Answers Bible Curriculum: Lesson 2 - God Warns Israel

Heavenly Father, Lord, we just, We come before you this morning and we just, we humble ourselves and we thank you just for the opportunity to Come before your word and to hear your warnings to Israel, Lord, and, and your warnings, to those of us, Lord, who don't follow after you and seek after you, Lord, and We love your grace that we see in this, Lord, and, and just how good you are that, even though we sin, Lord, you still call out to us, seek me and live. And Lord, I just lifting up, the men as they're coming back, from the mammoth trip, Lord, I just pray that you would keep them safe, Lord, we, we lift up our Sunday school classes with the children and the teachers that are there, Lord, and we pray for those, those hearts of those children, Lord.

that you would, begin a good work there and prepare the soil for the seed that's going to be sown, Lord, and we lift up, Pastor Milton as he prepares, to teach, later this morning, Father, that you'd be with him. you would be preparing his heart and his mind for that, Lord, and be preparing those that are coming, to hear the word, Lord.

we think of those that may not know you, Father, that, that may be coming, that may be here, that you would be preparing their hearts as well, Father, to hear your word. we love you and we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. All right.

Thank you. So, so real quick, just a, a quick overview of what we'll, we'll do. We, we, we talked about a review. we'll look at the, the study of AMIS.

We have about 4 passages, that we'll, we'll look at there and then we'll, we'll try to apply it, which it's, it's very applicable for, today's, life. So we went through that. So I have a question. So what are, what are some absurd warnings that you guys have heard or been given, right?

Just thinking in general, something absurd, a warning. Anything that stand out? Yeah, just send it, yeah, yeah. No running in the hallway.

My wife and I always laugh because we will watch TV and we see these commercials for prescription medication, and they tell you not to take them if you're allergic to that medication. So that's always a, that's always an interesting one, right? Wear your helmet. So, I, I put together about 5 here that I like.

So, just a little comedic thing here. So if you've ever used a chainsaw, that is on the box of the chainsaw. So it's good advice not to hold the wrong end of the chainsaw, OK? and the second one here, so anybody that uses a, a, a blow dryer, this is actually there.

do not use while sleeping. So, not, not sure how do you do that, but, it's good. anybody who operates equipment, it's always good to avoid death. So, there's some advice on how to avoid death, when you're operating the equipment.

and then, another good one here is, so, if you like to pray, play pranks, with, with maybe with, your kids, probably not, maybe your brother or sister when you're younger, right? But if you have a washing machine, you do not put Any person inside the washer, right? So it's actually go, so go home and check if that says that on your, on your washing machine, right? and then the last one I thought was great, so the old iPod shuffle, there's actually a warning.

If you can read it. Number 2, do not eat the iPod shuffle. So I don't, I don't know. I'm not sure what that's about, but, for, for everybody who has one, you wanna not eat that.

OK. But today we, we're gonna read Amos. we're gonna look at some passages, and these are, these are definitely not absurd warnings, right? So we, we, we joke about this, but Amos had something that was incredibly important to share.

Israel had gone down the drain and we kinda can look at this, this background here. So, so Amos, he was, he was a prophet from Tekoa, and Tekoa is a small, it's a small village about 12 miles south of Jerusalem. So if you remember, that's in the southern kingdom. So, Amos was raised in the southern kingdom.

He was brought up to, to be a, prophet for the North, and, he was, he served during the time of Usaiah, the king of the South, and Jeroboam the 2nd. he was the king of the north. Excuse me, and this, this time, for Israel and Judah in general was, was extremely prosperous, materially, externally, right? So, Jeroboam, if we read in 2 Kings 14, that Jeroboam was actually, he had actually extended the border of Israel to the point where it was during Solomon's kingdom.

So there weren't really any warring nations, there was peace, pretty much through the land. Dan shared with us that, Jonah went to Nineveh and he preached to, the capital of Assyria and then they repented, and so that wasn't a problem for Israel at the time. and so there was really, there was nothing there that caused any conflict or issues with, with Israel. And so they, they actually became very prosperous and, and, and externally and materially, but the one, the one thing that that did was that it, it paved the way for the moral and social degradation of the people, right?

So it became just Very morally and socially wicked. and so that's, that's what we're gonna see, today as we go through it. so this is a breakdown of the book. so you can kinda see how it's broken down into three parts there with the judgment and the condemnation, and the, the visions of judgment and restoration, but we can paint a mental, mental picture for ourselves.

So, if you look at the Book of Amos, you might look at it like a tree. Right? So if you picture a tree with this massive trunk, and the trunk is God's judgment of Israel, right? So that's the main theme of the book is God's judgment against Israel.

And then that what feeds that trunk, there's, there's a root system, right? So you have a main taproot that comes down from the tree and there's probably a few, maybe 3 offshoots of roots that come down and those are the sins that feed into that trunk, right? So the, the main sin that you see is, is the fact that Israel had forsaken God. So that's the main root that comes down from the tree and then off that main root, you have 3 other roots.

you, you have their addiction to luxury, so like I said, they're very wealthy, right? Amos talks about them laying on beds of ivory and just, everything that you could think of, right? It's just total wealth and, and, and prosperity, but materially only. another offshoot would be their indifference to honesty, right?

He talks about false balances and the way they do business. and then, lastly is their hardheartedness, hard-heartedness towards the poor. Right? So we'll look at a couple of those passages today, but before we do that, I wanna, I wanna look at, before we get into verse or chapter two, I want to look at chapter 1, verse 2.

this sets the tone for the book. So I'll read, chapter 1, verse 2, and he said, the Lord roars from Zion. And utters his voice from Jerusalem. So that's, that's the keynote of the book, right?

That's how it starts. The Lord roars from Zion. so, Amos compares the Lord to a ravenous lion. Right?

And he's, he's roaring from the mountain top. And, and later in the passage we'll look at in, in chapter 4, Amos actually tells the people, prepare to meet your God, oh Israel, right? And, and that's a very ominous thing, right? Prepare, get ready.

The Lord is like a ravenous lion on the day of the Lord. And if you run from that lion, it'll be like meeting a bear robbed of her cubs, right? And so, it's just, it's total. This should be total fear.

and then you hide in your house, and it'll be like a viper that's on your windowsill, right? There's just, there's no escape, for the rebel from the day of the Lord, on the day of the Lord, right? And so that's, that's the tone that he sets, and that's the way that, the book starts. And so we'll look at, we'll look at the first passage here and I'll, I'll read it.

but it's Amos chapter 2 starting at verse 6. So let's see if we get that up there. Here we go. Thus says the Lord, for 3 transgressions of Israel and for 4, I will not turn away its punishment because they sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals.

They pant after the dust of the earth, which is on the head of the poor and pervert the way of the humble. A man and his father go into the same girl to defile my holy name. They lie down by every altar on clothes, taken in pledge and drink the wine of the condemned. And the house of their god, yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them.

Whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks, yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. And it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you 40 years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. I raised up some of your sons as prophets and some of your young men as Nazarites. Is it not so, O children of Israel, says the Lord.

But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink and commanded the prophet saying, do not prophesy. Right? So, so here we go. We, we, we see the judgment against Israel.

Up to this point, Amos would have been probably the most popular guy in Israel. So he spent the first chapter, chapter one and the first part of chapter two prophesying against six other, pagan nations, Gentile nations, and then even one, prophecy against Judah, and so, everyone would have loved to hear that. we're all good with hearing about other people's sins, right? You can tell me about the log in their eye, but don't, don't tell me about the one that's in mine, right?

So, in verse 6, Amos becomes suddenly unpopular and, You hear about this, this judgment that he's bringing on to Israel. So, question, so the first part of verse six is for 3 transgressions of Israel and for 4. Anybody have any idea what that's getting at? Yeah, so I think basically the idea is like, so I say to my kids, they're doing something over and over and, and, and, and I'm done.

Like I, I've told you guys over and over and over. I think in the notes it says if I told you once, I've told you 1000 times, right? It's like, I'm done. We're done talking about this.

You've been warned, right? And so, so, so the Lord is telling them, look, this isn't the first time we've talked about this. And I think the issue that, that Amos is addressing here is this, the social injustice. so you see this disparity, between the rich and the poor, right?

So, there's a couplet in verse 6 where it kinda puts the righteous and the poor together. It's the same, that it's comparing them together, right? So the righteous, they sell for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals. what I was thinking about that.

I was like I went and I bought a pair of shoes, and it cost me $30 but they're actually, they're selling someone. if you think about it, like the, the thought of selling a person for a pair of sandals. It's, it's just, it's, it's incredible, to think about, and, and, in Leviticus 25, you can see, the way, Moses had commanded that the Lord had commanded that these, people should be treating the poor. So I'll read there Leviticus 285 verse 39.

It says, if your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave. He shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of Jubilee. Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan.

And return to the possessions of his fathers, for they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him ruthlessly, but shall fear your God. Right?

So, so that's the standard that they should have been keeping. and you, so you can see the, the stunning, depth of depravity that we have with the way the poor were treated and, and I think in, in verse seven, the first part of verse seven, so I have a new King James here and it says pan. I think, anybody have an ESV or, yeah. So what, what, it uses what word there?

Trample. Yeah, so there's a couple of different ideas, right? So I think both of them fit. There's an oppression of the poor that's going on, and so to trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth seems to make sense.

but I wonder also if Amos is given a jab here, right? So if you think about panting after something, the Psalm says the deer pants after water, right? My dog when it's hottie pants for, for his water bowl, right? and so I think that the level of their idolatrous covetousness is so bad.

That they're actually panting after the dust that's on the head of the poor, right? So you, you, you think about that. These guys are, they, they, they're so covetous of what they want and what they need that they're, they're desiring the dust that's on the poor's head. And so I think it's, it's, it can also be that which is, it just kinda shows how desperate they are for, for material things.

and then in the second part of verse 7, we see that a man and his father go into the same girl, and I think this is probably referring to, a slave, not necessarily pagan, the pagan worship that was going on, just because of the context of the oppression and, and what they're talking about. but either way, the idea here is that you, you have in Deuteronomy 6, right? The Lord laid out, for For families, what they were supposed to do, right? So you would teach these things diligently to your children.

You put them on your doorpost. it was, you talk about them when you woke up, you talk about them when you lie down. It was the law of the Lord should have been In every part of your life, right? And so now what you see is a father and a son, and this is what the father's teaching them, right?

So, godly fathers, marital purity, it's, it's non-existent, right? And so, so the idea is that they've wandered so far from what the Lord has commanded them and what they're doing. All right. And then in verse 9, verses 9 to 11, you see how good God was to him, right?

So this is, this is Amos just painting the picture. Look, this is what you're doing, but look what God did, right? If you remember back, so in verses 9 to 11, it, it talks about them coming into the promised land. And so, in, in, in Where are we at here?

In verse 14 of Joshua 10, it says that there has been no day like before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel, right? So, he went into the Amorite camp and he fought for Israel, and he utterly destroyed them, right? And he, they're compared to the heights of cedar and as strong as oaks, but the Lord went in and it was a complete destruction, right? All the way from the root, up to the fruit was destroyed and, and I, there's an interesting, account in Numbers 13, where the spies are coming back, from spying on the land and they, they see what they're like, and the spies compare themselves to grasshoppers, compared to the Amorites, right?

So, it gives you that picture of what they thought of themselves compared to the Amorites and how there was, it was utterly impossible for them to go in and to take over the promised land, but the Lord was there and he delivered them and he fought for them that day. and so it's that reminder that, hey man, look, think back, look what he did, look what he's done, and, and here you are. Treating the poor this way, of someone who's made in God's image, and, and, and you're not doing the things that, that I've asked you and commanded you to do, right?

and then Verse 12, it's, it's this, we talked about that, that main taproot that was the forsaking of God.

this is the, this is that, abandonment here you see it. So God brings him into the promised land and he, he, calls Nazarites and he calls prophets, and they have a job to do, right? Those are God's chosen, people that are gonna do those things speak for him, and, and Nazarites couldn't have anything from the vine, and what do they do, right? They, they, they forced him to drink wine, they tell him to stop prophesying.

And so it's just, it's just a total abandonment of everything that God had set up and everything that God was doing. For, for them, right? OK. So, any questions on that 6 yes.

6 where it says Right If if there's a connection just Because of not being involved in the secular. They don't have to Right. Because they Right. Yeah.

Yeah, I, I, I don't recall, so, so what Dan's saying is that there's, there's this disparity because the righteous separate themselves out, from the wicked and they're, not doing business in the way that they would do it and so they're not able to, to kinda have the same earnings and lifestyle that, that the other folks would have and so, I didn't read, much from that, but yeah, I, I know that, in Amos 8, it talks about, making the IA small and the shekel great and, and the, the balances that they have are, bad balances and so definitely I think that, that, he talks about that later.

we don't actually cover it through this, but yeah, so they're, they're doing dishonest business and, and the people that are righteous won't. Yeah, so I think that's a good point. Yeah, thank you.

Anything else from that section? OK. So we'll look at the next section now, which is chapter 3. So a few verses here, so I'll read verses 1 and 2.

Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family, which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, you only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. And so it's not quite the way you think it would be, right? So he talks about their election and you only have I chosen and, and everything, and then therefore, I will punish you, and it's this like, what the heck is going on, right?

if you're elected and you're chosen and this is God's people, but, to whom much is given, much is required, and, and, it's not a free pass for, for sinning, right? Same with us, right? So we're chosen before the foundation of the world, but we're not given a free pass to act. However we want, there's, there's a love that comes through our choosing and, and we love to, keep the commandments of God and they're not burdensome for us.

so we'll look at, we'll look at this passage for Israel here. So there's 3 points, 3 quick thoughts here. So, the first point is that Israel's God's chosen people. so you look at Deuteronomy 7 and God gives His people, a glimpse of what he's going to do for them.

so they can enter the promised land. So he's actually, he's gonna hand over the seven nations, seven larger nations that occupy that area. and the only requirement for Israel was that you utterly destroy them, right? So it says in verse 2 that you devote them to complete destruction.

and there was a reason why, right? So he didn't want them to intermarry. He didn't want any idols, any of pagan worship left over, because, because in verse 6, you are a people. Of Deuteronomy 7, you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it's because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand. And redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keeps His commandments to 1000 generations. and repays to their face those who hate him by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.

You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today, right? So there's the, there's a link. so Israel is God's chosen people, and I'm going to love you and I'm going to keep my promises thousands of generations. But For those that hate me, for those that, that don't love me, I, I return with vengeance, right?

And so, so that's, that's the picture he's painting even back in Deuteron, this is before they even come, before anything's going on with kings and everything else, he's, he's warning them, he's telling them, he's, he's, he's, it's his grace, his love for them, right? the second point there that you see, in verse one. that Israel was redeemed from bondage in Egypt. So, so not only did God choose Israel, by His grace, then he redeemed them, out of, out of Egypt by his, his grace alone.

so if you think back to Egypt and, and all of the Israelite people were there, had God not intervened, they would have been completely assimilated into the Egyptian people, right? They wouldn't. It wouldn't be a Jewish people, and, but God remembered his promise that he, he kept to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and he came in and he delivered them and, and, and you see that over and over throughout the Old Testament, right, that look back, I delivered you from here. I, I did this for you.

I, I took you out from the land of Egypt and gave you this promised land and, and so, this is just another reminder of, of what could have been, but because he's a God who keeps his promises, this is what, what happens. and then the third point is that Israel is separate in their choosing from all other nations of the world, right? So you only have I known of all the families of the earth, so obviously, God knows all the, the nations, but only Israel has that intimate, knowledge with God and, every nation sees God's goodness.

I think there's common grace that kinda is covered through, through all the nations, right?

So you see these nations that are living in the promised land when Israel comes and obviously they're doing well., God causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on the just and the unjust, but nothing, nothing compared, to their, to Israel's election, right? But the problem was that Israel didn't follow the commands of the Lord, in Deuteronomy 7, and, And we talked about how gracious God was, even before they entered the promised land, right? And, in verse, in chapter 8, verse 19, it says, and if you forget the Lord your God, so you're gonna come in and if you forget, the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them.

I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.

Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey, obey the voice of the Lord your God, right? Deuteronomy 8:19-20. So, for those of us that are chosen and elect, we said that for much is, for whom much is given, much is required, and, and Israel was no different and, and so that even though God gave them those warnings and, and throughout scripture, you see that they still, wandered away and still followed idols and, and, and followed after, the other nations.

And then in verse 9, I'll read 9 to 11 of chapter 3 of Amos.

It says, proclaim. In the palaces at Ashdod and in the palaces in the land of Egypt and say assemble on the mountains of Samaria, see great tumults in her midst, and the oppressed within her, for they do not know to do right, says the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, an adversary shall be all around the land. He shall sap your strength from you, and your palaces shall be plundered.

so now to top, top off the judgment, the Lord calls the, the Philistines and the Egyptians to come and stand there and watch. so the Philistines and the Egyptians are two nations that had tormented Israel, right, had, had held them captive, had, had just been a thorn in their flesh, and, and the Lord judged them, but he's calling them back to, to stand on outside of Samaria and to watch the judgment that's coming, right? So you see the tumults, which speaks of like, the disorder and confusion, where lawlessness prevails, right?

So there's tumults going on within Israel.

the oppression is the perversion of justice. So these nations are called to witness this and, which, which means, that these, that, that Israel is At, at least as bad, but likely worse than what these other nations were. So the Lord judged these other nations and now he calls them back to say, watch how I'm going to judge Israel, right? And Amos even elaborates more on the wickedness.

he says that Samaria, the Israelites, they don't even know how to do right. right? It, it has the idea of straightness. and so basically, it's just that the, the, the, the, the moral sense within Israel was so warped, that the concepts of right and wrong were totally blurred, right?

So they just, they didn't even know how to do right, in, in, in there, and, and And all these things that they were doing, they were doing, it says, who stored up violence and robbery in their own palaces, in their own houses, in their own strongholds, right? So they were doing it to their own people. It was being stored up inside, right? So these other nations would go out and do that, but Israel was doing it within.

and then finally, Amos brings the source of their judgment, in verse 11. and he doesn't name Assyria, specifically, but in 722, As Syria would come in, and they would take Israel into exile, and it was a complete, and total plundering of everything that they had stored up, right? So you, you read this, your palaces shall be plundered, your strongholds shall be plundered. and, and Haley, a commentator, I was, I was reading, he said it this way.

So, cause remember, this is a very prosperous time for them. And he said it was as if these valued possessions that they've been storing up had been reserved as wages for the people used by Jehovah to serve his purpose of judgment, right? So the Lord allowed the prosperity. He allowed the material wealth to store up a payment for the Assyrians that would come in and, and totally and utterly destroy Israel, right?

So all their wealth that they had gained that they were, they were hoping in was given to the Assyrians, right? It's just It's amazing to think about. All right. Any questions on any of that?

OK, so we'll look at the next one. So chapter 4, verse 10. so this is, again, the Lord reminding them. And so I'll read from verse 10.

I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt. Your young men I killed with a sword. Along with your captive horses. I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils.

Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I overthrew some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning. Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. Therefore, thus will I do to you, Israel, because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, oh Israel.

For behold, he who forms mountains and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts is his name. So, Amos goes through and he's reminding these people of things the Lord had brought on them, right? So there's calamities that have come across and if so, if you go back to verse 65 different times, the Lord says, this happened and this happened, but you did not return to me, right?

But you did not return to me.

So they didn't get it, right? They didn't see it. And the idea of calamities coming and, and, coming against Israel is something the Lord would use. It, it shouldn't have been a surprise, right?

So you see it Leviticus 26 verse 21, we'll, I'll read it. Just look at the parallels between what the Lord had said in Amos and then what, what was said here in Leviticus. verse 21, then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you sevenfold for your sins, and I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted. And if by this discipline, you are not turned to me, but walk contrary to me, Then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

So here's some parallels, and I will bring a sword upon you that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. And when I break your supply of bread, 10 women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat. And not be as you shall eat and not be satisfied.

And Dan and I were talking before, but if you continue reading that passage, it is, it's super graphic of what the Lord is going to do, just the punishments that are going to come along. it, it, it's really stunning and, and so the people of Israel would have, should have known this, should have read this, should have, should have, seen what the Lord was doing, and the Lord is here reminding them again and again, and yet, they didn't get it, right? They didn't, they didn't see what the calamity was for, what the, the The death that the Lord was bringing or the strife that the Lord was bringing, what it was caused to do.

And so, Amos says in 12, he says, prepare to meet your God, oh Israel, right?

And so it's not a, a happy, hey, get ready. it's very ominous. and so just, just in case you want to know who God is, that's coming, that you're going to meet, he tells you in verse 13. And he paints a picture of a God who's, who's able to carry out judgment against Israel, right?

So, he makes mountains like Plato, right? he, he creates the wind with a whisper. he, he gives the thoughts to men before they even have them, right? he controls every possible working of the, of the universe, right?

So, he makes the morning darkness, right? So he controls all of that. He treads the high places of the earth, right? So it's like, From the Appalachians to the Rockies in a step, right?

he's just, this God is massive. He created this, he controls this. Israel probably shrugged this off, right? later we see that they go to the key to Jeroboam and they kick Amos out of Israel, and they they send them back to the southern king and they don't prophesy here anymore.

We don't want to hear this, right? Get out of here. So they, they shrug it off, but it should have scared their socks off, right? and I think, I was thinking back about it and it's like, when I was younger, my mom would tell me something, right?

I'm doing something wrong, not very often, but I would do something wrong and she's telling me, don't do that or, go do this or whatever the case was, right? And it's like, yeah, OK, whatever. I'm not worried about it. But then, There was always that one sentence, right?

Just wait till your dad gets home, and it's like, oh man, all right, I got it. But Israel didn't hear it, right? They did, they didn't see. what God was, what Amos was saying about the God that was coming.

and, and it's, it's, it's an amazing thing that this is the God that's going to judge you. that's a frightening thing, right? Why do you say, do you look forward to the day of the Lord, right? Amos talks about that.

Is it not darkness? it's, it's, it's definitely a, a, a frightening, frightening thing. Alright. So we'll move into, chapter 5, if anybody has any, yeah.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yep.

Right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So just that, that link that we see between all those, all those things that the Lord brought on, all the calamities and all the, the strife that they were given, and every time, right, 5 different times, every time it's, but you did not return to me, but you did not return to me and that's the, the point of those is that we would, the Lord would use that for to drive us back to him.

Yeah, and, it's, it's true, right? So we read in Hebrews, right? So, the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, right? So we, he, he scourges every son, right?

So, and it's, it's that for that purpose, right? To drive us back and to show us, who he is and, and, and what he, what he does. He loves us. He's a God who keeps promises, right, to 1000 generations.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think there's, that's a great question, right?

So if God never, if God doesn't change, if he's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and this is how he dealt, in the past, then what is he delaying his punishment today or, is that what you're, OK. yeah, so I, we're, we're storing up wrath for the day of wrath. I think that, I, I think back on things that have happened in my life, and you kinda, you have that hindsight when you look back and you can see it through the eyes of faith and, and what it's done to mold and shape who you are and it could have totally gone a different way.

And so I, I, I don't know if it's part of that, and it's part of God is patient, not wishing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance.

but yeah, I, I think that, the, the day of wrath is coming. even, even with this, right? So Amos, Amos tells the people here, and it's like another close to 50 years. Before Syria comes.

and takes them captive. Right. And so next week we'll see about Hosea and we, we see all this stuff that's, that the Lord did, and, and, and so I think there's, he's long suffering. So, it's, we read it and the judgment happens.

it's, but it, it, and it's not gonna be any different today, right? Than it, than it, than it was then the, the book of Revelation is pretty clear of what's going to happen and, and yeah, so I, I do. I do think that it's coming and I do think that the Lord has declared what his wrath will be and for those that don't, don't trust in Christ, I'm not sure if that answered the question or made it any worse or if anybody else has any input on that. Sure, yeah, so part of it could be that he turns you out, right, so like Romans one, he just turned you over to your sin.

Yeah. I think this character we see Stubbornness It seems like God will Reach out, Yeah. Yeah, so stubbornness, right? We see that.

Excellent thank you. Any other? OK. All right, so we'll, we'll look at, Chapter 5, verse 1.

And man, this, this section is, or not verse 1, excuse me, verse 4, this section is great. so we've been talking about just how wicked, right, Israel is and the things that they're doing and they, they sell the, the poor for a pair of sandals and, and we deal falsely in, in the marketplace and, and the way they trample the head of the poor into the dust or whatever the case might be. but man, we just see God's goodness, right here, His grace, right? So one thing I didn't, I forgot and I forgot when I was going over, the lesson at home, and I forgot here, just figure, go figure, but, when we talked about the tree that you see for the book of Amos, right?

There's also branches on the tree, right? There's a few, not many, but there's a few branches, and those branches are God's call to Israel to repent, right? So you see that throughout Amos and we see that here. in 5, in chapter 5, verse 4, it says, for thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, seek me and live.

Seek me and live, but do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba, for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it, with no one to quench it in Bethel, you who turn justice to wormwood and lay righteousness to rest in the earth. Right, so, it's just amazing, right? That there it is, right there.

Seek me and live. don't look at anything else. There's nothing else that's gonna do it. There's nothing else that will satisfy.

There's nothing else that will save you. Seek me and live, right? Don't go to Bethel, don't go to Gilgal. these places were, were places of pagan worship, right?

They've been, become, idol worship, centers for idol worship. and so God's, God's telling them, don't go there, right? I'm not there. but I also think there's, there's more than that.

So if you look at Bethel and these places, they're, they all have historical covenantal significance. So, Bethel was the place where Jacob met God. So you look at, it was Genesis 28. Jacob has a dream with the ladder and the angels ascending and descending, and God makes his promise there to him.

That's at Bethel, right? And so he, he erects an altar, and that's Bethel, and then Gilgal. this is where God's promise to deliver them to the promised land was realized, right? This is when they first came over into the, into the promised land where they first had the pass their first Passover.

in the Promised Land was at Gilgal. all the men who were, born in the wilderness were circumcised there at Gilgal, as part of the covenant, and they built an altar and, and they worshiped the Lord there at Gilgal, Gilgal, and then at Beersheba, is, is in the south, actually, so the, the people from the north, I guess, would go to the south there to worship, for the idolatrous, worship. But that was a place where Abraham actually made a, a, a, a pact with Abimelech, and the well was there and, and, and so that was Abraham building his, his land that the Lord was giving to his people, right?

So all these things are significant to the history of Israel and the covenant.

And I think what God's saying is, don't, don't go back to that, right? That's, that's not the point, right? Don't, don't think now because of, of the judgment that's coming that if you go back to the, the worship that you do, right, just this tradition, that that's going to be That that's going to be what changes my mind, right? Don't, it's not about where you worship or, or what traditions you're doing.

It's seek me, right? God is, he's a real Person, come to him, seek him, know him, love him, right? that's what God is, is telling him. It's not, it's not where you go or how you do it, it's, it's that's, it's where your heart is.

that's the point here. And so that's, that's what he's, he's getting at there and, and if not, then the vengeance comes as a fire that breaks out in the house of Joseph, right? So, and that no one can quench. And then the last part there of Amos is just another.

Condemnation against the social injustice of Israel. And so you get justice. It's that idea of fair and impartial administration. Of the requirements of the law of God, right?

So, Jeremiah says it this way. he describes justice. He says they do not judge with justice, right? So he's talking about, the people that do not judge with justice because, they do not defend the rights of the needy, right?

So their lack of justice is in part because they do not defend the rights of the needy. and that's, and that's what, the people here in Israel during Amos's time were doing. and then we see God's expectation for that, in Exodus 23. Verse 4, it says, if you meet your enemy's ox, your enemy's ox, or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him.

If you see the donkey of one who hates you, lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it. You shall rescue it with him. And then in Deuteronomy 24, verse 17, it says, you shall not pervert. The justice due to the sojourner or the fatherless, or take a widow's garment and pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeems you from there.

Therefore, I command you to do this. When you reap your harvest in the field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. That the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over to them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. And when you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore, I command you to do this, right? So again, you see it, just, you were in Egypt, you were there. Take care of the poor, take care of the fatherless, the widow, right?

These are the commands of the Lord. This is what he expects. And if not, then he will repay vengeance, to those who who don't do that. so last, I just wanna kinda share, a couple of quick points that stood out to me as I was, going through the lesson.

I'd love to get some feedback, from anyone else, but Amos is, it's a really relevant book, I read through it the first time and I was kinda like, man, I told my wife, I don't get it, like I was confused. and, and as I continue to read it and just kinda go through it, it's, it's really relevant because you look at, you look at America and, we, we're, we're, we're a prosperous nation and, and, but we're also very addicted to that. To that wealth,. The way we treat people that are made in the image of God, if you look at abortion or any of those things that are, that are there, right?

We, we don't have any regard, for that. but another thing that, that, that was one thing, but another thing that stood out to me and, and this one really hits home, I think for a lot of, a lot of people in, in suburban America and it, it's, the Amos is an overwhelming book, right? When it comes to people who give token attention to God. so in, in chapter 8, Amos says that these people are, are asking when is the new moon over so that we can go sell grain or when is the Sabbath over so that we can go sell weed.

I've got, I, I got stuff to do. I don't have time for these festivals. I don't have time for the Sabbath, right? I'm going to do it because it's traditional, but I, I gotta get going.

I got my own stuff to take care of. And, so, so we come in and we worship every week. But our, our hearts are far more attached to family or comfort or sports, I can't wait to check my fantasy league or whatever the case, and I'm guilty, right? I, I get it, but, but that's where our hearts are, and, and, and Amos is calling that out, right?

he, he, it's, it's It's overwhelming and he tells us, right, that if our hearts are attached to this world, our acts of worship are merely to keep up respectability, right? So when I see everybody out and around town, I want, I want you guys to respect me, right? So I'm here, I do that, and that's all I care about. Then God hates my worship.

Right, he hates it. He despises my offerings and my singing. Man, that's, that, that hits home, when we think about how we should be coming and what we should be doing and the worship that we should have, Amos just demolishes our American mindset of worship. and then the other thing that stood out for me was just, I was thinking about the election of Israel and, and for us to, we've been elected, we were chosen before the foundation of the world.

And in Ephesians 2:8, right? You've been saved by grace that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, right? But what, but what does that mean, right? So we're elected, we're chosen to be God's people, to, to, to serve Him, to love Him, but it's not a free pass, right?

That we talked about earlier, right? The grace abounds, so sin abounds, and,. But we, but what, what we were created for, right? So you see in 28 that we're saved by grace alone through, through faith alone and in, in 210.

Paul says that we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. For good works Right? And it's good works that we got to go out and do, right? That we got to stroke.

Oh man, it's, it's awesome. It says which God prepared beforehand. Right, so God's already prepared it. So he's saved us by grace, and then he prepares this path for us to walk and good works.

And so that's, that's our path, right, is, is, is, is to follow in that grace that he's given us to not only be saved, but the grace to be able to, to walk in those good works that he's prepared. so those are, those are a couple of points that stood out to me. we have a few minutes, so I'd love to hear any thoughts or any, just, any application or or or anything in general, if anybody has any comments or Or anything. All right, it's too easy, come on, OK.

Yeah. Yeah, just the thought of the patience of God and even from the point of Amos, right, 50 years passes before the judgment comes that he prophesized. Yeah, I think so. Right.

Any other Any other thoughts or questions or anything? Awesome. All right. Well, why don't we pray, and then, and then we'll be excused.

Father God, we, We thank you just for Just for your word, Lord, and just what an awesome thing it is to be able to read it. And to see it. To see how you, you were and you are and you will be. Lord, but don't, don't just let us read it, right?

We need, we need to apply it. We need to see that as truths for us today. Lord we We have our own Vices, things that pull us away. Idols that we chase after, whatever that might be, Father, we, we forsake the God who's called us from before the foundation of the world, Lord.

But you're so long suffering and you're so gracious and you call out to us, seek me and live. Look to me and live. So I just pray, Lord, that, the Spirit would come and he would, he would just fill our hearts and our souls as we would. As we would just continue to press on.

For the goal of the call of God in Christ Jesus, and we would fight the good fight of faith, and we would stay faithful, Lord, and we would continue to have a hunger for your word and a thirst that could not be quenched, Lord, and that through it, Our lives would be changed, Father, and that we would be something that is different. We, we would stand out. And others would see it, Lord, and they would come and they would know you. And there would be a revival, Father.

So we pray for that. We pray for those who don't know you, Lord, that you would, you would now be working on their hearts, Lord, give us divine appointments as we leave today, as, as we go throughout our week, Lord, just man, just keep it on our hearts, Lord, that, that like Amos, we need to be testifying to your truth and judgment's coming, You are patient, wishing that no one would suffer, Father, but, but, but the fact is, is that Judgment will come and, and, let it be on our hearts for the lost, Lord, let that just be a burden for us.

we love you. We pray this all in Jesus' name.

Amen.