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all right well we're picking up um partway through chapter 4
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here as we press on um almost almost halfway through
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Amos going to be focusing primarily from verse six on down through the end this morning we spent a good while talking about the sort of first paragraph or two paragraphs there depending on how it divides up in your copies of the
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scripture uh last week and you know we we have talked a good bit about the specific context in which these things are happening the the 8th Century um
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Israel nation and and the specific issues going on there particularly the way that Amos is delivering it in that context I would just mention out of our our discussion last last week I mean we
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we talked a little bit about this issue particularly the the enter enter bethl and transgress in Gil gal multiply transgressions um bringing in Free Will
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sacrifices and all of these things it really gets to the heart of religion and obedience before the Lord in particular he's he's leveling
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this at them in a time and place in which they had one temple one place appointed to gather and to offer these sacrifices does and do these things but it also has uh meaning to us
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in our own worship and our own approach before God that we ought to do the things in the way that God has commanded and uh I think it's worth pointing out I it's often divided up in the ways that
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the commentators deal with these things because it seems maybe slightly disjointed to us this initial opening of the chapter hear this word and then he he sort of lambas the women of Israel uh
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for their indolence and their their um devouring of things and their their sort of desire for wine and all of this and what does this have to do with the
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the pieces that come after it but I think you look particularly the second half of verse two and then verse three where he's talking about them falling and being ripped out of the citadels and
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all of these things and then you you you move on to this section with the sacrifices it puts me in mind of of the verse in Corinthians you know take heed if you think you stand take heed l you
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fall um and and it's a question that Chuck brought up and I think it's worth dwelling on as we move through the rest of this chapter and we look at five which is to say would this would this
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message have come as a surprise to amos's hearers would they have considered themselves considered themselves to be in a good place before God after all they were at the height of their
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power they were full of ease they had great wi riches and wealth and um you know they they had the these uh opportunities to go and to sacrifice and
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they had priests and they had all the things that they think they were supposed to be doing um and I do think in large measure many of them would have been surprised to hear this word um
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particularly as we see their Rebellion their rejection of it later so again is sort of take heed when you think you stand lest you fall um and it's it's worth remembering not that I I'm
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accusing anybody here of um storing up violence and um you know devouring people and and putting them in the storehouses as we read from Amos but in
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terms of application why do we read the prophets in our day and age it's worth remembering particularly as this is a Sunday that we're going to um participate in communion together is the
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self-examination examining your your actions and whether your actions in worship are following on in heart worship or is it simply following the the rout that has been prescribed to you
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um again you most of you I think you probably heard probably heard the distinction between deceiver and deceived when talking about these things
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the quote unquote Priests of the nation of Israel at this time bear a great responsibility for allowing the people to sacrifice at bethl and at gilgal and for being priests thereof they ought to
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have instructed them in the word that God gave them um but nonetheless the people are still at fault for following after for doing these things for not examining the laws and the um things
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that were were guarded for them they had opportunity as we have already read particularly out of chapter 2 that he gave them the word he gave them instruction he gave them the nazarites
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they had the things they needed and yet they have ignored them all and followed after their own desire so as we turn our attention then into um this next section um this sort of
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multiplying transgression their their labored diligent service in the wrong areas was was increasing their condemnation and they are giving or offering before God these many food
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stuffs as we've already seen while the poor around them are going hungry you know there there's a sense in which um this sacrificing he's he's being very sardonic with them in his language here
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um really kind of ridiculing them for how much they're sacrificing how often they're in these temples they're just constantly coming before him and yet we have seen that that the poor and the
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needy are also abounding around them and so they are in some senses as guilty as the Pharisees that we will see in Jesus's day um you know treasuring up these things to give to uh sacrifice and
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to service to be seen before men and not taking care of the people around them um there is a sense you know we we'll get into chapter 7 particularly
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when we see the priest of gilgal opposing um Amos but if you remember from the the things we've read in Leviticus out of Chuck's teaching you
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know the the priests had a portion of many of these sacrifices that were offered um so in a large measure the priests have a vested interest in making sure this keeps going it's making them
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fat it's it's increasing their wealth and their Stores um God in his contrast is going to describe to them here as we talked about at the end of last week the hinge then is this verse six he says I
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gave to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places yet you have not returned to me declares me declares Yahweh he describes this contrast
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between their their fattening the fat cows that we read at the beginning and the food stuffs they're sacrificing with having given them hunger and given them famine um this cleanness of teeth here
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is a is a particularly poetic phrase um it's evident obviously from what comes after it that it means a lack of food you know you don't even have to brush your teeth because you haven't put anything on them um
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you know there's there's nothing to eat you're you're that hungry um it's a little bit odd in in the overall scheme of what we typically see in the prophetic language is because prophets tend to do the more straightforward
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phrase first and then put the more poetic after here Amos inverts that I don't know that I have a particular answer for why other than that's how he was delivering this particular message
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um however this section here and it's it's worth noting this section here six on down is primarily stated in the past tense um so this is not the punishment
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that is currently coming on them what Amos is reminding them of through the message that God is giving him is you've already suffered this you've already
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endured punishment as chastening to return you before your god um God through Amos is describing chastisement that's already been
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deployed on them these lashings and and reproofs should be in living memory of amos' hearers and that's the point of what's going on here is this is not the generation that has died out this is
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perhaps not the children but the generation to which Amos is speaking you should remember these things I gave these things to you you have endured already reproof that ought to return you
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to Yahweh this chastisement um you know we've we've discussed a little bit but this chastisement is a gracious gift of God he describes here you know I gave you cleanness of teeth and lack of bread
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and yet you didn't return to me it is an act of Grace to reel them in from their evils and their excesses um you know God reproves Those whom he loves as we've already looked
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at these are the people that God loves I we've talked about it you know we're looking at the message primarily delivered to the nation of Israel at this time of the divided Kingdom and yet
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these are still God's people these are still 10 of the 12 tribes that God has treasured and cherished so you know you're looking at this um
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this lash that lands upon them and finding in it you know it is a Grace it is is an act of God to to redeem his
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people and this goes back to a question I think Abe asked a couple of weeks back looking at some of the earlier parts of the prophecy which is where is God's call to repentance the call that he sends out to his people to say turn and we're going to see particularly um some
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of your Bibles may have a heading my heading over chapter 5 says um seek me that you may live there will be a refrain there so there is another call coming but what he's describing here in
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chapter 4 in this this latter half of the chapter is to say um you've already had it you know what about a second call to repentance you know you've you've had your call
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you've had your reproof you've had the lashings and yet you have not returned to me I have done what I ought to have done as a father to to draw you back in um you're living out your second chance
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is effectively what the message becomes here um I'll read 6 through 13 again and you're hearing just to remind you of the verses we're talking about he says I gave you also cleanness
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of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places yet you have not returned to me declares Yahweh furthermore I withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until the Harvest then I would send rain
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on one city and on another city I would not send rain one part would get rained on while the part not rained on would dry up so that two or three cities would stagger together to another city to drink water but would not be satisfied
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yet you have not return to me declares Yahweh I smokee you with a scorching wind and with mildew and the caterpillar was devouring your manifold Gardens and Vineyards fig trees and olive trees yet
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you have not returned to me declares Yahweh I sent a plague among you after the manner of Egypt I slew your young men by the sword along with your captured horses and I made the stench of
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your Camp rise up in your nostrils yet you have not returned to me declares Yahweh I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah yet you were like a
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fire brand snatched from a blaze and yet you have not returned to me declares Yahweh therefore thus I will do to you oh Israel because I will do this to you
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prepare to meet your God o Israel for behold he who forms the mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what are his thoughts he who makes Dawn Into Darkness and Treads upon the high
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places of the earth Lord Yahweh God of hosts is his name so you see this this message here describing what has already
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come upon them wrapping up with the it's going to come upon you again that I am trying God is not desperate but in human terminology almost desperation of that
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I'm doing what I can to draw you back to me and yet you are hardening yourself you think of this in terms of the the um example of Exodus he he describes here I
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gave you plague after the manner of Egypt and we know that in the case of Egypt he was hardening Pharaoh's heart to resist these things there's a similar
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aspect here of the again and again these are washing over you and your heart is hardened you will not return you will not repent and so I will do
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again um this uh phrase here in verse 6 um in all your places lack of bread in all your
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places describes then that in at least in the language that Amos is deploying here this message was Universal everybody has heard it nobody has an
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excuse of saying we didn't endure some kind of punishment or hardship of God everyone had everyone had a measure of his reproof in the nation
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um this they had universally receive this message and this living generation should remember it and remember what it was like to live through it I do think this would have surprised
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many of the people because if you imagine it from their standpoint you have endured the reproofs of God and now here you are offering up your sacrifices the wealth that God has
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given you in bethl and gilgal and look we've reached Ascension we've beat back Syria we've got all of these things in our storehouses we did what we were supposed to do we're living now in the blessing we did Ariel I ask
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question we judge warned to be careful of seeing success as God's blessing but it seems In this passage he's telling them all punishments for God's Jud you
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should have turned to him how do you deal with that yeah no I mean it's an excellent
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question it occurred to me as I was working through here um could the could the nation of Israel at this time have sung the um what is it Great Is Thy Faithfulness you know
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blessings all mine with 10,000 beside I mean look at us we're we're at the height of our power we're not being hassled we've got all of this wealth in our nation all of our pasture lands are great I mean God is blessing us
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and the question is are you blessed or are you self-satisfied I he's trying to tell them you don't have the pardon for sin and the peace that endureth exactly
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exactly um and so that's what Amos is delivering to them but I do think most of them would have been surprised but that it's a valid questionario which is to say both in their context but also in our day how do you know the
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difference common theme of the prophets though is that the the litness test is how are you treating your brother exactly if there is inequity and Injustice in the land and it doesn't
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matter how much Prosperity God's blessing is not upon people and that's that's consistent message of the prophets that the Sheep are
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beinged poor are oppressed and so the rich cannot settle on their knes and say God is with us because he is
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it does it does situation would leave absolutely again I think that's one of the things that's very helpful out of reading the prophets is to reflect on what it reveals about the nature of God even in the midst of this even in in all
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the things we've described about how horrible they are as a people a he is still gracious I to them giving them opportunity to repent he is patient with
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them and yet he has not forsaken his Justice he will be holy had your hand up back yeah back in colonial America
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colonial America coton made the comment that faithfulness beg prosperity and then the daughter consumed the consumed the mother yeah I mean it's it's very true
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if you look at the the course of history um I was reflecting on it in the history strictly speaking of Israel and Judah let alone all of the intervening history
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you think about this he's describing to them you know he uses the phrase here a fire brand uh plucked from the from the blaze effectively again a sort of Remnant
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terminology that some of you endured these horrible punishments and remained and yet here you are behaving this way it's going to happen again when the vast
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majority of Israel is carried off and dispersed no more to be found a few of members representatives of each of the tribes will move South into Judah boy what a witness they ought to have to
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their fellow members of the tribes about what just happened and yet Judah is going to go down the same road it's going to follow the same path and that that Prosperity often does breed both a
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self-satisfaction or a u again take heed when you when you think you stand L you fall Tim and getting to Chuck's comment about the the needy and theing the
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promise in Deuteronomy 15 is that there will be no you yeah if you do these things in the early church there were no needy among them
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right right no that's that's an excellent point and and so it it does go to the you know I'm not here to to promote a quote unquote Social Gospel but it's pretty I I ragged a little bit
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in our initial um class you know my introductory period here saying you know there's there's at least two I think maybe three books called the message of the prophets which is probably a little bit
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reductive but frankly if you're going to reduce it down to something it often comes down to this we've talked about the fact that Hosea uh contemporary with Amos is more focused on the religious
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aspect of it but in his focus on the religious aspect he's talking about the way they're treating one another while they're claiming to worship God you know um uh first John no one who who hates his brother can
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claim to love God right if you hate your brother the love of God is not in you and so again and again if if you had one term to sum up Amos it's God cares how
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you're treating each other I mean what is you know again it's a sort of Sunday school memory verse at this point but how will we know how will they know that we are his
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disciples if we love one another you know the the love of God the love of of brethren is Hallmark of being the people of God so frankly you know how do we know the difference between blessing and
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self-satisfaction well my question would be what does it cost what does your wealth cost does it cost other cost other people that's probably not a blessing
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from God if you are chewing up people and spitting them out to gain your quote unquote blessing I don't think you're being blessed being blessed I'll propose an answer to my own
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question and that is question was not so much blessing how we judge blessing receive blessive suffering yes
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ands that anding we have to ask ourselves yeah you know am I right with God you know suffering is there is there
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sin that I need toing and blessing is is am I clean if I'm clean it's blessing right but if
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my then the world yeah and there's you know there's the phrase in in Psalms I I think that's the right right way to think about it but there's the phrase in Psalms of the sort of give me neither poverty nor riches um and and the
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Proverbs sorry in in the proverb in the riches part of that he says you know if I have riches lest I forget God in my wealth and I think that's largely what
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what you're seeing there but again it's interesting you know you have the the sort of famously contested phrase it's easier for a rich man to to pass or easier for a camel to pass through the
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eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven it is conspicuous there's only a handful of examples of rich men in the scriptures who are
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who are uh behaving correctly or or or condoned for their actions but you know your sort of classical one you think of Boaz he could have gone and gleaned all of his trees again and plowed into the
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corners of the field and all but he's providing for the needy by following the steps that God had laid out for him similarly um why have I lost his name
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the man who who gives up his tomb for Jesus J Joseph of of arthea right um you know he gives up his wealth his his family thing for Jesus he's providing
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you had your hand up I was simply going to mention right right and so that that to me is the question of the what does your what does your wealth cost if you are um you know in amos's day it's it's
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condemned because the people are trampled we read really right here in the the beginning of chapter 4 that you oppress the poor and crush the needy back in in 10 of of chapter 3 hoard up
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violence and Devastation in their citadels and they had a prophet to come tell them what they were doing wrong but in our day you you know is your gospel Prosperity Gospel is it wrapped in the
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flag you know does it cost something other than love of the Brethren does it come at the cost of the real gospel does it come at the cost of
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the doctrine of total depravity does it come at the cost of compromising what scripture has to say if your church is full because you're not preaching the the true gospel
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that's not a blessing frankly Abe you had your hand up well I'm wondering what this how you the word you there is that as a society as individual because for
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really the rest of society does in this case here You' been teaching that the whole society is corrupt
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okay there are poor and oppressed in the in the midst of Israel um to whom they're not being castigated for how they're trampling each other per
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se please don't mistake we're talking about in the context here in in the 8th Century this is preached to a Theocratic Nation okay so the priests here have a responsibility the king Jobo the second
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year has a respons responsibility like there are leaders that are directly answerable to God in ways that are no longer evident to us right Biden's not
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got a a Ure and a thumim to go inquire of the Lord um
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nevertheless there is a responsibility I don't want to mean say this harshly but there is a level at which you're a deacon of this church and one of the things that we have done as part ofon is B is caring for the the costs and the
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needs of things that have Arisen in the body well that's following this both as a body whole and you as an individual taking on that responsibility and shepherding that you understand what I
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mean yeah so I'm not trying to say this is please don't hear me saying like I am not a Christian nationalist I oppose that entirely please understand me we're not
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going to legislate morality we are not going to to turn the country that way the gospel is our responsibility to
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be on target with what the scripture says about humankind what it says about God what it says about our relationship to each other if the church was faithful to the go and I mean the church whole
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not this body if the church was faithful to the gospel the country will steer in a much better direction do you understand what I mean by that so it's not saying uh oh I you know I need my
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Johnson to be leader of the house because he thinks he's Moses that's not where what I am saying is there's a responsibility it starts here one to another and if each of the
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if the bodies local follow this message of how you treat one another matters sticking to the gospel that would have
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such a leavening effect across the society do you understand you had your hand up I feel like one of our problems is that we think in extreme this is app to me individually or should be app to
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society and isra church are mesri to church as right and I think one of
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right of the church the world right how that works
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ch right you had your hand up well there's very little in the scripture where the people of God have direct responsibility for what goes on outside on outside people yeah Israel with the empir around
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the church with the world around it we we live in a in a republic and a democracy and so if we get it in our minds that we have we have some responsibility toward the world around us our primary responsibility is within
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the household of faith right which is where charity and benevolence begins and also where judgment begins yeah and that the purpose of that that is God's wisdom
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in creating a people who will then be a witness of him to the world right well when we try to impact the world
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directly it's not been historically that's not been a good good yeah no I agree with that and and certainly there's a lot of history there but bring it back to what we talked about in in
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chapter one where he has the oracles against the nation yet those oracles are preached to Israel and we said why it's because Israel was intended to be following this to be visibly different
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from those six nations Seven Nations that are highlighted around them because there was meant to be a contrast between the way the people of God did this and the way these nations did it and so there is a responsibility in
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Israel's culpability here saying I put you here to be that witness and you failed to witness because you failed to be any different the people of God here
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this family I brought up out from Egypt looks exactly like the Nations around it I missed more than one I hope this isn't too much of a Segway
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um I'm um I'm noticing earlier in Amos we've had the two words Lord God combined together and
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they were usually in our English basically Lord yah right this one here
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at the first one that looks like Lord excuse meeh God it does and it's
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also reversal of what it's also at the end of four and is this like in some ways I think this is a climax of his message um this this
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turning um because you are getting sort of right into the heart of of the matter here and as I said I think it hangs together through the end of six sort of um starting at the beginning of chapter
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3 through the end of six is one piece of which now here at the end of four we're we're hitting in the middle of um and I appreciate that because um there is something to be said
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the way he uses these terminologies here and I I don't want to belabor the point of of where we are um talking about these things but I do want to to have a little self-examination in terms of
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these things because again the question of individual responsibility is often not quite the way we're Americans we tend to think
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very individually and when we're talking about this weend to go oh what am I supposed to do what it means largely is the church body starting locally moving
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out larger and you can't you know I'm not going to go down and knock on you know Brookwood or whatever it is down 385 and and go tell them how wrong they are I'm not appointed as a prophet to go
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do that right the script is here and available to to all men and and we trust in the leading of the spirit but there is a is a responsibility in our interaction with
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each other and in our interaction with our fellow professing Believers to maintain what is right and what is true so there is some level of personal
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responsibility but largely the witness is as a whole as a group as a church um just as it was as Chuck pointed out for the for the people of God as a
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whole um so I'm going to quickly run through this and then get back to to El's question here about the the terminology yeah go
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church I would buy that parallel because because um there is a there is a point here which and we're going to see it particularly as we get down towards the end in chapter 9 UM the lamp stand so to speak of Israel is going to get removed
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um it is going to get stripped away so I think that's a good point I hadn't thought of it in those terms but I think that's a good parallel to think about that you know the the beginning of Revelation with the letters to the churches um and it does you know it
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matters and and leaving your first love again the people of Israel lived in a very particular time in context they had Covenant they had the the law of Moses
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was the the rule that they were living to and he he castigates them earlier on for not following after that law for having left again we walked through the the oracles against the Nations he talks
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about Judah and then what is the the first thing he levels at Israel is the you have not followed the commands of Yahweh you know so you have left the the law the love the things that that were
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given to you and so yes I I think you you've got a good point there um we talked a little bit already that that God demonstrated his Sovereign power over Egypt with plagues and and with
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this miraculous although devastating power um he's employing similar visitations here as he reflects on the history here um you know he sort of lists out here uh a famine a drought
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blight or mildew pestilence the death of the young men and then overthrowing here and if you read in Deuteronomy 28 we've already talked a little bit about you know the things that come out of Deuteronomy the both the the promised
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blessing you should have no poor among you the blessings that would come to them but also the curses and in Deuteronomy 28 the curs is offered in response to response to disobedience in Deuteronomy 28 uh verse
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23 and 24 you have drought in verse 25 and 26 you have military conquest in verse 38 you have the locusts coming in devouring and in verses 47 and 48 you
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have famine coming upon them so again as we've looked at before what the prophet is bringing to them the message of this is not to say that God is is blasting you because he's capricious he's
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literally following the statement that he gave to you when he brought you into this land he gave you a pattern he is sticking to it because God is faithful
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to do the things that he has promised to do both for your good or for your your um reproof as necessary uh particular interest here in in the sort of
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overthrowing he brings up Sodom and Gomorrah I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah um that word that particular verb overthrow There is almost always used in
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comparison to that to mean the total Destruction of a city the complete Annihilation the same way that Sodom and gomorah was overthrown was destroyed and it also reflects the Deep displeasure of
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God at their evil Behavior yet unlike Sodom and Gomorrah in which the only Remnant was lot and his family here he says I have I have have plucked you out or you were like a fire brand snatched
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from The Blaze um the Sodom and gomorra sorry before I leave that one the Sodom and Gomorrah phrase is actually used in quite a few places um it shows up in in Deuteronomy 29 um Isaiah 1 Jeremiah 49
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Lamentations um and actually if you if you do the subagent version of it the same sort of overthrowing and the description of Sodom Sodom and Gomorrah also shows up in Luke 17 uh similar
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concept of overthrowing of of Destruction total Annihilation so this overthrow and yet there is a remnant of them um again I don't feel that it's
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necessary per se to amend your English translations here but if you look down near the end of the section here in verse uh 11 it's my verse my new
35:20
American Standard Version says I overthrew you as God overthrew the Hebrew is actually pretty clear in implying it says say I some of you I overthrew it is actually qualified as a
35:32
as a portion not as a whole um I don't know why that got dropped out of the English I tried to look into some of the the the words there in the Hebrew and I didn't find anybody particularly
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commenting on the difference in the translations ESP has it I overthrew some of you okay good so if you have some of you I think that's that's good um that's that is what it says um the fire brand
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snatched from The Blaze is actually almost the exact same phrase that's used in Zechariah Chapter 3 the sort of famous um vision of the priest standing before the the Lord and being accused by
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Satan it says I will bring forth my servant the branch but early on he he he reproves the Lord reprove Satan and says is this not a a brand snatched from The Blaze or or plucked from the fire um
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he's talking about God's chosen Remnant it's almost the same phrase that will show up later in Zechariah um nearly
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so okay so you're you're saying that this is specifically talking about it seems to me that just in context of the of the Poetry that this is using that picture as just simply the survivors those I think it is about the
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remant they're remant they're singed but doesn't necessarily speak to their state before God or their hearts whereas in Zechariah he's talking about someone specifically that is a faithful
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priest correct the illustration corresponds to to that just the same fire imagery it's the same terminology I don't think it it brings an equivalence between the two passages no um if I had
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to guess though I I would say I think in some respects Zachariah has probably picked up the phrase from his knowledge of Amos um perhaps but um it does relate
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though to the idea of the remnant and we talked a little bit about you know those who survived in Israel ought to be a witness to their fellows he he's saying now you know you have endured this this was all past tense you have lived
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through this and you ought to have been witnessing to one another of what the reproof of God looks like and turning and returning um and yet they did not
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and they should have been that sort of Salt and Light before uh or in the in the sight of God but they were not uh and before we leave this section and look at that closing
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and I do want to try to get the the sort of last section of four so we can move on to five next week um we we pointed this out once before but here throughout you have this
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refrain from six on down they declares Yahweh declares Yahweh it is the noun it is almost that seal it is a declaration of Yahweh it is that emphatic and
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there's almost the sort of drum beat that Amos is hammering them with is the you haven't returned to me declares or a declaration of Yahweh a declaration of Yahweh um so he goes through he walks
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through all this and again the refrain that that should really stick out to you is that you have not returned you have not repented you have not come back to your first Love Therefore thus um and he
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does bring bring out here this sort of ending um is very interesting in particular and I think it's a in terms of the Poetry it's it's sort of fascinating to me the the
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fact that this somewhat unique in the overall message where he highlights God's person most of what we've talked about about the nature of God that we observed through Amos here is is more implicit or
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describing the way God is interacting with them but here he's describing him as God he he's almost doing something you would see in the Psalms of highlighting God and his his ability and his power over them the god that Israel
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must prepare to face is the same God um who has done these things who has created these things um I have a quote here from Robert alter a Hebrew scholar
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he says of this concluding section here from verse 13 uh verse 13 is the last verse in in your chapter he says
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the doxology of this concluding verse is continuous with what predes the powerful God that Israel must prepare to meet is the cosmic Creator who controls all the
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forces of the Earth this verse set makes strategic use of the verbs for creation that appear respectively in Genesis chapter 2 and Genesis chapter
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1 for the solid mountains he uses the Potter's concrete word fashion yoser in in the Hebrew is used for the wind the more spiritual borai or
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create is used and so he's saying Amos is deploying the same language describing the Creator here um that is used in in Genesis 2 and then in Genesis
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one it's funny we were talking about now I don't remember what ver what word it was often you see in Hebrew when you study Hebrew particularly in in context of the Bible they make the same word do
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a lot of things um it gets deployed a lot what's interesting though is the words for creation there's a bunch of words that can mean create in various ways and and you may have uh heard some
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of this in the in the Genesis study but I I do think it's interesting here that Amos is deploying those specifically as far as I can tell out of out of Genesis and highlighting that for them um and so
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I I like his use of the word here doxology um he almost does sort of rapaic here as he's describing God almost in a vision um this this God who
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comes to you and then to to um El's question of of the use of the words here we have seen it once before and it's going to come up again in in chapter 5
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but I do think he's really punctuating the message here by describing him as um you know Yahweh God is significant
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because he's tying together the Covenant name that he has deployed over and over again with his position as God if if that's the right way to say that
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golish God and we usually use it as just like die it's not to be very I was just struck by that emphasis on your God yeah and then this is who your God is Creator
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but also the idea of meeting your God and that you know they've been bringing their sacrifices to
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their right God and now is saying no prepare to the actual God no that's an excellent point and and it is it is almost uh condescension in amos's voice describing
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God to them saying you know the god that you think you know this is Yahweh God the Creator um but I do appreciate that because every time I I would go through it it would sort of catch my eye out
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because he literally says the prepare to meet your maker effectively and it is that kind of a thing but it's also it's it's really interesting to me because you'll see similar language I mentioned
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before the Psalms often have description of God as Creator um and you will see them other places in the prophets and it's it's wonderful it's a reflection of God and yet you so rarely see it the way
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Amos has it here which is effectively God as your creator is a threat he has the power to make to Fashion to do these things he also has the power to unmake
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you he is the cosmic Lord of all creation AB did you have your hand up go ahead just thinking too the the judgments listed out that they've
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experienced in the past could are ones that could be mistaken for just the natural e and flow of normal creation things come and go they have fams they
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have Prosperity um and they they do seem to progress in the Poetry to get more and more Cosmic U but any one of those they could easily tell themselves this is just how the world works sometimes
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right and seems saying you're not going to be able to mistake what's coming anymore for anything but an act of God and he says in other prophets that that the other nations will go oh they they
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offended their God and that's why he did this to them they'll recognize it well I appreciate that I I should have pointed that out earlier because we've seen it before but he does highlight it here
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again Amos is delivering and and prefaces it by saying hear the word of Yahweh it is I Yahweh repeats to them again and again I withheld the rain from
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you I gave you the famine I did these things his sovereignty is underscored absolutely through this so there is no question u in the minds of the hearers
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to say as I frankly read in some of the commentaries oh well they live in a desert climate no I mean you look at the you look at the section here where he says you know I withheld the rain while there was still three months to the
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Harvest you you've heard the phrase the early and the latter Reigns he's withholding the latter Reigns all your crops sprouted and then withered I gave you no rain to increase their growth it
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is it is 100% a correlation God is saying I did this it is my action um so yeah I appreciate you bringing that out I meant to meant to mention that earlier
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it is it is the sovereignty of God and and he really does underscore it I think both in terms of describing God as Creator but then also to your point of of the phrase Yahweh God he is he is
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those two thoughts together 100% for them to say you know this is the the Crux of the matter if you'll pardon the the slight pun there um that that this
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is the god whom you should be serving the god you think you know um this is the god that that you will meet through this this punishment any other questions or comments before we close this
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morning all right well let's close in a word of prayer and go to our service
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father we do once again thank you for giving us instruction for preserving Faithfully your word for our edification and and to increase our understanding we do ask that you would give us continued
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wisdom that you would pour out your spirit upon us to to appropriately grasp and comprehend the word as it is preached this morning we ask that it might dwell richly in our hearts and be
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on our lips as we go before you in in praise and in prayer and and in song before you this morning that it would be a blessing both to us but most of all that it would have its appointed work
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to magnify your name and to somehow bless you in a way that is mysterious to us and yet you you describe to us you instruct us to do these things because
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you Delight in them so we ask that by the intercession of that spirit that it would truly be a delight before you this morning we ask these things in Jesus name amen
