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679. Bible Story: Amos 6 & 7 (A Shepard prophecizes to northern Israel - the 10 tribes) · Faith by annm2705

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We'll start with chapter 6 of From the book of Amos.
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Dear God, please help us as we read through the scripture and
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give us wisdom, insight, revelation into your word and to
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what you want us to take away from this, what we should
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understand. From this we ask for the Holy
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Spirit to enlighten us in Jesus name, Amen.
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So this says woe to the complacent.
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Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure
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on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation to
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whom the people of Israel come. Go to Calmet and look at it.
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Go there to great Hemeth. Then go down to Gath in
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Philistia. Are they better off than your
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two kingdoms? So the two kingdoms he's
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referring to is Israel and Judah because they were both at this
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time separated. There were 10 tribes with Israel
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and two tribes in Judah, Judah and Benjamin.
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So continuing on, is there land larger than yours?
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You put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of
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terror. You lie on beds adorned with
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ivory and lounge on your couches.
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You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves.
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You strum away on the harps, like on your harps like David,
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and improve on and improvise on musical instruments.
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You drink wine by the bowl full and use the finest lotions.
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But you do not grieve over the rune of Joseph.
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Therefore you will be among the 1st to go into exile.
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So this is important. This is actually the prophetic
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part from what Amos is saying and he's remember he's talking
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to Israel, the 10 tribes and saying therefore you will be
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among the 1st to go into exile. And this in fact did happen.
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Israel, the 10 tribes went into exile before the 2 tribes and
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Judah did. They both eventually did, but
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Israel went first. Continuing in scripture, your
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feasting and lounging will end. The Lord abhors the pride of
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Israel. The sovereign Lord has sworn by
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himself. The Lord Almighty declares, I
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abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses.
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I will deliver up the city and everything in it.
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I want to pause right here for a minute just because of something
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that I just noticed here. It's really talking about the
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Lord abhors the pride. Last night when I went to
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church, it was about humility and pride.
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And then I listened to another sermon this morning and again it
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was talking about pride. And I really feel like when this
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kind of thing happens, that God is really sending a message to
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us. I mean, he hates pride.
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That's one of the that was one of the scriptures that's
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Proverbs 616. I always forget where that's
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located and also 17 where it's located in Scripture.
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But it talks about the seven things that God hates.
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And one of them is like haughty eyes or proud or pride or
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something, you know, looking down upon others, having a
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prideful approach. And, and I really think there's
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something that, you know, all of us can, if we look deep, if we
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look at what the word of God says, we look deep in Scripture,
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we can find pride in ourselves, every single person.
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And but we don't like to, we don't like to look at that.
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And I feel like that is something that God is
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emphasizing right now is to look at pride and examine ourselves
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for pride and surrender that to God.
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You know, ask God for help with the Holy Spirit in combating
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that. Ask for God to open our eyes and
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let us see the pride in ourselves.
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Because we don't do anything about the condition of other
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people. All we can do is look at
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ourselves and reflect on ourselves and what do we need to
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change? It's easy to throw judgement or
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commentary or observation or discernment about others having
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that, but we need to look at ourselves because it doesn't
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matter what others do. We're not responsible for others
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in that way, like every person is responsible for our own
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selves. So we all have a tendency to do
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this and some more minor and some greater, but we all have a
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tendency towards it and it's something that God hates.
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So it's something we all should address.
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And if it seems like it's being emphasized again, and look at
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what happens here is these people that Amos is talking to,
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they're living in luxury, they're enjoying, they're
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thinking, you know, let's where's my next strength?
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They're not providing justice. They're oppressing the poor.
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And they don't think any harm is going to come to them because
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they are Israel. And yet they are not focused on
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God. They have pride.
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They're looking. I mean, it'll get more into that
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later. So I'm just going to read from
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Scripture. So I abhorred the pride of
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Jacob. And to test his fortresses, I
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will deliver up the city and everything in it.
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If 10 people are left in one house, they too will die.
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And if the the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of
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the house to burn them, ask anyone who might be hiding there
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is anyone else with you and he says no.
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Then he will go on to say, Hush, we must not mention the name of
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the Lord, for the Lord has given the command, and He will smash
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the great house into pieces and the small house into bits.
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Do horses run on rocky crags? Does one plough the sea with
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oxen? But you have turned justice into
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poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness.
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You who rejoice in the conquest of Lo de Barre, which means
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nothing, and say, did we not take Karnam by our own strength?
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So right there they're, you know, bragging about our own
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strength. This is where humility comes in.
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We may accomplish certain things, but we need to remember
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that ultimately it's from God. God made it happened.
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He could, he could have externally made it happen and we
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could have just been the the beneficiary of that.
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Or we also have to remember that God created us, so he created us
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with certain abilities. And if we do those certain
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things, it's because it came from God.
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So ultimately, everything good that we do comes from God, for
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the Lord God Almighty declares I will stir up a nation against
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you, Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Libo Hama
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to the Valley of Arabia, Araba or Araba.
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And that's the end of chapter 6. So we'll probably get into 7,
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but I'll read the questions and answers 1st.
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So how could thinking, how could a thinking person deny the
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problems? These people were suppressing
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the evidence, saying in effect, perhaps there will be some
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difficulty sometime in the future, but it's not going to
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happen to us. Their optimism was worldly and
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naive. The day of disaster refers to
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the day of God's judgement, which did later come upon all of
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these cities. I, you know, I think that God
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does do judgement along the way, but there is the day of the Lord
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that really comes at the end for judgement.
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And anyway, just an observation there.
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And, and I think we also should pay attention to this, just
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thinking that, oh, this is going to come along real far in the
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future sometime. We don't know that for sure.
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I mean, look at what's happening in the world right now and then
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study Bible prophecy and see what Bible prophecy says.
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And there are significant things happening in the world that
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relate to end times, the last days, Bible prophecy.
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Now someone recently said to me, and this is so true.
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This could be a foreshadowing of future events, so it could be in
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the distant future. But until we get past
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everything, we won't know if this exactly is or if it's just
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a foreshadowing of future events.
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So we really can't be certain until it actually happens and
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then it's too late. But one thing that it is for
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sure is a warning to people, a warning to people to repent and
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turn to God, reconcile our relationships with God and make
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sure that we are in we are in a good relationship with God, that
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God isn't like upset with the way we're living life.
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That's something that gets neglected by many churches.
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They love to talk about the grace, but they don't like to
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talk about repentance. And you can't really receive
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grace unless you've repented because you have to have
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forgiveness and turn away from your sin before you can have the
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grace of God. And I found it very helpful just
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when I hear the word grace, because Scripture does say this,
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but grace is actually the power of God.
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Grace to me is the Holy Spirit. So and Jesus said we needed the
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Holy Spirit to be in the Kingdom of God.
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So if we don't have the Holy Spirit, if we haven't repented,
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which means not liking our sin anymore and wanting to change
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and making the actions to stay away from sin with the help of
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the Holy Spirit, we won't be perfect in it.
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We'll still mess up. But anyone who says that, you
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know, they use well, I messed up.
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And that's where grace comes in. Yes and no.
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If you keep on doing the same sin and you don't put like you
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don't take up your own cross, why did Jesus say, you know,
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anyone who wants to follow him has to take up his own cross?
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Would it be a cross if we just said, oh, God's got this, I got
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grace, I don't have to worry about it.
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That's, you know, that's just like the watered down word of
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God that's being spoken through churches and essentially letting
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people like walk their path to hell, walk their path to
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separation from God. And it concerns me because there
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are so many people that just are comfortable in their sinful
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state and don't see anything wrong with it, don't want to
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change and just say, oh, God's got this.
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He's already Jesus died on the cross.
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I'm covered. Don't you know, don't be
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legalistic. I hear that from people, but I
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just wonder how many of those people actually read the Bible?
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How many of those people actually prayed to God about it?
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Yes, I was one of those people who like looked for loopholes
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because when I read it, it popped out to me and I was like,
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wait a minute. This is like, this is really
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serious, like this requires a change of life, a turn around of
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what your life, what your life was living like.
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And when I realized that's what the Bible said, it didn't matter
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to me what churches said. It just matters what the Bible
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said and and again, I just I loved that the Dead Sea Scrolls
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were found in, you know, recent years in the 1900s, mid 1900s.
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I guess that support that the Bible hasn't changed over these
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like 100 BC since then. It's still the same information.
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So people become of what they hear, and they use sound bites
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from other people to challenge Christianity.
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But anyone who's really dove into the book and really studied
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the Bible and critically thought about all this stuff, they tend
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to come to the same conclusion. In fact, this is kind of
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interesting because I just saw this recently about this.
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Like the person with the highest IQ in the world right now is
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stating that Christianity is the truth.
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And so that's just interesting. Like if you need affirmation
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from somebody with the highest IQ right now who's saying
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Christianity is the truth, you know, look at that.
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Because there's a lot of people who are really intelligent who
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like to pulls and Christianity and doubt and, you know, give
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all of this resistance to Christianity, but because they
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think that they're smarter than what's in the Bible.
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But again, God uses the humble people and maybe people who
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aren't as intelligent to confound the wise.
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Scripture says that so the simple people can actually
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understand God's word. And sometimes the more
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intelligent people have difficulty, and perhaps it's
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because of pride, because of thinking that a person is
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greater than they are and not humbling themselves, and
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therefore they're blocking what God can do in their life.
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Therefore they're blocking the Holy Spirit.
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God's not going to give gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit
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to someone who is prideful because there would be a lot of
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harm done with that. They can kind of have those
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things, but the way they live life, I always refer back after
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I found it because the Bible is so insightful and it helps us to
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examine ourselves and also not to be fooled by other people,
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hopefully to have discernment. But Galatians chapter 5 is a
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great resource because it talks about those who live worldly
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lives and those who live by the Spirit.
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And that is where people can, if you want to develop discernment
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about people, memorize Galatians Chapter 5, get to know what that
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is. And then you can apply those
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simple things to see what spirit is behind a person.
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And it's discernment is pretty easy if you understand Galatians
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5 because you will really see the spiritual condition of a
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person just based on their everyday actions.
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They don't even have to tell you what they believe.
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You can just observe them and see.
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So anyway, it's probably better to observe and not ask because
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people can tell you what they want to tell you.
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But look at how they act. OK, back to the questions and
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answers. What would they see at Kalna,
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Hemeth and Gath? Some say the Israelites would
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see the destruction caused by God's judgement of these foreign
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cities. Others suggest the Israelites
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would see that Israel was better off and possessed larger tracts
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of land than those Pagan cities, but had sunk to the same level
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of immorality. How could the people live in
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such ease with rune all around? The Rune of Joseph refers to the
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devastation of the rank and file Israelites.
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Jeroboam the Second had won many military victories.
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He and his Royal Court enjoyed the spoils of war and could
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afford excessive carousing and 1st class living.
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But they ignored the plight of the poor city, the plight of the
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poor city dwellers, and cared nothing for the peasants.
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The social set lived as if they were the only ones that
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mattered. Why did the Lord swear by
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himself? The Lord offered an oath at the
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beginning of this verse and rested the authority of that
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oath on Himself. Oaths must be fulfilled with no
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possibility for revocation. In effect, the Lord was placing
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His own sovereignty and character as God on the line as
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He made assurances regarding the truth and effectiveness of His
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declaration. Why cremate the dead?
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When an ancient city was being sacked, the corpses piled up
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quickly, and in that hot Mediterranean climate, a corpse
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began to decompose immediately. The typical custom was to bury
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the body within a day, a day of death.
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But in times of war, with numerous bodies to attend to,
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cremation was more was more expedient.
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Why were they afraid to mention the name of the Lord?
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Some, recognizing that their devastating punishment came from
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the Lord, may have feared that mentioning his name would call
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his attention to the fact that they that there were still
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survivors. It's also possible that others
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were afraid they might accuse or curse God for failing to protect
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them. Aware by now of his wrath, they
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wanted to guard themselves against more of it.
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What was the conquest of Lo de Bar?
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Lo de Bar was a remote town east of the Jordan that was recovered
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for Israel by King Jeroboam. The Second the prophet noted
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that noted the arrogance of Israel in believing that it had
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achieved this great military triumph because of its own
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strength rather than God's. OK, now we'll go into Chapter 7.
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Locust, fire and a plum line. This is what the sovereign Lord
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showed me. He was preparing a swarm of
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locust after the King's share had been harvested and just as
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the late crops were coming up. OK, so the Lord showed Amos that
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he was preparing swarms of locusts.
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So why do we think, you know, we know Scripture tells us God has
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not changed. So when there's like infestation
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of crops, why do we not think that maybe God, you know,
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planned that. God allowed that.
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And there's a purpose behind it. The purpose always seems to be
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in Scripture that He wants people to turn to Him, that He
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has to sometimes take away the goodness in our life in order to
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get us to quote rock bottom so that we turn to Him.
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Because in good times, we don't turn to Him.
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But in bad times, many people turn to Him, and that's what it
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does happen. You have to look and see that
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that happens. Like many people come to the
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Lord because of something very bad, very devastating in their
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life. And unfortunately, there were
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probably times when their life was good that God was trying to
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reach them, but they ignored God.
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So then God has to do something that they don't like that they
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wouldn't prefer, but he does it because he wants them to turn to
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him and they are not listening. I think that happened to me.
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I think God was reaching out to me many times when things were
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quote good in my life, but I ignored it.
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And so then God had to knock me down and make me, make me
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humble. And then I finally turned to
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God. And so I do see that and I see
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that in other people. That's when a lot of times when
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people turn to God, when they come to God, it's after they've
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had some devastating blow. So anyway, so God was, he's
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preparing swarm of locusts after the King's share that had been
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harvested. And just as the late clock crops
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were coming up, when they had stripped the land clean, I cried
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out, Sovereign Lord, forgive. How can Jacob survive?
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He is so small. OK, so look at this, look at how
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God is. So the Lord relented.
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So that was a vision that God showed him.
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But then Amos prayed and basically prayed, talk to God
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and the Lord relented. He decided not to do that.
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This will not happen, the Lord said.
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This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me.
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The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire.
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It dried up the great deep and devoured the land.
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Then I cried out. Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop.
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How can Jacob survive? He is so small.
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So the Lord relented. This was the second time.
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This will not happen either. The Southern Sovereign Lord
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said, this is what he showed me. The Lord was standing by a wall
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that had been built true to plum with a plum line in his hand,
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and the Lord asked me, What do you see, Amos?
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A plum line, I replied. Then the Lord said, look, I am
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setting a plum line across my people Israel.
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I will spare them no longer. The high places of Isaac will be
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destroyed, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined.
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With my sword I will rise again against the House of Jeroboam.
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Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to
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Jeroboam, king of Israel. Amos is raising a conspiracy
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against you in the very heart of Israel.
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The land cannot bear all his words, for this is what Amos is
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saying. Jeroboam will die by the sword,
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and Israel will surely go into exile away from their native
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land. Then Amaziah said to Amos, Get
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out you seer, go back to the land of Judah, earn your bread
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there, and do not prophecy. Do and do your prophesying
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there. Don't prophecy anymore at
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Bethel, because this is the King's sanctuary and the temple
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of the Kingdom. Amos answered Amaziah, I was
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neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd,
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and I also took care of Sycamore fig trees.
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But the Lord took me from tending the flock, and said to
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me, Go prophecy to my people, Israel.
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Now then, hear the word of the Lord, you say, Do not prophecy
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against Israel, and stop preaching against the
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descendants of Isaac. Therefore this is what the Lord
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says. Your wife will become a
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prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by
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the sword. Your land will be measured and
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divided up, and you yourself will die in a Pagan country, and
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Israel will surely go into exile away from their native land.
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And that's the end of Chapter 7. So I will read the questions and
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answers for this chapter. Why was Amos so alarmed?
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God revealed to Amos in a vision that He was what he was
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preparing for His people. Locusts were going to be sent
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into the land at just the right time of the year to wipe out the
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whole year's harvest. The destruction was going to be
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totally to be total and devastating.
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Amos responded to the vision in horror because he knew that if
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it came to pass, Israel would be destroyed.
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Does God change his mind? God is sovereign over His
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decisions and does not quote change his mind as we might
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think of it. God is aware of the future and
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the decisions humans will make. However, God does present
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choices to His people with either stated or unstated
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qualifications. If you do this, then I will do
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that. Also.
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God shows Himself merciful when His servants intercede on behalf
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His people. We see this in God's dealing
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with Abraham, Moses, and others. So from a human perspective, or
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from the bottom up, it may seem as if God is changing His mind.
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But from the top down, God, God's changed mind, is actually
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what He was planning all along. What did the Plumb line show?
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It showed that Israel was crooked.
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The Plumb line was a cord with a weight tied on the end.
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Ancient builders like those today held it beside buildings
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under construction to make sure the walls were straight.
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When God put that Plumb line to Israel, it didn't meet His
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standards. He had to tear it down and start
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over. Makes sense.
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In all of our lives, sometimes our lives have to be torn down
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and start over. We have to become a new
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creation, a new creation that receives the Holy Spirit in
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order to change. So that's something that I
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didn't always understand, but after reading the Bible, it
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became very clear. So continuing what were the high
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places of Isaac? These were places where Isaac
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had offered sacrifices centuries before, but Jeroboam had erected
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sanctuaries there to accommodate the worship of Pagan gods Baal
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and Ashtarath. The Israelites apparently
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worshipped the Lord there as well, even though God had
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instructed them to worship him only in Jerusalem.
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Why was Amos seen as a political conspirator?
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Because his message of impending judgement threatened the
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political and religious establishment.
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A Messiah 1 of Jeroboam's priest stood to lose his job if people
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accepted Amos prophecy against the status quo.
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So a Messiah tried to discredit Amos and run him out of the
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town. Why has or why was it
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significant that Amos had been a shepherd, not a prophet?
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Amos was emphasizing the nature of his call to Amaziah, who was
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a professional prophet. Amos was not a professional
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prophet, nor was he beholden to the king.
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Rather, Amos was a nobody, but God had called him.
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Therefore, Amos was claiming the lordship of God over his
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prophetic ministry, as opposed to a Messiah who served the
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king. What happened to a Messiah?
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The prophecy said that he would be carried off into exile with
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the other prisoners of war, but there is no further mention of
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specific details about how and when he died.
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And so that's the end of chapters 6:00 and 7:00, and
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we'll end there and pick up Chapter 8 next time.