READING FOR DECEMBER 31, 2025: AMOS 8, REVELATION 21, PSALM 133                          AMOS 8  Caution is needed when applying truth to our situation as “His people” in Yorktown, Indiana in 2025 from a prophetic vision that was given centuries before Jesus was born. Yet, this prophecy, as does all scripture, still exists so that we can learn what God is saying to us for our own benefit: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope”(Rom. 15:4).

God shows Amos a vision of a basket of summer fruit. Sounds pleasant. Some translations replace the word “summer” with the word “ripe.” This might be significant as a play on words because in the Hebrew it sounds like the word “end.”  In the very next phrase God says the end is near for “His people Israel” because of their sins. God foresees that the women who normally sing in the temple will instead wail. Corpses will be strewn everywhere without any order or dignity. God connects this to those of His people who have oppressed the needy. This is the polar opposite of a pleasant, comforting view of the future. 

Verses 6-7 summarize the actions and attitudes that brought on this bleak picture. Folks back then seemed to be eager for worship and holy festivals to be over so that they could get back to making money. Maybe money-making is not our problem if we have retired, but do we ever check our watches at church so that we don’t miss the Colts, Pacers, or Purdue games? Israel’s case was especially damming because their business practices were thoroughly unethical. They sold low value goods for high prices and even engaged in slave trafficking. This latter practice strikes us as light years away from our lives, but likely some of our not-too-distant ancestors engaged in this without any pangs of remorse. Some might argue that, although we rightly find this repugnant today, we stay silent when millions of unborn children are intentionally killed. 

The text says the Lord swears there’s no statute of limitations on any of our sins. What can we do? Peter provided the answer when he preached to those who crucified Jesus: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). As this chapter winds down, we learn that God will send the people a famine. It will not be a lack of food, though, but a famine of God’s word. How could that be then and how might it be possible today with so many Bibles available. Possibly Israel was seeking words from the false gods of Dan and Beersheba (vs. 14), gods of their own making and thus providing them imagined messages more to their own liking. Perhaps many of us today are similarly seeking truth about ultimate reality from our cultural consensus rather than the timeless truths of God’s word. If so, our future will be the same as God’s people in Amos 8:14: “They will fall and not rise again.”  

Revelation 21 Imagine you have just won a 3-week vacation anywhere in the world. You can take up to ten friends with you. Wherever you choose to go, everything will be first class, the flights, the hotels, and the food. Do you think you would look forward to that trip? Would you pour over the travel brochures and websites as you prepare for your trip? That is the way we should think about heaven. Revelation 21 gives us a small picture of our eternal home and helps clarify two misconceptions we often have about heaven.               Misconception 1: Our Eternal Home is the Present Heaven

Some believe that when we die, we go to heaven and that is where we will be for eternity. But Revelation 21 and 22 clearly talk about our eternal home appearing AFTER the first heaven and earth have passed away. (21:1) This has not happened yet, so he must be talking about a future event. In his classic book Heaven, READING FOR DECEMBER 31, 2025 CONTINUED: REVELATION 21, PSALM 13                              Randy Alcorn says, “When we die, believers in Christ will not go to the heaven where we’ll live forever. Instead, we'll go to an intermediate Heaven. In the intermediate Heaven, we’ll await the time of Christ’s return to earth, our bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the creation of the new heavens and new earth. If we fail to grasp this truth, we will fail to understand the biblical doctrine of heaven.”                               Misconception 2: Heaven is a Non-physical Spiritual Realm                                                      Many have come to believe that heaven is in a spiritual dimension with no physical realities. They assume we will spend eternity as spiritual beings in a wonderful spirit world. Revelation 21:1 doesn’t speak of a spirit world, but rather a “new earth.” New is an adjective that modifies the noun “earth.” Why would we assume that a new earth would be non-earth-like? We know earth is a place of mountains, cities, nations, food, drink, people, trees, sky, clouds, animals, flowers, waterfalls etc. Rev. 21 and 22 use physical words like these in de- scribing heaven: mountains, city, throne, tear, spring, water, bowls, jewels, gates, walls, pearls, gold, streets, foundations, nations, kings, books, leaves, and river. Our eternal home will be a physical place, in a physical location, designed by God with physical people in mind. To be fully human is to experience life through our five senses of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting. Why assume these will stop on new earth?                          

Rev. 21:3-4 make it clear that the Holy City comes down out of heaven and God comes to dwell with men. It doesn’t say we will go up to God, but He comes down to us. We were made for the earth, and we will live on the earth forever. Our eternal home will be a new earth with no curse. (22:3) This is the story of the Bible. The first chapters of the Bible tell the story of the creation of the earth and the heavens. The last two chapters tell of the new earth and the new heaven. In between is the story of man’s fall and God’s plan to restore things to what they once were.   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             PSALM 133 This is such a short Psalm, but as difficult as any in the Bible to understand and obey. First of all, we can agree with the Psalmist that it is good and pleasant for a group of believers to be unified. It’s like an overflow of blessings. Jesus made the following comments:    

• “Everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).
• “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:21).                    

Jesus also made these comments:

•  “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. (Matt. 7:15).
•  “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over... If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector” (Matt. 15, 17).

Those who are Jesus’s disciples are obedient to God’s word. They can and must be “brothers who live together in unity.” There can be no Christian unity, though, with those who reject and disobey God’s word. Paul gives good direction about not allowing secondary matters to cause disunity among believers: “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them” (Rom. 15:1-3).