Read To Me Daily Semester 4Sample

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.”

ISAIAH 44:24-45:
Because the prophecy at the end of Isaiah 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? Because we have the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament into Greek— some 200-300 years before Christ came— we know that Isaiah 53 was written before Christ was born.

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

2Tim. 3:16 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.

Let’s pray.
Our awesome Creator, how wonderful the privilege to come before You. We worship You as the wise God who is sovereign over all things. You say in Joel, as was quoted by Peter, “All who ask the Lord for help will be saved.” The very next words are, “Those whom I choose will survive.” How we praise You, Sovereign Lord, in the amazing prophecy we read naming Cyrus. We recently read how that was fulfilled some 150 years later. And now we have read of how people will be in the ‘last days’, and each and every description sounds just like people today. So harden our resolve to live holy lives and to remain joined in union with Christ, and prepare your worldwide church for persecution. Keep us open and ready to listen to the Scriptures. Keep us ready to hear true teaching, open to being corrected in our false beliefs and our faults. Keep us receptive to instruction about right living. Equip us fully, Lord, so that we will be fully qualified and equipped for the good deeds You want us to do.