The Berean Pursuit

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Week 31, Day 4
for the The Berean Pursuit

Jul 31, 2025
The reading for today is Amos 4-6; Psalm 55; Matthew 14
The text of the Berean Standard Bible is Public Domain

Amos 4

Hear this word,

you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,

you women who oppress the poor

and crush the needy,

who say to your husbands,

"Bring us more to drink."

The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness:

"Behold, the days are coming

when you will be taken away with hooks,

and your posterity with fishhooks.

You will go out through broken walls,

each one straight ahead of her,

and you will be cast out toward Harmon,"

declares the LORD.

"Go to Bethel and transgress;

rebel even more at Gilgal!

Bring your sacrifices every morning,

your tithes every three days.

Offer leavened bread as a thank offering,

and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings.

For that is what you children of Israel love to do,"

declares the Lord GOD.

"I beset all your cities with cleanness of teeth

and all your towns with lack of bread,

yet you did not return to Me,"

declares the LORD.

"I also withheld the rain from you

when the harvest was three months away.

I sent rain on one city

but withheld it from another.

One field received rain;

another without rain withered.

People staggered from city to city

for water to drink,

but they were not satisfied;

yet you did not return to Me,"

declares the LORD.

"I struck you with blight and mildew

in your growing gardens and vineyards;

the locust devoured your fig and olive trees,

yet you did not return to Me,"

declares the LORD.

"I sent plagues among you

like those of Egypt;

I killed your young men with the sword,

along with your captured horses.

I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp,

yet you did not return to Me,"

declares the LORD.

"Some of you I overthrew

as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze,

yet you did not return to Me,"

declares the LORD.

"Therefore, that is what I will do

to you, O Israel,

and since I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

For behold, He who forms the mountains,

who creates the wind

and reveals His thoughts to man,

who turns the dawn to darkness

and strides on the heights of the earth-

the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name."



Amos 5

Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:

"Fallen is Virgin Israel,

never to rise again.

She lies abandoned on her land,

with no one to raise her up."

This is what the Lord GOD says:

"The city that marches out a thousand strong

will only see a hundred return,

and the one that marches out a hundred strong

will have but ten left in the house of Israel."

For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel:

"Seek Me and live!

Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal;

do not journey to Beersheba,

for Gilgal will surely go into exile,

and Bethel will come to nothing.

Seek the LORD and live,

or He will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph;

it will devour everything,

with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.

There are those who turn justice into wormwood

and cast righteousness to the ground.

He who made the Pleiades and Orion,

who turns darkness into dawn

and darkens day into night,

who summons the waters of the sea

and pours them over the face of the earth-

the LORD is His name-

He flashes destruction on the strong,

so that fury comes upon the stronghold.

There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate

and despise him who speaks with integrity.

Therefore, because you trample on the poor

and exact from him a tax of grain,

you will never live

in the stone houses you have built;

you will never drink the wine

from the lush vineyards you have planted.

For I know that your transgressions are many

and your sins are numerous.

You oppress the righteous by taking bribes;

you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.

Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times,

for the days are evil.

Seek good, not evil,

so that you may live.

And the LORD, the God of Hosts,

will be with you, as you have claimed.

Hate evil and love good;

establish justice in the gate.

Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts,

will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."

Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:

"There will be wailing in all the public squares

and cries of 'Alas! Alas!' in all the streets.

The farmer will be summoned to mourn,

and the mourners to wail.

There will be wailing in all the vineyards,

for I will pass through your midst,"

says the LORD.

Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD!

What will the Day of the LORD be for you?

It will be darkness and not light.

It will be like a man who flees from a lion,

only to encounter a bear,

or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall,

only to be bitten by a snake.

Will not the Day of the LORD

be darkness and not light,

even gloom with no brightness in it?

"I hate, I despise your feasts!

I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

for your peace offerings of fattened cattle

I will have no regard.

Take away from Me the noise of your songs!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

But let justice roll on like a river,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings

forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

You have taken along Sakkuth your king

and Kaiwan your star god,

the idols you made for yourselves.

Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,"

says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.



Amos 6

Woe to those at ease in Zion

and those secure on Mount Samaria,

the distinguished ones of the foremost nation,

to whom the house of Israel comes.

Cross over to Calneh and see;

go from there to the great Hamath;

then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are you better than these kingdoms?

Is their territory larger than yours?

You dismiss the day of calamity

and bring near a reign of violence.

You lie on beds inlaid with ivory,

and lounge upon your couches.

You dine on lambs from the flock

and calves from the stall.

You improvise songs on the harp like David

and invent your own musical instruments.

You drink wine by the bowlful

and anoint yourselves with the finest oils,

but you fail to grieve

over the ruin of Joseph.

Therefore, you will now go into exile

as the first of the captives,

and your feasting and lounging

will come to an end.

The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself-the LORD, the God of Hosts, has declared:

"I abhor Jacob's pride

and detest his citadels,

so I will deliver up the city

and everything in it."

And if there are ten men left in one house, they too will die. And when the relative who is to burn the bodies picks them up to remove them from the house, he will call to one inside, "Is anyone else with you?"

"None," that person will answer.

"Silence," the relative will retort, "for the name of the LORD must not be invoked."

For the LORD gives a command:

"The great house will be smashed to pieces,

and the small house to rubble."

"Do horses gallop on the cliffs?

Does one plow the sea with oxen?

But you have turned justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood-

you who rejoice in Lo-debar and say,

'Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?'

For behold, I will raise up a nation

against you, O house of Israel,"

declares the LORD, the God of Hosts,

"and they will oppress you

from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of the Arabah."



Psalm 55

For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.

Listen to my prayer, O God,

and do not ignore my plea.

Attend to me and answer me.

I am restless in my complaint,

and distraught at the voice of the enemy,

at the pressure of the wicked.

For they release disaster upon me

and revile me in their anger.

My heart murmurs within me,

and the terrors of death assail me.

Fear and trembling grip me,

and horror has overwhelmed me.

I said, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and find rest.

How far away I would flee!

In the wilderness I would remain.

Selah

I would hurry to my shelter,

far from this raging tempest."

O Lord, confuse and confound their speech,

for I see violence and strife in the city.

Day and night they encircle the walls,

while malice and trouble lie within.

Destruction is within;

oppression and deceit never leave the streets.

For it is not an enemy who insults me;

that I could endure.

It is not a foe who rises against me;

from him I could hide.

But it is you, a man like myself,

my companion and close friend.

We shared sweet fellowship together;

we walked with the crowd into the house of God.

Let death seize them by surprise;

let them go down to Sheol alive,

for evil is with them in their homes.

But I call to God,

and the LORD saves me.

Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in distress,

and He hears my voice.

He redeems my soul in peace

from the battle waged against me,

even though many oppose me.

God will hear and humiliate them-

the One enthroned for the ages-

Selah

because they do not change

and they have no fear of God.

My companion attacks his friends;

he violates his covenant.

His speech is smooth as butter,

but war is in his heart.

His words are softer than oil,

yet they are swords unsheathed.

Cast your burden upon the LORD

and He will sustain you;

He will never let the righteous be shaken.

But You, O God, will bring them down

to the Pit of destruction;

men of bloodshed and deceit

will not live out half their days.

But I will trust in You.



Matthew 14

At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus and said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him."

Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because John had been telling him, "It is not lawful for you to have her." Although Herod wanted to kill John, he was afraid of the people, because they regarded John as a prophet.

On Herod's birthday, however, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give to her whatever she asked.

Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist."

The king was grieved, but because of his oaths and his guests, he ordered that her wish be granted and sent to have John beheaded in the prison.

John's head was brought in on a platter and presented to the girl, who carried it to her mother.

Then John's disciples came and took his body and buried it. And they went and informed Jesus.

When Jesus heard about John, He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. But the crowds found out about it and followed Him on foot from the towns. When He stepped ashore and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.

When evening came, the disciples came to Him and said, "This is a desolate place, and the hour is already late. Dismiss the crowds so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."

"They do not need to go away," Jesus replied. "You give them something to eat."

"We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered.

"Bring them here to Me," Jesus said. And He directed the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He spoke a blessing. Then He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.

They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About five thousand men were fed, in addition to women and children.

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowds. After He had sent them away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone, but the boat was already far from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified. "It's a ghost!" they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus spoke up at once: "Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid."

"Lord, if it is You," Peter replied, "command me to come to You on the water."

"Come," said Jesus.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"

Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and took hold of Peter. "You of little faith," He said, "why did you doubt?"

And when they had climbed back into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, "Truly You are the Son of God!"

When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding region. People brought all the sick to Him and begged Him just to let them touch the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were healed.



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