Then the LORD said to Hosea, "Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel." – Hosea 1:4

Today's Scripture Reading (April 7, 2026): Hosea 1

On December 16, 1970, Paramount Pictures released a melodrama that became an unquestioned success. The movie became a pop culture superstar. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress. The movie's theme song was nominated for two Grammys. The movie was "Love Story," starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw. In 1970, both were up-and-coming actors and the "beautiful people" of Hollywood. And it really was a love story. My mother loved the movie, but I didn't really get it. There were no gunfights or car chases, and Ali MacGraw's character, Jenny, dies in the end; according to my standards, that's not evidence of a good movie. Of course, I was also only ten when the movie debuted. The story was about a young lawyer who fell in love with a girl. The couple wants to have children, but can't; so, they go to the doctor and find out that she has a fatal disease (probably leukemia, although we are never told what it was in the movie). There is one scene where the young man tries to borrow some money from his father to help with treatment, and Dad writes off the request by asking if he got some girl in trouble. It was this moment in the story that was supposed to draw the viewer's attention to the young couple's commitment to each other, even in sickness. They are soul mates and hopelessly in love.

In the final scene, Dad realizes what is going on and comes to see his son to apologize. Ryan O'Neal's Character, Oliver, responds to his dad with the movie's tagline: "Love means never having to say that you are sorry." And everybody sighs and cries.

The story of Hosea is a love story, but it is not that story. That becomes obvious with the first lines of the story; God tells Hosea to go and marry a promiscuous woman, literally a prostitute. And our question is, "Really? Would God do that? I don't understand; let me find something else to read. Maybe something about Jesus."

And almost to make this worse, the way that some translators have used for this passage has phrased it this way: "Hosea, go and marry a prostitute so that you will have children of Prostitution." This passage anticipates that Gomer will not be committed to the relationship. It anticipates that Gomer will not change her ways and will become pregnant with children who are not Hosea's. And if I am honest, I am not sure which really surprises me more: that God would ask Hosea to do it, or that Hosea would actually say yes.

And so, Hosea goes out and finds Gomer. And at this point in history, that probably meant that Hosea would have to go and bargain with Gomer's Dad. And he was probably overjoyed that someone wanted to marry her, because, given her behavior, there weren't a whole lot of suitors coming around to talk to dear old dad. Gomer may not have had anything to do with it. Hosea made a deal with Dad, and Gomer became Hosea's wife; it is quite possible that no one asked her what she wanted.

But we are told that Hosea marries Gomer, and together they have a child named Jezreel. And there was meaning in the name. Jezreel was the place where Jehu, the king of Israel, killed the house of Ahab. Every person that he could find who was related to Ahab was killed. And Jehu said that he was doing God's will, but that was not the full truth. The reality is that Jehu, who was an evil king, committed the act in such a way to maximize the evil and his own pleasure in the act, and he caused the most damage possible to the nation of Judah.

There are two things that we need to notice about this boy named Jezreel. The first is that this is Hosea's son. And Hosea loves his son. There is absolutely no trace of shame in his name. But the second thing we need to notice is that, even in choosing the name Jezreel, there is a prophetic announcement. Hosea is a prophet of God, and the office has consumed him.    

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Hosea 2 & 3

But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?" "It is," he said. "And I'm so angry I wish I were dead." – Jonah 4:9

Today's Scripture Reading (April 6, 2026): Jonah 3 & 4

This is the second time in Jonah 4 that God has asked Jonah if he had any right to his anger. The first time was over the salvation of Nineveh. And the second time over the death of a plant. Here, Jonah replies, "Yes, I have the right to my anger. And if my rights are not going to be respected, I might as well be dead."

The story of Jonah is all about the selfishness of Jonah. It is about what Jonah wants. For Jonah, this is part of his definition of love. Don't miss this: throughout the entire story, Jonah craves love. He wants God to love him. What he doesn't want is any expectation that he will love others. And one of the realities of life is that, to be loved, we have to love. As long as he, or we, cling to our rights, we cannot really love because love does not ask that question.

Paul addresses the question of rights in his first letter to the Corinthians. In it, he addresses his right to be cared for by the church as well as his right to bring a wife with him when he travels. Other disciples, specifically Peter, made liberal use of these rights. But Paul did not. "But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ" (1 Corinthians 9:12b).

I am convinced that rights and love do not go well together. If you begin to focus on your rights in your marriage, then your marriage is in trouble. We do for those that we love what goes beyond the idea of rights. And the idea of sacrifice has always been at the cost of our rights.

God had asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and sacrifice his own desires and wants for the people who lived there. He wanted Jonah to love them. But Jonah refused to love them until God forced him. Now, he is more concerned about his right to be angry than about the people of Nineveh whom he had saved.

I also believe that unless we love, we cannot be loved. What Jonah needed the most was to be loved. But that was impossible unless Jonah loved. I think our capacity for holding love is fixed. If all that we do is receive love, our love barrel fills up. And once it is full, nothing more can be added. Love was never meant to be something we hold on to; it flows through us. The more we love, the more capacity we have to feel love. Some walk among us who have not felt loved for a long time because they have been unwilling or unable to love.

This inability to love describes Jonah. God was speaking directly to Jonah's craving for love when he called him to Nineveh. But Jonah was unable to process that idea. He knew that he craved love, but it had been so long since he had really loved anyone that the idea of love now only existed in his realm of selfish desire. God had a two-pronged need for Jonah. Jonah had to go to Nineveh because God loved Nineveh, but also because God loved Jonah. But Jonah had stopped loving without expectation, and so his love barrel had filled. God was the creator of the land and the sea, creator of the fish that had vomited Jonah up onto dry land, the creator of the sailors and of the people of beautiful Tarshish and evil Nineveh. God was the creator of Jonah, and He knew that unless Jonah could learn to love without rights and expectations getting in the way, he would never be able to feel love again; the very love that Jonah craved would be unavailable to him.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus equated this idea of love with "being perfect."

⁴³ "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

                                                            Matthew 5:43-48

Be Perfect. Love despite your selfish rights and expectations. Love those who disagree with you; love, hold them in high regard, knowing that they, too, are loved by the creator. And, maybe, to the extent that you can do this, you will find that you, too, can receive the very love that you crave.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Hosea 1

I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ – Jonah 2:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 5, 2026): Jonah 1 & 2

As I read through this passage, I keep tripping over the word “banish.” The King James version phrases Jonah’s words as, “I am cast out.” It is an interesting concept.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, chaos swept through Europe. That chaos had a name: Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was a military genius who helped France gain control of much of Europe. But the powers in Europe also realized that the answer to the question of what keeps Europe from attaining peace was also Napoleon Bonaparte. And so, when Napoleon was eventually defeated, the leaders of Europe knew that to achieve peace, they had to get rid of Napoleon. They didn’t want to execute him and turn him into a martyr, so they decided to banish him to the Island of Elba, a small piece of land just off the coast of Italy. They even let him keep the title of Emperor and rule over the island.

However, rumors reached Bonaparte’s small Kingdom that the European Powers were going to banish him to an even more remote Island in the Pacific Ocean. Based on this rumor, Napoleon raised an army on Elba, escaped the island, and returned to France. Once Napoleon returned to France, he regained his position as the leader of France. But he is also defeated again, and this time he is banished to Saint Helena, a remote Island in the South Atlantic off the coast of Africa. There, Napoleon died.

Why the history lesson? Because traditionally, banishment has a dual effect. If you were to banish me to an island in the Atlantic, the effect would be two-fold. First, you don’t have to put up with me; you don’t have to listen to my thoughts on any subject; and I wouldn’t be able to order you around. I am removed from your presence. But the second effect of my expulsion is that I am punished; I have been sent away from everything that I know and love. This second part presents the pain of any banishment.

Jonah feels like he has been banished, but the question is, does his banishment fulfill these two realities? There is no doubt that Jonah feels the pain; the second condition is real. Jonah feels the pain because he feels that he has been cast out of God’s presence. And it is an emotion with which most of us can identify. There are days and periods of time when we feel so far from God. We know that kind of pain.

I grew up in a denomination that had frequent altar calls. People would regularly be invited up to kneel at the altar, and I would watch them come and make new commitments to God. However, a couple of decades ago, I stumbled upon a truth about the modern church. Sometimes, we feel far from God because of the circumstances of our lives and our faith. Sometimes we have taken him for granted, ignored him, gone through the motions, and we need to fall to our knees, repent, and ask God to renew us. These are very real conditions to which we need to pay attention. But sometimes in our busy lives, what we really need isn’t a renewed commitment to God; it is a nap.

The pain of the second condition of banishment is a very real part of life. But what about the first condition? Have we been sent away from God to a place where he can’t hear us? And I strongly believe that the answer is no. There is no place Jonah could go where he could hide from God, just as there is no place we can go where we are not in his presence. I love the way the Psalmist phrases it.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

                                                            Psalm 139:7-12

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jonah 3 & 4

I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: "Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Bring them down on the heads of all the people; those who are left I will kill with the sword. Not one will get away, none will escape. – Amos 9:1

Today's Scripture Reading (April 4, 2026): Amos 9

On Mount Carmel, Elijah proposed a battle between him and the prophets of Ba'al. The idea was to bring two bulls to the mountain. The prophets of Ba'al would choose a bull, and Elijah would take the other. They would build an altar, then cut the bull into pieces and place the pieces on top of the wood of the altar. What they wouldn't do was light the fire; that task would be left to God.

The prophets of Ba'al would go first. They chose their bull, built the altar, and placed its pieces on it. And then they began to pray to Ba'al. They danced in front of the altar, asking Ba'al to send his fire down onto the altar and consume the sacrifice. The contest was well chosen for the priests of Ba'al; after all, Ba'al was the God of Thunder and Lightning. Consuming the sacrifice should have been an easy task for such a god. However, on this day, the God of Thunder seemed hesitant to respond with his namesake power.

After a few hours, Elijah decided to get into the act. "Shout louder," Elijah cries. "Maybe he can't hear you." He continued his taunts with, "Surely, he is a God?" You can almost hear the sarcasm in his voice. Maybe he is deep in thought or busy. Maybe he is traveling. Yell louder so that he can hear you. He might be asleep and needs to be awakened."

The prophets of Ba'al danced and yelled even louder. But nothing happened. Ba'al didn't come and consume the sacrifice. Finally, after these prophets had worn themselves out, Elijah stepped up and built his altar. He poured water on the wood of the altar until the water filled a trench that he had constructed around the altar.

Then he prayed a simple prayer; no dancing was necessary, and God sent fire to consume the altar. Where Ba'al might have been on vacation or at least far from the scene of the battle, God was present and stood at the ready for Elijah to make the ask.

Amos makes the same point. Regardless of what is happening, God is ready to act. Whether the action is positive or negative. Amos sees a vision of an event that has not yet happened and seems almost unimaginable; he stands at the altar of the Temple and watches as it collapses all around him. But there is another message that his audience needed to understand. On the day that the Temple fell down, it would not fall because God was somehow absent. The destruction of the Temple would not take place because God had fallen asleep or was on vacation, visiting far-flung places in his universe. God would be present at the destruction of the Temple. And he would orchestrate the destruction because of his people's sin. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jonah 1 & 2

Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land. – Amos 8:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 3, 2026): Amos 8

On March 4, 2026, Pope Leo XIV gave a lengthy interview to Vatican News. The subject was, at least partially, the strikes of the United States and Israel against Iran. Nobody was really surprised that the Pope would express his opinion to the press; he had been outspoken in the past, and why bother being Pope if you don’t articulate what you see as the moral imperatives in the world around you. That was one of the complaints historically leveled against Pope Pius XII (his Papacy lasted from March 2, 1939, until his death on October 9, 1958) during World War II.

Pope Leo XIV gave an interview to Vatican News, warning that strikes against Iran had weakened international law. The Pope argued that “might has replaced justice; the force of law has been replaced by the law of force.” The Pope called the war with Iran “preventable,” and that it risks “the whole world being set ablaze.” The Pope’s words are a reminder that this conflict with Iran has moved us another step closer to a third World War. What is surprising is that, in the lead-up to the 2024 Presidential Election, Vice President J.D. Vance consistently argued that a vote for Trump was a vote against war. A President Donald Trump would move the world away from war. But instead, he has moved the world toward war. And that is a huge problem for all of us.

But there has been another reaction to this move, one that we maybe should have predicted. A movement has begun calling for Baron Trump, the President’s youngest son, to be drafted into the army. I don’t think anyone actually wants to see Baron Trump in army fatigues. The truth is that if Baron actually was drafted, he would likely be given a commission as an officer and kept out of harm’s way. After all, isn’t that exactly what happens to every prince who joins the army in other countries? The movement to draft Baron into the military is a recognition that it is often the rich and powerful who bring the nations into war, but it is the poor and weak who fight the wars. If you want to do away with people experiencing poverty, a war is often one way to lessen their presence in our society.

A war in Iran is actually a continuation of a policy that the U.S. government seems to be implementing within the nation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been persecuting not just people who are in the country illegally, but also anyone who is from a visible minority or poor in the land. A war would take care of more like them.

Amos warns Israel about any practices that are intended to harm the poor of the land. When we refuse to honor those experiencing poverty and care for the needy among us, we lose the humanity God has placed within us. We become weaker for our loss, not stronger, regardless of what we might believe.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 9

Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. – Amos 7:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 2, 2026): Amos 7

It is an old story. The commoner who becomes the princess. The musician who gets a chance to play with their favorite band. The beer league goalie who gets called up to the big leagues in an emergency.

I remember a version of the last one. Decades ago, I was settling in to watch a hockey game. The Calgary Flames were playing; I forget who their opponent was. But one of their goaltenders had been injured during the pregame warm-up. The commentators opened the broadcast, setting up the game about to be played. But before the game was discussed, they had a message. The Flames had asked the broadcasters to send a message to a minor league goalie named Mike Vernon. They needed Vernon to come to the arena to back up the goaltender on this night. Apparently, Vernon was watching the game with some friends when he heard the message. By the end of the first period, a young Mike Vernon came out of the locker room and sat on the bench with the rest of the Flames. I have often wondered what it felt like to hear your name called out on television and have your plans for the evening blown up in that way.

Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, is upset with Amos. It is important to note that Amaziah was compromised long before Amos began his prophesies. Being a priest at Bethel meant he had left the faith represented by the Temple in Jerusalem, exchanging it for the faith represented by the Golden Calves set up at Bethel and Dan in the northern Kingdom of Israel. Amaziah was concerned about his own position and likely felt that Amos was threatening his job. As a result, Amaziah sent a message to King Jeroboam II, accusing Amos of attempting to raise an army to oppose the King’s purposes. Amaziah tells the Prophet that he was not wanted in Israel. If he wanted to cause trouble, he was welcome to cause it back home in Judah, but not here.

Amos responds that he is not a prophet. He had no desire to prophesy in either Israel or Judah. He was not a prophet, nor was he the son of a prophet. He was a shepherd and would love to return to tending his sheep and the sycamore trees back home. But God had called his name and given him a message for Israel, even though he was just an amateur, and not a trained theologian. Amos would not stop prophesying because a professional priest didn’t like the message. As long as God was giving him a message, he would continue to speak it, despite the opinions of the professional religious leaders of his day.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 8

You put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of terror. – Amos 6:3

Today's Scripture Reading (April 1, 2026): Amos 6

His name was Joseph. The boy was just one of Jacob's twelve sons, the same Jacob who would be renamed Israel. Joseph was a spoiled child. He was the son of his father's favorite wife and was treated as such. Until the day that dad gave him a beautiful multicolored coat, and his brothers decided that they had had enough. A plan was developed by the brothers to kill Joseph, but they instead decided to sell him into slavery. For the next portion of his life, that was Joseph's reality. He was sold and resold. He eventually became the property of an Egyptian official. Then Joseph was accused of raping his boss's wife, and spent the next few years in jail.

One of Joseph's talents was interpreting dreams with God's help. He had interpreted dreams when he was back home with his brothers, and he did so while in prison. Eventually, the Pharaoh had a dream, and Joseph was brought from prison to interpret it. The Pharaoh might have been Amenemhat III (1860 – 1814 B.C.E.). What makes Amenemhat III a good candidate for Joseph's unnamed Pharaoh is that improvements in agricultural practices and administration occurred during this time, changes that correspond well with the story of Joseph.

Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh's dreams and warned of a time of surplus and a time of famine that was in Egypt's near future. Joseph's advice to the Pharaoh was to save grain during the time of plenty so that there would be food for the people during the coming famine. It was good advice then, and it is good advice now.

Amos prophesies during a time of economic plenty in Israel. But the prophet sees a time of famine approaching, much as Joseph did in his day. Maybe that is not much of a surprise. The ancient world experienced predictable periods of plenty and famine. And, much like Joseph taught in Egypt centuries earlier, the expectation was that people would save during times of plenty so they could survive times of famine.

However, that wasn't what Amos's Israel was doing. Instead, they were spending in the time of plenty as if the time of famine would never come. Amos felt he needed to remind them of the principle of plenty and famine so they would be prepared for the approaching time of scarcity. And it is advice that I think we all need to take seriously. The wise person puts away for times of famine and is prepared for sickness, job loss, and even retirement. I know, it is hard, but life comes with the good and the bad, and if we understand this principle, we will be ready when the day of scarcity arrives in our lives. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Amos 7