Daily Bible Reading Podcast

Today’s NLT Bible readings are Obadiah 1; Isaiah 49.13-26; Revelation 2.12-29.

Today’s GNT Bible Readings are Amos 9; Isaiah 49.1-13; Revelation 2.1-11.

AMOS 9:
In Amos 7 we heard of how the priest of Israel’s pagan shrine, Amaziah, told Amos to go away, and Amaziah even tried to get king Jeroboam the 2nd to move against Amos.

There were sad words at the end of chapter 8, which indeed happened during the 400 year inter-testamental period:

Amo.  8:11 NLT “The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign LORD,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread or water
but of hearing the words of the LORD.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from border to border
searching for the word of the LORD,
but they will not find it.

ISAIAH 49a:
In Isaiah 48 God said,

Is. 48:3 Long ago I told you what was going to happen.
Then suddenly I took action, (past tense)
and all my predictions came true.

Such words may be hard to understand. There is a trait of some prophetic writings where the past tense is used instead of the future tense. Since Cyrus had not yet come, this section may well have meant in Isaiah’s time “suddenly I will take action.” Remember that all times are alike to God, and it is natural for Him to speak of future things (from our perspective) as already happening (in the present or past from HIS perspective). We see this trait also in Revelation.

REVELATION 2a:
The first chapter ended with Jesus’ explanation of what John saw:

20 NLT This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

The word ‘angel’ in Greek can also mean ‘messenger’. It could be that the angel for each church is the pastor, but at this time, churches did not have just one pastor. So this can be translated as the messenger (probably one of the elders) to whom the Lord gave the responsibility of conveying His message.

We now come to a very special section: the letters to the seven churches in Asia. Some have tried to see church ages in these letters. It is better to see them as representative of churches at any age. Each letter has the same form. First there is a highlighting of one of the characteristics of Jesus as seen in chapter 1. Then Jesus shows that He sees and knows each church intimately. He gives whatever rebuke or commendation that is deserved. Then the Lord exhorts each church appropriately according to their condition. Finally there is a repeated warning, and a special promise appropriate to each church.

Today’s NLT Bible readings are Amos 9; Isaiah 49.1-13; Revelation 2.1-11.

Today’s GNT Bible readings are Amos 7; Amos 8; Isaiah 48; Revelation 1.

AMOS 7-8:
Our reading in chapter 6 of Amos included these words quoted in Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 in the New Testament:

25 NLT “Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel?
26 No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—…

This makes it sound like the Israelites never gave sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness, which we know is false. So we should understand Amos’ and Stephen’s words an exaggeration or hyperbole.

ISAIAH 48:
In Isaiah 47, we heard how God criticized the Babylonians just like Amos criticized the people of Judah and the Northern Kingdom for living in uncaring luxury built upon the unjust treatment of others. And God taunted the Babylonians to use their magic charms to try to charm away his coming judgment.

REVELATION 1:
This book is also called the Apocalypse. The apostle John clearly tells us that he is the author of this book and that he was at that time in exile on the island of Patmos.

Four early church fathers affirm that John was exiled to the island of Patmos during Domitian’s reign. They wrote that the government allowed John to return to Ephesus after this emperor died. And I have seen a picture of John’s tomb at Ephesus. Domitian died in A.D. 96. Consequently many interpreters date the writing of this book near A.D. 95 or 96.

Estimates vary that from two hundred and seventy-eight to 500 allusions to Old Testament verses are found in the book of Revelation. John never actually quotes from the Old Testament, but just make obvious allusions to it.

The book of Revelation has the reputation of being a hard book to understand, and people have often said to me that it must be hard to translate. On the contrary, Revelation is a rather easy book to translate! And John’s main points in writing this book are not at all hard to understand. To help us understand,  here are two important points:

• Remember that this book is full of symbolism and that many things are not to be taken literally.
• Realize that most of this book is not arranged chronologically. What we have instead is a series of visions that show the same events from different perspectives.

GNT Translation notes:
Amo. 7:12 Amaziah then said to [me//Amos], “That's enough, prophet! Go on back to Judah and do your preaching there. Let them pay you for it.
14 [I//Amos] answered, “I am not the kind of prophet who prophesies for pay. I am a herdsman, and I take care of fig trees.
====
Rev. 1:1 This book is the record of the events that Jesus Christ revealed. God gave him this revelation in order to show to his servants what must happen very soon. Christ made these things known to [me,] his servant John[,] by sending his angel to [me//him],
2 and [in this book I have told all that I saw//John has told all that he has seen]. This is [my//his] report concerning the message from God and the truth revealed by Jesus Christ.

Today’s NLT Bible readings are Amos 7; Amos 8; Isaiah 48; Revelation 1.

Today’s GNT Bible readings are Amos 5; Amos 6; Isaiah 47; 3John.

Today’s NLT Bible readings are Amos 5; Amos 6; Isaiah 47; 3John.

Today’s GNT Bible readings are Amos 3; Amos 4; Isaiah 45.22-25; Isaiah 46; 2John.