Latest / Faith by annm2705 / 680. Bible Study: Amos 8 & 9 (End Times foreshadowing? Inflation, Famine, Darkness, No Favortism, Remnant, Sinners, Jesus/Yeshua, Restoration)

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680. Bible Study: Amos 8 & 9 (End Times foreshadowing? Inflation, Famine, Darkness, No Favortism, Remnant, Sinners, Jesus/Yeshua, Restoration) · Faith by annm2705

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We have two more chapters left, 8:00 and 9:00, so I thought we'd
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maybe finish this book today. So let's get started on this.
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Dear God, please be with us as we read through the last
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chapters from the book of Amos and give us wisdom and insight
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in Jesus name. So chapter 8 is called a basket
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of ripe fruit. This is what the Sovereign Lord
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showed me, a basket of ripe fruit.
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What do you see, Amos? He asked.
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A basket of ripe fruit, I answered.
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Then the Lord said to me, the time is ripe for my people,
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Israel. I will spare them no longer.
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So often God lets sin get to a certain level, and then he acts,
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and that's where this appears to be in that day, declares the
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sovereign Lord. The songs in the temple will
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turn to wailing, many, many bodies flung everywhere.
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Silence. Hear this you who trample the
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needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, When will
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the new moon be over? So that we may sell grain and
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the Sabbath be ended, that we may market wheat.
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Skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating
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with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the
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needy for a paper sandals, selling even the sweepings with
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the wheat. So in this verse, it, it shows
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us that the people at that time were more interested, like the
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new moon had festivals that signified certain things and
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they were not so much interested in what it signified as far as
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how it relates to God, But they were like, when is this going to
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be over? So that we may sell.
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They're, they're worldly thinking like, OK, let's get
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this festival over. I've got stuff to sell.
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I just want this to be over. The same thing they said with
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the Sabbath. When is this going to be ended?
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So that we, we market the wheat. So they're looking at
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materialistic things, you know, when can we get over these
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religious festivals and we just want to sell.
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And then not only that, but they're skimping on the
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measures. So they're not giving what they
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had given before, they're giving less than they did, but they're
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boosting the price. So that's like inflation less
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for more money and then cheating with dishonest scales.
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So they're pulling this off on people that they don't realize
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that they're getting less, and it's all because they have this
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love of money. So the love of money is the root
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of all evil. Wealth is not a problem to God.
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Sometimes God blesses people with wealth.
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It's what we do with the money, with the resources.
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That's what it is. That's what money is.
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It's a resource to do something. What do we use it for?
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Do we use it for selfishness or do we use it for others?
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Each of us has to take a look at how we spend our money.
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What are we doing with it? Where are we spending it?
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Would God be happy with how we're spending it?
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And that's an ongoing reflection of what we do every day anyway,
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about this measuring with just cheating with dish, dishonest
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scales and this inflation. It is kind of a foreshadowing of
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what comes later in Revelation. It's seal #3 and so we can see
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that throughout time, some of the things that are listed as
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the seals happen, but they aren't like the very end times
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yet. And I can also see that
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happening right now. Like maybe we are in the end
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times and maybe we're not. Maybe this is a foreshadowing
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and it's, you know, being used as a wake up call to people and
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we are seeing there's the probability of, you know,
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inflation. I mean, not the probability.
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It's happened already. I mean, we see like since 2020,
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pricing has gone way up in a lot of different categories.
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We've definitely had inflation. We've definitely seen, you know,
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bigger boxes with less stuff in it for more money.
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So that's that's definitely applicable today.
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Is this a foreshadowing of future events?
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Like is it going to get a lot worse than that?
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It sounds like it from the seals listed in Revelation.
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But again, I don't know and we won't know until hindsight when
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we've when we've really seen what the Bible is talking about
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in those seals as they open. Anyway, it's it's Revelation
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chapter 6, verses 5 and 6. In fact, I can read it because I
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think I saved that page. No, I didn't say that page.
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Another one. Anyway, if you want to read
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about that seal, I can turn to it, but it says something
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similar. Let me see if I can get to that
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page with not a lot of time. OK, so I'll read first what Amos
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says. Amos says, you know, he's
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cheating with dishonest scales, skipping on the measure,
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boosting the price, and cheating with dishonest scales.
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Now here's what Revelation says about the third seal.
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When the Lamb, that who is Jesus opened the third seal, I heard
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the third living creature say come.
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I looked and there before me was a Black Horse.
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In In other parts of scripture we know that the horses
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represent different spirits. It's writer was holding a pair
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of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a
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voice among the four living creatures saying, 2 lbs of wheat
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for a day's wages and 6 lbs of barley for a day's wages, and do
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not damage the oil and the wine. So again, that just made me
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think of it. OK, going back to the book of
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Amos, the Lord has sworn by himself the pride of Jacob.
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I will never forget anything they have done.
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Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it
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mourn? The whole land will rise like
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the Nile. It will be stirred up and then
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sink like the river of the of Egypt in that day, declares the
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Lord. I will make the sun go down at
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noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
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So I want to pause for a minute because I I don't know how many
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times God has made this happen. The sun go down at noon and
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darken the earth in broad daylight.
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We do know that when Jesus died on the cross, the sun, I believe
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darkness came over and he died at 3:00 and it went down at noon
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like it became dark at noon. So that is like a foreshadowing
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of the the death of Jesus on the cross.
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And then I also recall, well then a few years ago in 2021, I
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started having dreams and in, I think it was in 22 when I had
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the first dream in the springtime about the rapture or
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the gathering. And I have, I had three of them
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and each one of them was a little bit different, but they
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had something in common. Right before it happened,
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everything went pitch black where you could not see your
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hand in front of your face like it was that black.
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And then the rapture occurred, the gathering occurred, whatever
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you want to call it. And after I had multiple dreams
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like that, I wanted to check that against scripture.
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And it does say like the sun will be darkened, the moon will
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not, or the moon will be darkened, or the moon will turn
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to blood, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not
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give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky before
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that dreadful or great day of the Lord.
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I know I'm paraphrasing that because I don't memorize
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scripture perfectly, but you can look up that for your yourself.
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I mean, it's written multiple by multiple in multiple books.
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So the best way to find it is an electronic or digital Bible and
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search. And you can see all the
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different verses that talk about, you know that this, this
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the sun will not give its light. Maybe that's what you can search
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and then you can find all the references to that.
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But multiple prophets talk about this before the coming of the
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day of the Lord. And this is also, like I said, a
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foreshadowing too, because that's what happened when Jesus
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died on the cross. And while that was his death,
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and then three days later he resurrected.
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So that did happen again, before Jesus rose from the dead, before
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he, you know, ascended. And so this is, I think it's
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significant. And again, I'm just pointing out
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things that come to mind when I read Scripture as I do.
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So going back to Amos, I will turn your religious festivals
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into mourning and all your singing into weeping.
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I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads.
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I will make that time like morning for an only son.
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I just think, you know, referencing an only son kind of
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makes me think about Jesus and mourning for an only son.
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Like they don't even realize that they'll be mourning for
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Jesus because Jesus is the way to God's Kingdom.
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He provided the way by his death on the cross.
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So I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the
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end of it like a bitter day. Obviously that also means like
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if you only had one child and that that child was gone, that's
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the type of mourning that somebody's going to be happy
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that someone is going to experience.
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So that's what it actually says. But what it made me think about
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was about God having Jesus as his only son.
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The days are coming, declares the sovereign Lord, when I will
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send a famine through the land, not a famine of food or a thirst
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for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
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So this is probably a future time because the words of the
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Lord not hearing them for a while.
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I don't. I mean, maybe in their captivity
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they didn't hear from the word of the Lord.
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But is it also a foreshadowing? Like the enemy is always trying
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to silence the word of God. But the Bible has withstood all
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these thousands of years and is still alive and well today.
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And just like Jesus said, you know, heaven and earth may pass
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away, but my word will remain. So God will hold true to it.
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But he's saying here, there's going to be a famine of hearing
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the words of the Lord. So maybe because of oppression,
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because they are silenced, because they fear their life,
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they're not going to be speaking about God.
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So just an observation there. People will stagger from sea to
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sea and wander from north to east searching for the word of
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the Lord, but they will not find it in that day.
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The lovely young women and strong young men will faint
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because of thirst. Those who swear by the sin of
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Samaria, who say, who say, As surely as your God lives, Dan,
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or as surely as the God of Beersheba lives, they will fall,
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never to rise again. So that's the end of chapter 8.
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I'll read the questions and the answers now.
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Why, in the midst of wailing, would there be a command for
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silence? The scene in the temple would be
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so horrific, so horrible, that the only appropriate response
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would be silence. What was this new moon?
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The new moon was both a religious and a civil festival.
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It was celebrated at the beginning of each month and is
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often mentioned in the Old Testament along with the
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Sabbath. It was a day of celebration, of
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increased offerings, and of worship.
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How were the poor bought? With silver?
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Amos indicated Israel's rich for tramp, and I'm sorry.
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Amos indicted Israel's rich for trampling on the needy their
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fraudulent business dealings made slaves of the poor for
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nothing more than a piece of silver or a pair of sandals.
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Amos condemned unjust business practice as a religious problem,
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a sin against the unjustice and righteousness of God.
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What were the sweepings? Chaff that fell to the floor
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When grain was threshed, it was inedible and thrown away.
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Dishonest merchants, though, took, though mixed the sweeping
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with the grain, and sold it as pure grain to the poor.
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What is the pride of Jacob? Some say this refers to the land
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of Israel. Others suggest that the Lord is
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the pride of Jacob and that He was swearing by himself as he
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had done before. Why would God swear the Lord's
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house suffered in the apostasy of Israel?
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Therefore, on the basis of previous promises to Jacob, God
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took an oath that He would not forget the misdeeds of Israel.
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He would hold their sins against them as a violation of the
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covenant between them. Why would they shave their
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heads? While we might dress in black to
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express our grief, people in the ancient Near East expressed deep
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sorrow and other ways. Shaving one's head was an
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expression of mourning the loss of a loved one.
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Even women, especially the widows, shave their heads and
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put ashes on themselves. They also tore their clothes and
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put on sackcloth a fabric made of rough, coarse black goats
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hair. Why would God starve his people
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spiritually? God's people had starved
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themselves by chasing after worldliness, materialism, and
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Pagan gods, so God would judge them.
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Part of their judgement included God's absence, and you can find
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that in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3.
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What was the sin of Samaria? The worship of idols.
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Idols to Baal has sprung up across the northern Kingdom of
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Israel. Jeroboam the first had initiated
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the worship of golden calves at Dan and Bethel.
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His right. That's found in First Kings
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chapter 12 verses 25 through 33. His rationale may have been that
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the idols could represent the presence of the invisible God
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standing like Bale on the back of each calf.
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Archaeologists have discovered stone pictures depicting Bale on
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the back of a bull. That's pretty evil.
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OK, continuing the last chapter, Chapter 9.
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I saw the Lord standing by the altar and he said strike the top
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of the pillars so that the thresholds shake.
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Bring them down on the heads of all the people.
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Those who are left I will kill with the sword.
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No one will get away, none will escape, though they dig down to
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the depths below. From there my hand will take
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them, though they climb up to the heavens above.
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From there I will bring them down, though they hide
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themselves on the top of caramel, There I will hunt them
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down and seize them, though they hide from my eyes at the bottom
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of the sea. There I will command the serpent
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to bite them. Though they are driven into
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exile by their enemies, there I will command the sword to slay
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them. I will keep my eye on them for
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harm and not for good. So that's different than what
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he's ever said before. But it's because of their
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idolatry, their choices. The Lord, the Lord Almighty, he
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touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn.
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The whole land rises like the Nile, then sinks like the river
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of Egypt. That's the second time that was
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used. He builds his lofty place in the
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heavens and sets its foundations on the earth.
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He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the
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face of the land. The Lord is his name.
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Are you not Israelites? Israelites the same to me as the
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Kushites. Well, right there he's showing
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them, you know, there's Kush, there's Israelites.
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But he's like, are you not Israelites the same to me as the
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Kushites? He's showing no favoritism here.
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He's saying you're going to get punishment for your deeds, just
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as I've punished other people. And you know, the purpose of the
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punishment is either if somebody is unrepentant and doesn't want
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to change and will never change, that's going to be just
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judgement. But those who will have it in
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them to finally hit rock bottom, that's the those are the ones
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that God is basically disciplining them.
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They don't completely die from the judgment, but God is giving
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them a very harsh warning. So like, if any of us have ever
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had any like extreme tragedy in our life and we haven't yet
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turned to God, that's a great warning.
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Like God spared your life if that happened to you and you
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should be thankful for that and turn to God because God is
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patient. God is being patient with you.
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But if you've had a near death experience and then you still
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haven't turned to God, be careful because judgement could
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be on the way. You don't know how long God will
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be patient. And if you're a rebellious
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person and just keep rejecting God, you don't know when your
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time is up because God has a time set for all of us, and we
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don't know what that is. But this is just a warning to
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anyone who is in that condition right now.
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Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from
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Kaftor, and the Aramins from Kerr?
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Surely the eyes of the sovereign Lord are on the sinful Kingdom.
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I will destroy it from the face of the earth yet.
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I will not totally destroy the descendants of Jacob.
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So again, God had he always keeps a remnant of his people.
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Why? Because he said that someday
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that Israel would be like the sand on, you know, the sand and
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the sea, like they're going to be so numerous.
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And God cannot wipe out all of his people if he holds true to
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his promise. So there's always a remnant.
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Even when we see the Book of Revelation in the very last
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days, there's 12,000 from every tribe.
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And something recently that I just noticed, every tribe except
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for Dan and Judah are listed. So that's kind of interesting,
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but well, continue. So declares the Lord, for I will
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give the command and I will shake the people of Israel among
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all the nations. As grain is shaken in a sieve,
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not a Pebble will reach the ground.
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All the sinners among my people will die by the sword.
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So look at this. God is, you know, a lot of times
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we're like, how could God do that?
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But, you know, perhaps some of the people that God eliminates
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through war are sinners that never have turned to God, that
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just keep rebelling against God and have no intention of ever
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turning to God. And so God is God of justice.
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So whenever God acts, we can be assured that there is number 1.
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He has a plan for it. And sometimes he uses bad things
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for good purposes. And then #2 is sometimes it's
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judgement against sinners. And here he's saying all the
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sinners among my people. So maybe there's some that are
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there that are not sinning, but all the sinners among the people
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will die by the sword. All those who say disaster will
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not overtake or meet us. Then it says in that day, I will
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restore David's fallen shelter. I will repair its broken walls
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and restore its rune runes and will rebuild it as it used to
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be. Now there's a couple things that
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I'm noticing here. Number one, I can see why Israel
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believes, like today, believes that the Messiah will build the
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temple because God says this. And Amos, I will restore
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Davis''s fallen shelter. I will repair its broken walls
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and restore its ruins and will rebuild it as it used to be.
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In reading Scripture, I know that, you know, they went into
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Israel, went into exile, and then Judah went into exile and I
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do know that they came back Cyrus Pers.
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I guess the Persian allowed them to come back and start
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rebuilding and working on the wall and rebuilding, you know,
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parts of the temple. But everybody who saw it was
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saddened because some of them had seen it in its glory of
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before, and they knew it wasn't the same as the way it was being
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rebuilt. It didn't have the grandeur of
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what it had been before. So therefore, because of that, I
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think about this being more of an end times prophecy where I
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will restore David's fallen shelter, I will repair its
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broken walls and restore its ruins and will rebuild it as it
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used to be. Well, I don't think that's ever
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been done in any of these. Rebuilding of the temples so
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that they may have possessed, so that they may possess the
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remnant of Edom. Now Edom, I believe, is like the
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modern day Jordan area. So there's people from Jordan
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that'll be in it too. And all the nations that bear my
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name. Notice that it says all nations
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that bear my name. So again, it's not just for the
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people who call themselves Israelites, I guess.
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It says all the nations that bear my name, so that they may
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possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations that bear my
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name. So declares the Lord, who will
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do these things. So to me it says this is about
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end times. The days are coming, declares
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the Lord, when the Reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and
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the planter by the one treading grapes.
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And when I read that, I was thinking Jesus is the one
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ultimately who's treading grapes.
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And that's found in Revelation 14 verses 14 through 20.
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And I'll go ahead and read those too.
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So the Reaper will be overtaken by the ploughman and the planter
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by the one treading grapes. So here's what it says about the
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that period of time in the Book of Revelation, chapter 14, verse
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14. I looked and there before me was
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a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man,
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with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
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Then another Angel came out of the temple and called in a loud
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voice to him who was sitting on the cloud.
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Take your sip, sickle and reap, because the time to reap has
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come, for the harvest of the the earth is ripe.
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So he who is seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth
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and the earth was harvested. What is that happening?
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That is like that's gathering, right?
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That's a gathering of the people.
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And this is where I, you know, there's different people that
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interpret Scripture differently. So I'm just going to say that to
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me, this sounds like when the gathering, when the rapture
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occurs, because he is seated on the cloud.
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Jesus is seated on the on the cloud, Son of man.
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That's refer a reference to Jesus.
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He's seated on the cloud and he is gathering the harvest because
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people are ready. And and so some people say,
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well, this is like, you know, he tramples on them and he it's the
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wrath. But I mean, the way I'm reading
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it, it's like, first, this happened.
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So, OK, so Jesus is sitting on this cloud.
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Another Angel came out of the temple and called in a loud
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voice to Jesus, who was sitting on the cloud.
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Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has
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come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
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So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the
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earth, and the earth was harvested.
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OK, so that happened. He gathered people.
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Now another Angel, so this is the second Angel, came out of
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the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.
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So this is another Angel, still another Angel who had charge of
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the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to
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him who had the sharp sickle. Take your sharp sickle and
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gather the cluster of grapes from the earths vine, because
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its grapes are ripe. The Angel swung his sickle on
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the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great
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wine Press of God's wrath. They were trampled in the wine
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press outside the city, and the blood flowed out of the press,
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rising as high as the horse's bridles for a distance of 1600
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stadia. So that I would, It's about 180
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miles or about 300 kilometers, so quite a distance.
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But they're appears to be like, it says that I guess those who
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have the Holy Spirit who are born again, they we are not
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subject to God's wrath. This is obviously the wrath of
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God when the grapes are put into the wine press and there's blood
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everywhere. So that's the wrath.
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But the people are not, it sounds to me like there are two
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gatherings here. One of them is the gathering,
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you know, for safety, harvesting of the earth, those who are
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ready. And then the other one is a
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secondary one that takes the grapes and they're, they're on
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the vine, they're on the earth, they're connected to the earth
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and they are going into the wrath of God.
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So it's, to me, it seems like there's, that's the way I
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understand it at least. So now I need to get back to
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Amos about, so it says, when the Reaper will be overtaken by the
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ploughman and the planter by the one treading the grapes, new
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wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the
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hills. And I will bring my people
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Israel back from exile. I will bring.
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That's God talking about that. They will rebuild the ruined
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cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and
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drink their wine. They will make gardens and eat
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their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own
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land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,
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says the Lord your God. Now that's definitely end times
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because Israel has never possessed fully the land God has
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given them. And so to me this seems very
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clear that this is about the end time never again to be uprooted
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from the land I have given them. So that's that has to be when
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Jesus returns. And this is in the book of Amos
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last Chapter 9. So I will read the questions and
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answers for Chapter 9. What sort of harm did the Lord
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intend to do? He simply permitted the people
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of Israel to suffer the consequences of their own evil
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actions. The consequences themselves
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would be called evil. The Israelites had wanted to
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adopt the lifestyle and customs of their neighbors, so God
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punished them by granting them their wish.
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God turns us over. He lets us do what we want.
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He that's free will. There we get to choice.
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We can't blame anybody where we end up because we will have made
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our choice and we get what we want.
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So be careful what you ask for. Their idolatry, immorality and
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exploitation of the poor had polluted their faith in God.
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God judged them by allowing them to become totally immersed in
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paganism. So God turns people over to
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their desires. He does give you the desires of
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your heart. But we have to remember that the
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heart is evil, so we really want the desires of God, not
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necessarily what comes from our own heart, because we can
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mislead ourselves. Weren't the Israelites God's
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chosen people? The wickedness made them equally
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detestable as the surrounding Pagan nations.
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The only difference between Israel and the other nations was
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Israel's covenant relationship with God.
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But Israel, having broken the covenant, faced the covenant
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curses for their spiritual infidelity, and that's found in
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Deuteronomy chapter 28, verses 15 through 68.
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Why shake Israel like grain in a sieve?
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As part of God's judgement, Israel would be shaken all over
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the landscape. This refers to the scattering of
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the Israelites, A scattering known as the dispora, that would
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take place over the following few centuries.
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How could Amos have changed his tone so abruptly?
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Prophecy usually included both doom and promise.
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Also, it's quite possible that time had passed between these
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two radically different messages.
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The warning of impending judgment were meant to jar
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people into a state of alarm and give them one last chance to
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repent. But offering hope was also part
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of being a prophet of the God of grace.
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This double barrelled approach to prophecy, judgment and mercy
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is evident throughout the Bible. Who is Edom?
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This may refer to the nation descended from Esau, which was a
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long standing enemy of Israel. Some think Edom means Adam,
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referring to all humanity. The 2 words are quite similar in
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the Hebrew language. Or this could simply mean the
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remnant of all nations, the Gentiles, would one day come to
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faith in God, which is how this verse is quoted in the New
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Testament. What other nations will bear
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God's name? Every nation whose people turn
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to faith in Jesus Christ. This is a prophecy that began to
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be fulfilled shortly after Jesus's death and continues to
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be fulfilled today. Through Jesus's death.
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All are invited into a relationship with God.
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Those who follow Jesus Christ bear God's name.
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When will God establish Israel permanently?
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Some believe God plans to do this for the Jews sometime in
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the future, in the Millennium, the thousand year earthly reign
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of Jesus Christ. After he returns, the nation of
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Israel would then finally be restored.
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Others think this refers to Christ's return, when God's
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people, those who believe in Christ, both Jews and non Jews,
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will be permanently settled in a new heaven and a new earth where
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righteous business dwells. So that concludes the book of
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Amos, and we'll start a new book next time.