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um I paused here for a moment um we've spent the last couple of weeks that I've been with you in uh what we might call a deep dive in a few points out of Amos in particular uh in Amos
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chapter 5 a couple of things that we highlighted between the shrines and the day of the Lord some some more um detailed excursus there and I I do want to revert our attention to the overall
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message the overall theme um not to belabor any points here but I I have put up our outline that I gave you many weeks ago near the beginning of the study of the sort of overall look at the
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book and we talked about the idea that uh Amos is in part paradigmatic in the sense that he lays out uh a message that has a tendency to offer a template by
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which we can understand other Prophet prophetic books uh the the nature of Prophecy overall and in part is we saw that sort of uh opening chapter had all
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of the elements of this and we talked about them in this regard so these first two sections of course was was the neighboring Nations and then focused in
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on Israel and these together offer effectively indictment
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he then expands this in oracles and we talked about this as being
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instruction followed by visions of coming Doom as I've termed
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it which is to say that the sentence is carried out carried out and then finally he is not leaving them without hope at the end here he gives us these few
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verses an affirmation of Future Hope now I think you will recognize as we've gone through those terminology that you have seen elements of this through out right this is not um cut and dried distinctions it's not nearly so clinical
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in part because the message from the prophet is said in poetry he has elements of this throughout but we are if you want to do your little map here you know the asterisk comes
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here in the road map of Amos you are here we are wrapping up a period of of his uh primary instruction in in a sense
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3- six is the major meat of the book in the sense that it is the the largest section of the instruction this is where he's being very clear with Israel what
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the problem is and what's going on so in the sense that he has given them an indictment and they're about to observe that sentence or he is about to prophetically observe the sentence for
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them he is careful to instruct them in what went wrong what have you done wrong um we've talked about this in some senses in relation to Parenting does the
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child understand why they are being punished and Amos is being very careful to clearly indicate to them through the message that he's carrying to them from
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the mouth of Yahweh here's what went wrong here is the problem if we look at the end of chapter 5 we we didn't really spend much time here I'm going to just quickly read
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these um because we we talked quite a bit about the day of the Lord last week he said says um starting in verse 21 I hate I reject your festivals nor do I Delight in your solemn assemblies even
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though you offer up to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings I will not accept them and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings take away from me the noise of your songs I will not listen to the
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sound of your Harps but let Justice roll down like Waters and righteousness as an Ever flowing stream did you present with present me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for 40 years
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oh House of Israel you also carried along sikth your king and kirion your images the star of your Gods which you made for yourselves therefore I will
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make you go into Exile Beyond Damascus says Yahweh whose name is God of armies or God of hosts as we finish this and I again I
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tend to think that 3-6 was probably offered as one message I don't have a problem with the chapter ification of six splitting it here I think that's a reasonable place for them to have
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punctuated a chap but it is of a whole 3 through six this particular sort of ending of chapter 5 here is is in relation to their festivals is it not he's rebuking
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them for their festivals for their sacrifices effectively for their religiosity right he's saying you're doing all of these religious duties and obeses to me and yet I'm rejecting them
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I am aboring them I am I am not accepting these things from you if you think back over the chapters that we've just been through I'm going to just read a couple of verses for you in chapter 3
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again thinking about this as a section he says in in chapter 3: 14 and
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15 um on that day for on the day I punish Israel's transgressions I will also punish the altars of bethl the horns of the altar will be cut off and they will fall to the ground and I will Smite the winter house together with the
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summer house the houses of ivory will will perish and the great houses will come to an end declares Yahweh in chapter 4 um just a few verses down in in four and five of course this was the
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one that we spent some time on enter bethl and transgress in gilgal multiply transgression bring your sacrifices every morning your tithes every 3 days offer a thank offering also from that
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which is leaven and Proclaim Free Will offerings make them known for so you love to do you Sons of Israel declares Yahweh declares the Lord Yahweh so he's
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he's hitting them with this um you know you're you think you're coming before me you think you're offering these things you think you are are doing the things you're supposed to do it's an indictment of the religiosity of them and here as
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we move into chapter six what he's really doing as he ends this period of instruction is tying all of these things together and wrapping up this but he's he's reaching a climax effectively here
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at the end of chapter 5 moving into chapter 6 on this question of religion um and one of the commentators had a had a quote that I thought was was particularly uh insightful in terms of
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what's going on here with Amos we've talked a few times about the idea that the people in Israel the nation to whom he is offering this message was in effect self-satisfied um content in
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their own worship thinking that they were right before God and this commentator said what is more incredible to a religious person then that their religion exposes them to the wrath of
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God he's completely inverting what they're understanding because they think they're doing these things to be right before God and he's saying the very things you're doing are exposing you to that wrath poting out that religion
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J religious practices here and what James is saying his epistle us a picture of how God expects us to what we believe yeah so that's an
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excellent point because part of it is the um you know work out your salvation with fear and trembling right there there is an element of the the way that you are treating people the way that you are walking through the world relates to
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what you claim to believe that is absolutely part of it um and I and I do want to be careful to to indicate that as we move forward which is um there's an element here well we'll
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get to that hold that thought for a second I want to I want to look at a couple of things in terms of structure but we'll come back to that idea because I think that's that's an excellent point um just by way of of notes you know he
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says in 518 um alas or or your translation may say woe I think woe is probably the better term there woe to you who are longing for the day of Yahweh or the day of the Lord and then
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here at the beginning of chapter 6 I don't know why my translation has one word in one place and one in the other should be the same in both woe to those who are ad ease in Zion and those who
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feel secure in the mountains of Samaria he's thematically and and literarily he's tying these elements together it's the same preacher the same audience as he's moving through here I I think it's
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it's really probably the same address alt together so the woes there are helping to pull together the the elements here amos's message to to Israel um throughout but particularly as
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we think about this Section 3 through six um and you'll see it here at the end of chapter six which we'll read this morning he's bringing home the idea of an invading foe carrying them off into
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Exile a thing that was frankly Unthinkable for the most part to the Nations um of Israel and Judah the nation that should have been one people together and we've talked about that
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that idea that they thought they were secure because of their shrines uh Judah similar similarly thinks that they're secure because they have Jerusalem they have the temple God has promised to
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preserve these things and to keep these things he won't carry us off into Exile and Amos is bringing home to them yes you're absolutely going to be invaded and you're going to be carried off and here's why so 3 through six is that
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instruction of of what's going on but he's showing them this coming event this this Exile that is coming upon them in light of their existing social personal
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and religious condition so Abigail's correct that that it's more than simply the religious question of well you're not quite right before God in part what Amos is getting at is you think you're
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right before God because of the things you're doing as as religion but you're not right before God not only in your religion but also in the way that you're treating one another in the way that you're conducting your society and the
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way you're grinding down those who you see as beneath you there are elements of all of those things and we I think have looked at those at length as we move through there are issues and and I
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appreciate you bringing up James because I think most of you have heard this idea
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it's not one or the other for Amos it's both of these things you're not right before in your relationship of yourselves to God and you're not right in your relationship of one to another um you know you you have the the you can
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think of a number of New Testament passages you know the one who says that he loves God and hates his brother or can you uh curse your brother and bless god with the same mouth I mean it's
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exactly this kind of element and that's part of what Amos is bringing out for them is you claim to be right before God you claim to have his his presence with you you claim to be secure in your blessings and yet look at how you treat
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the people of God the rest of Israel the nation around you so there's absolutely those elements of it but I do I think in in six in some part in some ways he's
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he's intensifying and tying up the ideas but I do want to highlight here um in part uh direct our attention to the the sort of fearfulness of religious error
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and part of this goes back to something we've talked about a few times which is um you um you know it'd be easy for me to stand up here and say okay well here's the
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political import of Amos and here's how we're going to you know attack all these sort of mega churches here's the way we can see the corruption in the society around us but not us I mean we're we're
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the good guys right it's the other people who are the problem but I want I was going back over my notes from the other classes and I I had quoted
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from a fellow that I think is a is frankly a very good Bible scholar but he said of the prophets well not every passage has principles that we can draw for our lives sometimes
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it's not about um what you should be doing it's about who you should be worshiping and part of that is true there is absolutely the heart of God and and Truth about who God is here in Amos
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but I think frankly very often modern treatment of the prophets completely defangs them and is not willing to let
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them aim their message at your heart does that make sense I want you guys to be able to read the prophet and say boy what about me where am I in relation to
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the things he's bringing out here so in part I you know we're not out here grinding one another down and and offering um you know in uh offering loans to one another at uh massive
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interest rates and so on but there is a a question or an element of of religious understanding here as well that that Amos is highlighting for them and that I think we can we can stare at and to
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return to what Abigail was saying and the reason I I took that little aside is I think you can see in the message before the Israelites that they have taken two elements of True Religion
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and isolated them out of the truth of God true elements but they have made them the whole and I think we ought to examine ourselves and examine those around us in terms of the churches and
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the church in the world which is to say that they have taken these two elements sincerity and ceremony
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and made them the whole of whole of religion and that is well let me ask it this way we talked at some length about the shrines and the fact that the shrines that they were
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were going to were truly places that God had visited with the Patriarchs they were historically places that God had interacted with the people do you think
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that the Israelites were less sincere than us when they sought God in these places do you think they were uninc in their heart that they thought that they
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were seeking after God where he had been found having having been raised in evangelicalism my impression would have
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been they were less sincere okay I think that would be the push of my upbringing all right in studying the in the scripture not saying that's where
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scripture has led me but that I could see the thrust of that being inbre certainly that they were less so I think again Amos doesn't give
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us a lot of detail in some things he doesn't give us a lot of individual Hearts here I think you're going to see when we get into chapter 7 and he has an argument with one of the priests of one
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of these shrines there's absolutely an element of charlatanism amongst their leaders but I frankly think the majority of the people that he's addressing this this message
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this message to thought they were right before God they thought they were doing the things they were supposed to do and they thought that their hearts were sincere in the things they were seeking after frankly I mean we've we've brought up
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this idea before but they had an idea that their I I'll put it this way their sincerity was out of step with the truth
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about God which is to say I think they were completely sincere in following after a God that they had reshaped in their own their own idea that they made God or an image of
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God that they liked a God that was good for National Israel a God that represented those 10 tribes as a people a God who had visited them in these
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places not the whole complete truth about God that was part of the message that we were talking about in the shrines of seeking him where he may be found God's revelation is Progressive
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and you must not go backwards they were going backwards in some senses but they thought they were truly following after Yahweh they had just reshaped Yahweh
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into something that was palatable to them and to the people at the time I would put it that way that I think they were sincere in in their belief of a god of their own making God as they would like him to be not as he is and this is
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one of the things that I think we need to be careful to examine ourselves in as we March through here and I frankly think it probably ties into what Chuck has started on Thursday nights with his biblical theology class following the
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message of message of scripture finding these things as we move through the word of God and not building our Doctrine and saying aha here we are secure in Zion I mean our
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reformed theology the bull workk around us right that we are unassailable because we've dotted the eyes and cross the tees and we've got it figured out
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have we reshaped God to fit the doctrine or are we following the truth of God and developing our Doctrine out of it is one of the things I would challenge us on in
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this Aon um this I think stands aside but I'd love it if it was actually part of the point he says did you bring me sacrifices and offerings dur the 40
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years in the wilderness of House of Israel considering the prosperity of the Kingdom Ian is his question would you be doing this if you weren't uh prosperous yeah um what what degree does their
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prosperity factor into what you're saying so yeah there is an element here and we've touched on it a little bit when we talk about the social aspects of these things manto man and he is careful
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I think in large measure to indict the leaders and the wealthy among them but one of the things that you can see and we've talked about this in other studies is there was very much an idea
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throughout Old Testament scripture and it comes back again and again in human nature which is to say if I'm doing well if I'm wealthy it's because God has blessed me it's because I'm doing the
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right thing if I wasn't doing the right thing I wouldn't have all this wealth would I and one of the messages that we read in I think it was in chapter 4 was his recounting of the you guys just came
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out of a famine you were just winnowed down to almost nothing Skin and Bones and now that you're fat again here you are being apostate again and so there is
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an element of the you've got plenty to sacrifice by we we looked at it in relation to some of the shrines he follows right on the you know you are crushing the poor you are grinding the
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the righteous you are doing this and this and this oh and here you are in the temple every day offering up your ill-gotten gains to God but one of the things that he's I think is interesting
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here that he's doing when we look at the festivals here and I'm not going to go into detail with it but if you remember a little bit from what Chuck's done in the in the Leviticus class um they actually have most of the sacrifices
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accounted for the only one that Amos doesn't highlight here is the sin offering and if you go back a little bit to the one that I mentioned before he talks about them offering the leavened bread some commentators want to say well
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it was supposed to be unleavened but frankly if you look at what he says about the ceremonies he's not really inditing them for leaving out the commands of God he's inditing them for
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the fact that they're doing these ceremonies in a thought that the ceremonies in and of themselves are going to save them he's not saying oh you missed this you missed that you didn't do these things he's not going
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through Leviticus and saying here's all the stuff you guys left out he's saying these people ceremonies were largely in line with the commands of God now okay he doesn't highlight the
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sin offering they're definitely doing them in the wrong places we've seen that but the major issue here is they're seeing the ceremonies as ends in and of themselves they're doing these
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ceremonies is completely separate from the context the of the god-given context of being alive and and and living this life of obedience of
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righteous principle of just conduct so Abigail is absolutely correct to remind us of James what is pure and undefiled religion is in part your relationship manto man what are you doing to those
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around you but it's also I think frankly there is an indictment against them here of the idea that they are
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they're not doing what they're doing in a correct view of who God is or frankly even of a correct view of who man is there's a short hand uh that I think is useful to be reminded of here of uh
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sort of evaluating any any philosophy Christian or otherwise that somebody offers to you one way to shorthand evaluate the the philosophy being offered to you is to ask yourself two
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questions of this Phil philosophy what does it say who is man who is man and what is his problem because those two questions will
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tell you a lot about how that philosophy is treating the nature of reality of the nature of God and of man because the actual answer here should be
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man is made in the image of God but is frankly a sinner and his problem is there is a gulf between him and God that only God can overcome if the answer to those questions aren't in line with that
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you're on the wrong track and I think what Amos is getting at with them here is you're on the wrong track you are not correctly viewing man you're not correctly viewing man one to another and
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you're not viewing man correctly before God you're doing these ceremonies because you think the ceremonies themselves are going to fix things it's part of what we see with Judah later in the later prophets is the
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we have the temple we have the levitical priesthood we offer the sacrifice is in the temple we're good you're not good and the temple is going to be stripped from you the the idol of your
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talking brings here there and he doesn't even deal with that location that's INR not about where you're it's not about how you're doing it yes salvation is of the Jew here's the big thing this is the
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real way that you were supposed to worship yeah so it's yeah it's not
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about it is and and Chuck has mentioned he mentioned yesterday that he thought he might go on and and sort of revisit the worship study class um and I sort of hope he does but I would I would charge in our own thinking
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are we guilty in some measure of a similar problem in thinking that our sincerity and our following the steps are good enough I
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up I don't know Tim that's a tough those two up there are so different in mind I me I look at I think ceremon is easy we can visually see that but
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that but sincerity is you have to throw yourself back on the work of of Christ because we're told the heart is deceitfully wicked who can know it we convince
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ourselves see it all the time of almost anything people especially I think in the Western World figured out how to divorce their
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from what they think they believe it's believe it's almost the mind yeah right so I mean I I'll put it this
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way I think you're right it is difficult and one of the things that I've run into as I've been teaching in Sunday School classes for a couple years now is the anytime I make a suggestion that uh
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our personal Behavior might have some impact on how our relationship is to God you get the the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit don't you dare make me have anything to do
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with my standing before God I don't think James I don't think Hebrews I don't think Peter is going to let you get away with that it's a both and so you're right that we throw ourselves
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back on the Salvation that that Jesus has offered to us but we are also meant to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit the work of the spirit is equally critical here in a positive direction because if
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this isn't this isn't there I think you need to ask yourself a question about the ministry of the spirit I think at the very least we might just say don't take your sincerity too Ser too seriously yeah I mean the
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gravity of the human heart is toward idolatry right and that seems foreign to us because we don't have large swats of people in our culture bowing down to literal Idols there are plenty but we
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don't see them all the time and there's not a huge pull for us but the the thrust of scripture says that the essence of idolatry is bowing down to the work of my own
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hands and that that is no less the case if I am bowing down to the the work of my own my own thoughts constructing a god of my own
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making is well within my abilities as a fallen person and I can be what you said was really meaningful to me that they were very sincere in following after a god of their own making yeah that's the
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essence of idolatry down to something he made so just to bring it back around to to our situation our context though is to say and I'm not trying to stand up here and say I think
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all of you were wrong and you all need to repent what I want to say is when you read the prophet are you letting the prophet also speak to you or is it just oh that was for 8th Century Israel and I'm going to move on it's historically
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only he has something to say the word of God Is Timeless he has something to say to us also and we need to examine ourselves in light of it and and I app appreciate the comments because I think
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you guys are following what I'm what I'm getting at here but there's an element also I mean think about the the let's talk historically I mean we've talked before right naab and abue well they
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were sincere in offering Strange Fire before the Lord and they were condemned and immediately killed for it usza was sincerely concerned that the Ark of the Covenant might fall into the mud was
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still struck down for doing the wrong thing how many times again it's easy enough to to condemn other churches but are we picking out the the the I mean again
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I'll ask the question why did you get up this morning why are you here do we pray so that we can therapeuti ourselves by getting it off our chest am I praying to God just to sort of speak these things
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out there andof oh I feel better because I said that am I upstairs singing together because I get an endorphin rush from the social contact of all singing together or am I actually worshiping God
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do I sit under the preaching of the word because I'm there to nourish my soul and he with understanding or am I sitting under the preaching of the word because I think well mystically I'm here under the word and that's going to help I mean
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why do we have our children upstairs if they cannot hear if your child cannot hear with understanding is it just because there's some magical mystical power of the word that is sanctifying
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them somehow they must be able to understand to have any benefit why do we do these things why are you here that's part of what I mean with this is is the I think the prophet's got
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Fangs for us too if you're willing to be tender enough to let him scratch you and hit
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is yeah no that's that's a good point and I and I do appreciate it and I think you're absolutely right that the that the interview between Jesus and the the Samaritan woman at the well is is a value to us because there is that spirit
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and truth and and Chuck tried to I think hack it that a little bit in one of his more recent studies of the what does that mean I'll offer my own thoughts on that
30:26
which is to say I think there very much an element of the I go back to Hebrews a lot the book of Hebrews is beautiful and amazing because it is 100% focused on
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the glory of what God did the advancement of the Kingdom that happened through his work and his power the fact that you cannot go back into the idolatry of trying to revert to this
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older form of religion but when you get up with that book he has not left you any room to not sweat the things that God has commanded there
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is action demanded of you there is I'll use the term again Sweat Equity in following after God it requires effort of us it does not happen
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passively and I am not here to demean the work of the of the spirit or his ability to transform Hearts neither does I I think that he leave us any room to
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be idle in our Salvation I think that eort is
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that yeah yeah it's it's the unifying element of that yes Gabriel in spirit and Truth the Israelites back for of
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having the Holy Spirit and not having the Holy Spirit they were supposed to believe God's truth in some cases they Reed the holy spirit for time but it can
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be taken away see this even in the king and so they did not have what we have Conant today right which is the
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spirit no that's that's a good point I appreciate that because we're talking about at the time that Amos is is doing these things obviously is the context that that the dwelling of God with them
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was through his presence in the temple and there there is that element of it we live in a moment and in a time that is in of a greater Revelation but I think this aspect of what he's hitting home
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with them is no less true against us though at least in terms of self-examination be careful how we treat sincerity and ceremony as though these things were saving us in and of
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themselves so I think that the sincerity portion of what you wrot there may going back a few lessons we said it should have driven them back to the spirit in Jerusalem correct but they
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were insincere they had blinded themselves so instead of seeking the spirit that they might have him where God told them he was they like you said
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they reformed God in an image that was accept to National Israel so I think yeah gabel's right and the lack of sincerity is is highlighted for us there
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no I appreciate that because I think that's right and again I I appreciate you bringing that out because I want to be careful to say I think absolutely you can see the internal Harmony of 3
33:37
through six of amos's message that he's delivering here that this it is side to side wall to wall top to bottom he is covering all of the aspects of this what
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I want to do at this point I I I think this has been a good discussion this was uh meant to be introductory to chapter 6 and we're running out of time here so I'm going to um read chapter 6 in your hearing it's not a long section and I we
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probably won't T long here I'll say again I think there's a lot in Amos I could spend probably twice as long and I probably should have spent twice as long going through the study but we're not going to get everything out of it I'm
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going to read um I'm going to read out of The New American Standard Version there are some translation things here that we may or may not touch on as we move forward but I'm going to read uh chapter 6 out of The New American
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Standard in your hearing he says woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria the distinguished men of the foremost of
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Nations to whom the house of Israel comes go over to kalna and look and go from there to HTH the great then go down to gath of the Philistines are they
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better than these kingdoms or is your territory greater than theirs do you put off the day of Calamity and would you bring near the seat of violence those
34:53
who recline on beds of Ivy and ivory and sprawl on their couches and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall who improvise to the sound of the harp and like David have composed
35:04
songs for themselves who drink wine from sacrificial bowls while they anoint themselves with the finest of oils yet they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph therefore they will now go into
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Exile at the head of the Exiles and the sprawlers banqueting will pass away Yahweh the Lord has sworn by himself and Yahweh God of armies has
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declared I love loathe the arrogance of Jacob and I detest his Citadel therefore I will deliver up the city and all it contains and it will be if there are 10 men left in one house and then will die
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and then one's uncle or his Undertaker will lift up and carry him out carry his bones out of the house and that one will say or call to the innermost parts of the house and say is anyone there with
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you and that one will say no one and he will answer him keep quiet for the name of Yahweh is not to be mentioned for behold Yahweh is is going to command that the great house be smashed to
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pieces and the small house to Rubble do horses run up Cliffs or can one plow the ocean with oxen yet you have turned Justice into poison and the fruit of
36:11
righteousness to Wormwood you who rejoice in low debar and say have we not by Our Own Strength taken caram for ourselves for behold I'm going to raise up a nation against you oh House of
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Israel declares Yahweh God of armies then they will afflict you from the entrance of HTH to the brook of the arabah so couple of points just out of the structure of chapter 6 we talked a
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little bit about the idea that Amos is uh giving them a message of impending invading by a foe and that they are going to be carried off into Exile I think you see that very clearly here
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what's very interesting if you have noticed throughout um as Amos has been talking to them he's actually not specified a nation here to forth think
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about what we read in um chapter 3 where he has that sort of very visceral image and he talks about the armies of Israel being squashed down in place and they won't escape and the arrow The Bowman
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will be slain and the The Greatest Warrior will run away afraid throwing off his armor the enemy is not actually pictured again and again and again he talks about their destruction their Exile in some places it's very clearly
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in directly the action of Yahweh it's not until here that he actually says I'm going to bring a nation against you it's very interesting and it doesn't make a huge amount of difference but I thought it was interesting
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um in chapter or in verse um 14 in the Hebrew and I'm going to read this this fellow's translation from
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the Hebrew he says but I am about to raise against you oh House of Israel says Yahweh Lord God of armies a nation in the Hebrew it's exactly that
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way the nation is at the very end you almost get the ominus ramping up and then he says a nation he's teasing them almost earlier in the chapter where he says go look at this city go look at
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that city um if you care you know kalna is in sort of uh Northern Syria further away from them um hamath is in central Syria was a sort of major city there
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would have been probably known to the northern kingdom I've erased my map I don't know why I'm gesturing over there but it would have been sort of a trip if you go from C and you sort of follow down he's sort of going north to south
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through some of these major things and saying like well here you are you great nation of Israel you can go look at all the supposedly amazing cities around you was their territory any better than yours he's teasing them saying you know
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first foremost among the Nations he says the distinguished persons or the foremost among the first of Nations he's he's almost prodding the sort of s point
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of the like well God chose us he's he's getting at the you we've talked about in the context jeroboam's Empire here was effectively a Resurgence
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a Revival a Renaissance the height of their power and he's saying oh look at you at the height of your power I've got a nation that'll take you down you think you're so great you think you're so
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secure I have a nation that will humble you that will smash you into ruin that will turn you into Rubble does anyone notice anything interesting in in verse one of chapter 6 where he says wo now I
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think it's important again the Woe Is tying the two elements together but who is he wo here what in Zion well where is
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Zion yeah I found it is interesting because he's he josing those who are at EAS in Zion those who feel secure on the mountain of mountain of Samaria it's an odd way of phrasing
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things yeah so there was an interesting note uh again from our Hebrew scholar friend here where he was saying well some of Scholars want to point this out and say well okay you know so so Amos
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was from the south and probably some judite editor later said well we need to get Zion in there somehow and he points out he says just from The Poetry of it you'd completely wreck the the phrasing
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if you take Zion out you've ruined the the verse set of this if Zion's not part of there he says I think frankly uh Amos being from the south also is kind of
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remembering his countrymen as we've talked about they are are no less smug and self-satisfied in their position before God and if you go back to chapter 1 the the lion of Judah is roaring out
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of where out of Zion it is out of the Citadel where they think they are most secure that this is emanating James you had your hand up oh okay you were going to remind us appreciate that so yeah
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it's it's that idea 100% that he's saying um you know Zion kind of gets looped back in here I think it can go back to some elements we've talked about earlier in the study which is they're
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meant to be one people the tribes all together are the people of God and all together they are facing the wrath of God and so while Amos is sent primarily
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to Israel and his message has been primarily to Israel Judah comes in from time to time in part because of their relation to to these people and to the to to God to Yahweh himself so yeah I
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think you know we know of course what's coming in the Exiles that will first be the northern King and later the southern Kingdom but I don't see any issue with his sort of woe to those who are Des Z
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but just notice that geographically as we as we look at it I think he had in view that sort of similar group um there if we just run through the points real quickly this morning before we run
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out of time um you know he he's doing this sort of teasing of them um he's he's saying you think you're this great nation you can go observe all the nations around you um you know you've
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got this great ter territory if you want to talk a little bit about the um the geography if you look at the end where he says you rejoice in L dear um and said by Our Own Strength have we not
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taken caram for ourselves well there's some historical context there of jeroboam's campaigns these were actually probably recent victories or fairly recent victories of jeroboams so there's
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an element of the military might of like the um these are actually trans jordanians so they've crossed the Jordan and they've recaptured these cities or they've captured these cities and Amos is almost sort of pulling the
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headlines on them being like oh look at that you scored a great Victory there there's a nation coming that will destroy you there's also a pun here in the Hebrew loar is probably a town a
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city it also just could be translated literally nothing so he says you who rejoice in nothing you who rejoice in this victory that is meaningless because
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destruction is coming to you um there's the obvious elements but I I think again he sort of prodding them on points of Pride where he says you know oh like David you've composed songs to
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yourself what's wrong with David I think you're going back to this idea you think of yourself as like a psalmist you think that you've composed these songs in sincerity to God you've
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composed these for yourself you've you've you've imitated the idea that you've imitated the sincerity but you have none of the truth about God in your
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in your singing in your ease in your um anointing of yourselves again you see how many of these elements are about themselves it's not the action of Yahweh doing these things for them it's about
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themselves they've done this themselves I'm slow on the draw here um your your point about the recent victories of geram the The Poetry uh here there in
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verse 14 they shall oppress you from label H to the brook of the arabah that is what Kings says He restored the border of Israel from Leo as of the right yeah so it's it's directly out of
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the the um record of the Kings saying you know okay all right here's your here's your borderline he's going to chase you straight back down the line that you've you've described next
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selfle yeah yeah our that's a reasonable point to draw out I mean I think about this in terms of fasting frankly I'm not good at fasting and there are certainly times
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and elements and this is not to Der the whole study here there are times and elements of the you do something on purpose to set aside a time and say I'm going to fast but I think you can see in the scriptures and I'll just throw this
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out here a number of times when there is a fast is because take David for an example he is so distressed he cannot possibly eat the ruin of Joseph the the
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the problem of the nation the apostasy is so foremost in his mind so tormenting to his spirit that how could he eat he's fasting effectively out of necessity do
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we ever dwell that deeply on the offense offered to God do we do we reflect on how much he is grieved by the the things that are happening and so that's part of
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it is again they don't have this completeness of the truth about God in their minds and their hearts they are not distressed um it's an interesting contrast bear it in mind as we go
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forward into chapter 7 because um sometimes I think people get a little uh weirded by the visions that he gets so you sort of get these rapid fire Visions
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but several times in here amos's response to Yahweh is to say what about Jacob how will he stand for he is small he's concerned about the ruin of God's
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witness carrying on and then you see Yahweh repents and moves on to another thing so he's uh effectively demonstrating the inverse of the the
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condom against the people he's saying in in chapter 6 here you're not worried you're not concerned you don't care that Joseph is being destroyed and Stripped
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Away but when Yahweh offers a vision of it to Amos that's his concern that's the thing that he brings up to Yahweh that's where he cares so think about that as we
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move forward into seven um you get his his response he says Yahweh has sworn by himself uh Yahweh God of armies or god of hosts again to reflect back what we
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saw in chapter 5 was he repeated that refrain God of hosts God of hosts I think you're seeing it come back here again for that point of God is at the head of his army he is the one swinging
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the instrument against them he is the one commanding and wielding their destruction um I'll just mention this we're we're
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pretty much out of time but just for your fun there's a few points here of uh OD in the Hebrew I'm curious to know how many people's translations look different um
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I'll read strictly out of the the nasb here in verse 9 through 11 he says uh it it will be I I edited this when I talked
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earlier but I'm going to read it directly it will be if 10 men are left in one house they will die then one's uncle or his Undertaker will lift him up and carry out his bones from the house
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and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house is anyone else with you and that one will say no one does anyone have anything different besides uncle or Undertaker there says's
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relative yeah and the one um this is another one of those um this is the only time the word shows up
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interestingly enough while many of the other ones have later phology things that let us basically figure out probably what they were saying this is one that all of the honest Hebrew Scholars said no idea it shows up
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nowhere else we have no idea what that second word is says his uncle and his word in Hebrew that nobody knows what it means um so we we frankly have no idea
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what that is but in the context it's fairly obviously somebody who is involved in removing the body um Aaron the sense of the ESV the way it says it
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is that the one who anoints him for burial or whoever this is is one and the same with one's relative and when one's relative the one who anoints him for burial take him off I
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don't know if that helps jiah so Robert alter does a couple of things here out of the septu agent there
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he says uh here's what I think you ought to do with this because of how that happens um he says here um a literal rendering would be they
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shall carry his uncle and his maer the meaning of this last noun is completely unknown the present translation adopts the reading of subagent which evidently had a Hebrew text with three different
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and intelligible Hebrew words so what he writes is um it shall happen that if 10 men are left in the house they shall die and a
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handful shall remain to carry out the Bones from the house and then one shall call to the Far Corners of the house is anyone still there um so the suben is actually fairly different basically
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saying or returning to an element of almost Remnant theology that we've seen in um Amos before saying uh if you think back in chapter 5 he talks about you
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know if there are a hundred in a house there will be 10 left if there are 10 in a house there'll be one left you almost get an echo of this and the subagent seems to pick that up of the idea of like they're all going to die except
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just enough to carry out the bones there'll be just enough left to bury the dead that's what you get I'm going to leave you with that very cheerful thought because we're almost 5 minutes past the time so um we will pick up in
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chapter 7 next week let's go ahead and pray Our Father we do thank you for your word we thank you for the message that the prophet has delivered we ask that we
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might indeed by the power of the spirit within us examine ourselves in light of it that we would seek to be in step with the spirit worshiping you in spirit and in truth that we are not shy to consider
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the truth of about God nor to remove the things about you that we find unpalatable to ourselves but that we would honor you in your whole as you are
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truly revealed in your scripture we ask that you would reveal yourself more clearly to us as we proceed as we dig into your word as we hear your word preached this morning that it might
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further unfold your glory and your person to us we ask all of these things in Jesus name amen for
