Tag: Digging in Deeper

Digging in Deeper: Amos 8:1-2

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“The Lord God showed me this: a basket of summer fruit. He asked me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ I replied, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ The Lord said to me, ‘The end has come for my people Israel; I will no longer spare them.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

If you really want to learn the nuances of a foreign language, one of the best ways to go about doing that is by learning to read its poetry. Poetry is heavily rooted in imagery and sound play. Because of this, while you can translate the poem in order to understand all the words and maybe even grasp the poet’s point, without knowing the original language, there are elements the poet intended to be understood in certain ways you are nonetheless likely to miss. This all comes into play in these couple of verse from Amos. Let’s talk about how and what it means for us.

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Digging in Deeper: Matthew 18:21-22

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“Then Peter approached him and asked, ‘Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?’ ‘I tell you, not as many as seven,’ Jesus replied, ‘but seventy times seven.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the things I love about being a parent is that I can occasionally convince my kids to watch movies that I enjoyed watching when I was growing up. It often serves as a nice dip into the pool of nostalgia. It also occasionally leaves me wondering what on earth my parents were thinking letting me watch some things…or at least how many things I watched they didn’t know about to stop me. My middle son recently watched through the entire Toby Maguire Spider-Man movies directed by Sam Rami. That trilogy of films, more than just about any others, helped to launch the modern superhero genre. Watching them again, they were all just as good as I remembered. More than that, though, watching them again was a reminder of just how Gospel-soaked they were. Join me in a quick trip down memory lane as we talk about how.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 13:4

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“For it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For it is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Romans 13 is one of the more challenging passages the apostle Paul wrote. Understanding exactly how we are to apply and obey it is tricky and often is inextricably intertwined with our particular political perspective. When the party in power happens to be the party we support, we agree with Paul heartily. When it’s not, we’re quicker to find exceptions and reasons Paul missed some things. Occasionally we’ll remember that Paul wrote this under the authority of an aggressively anti-Christian government. I don’t want to get into all of that today. Instead, I want to focus on just this part of the whole, and to do so through the lens of an experience I had recently.

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Digging in Deeper: Amos 7:1-6

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“The Lord God showed me this: He was forming a swarm of locusts at the time the spring crop first began to sprout – after the cutting of the king’s hay. When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, ‘Lord God, please forgive! How will Jacob survive since he is so small?’ The Lord relented concerning this. ‘It will not happen,’ he said. The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a 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?’ The Lord relented concerning this. ‘This will not happen either,’ said the Lord God.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What is the point of prayer? And just what can prayer accomplish? And what does our prayers’ being answered say about God? All of these are questions raised in this deceptively challenging passage. This morning, let’s think together about what it means that God “relented” in punishing Israel here and what that means for us.

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Digging in Deeper: Amos 7:7-8

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“He showed me this: The Lord was standing there by a vertical wall with a plumb line in his hand. The Lord asked me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ I replied, ‘A plumb line.’ Then the Lord said, ‘I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will no longer spare them.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

This morning will be a bit of a different kind of reflection than we usually have together. This is a pair of verses that have been preached many times by many preachers over the years. And in nearly all of these sermons the point has been roughly the same. God is going to hold us accountable to His righteous standards, and if we don’t meet them, judgment is going to come. This is all based on Amos’s using the imagery of a plumb line. It makes for a compelling sermon, but the trouble is that it is almost certainly not the imagery he was actually using. Let’s talk about it.

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