The Run Down
Read Amos 5-6
Vs. 1-2 A “lamenting”…
“The virgin” Israel… symbolically… cut down in prime of life… before full experience of who God intended her to be…
On her “land”… the land… the territory God gave to them to be His light… His people… will be cut short … without full potential utilized… due to sin.
The northern kingdom will not ever rise again…. Until maybe under conquered rule in 1st century and then 1948.
Gen. 12:7; 15:5 promise to be as numerically as the stars in the sky… will not happen!
Vs. 3-4 The warriors that go out will be defeat in mass.
Seek me and live. You seek…. You trust… you obey… and you will be within the blessing of the covenant. You have faith in YHWH and let it play out in your life.
Vs. 5-6
Do not seek Bethel – Gilgal – centers now of aberrant cultic worship, syncretistic and not Jerusalem.
Beersheba actually in Judah… not sure exactly why mentioned.. but includes the south… or “cross over” even to Jerusalem, the proper place of worship.
But seek the LORD and live. Not the places of hypocritical worship… but real worship… the real LORD.
Like 6 times above.. He might break out like “fire” against the house of Joseph (representing all of Israel as the largest tribe of Ephraim.)
Vs. 7-9 You, Israel, turn pervert justice and righteousness into bitter herbs, or wormwood.
Back to the Creator God… who made the Pleiades and Orion.
Who controls the darkness and the light, and the seas… YHWH is His name.
He is sovereign over the destroyer.
Vs. 10-11 The one reproving in the gate they hate… that is the place where elders gather and decisions are made….
People abhor the good truth… they want the lies that bless without responsibility or accountability.
They feel they deserve it because they are the Elect.. are Israel.. or are Americans.
Trampling of the poor.
Tax him unfairly as you live in luxury of hewn stone.
Yet God says…. His judgment… of reaping what you have sown… will not allow you to live in them.
Nor drink of your wines.
Vs. 12-13 God knows Israel’s transgressions.
God knows.
Afflict the righteous, take bribes, turn away those in need.
Therefore: the prudent one need not waste his breath. A sarcastic tone.
You have made your bead. Everyone including the wise… silence… you’ve tried.
They will not hear it. Their hearts are hard. Their eyes are blind. Their ears are stuffed.
It is an evil time. Wow… Ouch… how far they have fallen. Yet note.. at this point their power, wealth, stability, prosperity, their religiousness hasn’t change… they are living in a false security.
Vs. 14-15 He will repeat what some have said… yet said vainly… or for mere outward appearances only… seek good and not evil. Justice.
Similarly today when politicians use Scripture… or God talk … for their own purposes…
Vs. 16-17 Amos will describe the lamenting after Judgment as God passes thu their midst.
Remember when Jesus came to bring the Holy Spirit and fire.
Matthew 3:11-12 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Vs. 18-20 Jesus similarities again…
Woe’s… and the Day of the Lord. Similarities to his contemporary Joel in 1:15 and 2:1,2.
Matthew 23:13 13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.[a]
Why do you want this day…
Dark, not light…
From a lion into a bear…
House with biting serpent…
Gloom.
You think it will bring judgment on the ungodly sinners… and indeed it will..
But you define it as being “them” who have not inherited God…
Where as God defines it as those who don’t obey him as his true children…
Ungodly sinners.
Vs. 21-23
I hate your fake religion.
Feast, assemblies, burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, your worship songs,
Your whitewashed tombs.
Matthew 23:25-36 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah,[f] whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Some love to study the Apocalypse “Revelation” with flow charts and time lines…
Yet mistreat their spouses…
Argue what “Tithe” means…
Drive past the poor.
And get goose bumps at worship.
WWJS?
Vs. 24
Wants justice to roll down like waters, ever flowing righteousness.
Vs. 25-27 Sort of questionable verse meanings… and actual texts…
Insinuating that during the 40 years… the people wondered away from God in idolatry… whether its this King and Star God of Saturn… or not… if it’s shrine and pedestal…. The point is… guilt for idolatry and the subsequent exile… diaspora.. that God had promised in the Sinai Covenant.
6:1-3 Woe at Zion. (Judah?)
Mtn of Samaria.
We all are seeking security…. Do we seek security above God’s will for our lives?
Go to Calneh (?), Hamath (Syria), Gath (Philistine)….
Sarcasm… are you better?
If you do evil like them… your ruin is secured just as well…
Election don’t cut it.
You think you put off the inevitable for what you reap… but can you escape God’s plan of judgment?
Vs. 4-6
Beds of ivory. Couches. Eating. Singing. Luxury. Drinking wine. Anoint with oils.
But don’t grieve over the coming destruction for Joseph (Ephraim) the largest tribe… symbol of Israel. Like Washington, DC or NY City of American power.
Vs. 7-8
Therefore… they will be the first exiled. This occurs.
God abhors his strong storage of food, wealth, weapons, money… yet disregard Him and goodness and do evil.
Vs. 9-10
This idea… that as the judgment plays out… they will not want to speak YHWH’s name so as not to provoke Him further.
Vs. 11-God will destroy their homes… justice to poison… righteousness to wormwood.
Vs. 13-14 Prideful boastings of victories… without the Lord…without practicing justice.. God says they will pay.
A nation will rise up and oppress you from your northern border to your southern border.
What about us…
Let’s check ourselves… repent… boast in the Lord and practice justice!