Explore the Bible Lesson Preview January 27, 2013 Court is in Session! Background: Amos 5:1 6:14 Lesson: Amos 5:4-6, 18-24; 6:1, 4-7 Motivation: Society is a mess. Justice has been perverted. Worship of God is even corrupted. What can one person do? Amos reveals in this study that God always preserves a righteous remnant that will turn to Him in repentance and uphold justice and righteousness. Examination: I. Rampant Evil (5:1-17) A. Lament Over Israel s Coming Fall (5:1-3) HCSB, p. 1499: 5:1-6:14 This lengthy and complex passage presents the core of the accusation against Israel. The passage begins with the lament in 5:2 that there was no one to raise up fallen Israel, and it ends in 6:14 with God raising up an enemy against Israel. The idea of lamentation dominates the passage, appearing as a lament over Israel s doom (5:1-3), in the predicted laments of 5:16-17, and in the funerary situation at 6:9-10. The main accusations are given in 5:4-6:7 in two sets of verses (5:18-6:7), and these two sets are similar to each other. In the first set, Israel presumptuously assumed that its pilgrimages satisfied God (5:4-7), even while they were oppressing the poor (5:10-15). In the second set, Israel again assumed its worship and festivals satisfied God, presumptuously certain that the Day of the Lord would bring them no trouble (5:18-24) even while they lived in arrogant luxury in Samaria (6:1-7). In both sets, therefore, their religious arrogance is placed alongside their arrogant indifference toward the poor. Also, in the first set, God is praised as Maker of the heavens (5:8-9), while in the second set, ironically, Israel worships the sky gods (5:25-27). Amos 6:8-11 pictures the judgment that is coming. 1 / 11
B. Warning Against Ignoring the Lord (5:4-17) 1. Pronouncement For the Lord says to the House of Israel Seek Me and live (4) This phrase thus says the Lord is repeated in verses 3, 4, 16, 17, and 27. It affirms that the words are not from Amos but from God. Seek me and live (Is. 55:6, 7; Matt. 6:33; Rom. 3:10-12; Heb. 11:6) is repeated in verse 6 and implies two things: 1) that while judgment was certain for the nation, individuals could still seek deliverance, and 2) seeking the Lord with all one s heart and soul would be to insure spiritual life. (Deut. 4:28) 2. Prohibition Do not (5) a. Seek Bethel This is one of the two main worship sites of the golden calf in Israel. b. or go to Gilgal Probably this was the site of Joshua s memorial upon crossing the Jordan (Jos. 4:19:24). Certainly this was another popular site of worship. c. or journey to Beersheba Located at the extreme southern tip of Judah, Beersheba would have required a long pilgrimage (certainly a reason for boasting among pilgrims.) This prophecy would have been ominous to the Israelites because Gilgal will certainly go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing but no such judgment was mentioned of Beersheba. 3. Pursuit Seek Yahweh and live, or He will spread like fire throughout the house of Joseph; it will consume everything (6) A choice to pursue God s ways was still held out to a righteous remnant: otherwise they would fall under the nations judgment: a. For injustice Those who turn justice into wormwood throw righteousness to the 2 / 11
ground (7:12) Perversion of justice, bribery and unrighteousness had already been well documented. b. For disrespect: They hate the one who convicts the guilty at the city gate and despise the one who speaks with integrity (10) In 8-9, Amos reminds the people that God is Creator, Sustainer, Provider, and Judge. Yet the people have not honored him; in fact, they resented anyone telling them what they can or cannot do. (Deut. 8:11-19) c. For oppression of the Poor because you trample on the poor (11) Bribery and unjust taxes were just two of the means that the wealthy used to oppress the poor. Because of these sins, the wealthy would not benefit from their houses of cut stone or lush vineyards. The entire society is so sinful that the wise person will keep silent. (13) 4. Plea Seek good and not evil Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate (14-15) (Rom. 12:17-21) Genuine faith always results in good works. the remnant of Joseph (15) is evidence of the righteous remnant that God always preserves. 5. Punishment (16-17) There will be wailing in all the public squares (16) In all the streets (16) The farmer will be called to mourn (16) 3 / 11
There will be wailing in all the vineyards (17) II. Hypocritical Worship (18-27) Many people in Israel desired the Day of the Lord as a time of deliverance. Amos redirects their thinking with a series of graphic descriptions of that Day : A. The Day of the Lord is Undesirable for the Guilty Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord!...It will be darkness, and not light (18) For the unjust and oppressors of Israel, the day of the Lord would bring judgment rather than deliverance. Many Christians today see the Rapture or 2 nd Coming as an escape mechanism from all their problems. However, Paul speaks of the terror of the Lord (2 Cor. 5:11). All Christians will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). Just as the Israelites are admonished to change their ways in light of coming judgment, so Christians today walk in the shadow of the end-times. (Ez. 33:10; II Pet. 3:11, 12) B. The Day of the Lord Is Unavoidable It will like a man who flees from a lion only to have a bear confront him!...won t the day of the Lord be darkness rather than light? (20) Having just described the breadth of their judgment (16-17), Amos now reminds them that there will be no place to hide. (Zech. 14:6, 7; Matt. 24:27) C. The Day of the Lord is Undeniable 1. Hypocritical Offerings Will Not Change It Even if you offer me your burnt offerings I will not accept them (22) The Israelites wanted to give offerings on 4 / 11
their schedule at their place of worship For offerings to be acceptable to God, they must be given on His terms, at His place of worship in the proper manner. (2 Cor. 9:7). Some people use gifts to God as some sort of talisman to ward off bad luck. God says that such offerings are less than meaningless. 2. Hypocritical Worship Will Not Change It Take away from Me the noise of your songs (23) Their particular worship was offensive to God because of the hearts of the worshippers. Paul writes something similar in I Cor. 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or as a tinkling cymbal. If our hearts are not right, our worship sounds to God as discordant noise. 3. Only True Repentance Can Change God s Judgment But let justice flow like water, and righteousness like an unfailing stream (24) D. The Day of the Lord is Unbearable for the Judged So, I will send you into exile beyond Damascus (27) The people of Israel were judged on the basis of their disobedience. Their corruption affected their judicial system, economic system, as well as their worship. In verse 26, idol worship is condemned. Which idol is being condemned is debatable: KSV Moloch, NKJ & NAS Sikkuth (an Assyrian deity), NIV the shrine of your king. HCSB Sakkuth. III. False Security (6:1-7) 5 / 11
Jeremiah railed at the false prophets for saying Peace, peace! When there is no peace! ( Jer. 6:4) Amos points to the things to which people are clinging for security, do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. (6) Obvious parallels may be drawn with the spiritual climate in America today. Our coins say In God We Trust, but our actions contradict our motto: A. Position Doesn t Provide Security (1) 1. Membership Woe to those who are at ease in Zion Because Jerusalem and the Temple were located in a mountainous area called Zion, the region became a synonym for God s people of the Southern Kingdom. Although Amos was primarily written to Israel in the north, God s law and judgment applied to all His people. A common stream in prophecy is to ridicule the belief that God would never allow His temple to be overrun; because of this false assumption, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were at ease or complacent. Church membership does not guarantee security. 2. Military Who feel secure in the hill of Samaria King Omri, the father of Ahab, purchased Mount Samaria and built his fortress there (1 Kings 16:24). So strategically sited and well-defended was Samaria that the city was able to resist the Assyrian army for three years. Yet, in 722 BC, Samaria surrendered unconditionally to the Assyrians. Military might does not guarantee security. 3. Messengers Notable people in this first of the nations Amos was being somewhat sarcastic at this point; he was calling the emissaries of the Northern Kingdom what they privately called themselves. Notable leaders and ambassadors of a nation do not insure security. B. Past History Doesn t Provide Security Cross over to Calneh and see; go from there to great Hamath (2) Calneh and Hamath were once mighty cities that had fallen to Israel. Gath was one of the five major Philistine cities but was now under Judah s control. Amos is saying that past performance doesn t guarantee future results. Just because America has been God fearing in the past doesn t provide security for the future. 6 / 11
C. Procrastination Doesn t Provide Security You dismiss any thought of the evil day and bring in a reign of violence (3) (cf 5:18) Procrastination has been called suicide on the installment plan. It is the mother of panic. The people of Israel were putting off the Day of Judgment, thus putting off any need for repentance. They were of the same club as Felix (Acts 24:25). Many in America and even in God s church are putting off needed spiritual decisions. D. Possessions Don t Provide Security They lie on beds inlaid with ivory and dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall (4) Ivory would have been rare and costly in ancient Israel. houses of ivory were judged in 3:15. Because meat was not a regular part of the average Israelite s diet, eating lamb and veal was sitting in the lap of luxury. Unfortunately, the riches were accumulated by sinful means and were therefore going to be forfeit. (Luke 12:15-21) Riches, no matter how accumulated, can become a substitute for things that only God should provide: security and significance. (Col. 3:5; Heb. 13:5) In affluent America, we must guard our hearts (Phil. 4:6-8) against substituting materialism for our love of Christ. (Deut. 8:16-18) E. Pleasure Doesn t Provide Security they improvise songs to the sound of the harp (5) In another era of history Nero fiddled while Rome burned. It is pretty much the same charge that Amos lays at the feet of the Israelites. They lie (4), improvise (5) and a noint themselves with the finest oils (6). While none of these things are wrong individually, taken together, they illustrate lives devoted to self-absorbed pleasure. The five mistakes of Solomon: lethargy, luxury, learning, liquor, and lust. (Epicureanism) One survey revealed that while Americans donate less than 2% of income to all charitable causes (including churches) they devote 12% to entertainment. The sin that Amos so roundly condemns is one of lost purpose. Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? To fail to find those answers condemns a person to a life that is inward-focused, self-absorbed, lacking in meaning and unproductive to God s purpose (Matt. 6:33; James 1:27) The world s system: more, better, different. The Word s system: meaning (Rom. 8: 14-17), purpose (Rom. 8:28-29), value. (I John 3:1-3) 7 / 11
F. Pandering Doesn t Provide Security They who drink wine by the bowlful (6) Alcoholic beverages and their effects are roundly condemned in scripture: Wine is a mocker and beer is a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise. (Prov. 20:1 NIV); Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18 NIV). Drunkenness is listed as a fruit of the flesh in Galatians 5:21. To advocate the consumption of alcohol while prohibiting its effects seems hypocritical to our youth. Surveys consistently show that two-thirds of college students are prone to binge drinking which can lead to alcoholism. Christian leaders in America should maintain a firm stance against alcohol! G. Punishment Therefore they will now go into exile (7) Because the Israelites had trusted in things that could not provide true security, they would be punished. We are not ultimately punished for things we do but for a failure to place our trust in the one true God (Eph. 2:8-9). (Isa. 46:9-10) IV. Selfish Pride (6:8-14) A. Divine Evaluation Pronounced (6:8-11) 1. Answered The Lord God has sworn by Himself I will hand over the city (8) God s oath to destroy Israel is repeated three times in Amos: 4:2, 6:8, 8:7. The oath is sworn by Himself; there is none higher. (Heb. 6:13) The sins of the people were answered by the judgment of God. 2. Arrogance I loathe Jacob s pride and hate his citadels (8) As mentioned previously, the mistake of Israel was a failure to trust God. Their pride led them to devise their own method of worship and to break God s laws. They became judge and jury to the poor and acted as though they were accountable to no one. The citadels were especially symbolic of this lack of trust; they were symbols of man s power, were part of the city s defenses, and were used to store stolen goods (3:10; 6:11). 8 / 11
3. Annihilation And if there were ten men left in one house, they will die (9) The picture was of an extended family that survived the war but succumbed to the plagues of disease that followed. So great was the toll of death that bodies could not be buried (Gen. 3:19) but had to be burned (condemned in Amos 2:1). Only in that devastation will the survivors regain a sense of reverence and fear of God Silence, because Yahweh s name must not be invoked. (10) B. Perverse People Punished (12-14) 1. Mystery Do horses gallop on the cliffs Does anyone plow there with oxen? (12) The Israelites had chosen a perilous course that excluded God. To chose such a course made about as much sense as riding or plowing on a dangerous cliff. 2. Mistakes a. Mistaken sense of right Yet you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood (12) Amos had earlier exhorted the people to let justice and righteousness run like an unfailing stream (5:24). (Micah 6:8) Instead of fresh flowing water, they had become a poisonous pool. b. Mistaken sense of deliverance you who rejoice over Lodebar (13) Lodebar was the barren wilderness to which Mephibosheth fled (2 Sam. 9:4) Lodebar literally means not a thing. That they would even boast of conquering such a place was ludicrous. But they compounded their error in feeling that victory had come by our own strength. (13). 3. Massacre I am raising up a nation against you, House of Israel (14) About 40 years after this prophecy, Assyria totally decimated Israel. 9 / 11
Application: 1. One cannot place trust in worldly things. 2. God alone is worthy to judge. 3. Punishment will be dealt to unrepentant sinners. Explore the Bible Leader Pack Item 12: Poster: Substitutions Biblical Illustrator: no illustrator article Notes: Foundations of Faith (Mission 1:8) lessons will be taught in all adult classes the four Sundays in February. **You may access David s Lesson Preview in MP3 format at: www.hfbcbiblestudy.org Dates 1/15 3/5 LivingProof Bible Study Tues; 1/16 5/8 Midlink, Spring Break 3/13; 1 /19 As We Go Conf; 1/20 Mission 1:8 Leadership luncheon; 1/20 Summit Dodgeball Tourney; 1/20 Parent Commitment; 1/20 AMP/Wired; 1/25 Midnight Madness; 10 / 11
1/27 Fitness Expo; 1/27 Mission 1:8 begins; 1/27 FBA Day at HFBC; 1/28 Missions Expo ends; 2/13 Mission 1:8 Advance Commitment day; 2/15 Fusion Big Night Out; 2/22-23 High School girls event; 2/24 Mission 1:8 Commitment Day; 2/24 Parent Commitment Day. 11 / 11