your parched fields.
And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants,
and my blessing on your children.
4 They will thrive like watered grass,
like willows on a riverbank.
5 Some will proudly claim, ‘I belong to the LORD.’
Others will say, ‘I am a descendant of Jacob.’

Then God gave a lecture on the futility of idols. I love the irony in the verses we read today:

19 NLT The person who made the idol never stops to reflect,
“Why, it’s just a block of wood!

2TIMOTHY 3:
We heard the wonderful encouragements to Timothy in chapter 2. Note that Paul did not explain everything to Timothy, but invited him to ponder what he had said. I urge all of us to similarly ponder and spend time meditating on what Paul said.

Note what Paul says about God’s Word in contrast to his being in chains: “The word of God cannot be chained.” Yay, God! May your Word accomplish what you have sent it to do!

Translation notes:
8 As Jannes and Jambres were opposed to Moses, so also these people are opposed to the truth—people whose minds do not function and [what they believe doesn’t even make sense//who are failures in the faith].
10  But you have followed my teaching, my conduct, and my purpose in life; you have observed [how I believe//my faith], my patience, my love, my endurance,
15 and you remember that ever since you were a child, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through [believing//faith] in Christ Jesus.

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DBRP_337 JOL.1 JOL.2 ISA.44.1-18 2TI.2

JOEL 1:
I feel the need to comment about chapter 9 of Esther and how the Jews “got rid” of their enemies. Remember that those Jews were not Christians. (I know how silly that sounds, but it is actually a common supposition among naive Christians.) The revelation of God’s will did not come all at once, and the Jews did not have the pleasure of knowing what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount or other pertinent NT passages. They most certainly did NOT ‘get rid’ of their enemies, except in the short run. All the relatives of the enemies slain raised up succeeding generations of people who hated the Jews even more fiercely than the first enemies did. We Christians must read Esther 9 remembering how the Jews had been slaughtered and then taken away from their land by force put into slavery in Babylonia. It is just amazing to me how the cycle of ‘getting rid of enemies’ has continued, right up to Hitler (the modern Haman), and right up to the conflicts in the middle east today. The cycle will stop and real peace will only happen when the True King returns.

Joel is the second book of the minor prophets in the Old Testament. We read the first one— Hosea, about two months ago. From now until the end of the year, we will start every day with a reading in the minor prophets. Joel’s name means “Yahweh is God.” It is quite possible that Joel is one of the earliest of the prophets. He is called the ‘prophet of Pentecost’, since Peter quoted from Joel in his speech in Acts 2. The occasion of Joel’s message was a devastating plague of locusts which foreshadows the ‘Day of the Lord’— a time not for comfort for God’s people, but for punishment because of their sins.

ISAIAH 44a:
According to the NLT, in Is. 43:14 God said,

14 “For your sakes I will send an army against Babylon,
forcing the Babylonians to flee in those ships they are so proud of.”
This is a very difficult verse to translate, and GNT’s translation can also be defended:
14 Israel's holy God, the Lord who saves you, says,
“To save you, I will send an army against Babylon;
I will break down the city gates,
and the shouts of her people will turn into crying.

God said that the people of Israel had become tired of God and tired of bringing sacrifices. God will do something new:

25 “I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake
and will never think of them again.

These frequently quoted words are from the beginning of the chapter:

“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up;
the flames will not consume you.

2TIMOTHY 2:
What was the spiritual gift that Timothy received when Paul placed his hands on him? Paul wanted Timothy to fan that gift into flame. Is there a clue to what the gift was in the next verse?—

NLT “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”

Paul says,

“I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.”

What has Paul entrusted to the Lord? Is it a clue when Paul says,

“Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.”

Translation notes:
21 Those who make themselves clean from all [the evil taught by false teachers//those evil things], will be used for special purposes, because they are dedicated and useful to their Master, ready to be used for every good deed.
22 [Run away to escape from//Avoid] the passions of youth[.//, and] Strive for righteousness, [full belief//faith], love, and peace, together with those who with a pure heart call out to the Lord for help.
26 And then they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the Devil, who [0//had] caught them and made them obey his will.

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