Jesus leads us out of exile

Tuesday-Thursday, December 7-9
Devotions: Ps 26, 28, 36-39; Amos 7:10-9:10; Rev 1:9-2:17; Mt 22:34-23:26

Lord, vindicate me on account of Jesus' integrity: I stand on His faithfulness and obedience to His Father in heaven. I shun the company and praxis of the wicked. To You, YHWH, I cry. Keep me from the fate of the wicked. Blessed be YHWH, Who hears the voice of my supplications; He is my Strength and Shield. My heart trust in You, my God, my eternal Shepherd. Sin tempts mortals, and the wicked recurrently give in to it, plotting mischief on their beds. But God's steadfast love extends to the heavens. God, how precious is Your steadfast love! Let us not fret because of the wicked. Trust in YHWH and do what is good. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will make your justice shine like the noonday sun. Shun anger; let God handle the wicked. The meek will possess the land and delight in prosperity from God's own hand. Better is the little the the righteous possess than the wealth of many wicked. Our walk comes from God,a nd He establishes those in whom He delights. I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for food. God is kind and generous. He gives us wisdom and courage. Wait upon God and let Him do His perfect will. You will see the wicked destroyed in God's time and way. And watch the righteous, so you will see how God preserves and prospers them. God, please don't punish me; I repent of my foul sins, and I grow weak before Your holy judgment. Forgive me, a sinner, my Lord. I wait upon You, my Lord; I confess my iniquity and I am sorry for my sins. Make haste to heal and deliver me. I will guard my eyes, my tongue and my hands – to see, say and do no evil. My hope is entirely in You. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and forgive me, for my Lord Jesus' sake. Amen.

The high priest in Israel, Amaziah, accused Amos before King Jeroboam, and rebuked the prophet. But Amos replied, 'I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; I have been a herdsman and tender of sycamore-fig trees. But YHWH has commissioned me to prophesy against Israel. Hear what YHWH says: "Your wife will be a prostitute in the city; your children will fall to the sword; and your land will be parceled out to looters; and Israel will go away into foreign exile." YHWH showed Amos a basket of fruit, and told him: 'The end has come upon My people Israel. I will never again give them forbearance. The temple songs will become laments; corpses will proliferate. Let exploiters know that God remembers ever sin—stealing from the poor, engaging in crooked business practices, even on holy days; using false weights and measures. The whole land will be shaken when God judges these criminals. 'I will make the sun set at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight! I will turn your festivals to mourning, and your songs to lamentations. You'll dress in sackcloth; your loins will shudder and your heads will go bald. I will send famine on the land—not of food or drink, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Youths will faint for thirst, and idolaters will fall, never to arise again.' Amos saw YHWH standing beside the altar, saying 'Smite the temple and shatter the assembly. Not one will escape! My wrath and vengeance will find every one of these faithless sinners. I will set Myself against them for evil, not for good.' YHWH is Master over all creation; He delivered Israel, and now He judges her faithlessness. 'I will shake the house of Israel; all the sinners of My people I will slay with foreign swords. I will raise up the booth of David that has fallen; I will repair its breaches. And I will again prosper the chastened land of My people. The plowman will overtake the reaper and the grape-treader him who sows the seed. The mountains will drip sweet wine; all the hills will flow with it! I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel, and they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant and eat and drink. I will plant them in their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land I have given them, ' declares YHWH, Israel's God.

John of Patmos reports: I am your brother; I share with you in Jesus, in the tribulation and the kingdom and in patient endurance. I was exiled on Patmos because of God's word and the testimony of Jesus. On a Lord's Day, I was in the Spirit, and I heard a voice like a trumpet, saying 'Write what you see in a book, and send it to these seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.' When I turned toward the voice, I saw seven lampstands and among them One like a son of man, clothed in a long white robe, girdled with a golden sash; His head and hair were white like wool or snow, and His eyes were like flames of fire. His feet were like polished bronze, refined as in a furnace; and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand, He held seven stars; from His mouth issued a sharp double-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its fullest strength. I fell at His feet as if dead, but He laid His right hand on me and said, 'Don't be afraid; I Am the First and the Last, the Living One. I died, and behold, I Am alive forevermore. I have the keys of Death and Hades. Now write what I reveal to you: what is and what is to come. The seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches, and the lampstands are the churches themselves. Now: write this to the angel of the church at Ephesus: "The words of Him Who holds the seven starts and who walks among the seven lampstands: 'I know your works, your toil and patienit endurance. You cannot abide evil men and you have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not; you have proved them false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for My Name's sake; and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you: you have abandoned your first love. Remember now the heights from which you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. Yet, you have this to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Let him who has ears hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To all who conquer, I will grant to eat from the tree of life, which is in God's paradise. ' And write this to the angel of the church at Smyrna: 'The words of the First and Last, Who died and came to life. I now your tribulation and poverty—yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews but are not; rather, they are a synagogue of Satan. Don't fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil will throw some of you inot prison, to test you; and for ten days, you will experience tribulation. Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of eternal life. Let all who can hear note what the Spirit says to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be hurt by the second death.' And to the angel of the church in Pergamum, write this: 'The words of Him Who has the sharp, two-edged sword. I know where you live—the place where Satan has his throne. Yet you hold fast My name, and you did not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you. You have some there who follow Balaam's teaching, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and might practice immorality. You also have some who follow the Nicolaitans' teaching. So repent! If not, I will come to you soon and war against you with the sword of My mouth. Whoever has ears, hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To all who conquer, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give each one a white stone, with a new name written on it that know one knows except the one who receives it.'"

When the Pharisees saw that Jesus had silenced and defeated the Sadducees, they gathered—and one of them, a lawyer, questioned Jesus: 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?' And Jesus answered him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commands depend all the law and the prophets.' Then Jesus asked the assembled Pharisees a question: 'What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?' They told Him, 'The son of David.' But Jesus said to them, 'How then is it that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls the Messiah his Lord, when he says, "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet'?" If David thus calls the Messiah his Lord, who can he be David's son?' No one could answer Jesus with even one word; nor from that day on did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions.'