Warnings against Idols

1 Corinthians 10 I want you to remember, my friends, what happened to our ancestors who followed Moses. They were all under the protection of the cloud, and all passed safely through the Red Sea. ²In the cloud and in the sea they were all baptized as followers of Moses. ³All ate the same spiritual bread ⁴and drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from the spiritual rock that went with them; and that rock was Christ himself. ⁵But even then God was not pleased with most of them, and so their dead bodies were scattered over the desert.
⁶Now, all of this is an example for us, to warn us not to desire evil things, as they did, ⁷nor to worship idols, as some of them did. As the scripture says, "The people sat down to a feast which turned into an orgy of drinking and sex." ⁸We must not be guilty of sexual immorality, as some of them were--and in one day twenty-three thousand of them fell dead. ⁹We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did--and they were killed by snakes. ¹⁰We must not complain, as some of them did--and they were destroyed by the Angel of Death.
¹¹All these things happened to them as examples for others, and they were written down as a warning for us. For we live at a time when the end is about to come.
¹²If you think you are standing firm you had better be careful that you do not fall. ¹³Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.
¹⁴So then, my dear friends, keep away from the worship of idols. ¹⁵I speak to you as sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶The cup we use in the Lord's Supper and for which we give thanks to God: when we drink from it, we are sharing in the blood of Christ. And the bread we break: when we eat it, we are sharing in the body of Christ. ¹⁷Because there is the one loaf of bread, all of us, though many, are one body, for we all share the same loaf.
¹⁸Consider the people of Israel; those who eat what is offered in sacrifice share in the altar's service to God. ¹⁹Do I imply, then, that an idol or the food offered to it really amounts to anything? ²⁰No! What I am saying is that what is sacrificed on pagan altars is offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be partners with demons. ²¹You cannot drink from the Lord's cup and also from the cup of demons; you cannot eat at the Lord's table and also at the table of demons. ²²Or do we want to make the Lord jealous? Do we think that we are stronger than he?
²³"We are allowed to do anything," so they say. That is true, but not everything is good. "We are allowed to do anything"--but not everything is helpful. ²⁴None of you should be looking out for your own interests, but for the interests of others.
²⁵You are free to eat anything sold in the meat market, without asking any questions because of your conscience. ²⁶For, as the scripture says, "The earth and everything in it belong to the Lord."
²⁷If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you decide to go, eat what is set before you, without asking any questions because of your conscience. ²⁸But if someone tells you, "This food was offered to idols," then do not eat that food, for the sake of the one who told you and for conscience' sake-- ²⁹that is, not your own conscience, but the other person's conscience.
"Well, then," someone asks, "why should my freedom to act be limited by another person's conscience? ³⁰If I thank God for my food, why should anyone criticize me about food for which I give thanks?"
³¹Well, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all for God's glory. ³²Live in such a way as to cause no trouble either to Jews or Gentiles or to the church of God. ³³Just do as I do; I try to please everyone in all that I do, not thinking of my own good, but of the good of all, so that they might be saved.

War between Israel and Moab

2 Kings 3 In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for twelve years. ²He sinned against the LORD, but he was not as bad as his father or his mother Jezebel; he pulled down the image his father had made for the worship of Baal. ³Yet, like King Jeroboam son of Nebat before him, he led Israel into sin and would not stop.
⁴King Mesha of Moab raised sheep, and every year he gave as tribute to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool from 100,000 sheep. ⁵But when King Ahab of Israel died, Mesha rebelled against Israel. ⁶At once King Joram left Samaria and gathered all his troops. ⁷He sent word to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: "The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you join me in war against him?"
"I will," King Jehoshaphat replied. "I am at your disposal, and so are my men and my horses. ⁸What route shall we take for the attack?"
"We will go the long way through the wilderness of Edom," Joram answered.
⁹So King Joram and the kings of Judah and Edom set out. After marching seven days, they ran out of water, and there was none left for the men or the pack animals. ¹⁰"We're done for!" King Joram exclaimed. "The LORD has put the three of us at the mercy of the king of Moab!"
¹¹King Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there a prophet here through whom we can consult the LORD?"
An officer of King Joram's forces answered, "Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He was Elijah's assistant."
¹²"He is a true prophet," King Jehoshaphat said. So the three kings went to Elisha.
¹³"Why should I help you?" Elisha said to the king of Israel. "Go and consult those prophets that your father and mother consulted."
"No!" Joram replied. "It is the LORD who has put us three kings at the mercy of the king of Moab."
¹⁴Elisha answered, "By the living LORD, whom I serve, I swear that I would have nothing to do with you if I didn't respect your ally, King Jehoshaphat of Judah. ¹⁵Now get me a musician."
As the musician played his harp, the power of the LORD came on Elisha, ¹⁶and he said, "This is what the LORD says: 'Dig ditches all over this dry stream bed. ¹⁷Even though you will not see any rain or wind, this stream bed will be filled with water, and you, your livestock, and your pack animals will have plenty to drink.'" ¹⁸And Elisha continued, "But this is an easy thing for the LORD to do; he will also give you victory over the Moabites. ¹⁹You will conquer all their beautiful fortified cities; you will cut down all their fruit trees, stop all their springs, and ruin all their fertile fields by covering them with stones."
²⁰The next morning, at the time of the regular morning sacrifice, water came flowing from the direction of Edom and covered the ground.
²¹When the Moabites heard that the three kings had come to attack them, all the men who could bear arms, from the oldest to the youngest, were called out and stationed at the border. ²²When they got up the following morning, the sun was shining on the water, making it look as red as blood. ²³"It's blood!" they exclaimed. "The three enemy armies must have fought and killed each other! Let's go and loot their camp!"
²⁴But when they reached the camp, the Israelites attacked them and drove them back. The Israelites kept up the pursuit, slaughtering the Moabites ²⁵and destroying their cities. As they passed by a fertile field, every Israelite would throw a stone on it until finally all the fields were covered; they also stopped up the springs and cut down the fruit trees. At last only the capital city of Kir Heres was left, and the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.
²⁶When the king of Moab realized that he was losing the battle, he took seven hundred swordsmen with him and tried to force his way through the enemy lines and escape to the king of Syria, but he failed. ²⁷So he took his oldest son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him on the city wall as a sacrifice to the god of Moab. The Israelites were terrified and so they drew back from the city and returned to their own country.

A Vision of a Basket of Fruit

Amos 8 I had another vision from the Sovereign LORD. In it I saw a basket of fruit. ²The LORD asked, "Amos, what do you see?"
"A basket of fruit," I answered.
The LORD said to me, "The end has come for my people Israel. I will not change my mind again about punishing them. ³On that day the songs in the palace will become cries of mourning. There will be dead bodies everywhere. They will be cast out in silence."

Israel's Doom

⁴Listen to this, you that trample on the needy and try to destroy the poor of the country. ⁵You say to yourselves, "We can hardly wait for the holy days to be over so that we can sell our grain. When will the Sabbath end, so that we can start selling again? Then we can overcharge, use false measures, and fix the scales to cheat our customers. ⁶We can sell worthless wheat at a high price. We'll find someone poor who can't pay his debts, not even the price of a pair of sandals, and we'll buy him as a slave."
⁷The LORD, the God of Israel, has sworn, "I will never forget their evil deeds. ⁸And so the earth will quake, and everyone in the land will be in distress. The whole country will be shaken; it will rise and fall like the Nile River. ⁹The time is coming when I will make the sun go down at noon and the earth grow dark in daytime. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken. ¹⁰I will turn your festivals into funerals and change your glad songs into cries of grief. I will make you shave your heads and wear sackcloth, and you will be like parents mourning for their only child. That day will be bitter to the end.
¹¹"The time is coming when I will send famine on the land. People will be hungry, but not for bread; they will be thirsty, but not for water. They will hunger and thirst for a message from the LORD. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken. ¹²People will wander from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean and then on around from the north to the east. They will look everywhere for a message from the LORD, but they will not find it. ¹³On that day even healthy young men and women will collapse from thirst. ¹⁴Those who swear by the idols of Samaria, who say, 'By the god of Dan' or 'By the god of Beersheba'--those people will fall and not rise again."