Published: June 23, 2024 | Speaker: Tim Freitag | Series: Amos - Daily Rising Early and Sending the Prophets - Part 8 | Scripture: Amos 3:1-15
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amen all right um apologize my throat is not 100% today so there may be a
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few few small breaks here unless there are any lingering questions out of Amos chapter 2 I'm going to press on into Amos chapter 3 um a word as we begin
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here again I've read many opinions and and many thoughts on where amos's uh breaks are and we understand from the context and the the scripture that we have that this message would have been
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delivered verbally as he went in Israel and and preached effectively delivered the message and that he wrote it down either at the time that he was preaching or
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afterwards more likely he he compiled them afterwards it's unclear exactly how often or where the breaks were U many are of the opinion that he must have
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repeated various messages over and over again they weren't Gathering 50,000 people in a stadium to hear Amos the Prophet The Shepherd from tcoa um so
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that may be the case I don't know that I have an answer for you in that regard other than to say as we look at this section I do think you can take starting at
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chapter 3 through the end of chapter 6 as a thought as a paradigm that moves through here whether that was delivered in one message or not I think that's
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probably less likely more likely that he had a multip several messages here that that all hung together around a central theme but that theme is this as we look at 31 um chapter 4 ver1 chapter 5 ver1
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all begin with some version of listen to this word or hear this word it is opening a section of instruction so if you cast your mind back to um the the
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sort of overall outline that we gave of the book this section sort of hangs as that instructional Paradigm as we move through the the template there and and look at this overall layout here so
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chapter 3 ver one is going to open with hear or hear this word um there are just a couple of oddities in the Hebrew here which we may talk about today but not so much that I felt necessary to deviate from your
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English translations in any particular so I'm going to read out of my new American Standard Version the only substitution I've made is to use the the word Yahweh instead of the Lord because
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I think that is how it would have been uh preached and heard by his hearers so uh I'm going to read Amos chapter 3 in your hearing this morning hear this word which Yahweh has
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spoken against you sons of Israel against the entire family which he brought up from the land of Egypt only you have I chosen from among all the families of the earth therefore I
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will punish you for all your iniquities do two men walk together unless they have agreed to meet does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey does a young lion growl from his
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den unless he is capturing something does a bird fall into a trap on the ground when there is no bait in it does a trap spring up from the earth when it captures nothing at all if a trumpet is
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blown in a City will not the people tremble if a Calamity occurs in the city has not the Lord sorry has not Yahweh done it surely Lord Yahweh does nothing
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unless he Reveals His secret counsel to his servants the prophets a lion has roared who will not fear Lord Yahweh has spoken who can but
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prophesy Proclaim on the citadels in ashdod and on the citadels in the land of Egypt and say assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria and see the great tumults within her and the
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oppression in her midst but they do not know how to do what is right declares Yahweh those who hoard up or store up violence and Devastation in their
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citadels therefore says the Lord Yahweh an enemy even one surrounding the land will pull down your strength from you and your citadels will be looted thus says Yahweh just as the
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shepherd snatches from the lion's mouth a couple of legs or or a piece of an ear so will the sons of Israel dwelling in Samaria be snatched away with the corner of a bed and the cover of a couch or
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hear and testify against the house of Jacob declares Lord Yahweh the god of hosts for on the day that I punish Israel's transgressions I will also tear down the altars of bethl and the horns
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of the altar will be cut off and they will fall to the ground I will also Smite to the winter house together with the summer house and the houses of ivory will perish and the great houses will come to an end declares
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Yahweh so um begins this section um hear this word listen to this word which Yahweh has uh spoken against you it
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opens this section of instruction it it it illustrates a sort of um there's almost a courtroom Tableau here of Yahweh calling Witnesses against them presenting his view of the matter or of
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the case against them um one of the commentators went so far as to call this General category of of Prophecy uh covenantal lawsuit um the idea that he is calling them to the
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terms of the agreement that they have made and and witnessing against them what they have violated um as we look at verse um verse um one he the message comes to them through
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Amos and he sums them up this way the entire Clan or the entire family out of all the Earth um that word family there is the same word that's used in various places for the family but here he's
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summing them up he's calling them saying you know this message is being preached in Israel but I'm talking to the whole family the entire clan that God brought up out of Egypt the summation of you all
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message preached in Israel yes but it it concerns all the tribes um God underscores the connection that they still have with one another if you cast your mind over the the messages that we
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have heard the the reading out of Judges um I think it's particularly underscored in judges but frankly you see it over and over again in Kings and Chronicles the number of times that something comes up and there like well they're not our
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tribe you know we don't care about them they're on the other side of the river and God's summing them up he says this family this group this clan I called you
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all up out of Egypt I have put my concern on you and only you as a group um literally that that um beginning there the the emphasis is um
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in in chapter or in verse two it's it's really only you um says you you only or you alone in some of your verses but it's the emphasis in the structure is
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very much on the singularity of that um that he has called them he has um he has drawn them out and um some of your
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verses may say chosen there if you have an older version particularly if you're a King James or New King James it probably says known um that is the same word that you have in various places in
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your uh Bibles particularly most people think of it in the uh sort of veiled sexual sense that it sometimes has that he knew his wife it's the exact same word it is the idea of intense intimacy
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but it's not sexual here it's simply that idea of you alone have I known in this way have I have I acknowledged in this way that I have entered into this
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kind of relationship with you um there is a double meaning here however for National Israel as we talk about the context that it comes in the Israel that is here as a nation at this time which
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is to say National Israel at this time was made up of 10 out of the 12 tribes they had the greatest number of tribes and they had the larger preponderance of the population as a whole um if you read
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through the the Kings and the Chronicles and we won't have time to do that in relation to this this morning but there is absolutely a pride that they have in their Heritage in their their grouping
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of tribes and the greatness of their population and their strength Israel is very proud of its Heritage and proud of its numbers and God is conceding this to them here in
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verse two this sort of um here I have chosen you you alone have I known or chosen out of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you it it almost
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goes back to the idea of the um you know we have Abraham as our father it's like well yeah you are special but not that special there's the sense in which this this specialness condemns them because
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he calls them out here and says you alone have I known out of all the families of the earth therefore because you have the specialness because you have this relationship it's not enough
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to preserve you it is enough to condemn you um we've talked about this out of chapter 2 the idea that that frankly Israel has this tendency and you'll see it again in later prophets they have a
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tendency to go oh well we have Yahweh we have the temple we have the whatever that'll keep us safe and God is reminding them again and again through the prophets what you're actually supposed to be doing is walking
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uprightly and if you are not walking uprightly according to the Commandments of God you are not safe no matter what no matter what thing you hold up here unless it is obedience to the law of God
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so it's not in spite of it's a therefore it's not despite the fact that you alone have I known it's because I have known you alone therefore I'm going to punish you therefore I'm going to correct the
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action here there's an element of the um one of them put it this way that that what Israel was called to do or what Israel was supposed to be doing is to be
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a witness before the Nations to be walking uprightly to be that uh symbol of carrying God's name effectively the the witness that way those who are called by yahweh's name behave in a
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certain way and it's because they're not behaving that way that he must punish them he must Stamp Out the evilness or his name remains associated with their ills with their evils um there is a a
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you know it's hard sometimes and and maybe it's the right way around to look at it in context it's not there per se but we stand in the light of the new test and we have the doctrine of election there is an element of election
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here that you alone have I known you alone have I upheld it's an election to privilege yes it's an election to have that relationship that knowledge of of God but it's also an election to
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responsibility that you have been called and and God has put his name on you Yahweh has Associated his name with Israel with this clan with this tribe you have a responsibility privilege in
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God's sight brings great responsibility you can of course um go look at at Luke um 12 to whom much is given much is required of course is is the um sort of
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become an aphorism but it is no nonetheless true Israel is supposed to carry this witness of God's name and yet it is behaving so incredibly wickedly as he has said previously and he's going to
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detail for them again here this this evil has to be um Stamped Out so that's um one and two and then in
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three it's it's not set off in your text n to I think it should be set off but you can see it in the pattern here 3 through 8 almost form a subsection you start in three four five and six all
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have this um rhetorical question what's it questions um all of them are provoking a negative answer so he says
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do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet um this is one of those places it gets a little bit disputed um there's the sort of traditional rendering is something along the lines
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of do two walk together unless they are agreed um there is actually the same word used here that is used in Exodus and in Deuteronomy when God meets with his people it has a a a an element
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of it's not quite covenanting but it's more than just oh I have a haircut I have an appointment that I have to meet it's really the we've made terms to come together and either fellowship or
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commune or or have something out so do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet um the answer is of course no does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey or a young lion roar
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from his den unless he has captured something or is about to capture something um the answer is no the lion is roaring because he is he is chasing or he is pursuing and hunting down his
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prey does a bird fall into a trap on the ground when there's no bait in it um or does a trap spring up from the earth it's very very much the idea of uh you know sort of Woodland hunting trapping
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things the trap's going to go off when something comes into it unless you built it very badly um the idea there is that that it's not for nothing um and so that
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all of these provoke this sort of negative response there is a large obvious sense here um well sorry I I'll do seven and eight while we talk about it so 3 four five six all sort of have
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these questions some have posited that seven should set off on its own as Pros um particularly some of the Hebrew Scholars feel like this is Pros many of the more liberals suggest that this is
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some sort of editorial interpretation I don't see why that's necessary he says surely Lord Yahweh does nothing unless he Reveals His secret counsel to his servants the prophets a lion has roared
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who will not fear the lord Yahweh has spoken who can but prophesy so 3 through eight hangs together as a little subsection here and the large obvious sense is everything in
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human Affairs ha and nature has a cause and effect something happens because something else started this road right there is a a trap Springs up because
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there's prey in it the lion is roaring because he's hunting something down there's cause and effect so you have this larger picture here of Prophecy is a consequence of the Lord's
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action but it's not quite reduced to that so Amos is not reductive in this sense there are other portions here each of these questions does
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provoke a negative answer or negative response interestingly I only saw one of the commentators pull out this particular thread which was except that first one about meeting all of these
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regard fear or entrapment every one of these is about a a population in fear uh prey in fear of its life something being hunted captured
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trapped the comment there was um prophecy is scary and it traps the prophet effectively in some kind of a
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um I personally think so I was interested to see that a number of the commentators and Hebrew Scholars said there's no hint of that in this verse it's not particularly mysterious in the way the Hebrew is written is not a lot of it's it's literally talking
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about lions roaring and we've talked about lions roaring we're about to talk about snatching remnants out of lions mouths I do think it's it's the picture of um and and we're going to come here
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one of the things that that's happening here is in this case as a a lion is roaring what he's getting at with these rhetorical questions is God's not going to offer judgment on a nation unless
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that Nation is ripe for judgment God's not roaring to no purpose um he's not going to offer judgment if he's not holding this this nation ripe for for judgment in front of
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him he holds that nation in his power um one of the scholars went into detail about the the lion roaring here and suggested that the sense should really be more it's not so much as that he's
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mid hunt it's literally he's about to bite it it's in his power he's he's basically got it between his paws that that god holds the nation in his
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power it is inescapable similarly to the the to the traps you'll read about the bird life here in trapping them um so it's it's trapped um it is it is not
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able to move away and that goes back to what we have just read in in Chapter 2 doesn't it the immobility of the various Paragons of the military force can't escape they can't Flee for their life
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they will not get out he he comes back here with this entrapment and it is very much the idea that the nation is is um is in God's power and cannot
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Escape may have already said this but it begins with that agreement aspect of it though and it is of interest to me that you're bringing this out and I
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appreciate this it's of interest to me that that entament language follows directly on the heels of you chose this I think back to the the scene at the
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mountain where they say all that Yahweh has spoken we will do yeah and and Moses said okay you're a witness against yourselves that you have agreed to this yeah no and I and I appreciate that you
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bringing that out because I think that's absolutely why that Clause is at the head of these following pieces of of sort of fear and entrapment is uh and I think the the term that that
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somebody used of the sort of covenantal lawsuit is is fair enough because he's saying you signed the papers you agreed to the terms of this Covenant this is the punishment Clause of the Covenant
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because you're violating the terms of our agreement you are under and and we've we've already gone over it once you can you can look at the the blessings of now I'm going to get them backwards ebal and gazim and I never
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remember which is which e is the C okay so the blessings of of gazim and the curses of Mount ebal um that he he offers on the one hand obedience will be blessed and and Disobedience will be
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cursed and um we saw it again in in Daniel as Daniel sort of opens his initial prayer for the people he says you know you know I pray for these people but I also
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acknowledge that all that has come upon us is the curse that was pronounced on us when we covenanted with God so um if you look here
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the four or sorry five and six are particularly speaking of traps snares um like catching animals in the woods to eat them and the the two
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previous verses are talking about a lion having captured his prey are you asking what I'm talking about entrapment in terms of God's relationship with
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Israel set up false so not entrapment in the in the way we use it in in legal sense now they have been captured maybe is the word I should use they have been trapped not entrapment in the sense that they have been falsely L on one of the
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things I I thought was helpful out of the commentator was this which is to say you've been trapped would you have can you have been captured or overtaken by destruction unless your sins have drawn
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you into it basically there's a there is a trap here of the enticements of sin there is a trap here of the worshiping Gods like the Nations around you there is a trap of the the love of power and
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of wealth and of all of these things that were indicting them for being greedy after and you've gone right for that and now you are in the power of God to be destroyed because you went the the
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destruction has overtaken you because your sin has drawn you into this
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someone's do correct I mean right you're still guilty but you're using that as your legal defense in today's society
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it's so make they are guilty of it and and I I appreciate your point because I don't I don't want it to be misunderstood in the modern sense of of God tempted them into this that God set them up for this it's absolutely and and
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you can go down the line and I wish I had time to to walk us through all of them but you can go reflect back to Deuteronomy he says you're going to go into this land and you're going to be surrounded by nations with other gods
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don't go after those gods and here they are going after those Gods that's that's what's coming down on them and you can see that line consistently through so it's it's not that God has set them up
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or or that God made me do it by tempting me into it the Lord is testing me no you walked right into the jaws of the lion
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you yeah right that they're trying to to trap others and they fall into their own pits and their own destruction sorry did I cut off your thought um so yes it is um there is that idea of of there's a snare there's destruction
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lying in weight and you've blundered right into it instead of avoiding it um yeah know what
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right absolutely set yourself up yeah absolutely and and we're gonna we're going to get there here um and I think it's it's significant when we read in just a little bit later in the chapter
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here in chapter 10 he says they don't know how to do what's right doesn't mean they don't know what's right he's saying they are so corrupted they are so perverse
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that their every instinct is to wickedness and yet this is the nation that God has known this is the nation that he has has walked with this is the nation that he has
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um has covenanted together with and so I we have to pick a section I wish we could go three through the end of six and look at all of the details here and as we move on to the other chapters we
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will so don't misunderstand three standing by itself to mean don't forget all the stuff we've talked about in one and two so far they are guilty of their own crimes they have committed these
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sins they are grinding these people and we're going to move on in a couple of verses here but there is this um destruction coming upon them that they have they have trapped themselves
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they've they've wandered into the snare and and snared themselves just remember that what what God told Cain send prows for you that is
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crouching at your door eager to devour you yeah right so you must be on guard against it and and again it's we are a couple of hundred years
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into the divided Kingdom at this point I think um the they have had the instruction of Moses for years
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they have had the priesthood they have had bad kings and they have had righteous Kings they have had David and Solomon they have all of this collected
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instruction this is not like Amos is the only word that these people are going to get Amos is coming to them in the in the context of all that has preceded it in fact he's just said in Chapter 2 don't
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forget you told those prophets to shut up and you perverted those who were witnessed before you in the nazares you had instruction in what was right and you closed it
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off and so I think that's that that 3 verse one the sort of I brought you up and then verse two you alone have I known therefore that's a summation of
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all of that that we've talked about I have known you I have covenanted with you I have been your God you shouldn't be in this place and yet here you are that's the that's the sort
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of is it reference to the word I it's like's jusy what the punishment
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Josiah no reason yeah is it contr worship Gods around them would that be contr to those Gods the
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of it is I think that's a fair point because they are they are chasing these idols and there is an element of the sort of um capriciousness or unpredictability of these other things that they're involved with what occurs to me honestly though is is almost the
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inverse of inverse of the it's astonishing to me the number of times that you can read the nation of Israel be terrible and then be really surprised when they
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get pun for it um you know this burden is too hard me to be I me you look at killed his brother God doesn't kill Cain he Exiles him this is too much for me to bear I'm sorry what about your brother I
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mean it's that kind of a it is absolutely that that you can have no complaint here and I appreciate that because I think there is there is the contrast and and we're going to see that
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more as we move forward he does that a little more um contrasts the way God is dealing with them with the idols that they've gone after but it's really the contrast between the foolishness of man
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and the consistency of God sticking to the Covenant that he's had we've already seen that in one and two that the punishment that he's bringing to him the word that he's he's delivering is to say this is happening and I warned you
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ahead of time that it was going to happen that this was going to happen if you walked this way so seven and eight are are kind of the day Numa the conclusion or the the outworking of of 3
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through6 which is to say God is not going to destroy you God's going to do nothing unless he first communicates his will his will his intention the lion has roared and I do
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think absolutely that that that eight is a lion has roared is is a reference back to chapter one God roaring out of the citadels who will not fear Lord Yahweh
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has spoken who can but prophesy um this is a point I want to want to draw out though in a a larger format before we run out of time in chapter 3 is entailed in this little section
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here this seven and eight that follows on this um fear and and and being trapped is God communicates to his people there is an element here and and this goes to one of the questions Abe
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asked in a week or two weeks before of the is where is the element of repent and believe in the message where is the the the hope for Israel and I do think that there is an element of Hope and I
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was reflecting on this as I was working through chapter 3 it kept being reminded of Jonah um and I wish we could go through all of Jonah this morning but you remember the the outlines of it which is that Jonah is told by God to go
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and to prophesy against Nineveh and he says nope I'm out of here and then of course you have the incident with the fish and I find it very curious that after he's on dry land it just says very matter of factly the word of the Lord
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came again to Jonah and said go to Nineveh and prophesy against it and he went and um what's interesting here a lot of the the
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commentators made a lot of effort out of 3 through S talking about Amos defending his authority as a prophet I don't see
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that as much as I see what he's trying to bring to them is the duty of a prophet that I can't be quiet I can't shut up the lion has roared I have to
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prophesy there is the Compassionate Heart of God and the thing that you get out of the the story with with Jonah one of the elements there is the prophet doesn't get to choose who's worthy of
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hearing the warning of the Lord because there's an element in Jonah if you look at it at the end and we're not really given an interesting or a satisfying conclusion in Jonah it kind of stops
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abruptly Jonah goes and he preaches against them and they all repent the whole city and then Jonah's mad and he basically says well this is what I said would happen Jonah is effectively outraged
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that God was willing to forgive that people and what Amos I think is doing in contrast here is saying I've been sent to you with thus says the Lord the judgment is coming but
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God is communicating with you right now hear it repent and believe turn aside now we don't know exactly where Jonah landed but as far as we know it's maybe
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10 years before or after Amos right in this era so there is that element of it you can see that that Nineveh was forgiven despite its
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sin God could still theoretically repent of Israel relent of the destruction that he has given but their hearts are going to remain
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hard yes in the category of of prophets that follow after Yahweh because we know for a fact from the the general dates that have that Hosea is roughly contemporary
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with Amos we're not really given any intercommunication between them but I have to imagine they were aware of each other we know that Amos is talking to has already said you shut up the prophets that were sent to you we're not
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told all of those folks there is a number of incidences in Scripture that hint at and we're going to get there eventually and talk about prophets versus prophets versus prophets because there's at least three categories of
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prophets that we find in scripture in various ways but what Amos is getting at is whether it's me or the prophets you told to shut up or you go back to say Samuel or even Moses who was a prophet
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you've had the prophets God doesn't do these things God doesn't move without forewarning his people communicating with his people so that's what I the the
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real element in here is that that God communicates to his people God has a compassionate heart he chooses the messenger but the messenger doesn't get to choose who's worthy or unworthy of hearing the warning of God and I think
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that's the the critical thing out of Jonah is Jonah wanted to be the one who got to decide whether or not Nineveh had a chance to repent and God said no I've sent you with a message you deliver the
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message that's your job and and in a sense that's what Amos is doing here and we're going to see it again in seven when he gets um sort of abused for bringing this message and they say go back home and he basically says I was
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happy at home you think I want to be up here prophesying to you morons it's not quite how it's worded but we'll get there um so the the prophet doesn't get to
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choose who's worthy of hearing who can but prophesy there is I think that um that one commentator who pointed out the prophet is effectively trapped into this
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that he has to go he has to prophesy he can't say I don't prophesy you can obviously look at the the incident with Jonah Jonah got turned into the messenger
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whether he wanted to be that messenger or not I mean you can run the gamut as you reflect over the the the prophets various um Jonah of course is the is the rebellious one trying not to be a
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prophet you have the opposite side of of Isaiah of course in Isaiah 6 saying here I am send me when he says who shall we send to them Amos is kind of in the middle of that of the I would have been
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happy at home tending my sheep clipping my figs life was okay I was working hard but I have to prophesy who can but prophesy it's the duty of the Prophet that he's highlighting here so for us
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living here and now of course God has spoken through the prophets we must listen to the word that they have delivered but we also live in an era in which he has spoken fully and finally through his son as we read in in Hebrews
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the revelation of of scripture for us is final and is closed we're not looking for prophets or to to hear a new word and yet the Declarations that we must heed are from the word are from the
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scripture those declarations are are here and for us God still communicates to his people through the word that he has Grant
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do so the prophets are tell correct so I want to hold that question if I can because I think the place to talk about
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it is when we get to chapter 7 and he has to defend his ministry as a prophet because there's a there's a big question here and I hope we get to it in this session which
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session which is what is prophecy now because there are a number of people and and a lot of folks in the reformed circles that would say the office of the Elder who stands
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up to preach is that of prophet delivering the word of God to the people communicating to the people on behalf of God that's a big question that we need
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to dive into in its own contained element because one of the things you'll see here is it talked several times about the prophets as being those who received the word of God through the
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Holy Spirit the spirit Came Upon them and you see this you look at David and and Saul and those things the spirit Came Upon them and they prophesied we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
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there's a whole bunch of stuff there that I don't think we can do in 10 minutes so if we can hold that particular question for chapter 7 this might relate too much to that but as talking about the ministry of the
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Prophet Put Me In Mind of Paul in second
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enely yeah I guess is what I'm saying is usted to us as well yeah um I appreciate that and and
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there are there's a lot to be said about that and I've I've debated where to put it into the the session because there is that question that question of revelation of God and understanding
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um and I don't think you're wrong in the sense that having the indwelling of the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit we dig deeper into the mysteries of God the secret things of God than most of
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the prophets were given we we're told and and I'm blanking on the specific reference of basically you know we have what has been revealed to us is things that the angels and the prophets long to look into right that they they sought
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diligently to understand these things because they stood on that side of the light and we stand on the this side of the light so there's a change in that but there is
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still what I'm going to say for today so we can kind of pick up the next couple of verses and we might not finish three is there is the the bottom line out of this is God communicates through his to
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his people through the word now and everything he intends for us to know concerning life and godliness is here so that's the gist of the closing
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of the Canon right that we're not looking for a prophet we're not looking for someone else to bring those things yet the economy of of the ecclesiology
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the church is there in the sense that there are those who are apt to teach the word to others so we'll get into that more as we go forward but I I think you've got the right idea um I'm going
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to move forward and try to do a couple here because I don't I don't want to Short Change Amos but I also don't want to spin our wheels too much as we move forward in verse 9
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UM verse 9 we see the Proclaim on the citadels the an Asad and the citadels of Egypt and say assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria see the great tumults and oppressions he's calling the
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witnesses um he's he's effectively calling saying you know these these outside Nations to whom you were supposed to witness I'm calling them to see your destruction to witness your
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wickedness your wickedness your evil this word here tumults as it's translated in mind probably in most of yours uh some of yours may say disturbance is caused by the Lord um he
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says in in verse six if Calamity occurs in the city or it's maybe more correctly rendered Town um if if Calamity occurs is it not the Lord's or is it not yahweh's doing um and then he says here
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see see these great tumults and the oppression in her midst you'll see this word uh this particular formulation of the word happens about 12 times in the Old Testament and 10 of those 12 times are God against enemies or God against
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Israel it is the the hand the working of God these tumults are riots in their midst um and then the the oppressed or opposed in her midst uh again a place that I was
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a little bit baffled by some of the commentators and I guess you have to fill out a book about Amos so it has so many pages so you can publish um we're discussing this um well well who's doing
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the oppressing of those in her midst and it's it's fairly evident from the context that they're being oppressed by their fellow Israelites I don't I don't know that we need to obfuscate this there's no outside oppressor here he's
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calling Israel and ashod to witness the way they're oppressing their own people um they don't know how to do what is right those who store up violence and robbery um this is the the place and and
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uh I learned a new word which is
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means turns out you can do this with three letters so there's a giant word for that if you want it um there's a bit here that's happening
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with um one of the questions that that sort of gets discussed and maybe some of you have wondered or had occasion to wonder why ashdod which is a major city in in Phil philistia and Egypt because
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here to for Egypt has not been one of the countries around here that he's talked about the only real reference to Egypt is bringing the Israelites up out of it so why is he calling Egypt and why is he calling philistia to witness against them what's what's that about
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best I can tell this is the best explanation I have seen in it is ashdod in the Hebrew and I'm not going to put up the Hebrew here for you but
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when it says they store up violence the violence is showed and then the uh Egypt in the Hebrew is of course
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mitz ryam you all know that
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right um the stored up things the um yeah the storing up here is I'm going to do this wrong basically in the Hebrew he's
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saying I'm calling um this word to witness your violence I'm calling this word to witness your storing up of of ill gotten gains it's
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basically py in the Hebrew as you go through here they don't quite rhyme but they definitely catch your ear as you're reading through here of the sort of they are surrounding Asians they have a connection here but as best I can tell
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the reason these two out of all the nations we could have picked is because it sounds good in the Hebrew it kind of It kind of strikes a little bit of a pun for you um so but the point here is is all of these here that have have done
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these things who hoard up violence and Devastation or or literally store up um it's the idea of of the warehouses the the storage facilities of the of the wealthy class of the powerful they're
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filled with violence and ill-gotten gains they're not filled with wholesomeness and and beneficent and and good for the people they're they're they're just chalk full of Oppression
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that they have have beaten out of the people effectively um and so as he looks at these things and unfortunately we're out of time we'll try to finish this last bit next week but he's he's calling
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a witness against them surrounding Nations to witness again this is not for no reason they have covenanted as we've already read in verse three with God to to follow these
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things they have fallen into the Trap and now he's saying okay you Witnesses come and observe just how full they are of Oppression that they are just brimming with wickedness to one another
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oppressing their own people um well I I'll take us just a couple of minutes to do these here unless there's particular questions as he goes through here um says the Lord uh an enemy once
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surrounding the land will pull down your strength your citadels will be looted thus says the Lord uh as a Shepherd snatches from the lion's mouth so he's he's sort of getting an aspect here and again the Lord picks the messenger um
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Amos was probably familiar with having to fight off lions and defending A Flock he's basically Bally saying you know those scraps that get saved out of the destruction because we know the 10
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tribes are there there's going to be a remnant of them that survives in Judah he's saying this just bloodied insignificant scraps that are going to be left so yeah some of you are going to
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make it but it's effectively pulling the the bits out of the lion's mouth after it's all over um it's not preserving the life of the animal um the he comes down here there's
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another hopax lomon for you another one incident of a word in the entire Cannon of scripture here this sort of corner of a bed and cover of a couch is a little bit disputed what that's supposed to
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mean uh basically it's it it relates to the sort of indolence of the wealthy class laying around in bed all day and they're going to get snatched right out of that comfortable bed with the covers
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and the corners of the mattress and everything I mean the bit's just going to take them right out of there like Jaws style is is what we're getting out of this um so that's that's the gist I mean there's
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a lot of dis there's a lot of discussion over what those words are specifically supposed to mean the corner of a bed cover of a couch it's all kind of it basically means you're you're taking your Ease on your nice comfortable furniture and you're going to get
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snatched right out of it um the other punny part of this as we go down here here and testify against the house of Jacob um he's going to come down here that he will punish the altars of bethl
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you'll remember of course that um Samaria is sort of centrally located in in is Israel geographically here it has a lot of their sort of houses of power one of the Palaces of the King was in
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bethl most of you will remember of course from your new testament when we talk about talk about bethl it's literally the B L um meaning
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House of God house appears a bunch here so you can even catch it in in the English but because we don't say how how of God we say bethl you'll miss that one but as he
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goes through these last ones here he says um I will punish Israel's transgressions I will also punish the altars of the house of God the horns of the altar will be cut off and they will
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fall to the ground I will Smite the winter house and the summer house the houses of Ivory and the great houses will come to an end so it's house house he's kind of drumming into here every place you could run to every Refuge
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every comfortable dwelling is just shattered here by the hand of God as he as he crushes down this um that's the gist of that again it plays with betel
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in the in the Hebrew um but the the most of this if you look at it it's the winter house the summer house uh you know it's your vacation
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homes it's your it's your lake house um along with your house of ivory you know your really nice marble clad house and your great houses he's talking about those who are doing the oppressing the
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wealthy class those who have all of this abundance that they've stored up off the back of the little guy these are the things that are being torn down and shattered so we're a little bit overtime so let's close in a word of prayer as we
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go upstairs this morning Father we do thank you for your word and the way that you communicate with your people we ask that you would be pleased to communicate to us again
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this morning as We Gather to hear your word read and preached As We Sing Your Word in Praise And in prayer we ask that you would be with us that you would be
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manifestly in our midst that we would feel your presence this morning as we worship as we hear that it would be mediated to us through that spirit and be of evident good to us we ask these
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things in Jesus name