the glorious exchange

Chapter six is pretty intense, and it only gets more intense as we build up to the conclusion of Amos. Here’s the past links: Intro, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5. And here’s the notes:

• Amos 6:1-3 - Don’t Think It Won’t Happen to You
  1. V1. You think it won’t happen to you. You think you’re safe because you worship God. But remember what Christ says: some that claim Him, He never knew. People look at their leaders, and expect them to be leading them in a right direction, down a right path. But the people should always examine who is leading them. Always. Even as I teach this, you should be thinking about it in your heart and head, let the Spirit talk to you. Take it with a grain of salt: does it reveal Christ? Does it line up with Scripture? If the answer to both of these questions is “yes”, then embrace it as truth. If not, hold me accountable for my teaching, because I will be held accountable for your reaction to it.
  2. V2. Calneh was a major trade city, equivalent to a modern day Charlotte. Hamath was the rather large capital of a Canaanite kingdom, equivalent to Raleigh. Gath was also a regional capital within the Philistine kingdom. It was Goliath’s hometown. All of these cities were great, and Israel knew it. But at the time, they had been destroyed by the Assyrians, if you remember from chapter one.
  3. V3. You think it won’t happen soon. But it will. And your actions aren’t helping.
• Amos 6:4-7 - Take Advantage of Your Comfort While You Can
  1. V4. Beds of ivory? That’s rich even today. Couches back then? Crazy. They can afford to eat lamb whereas most people have to keep them for wool and income. They can eat beef where most people have to keep them for trade, milk, and work.
  2. V5. They invent instruments but they play idle instruments. It’s useless to create if you’re not creating for the glory of God. Art, music, literature, all of it is useless if it does not reflect Christ in some way.
  3. V6. They drink wine and anoint with fine oils, but are completely oblivious to the coming judgment and ruin that is occurring under their feet.
  4. V7. When the Assyrians show up, the rich go first.
• Amos 6:8-10 - The Lord’s Promise
  1. When we talk about the promises of the Bible, we often forget these. Heh.
  2. V8. God swears according to Himself, because nothing else is good enough to swear by, that He will deliver Israel to Assyria. All of Israel: people and property.
  3. V9. Ten men gone.
  4. V10. The whole problem is this: Israel is gaining wealth evilly, and is falsely worshipping God at the same time, while worshipping idols “behind God’s back”. So they are constantly using God’s name in vain, calling on Him in show, etc. But here, they are shown to be weary of using God’s name, because they know that doing it for show has gotten them where they are today. They are repenting, in a way, of their actions.
• Amos 6:11-14 - The Judgment Revealed
  1. V11. The big houses will fall, the little houses torn down.
  2. V12. No one will be able to survive in the rubble that is to come. You’ve brought it on yourself.
  3. V13. You think that you can save yourselves because God has blessed you.
  4. V14. The judgment revealed: a nation is going to lay the smack down.

Great stuff from Amos.

So here we are, chapter five. I’m teaching on chapter six today, and realized I forgot to post my notes for five, so here you go. If you missed the previous four chapters, or simply want to review where we’ve been, here you go: (Overview, Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four). And here’s the notes:

• God is lamenting over what He is going to do to Israel. Ezekiel writes that He wishes noone to perish (Ezk 18:32), but He wants everyone to turn and live. Israel, in Amos’ time, is obviously not going to turn to the Lord for their salvation. They have blinded themselves with idolatry and false religion. Even worse than this is the fact that there are no godly leaders in place to lead Israel back to God. They are all corrupt.  So God punishes them with the Assyrian invasion for two reasons: the greater good and because He is just.
• In verses 4-7, we see a plea for the Gospel. God urges Israel, and even us today, to return to the Gospel: Himself. As John Piper so famously puts, God is the Gospel. This is accomplished through God Himself, dying on a cross for our sins and then raising from the dead to conquer it. He warns us in Amos of going to places we do not belong: false religion and idolatry (Bethel and Gilgal).  And He warns Israel and ourselves of the consequences for not returning to Him: a just wrathful judgment.
• God reminds Israel who He is, as creator and the Gospel itself: He is the one who sets everything in motion, including time. He sets the stars in the sky, which we will see is ironic, because the Israelites are worshipping them. He causes calamity among His enemies, regardless of who they are. And the Lord is His name. God is creator, not creation, and deserves our worship.
• Where Israel has gone wrong is this: those who proclaim repentance is necessary are being cast aside, even forced to be silent. The poor are being trampled upon for the gain of those who are already wealthy. And false worship is constantly being practiced, along with idolatry, the two major opponents of the Gospel. But God sees our sins, regardless of how hard we try to hide them. Consumerism is a sin, and He sees it. In the American culture, we have to ask ourselves if it is worth it to place such a high emphasis on material goods.
• We see the results of the Gospel in verse 14: God will be with you. Immanuel. Jesus. Once we arrive at Christ, we enter upon a journey towards hating evil through Him, loving good, and establishing justice upon our lives and in our world. God makes the Gospel specific to the Israelites here, saying that He will spare the remnant should they return to the Lord.
• Verses 16-17 tell us that our response to the Lord, as in Amos 4:12, will depend on our response to the truth of His Word and Good News.
• The last part of the chapter is intense, saying that the day of judgment will be perfect, just as His salvation is perfect. His judgment will be absolutely dark, with no light, no hope. Offerings and sacrifices at that point will be useless. This justice is a show of His holiness and our sinfulness, especially the severity of it against His very name and character.

I plea to you: return to Christ, know that He is with you, and know that Christ has taken His perfect wrath to give us His perfect glory.

Here’s my notes on the fourth chapter of Amos, see previous posts for all previous chapters (links: Intro, Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three). The way I’m teaching this chapter is in comparison with Revelation 4-5. You’ll see what I mean.

• Verses 1-3 are directly aimed at the women of Israel. They have gotten “plump” as cows on a fertile plain (Bashan). But pay special attention to verse 1: it is not the fact that they are wealthy that twists and breaks God’s heart. It is how they have become affluent: by stepping upon the heads of the less fortunate. Their sin is that they are using other people for self gain: they have a love for money that surpasses their love for people. This, not wealth itself, is sin. For their sin, they are going to be exported past Mount Harmon by the Assyrians (who traditionally exiled people single file with a fish hook through the lower lip - rough way to go).
• Verses 4-5 are central to the chapter: they express the Lord’s discontent with improper worship, and to us, they reveal the two great enemies of Christ: idolatry and false religion. Bethel was once an idol center, established by Solomon’s son Jeroboam. Now, both Bethel and Gilgal were separate “holy cities” set up during the days of Elijah and Elisha: and the Israelites practiced worship-less sacrifices here in the days of Amos. So God is saying “go ahead and sacrifice, it’s meaningless to me”. They are breaking the first commandment, and in essence, disbelieving the Gospel: that God alone saves.
• Verses 6-11 are God giving physical warnings to the people of Israel, trying to convince them to come back to him. They do not, and compared with all of the other tragedies they face, this is the greatest. The worst possible thing that could ever happen to us as a people is that we ignore the calling of God to Himself. This is ignoring the Gospel, and will only result in the full wrath of God poured out upon us.
• Verses 12-13 are God’s revelation of Himself as supreme, and that He will justly judge those who refuse Him: Christ is ruler over creation, our thoughts and will, and over any kingdoms we try to set up on earth. He is supreme, and we are to will subject ourselves to Him, whether through the love of Christ or the wrath of His judgment.
• So what does this have to do with Revelation 4-5? How does a people go from ignoring a beckoning yet vengeful God as seen in Amos 4 to a “kingdom of priests and kings” before a glorious and beautiful God in Revelation 4-5? The only way is this: a bloody cross and physical resurrection. The Gospel of Christ is the bridge to take a people from Amos 4 ignorance to Revelation 5 worship.

I recorded this lesson, and have it on audio, if you wish to hear it (average quality - I was using a voice recorder). Email me at derek@harmonydc.com.

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?

Here’s a continuation of my blogging series on Amos. Here’s the a link to the previous posts for the book: Blogging Amos: Overview, Blogging Amos: Chapter One. Here’s chapter two:

• Chapter Two (starting in v4) begins with first an admission of the Judeans as evil as well, along with a dissection of the sins of Judah, Amos’ homeland. Their primary sin is that they have rejected the Law of the Lord, not keeping His statutes (Joshua 23:16). Instead, they lie to themselves, yet deceive no one but themselves (1 John 1:8).
• What does this mean, with regard to the previous accusations against Israel’s neighbors? That neglecting the Word of the Lord is just as evil (if not more) as rape, abortion, and selling people into slavery. This is powerful imagery that Christ uses to get across the severity of sin.
• It is also important to remember that for us as Christ-followers, we have to Words to obey and follow: the written and the living. We are to follow the written Word of the Lord (Scripture) by clinging to the living Word of the Lord (Christ). (Romans 3:20-31) Neglecting either is profaning the name of the Lord.
• Amos then turns his judgment from Judah and Israel’s neighbors to Israel itself, probably silencing their cheers in the process. Imagine it: he is preaching against their enemies and their brothers with whom they fought a major war, and all of a sudden, he turns towards them. Cheers to silence. How often does this happen to us?
• So what’s the big sin of the Israelites? Heh. Well, they ignore the needy, and drown in their sin of selling the great things for lesser things: they are disregarding humanity for human creation. This is a form of idolatry. But there is a greater sin here. Look at verses 9-11.
• In verses 9-11, Amos recounts the doings of God for the Israelites in generations past. But it is vastly important to remember why God did those things. He did those things not for Israel and their prosperity, but rather so that His own name would be made famous. We can see this by running the words of God to Joshua in Joshua 1 through the sieve of Psalm 23. God tells Joshua that He will lead Him to rest and prosperity. Psalm 23 tells us that He does this for His name’s sake. God brought them out of Egypt, defeated the Israelites, and gave them the Word so that His name would be famous among the nations. But because they have forgotten the Word and are submitting to idols, His name has been profaned. This is not good.
• God’s judgment is this: He will press them down. No amount of speed, smarts, or skill will be able to save them. A miracle alone would have to save anyone, and if they are saved, they would have nothing left but their life (v16). But the difference between this judgment and the previous judgments is this: there’s a chance. People may be saved. Indeed they are; a remnant is taken into Babylon, and later, Nehemiah and Ezra lead them to rebuild Jerusalem. Our world is no different. We should have been punished for sin: we live in a fallen world and are utterly fallen people. But God has lifted this burden off of the cart and onto Himself. He sacrificed Jesus for it. A miracle has indeed occurred, praise Christ!