Posts by Josh Moody
Amos 5-6: Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters
Amos 5-6, Job 32, John 17:1-5, Revelation 7 Amos 5-6: A “lamentation” is not a common form of writing or poetry or discourse today. We are so enamored with “positive talk” or “positive thinking” that we find it hard to see the value in pointing out failings, let alone celebrating a sadness. In other cultures, the…
Read MoreAmos 3-4: You Only Have I Known
Amos 3-4, Job 31:24-40, John 16:25-33, Revelation 6 Amos 3-4: Amos declares the fundamental relational and covenantal basis for God’s judgment on his people. You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. (3:2) The “therefore” in that verse 2 is astonishing. Because God knows his…
Read MoreAmos 1-2: For Three Transgressions and for Four
Amos 1-2, Job 31:1-23, John 16:12-24, Revelation 5 Amos 1-2: Preaching for conviction of sin is no easy task. Our hearts are too often self-deluded, and our ears tend to strain out sounds that bring conviction in place of noises that bring affirmation. And when we do hear conviction, we too easily mistake it for condemnation,…
Read MoreJoel 2-3: Call on the Name of the Lord
Joel 2-3, Job 30, John 16:1-11, Revelation 4 Joel 2-3: The day of the LORD is coming (2:1), but will it be the kind of day that God’s people had expected? No, “a day of darkness and gloom” (2:2). It is too easy to trivialize heaven, life after death, as nothing more than playing a harp…
Read MoreJoel 1: The Day of the Lord
Joel 1, Job 29, John 15:18-27, Revelation 3:14-22 Joel 1: Joel prophesies at a time when there has been a plague of locusts (1:4), and in that context calls on the elders and all inhabitants of the land (1:1) to pay attention and ask what is going on. In fact, they are to repent, mourn: Put…
Read MoreHosea 13-14: Return to God
Hosea 13-14, Job 28, John 15:9-17, Revelation 3:1-13 Hosea 13-14: God’s people had begun down their slippery slope towards increasing idolatry “through Baal” (13:1), and “now they sin more and more” (13:2). Untended to, weeds grow and grow, addictions gather power, sin festers, and idols multiply. So it was with God’s people: once they began to turn, they…
Read MoreHosea 9-12: Out of Egypt I Called My Son
Hosea 9-12, Job 27, John 15:1-8, Revelation 2:18-29 Hosea 9-12: Poetic form takes over, and Hosea—God through Hosea—declares (as it were in song) that Israel is not to rejoice: “Rejoice not, O Israel!” (9:1). Stop your singing, stop your celebrating. Why? They are “forsaking [their] God,” and have “loved a prostitute’s wages” (9:1). Their spiritual idolatry…
Read MoreHosea 7-8: Remember Your Maker
Hosea 7-8, Job 25-26, John 14:22-31, Revelation 2:1-17 Hosea 7-8: These are two chapters where God sets before his people their sins and their refusal to truly and genuinely repent despite his confrontation. He “would heal Israel,” but “they deal falsely” (7:1). They are “hot as an oven” (7:7), constantly burning with sin and rebellion.…
Read MoreHosea 4-6: Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge
Hosea 4-6, Job 24, John 14:15-21, Revelation 1:9-20 Hosea 4-6: Hosea 4 begins with a solemn and significant call: hear God’s Word! How often must we deliver this rallying call today. Do not leave the Bible on the shelf; do not gather in church merely around entertaining stories and feel-good messages. Do not simply “do religion”; hear…
Read MoreHosea 1-3: The Love of God
Hosea 1-3, Job 23, John 14:1-14, Revelation 1:1-8 Hosea 1-3: The Book of Hosea is one of the most beautiful—and startling—books in the Bible. In it the prophet is asked to play out a drama, a drama that came at considerable personal cost, and which was enacted in order to visually and vigorously depict the real…
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