Daily Devotional • December 2
A Reading from Amos 3:1-11
1 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
2 You only have I known
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities.
3 Do two walk together
unless they have made an appointment?
4 Does a lion roar in the forest
when it has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from its den
if it has caught nothing?
5 Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth
when there is no trap for it?
Does a snare spring up from the ground
when it has taken nothing?
6 Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster befall a city
unless the Lord has done it?
7 Surely the Lord God does nothing
without revealing his secret
to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
who can but prophesy?
9 Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod
and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,
and say, “Assemble yourselves on Mount Samaria,
and see what great tumults are within it
and what oppressions are in its midst.”
10 They do not know how to do right, says the Lord,
those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.
11 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
An adversary shall surround the land
and strip you of your defense,
and your strongholds shall be plundered.
Meditation
Now in written form, Amos’s message goes back to the northern kingdom of Israel. Under obedience to God, Amos went there and delivered the prophecy that condemned the land for its apostasies and defiances, and he was shouted down and expelled. Now the prophecy is written down—a new thing!—and is being reproclaimed in the land whose leaders had squashed it.
“The Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear?” The promise of coming punishment is clear and strong: “An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.” But this is not a revengeful threat that everything is about to be exterminated; rather, it is a rigorous cleansing. The Lord promises that he will punish the land “for all [its] iniquities,” but only because “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.”
C. S. Lewis points out in his writings many times that, when necessary, God’s love is very stern. “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11). The message in today’s reading is that the coming punishment is obviously needed, and obviously coming. “Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey?” I.e. “You leaders of Israel can silence the prophecy, but you cannot keep it from being fulfilled.” Many passages in Scripture show God’s desire to cleanse and renew the land, and that there were many, many of its citizens who welcomed it eagerly.
David Baumann is a published writer of nonfiction, science fiction, and short stories. In his ministry as an Episcopal priest, he served congregations in Illinois and California.
♱
Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
All Souls’ Church, Oklahoma City
The Diocese of Rumbek – Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan
This ministry of The Living Church Foundation is made possible in part by a special bequest from the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer.
