Through the Bible in 66 Days - Amos

 

The Message of Amos: A Call to Justice, Truth, and Genuine Faith

Amos was possibly the first prophet to write down his prophecy; up until then, the prophets had delivered their messages verbally. He was called to prophesy during the reign of Uzziah in the southern kingdom of Judah and Jeroboam II in the northern kingdom of Israel.

The Political and Moral Conditions

During this time, both kingdoms enjoyed political stability, which in turn brought prosperity. Sadly, it was also a time of idolatry, extravagance, and corruption. The rich and powerful were oppressing the poor. God sent Amos to denounce the people of Israel for their social injustice and turning away from Him. He warned them that disaster would fall upon them for breaking God’s covenant. He urged them to leave the hypocrisy of their public religious events (chapter 5, verse 21). Nevertheless, Amos reminded them that God would remember His covenant with Israel and would restore those who were faithful (chapter 9, verses 11-15).

Changing the Clocks

 

At the weekend, our clocks go forward an hour, and we move into British

Summer Time, notes Bert Cargill of St Monans Gospel Hall. It is called

British Summer Time, but British summer is a more distant prospect at

the moment!

We will get many reminders to adjust our timepieces before it is officially

due. Still, some folk manage to overlook it, and the next day they find out

that they are out of step with everyone else. Because different people’s

lifestyles are affected in different ways by the change, the need to go

from Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time in March and back

again in October is often questioned. But in the meantime, we do it.

Although we can change the time on our clocks, we cannot change time

itself, nor change the regularity of the seasons of the year. These are

linked to the movements of the Earth in its orbit around the sun, 93 million

miles away, just the right distance for life to exist here. Closer to the sun

and everything would roast and expire; farther away and everything

would literally freeze to death. This did not come about by chance. The

God who created the whole universe at the beginning designed Earth to

support life in all its variety.

Through the Bible in 66 Days - Joel

 

There are moments in Scripture when the voice of a prophet seems to ring across the centuries with startling clarity. Joel is one of those voices. His message is ancient, but its relevance is painfully modern. His burden was for Judah, just as Hosea’s burden was for guilty Israel. Hosea preached toward the end of the Northern Kingdom; Joel’s prophecy relates to the closing days of Judah, probably spanning the final seven years of Zedekiah’s reign. If that’s the case, Joel began his ministry in the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity—the very year Ezekiel started—and roughly 100 years after Isaiah’s ministry ended.

We know very little about Joel the man. He is introduced as “the son of Pethuel” (Joel 1:1). But what we do know is enough: he preached to Judah, he loved Jerusalem, he understood the temple, he felt the spiritual pulse of the nation, and he saw—clearly and painfully—that they had turned to idolatry. His prophecy is full of natural imagery: sun, moon, grass, locusts, drought, and fire. Joel sees the spiritual and physical worlds as deeply connected. When God speaks, creation trembles.

Through the Bible in 66 Days - Hosea

Hosea: The Deathbed Prophet of the Northern Kingdom

Hosea has often been called “the deathbed prophet” because he was the final voice God sent to the Northern Kingdom before its collapse to Assyria in 722 BC. His ministry followed a golden age—peace, prosperity, and expansion not seen since Solomon. But prosperity had bred spiritual decay. Israel enjoyed God’s gifts but forgot the Giver.

They worshipped idols, trusted political alliances, and lived as if God were irrelevant. Hosea’s message is God’s final plea to a people drifting toward judgment.

The Lord Jesus warned of the same danger—prosperity without repentance. “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). Hosea exposes the soul‑loss of a nation that had everything except God. This is so like much of western society today.