This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Moab, even for four, I will not relent. Because he burned to ashes the bones of Edom's king." – Amos 2:1

Today's Scripture Reading (February 10, 2023): Amos 2

John Wycliffe (1328-1384) was an early dissenter working within the Roman Catholic Church. One of his main arguments with the Catholic Church regarded the infallibility of the Popes. He argued that some Popes had gained the papacy through distinctly unspiritual actions and, therefore, could not be considered the spiritual pinnacle of human activity. Wycliffe also had an answer for what should be the pinnacle of the Christian life; the Bible. But the common Bible at the time was written in Latin. If the people were going to use the Bible to govern their lives, it needed to be written in a language the people understood. And so, Wycliffe, with the help of some like-minded friends, began the long process of translating the Bible from Latin into English. The translation was not a high version of English that might have been spoken in privileged circles but rather the common English of the people. It was a radical idea and so revolutionary that the Roman Catholic Authorities took a while before they reacted against it.

The Wycliffe Bible started to appear in the people's hands around 1382. John Wycliffe died on New Year's Eve 1384 from a stroke he had suffered a few days earlier. But that didn't mean the argument over his beliefs died with him. The persecution of Wycliffe and his followers continued long after Wycliffe's death. In 1401, the Anti-Wycliffe Statute extended the persecution. The "Constitutions of Oxford" made translating the Bible into English punishable by charges of heresy. The "Council of Constance" declared Wycliffe a heretic and banned his writings. Wycliffe was excommunicated from the Catholic Church, his body was to be removed from consecrated ground, and his works were to be burned. In 1428, thirteen years after the Council of Constance and almost forty years after Wycliffe's death, Wycliffe's body was exhumed, his bones were burned, and the ashes were thrown into the River Swift. It was the final insult the Church could deliver against the discredited theologian. By burning the bones and throwing them in the river, they were trying to eradicate Wycliffe from history.

God's anger against Moab was because they had attempted the same thing to a past King of Edom. They had taken the bones of an Edomite hero and burned them, trying to erase him from the people's memory. It was the worst thing that the Moabites could do to this Edomite, and it was something for which God declared that they needed to pay, and God would not relent until they did.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Amos 3