For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
If you become filled with pride, you will end up humiliated. However, if you humbly do your best, recognizing that others are just as important as you, you will be honored.
Let us calm and quiet ourselves. I will not fret about things I cannot understand. I will trust God to make them clear to me in His own time. I will humbly rely on the knowledge that God understands those things. I will not proudly and haughtily declare that I understand things which I do not.
I notice a theme here today. I know that I regularly need a reminder to be humble. Things go well for me for awhile and I promptly begin to think I am better than others. Then God reminds me that all that I have and am is a gift from Him. Today’s proverb and psalm are a reminder for me to not forget that.
The message to the church at Philadelphia commended them for recognizing the opportunity which God had provided them and taking advantage of it. It also commended them for recognizing that they needed to rely on God to overcome. We are called on to recognize our weakness, to remain humble. All God asks of us is that we persevere. He will do the rest. In many ways the church at Loadicea was the opposite of the church at Philadelphia. They thought they had everything they needed. They did not need God’s help. They were not seeking God. The message to them paints one of the great pictures of our relationship with God. God is standing at our door, knocking. All we have to do is open the door and invite Him in. Will you invite Jesus into your life and share a meal with Him?
God sent two visions of the judgment He planned to send against Israel, one of locusts, one of fire. In both cases, Amos plead with God to not do as the visions showed and God relented. However, God sent Amos a third prophecy of the destruction He was going to bring against Israel. This time God declared that He would not be dissuaded. God would no longer put off His judgment against those who were anxious to finish their worship and religious observations so that they could get back to oppressing the poor. God will not forestall His judgment of those who cheat others and oppress the poor just because they follow the correct forms.
This prophecy was not just for the people of Amos’ day. God is bringing His judgment against those who use their power and wealth to cheat and steal from those less wealthy or powerful than themselves. The Israelites were not more important to God than the Ethiopians, or the Philistines, or the Arameans. In like manner, we are not more important to God today than those from other nations. The day is coming when God will shake all of the nations so that He can separate the grain from the chaff.