REBUKED FOR SELFISHNESS

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1 June 21, 2015 ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON REBUKED FOR SELFISHNESS MINISTRY INVOCATION O God: We give thanks to You for the manifold blessings to us. You did not have to bless us but You did. We shall remain eternally grateful. Amen. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW AND UNDERSTAND God will dispossess the greedy and the selfish and, thus demonstrate his justice THE APPLIED FULL GOSPEL DISTINCTIVE We believe in the indwelling of the Holy Ghost for all believers and that the Holy Ghost verifies and validates the Believer as part of the Body of Christ. TEXT: Background Scripture Amos 6 Key Verse Amos 6:12 Lesson Scripture Amos 6:4-8, (NKJV) 4 Who lie on beds of ivory, Stretch out on your couches, Eat lambs from the flock And calves from the midst of the stall; 5 Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David; 6 Who drink wine from bowls, And anoint yourselves with the best ointments, But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. 7 Therefore they shall now go captive as the first of the captives, And those who recline at banquets shall be removed. 8 The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself, The LORD God of hosts says: I abhor the pride of Jacob, And hate his palaces; Therefore I will deliver up the city And all that is in it For behold, the LORD gives a command: He will break the great house into bits, And the little house into pieces. Do horses run on rocks? 1

2 13 14 Does one plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into gall, And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood, You who rejoice over Lo Debar, Who say, Have we not taken Karnaim for ourselves By our own strength? But, behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel, Says the LORD God of hosts; And they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath To the Valley of the Arabah. COMMENTARY PREEMINENT IN LUXURY (6:4 6) The focus of the woe oracle shifts to the self-indulgence of Israel s leading citizens. Only the best for us was their philosophy. 6:4 Israel s wealthy citizens slept on the best beds. The poor could not afford a bed, much less one inlaid with ivory. In times past only royalty enjoyed such luxury (cf. the houses adorned with ivory in 3:15). Lounge may be rendered sprawling, or hanging over. Implied in the word is either laziness or drunkenness or both. Israel s leading citizens ate the best food. Ordinary citizens probably ate meat only three times a year, at the annual festivals. Fattened calves is actually calves from the midst of the fattening pen. Veal is the common name for this delicacy now. Such a meat diet was for the few in Israel s society, a luxury for the wealthy only. 6:5 The leading citizens of Israel had the luxury of a leisurely lifestyle. They could lounge around eating, drinking, and making up songs, imagining themselves to be little Davids. On your harps is literally on the mouth of the harp and means to the accompaniment of the harp. These activities would have enlivened their revelry. 6:6 Israel s leading citizens overindulged themselves in drinking. For containers to drink wine they used bowls rather than cups. Use the finest lotion is literally the first [best grade] of oils they anoint. Its purpose could have been medicinal, cosmetic, or cultic. The indictment in all the accusations of indulgence is that Israel s leading citizens went on in their revelry as if all was well. Joseph (Israel) was about to break up as a nation, yet the leading citizens were not sick over it as they should have been. They were totally self-centered, totally preoccupied with the pleasures of life but blinded to the threatening reality all around them. Life, so 2

3 they thought, could not be better. According to Amos, it could not have been worse. PREEMINENT IN LEAVING (6:7) 6:7 Amos introduced the judgment sentence with therefore. The word first has punctuated this entire woe oracle. Israel s leaders thought Israel was the first of the nations. They demanded first grade oils for cosmetic use. Now they would be first in the line of exiles going into captivity. Amos let them be first all the way. Their feasting and lounging would come to an end. God does not tolerate a self-indulgent lifestyle. The history of Israel and Judah brought to literal fulfillment the judgment sentence Amos delivered against them. When the worship of God s people fails to produce justice and righteousness in society, God s judgment cannot be far behind. God has not changed. He will not tolerate the self-indulgent lifestyle of His people in any generation. That theme is the explanation for Israel s military defeat under the Lord s direction. In form, this is a judgment oracle. Samaria may have been the setting for the message. THE LORD S OATH (6:8) 6:8 Three times in Amos the Lord s oath introduces a decree of punishment (4:2; 6:8; 8:7). In 4:2 the Lord swears by His Holiness. Here he swears by himself. In 8:7, He swears by the pride of Jacob. By himself ( by his soul ) means by the Lord s own person, the most binding form of commitment. The Lord s character, integrity, and power stood behind the oath. Amos identified the message to follow as an oracle of the LORD God of hosts (literally). God s authority and resources supporting this oracle made it awesome. The target is primarily Samaria. Most interpreters take the pride of Jacob to be an attribute of the people, their arrogant nationalistic and military self-confidence, or their overconfidence in the mountain of Samaria. In v. 8 and in 8:7, where the Lord swears by the pride of Jacob, the reference seems to be to the city of Samaria. Two factors favor this interpretation: (1) the fortresses possessed by ( his refers to the pride of Jacob in the previous line) the pride of Jacob, a term typically associated in Amos with capital cities (1:4, 7, 10, 12, 14; 2:2, 5; 3:9 10), and (2) the judgment word at the close of the verse that designates the city as the particular target in view. The city and everything in it appears to be parallel to the pride of Jacob and his fortresses. The object of God s hatred is Samaria s fortresses. The fortresses served as military fortifications and as storage space for booty taken in warfare, as well as 3

4 gain from robbery and violence against the poor. The last named usage of fortresses especially would have aroused God s hatred. Israel had placed their trust in them and made them the center of their lives of luxury and violence. God hates anything that replaces Him in the lives of His people, especially when it is associated with wickedness. The third verb is deliver up, which suggests the idea of handing over or surrendering a prisoner. Samaria and all its people (or everything in it) is the stated target of God s action. Implied in this judgment word is God s use of an enemy nation to execute the judgment against Samaria (6:14) TOTAL DESTRUCTION (6:11) 6:11 Israel s God was the one in charge of the nation s destruction. He was giving the orders. He was smiting the houses. Great house and small house left in pieces and bits is a picture of complete destruction. Great house may refer to the royal house or to the houses of the wealthy. Small house may designate lesser government buildings or the houses of the poor. The primary thought is that the result of the Lord s command will be to reduce all houses to rubble. AN ABSURD HAPPENING (6:12) 6:12 What Israel had done in turning justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness was absurd (see 5:7). Such perversion of right relationships and of justice in the courts was self-destructive. OPPRESSION FOR A PROUD PEOPLE (6:13 14) Also absurd was Israel s arrogant dependence on their own strength. The principle at work in these two verses is that pride in national accomplishments would precede the nation s fall. The prophet described the people responsible for the absurd perversion of justice and righteousness (v. 13). Then he set the Lord s announcement of judgment over against their prideful boasting (v. 14). 6:13 Israel had recovered previous losses east of the Jordan as a result of the campaigning of Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:25). Two of the cities he recovered were Lo Debar, which means not a thing, and Karnaim, which means a pair of horns. Amos used the names to engage in biting sarcasm. Their rejoicing over not a thing and their saying (or thinking) they had by their own strength taken a pair of horns were prideful boastings. The horns of an animal were symbols of power or authority in Old Testament times. Perhaps Israel thought that by taking Karnaim they had doubled their strength. Actually Karnaim was a relatively insignificant city. 6:14 A nation boasting of its power faced a judgment word of God. Israel s God was arousing a nation as His instrument of judgment. Though not named in 4

5 this oracle, Assyria eventually executed God s judgment word against Israel. The prophet s authority for such a strong word of judgment was the fact that he brought an oracle of the Lord God of hosts. God s judgment word was that the whole land north to south would be oppressed. Lebo Hamath was Israel s northernmost border. The valley of the Arabah (better, the brook or wadi of the Arabah ) was the southernmost boundary. The emphasis in v. 14 and in the larger passage (vv. 8 14) is total defeat for Israel. The proud would be humbled, the oppressor oppressed. RELATED DISCUSSION TOPICS CLOSING PRAYER My God: I am grateful to have found You and kept You in the forefront of my being. Bless us continually with Your grace and mercy. They represent bountiful blessings for all of us. Amen. 5