Amos 7:10-17

Amaziah Complains to the King

10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,

'Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

and Israel must go into exile

away from his land.' "

12 And Amaziah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom."

14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, 15 and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'

16 "Now therefore hear the word of the LORD.

You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel,

and do not preach against the house of Isaac.'

17 Therefore thus says the LORD:

'Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,

and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,

and your land shall be parceled out by line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.' " (Amos 7:10-17, NRSV)

Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, reports on Amos' prophetic activity to the king (Jeroboam II). Amos has said "Jeroboam shall die by the sword,/and Israel must go into exile/away from his land" (Amos 7:11). So Amaziah tells Amos to get lost! "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah...and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom" (vv. 12-13). But Amos' response is immediate and severe. Among other judgments he tells Amaziah, "your land shall be parceled out by line;/you yourself shall die in an unclean land,/and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land" (v. 17). The time when Jeroboam II was king of the northern kingdom of Israel has been called a "second golden age," the first being the times of David and Solomon. The prosperity of this time is evident in the luxuries which Amos condemns, e.g. double houses, "winter" and summer," and "houses of ivory" (3:15), "beds of ivory" (6:4), idle pursuits (6:5-6), not a condemnation of riches per se, but rather because they have been accumulated through unjust practices (2:7-8; 4:1; 5:24; 6:12-13). It did not take long for Amos' predictions of disaster to be fulfilled. The tragic and precipitous downfall of the northern kingdom after Jeroboam's time is interspersed with the ongoing story of the southern kingdom of Judah in 2 Kings 15-17. Of the six kings who succeeded Jeroboam, four took the throne by conspiracy, usurpation, each killing his predecessor (2 Kgs. 15:10, 14, 25, 30), this in the shadow of the advancing Assyrian menace. (The above comments are repeated here from an email sent December 8, 2003, for December 9, 2003.) Additional details of the northern kingdom’s precipitous slide from prosperity to oblivion were noted yesterday. Lord, save us from such a fate!

Revelation 1:9-16

9 I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, "Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."

12 Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. 14 His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force. (Revelation 1:9-16, NRSV)

John continues to address “the seven churches that are in Asia” (Rev. 1:4), as noted yesterday, but his audience is not limited to those churches when he identifies himself as “I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance” (v. 9). After each church is addressed in turn (chaps. 2, 3), the book is addressed to one and all among Christian believers, and the book closes with the Lord’s open-ended invitation, “‘Come!’/And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come!’/And let everyone who is thirsty come./Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift” (Rev. 22:17). But in today’s reading John is instructed to “write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches” (1:11). These churches are symbolized by the “seven golden lampstands” (v. 12).

(The remaining comments on this passage are repeated with minor adaptation from an E-mail message sent December 8, 2003, for December 9, 2003.) In the midst of the seven lampstands John saw "one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire,...In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force" (Rev. 1:13-16). "In the midst of the churches stands the the exalted Christ, whose royalty, eternity, wisdom, and immutability are suggested by means of symbols; the effect is that of terrifying majesty" (B.M. Metzger, NOAB, 2^nd ed., on vv. 12-16). As the vision continues (tomorrow’s reading), the Lord commissions John to "write" (v. 19), after words of reassurance, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades" (vv. 17-18).

Matthew 22:34-46

The Greatest Commandment (Mk 12.28-34; Lk 10.25-28)

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 37 He said to him, " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

The Question about David's Son (Mk 12.35-37; Lk 20.41-44)

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42 "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." 43 He said to them, "How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,

44 'The Lord said to my Lord,

"Sit at my right hand,

until I put your enemies under your feet" '?

45 If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" 46 No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. (Matthew 22:34-46, NRSV)

Jesus answers a question from one of the Pharisees about "which commandment is the greatest" (Mt. 22:36) by citing the beginning of the Shema (Deut. 6:5) and Leviticus 19:18 (vv. 37, 39). He adds, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (v. 40). "The Law contains many ways of applying to life the principle of Love" (E.E. Tilden, B.M. Metzger, NOAB, 2^nd ed., on Mt. 22:40). Dale C. Allison, Jr., points out that Akiba, a leading rabbi and martyr in the time of the second Jewish revolt against Rome (early 2^nd century A.D.), called Leviticus 19:18 “the greatest principle in the law” (The Oxford Bible Commentary, 874, on Mt. 22:34-40, citing Sipre Lev. 19:18). Allison adds: “Together [these two commandments] summarizes the Decalogue (cf. Philo, Dec. 19-20, 50-1, 106-10, 121, 154). Jesus, although asked for the greatest commandment, answers with two which are inextricable.”

Then Jesus poses a question, citing Psalm 110:1, which understands the words "my Lord" in the line, "The LORD said to my Lord," as a reference to the Messiah. His implication is that King David has addressed the Messiah as "my Lord"! He points out another absurdity: “If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” (v. 45). The Messiah, it seems, cannot be both David’s Lord and David’s son. So, in the series of challenges by questioning, it appears that Jesus has the last word, to be followed (in readings Wed., Thurs. and Fri.) by his scathing criticism of the Pharisees. (Comments are repeated here with adaptation and supplement from an E-mail message sent December 8, 2003, for December 9, 2003.)

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

rworden@houston.rr.com