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October 29, 2024; Day 3 of Week 31
- 2024/10/29
- 再生時間： 10 分
- ポッドキャスト
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サマリー
あらすじ・解説
Daily Dose of Hope October 29, 2024 Day 3 of Week 31 Scripture: Amos 1-3; Matthew 13 Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope! I want to extend a huge thank you to Pastor Roberto who helped with this devotional while I was traveling in Mozambique. I’m back but still jet-lagged so forgive me if today’s post is not polished. I should mention that our trip to Mozambique was amazing. Zoe Empowers is the best poverty alleviation model I have ever seen and we witnessed the resilience of young people who will become leaders in their communities. Most importantly, they walk closely with Jesus and rely on his strength just to get by. To learn more about Zoe Empowers, be sure to check out their website at zoeempowers.org. With that, let’s move to our Scripture for today. We start with Amos 1-3. Amos was an unpopular prophet. He prophecies to the Northern Kingdom in the 8th century when Jeroboam II is king of Israel. This was a time of relative peace and prosperity for the area so the people thought this must mean that they had God’s blessing. Things are going pretty well, the upper crust are living the good life and here comes Amos with this message of warning. Financially, the northern kingdom was doing great. The land was producing well. There wasn’t any war. When Amos brings this warning of impending destruction, people thought he was crazy. Why did Amo’s bring this warning to the people of Israel? Well, because while some people were living quite well and enjoying the bounty of the land, many others were not. The first part of the book of Amos, the prophet is proclaiming judgment against the nations around Israel. You can kind of picture the people cheering him on at this point...But then, it gets personal. In chapter 2, God, through Amos, gives a running list of the sins that Israel had committed. Amos 2:6-8,This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not relent. They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. (While some were doing quite well and living a good life, others weren’t. In fact, there was gross income inequality. Many people were so poor, they were going into debt to buy small items. In fact, the good religious people were living quite well while many in their community were literally selling themselves into slavery to feed their family or being sold into slavery because they could not pay a debt. Amos is emphasizing the low value placed on human life. The prophet continues in 2:7...They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. (Again, those who are poor and vulnerable are being oppressed. The powerful landowners stepped on the poor by using the courts to twist justice. The poor were literally being treated like dirt. As the book continues, we see this theme woven throughout–those who are religious, those who profess faith in Yahweh, are either actively engaging in this oppression or apathetic to the suffering of those around them. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. (They misuse female slaves and break covenant with God) The Scripture continues in 2:8, They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their God they drink wine taken as fines. (Garments taken on pledge would be clothing or items taken from the poor to pay a debt, the wine also would have been collected on late debts...) All of these accusations had to do with oppressing the weak, the poor, the most vulnerable of society. God is saying that the injustices that the people commit repulse him. Thus, he rejects their worship. What does it mean when God rejects our worship? More on this tomorrow. Matthew 13 is our New Testament chapter. It includes quite a few of Jesus’ most famous parables. I thought today that I would focus on the parable of the wheat and the weeds. It’s powerful and it isn’t one we talk about a lot. In this parable, the owner sows good seed but the enemy comes in the dark of night and sows weeds. The workers are understandably upset and ask the owner if he caused this. This is actually a theodicy question–God, we thought you were good, why did you allow the “weeds” to grow in our lives? As believers, it is okay to question God and ask why the horrible occurred. This theology of protest doesn’t demonstrate a lack of faith, but actually is an expression of faith. Jesus also addresses the source of the weeds–the enemy has spread them. God is not the source of evil–God does not cause evil to occur so that we might grow spiritually or to perpetuate some grander divine plan. Rather, God’s enemy is the source of all evil. Matthew 13:39 refers to the devil as God’s enemy. Evil (Satan, the devil, whatever term you prefer) is a real force which both inhabits and transcends individuals, families, communities, nations, cultures, and economic structures. Why doesn’t the ...