Amos 3:1-11

3:1 Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

2 You only have I known

of all the families of the earth;

therefore I will punish you

for all your iniquities.

3 Do two walk together

unless they have made an appointment?

4 Does a lion roar in the forest,

when it has no prey?

Does a young lion cry out from its den,

if it has caught nothing?

5 Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth,

when there is no trap for it?

Does a snare spring up from the ground,

when it has taken nothing?

6 Is a trumpet blown in a city,

and the people are not afraid?

Does disaster befall a city,

unless the LORD has done it?

7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing,

without revealing his secret

to his servants the prophets.

8 The lion has roared;

who will not fear?

The Lord GOD has spoken;

who can but prophesy?

9 Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod,

and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,

and say, "Assemble yourselves on Mount Samaria,

and see what great tumults are within it,

and what oppressions are in its midst."

10 They do not know how to do right, says the LORD,

those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.

11 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:

An adversary shall surround the land,

and strip you of your defense;

and your strongholds shall be plundered. (Amos 3:1-11, NRSV)

Readings for Tuesday focus on the role of the prophet as the voice, the "trumpet blast" or "lion's roar" of God. In a certain sense, Jesus' cleansing of the temple continues the voice of prophecy which calls the people to account. Amos points out Israel's favored position,, "You only have I known/of all the families of the earth," to follow by holding them all the more accountable, "therefore I will punish you/for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2). A series of questions makes a point about cause and effect: "Does a lion roar in the forest,/when it has no prey?" (v. 4a). "Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth,/when there is no trap for it? (v. 5a). Amos prophecies because "the LORD God has spoken" (v. 8). God is the lion who "roared" (v. 8) and the one who blew a "trumpet" (v. 6). But for the people, it must have seemed that the roar and the trumpet blast came from Amos.

Earlier, Amos denounced the neighboring nations as he led up to denouncing Israel. Now he calls upon neighboring nations–Ashdod, that is, Philistia, and Egypt--as witnesses against Israel (v. 9, cf. Gregory Mobley, NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Amos 3:9-15) and his charge that "They do not know how to do right, says the LORD,/those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds./Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:/An adversary shall surround the land,/and strip you of your defense;/and your strongholds shall be plundered" (vv. 10-11). (Repeated with adaptation here from an Email message sent December 1, 2003, for ‘December 2, 2003.)

2 Peter 1:12-21

12 Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, 14 since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

Eyewitnesses of Christ's Glory (Mt 17.5; Mk 9.7; Lk 9.35)

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." 18 We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

19 So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (2 Peter 1:12-21, NRSV)

Peter anticipates his death with reminders of his teaching "so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things" (2 Pet. 1:12-15). He reminds the readers that the apostles had been "eyewitnesses" of the "majesty" of the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 16), in particular, at the time of the Transfiguration "while we were with him on the holy mountain" (v. 18). Through this apostolic witness to the majesty of Christ, prophecy is confirmed (v. 19). Prophecy is not merely the human voice of the prophet (v. 20), but the voice of God speaking through the prophet who is "moved by the Holy Spirit" (v. 21).. (This paragraph is repeated here from an Email message sent December 1, 2003, for ‘December 2, 2003.)

Patrick A. Tiller sums this passage up as “Three Solemn Appeals. The writer makes a solemn appeal to Peter’s final words before his death, the Transfiguration of Jesus, and prophetic scripture to reinforce the reliability of the message” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., on 2 Pet. 1:12-21). He adds that “The reference to Peter’s death transforms the letter into a kind of testament in which the speaker gives ethical exhortations and warnings about the future based on his own past experience” (Tiller, on vv. 12-15). The message is not “cleverly devised myths” but the report of “eyewitnesses” (v. 16). Peter is an eyewitness to the Transfiguration and the voice from heaven, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (v. 17; cf. Mt. 17:1-8; Mk. 9:2-8; Lk. 9:28-36). The emphasis upon prophecy (v. 19) is characterized as public, not private (v. 20), because of its origin as “men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (v. 21). He speaks here of the Hebrew Bible and its prophetic message about Christ. But later he includes the writings of Paul (2 Pet. 3:15-16) as writings “which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures” (v. 16, my emphasis). Even though “There are some things in them hard to understand” (v. 16), the writer views Paul’s writings as scripture.

Matthew 21:12-22

Jesus Cleanses the Temple (Mk 11.15-19; Lk 19.45-48; Jn 2.13-25)

12 Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 He said to them, “It is written,

'My house shall be called a house of prayer';

but you are making it a den of robbers.”

14 The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became angry 16 and said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,

'Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies

you have prepared praise for yourself'?”

17 He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree (Mk 11.12-14, 20-25)

18 In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!" And the fig tree withered at once. 20 When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?" 21 Jesus answered them, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' it will be done. 22 Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive." (Matthew 21:12-22, NRSV)

Matthew reports Jesus' Cleansing of the Temple (Mt. 21:12-17) and his Cursing of the Fig Tree (vv. 18:22). “The only cursing miracle in the Gospels emphasizes the power of faith and foreshadows the coming destruction of Israel” (D.C. Duling, HarperCollins Study Bible). As such it seems to relate to the point of the Cleansing of the Temple. “You are making it a den of robbers” (v. 12). We might remember that some Jews were also critical of those who controlled the temple. Herodian rulers appointed high priests without regard to succession from Aaron (Josephus). Earlier the successors of Judas Maccabeus had assumed royal titles, though not from the line of David, and also made themselves priests while, though from the tribe of Levi and the family of Matthias the Priest, they were not in the succession of Zadokite priests. The reaction of more pious Jews to this irregularity of succession, and probably also to various abuses and oppressions by the Hasmonean rulers, led to criticism of the established priesthood. The Habakkuk Commentary from Qumran, for example, calls the High Priest a “wicked priest.” We should “keep our own house in order,” so to speak. Let our churches be “houses of prayer,” and not “dens of robbers.”. (This paragraph is repeated here from an Email message sent December 1, 2003, for ‘December 2, 2003.)

Matthew reports the anger of the chief priests and scribes at Jesus’ cleansing of the temple (Mt. 21:15), which emphasizes this event as a decisive factor in the decision of the Jewish leaders do eliminate Jesus (cf. Mk. 11:18; Lk. 19:47-48). John, who apparently places the Cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (Jn. 2:13-17), arranges his narrative to highlight the raising of Lazarus (Jn. 11:1-44) as the “last straw,” so to speak, which precipitated the Pharisees’ and Chief Priests’ decisive action against him (Jn. 11:46-48). The sequence varies, but the Cursing of the Fig Tree (Mt. 21:18-22; Mk. 11:12-14, 20-25), the Question about Authority (Mt. 21:23-27; Mk. 11:27-33; Lk. 20:1-8), the Parable of the Two Sons (Mt. 21:28-32), and the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen (Mt. 21:33-46; Mk. 12:1-12; Lk. 20:9-19) all occur in close proximity to the Cleansing of the Temple. We must continually remind ourselves that this opposition came from a small handful of Jewish leaders at the time, and not Jews in general then or now.

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

rworden@houston.rr.com