Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture - Amos 6-9
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: It's good to see you today. Greg, glad you have joined us for our journey through scripture. My name is Philip Thomas, pastor of Journey here in Elgin, Texas. Thank you so much for joining us today. We look forward to going through and finishing the book of Amos. So we're today going to be going through Amos chapter six through nine. So just the last four chapters of the book of Amos. So if you want to read through that real quick and then you can come join us. All right. So Amos chapter 6 kind of continues. Remember this is Amos has gone up to the Northern Kingdom to Jeroboam, King Jeroboam. They've actually had some success, some military success. Things are going fairly well economically at this time for the Northern Kingdom or for Israel. However, they have fully turned their back on God. ⁓ God is just an afterthought to the leadership and to many of the people. so Amos comes up from the Southern Kingdom, he comes up to prophesy and to try to get the people to change their ways. But actually he's kind of at the point where God is just saying, here's what's coming. Here's what's a result of your disobedience. So in chapter six, we continue to see Amos talking about warnings and woes. Verse three says, woe to you who put far off the day of the doom, who caused the seed of violence to come near, who lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on your couches, eat lambs from the flock, calves from the midst of the stall. I love it, it continues on, goes, who drink wine from bowls, right? And anoint yourself with the best ointments. ⁓ But. They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore, they shall now go captive as the first of the captives and those who recline at banquets shall be removed." So it's talking kind of this attitude, this pompous attitude that the people, especially the leaders, he's speaking to Jeroboam, to the king, but they have just gotten comfortable with where they are. It's all about them. They don't care about the poor. That's one thing that you see throughout Amos, that the king does not care about the poor people. Kind of an interesting thought, the country is going to be overtaken and impacted by ⁓ Syria very soon and going to be taken by them. That's obviously going to impact the wealthy and the rulers of the land, but it's also going to impact the It's going to impact those who are faithful to God. Right? So when, when a society turns its back on God, eventually those actions are going to catch up with them and it's going to affect everyone. And I love it says, woe to you who put far off the day of doom, who just are kind of just thinking everything's going to be okay. Hey, everything's all right now. So everything's going to be fine. And that's our human tendency. Do we think everything's going to be fine? Well, you know what? One of these days it may not be. And we should be aware and always be mindful of where our relationship with God is and also with what's going on in society around us and what's happening in society around us. Is the society moving closer to God or further away from God? If it's moving further away from God, there will be some natural consequences at some point. Then you continue on in chapter six. There in verse eight says, Lord God has sworn by himself, the Lord of hosts says, pour the pride of Jacob and hate his palaces. Therefore I will deliver up the city and all that is in it. The pride and the arrogance is one of the things that God calls out time and time again. Verse 12 says, horses run on rocks? Does one plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into gall, the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. You rejoice over Lodebar and you say we have not taken ⁓ carnaing for ourselves. Those are two places that Jeroboam would have conquered. So they were proud of those victories, but it says by our own strength. So they think that that was all done. in their own strength. They have not been relying on the Lord, which shows you that you can have some victories in life without relying on the Lord. ⁓ But they are short-lived and they may lead to catastrophe down the road. the Jeroboam in Israel, they did see some wins, if you will, but they were not relying on the Lord's strength. were relying on their own strength. then in chapter 7 talks about some different visions that Amos has ⁓ and that he's sharing those visions to the house of Jeroboam, to King Jeroboam. And then we have Amaziah. We talked about Amaziah before. Amaziah is the priest of Jeroboam. And so he comes up and ⁓ he says, Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. Now, this is interesting that the message that ⁓ Amaziah, the priest, gives, he actually doesn't even say that what Amos is saying is wrong. He's just saying the land, we cannot bear it. We can't handle this. The answer rather than trying to do the hard work of changing, the answer is just, ⁓ shut up, quit talking. Right? And I think sometimes we see that today, you know, taking an easier way rather than figuring out a path forward. It's just easier to, I don't want to hear the bad things that are going on. That's kind of what's going on here. ⁓ Amaziah makes that complaint to Amos and ⁓ Amaziah says to Amos, says, go you seer, flee to the land of Judah, there eat bread and there prophesy, but never again prophesy at Bethel for it is the king's sanctuary and it is the royal residence. So who has replaced God? The king has replaced God. The people by desiring a king, have allowed it, that system, to basically take the place of God. So Amos, you know what? You're fine to go and talk about this anywhere else, but you're not going to talk about it here, right? Because we have decided that we are God and you are speaking for the wrong God. And you can speak for him in other places, but not here in the presence of the King. It's a very dangerous, dangerous thing that we all have to be wary of. Then Amos answered to Amaziah, says, I was no prophet, nor was I son of a prophet, but I was a sheep-breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock and said to me, Go prophesy to my people Israel. Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. You say, do not prophesy against Israel and do not spout against the house of Isaac. Therefore, thus says the Lord, your wife shall be a harlot in the city, your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, your land shall be divided. by a survey line, you shall die in a defiled land and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land." So Amos is basically saying, listen, I was just a normal guy. I'm just doing what God has called me to do. And I'm sorry if you don't like it. And in fact, here's what it means. Everything is coming to a head. It's a really rough spot. So then in chapter eight, The Lord God continues to speak to Amos and give him things to share. He says, behold a basket of summer fruit. And he said, Amos, what do you see? And Amos says, a basket of summer fruit. The Lord said to me, the end has come upon my people Israel. I will not pass them anymore. And the songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day, says the Lord God. Many dead bodies everywhere, they shall be thrown out in silence. Hear this, you who swallow up the needy and make the poor of the land fail, saying, when will the new moon be passed, that we may sell the grain. So again, it's taking advantage of the poor and not caring about ⁓ your fellow man. And then I continue on in verse nine, it says, and it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord God, that I will make the sun go down at noon, I will darken the earth in broad daylight, I will turn your feast to morning, your songs to lamentation. I'll bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head." Yeah, well, I guess I'm already a few steps into the day of the Lord. It says, will make it morning for the only sun and its day and its end like a bitter day. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. That's interesting. that a society, once it rebels long enough, eventually it gets to where it can't hear the word of the Lord. It's not that the word of the Lord is not there. It's not that the truth is not there, but the society has blinded itself for so long that it can't recognize the truth anymore. so destruction will come. says they shall wander from sea to sea from north to east they shall run to and fro seeking the word of the Lord but they shall not find it. you know, trying to figure out why is everything going against us? Why are things going bad? What's going on? What's wrong? And trying to find the answers but they will not find the only one true answer which is found in the truth of God in the word of the Lord. Then we have chapter 9. talks about the destruction of what is coming, the destruction of Israel. says, this is verse four, I will set my eyes on them for harm and not for good. God is a good God and all the time he is a good God. However, there is a time where the vengeance of the Lord is real and we will not interpret it as good. But it is something that he has warned about and is the consequences of living a life in rebellion against God will ultimately lead to harm, not to good. It says, the Lord God of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, he who dwells there mourn and all who dwell there mourn and of it shall swell like the river and subside like the river of Egypt. ⁓ It's a terrifying scene that Amos is sharing with the people of Israel. And it's very sad, but it reminds us that, you know, God is a God who is going to exact justice. He is a merciful God, yes, but justice will be had and justice doesn't always feel good. And eventually, if we take advantage of God's mercy long enough, justice will come back very quickly upon us. And that is what the nation of Israel, the Northern Kingdom is ⁓ looking at at this point. So verse 13 says, ⁓ I will bring back the captives of my people. They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards, drink wine from them. They shall make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them, says the Lord your God." So I love how Amos ends with a look to the distant future where God will restore the people. They're going to experience his judgment and his justice, but then it will lead to a remnant coming back that God will not abandon his promises. He will not abandon his covenant. And, know, I think about that, that, you know, we live in a society that has completely turned its back on God in so many different areas. But yet, and I don't know what more is coming. You know, we will be experiencing a lot of consequences of trying to live in a way that goes against the truth of the Word of the Lord. However, God will continue to be faithful and there will be ⁓ those who he's able to use to share his message again, to bring hope and to bring truth back into the world again. And I think it's just important for us to To think about that, to make sure that we don't start falling into the trap of believing what the King Jeroboam is saying. How many people in Israel just started following the King Jeroboam because, ⁓ if that's what he says, it must be good. No, make sure you look to what the word of the Lord is and follow that truth, not what society always says is true. All right. We will... be looking at the book of Hosea. You may want to go ahead and read all of it. We may be able to get through all of Hosea. It's long, or it's not terribly long. They're not long chapters. It's 14 chapters. We're going to try to get through it. All right. We'll see you then.