Day 118: January 30, 2026 – Amos 6-9, Obadiah 1, Proverbs 10

I was struck by the castigation of Amos against not just all the people of Judah, but specifically those with wealth who were living in Judah and Israel. It was a direct warning on those who had the time and the resources to lounge, to drink wine, to basically be self-indulgent. We don’t often see God give a warning to a specific class of people, even if we do see that he has a special preference for the poor, the widow, and the orphan in all of Scripture. There are then a series of metaphors where Amos intervenes for the people of God, much like Abraham intervenes for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18-19. In both of those cases the judgment of God nevertheless falls and in this case the people of God are exiled to a foreign country.

Obadiah, which is a single chapter, is a series of warning against the nation of Edom which is related to the people of God, but has consistently been their antagonist. In the end, Israel wins. Again, much like the psalms of lament that have the protagonist, usually David, complaining about life being a disaster, there tends to be a resolution at the end which is favorable and God almost always comes to the rescue. This is true here in Obadiah.