missio

In continuing my blogging/teaching series on Amos (links to: Intro, Chapter One, Chapter Two), I’ve found that chapter three is a rough one to both teach and study. It has some serious theological implications in it that Christians may find tough to swallow, but we must because it is Scripture-based. Here we go:

• The third chapter of Amos places us back in the one-side conversation that is Amos preaching to the Israelites on their turf. In verse 1, Amos asserts his God-given authority to preach as well as laying down who the Israelites are in the sight of God: His family. As soon as God claims them as family, all of His decrees regarding family apply. This especially includes the relevant verses in Proverbs, in particular 3:11-12, stating that discipline from the Lord is a sign of His love, and should be welcome. The next verse in Amos 3 is relevant, because God informs them that because they are His family, and them alone, He will discipline them for their inequities.
• There i, however, a difference between discipline and punishment. Punishment is doing something unpleasant to a wrongdoer, simply because they have done wrong. Discipline, on the other hand, is training (often requiring something unpleasant) for a particular end. God’s particular end for His people is the display of His glory and the making famous of His name.
• In verses 3-6, God unleashes a barrage of facts against the Israelite people, while at the same time making them realize that the coming punishment will not be by chance, but will be a direct result from their actions towards Him.
  • Verse 3: Here God reminds the Israelites that they are in the relationship they are in because of a covenant between them. They have, in essence, agreed to meet and walk together. In the same way, we have ‘agreed’ (in common vernacular - we really had no choice but to continue in Him and His Son) to the covenant laid before us: the Blood of Christ.
  • Verse 4-5: God is letting the people of Israel know that He (the Lion) has found prey and will take something from them. God’s discipline towards us is much the same, for Hebrews tells us that something unpleasant may occur, but eventually will yield the fruit of righteousness, that is, (verse 5) ensnaring them for a particular purpose.
  • Verse 6: God then alerts them that discipline is indeed coming. They will (and should be) afraid, because the Lord is causing it. Until they shed blood in resisting sin (Hebrews 12), they should constantly be expecting discipline.
    
  • The second phrase of verse 6 has serious theological implications for the philosophical problem of evil. But to God, there is no ‘problem’ of evil. He has done it for a particular end: His glory.
• Amos then tells the Israelites that God is revealing to them a secret that they do not yet understand: the coming Messiah. We understand this because of His revelation of His Son through the entirety of Scripture. We know that Jesus is our disciplinarian, and that His glory is our particular end. We understand the necessity of discipline, because we constantly fall short of His glory and name. But at this time, it still a secret, not revealed to the people of Israel.Regardless of their understanding, the message is so powerful, that people must prophesy (v8). We too, once we grasp the importance and impact of the Gospel, must proclaim it at the top of our lungs through word and action.
• God then does something seemingly odd: He sets the Philistines and Egyptians as Israel’s judges, setting them over her to see her wrongdoing. It is only odd at first because we see this action through human eyes. The chief purpose of the people of God is to display the glory of God, whether through the enabling of good action or the discipline of bad action. God wants the nations to watch what happens to Israel so that they may know that the Lord exists and is both just and merciful.
• The discipline, plainly, is this: an adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered. (verse 11) This prophesy comes true with the Diaspora of the Northern Kingdom in 722BC.
• There will, however, be rescue of a small amount: those who escape the captivity and return to Jerusalem (Nehemiah, Ezra, etc.) But there will be bloodshed, and the majority of the nation will not make it.
• No church or temple or traditions shall save them from the punishment, for it will be God’s choice alone. He is the great equalizer. (v13-15)

There you go. Comments?

I’ve been reading in 1 Samuel lately, and today was a devotion in chapter 3. This verse came out in my reading:

And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.

This is spectacular. How often do our words and ideas hit brick walls, and fizzle out? No one hears them, and if they do, they don’t listen [definitely a difference].  To me as a preacher, this is more of a miracle than the parting of the Red Sea or a talking donkey. For someone’s words to always be heard, understood, and applied is nothing short of miraculous. 

Lord, let my words never hit the ground.

“If your life’s work can be completed in your lifetime, you’re thinking too small.”

-Wes Jackson, found on a Chipotle Mexican Grill cup