Dramatic honesty<br>The usual practice in churches is to read only a select few verses as the lesson which may miss the message of a whole book. Bear Grylls has brought more of the human life of Jesus to our attention with his “Greatest Story” book. Amos was not an intellectual from the university but a sheep farmer who did not fear to put things plainly. He used Nathan’s technique of communication by getting people to judge others before realising they were actually judging themselves. Despite his humble position, I can imagine him standing speaking to groups of people and receiving cheers and clapping as he told the truth about the bad things of others. Laughter too. He honestly lays accusations on the nations, towns and settlements that are neighbours. Almost earthy humour. First in the North, then South, North West, South West, East South East and the South. They were cruel and made weapons even for others to do atrocities. They did slave trading, even selling whole communities. They disregarded treaties and were not just. They were obsessed with idols. He used a set form of words for these accusations. In an identical format he then pointed to his audience and says in effect “You are no better. You may not have done all these things yourself, but you have not done anything to stop them”. A moment of drama when indignation becomes painful. <br>An absolute standard<br>The essential message of the book is summarised in the statement “Can two walk together unless they be agreed?” in chapter 3. He then gives an honest lesson in logic using words and language that only Old Testament prophets seem permitted to use. As an example he said that these other people “sold the righteous for silver and the needy for the price of a pair of sandals. They trampled on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and denied justice to the oppressed”. He goes on to say that although his audience may not actually do these obviously cruel and inhumane practices, they did not do anything to prevent or oppose them. Intentions as well as actions are equally judged. He says that God will set a plumb line to define justice. In modern construction we may use a spirit level or theodolite for accuracy, but in those days a piece of string with a weight on it was used to find the vertical. That was called a plumb line. It was an absolute standard. You could not argue with it or make excuses. So is God’s judgement.<br>Inclusive?<br>This message of separation may seem at odds with things like Jesus’ going to dinner with a Roman centurion, also Zacchaeus the tax collector, touching a lepper, the woman at the well, eating with sinners, healing on the Sabbath, accepting Palestinians and the thief on the cross. David was a really nasty piece of work with his fighting and womanising. Jesus’s teaching is clear that some will be saved and others not. But it is Jesus who will judge, not us. Whole books have been written on this message when it is really quite simple. Amos is telling his audience to accept the people but reject their attitudes and actions.<br>Warnings<br>This was all at an interesting period in history. The northern kingdom of Israel was doing good trade and seemed secure. The southern lot based in Jerusalem also were well off and at peace with neighbours. Only twenty years later the Assyrians decided they wanted a safe trade route to Egypt and beyond and so attacked and devastated Israel in the North. These Israelis were scattered and never really recovered their lands for many hundreds of years and then only partially under domination. The Assyrians confident of victory marched on towards Jerusalem where a God fearing king had led a reformation. What followed was one of the most dramatic victories which we may look at later and the southern people survived for another hundred and twenty years. Amos predicted this devastation from riches to annihilation accurately. They took no notice of the warnings and suffered the consequences while the southern kingdom listened and acted.<br>Judgement inevitable<br>Amos reminds this northern kingdom that God had promised blessings but they had rejected God with a perversion of religion to injustice and decadence. God gave them five repeated stimuli to repent which were painful (famine, drought, plague etc.) but even then declares the Lord they had not returned to him. So a final disaster was coming. That disaster continued about five hundred years later when they asked the Romans to come in “to protect them from attacks” and suffered accordingly. The last few verses of the book reminded them of God’s original promise whose results were not seen for several thousands of years.<br>Questions<br>Amos uses amusement and basic language to get his message across. He must have offended a lot of people. Was that right? Are our rituals, attitudes and actions justifiable in the light of the general confession we recite each Sunday in church? Jesus used recreation in some of his parables. Was he seriously honest with things? Amos does finish his book with a message of restoration and hope.<br>Bob<br><br>
Thomas, seeing is believing ? The sincere melancholic. Thomas is recorded in the first three gospels as being chosen by Jesus to be one of the disciples. It is however John’s one that gives us also four incidents about Thomas illustrating his character and so what we might learn from his behaviour. Maybe that was because John, the academic, had sympathy for Thomas, the despondent pessimist. The first record is just before the crucifixion when Jesus and the group had left Jerusalem and went and hid in the countryside when they realised that the then church leaders were so jealous that they determined to do away with Jesus. The group was safe for the moment, but then Jesus tells them that he is going back. Thomas resignedly says “Let us also go that we may die with him”. Is this bravery or suicidal? This is just after Lazarus had died and dramatically come alive out of a sealed tomb. So Thomas must have been feeling confused. The fact that Lazarus is brought to life again and they all say they had seen him does not seem to cheer Thomas as it did the others. Muddled Not long after this the group did set out to go back to Jerusalem for the Passover feast where rumours that Jesus was on his way caused quite a crowd of people to gather to welcome him. The crowd were excited about Lazarus and really thought Jesus must be the promised one. They sang praises. But the church leaders were resentful saying “This is getting us nowhere, look how the whole world has gone after him”. That too must have made Thomas even more confused. Were the church leaders wrong? Then comes the last supper and Jesus talks about going away to prepare a place for them. Dear Thomas blurts out “Lord, we do not know where you are going so how can we know the way?” This prompts Jesus to give a straight answer when he says “I am the way the truth and the life”. The word he uses for “way” (odos) has two meanings which may not be obvious in English. They are “the entrance” and “the journey”. This must have muddled poor Thomas even more after the celebrations of the crowds, the threats of the church leaders and the secret venue for their meal. Entrance yes, but a journey can go on for a long time perhaps, he thinks. Proof needed Now to add to Thomas’ confusion Jesus has just said he is the journey and gets killed most unpleasantly. We do not know if Thomas witnessed the death, but he had no doubts at all that it was final. His melancholia returns and, although he had seen Lazarus come back to life after four days, he feels he cannot share the rest of the group’s excitement when they say they have “seen the Lord”. He wants visual proofs of scars. “Unless I have touched him and seen his hands, I cannot believe”. John, who records this in his gospel, is also keen on proofs as he says in his epistle ”things we have heard and seen with our eyes and touched we declare unto you”. John has gone from belief to knowing. He had no doubts. A week later Jesus appears again, exactly knows Thomas’ doubts and in an act of sympathy and love tells Thomas to put his finger on the nail holes in his hands and shows him his side where the spear went. I can imagine the grin on Jesus’ face as he said that. Jesus knew. Thomas does not put out his finger but obeys Jesus’ command “stop doubting and believe”. His reaction was immediate “My Lord and my God”. Not “you are God”, it was “my God”. Jesus then comes out with that wonderful promise “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”. Proof got At Jesus’ first meeting with the group they thought they had seen a ghost. Jesus actually says “touch me and see, a ghost does not have flesh and bones”. He asks for something to eat and has some broiled fish. Ghosts don’t eat food. A week or so later, just to confirm that he was not an apparition, Jesus is recorded as showing himself to Thomas and the rest of the group who had got depressed again. They had decided to go fishing and saw someone on the shore cooking who asked whether they had caught anything and got that silly advice to try the other side of the boat where there probably was not the equipment for lifting a net. “We always put the net out on this side”. You can imagine the exclamations when they had counted one hundred and fifty three fish. They all breakfasted on fish and bread. Then the ascension and “a cloud took him out of their sight”. Contemporary records tell us that the group of disciples, faced with the impending persecution of Christians and destruction of most of Jerusalem, divided up the known world between them. Thomas was allocated the East to India. The records tell us that he was captured and sold as a slave to a merchant going to India. That got him there for free where he started telling people about Jesus and then founded the Syrian Christian community for which there is still some evidence. Questions. Why is all this recorded for us in the Bible? What can we learn from it? Sometimes it cannot be wrong to admit to doubts or lacks of understanding. Jesus himself prayed “Why have you forsaken me?”. Any man born blind who is told about the difference between red and blue cannot understand. He has to accept and trust. Jesus knew about Thomas’ doubts without being told. Thomas needed tactile evidence. Even then he was not ashamed to ask “show me the way”. Is that a fair prayer for us? What evidence should we need to convince other people? Thomas needed several thumps before he said “My God”. References: Greek lexicon, English NIV. Commentaries. Google Josephus .Bob
ReputationsA reputation formed. The Bible is not a linear history book. It is a series of records that God has selected and wants us to learn from. These incidents recorded below cover a period of about fifty or so years around the time of the exiles in 600 BC. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the very powerful city of Babylon which had raided Jerusalem several times and captured the sacred jewels from the temple and took captives men with potential. Among these captives were Daniel and his three friends. They were sent at royal expense, to the top Babylonian University which had an international reputation to develop their knowledge and skills. That gave Daniel a problem as the University meat rations were from animals sacrificed to Bel and other local idols, so he resolved to go vegetarian. The authorities were sceptical but gave him a three month trial and surprisingly found that he seemed to look better than other students. Daniel now had a reputation. Meanwhile Daniel’s three friends also gained a reputation when they did not bow down to a statue. As a punishment they were thrown into the local blast furnace. These furnaces were fed on tar and bitumen and were the source of much metal production, particularly iron and steel. When the three walked out without even the smell of burning tar on them, the king promoted them to senior government positions. Those three were called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who I remembered as Shake-a-bed, Make-a-bed and A-bed-we-go some eighty years ago.A reputation justified. The walls round Babylon city were so thick and wide that four chariots could drive side by side along the top. Huge gates. Absolute security. No worries, even when a small army under Darius the Persian came up and camped round the city. To demonstrate their confidence, Belshazzar who had succeeded Nebuchadnezzar as king got out the golden goblets that had been taken from the Jerusalem temple to show off at a big feast he was giving. (some politicians don’t change much do they?) In the middle of the feast a hand appeared and wrote four words on the wall which no one could understand. “Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin”. The king was so scared that, on the advice of his wife, he got his star student Daniel in to translate. The translation is simple “God has numbered your days and they don’t add up. You have been weighed and you don’t weigh much. Your kingdom has been divided”. (Message) Disaster is forecast. Belshazzar the king was amazed and Daniel and co were further honoured and rewarded, but the warning was ignored.A reputation resented. Meanwhile, Darius had not been idle and had dug a bypass for the river that flowed through the city. In the middle of the feast, he opened the sluices and the water stopped going through the city. All the water ran round the new bypass. The old riverbed became dry. Darius walked in with his army. The kingdom was certainly divided. The record is terse: “At that same night the Babylonian king Belshazzar was murdered and Darius the Mede succeeded him as king aged sixty two.” The new king divided the country up into admin areas and appointed governors for each. Daniel got one and did so well that the new king decided to appoint him supreme governor over all the others who were naturally jealous. They thought that the only way to get at Daniel was to pretend he was disloyal. They persuaded the king to issue a decree that all prayers for the next month must be made only to the king or be lion feed. These pet lions were kept on a diet of two sheep and a human prisoner every day according to Josephus.A reputation tested. Daniel is undeterred and, as was his habit, made his daily prayers to God by the window. The other governors saw him and thought they had won and reported to the king who realised he had been tricked and objected but had to keep to the decree. In front of witnesses Daniel is sealed into the lion cage. The next morning Daniel is pulled out unharmed and the other scheming governors take his place to the delight of the lions who liked fresh meat. The king Darius issues a new decree that Daniel’s “God is the living God, world without end. His kingdom never fails. He is a saviour”. Daniel is treated well from then on and into the reign of Cyrus, who became king of all the Medes and Persians. Daniel does have another dream which forecasts accurately the great empires of the Persians, then the Greeks and finally the Romans. Perhaps for future articles.Questions. Why are these incidences recorded for us now? What should we learn in 2026? Was Daniel’s capture a disaster or was it a part of God’s plan? Was Belshazzar wrong to use the sacred cups for a party? The promise of inevitable judgement is repeated from Genesis to Revelation. God is that judge, not us. The meaning of the inscription written on the wall at the feast is translated in our AV Bibles “You are weighed in the balances and found wanting”. That observation was scary. It must have worried the king yet all he did was to give Danel a promotion and go on with the feast. Jealousy and pride are very strong motivators of behaviour. Do we recognise them in international relations? Being a Christian is considered by some, a soft option. Works like feeding the poor, providing housing, making reparations, net zero, levelling up and other good works without faith may be as good as leaving Christ out of Christian behaviour. Is it like that now? Rules precedent over love? Jesus wept over Jerusalem saying that disaster would come on it “because you did not recognise the time of God’s coming to you”. He said nothing about good works. (Luke 21) But faith without works is dead we are told in the Epistles. Daniel must have had some faith when he prayed by the window and said, “My God is able”. He lived up to his reputation. Quotes from AV and Message BibleBob
The results of habit: JosiahHistory. Hezekiah had been a good king, but his son was not. That son Manasseh reigned for 35 years, perhaps longer than any other Judean king. Practices, rituals and habits under him became the norm and were accepted. He was bad, put idols all round what was left of the temple Solomon had built about 400 years before. When he died the officials had a rebellion and the heir only lasted two years as king, before they assassinated him. That left a boy of eight called Josiah to become king of a disorganised state that had forgotten God. The story that followed is repeated almost verbatim in our bibles in Kings and Chronicles, so it might be important. This boy, Josiah, took time to find out what was happening. He was probably at school with a lad called Jeremiah who was a great and wise thinker. We are told that Josiah had a “tender heart”.<br>Do good. When Josiah was sixteen his school must have told him about history and what David had done in setting up the state. So he gave orders to start clearing out the idols, to cut down and smash the Asherah poles not only in Jerusalem but also in the surrounding settlements. In the temple they found and threw out many old things and intricate images. Some of the scrolls looked interesting and they kept them and some of the educated priests started to read them. Josiah was not a bad boy and got rid of many of the bad things, but he was not yet doing many of the good things. One of the first good things he did was to use up some of the tax money to pay craftsmen to repair the temple and clear out some of those back rooms where ornaments and valuable things given in lieu of tax were stored. Lots of good works, and he was still only twenty four years old.<br>Think good. It was in these back rooms that they found some old scrolls (books to us) and they started to read them. Dr Whyte says in his commentary that without Josiah’s spring cleaning we may not have heard about the creation, the exodus or even Moses and the ten commandments as these scrolls could have been the only copies of all the first five books of our bibles. Modern scholars teach that the “Book of the Law” that they had found was our book Deuteronomy. The word Deuteronomy means “repetition or copy of the law”. The book summarises the commandments and forecasts disaster on those who ignore it. They had found Moses’s records of the start of their nation and what God had done for them by bringing them out of slavery in Egypt and into the fertile land where they were now. They were so excited that they went and read it all to king Josiah. He seems to have been ignorant of what God had done for them in the past and he made the sign of great drama by “rending his clothes”. (This was probably only his royal robe, so don’t worry). Not content with being sorry, he decides to so something and tells the High Priest and his aides to find a wise woman and pray for him. They go for advice to a wise woman or prophetess. Their prayer is answered when they consult this old lady called Hulda – probably a second cousin to Jeremiah, as she had a reputation of being wise and close to God. She is said to be one of the seven prophetesses mentioned in the Hebrew calendar.<br>Sorry. She was brave and honest. She tells them bluntly that, because the people had turned away from God, all the disasters foretold in the book would happen - but not for some time now that the king was really sorry. King Josiah will have peace if he honours God before the disaster overtakes the nation. “Because you took seriously and responded in humble repentance, tearing your robe in dismay and weeping before me, I am taking you seriously. I’ll take care of you. You won’t be around to see the doom I am going to bring on this place and people.” That was God’s message from Hulda.<br>Acts good. Just being sorry was not good enough. Now Josiah acts. He assembles all the people and reads this “book of the law” in public. They too are excited and take it to heart and commit themselves to obey the rules. These are not just the ten commandments, but also some detailed principles for living. Actions are dramatic. There were a lot of habits to break. They broke down the shrines and altars which had been built for the “vile and detestable” deities. One was even where they had sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. (Was a kiln worse than the pill?) The quarters for the male prostitutes were knocked down. Then Josiah immediately calls all the people together to celebrate the Passover feast – that was in memory of when those who trusted and obeyed then survived when escaping Egypt. (now our modern Communion). Temple worship is restarted with a feast that Josiah provided. Everything was done properly, as in the rules Moses had recorded in the scrolls. Josiah led a reformation. There are said to be over 100 references to and quotes from Deuteronomy in the New Testament, many by Jesus Himself. The reformation petered out within a few years of Josiah’s death and the old habits started again.<br>Lessons. The country had been politically stable but religiously devoid. Jesus quotes the Old Testament to explain about Himself. Jesus says it is now by faith we are saved, not just by keeping rules The Epistles are full of references to “the law”. Would we have reacted in the same way when hearing Deuteronomy or even the whole Pentateuch read out? What do we learn from Moses and those other old ones? Do we ever take notice of old ladies’ opinions? Or even from Josiah? Being sorry. Prayer. Making decisions. Taking action. Persisting. The people didn’t. They were back to their rituals within a few years. Habits die hard. Leadership is needed. Josiah died in 606 BC and his reforms were soon ignored. What should have been done to prevent this retrogression away from God? Would a suitable leader have made any difference? Should Josiah have been training leaders? What are the qualities of a good leader? Was Josiah’s reformation based on fears rather than love? Is a Trump-like imposed approach to change destined to be temporary? Nine years later in 597 the Babylonians “resettled” those with potential to Babylon (Daniel was among them). The remnant still had not learned and revolted. So the Babylonians came back in 595 to devastate the temple, Jerusalem and the country. Hulda was right. It was a long time before the city was resettled. See Haggai and other minor prophets. .<br>Sources: Bible: 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, Josephus, commentaries and of course, Google.<br>Bob<br> <br><br>
