Amos 6:1-14. Sorry this didn’t get out yesterday’, had a friend in spiritual need and spent the evening with them.  That is why I usually try to do this in the morning.  Chapter 6 contains the final part of the message we have been reading the last two days.  Yesterday we saw that there was a coming day of both blessing and judgment and that Israel should not think that they were immune from the judgment part of it.  In today’s part of the message Amos warns them that they will not need to wait for the Day of the LORD to learn that lesson.

As we have talked about before Zion is basically another name for Jerusalem, the capital of the Southern Kingdom.  Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom.  So this warning is to both kingdoms.  The city of Samaria was actually on a hill which made it easier to defend during battles and it would be easy to feel extra secure there.  So these people are basically relaxed and feeling secure in life.  The word translated “distinguished” or “notable” means “appointed” theses men were probably self appointed and considered their nation the best in the world.  This points out an attitude of pride in these men.  And we see that everyone in Israel is coming to them for advice.  The problem is we have already seen that their nation is in a spiritual mess so their pride is misplaced.  This becomes clear in the next couple of verses.

Amos tells these leaders to take a look at three cities; Calneh, Hamath, and Gath.  In the ancient world often cities were independent countries; city-states.  Sometimes these city-states would be conquered by a larger empire and come under it’s control.  Calneh and Hamath were city-states in the area where Syria is today.  They came under the control of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Gath was a city-state on the coast in the territory controlled by the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  Amos tells the leaders of Israel and Judah to check out theses cities and see if they were any better than Israel and Judah.  The answer was intended to be no.  The point Amos was trying to make is that these cities were not immune from being conquered and Israel and Judah were no better.  They were ignoring the reality that God judges nations (like these three city-states) and by ignoring God’s holiness and justice were speeding the day of their own judgment

Verses 4-7 return to the “leaders” and describe how they are laying around eating and partying.  Verse 7 warns that they will be the first to be taken away when an enemy comes and their party will come to an end.  Verses 8-11 continue the picture of conquest.  Not only will the “leading” citizens suffer in the invasion, houses great and small will be affected.  For some reason we see a picture of the people not even wanting to mention Yahweh’s name.  It could be that they were afraid to mention God, or ashamed, or didn’t believe he was there to care.  What ever the reason they were in trouble and felt they had no where to turn.

In a sense their fears were justified.  Verse 12 describes their life as a rocky path or rock filled field. Their so-called right living was producing (fruit) wormwood (a word which indicates bitterness).  Lo-debar means “nothingness”.  The nothing they were trusting in was their own strength and effort.  They felt that their conquests were the result of their own intelligence and power; they pride thing again.  But the real power of the universe was going to show himself to them, he was going to cause another nation to invade them.  They would experience trouble from Hamath (in the northern most part of the land) to the Arabah.  The Arabah is a great desert valley from the southern tip of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqabah, it represents the southern most part of the territory controlled by Judah.

This whole message is a reminder that no one is immune from god’s purity, holiness, and justice.  God’s character requires that evil be dealt with.  We need to be careful that we do not mistake his patience for inaction, absence, in inability.  On the other side though we must remember the words of Amos 5:4 however from the beginning of the message, “Seek Me that you may live.”  2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God is delaying the punishment so that people have an opportunity to turn back to him.  There is a coming judgment we need to remember God now and turn to him.

God thank you for giving us all a chance to come to you.  Thank you for giving me a chance to come to you.  Help us not take your patience for granted.  Let us seek you today and live lives of appreciation today and everyday until you return.  Let me also be a source of mercy to those around me.  Help me care for them physically and spiritually.  Thank you for your patience, help me not waste it.

Amos 5:18-27. Today we continue reading the third message or sermon Amos gave to the Northern Kingdom.  Be began reading this message yesterday and we learned that God wants us to be careful in how we honor him.  The problem is if we are not careful we wind up worshipping and honoring something entirely different from God.  Many of the Old Testament prophets condemned treating others badly, Jesus himself linked our love for God to our love for our neighbor, but we have to be careful not to see our good deeds as the end of the story.  In the book of James, Jesus’ brother James tells us that if we do not do things that please God we can say all day long we believe in God but it isn’t necessary true or useful (James 2:26).  Equally bad though is works without faith is sin (displeasing to God; Romans 14:23).  So we need to be careful that when we are doing things that please or honor God we are doing it to please and honor God.  And that means we need to do things God’s way.

In verses 16-17 yesterday we saw that the people were sad (actually remember this was a future prediction so they were going to be sad) because God was sending trouble into their lives to encourage them to change; to return to Him.  If you have read “The Old Testament Connection” you know that God chose the Israelite family to teach the world that we have all wandered away from God and need to return.  There is the idea of ultimate punishment for sin (disobedience and rebellion) but there is also the idea of an ultimate beautiful peaceful existence beside God.  First comes the punishment or judgment then comes the kingdom of God (that’s the way it’s referred to in lots of parts of the Old Testament).  Sometimes it’s called the kingdom of David because God promised David (the second king of the sraelite nation) that his throne would last forever.  This does not mean that David would live forever as a king but that he would have descendants as king.  Historically we know that the kingdom broke up after his son, Solomon was king.  The Jewish people began to realize that the promise was for a future descendant of David to restore the kingdom, they called the person the Messiah, which basically means “chosen” or “picked”.  One of their prophets, Daniel, actually gave a timetable for when the messiah would come and all four of the Gospels (the first four “books” of the New Testament) identify Jesus as the messiah (or “Christ” which is the Greek equivalent for “Messiah”).  The Israelite people called the time when God would judge their enemies and restore the kingdom, “The Day of the LORD”.  Mostly the people focused on the restoration of the kingdom to them and either ignored the judgment part or thought it only applied to their enemies.

In Amos 5:18-20 Amos corrects the misunderstanding by telling them that the “day of the LORD” will not be a good time for them.  I’m thinking Amos was not a very popular guy with these people.  In verses 21-23 we see God rejecting the offerings and songs that the Northern Israelites are offering to him.  Verse 24 gives a hint as to why God is rejecting their offerings; they have not treated others fairly and they have not obeyed His rules (that is what righteousness is “right living”).  In Exodus 20 we have the story of Moses giving God’s rules to the Israelite people for the first time.  Although there are way more than 10 rules, ten very important ones are listed first, the Ten Commandments.  The very first commandment is that the Israelites were to recognize only him, Yahweh, as God.  The next two continue the idea when they are told not to try to make images or statues which represented Him, and they were told that they were not to honor or serve any other gods (so called gods).  Back in Amos 5:25-26 Amos confronts them with worship which fails to follow God’s rules.  They were making up offerings and gods and breaking even the clearest and most basic rules which Moses gave to them.  Verses 27 gives us the result, they will be captured and sent away, far beyond their homeland.

These Israelites will not have to wait for the “Day of the LORD” and maybe that is a good thing.  We see in the book of Revelation that eventually some from every tribe will be restored and take part in the forever kingdom of Jesus.  The dispersion of the ten tribes will only be temporary.  When the actual judgment of the “day of the LORD” comes not many people will turn to God (See Revelation 9:20-21; 16:9 where the part of the judgment part of the “day of the LORD” is described).  We need to be careful that we do not make a god in an image that we want either.  Many want God to be all loving but have no standards, no rules, and no consequences.  But that is not the picture we get of God from the Bible; and prophecy and history back up the accuracy of what we are told in the Bible.  Others want a god who will weigh all their good against their bad and if we have more good deeds will let us in to heaven.  The problem is the Bible is very clear that God is pure or holy.  NO matter how much “good stuff” we do, one “bad” thing will make us impure or unholy, that is enough to keep us out of heaven.  Thankfully Jesus was completely pure, and because he is also God he is infinite.  When Jeus died on the cross his death (separation fro God the father) made his infinite purity available for us.  That is awesome.  You can still try it your own way but you will fail and miss out on eternity with God; you will suffer the judgment in the “day of the LORD” instead.  I think God’s way is much better and I hope you do to.  Take the time to find out who God really is and really honor him with your life.  God is very forgiving, Jesus will take care of the mistakes,  but you should at least try to do it his way.

God thank you for showing me the way.  Help me not try to come to you on my own terms.  Let me honor you with my life because of your mercy and love.  Thank you for taking all the blame for all my mistakes.  Thank you for the promise of eternity with you.