May 22 Daily Devotional

Amos 1–9

In the town of Tekoah, at the edge of the wilderness of Judah, there lived a man named Amos. He was a herdsman of sheep, who went about in spare time pruning sycamore trees or gathering figs for the market. While Amos was leading his sheep along the heights of Tekoah, and the breathless stillness hovered over the Judean hills, the voice of God spake to him, “Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.” So Amos came to Bethel, the splendid city, where Jeroboam had set up a golden calf, where wickedness prevailed.

There in the center of wealth and opulence he saw also the poor and needy, their backs bent beneath their burdens, their faces lean and hungry. There at Bethel Amos lifted up his voice, calling, “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! … Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph … The Lord God hath sworn by himself, saith the Lord the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces; therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein … Behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.”

“Thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel,” so the prophet of Tekoah went on, “Seek ye me, and ye shall live … Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: the Lord is his name … Seek good and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you … Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it … In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.”