The Berean Pursuit
This is what the Lord GOD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts just after the king's harvest, as the late spring crop was coming up. And when the locusts had eaten every green plant in the land, I said, "Lord GOD, please forgive! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?"
So the LORD relented from this plan. "It will not happen," He said.
This is what the Lord GOD showed me: The Lord GOD was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. Then I said, "Lord GOD, please stop! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?"
So the LORD relented from this plan. "It will not happen either," said the Lord GOD.
This is what He showed me: Behold, the Lord was standing by a wall true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand. "Amos, what do you see?" asked the LORD.
"A plumb line," I replied.
"Behold," said the Lord, "I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel; I will no longer spare them:
The high places of Isaac will be deserted,
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste;
and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam
with My sword."
Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words, for this is what Amos has said:
'Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely go into exile,
away from their homeland.'?"
And Amaziah said to Amos, "Go away, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah; earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. But never prophesy at Bethel again, because it is the sanctuary of the king and the temple of the kingdom."
"I was not a prophet," Amos replied, "nor was I the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from following the flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel.'
Now, therefore, hear the word of the LORD. You say:
'Do not prophesy against Israel;
do not preach against the house of Isaac.'
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 divided by a measuring line,
and you yourself will die on pagan soil.
And Israel will surely go into exile,
away from their homeland.'?"
This is what the Lord GOD showed me: I saw a basket of summer fruit.
"Amos, what do you see?" He asked.
"A basket of summer fruit," I replied.
So the LORD said to me, "The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them."
"In that day," declares the Lord GOD, "the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!"
Hear this, you who trample the needy,
who do away with the poor of the land,
asking, "When will the New Moon be over,
that we may sell grain?
When will the Sabbath end,
that we may market wheat?
Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel;
let us cheat with dishonest scales.
Let us buy the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the chaff with the wheat!"
The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob:
"I will never forget any of their deeds.
Will not the land quake for this,
and all its dwellers mourn?
All of it will swell like the Nile;
it will surge and then subside
like the Nile in Egypt.
And in that day,
declares the Lord GOD,
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and I will darken the earth in the daytime.
I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation.
I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth
and every head to be shaved.
I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son,
and its outcome like a bitter day.
Behold, the days are coming,
declares the Lord GOD,
when I will send a famine on the land-
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
People will stagger from sea to sea
and roam from north to east,
seeking the word of the LORD,
but they will not find it.
In that day the lovely young women-
the young men as well-
will faint from thirst.
Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria
and say, 'As surely as your god lives, O Dan,'
or, 'As surely as the way of Beersheba lives'-
they will fall, never to rise again."
I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said:
"Strike the tops of the pillars
so that the thresholds shake.
Topple them on the heads of all the people,
and I will kill the rest with the sword.
None of those who flee will get away;
none of the fugitives will escape.
Though they dig down to Sheol,
from there My hand will take them;
and though they climb up to heaven,
from there I will pull them down.
Though they hide themselves atop Carmel,
there I will track them and seize them;
and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent to bite them.
Though they are driven by their enemies into captivity,
there I will command the sword to slay them.
I will fix My eyes upon them
for harm and not for good."
The Lord GOD of Hosts,
He who touches the earth and it melts,
and all its dwellers mourn-
all the land rises like the Nile,
then sinks like the river of Egypt-
He builds His upper rooms in the heavens
and founds His vault upon the earth.
He summons the waters of the sea
and pours them over the face of the earth.
The LORD is His name.
"Are you not like the Cushites to Me,
O children of Israel?"
declares the LORD.
"Did I not bring Israel
up from the land of Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor,
and the Arameans from Kir?
Surely the eyes of the Lord GOD
are on the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,"
declares the LORD.
"For surely I will give the command,
and I will shake the house of Israel
among all the nations
as grain is sifted in a sieve;
but not a pebble will reach the ground.
All the sinners among My people
will die by the sword-
all those who say,
'Disaster will never draw near or confront us.'?"
"In that day I will restore
the fallen tent of David.
I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old,
that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations that bear My name,"
declares the LORD, who will do this.
"Behold, the days are coming,"
declares the LORD,
"when the plowman will overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes, the sower of seed.
The mountains will drip with sweet wine,
with which all the hills will flow.
I will restore My people Israel from captivity;
they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
I will firmly plant them in their own land,
never again to be uprooted
from the land that I have given them,"
says the LORD your God.
Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands before they eat."
Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if anyone says to his father or mother, 'Whatever you would have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he need not honor his father or mother with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you:
'These people honor Me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from Me.
They worship Me in vain;
they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.'"
Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, "Listen and understand. A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it."
Then the disciples came to Him and said, "Are You aware that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?"
But Jesus replied, "Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots. Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."
Peter said to Him, "Explain this parable to us."
"Do you still not understand?" Jesus asked. "Do you not yet realize that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then is eliminated? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. These are what defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile him."
Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman from that region came to Him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is miserably possessed by a demon."
But Jesus did not answer a word. So His disciples came and urged Him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."
He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
The woman came and knelt before Him. "Lord, help me!" she said.
But Jesus replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs."
"Yes, Lord," she said, "even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table."
"O woman," Jesus answered, "your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Moving on from there, Jesus went along the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up on a mountain and sat down. Large crowds came to Him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and laid them at His feet, and He healed them. The crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.
Then Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, "I have compassion for this crowd, because they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may faint along the way."
The disciples replied, "Where in this desolate place could we find enough bread to feed such a large crowd?"
"How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked.
"Seven," they replied, "and a few small fish."
And He instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground. Taking the seven loaves and the fish, He gave thanks and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. A total of four thousand men were fed, in addition to women and children.
After Jesus had dismissed the crowds, He got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.