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Isaiah 15-17
Chapters 15-16 are for the land of Moab, descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot. The Moabites have long been deep in idolatry, but there is a sad tone to this prophecy. The LORD isn’t exulting over their destruction. This feels more like grief: 😭 “My heart weeps for Moab. Its people flee to Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah.…
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Isaiah 13-14
“The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.”Isaiah 13:1 ESV 🤔 What exactly is an “oracle?” The Hebrew word is massa and it means “a burden,” or something that you carry. Isaiah and the other prophets were given weighty messages from God to humanity. They had to carry those heavy words and…
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2 Kings 17
Meanwhile in Israel… The end has come. While Ahaz is leading Judah further into idolatry, a man named Hoshea becomes the last king of Israel. He isn’t descended from any of Israel’s previous kings. He formed a conspiracy and assassinated the previous king Pekah (boo… Drat. I can’t unthink that now); who Josephus says was…
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2 Chronicles 28, 2 Kings 16
After well over a century of good kings, Judah gets a bad apple. 🍎 Ahaz. And true to the proverb, this bad apple spoiled the whole barrel. Ahaz was wicked from the start at age 20, which kind of makes you wonder about his upbringing. Jotham was a good and Godly king but the people…
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Micah 6-7
Yahweh brings His indictment of the people. Or, we might say, He has “a bone to pick” with them. It’s as if He asks, “What did I ever do to deserve your disloyalty? Was it when I rescued you from slavery in Egypt? Or maybe when I drove out nations stronger than you and gave…
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Micah 3-5
In chapter 3 Micah takes the leaders in Jerusalem to task. It’s bad… “Listen to me, you leaders of Israel! You hate justice and twist all that is right. You are building Jerusalem on a foundation of murder and corruption. You rulers make decisions based on bribes; you priests teach God’s laws only for a…
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Micah 1-2
Micah of Moresheth was prophesying at the same time as Isaiah and Amos and Hosea. His messages were primarily aimed at the southern kingdom of Judah. I have yet to show you the end of that timeline we’ve been using to know where we are in the history of Israel and Judah. Let’s look at…
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Isaiah 10-12
These 3 chapters tell a grand story. And don’t worry. There are pictures. Assyria will be the axe 🪓 in the hand of Yahweh the Lumberjack. And Yahweh will level the forest that He Himself planted. 🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳 Israel will look like this: But then the axe (Assyria) will take the credit for all of the…
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2 Chronicles 27, Isaiah 9
Jotham means “Jehovah is perfect.” He was the son of Uzziah and he began his governing duties as a very young man when his father was struck with leprosy. Before his father died, the land endured a terrible earthquake. The earthquake is most likely the reason for Jotham’s many building and fortification projects. It had…
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Amos 7-9
Locusts, Fire, and a Plumb Line. Amos has 3 visions. The first two – the locusts 🦗 and the fire 🔥 – are so bad that Amos intercedes, “Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.”Amos 7:5 NLT And twice the LORD relents. Let’s pause…
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Amos 4-6
This is sobering content. (And yes, I have made an adjustment to the schedule. I will cover Amos 7-9 tomorrow.) For all the people that think of the God of the Bible as some cosmic Santa who winks at sin and is basically a kind, old, grandfatherly figure in the sky, Amos smacks that image…
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Amos 1-3
We’ve gone back just a little bit in time… Archeological evidence backs up the earthquake mentioned in Amos 1:1. It was massive; likely a magnitude of 7.8 – 9.0!! Josephus says that the earthquake happened at the same time as Uzziah attempting to burn incense in the Temple. And it may have, but I find…
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