PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Thursday

Scripture lesson: Amos 7:7-17 Don't cross a prophet

Time to Reflect: True prophets often had to give negative oracles. Words from God that the people and kings did not want to hear. Words of criticism and condemnation. So the people tended to find “prophets” that gave them messages the people and kings wanted to hear: words of comfort and support and promises of victory and prosperity. The false prophet Amaziah told the true prophet Amos to go away. Read Amos' response.

Moving Through the Day: Think about who might be the true prophets and who might be the false prophets of our society.

Scripture: 7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos?"
      "A plumb line," I replied.
      Then the Lord said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

 9 "The high places of Isaac will be destroyed
       and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
       with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam."

Amos and Amaziah

 10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: "Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos is saying:
       " 'Jeroboam will die by the sword,
       and Israel will surely go into exile,
       away from their native land.' "

 12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don't prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom."

 14 Amos answered Amaziah, "I was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.' 16 Now then, hear the word of the LORD. You say,
       " 'Do not prophesy against Israel,
       and stop preaching against the house of Isaac.'

 17 "Therefore this is what the LORD says:
       " 'Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,
       and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.
       Your land will be measured and divided up,
       and you yourself will die in a pagan [a] country.
       And Israel will certainly go into exile,
       away from their native land.' "