Today, I am reading and commenting on  Amos 6-9 and Obadiah.

Last year I wrote separate, unrelated, entries on this final part of Amos and on Obadiah.  This year I think I see a common thread, we will see if that comes together.  Amos prophesied against the people living in Israel, the Northern Kingdom, who saw the struggles others were having and complacently thought it would not effect themselves because of their wealth and power.  Those who have turned justice into a tool for their own power rather than seeking it in truth.  Amos accuses them of bragging about accomplishments which amount to nothing.  When I read the following I think of how many businesses operate today.:
When will the New Moon be over
    that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
    that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
    boosting the price
    and cheating with dishonest scales,
 buying the poor with silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,
    selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
The practices are not quite the same, but I think about how the idea of businesses being closed on Sunday is a thing of the past, and now businesses open late in the day on Thanksgiving in order to get a jump on Black Friday sales.  Businesses which choose to not to build quality products so that people have to buy replacements that much sooner.  People who give no consideration to the needs of others so long as they get what gives them pleasure.  And then in Obadiah, we have warnings against taking pleasure in the misfortune of others.  All of these behaviors come back against us, but at the end Amos tells us that God will call some of us to Him.  Those who turn to God, and care for their fellow man, will experience God’s blessing.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.