biblestudy: Amos (Part Eight)
Amos 5:1-6
John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 03-May-88; Sermon #BS-AM08; 80 minutes
Description: (show)
OK, let's get back to the book of Amos. I started the last time by telling you about the receiving this photograph of a family from another church area. It was a photograph of a family in which I, I knew that some adultery had taken place and there was one of the children in that, in that group that did not look exactly the same as, as the rest of the family. And I use that to illustrate what God found objectionable in chapter four of Amos. And that is that whenever he looked at Israel, he did not see a reflection of himself. And I'm sure that that the, the parents in this family, that of the, you know, the photograph that they could look at their children and they could see that one of the children in a sense stuck out like a sore thumb because it did not look quite like the other ones, you know it. And so that's what God is saying here. He said that he had sworn by his holiness. And when he, he looked at the children of Israel, they were children of corruption. The implication is when you begin to look in other books of the Bible, I went back to the book of Isaiah and showed you how Isaiah used the same kind of illustration in the first chapter only there. He called them children of corruption. And I explained to you how the Bible uses the word child or son, not necessarily in the sense of natural descent, but also in the sense of showing the characteristics of thus, the Bible has people that are called sons of belial. Well, there was no real belial in that sense, but they showed the characteristics of belial, which means a son of profanity or a son of foolishness or a son of corruption. So these people were showing those kind of characteristics, Isaiah showed that the ox and the ass dumbly obey and they exhibit more of a sense of appreciation than the children of Israel who show unthinkable rebellion against their Creator. And if we look at it in the right way against their father, so that if or if paternity is revealed by character, then God has to scratch his head and say, who is this that I'm looking at when he looks at Israel, am I really the Father here? Are they showing characteristics of my holiness? Then I went back into the New Testament in First Corinthians eight and began to tie that in with Amos. The fourth chapter showing that there is demon is involved here that there are demons behind the idols. He's talking about Bale though, Bale for all practical purposes. When you were looking at it was nothing more than a luring statue. There was really demons who were involved in this false religion. And so we then tied together with that John the eighth chapter where Jesus called the Jews of his day, sons of Satan. They were sons of the devil. They were showing, showing characteristics of Satan and he said that the works of their father, they wanted to do, they were showing his characteristics and they wanted to do them. They were not like Abraham who showed the characteristics of God. And when God came into Abraham's presence, Abraham did not do the things that, that those Jews were doing, they were picking up rocks, getting ready to kill Christ, they already had it in their heart to do it. Well, Abraham never did anything like that. So I want you to understand this principle about Sons of, see, depending upon the context. It may not mean natural descent. It may really mean showing the characteristics of whatever the person is a son of. But when God looked at Israel, he did not see his holiness, he did not see his characteristics. So then we found in beginning in verse six that while God was showing Israel that they were busy in their worship at Bethel and Gilgal, you know, he told them in verse four, come to Bethel and transgress and to Gilgal and multiply your transgressions. And they have been very busy in their religion while God beginning in verse six shows that he has been very busy as well. He hasn't been just sitting around twiddling his thumbs that he withheld the rain and he caused it to rain upon one city and not on another. And so that there was drought in the land. Verse nine, he blasted them with m with blight and mildew. And of course, he was doing all that in an effort to try to get the people to come to their senses and to repent and turn to Him to seek him. That of course, we can look back on history and understand that they did not do that. But God was working, he was directing, he was active in his, in the management of His creation and he was striving to bring about what was going, what he wanted to occur, but they were not responding and it shows how far that they were from Him. Now, we should understand from that, that God is actively working in our lives and when things occur, we need to ask ourselves, why is this happening? Is there something that needs to be corrected? Is there something that I need to be tested upon? Is there something here that I, I need to learn in order to improve my witness of God so that I become more like Him and that I have his holiness. And it certainly sort of gives me a very strong indication that nothing happens by accident in our lives. I showed you how that Christ showed in Matthew the 10th chapter where he said that not one sparrow falls beyond the will of God. And certainly we are worth a great deal more than a sparrow. And if God takes note of a sparrow and he determines that, yes, I'm going to allow this sparrow to die, then how much more interested and concerned is he in, in our life? Well, much, much more we are worth more than they are by a great deal. And then we began to get upon the things concerning Bethel and Gilgal and why they were important to the context of what Amos is writing here. Now, just to review that Bethel is associated with Jacob. Now, actually, just a sort of a little prelude to this. All three of these cities are, are associated with Abraham Isaac and Jacob either singly or all three of them. Now, Bethel was especially associated with, with Jacob and it was in Bethel that Jacob apparently just wandered into when he was fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau. And he lay down and went to sleep and during the night, he had a dream and when he woke up by, he anointed the pillow, the stone that he was using as a pillow. And he said that God is in this place and he named the place Bethel you see the house of God or God is in this place. Now, it's important for more than that though because that proved to be a turning point in Jacob's life. Did we go through this? We did. I, I was seeing some blank fla faces out there and I was beginning to wonder whether we had actually gone into, so I was going to skip over going to the scriptures, but I really think I ought, ought to go to the scripturesSo let's go back to Genesis the 28th chapter. OK? In, in Genesis 28 and beginning in verse 10, now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Harran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night because the sun had set. It doesn't seem to have been any particular direction that he felt that he was takingIt's likely though that God was involved and really led him to that place and he put down his head itself says, and went to sleep. And then he dreamed and behold a ladder was set up on the earth and its top reached to heaven and there, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it and behold the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father, the God of Isaac and the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants. Now, the important thing here at least at the beginning of this is that God shows that He is in this place. Now that becomes a little bit, becomes more important as we get into the book of Amos because the place became a shrine. So you like today, a lot of Catholics go to Lords because something significant took place in the history of the Catholic church, Catholic church there. And because of the significance of that place, people go there and they go there with a, with a definite reason in mind, is not it usually to get something from God, usually a healing or something of that nature. And so people make a pilgrimage. Well, that's what happened here. That because Jacob had this very significant occurrence and it was not just the dream, the dream was enough by itself maybe, but it proved to be a turning point in his life because Jacob came there, fleeing for his life. That's what was on his mind because Esau had murderous intent. And so here was Jacob seemingly run away, running away from everything that he held dear. He was running away from father and mother, he was running away from what he had been told by Abraham and Isaac was going to be a land that, that he and his descendants were going to inherit, inherit. And here he was going away for his life. He did not know whether he would ever be back. There was no promise of a future or anything of that nature. And suddenly, boom, he has this arresting experience. You know, the God of creation appears to him and he sees this ladder, angels are going up and down and it really, he was impressed and he said, wow, you know, God is in this place. And so then he makes a vow in verse 20. Well, look at verse 15, it is important. He says, behold, God says that I am with you and we will keep you see guard and protect you wherever you go, and we will bring you back to this land where I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you. And then verse 20 Jacob made a vow saying if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I am going and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on so that I come back to my Father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will surely give 1/10 to you. So it was a significant thing that occurred to Jacob here because he came a homeless wanderer with an uncertain future. And when he left, you see, he had a future before him and he had the promise of God that he was going to come back to the land. That he thought that he was giving up and running off. Ok. In Genesis, 35 quite a number of years have passed now and Jacob is, is coming back to the land, a fairly wealthy man. And he comes through Bethel again, beginning in verse one, then God said to Jacob, arise and go up to Bethel and dwell there and make an altar there to God who appeared to you when you fled from the face of your, of Esau, your brother. And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Now, what we are, what we are beginning to see here is a radical change in Jacob's outlook on life. Now, I believe that what we are seeing here is Jacob's conversion that all of these experiences that occurred up until this time were preparation for his actual literal conversion from a man who was totally and completely physically oriented to one who is going to be spiritually oriented in his life. So God then directs him back to the place where they had the encounter before and Jacob goes and does it. And then in verse nine, then God appeared to Jacob again and came and he came from Padan Aram and blessed him. And God said to him, your name is Jacob, that he changes his name, which is another significant thing. It indicates a new man is appearing. That's why I say that, that what it looks like here is, is Jacob's conversion. The change of names, just like the change of Paul Saul's name to Paul indicated his conversion. And so God then reiterates the promise to Jacob or Israel and tells him to be fruitful and multiply. And the land again would come to him in verse 12. And so Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, a pillar of stone and he poured a drink offering on it and he poured oil on it. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him. Bethel. Ok. Again, so we find him aga again, a man whose outlook on life is, is completely changed as a result of his encounter with God. And so we find then a general principle arising in regard to Bethel and what significance it had in the mind of a religious Israelite. The even as in the mind of a religious Catholic Lords has a certain association. Well, Bethel had a certain association in the mind of a religious Israelite. And that is, it was the place where a person goes to be renewed. It's a place where a person goes to have his life reoriented from one without a future to one with a great future, from one without prosperity to one with prosperity. And it was there, you see that Jacob and Connor, the, I guess we would call it the life giving, presence of God. And so that became associated in the Israelites mind and Bethel became important in regard to that. Ok. Now the next place is Beersheba. There are three shrines. Now, the second one is Beersheba. Now Beersheba is associated with all three Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Now in Genesis 21 we find the association with Abraham Genesis 21 verses 22 through 33. And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Fal the commander of the army spoke to Abraham saying God is with you in all that you do. Now, I really do not believe that we need to go a great deal further because this becomes I mean, do not need to read a great deal further in regard to Abraham because this becomes the pivotal point as far as association that the Israelite would have in mind as far as Beersheba was concerned, God is with you in all that you do. Now, it's interesting that Abraham heard that from a, a pagan king that this pagan king had eyes and ears and he was able to think and see and hear and he observed what was going on in Abraham's life. And he came to the conclusion that this was a man that was in, in contact with God. And so he made this declaration at Beersheba verse 33. Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called, and there called on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. Ok. In chapter 26 and in verse 23 chapter 26 and in verse 23 now, here we are dealing with Isaac. Isaac had many problems with people who envied him. They envied his wealth. I'm sure that they envied his lifestyle. I'm sure that they envied at least what appeared to, to them to be virtually a trouble free life. But these people who, who envied him gave him a lot of trouble. Isaac was apparently a very peaceful man and I think his name means something happy, laughing. He was a pleasant and happy individual and one who would be easy to get along with. But people find it hard to get along with with this nice man. So it says in verse 21 if you want to go back there a little bit or verse 20 the herdsman of Gerard quarreled with Isaac's herdsman saying the water is ours. It was not theirs was Isaac's well, he just backed off and he went and dug another well, somewhere else. You know, he was not there to resist evil. He just moved to another place and God blessed him where Isaac dug wells, there was water. Verse 21 they dug another well and they quarreled over that one. See, and so Isaac would move somewhere else and he'd sink a well done and there would be water there. In verse 22. He went up from there to Beersheba and the Lord appeared to him on the same night and said, I am the God of your father, Abraham do not fear for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for my servant Abraham's sake. Now, here we have Abraham and now Isaac and a very similar occurrence that God states in that place in Beersheba that he was with them. And now in, in Genesis, the 46th chapter, we get to Jacob and in the story of Jacob's life, he is on his way to Egypt answering the summons of his long lost son, Joseph. And in verse one of chapter 46 so Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to beer, Sheba and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And you see already there was a kind of a, a reverence or respect for that area because Jacob knew of his family's history. And undoubtedly Isaac had told Jacob what occurred there and both in his own life and also in, in Abraham's life as well. And then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob and he said, here I am and he said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not fear to go down to Egypt for I will make of you a great nation. I will go down with you to Egypt. And I will also surely bring you up again. And Joseph will put his hands on hand on your eyes. So I will go with you. Now, each one of them. Now here comes the key. Each one of them was assured of the companionship of God. So Beersheba came to represent fellowship with God. So Bethel was a place of renewing and reorientation, getting your life straightened outheading off in the right direction that Beersheba was the shrine you went to, if you wanted to be assured of having fellowship with God, that God would be with you wherever you went. Now, it's interesting. Amos tells the people do not go there is, do not go to Bethel, I mean, he says, he says it sarcastically, but the implication is very clear. He says, yeah, go ahead to Bethel. But you know what he meant? That's not going to do you any good. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead to Gilgal. If you know what he really meant, what good is it going to do for you to go there? OK. Now, Gilgal, let's look a little more closely at that. This has a very interesting history a little bit later than, than the history of Bethel and, and Beersheba that will go to Joshua the fourth chapter Joshua four and verse 19. Now, the people came up from the Jordan on the 10th day of the first month and they encamped in Gilgal. On the east border of Jericho. That Gilgal was the first place that Israel camped inside their inheritance. When they crossed Jordan, they set up their first camp at Gilgal and it was at Gilgal that they set up the monument consisting of those 12 stones. Remember they brought out of the out of their land of wandering 12 stones that became a monument of their wandering. That the monument was established in Gilgal. Now in chapter five and beginning in verse two, now, at that time, the Lord said to Joshua make flint knives for yourselves and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time. Now, this doesn't mean that this is the second time they are circumcised. It means it's the second time since they left Egypt because they were not circumcising in Egypt. And so they began to circumcise in the wilderness. But once they got on the move, they did not circumcise their, their male boys. And so all those who were born in the wilderness were not circumcised. So Joshua made flint knives for himself and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt for all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness on the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. Well, circumcision was the seal. The affirmation of the covenant, even as today, baptism is the parallel, the symbol, the equal of circumcision. And so it shows that you have entered into this relationship with God. So what they were doing here was that they were confirming their faith in God as the covenant God, they were, they were carrying through with their part, the initial part of their agreement, even as we carry through with baptism. And then verse 10. So the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain on the same day. Now, the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land and the children of Israel no longer had Manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. Now, that occurred at Gilgal as well. So it was at Gilgal that they first ate the produce of their inheritance and also the manna stopped falling at yoga. Ok. Now something is beginning to take place here. It has something to do with a spiritual, a religious idea, something to do with the covenant and the promise that God made. Now we could continue to build this out because Gilgal was the site of a great deal that had to do with the inheritance of the land. In chapter nine, beginning in verse six, we find that Gilgal is the headquarters of Joshua's campaigns into the land. You can follow that through in chapter nine and verse six, chapter 10 in verse six through nine. And then again, in chapter 10, verse 15 and chapter 10 verses 40 through 43 this was the staging area for the conquest of the land. In first Samuel chapter 11 and verses 14 and 15 saw was confirmed as king in yoga. Now, that was especially important to Israel to see the 10 northern tribes because they felt that they had by natural descent. I guess you would say a closer relationship with Saul than they did with David. And so some of the natural antipathy toward the Jews would tend to come out that way, at least in the northern 10 tribes. So Gil Gal was important to them in that regard that Israel's first king Saul was confirmed there. And now Gil Gal then became associated in the Israelites mind ah as the place of inheritance and possession of the land. OK? Now, these equated into something a little bit more practical than that. And that is the Gilgal Bye. Transference of the idea of possession and inheritance was the place you went to seek God for stability and security because it was in this area of Gilgal that God began to literally fulfill his promise within the land. OK? Now, back to the book of Amos, you know, we are going to be going over here to the Amos five and pick it up in verse one. Now hear this word which I take up against you against you. This lamentation o house of Israel, the virgin of Israel has fallen. She will rise no more. She lies forsaken on her land. There is no one to raise her up who thus says, the eternal God, the city that goes out by 1000 shall have 100 left and that which goes out by 100 shall have 10 left to the house of Israel. For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, seek me and live, do not speak but do not seek Bethel nor enter Gilgal nor pass over to Beersheba for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to nothing. Now, what this first five verses is, is a lamentation. It's a dirge, a funeral dirge. I do not know whether act Amos actually sang it to the people or whether he it's more likely that he gave it in poetical form in a form in a meter that the Hebrews would customarily use for a dirge. So that they would recognize whether he actually sang it or not, they would recognize it as a dirge, a lamentation, something that one would say over a dead person. Now that tells you something right there, it was, it was said by Amos, not as something that was going to occur, but as far as Amos was concerned, it had already occurred. Now, it had not literally yet happened, but he said it as it as though he was positive it was going to occur. So we have a death. Now, how did that death come about? Well, it comes out about according to verses two and three by military decimation. Now, of course, we know that that is exactly the way it occurred because as Syria came down in 721 through 718, and they decimated Israel to the extent that they shipped all of the people out, all of those, all of those who are left, ship them off to foreign lands and replace the people of Israel with people of other nations. And so then Israel is pictured as a virgin. Now, there is a reason for doing that. Israel was not really spiritually a virgin God very frequently calls Israel an adulterer or a harlot or a fornicator, whatever happens to fit the context. And so so literally, Israel was not a virgin, but yet he uses the word virgin because Israel is being cut off seemingly in the bloom of youth when it had not ever seemingly had an opportunity to produce what it could have produced. And you see in a literal family that would be children you know, a happy marriage and children. But in the case of Israel, even though they were surrounded by this luxurious prosperity, remember God, when he looked down, he did not see any of his characteristics there. So the characteristics that he was looking for was not wealth, what he was looking for where personality, characteristics, traits of character and he did not see those things. So he's, he's saying that Israel is somebody who has not lived up to its potential, never had the opportunity to really produce them because they got cut off in the bloom of life. Ok? Now you have to see this in the light of Bethel, Beersheba and in yoga, he says in verse five or at the end of verse four, seek me and live. You see, but do not seek Bethel. The Bethel was the place where you go to meet God and you have your life re orientated. Bethel was a place that gave Jacob a great deal of hope. It gave Jacob a future. But Amos is saying for you to go to Bethel is not going to change the future. There is no hope there, there is no life there. You're not going to meet God there. That's what he's telling them. Now, what about Beersheba? Well, look at verse two, she lies forsaken on her land. What did Beersheba represent? It? Represented companionship with God. The Amos is saying there is no need for you to go to that shrine down there in Beersheba, that place where you want to go to, to have companionship and fellowship with God. He's telling you Israelites, it's not working. You're forsaken. God is not there. Instead. He says Israel, you're going to be carried off without ever knowing the joys of marriage and you have no one to befriend you because God is not with you and you're going to Beersheba is not going to help one bit. I want to just put something into your mind. Is there any way possible that we might be able to connect this with going to the Feast of Tabernacles where we make these annual pilgrimages to places that may not have any particular religious significance to the fellowship with God that we might have inheritance and possession and stability and security in the land. Are we going to the Feast of Tabernacles with the same idea and attitude on our mind as the Israelites went to Bethel or to Gilgal or to Beersheba? Is it possible that because of the attitudes that we have in our mind regarding the Feast of Tabernacles that we are actually frustrating God's purpose for the feast? Why do we keep the feast? Why do we go there? Is it merely a vacation, a place to go and spend money and have a lot of fun or there is, is there something of greater, deeper purpose and meaning? Are we really going there to seek God? Are we going there to learn to fear God, like it says in Deuteronomy 1422 23 why? That's the question that Jacob is, is asking here, why go there, there is something radically wrong. He tells these people is God confined to a place? OK. What does Gilgal stand for? It stands for possession of the land, inheritance, stability and security. And so what does verse three say the city that goes out by 1000 shall have 100 left and so forth. There is everything pictured there except stability and security. What we see is this possession of the land, not possession and inheritance. The Amos reaches a conclusion. He says, going, going to yoga is not helping one bit because God is showing me that you're going to be forsaken, going to Beersheba and helping one bit because God is showing me you have no companionship with him and the same with Bethel, no use going there, there is no life there. He said, I see death in the vision that I have of good of of God. Now, I think that we can safely assume but in each one of those shrines that the priests who were there preached on the dominant theme of that particular place, even as our ministers preach on the dominant theme of the Feast of Tabernacles when we go there. And I'm sure that the average Israelite when he went to those places, he thought of himself as a legitimate partaker of the promises of God that history shows that they were quite mistaken because in 721 to 718 the proof of the pudding show very clearly. Now, if you stop to think about what he's talking about here in relative to Bethel Gilgal and in Beersheba, that's our hope yoga possession, being in the Kingdom of God and Beersheba Fellowship. Now, these are things that we can have in Christ, is that not why we seek Christ? Isn't that what we want as well? That obviously hearing and knowing are not enough? I mean, knowing, intellectually hearing about it is not enough. Now, can we be certain that we possess them? Can we be certain that we, we can possess them in Christ? Because these people did not possess what they thought that they did? Well, yes, we can because as we fill in the chapter here, we are going to see that their performance did not match what they knew. I mean, their performance in their life. Now, God tells us that he will never withdraw from his promises and that is true even though He punished the Israelites by taking them into captivity. His promise continues as very evident and that he hasn't forgotten about Israel, even though Israel doesn't even know who they are. God is going to carry through what he, what he promised in Abraham Isaac and Jacob. But that writing of history is a lesson to you and me that God does not go back on what He promises. He says I will never leave you nor forsake you. And so if anybody is going to withdraw from God, it's going to be the human part of the equation, not going to be God Himself. Now, we are going to see as we go on here that the problem has always been the same. It is self-centeredness. You can see that evidenced very, very clearly here in just a little bit an explanation. I guess that I've used in, in John 14, no, it's John 16, John 16 8 many, many times. You know that he says the Holy Spirit will come and convict the world of sin. We have to come to the place where we realize that the root of sin lies in men's self centeredness and their desire to live independent of God. That's what is shown there. And it, it when Adam and Eve made the choice, they could have been dependent of God through the tree of life. They chose independence from God and the choosing of their own way. Yeah, that's where the root of sin is in all of us. OK? Now, I think that we need to go back to something that was in Genesis 28 before we go on to, to, to Amos six, not Amos six, but Amos 56. OK? In Genesis 28. And in verse 12, then he dreamed Jacob did did and behold a ladder was set up on the earth. And its top reached to heaven and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There is something that I, I never noticed before that I noticed today about the letter I have always read into that that men were ascending and descending. It doesn't say that it says that angels were ascending and descending. And the way it always appeared to me is that the latter represented man having access to or being able to ascend as it were to God. But I have a different outlook on it now because men having access to God is really in effect. It's something that takes place after something else. And this something else fits in with so many other things, so many other illustrations that are given in the Bible regarding God and man's relationship. And that is this, it is always God that initiates the relationship, not the other way around. In other words, what I'm saying here is that the latter supplied a means for God as it were to descend to man rather than man to ascend to God. It was angels who were going up and down heavenly creatures, which shows to me that the communication as it were began with God and not with the man. In other words, it was the latter that brought God to Bethel so that God is here. See, he was not there until he descended. Ok. Now, that's only the first part of it, the second part of it is, is this when God arrives on the scene, you see, when he descends to communicate with man, he makes a difference in events or a person's life because that's what happened to Jacob. Things immediately changed in Jacob's life. Now by what immediately changed in Jacob's life was his attitude toward things. Circumstances did not change yet, they would change. But Jacob left a man fleeing for his life when he got to Bethel, the future changed dramatically because God descended to make contact with him and made a difference. A transformation began to take place in Jacob's life. Now the transformation began there. It did not, it was not completed there. It took many years for it to occur. But it was at Bethel that the transformation began because God reaffirmed in person, the promises that he had made to Abraham and Isaac to Jacob. OK. Then again, you see in chapter 35 Jacob himself changed. So circumstances began to change first and then Jacob himself changed. Ok? Now, this just fits in with the theme of what Bethel meant to Israel and what it meant to Amos and gives understanding to a great deal of Amos five. And that is that Bethel represents reorientation. It was the place where the old life became new and the old man became a new man. Now this is I I want you to get this because this ties in to New Testament teaching. I remember what God went through in the old Testament was something that was literally occurring to a, to a, a human being. In many cases, it W. it physically occurred with us. It might be a, a spiritual change that of course, breaks out or evidences or manifests itself in, in other physical changes. But here we look in the Old Testament and we see the history of a reorientation of a man's life. Now, that's what was taking place in Jacob's life and it began in Bethel, ok? Back to Amos five. Now we are going to jump over verses six and seven and we are going to go to verses eight and nine. Now, every source that I looked into, every reasonably good source, let me put it that, that way. Said that verses eight and nine are a verse or a portion of an old hymn, you know, like you sing in a, in, in a church, a hymn. He made the pleads and the aah, he turns the shadow of death into mourning and he makes the day dark as night. He calls for the waters of the sea and he pours them out on the face of the earth. The Lord is his name. He reigns ruin upon the strong so that fury comes upon the fortress. OK? Now you can see change pleads to or the shadow of death to morning, dark today or day to dark waters. See on the face of the earth ruin to the strong fury to the fortress. We see here a hymn to a transforming God. See a God who changes things now where this hymn came from, nobody knows. But it is speculated, they wonder if, maybe it was not a hymn that was sung at the shrine in Bethel, because here is the shrine that represents transformation. Is it a possibility? Yes, it's only a speculation, a possibility. Ok. Now, what they are saying is this, that when you meet God, it's going to make a difference in your life. Now, if you're thinking, this sounds very similar to modern evangelical Protestant theology, people talk about the difference that meeting Christ made in their life, how it transformed them, see how they were changed from one thing to another. Now, the illustrations that are given pleads and Orion represent the change of seasons, you see which constellation will be at a certain part of the sky. So he's not really changing pleads or, or Orion, God made them and he made them to shift around the heavens because the earth is is rotating on its axis and revolving around the sun. And so the star groups are seen in different parts of the skies, different part of the year. Ok? He turns the shadow of death. It simply means night in this case into, into morning, he, he turns darkness into light. He calls for the waters of the sea. Now, in this case, it means the breaking open of a seawallIt's been breached in a storm or it breaks in or something and the water comes in and it floods the land. So there is a very dramatic change here. So what do we see? We begin to see things taking place. Oh, verse nine is talking about you know, the change of the strong and the fortress fall before the destroyer. So we see four different kinds of transformations that they are loading here and attributing to God. It's God who turns the seasons. So he is responsible for weather patterns. He is responsible for you know, winter and summer and spring and fall. Ok. He makes daily changes, daily transformations, darkness to light. In addition to that, he makes occasional changes even in the in the surface of the earth. As when a shoreline is washed away, a sea wall is breached and what formerly was land becomes sea once again. And then finally, he makes historical changes as well. So they are showing that God is in control and managing things. The historical changes. When the strong become weak now back to verse seven, you who turn justice to wormwood and lay righteousness to rest in the earth and then jump down to verses 10 through 12. They hate the one who rebukes in the gate and they abhor the one who speaks up rightly. Therefore, because you tread down the poor and take grain taxes from Him though, you have built houses of hewn stone yet you shall not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine for them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins. You afflict the just and take bribes. You divert the poor from justice at the gate. Amos is excoriating these people who come to Bethel in order to be changed, but they leave the place totally unaltered. And now let's begin to feed that into the Feast of Tabernacles. If we are using a place that we make a pilgrimage to, does the Feast of Tabernacles change us? Does it alter our life? Do we go there to seek God or do we go there? Like these people were going to this shrine and it did not change their lives. You see what we are dealing dealing with here is the people who are religious, but they are also willful and they refused to be transformed from their lawlessness. OK? Now what good is a religion that leaves your life unt transformed, untouched, unchanged. They go and they sing and they enjoy the fellowship but nothing changes. Justice is perverted. Verses seven and 12 and righteousness is overthrown. OK. Now, let's look at that, at least just briefly from a New Testament per perspective, go back with me to Second Corinthians five, second Corinthians five. And in verse 17, let's look at one verse in this regard. This particular paragraph happens to be about reconciliation. To God would not one expect transformation where reconciliation with God took place. Verse 15, he died for all that, those who live should no longer live to themselves, self centeredness. But for Him, for God who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh. Yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. What what is conversion? Conversion is changed? Conversion is transformation. It's from the old man to the new man. Now, ostensibly, these people in Amos's day were going to bethel to be converted to change. They were going there to meet God, they were going there to be reconciled to God. They were supposedly going there to give their lives to God. They worked, giving their lives to God. They went there and they sang the hymns and they enjoyed the fellowship, but nothing changed in their relationship to God as was manifest in their lives because they went back and the unrighteousness continued. The perversion of justice continued. We'll get to the perversion of justice in a bit because I think you'll find it's very interesting. It might not be what you think it is. So if that occurs, we are saying with our life, not with our mouth, but with our life that a relationship with God really doesn't make a difference that God shows us that when he comes on the scene in a person's life, things change. Ok. Now what kind of changes will take place? Well, it would seem to me that the very first change that ought to be evident is that the change person will love God's law because that's what he's been breaking. That's what necessitates the reconciliation. And so that, that to me would be the first manifestation that the person really had encountered God at the shrine and that he was becoming a changed person. But we can see in verses seven and 12, that they resented justice in the courts. You see in the gates that they did not want either honest judges or honest witnesses as verse 10 shows they hate the one who rebukes at the gate. That's the honest justice judge. They abhor the one who speaks up rightly, that's the witness who tells the truth. But the major issue here is not social justice. That's what the world tends to think. It is an issue, but that's merely the fruit or the effect. You see what God was after was that these people would allow their lives to be governed by truth if they would, everything else would change. But that's what they would not permit. You see that they would go to Bethel and they would have a good time. I am sure that they enjoyed some sort of a religious experience while they were there, but they came away unchanged. Because they were unwilling to let the truth of God rule dominate in their lives. So that was, that was the real problem. That was the heart and core of it. If they had gotten to the heart, heart and core, then social justice inside the nation would have changed, there would have been righteousness on the streets and justice in the courts. And so what Amos is saying to these people back here that God is not just a God to be admired. These people really had no relationship with him even though they thought they did. That's the frightening part of it. We're back to chapter five again in verse 11. Therefore, because you tread down the poor and take grain taxes from Him though, you have built houses of hewn stone, yet you shall not dwell on them. You have planted pleasant vineyards but you shall not drink wine from them. OK? Just remember we are going to come to five things that he's addressing here. The first one is that they really did not have a relationship with God. The second one that he is jumping on here is their relationship with other people. Now again, the word poor, it means one who is without resources. It doesn't necessarily mean destitute. It just simply in modern terminology means the little man. It means somebody who has nothing with which to fight back. They could not resist the rich because they had all the power on their side. They could get the, the high powered lawyers and they could bribe the, they could bribe the judges, they had everything going in their way. And so the poor, the little man, the little farmer who had a couple of acres of ground and a couple of cattle and a few sheep, those kind of people could be treated with impunity. Now, this tax or this tribute tribute is actually a better word than the word tax because it implies something that is imposed on someonein two ways, it can be both legal and it can be very, very unfair. It's kind of like AAA two edged sword. Oh, it's not easily seen here. But what we are talking about, what Amos is talking about here was an early form of what we call today, a protection racket where a fee attacks a little bit of tribute. You pay to the ward boss, you're protected. But what made it worse was that the word bosses had made it legal? I mean, that's how bad things had gotten that they could legally impose tribute on the sharecroppers. We'll see more about that just a little bit more about that later where it had actually gotten to the place where the wealthy had taken over the land through this tax that the farmer was unable to pay anymore. And so the farmer then ended up paying uh working on his what used to be his own land, but now be belonged to somebody else that was taken away from him by means of this tribute and through unfair judgments in the courts, you can see that beginning to happen in the United States. It's, it's advanced pretty far where the small farmer is about gone. And yet he lives out there in many cases, farming land that once owned he owned and now he no longer owns it's owned by some big corporation, you know, standard oil owns his land or some big company in, in Japan or Arabia has brought it up. Ok, what he is showing here is that those who had the power, we are looking upon the little people as someone to be milked. That was the principle of their life to get as much out of these people as they possibly could. And yet as Amos is showing that these, these are the very people who are making the pilgrimage Tito, they would go there, but there was no transformation in their life. Now turn with me back. Well, we do not have to go there, Luke 22 and verse 27 where Jason shows that service is to be the criterion of those who are in authority. And now the third area that he attacks is that they came and went to and from Bethel. But when they left, they left bearing the same grudges and resentments and bitterness that they had when they arrived and outwardly they sent. And that was very evident to Amos. But inwardly, their rebellion was against God. You see there was rebellion in their heart. David talks about this in, in Psalm 55 about the man whose words were smooth as oil but inside his heart was seething with rebellion. Ok? Now how can there be assurance of forgiveness and a good relationship with God thereby if there is rebellion, resentment, bitterness, boiling away in, in a person's heart? Well, Amos is saying that that's impossible. You cannot have God's approval whenever man is being mistreated. That is you are the one doing the mistreating. OK. Now look at verse 12 for I know your manifold transgressions. You see, they are not being hid from God. He can read the mind. He looks on the heart and your mighty sins is an indication of rebellion. It's not just a matter of somebody stealing a little bit of money, but there is rebellion seething in the heart. You afflict the just and take bribes. You divert the poor from justice at the gate. You know, what were these people doing? Well, what they were doing was this maybe I better explain their judicial system because it's kind of interesting. It's different from ours. You know, you always see mentioned in the Bible about people sitting in the in the gate because that's where the where the place of judgment was. Well, the way they normally built their cities, of course, there was a living area and it was surrounded by a wall, a living in business area is surrounded by a wall. And depending of course, on the size of the city, we will just take here a small town. There would be one major gate in, there might be a couple of gates, but there would be one major one. And at that gate, they would bid build right into the wall as a part of the wall, what we would call today, a courthouse instead of having it in the center of the village as it might be in modern fairly modern America. It would be right at the gate where people would go in and out all the time. And so access to the courts was always very handy because practically on any given day, the whole population of the city was going in and out. Now that was important to the process of justice because they did not employ lawyers in the same way that we do. In most cases, a man went before the elders of the city and he defended himself. He was his own lawyer and he stood up and gave testimony regarding the case that he had for himself or against another person. Now, here is where their system really differed up to. Now, it sounds reasonably similar and that is that the cases were heard publicly and that anybody was free to testify at any given time. You did not have to be subpoenaed. You just came. If you were interested you happened to be sitting there and you were free to testify at any given time. All you had to do was stand up and to speak your peace. Now, also, the judgment was made generally by what we would call the judge or the elder. But again, the people were free to give their opinion as to the guilt or innocence. You see it was done openly out in the public. Ok. Now, that had a great deal of impact on the kind of things that he is talking about here. What was happening was this? We'll see this a little bit more later that because righteousness was declining, justice was disappearing. Justice is the child of righteousness. There has to be righteousness before there can be justice. Now, as righteousness declined, justice also declined with it. Why? Because people began to side with others, not because of truth, the not because of truthfulness or faithfulness, not because of innocence or integrity or of character, but because of what the person they were testifying before or for had and what they were prepared to give for the testimony. See, because the court system was so open bribery became very easy. So what were they doing? And you see the judges were included in this as well, the elders of the city, they were weighing the value of the bribe, but they were not weighing the moral value of the individual or his testimony. So what Amos is saying? Look, you people are going to bethel but you're not being transformed there. You're not being changed in any major area of life. And look what's happening to the, to the social justice system here. As a result, you see these people were giving up intangible moral value. You see, moral worth cannot easily be measured because it is something that may not produce something tangible for a long period of time, but produce it will. And so they were giving up on intangible things, things that could not be necessarily measured. They were giving up on truth, they were giving up on honest testimony, they were giving up on integrity and morality in favor of the very tangible monetary value of the person or his bribe. Now you contrast with that, that with a person who has really been in contact with God. God has descended and touched this person's life and he has made a difference. That person is going to be acutely interested in morals, integrity, honesty, truth, character, these people were not being changed. And so what Amos is showing here is that the whole social order, he is just using the justice system as an example as evidence, but the whole social order was being threatened because very few, we might even go far so far as to say nobody wanted to do righteous righteousness. And I look at verse 13, therefore, the prudent keep silent at that time for it is an evil time as anybody who wanted to do. Righteousness was fearful of opening up their mouth to protest because it's very likely that they would be the ones who would end up in jail. I think that you can agree that we are moving in that direction. Ok. Back to verse six, here is the overall instruction. Seek the Lord and live. Now, when the Bible says, seek me or seek the Lord, it is in reality saying seek my way of life because these people were going to bethel to seek God. But they were not seeking his way of life. They were not seeking transformation of their lives. They were only seeking an experience, emotional, mentally stimulating something that they could be admired for in the nice society of the day. But they were not seeking a change of life. And what it amounted to was that the priests in that location were offering these people nothing more than a cheap grace. Yeah, come to Jesus and have your sins forgiven without really pointing out to the people. What God was going to require of them as a result of that reconciliation. And so when it says, seek what it really means is turn to, it doesn't mean look for, it means turn to turn to God and live, live has two connotations has to do with quality and quantity, quality of life. So what were these people doing? They were playing religious games with God. That's all that I'm on it to. They're going to camp meetings had a rip roaring time come away, feeling good but unchanged. And so God says in verse six, again, lest he break out like a fire. Fire is used in the Bible as the ultimate of divine rejection. Malachi four and the, the un unjust are going to be burned by the fire and they are going to be ashes under the feet of the righteous fire is a symbol of purification. Lest the fire break out in Joseph. See Joseph be purified and devour it. So OK, we will stop right there and we will pick up the next time right there in the middle of verse six.
JWR/aws/
Sermon Topics
The Gospel
