Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
25 You stir my praise in the great assembly;
I will fulfill my vows before those who humble their hearts before Him.
26 Those who are suffering will eat and be nourished;
those who seek Him will praise the Eternal.
May your hearts beat strong forever!
27 Those from the farthest reaches of the earth will remember
and turn back to look for the Eternal;
All the families of the nations
will worship You.
28 The Eternal owns the world;
He exercises His gentle rule over all the nations.
29 All the wealthy of the world will eat and worship;
all those who fall in the dust will bow before Him,
even the life that is headed to the grave.
30 Our children will serve Him;
future generations will hear the story of how the Lord rescued us.
31 They will tell the generations to come
of the righteousness of the Lord,
of what He has done.
Prophecy has often been described as “speaking truth to power.” Amos predicts the demise of the king, not in some corner somewhere but at the king’s royal shrine at Bethel. The priest in charge, Amaziah, reports the traitorous words to the king and bans the prophet from ever returning to the religious center of Israel, the Northern Kingdom. But Amos has the last word. He will not be silent despite the threats against him. The word of God cannot be suppressed by powerful priests or royal decree. Judgment will surely come to the land because the Lord has decided it!
8 This is what the Eternal Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit.
Eternal One: 2 What do you see, Amos?
Amos: I see a basket of ripe fruit.
Eternal One: The time is ripe for the end of My people, Israel.
I will not overlook their wrongdoing any longer.
3 On that day, the joyous songs sung in the temple will turn to wailing and crying,
and dead bodies will be piled up everywhere, scattered here, scattered there.
Silence!
Says the Eternal Lord.
4 Listen to this, you who trample on the needy
and bring the poor to ruin,
5 Who ask, “When will the new moon festival be done
so we can sell our grain?
And when will the Sabbath end
so we can sell our wheat?
Then we can tamper with our scales
and make the bushel measure smaller
And the counterweight heavier to cheat our customers.
6 We can buy the needy for silver
and the poor and their property for the price of a pair of sandals.
We can even sell the chaff we sweep up as grain.”
7 The Eternal has sworn by the pride of Jacob, the very land He gave to them:
Eternal One: I will not forget anything that Israel has done.
Stephen’s sermon weaves together the story of the Jews and the life of Jesus. The point of the message is that God pursues His children despite their constant failure. The crucifixion of Jesus is the greatest of all of these failures.
Stephen affirms that through circumcision they have made themselves look like Jews, but their hearts and ears need circumcising as well. Of course, telling the Jewish leaders to get their hearts and ears circumcised elicits a rather violent response. Stephen speaks the truth so that all might hear, including a man named Saul.
8 1-2 Some devout men buried Stephen and mourned his passing with loud cries of grief. But Saul, this young man who seemed to be supervising the whole violent event, was pleased by Stephen’s death. That very day, the whole church in Jerusalem began experiencing severe persecution. All of the followers of Jesus—except for the emissaries[a] themselves—fled to the countryside of Judea and Samaria. 3 Young Saul went on a rampage—hunting the church, house after house, dragging both men and women to prison.
They flee to the very places where Jesus said His disciples would be His witnesses at the beginning of this book. As a result, the persecution spreads the message of Christ rather than hinders it. Commenting about similar events a century later, church father Tertullian will write, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
4 All those who had been scattered by the persecution moved from place to place; and wherever they went, they weren’t afraid or silent. Instead, they spread the message of Jesus.
5 Philip, for example, headed north to the city of Samaria, and he told them the news of the Anointed One. 6 The crowds were united in their desire to understand Philip’s message. They not only listened with their ears, but they witnessed miraculous signs with their eyes. 7 Unclean spirits cried out with loud screams as they were exorcised from people. Paralyzed people and lame people moved and walked in plain view. 8 So the city was swept with joy.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.