0:11
amen all right well we covered the majority of Amos chapter 3 last
0:22
week but there was a uh question asked in double overtime that I felt like was uh needful for us to go back and and dwell a little longer here so that we
0:32
all have the correct view and understanding of these things the particular question um deals with this verse 10 of Amos chapter 3 um in
0:44
The New American Standard it reads but they do not know how to do what is right declares Yahweh those who hoard up violence and Devastation in their
0:55
citadels you of course have earlier in 7 and 8 you know the Lord does not nothing unless he Reveals His secret will through His
1:08
prophets but this question of do they do not know how to do what is right or they do not know how to do right is a is a question because it starts to get to uh some of the element
1:19
of the culpability of the people at uh concern here particularly in relation to some of the things we have read and this is what I would want to emphasize as we
1:31
look at this particular verse is to take it in the context of Amos as a whole particularly the things that we have read previously in Amos that the Lord has revealed to them what is right and
1:42
how to do right um the specific wording in the Hebrew is pretty similar to what you have here um there is perhaps a shade of meaning if you want um the the more literal translation
1:55
would be something along the lines of they have no more understanding of the right path um what you have here of doing right is is literally making the path right um is the wording used there
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um and really the idea that we have and of course we saw this more in Chapter 2 is that they had tools and helps given to them and they cast them away um what we're seeing in this particular verse is
2:22
that idea of they had these things they had abilities they had um information and instruction given to them and they cast it all away uh all of the helps
2:34
that they had towards righteousness they have abandoned them but in this particular wording of the verse the second half of the verse I think also helps us dig out what he's getting at
2:45
here because he's talking about the wealth that they have and he is summing up their wealth as being violence and oppression that they have done to their fellow man really what he's getting at
2:56
here is their only goal is the acquisition of wealth anything moral any righteous judgment any shade of meaning between right and wrong is gone in the
3:06
face of storing up for themselves more wealth their only goal is to acquire they don't distinguish between what is right and what is wrong only what is profitable to
3:17
profitable to them but it's also useful I think here to to pause for a moment and consider a principle that you'll see often in philosophy and many of you have probably
3:46
idea that ought implies can because one of the things you could look at in this verse is well how can they be condemned for doing what is wrong if they no longer know how to do what is right and you get this aspect in fact this is um attributed to our old friend
3:58
Kant uhan Kant this is considered to be uh he was the one who coined it in this particular term although I don't know that the idea is truly original to him
4:08
but the idea is often deployed against Christians saying well how can you say that we ought to worship God or that we ought to be upright when you've already told us about total depravity that man
4:19
is not able to be upright well you can't condemn man for not doing something that he's not able to do does anybody see a fallacy here A Reason why this would not be
4:36
true or can we not actually condemn Israel for doing what is wrong coffee hasn't kicked in yet I
4:52
see God who is The Sovereign saying you do these things
5:06
right so there's there's a there is a range of of issues with it not not least of which is God is Sovereign and what we're talking about here is an absolute what is right and what is wrong um there is not a uh a shade here in that but it
5:19
is also true that there are certainly times and moments um and you can conjure up hypothetical examples for yourself in which you ability to do something is
5:31
removed from you but your obligation remains there are a lot of problems with the argument um one of which is that the more depraved people become the less responsible they are for the depravity
5:43
they don't understand the nature of sin right another one is that the the incapability is incapability is self-inflicted right right and that's that's the particular one that we're
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looking at here the the sort of analogous or hypothetical maybe not that hypothetical scenario I saw implied was well you know if you take this a implied can imagine if you will and I'm sure
6:05
none of you have ever been this person the student who has a term paper do and has procrastinated to longing now can no longer turn it in because they haven't written it their obligation to turn it
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in is not absolved because they have self-inflicted an inability to complete the task so part of it is this don't take this verse out of out of
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the context to say Israel is not culpable because they don't even know how to do what's right the point here is they have literally erased and eroded every help and Tool given to them for
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the knowledge of righteousness in the pursuit of wealth and everything else is ancillary to that they have completely run over truth justice righteousness
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their fellow Israelites in this well we're seeing it in the behavior in our own society that you know in the cities
7:00
it's been concluded that people are incapable of not stealing so we'll raise the dollar amount before we consider it that right you take up the $900 worth of merchandise before we consider that
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right that's most same people realize that that's insane yes that's that's a good point and you know you can you can sort of um
7:24
underline and Chuck's obviously talked about Kant in various aspects in various Thursday night studies and a few
7:35
of the Sunday schools because his various philosophies have um done a great deal of damage to the society in which we live but this particular idea of a implies can is I I agree with you
7:48
at the root of a lot of things you're seeing in our society at the moment so don't um don't misunderstand Amos here this verse doesn't stand on
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its own that they don't know how to do what is right means that they are not culpable for doing wrong AB don't you think there is a connection between human being
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child child doesn't have to do what the parent says but there is a connection when child doesent ask child to do something is
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a connection between us hum even though we don't want to do WR but there is a connection to God because we are made his image so we have this in our hearts that God sends us prophets and
8:57
us we want to do what's I'm not able to always do's always do's don't you think there is a connection there well the connection I would make would be what Paul says you know when you see the pagans doing uh you know
9:08
doing basically what we would call moral good they are a law unto themselves right they they are they are recognizing that there is right and wrong in the in the image of of God in man yes but
9:23
actually spoke to that exact issue he called it the categorical imperative recognize that Humanity has a moral
9:33
compass the problem is it can't couldn't bring himself to call it God's will right and the problem is with Israel and with man is that they do not align their
9:44
conscience with God they do not give him the glory but they do have that yeah that awareness certainly because if they lose that awareness the psalmist says
9:55
they're no different than the beasts yeah no that's a good point and actually we're going to see some of that as we move into chapter 4 here I appreciate that because there is going to be a comparison to beasts here in a moment I
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agree with you yes that there there is and and we've been able to see this throughout history there is a sort of Baseline morality often in mankind
10:18
across time and across cultures and part of what's Happening Here in Amos I appreciate this point because part of what Amos is summing up for them is you had the word of God God to be
10:31
righteous and you have gone past common Morality In how bad you're behaving that they have not just ignored God's word they have not just behaved as the pagans
10:43
they're actually worse in some respects in how they're treating each other because of how avaricious they are after these things and so there is a a summing
10:54
up of all that and we're going to see some of this in in four did I miss a
11:16
only focus it may be impossible but are so perhaps their guilt lies in only in their separation from
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um partially so I think that's actually a good question to carry into four because in four Amos is going to start to get into them a little bit in their relationship with God um so I let's hold
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that particular thought as we move forward um the other piece of this though is though is the some of the the commentators took
11:53
this direction and and the sort of philology of the Hebrew here to talk about the idea of perversion and there is that element here which is to say they are so embracing their their wants
12:06
and their selfishness that again the the terminology there is literally sort of the right path that they're on a completely separate Highway they they've gone they took the Turning many exits
12:18
back and they have perverted the way they are they are they they're not going to get there from here they're on the wrong road is what it gets at and it's not just sort
12:28
of the oops we made a mistake and we kind of drifted slightly off onto the shoulder a little bit and we can get back on the it's you're you've gone down the wrong way you've you you've left
12:39
God's stated will um so there is absolutely you know uh the the recognition here that he is summing them
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up but I want to keep it in context of the whole uh piece does that help everyone sort of take on that verse 10
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okay I'm going to move on to chapter 4 this morning and I don't think we're going to get all the way through like we were able to with chapter 3 but um before we jump into that I want to
13:19
talk slightly about the structure here because um and we we discussed this a little bit at the beginning of the last one 3 four and five as they're divided in your copies of the scripture
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all begin with a version of hear this word this is opening a section of instruction and we've talked about um in large measure particularly because if
13:40
you look at the beginning of chapter 7 you will see a um this the Lord showed me he he begins a sort of statement of a vision so 3 four five and six all sort of hang
13:53
together as a piece and if you have the time to read them together I think it's helpful because you can actually almost
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see the the Hue change slightly between them as you go through them um in my personal looking at it I sort of broke them down this way
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chapter three is largely warning in four you're going to see a fair description of the devastation the actual impact on the people of what's Happening Here um chapter 5 he he literally says I take up
15:21
for you or hear this as a durge he's sort of mourning them and there is a fair amount of mourning going through there and calling of the professional mourners um almost the sort of immediate
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wailing in the in the aftermath or the the moment after the hammer has fallen and then six gets into some of the aftermath but you're going to find that he sort of continues to indict them and
15:44
this is absolutely part of four you listen for this as I read um their incredible stubbornness even in the midst of the Affliction they're they're enduring this is more of a question
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um the people that speaking to we we read it and it seems like that they are openly apostate but is it not possible as with
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Isaiah I think he's contemporary D is it not possible that they actually thought they were walking with Yahweh and that their prosperity was evidence of that
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chapter six starts out wo to those at ease and Zion yeah we we're trying to think of this and we interpret it in terms of people who are are Wicked yeah
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but maybe he's talking to people who are actually self-righteous but are inwardly very Wicked so I think that's a that's an excellent point
16:40
excellent point um I appreciate the question I do agree to a large extent I think a majority of what he's describing here is self-righteousness and you're going to hear it right here at the beginning of four uh well really it's after the sort
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of first paragraph where he tells them you know come to these places and continue your worship do these things they were and this goes back to your question they were worshiping Yahweh they thought in some ways they they had
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some kind of self-righteousness and and we we'll get into that because that's the I think the first major point to take on in four so I agree that I um I think there is an element that you can say the people thought their prosperity
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again their context they were sort of at a at a Zenith here they were they were at an apex of their power they were um militarily secure the majority of the
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people were wealthy um you have a lot of blessing to them and we've seen in a number of times throughout the scriptures in various studies the way that wealth was
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considered by them to be how do I say this the direct and evident blessing of God that it was it
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was uh almost karmically one for one if I am wealthy it means that God is blessing me for my behavior um there's obviously a lot more Nuance in reality
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to these things as as we can dig out in various places of scripture that's not an accurate view of it but that was often how they viewed themselves and so if you cast your mind back to sort of
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chapter one we've already talked about the idea that he is sort of blasting them out of their ease their security you know we have Zion we have bethl we have um the the mountain of Samaria we
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have these citadels that God promised to us and we're secure he won't do anything to us and it is in the midst of that self-righteousness and security there is also though an an an
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evident what he's lambasting them for and I think you'll see it hopefully particularly in four is also the you should recognize that the wealth and ease you're enjoying has gone well
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past blessing into its own idolatry that the ease and and the the fat of the land that you are gobbl up is the be all and
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end all for you not God himself um so let's read uh chapter 4 and your hearing this morning and and sort of keep your ear out for these themes as we as we read uh again I'll say this morning I'm
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going to read um there are a couple of intricacies in the Hebrew that I'll I'll point out afterwards nothing to the point where I felt like this one in particular needed me to do uh a sub
19:24
transation so I'm going to read New American Standard the only substitution I'm making is to say Yahweh instead of Lord as I read hear this word you cows of Bashan
19:37
who are on the mountain of Samaria who oppress the poor who crush the needy who say to your husbands bring now that we may drink the Lord Yahweh has sworn by his
19:47
Holiness behold the days are coming upon you when they will take you away with meat Hooks and the last of you with Fish Hooks you will go out through the breaches and the walls each one straight before her and you will be cast to
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harmone declares the Lord or declares Yahweh I should say enter bethl and transgress in gilgal multiply transgression bring your
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sacrifices every morning your tithes every 3 days offer a thank offering also from that which is leavened and Proclaim Free Will offerings make them known for so you love to do you sons of Israel
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declares Lord declares Lord Yahweh but I gave to you cleanliness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in your places yet you have not
20:32
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 on one city and on another
20:44
city I would not send rain one part would be rained on while the part not rained on would dry up and so two or three cities would stagger together to another city to drink water but still
20:54
would not be satisfied yet you have not returned to me declares Yahweh I smote you with a scorching wind and mildew and the caterpillar was devouring your manifold Gardens and Vineyards fig
21:05
trees and olive trees yet 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
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made the stench of your Camp rise up into your nostrils yet you have not returned to me declares Yahweh I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and
21:27
Gomorrah and you were like the fire brand snatched from The Blaze 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
21:39
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
21:50
Into Darkness and Treads on the high places of the earth Yahweh God of hosts is his name
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so he this word takes up this um this message and message and again there is a question here and I will be perfectly Frank with you I don't have the answer to the question I don't know exactly what years and when Amos
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delivers these messages there is a little bit of scrabbling happening in the um the um historical uh Research into these things trying to identify these specific incidences of the droughts and the
22:28
killing of the soldiers and the various calamities that we see described here for me none of them particularly stuck as being that's clear and obviously when this was happening um
22:40
suffice it to say I think these messages happened over a period I don't know how long and I don't know how often Amos repeated them before the people um they were delivered verbally in exactly what
22:53
I think in this order but exactly when and how often he broke up the message I don't have an answer for you but I do think this 41 hear this word to me it
23:03
makes sense that this was another message that he stood up and delivered um this is clearly an opening of an address here hear this word you cows of
23:14
Bashan um there is a focus here this first paragraph really 1 through three is focused on the women of Israel Israelite Society in fact in the Hebrew
23:26
all of the verbs in this section are conjugated in the feminine there is no um ambiguity that he's speaking directly to the women in these first three verses
23:36
um Bashon was famous in that day for its cattle grazing I don't know what the equivalent would be in our day maybe coob uh coob beef from Japan kind of thing it was the you know this is where
23:47
the best cows from if you want a good steak you get a a steak from Bashan kind of thing like they're known for having good grazing land and growing nice good
23:57
cows um and as one of the one of the uh commentators pointed out um he's not leveling this particular address this
24:07
vitriol at them because he thinks that the women of Israel were fat it has to do with indolence it has to do with the fact that like cows all day long they're just grazing and stuffing their faces
24:20
and there is no fasting there is no uh cessation to their appetite that they just they just graze all day long on the things that they are stripping off the people um highlighted by the the idea
24:32
here that they say to their husbands come on you know bring us the wine unlike the cows that are eating the nutritious grass they're also you know avaricious again after after the good things the wine and and uh filling
24:44
themselves on the things that they have stripped off the people it reminds me honestly um I heard I think two two weeks ago a news report
24:55
out of Britain that one of Britain's wealthiest families had a an estate on some particular Island in which they were bringing over uh quote unquote servants from India and paying
25:05
them pennies per day and basically keeping them there as indentured servants despite the fact that this family is family is billionaires this is what we're reading about the incredibly wealthy families
25:17
are there stripping and oppressing the poor and the needy crushing them underfoot as they consume and gather more than they can possibly take in or
25:42
um Yahweh swears by his Holiness you're distinguishing a clear contrast between them and the thing that that the Lord himself finds to swear upon that he that he puts his oath on is
25:53
his own nature his own Holiness the the immutability of his holiness that's the certainty that he is leaning on as he condemns them here um some of
26:05
your translations and this is a place where I I simply have a preference um the only one I know of in particular is the NIV that deviates here but if your
26:15
verse has something other than behold the days are coming the NIV says something along the lines of the time will come I think the days are coming is the is the better way to see that in
26:26
part because as we're going to move through here we're see the day of the Lord brought out as a particular theme Amos being one of the first to sort of circumscribe that day of the Lord idea
26:37
also it's more definitive and you will find that phrase repeated throughout the Old Testament the days are coming is a little softer in my mind in terms of translation the the Hebrew is more along
26:50
the lines of behold the days are coming um so so the time will come is is not quite what I I prefer there so if you have that I would make a note
27:00
um then we come to they will take you away um this gets us into an oddity in the Hebrew again not something that I think you you're going to need to make a
27:11
lot of notes in your translation or or disturb yourselves simply to say some of your translations as I read meat Hooks and Fish Hooks you may have had Hooks and hooks you may have had baskets and
27:23
Fish Hooks um there are two hop Hax leg here that that do not appear anywhere else um the root words behind them uh one of them has a root word that's
27:35
probably hook the other one has a root word that's probably fishery um we honestly don't know what these words are other than there's some sort of implements being used for pulling these
27:45
people out um most of the translations to make it intelligible in the English says they will take you away it's literally it it will haul you away um implied probably
27:57
the enemy the enemy will haul you off um but just an odity so if you if you hear um differently in your translation as
28:08
I'm reading through um those words the meat hooks or fish hooks are a little bit confused um because we don't know actually what those words
28:23
are their enemies away I don't know if that's a reference to unfortunately so there there are
28:35
there is a word that we have uh in the Hebrew that's used in other places that that is just straightforwardly hook um there's also a word that straightforwardly sort of um hooks used
28:45
in fishing neither of these are those words I do think what what you're seeing here though if you look at it as this pattern um the days are coming it will take you away with hooks and the last of
28:56
you with Fish Hooks you'll go straight out through the breaches in the walls and actually in the walls is not there literally just straight out through the breaches my mind tends to do these things maybe it helps you the image in
29:07
my head is almost the sort of cartoony you've got a wall there and the Harpoon goes right through the wall Spears you and pulls you straight out I mean you've been hooked and grabbed and and yanked
29:21
out Looney Tune style yeah um It's that kind of suddenness and though is the idea of it
29:41
umow um exactly so so I don't mind the idea of the meat hooks there is fair enough that you're going to sort of be hooked up and and taken off to The Butchers um Calvin went down a slightly odd Road of saying you know we start off
29:51
with cows and we end with Fish Hooks so they've gone from the fatness of being cows down to being little fish on the fishing line he's going to strip away their wealth I don't really see that in the Hebrew I'm I'm sorry I really think
30:02
it's the the sort of suddenly you're going to be grabbed on the line and pulled out inexorably you're not going to wle off of this um that's that's what we're getting at here um and each one
30:13
straight before her and then finally this again this little block here has a bunch of oddities and then we'll mostly be done um harmone is very
30:24
unclear um most of your translations I did try to do a survey just about every English translation I could find sticks with harmone except the King
30:34
James um which goes with palaces which is actually probably more accurate to the Hebrew um because it just says harmone in the Hebrew that
30:44
later becomes a place name in part of Armenia as far as we know nobody got taken specifically to Armenia it probably means Castle
30:55
essentially being chucked off the battle um Jezebel style that's my thought on that but it's quite unclear what harmone is supposed to be there um it does mean
31:07
something to do with castles later on in the Hebrew but again it's it's just an odd one here and it's only used here you spoke of the security of their fortresses at this time I mean this has all the ear marks of the end of The
31:18
Siege where people are just getting chopped up correct yeah and and so for me there there is a possibility there that the word means something to do basically with the idea of of palaces or
31:29
battlements you're being pulled out through the breaches and the walls I think contextually you know you're being you're being yanked out through the walls you're being cast off the battlements the security that you think
31:40
you have in your fortified cities is actually not security at all you are not safe there um the Lord has sworn on his Holiness that that these days are coming to you um any particular questions there
31:53
before we move on okay I'm going to move on to the next section well actually sorry one last
32:05
um where is it here ah okay in verse two uh it says and the last of you with Fish Hooks the sort of last phrase there literally the word there is posterity or Remnant and
32:17
frankly I wish that the English translations had gone with Remnant because he he says you'll be carried off and the remnant of you will also be carried off it goes back to the things that we've heard earlier and things we
32:28
to hear later as Amos deals with sort of Remnant theology the word is the same I honestly don't know why they went with a different one last of you it's the idea that there's not going to be anybody left in the city there's no Remnant here
32:40
everything is carried off completely utterly emptied sorry I want to get that in there before I move on to um the next
33:05
keep so it depends on who you mean by people um because certainly we can see in chapter 7 and and when we get there that's where I want to hold more of that conversation but you get the certainly the elites of society you have um what
33:16
is he the priest that that addresses what is his actual title they give him here uh yeah amiah the priest of bethl sent
33:28
word to jeroboam king of Israel so so the spiritual leader in theory of Israel says man shut up um you're going to have this
33:42
this view that the People by and large are not hearing him um you you can look at it in contrast to
33:53
um Jonah that we talked about a week or two ago in which Jonah goes Nineveh and everybody from the King on down puts on sackcloth and repents it is it is
34:03
painted in no uncertain terms in Jonah that that whole city was repentant and and believed and and begged the Lord's forgiveness and the Lord relented of it that is how it is is stated is that that
34:15
that whole people the whole society gathered together in this and then of course Jonah is mad um because well he didn't want to talk to him in the first place and he really wanted to see the
34:25
evildoers punished repentance Is for Suckers apparently um at least if you ask Jonah at that point so Amos I would suggest to you that I think
34:37
there were people who heard not least of which because there is a Remnant found of of every tribe in Judah they are not lost when Israel is
34:47
carried off and dispersed we're not given those descriptions the description we are given is of the unrepentance and the description we're given is frankly of
34:59
the of the Rebellion or or outright rejection of the message
35:14
James so it's a good question um it depends on whether you put Amos at the beginning or the end of the roughly 30 20 to 30 year period that he could have been in it's about 150 years before Israel is really truly carried off
35:26
something like that um it's probably about three generations honestly it's it's about three generations before that really comes
35:38
down on them in the way that he's describing yeah um so you know it's a fair enough question that we can we can discuss more at another time but it it does go back to a little bit that we
35:48
talked about at the beginning um Moses gives them uh what do you call it a rubric a litmus test for whether a prophet is a prophet or not and what are you supposed to find out about a
36:00
prophet what he says does it come true so there's an element here of going ooo 150 years before this actually comes down on the people you could certainly
36:11
see some people around Amos going yeah good job Amos those days shirt Came Upon Us didn't they um because it's going to be after his lifetime that the that the
36:21
full meaning of this really fulminates on them however we find at the very beginning he says you know 2 years before the earthquake um we don't know if he described that to them it seems to
36:33
be a very momentous event that we can sort of pick uh in the archaeological record with again sort of roughly 20 to 30 years of accuracy we can actually see it having moved up on this sort of fault
36:44
line um in the in the archaeological record and some of the internal references um so there is recognition I think among some of the people that Amos was a prophet and certainly some people
36:56
would have heard this with understanding um because God always has his Remnant among the people God always has his um response the the believing response his
37:07
word is not without its um salvific Power and whenever God speaks and and we brought this out I think in Chapter 2
37:18
God never speaks without Grace there is never a an utterance in which he does not um help or or at least dispense Grace to
37:30
his people in some way um but for the majority of the people that heard Amos I frankly think that they rebelled against it at least that's how Amos demonstrates it to us in in the record that he leaves
37:43
for us I'm not sure there's quite that much time I think there's less than 100 years oh okay the Exile is not what we're
37:54
talking about here because the northern tribes were spersed M by Assyria and that was like 723 something in the late 8th Century
38:06
okay so Amos was 790 is yeah Amos you might talking one
38:16
okay old this I was thinking of the actual Exile which is a little further on ler if I take I'm looking at my notes from your presentation on May 19th you said
38:27
the layers approximate the earthquake at between 770 and 750 is the best guess so talking about a period of maybe 40 years
38:37
okay so a generation then I'm sorry thank you for for correcting me there I was I was thinking of the Babylonian proper Exile not the Assyrian dispersion of Israel um so yes all the same that is
38:50
to say it was it was either likely very late in amos's life or probably after amos's death that that the actual visible manifestation of all of
39:01
what he's talking about here as as carrying off Israel and and removing the remnant comes but what's What's Happening Here in four as we as we move on and and we're not going to get all
39:11
the way through four this morning we're going to see in the later section of four from kind of verse six or so on as he describes the various um whips and chastisements that he has laid on them
39:24
again a number of people have tried to go through and identify either from Chronicles or from the archaological record or or the things that we have and say ah these are exactly the moments that these
39:34
that these landed the real issue I have with that is the section we have describing job's Reign is not particularly long um or details many of these I mean the the
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biggest one we're going to see here is really famine really famine um I think that's really in relation to the fact that they are full and at ease and and gobbling up you know storehouses
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full of things and he's going to describe to them all of that is gone but I want to pick up here uh again to to Angela question uh in verse four and
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five this is an important piece of the of the message here enter bethl and transgress transgress in gilgal multiply
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transgressions um he's speaking to them ironically God is is delivering to them the like yeah come on in and carry on your trans transgressions God is Not
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tempting them God is not inflaming their sin he's describing to them ironically yeah you all love to come up here you you love to come on and to bring all of these offerings diligently bringing
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these offerings in all the wrong places um there's one altar that God had given the People by this point where was
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that Jerusalem that's not in bethl it's not in gilgal it's in Jerusalem there's one place that they're supposed to go it also highlights the difficulties
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of Israel is there you can get to Jerusalem but it kind of means going into the neighbors territory now that we're separate kingdoms we're you you
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most of you I think will recognize from Kings and Chronicles pretty soon after this happens well we need our own altars to worship Yahweh at um those those go up pretty quick in that
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timeline it is this idea that they are and I'll I'll be clear here we talked earlier in Chapter 2 where it says in the house of their God I frankly
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think that's little G God but here he's talking about you're worshiping Yahweh and later and when he says prepare to meet your God that's capital G he's talking about you know and you go and
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you do these things we can go look at Deuteronomy chapter 14 where he describes some of these um specific offerings that are in place here but but cast your mind over to to the things
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that Chuck has brought out of Leviticus these um these offerings that he describes here you know your your sacrifice every morning your tithes every three days most people think
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that's actually supposed to be three years because that's what it describes in Deuteronomy there may be a little poetic license happening there thank offering and Proclaim Free Will offerings you know he's saying you're
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adding to this you're not only just coming here doing these diligent offerings over and over again the things you're supposed to be bringing you're adding to them Free Will offerings look how good I am I'm doing extra extra
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credit bonus points in all the wrong places um they're in effect increasing their judgment in this worship of God in the
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wrong way um Calvin remarked here he said you know it's sort of the the remonstrance is to say um you know you you you've gone and you've done your
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sacrifices God has had his du and ought to be satisfied you know what is your complaint we've brought our offerings our our our thank offerings our Free Will offerings our tithes we brought
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everything we did what we were supposed to do and he's saying here this is the kicker at the end of of five for so you love to do oh sons of
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Israel you love to come here and to do these things and to be diligent and to be seen being diligent it is Will Worship they love to go and to to do the
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ritual and to be religious in all the wrong ways and places they are diligent in their Disobedience effectively
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Abigail so like said you know's being s but then it seems like he says okay let's be serious now yeah stop doing that yes no I appreciate that because five does tie together that way of the you know seek me in truth and
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again we can talk about some of this and and I think it's up on our website if it's not uh we can certainly make it available dad preached a whole series out of Hosea Hosea was preaching to
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these same people probably around the same time if not plus or minus a year or two um very much focused on the religious side of their transgressions
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whereas Amos has more focus on their social obligations to each other in righteousness before God but here is his real sort of big um swing that he
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takes at them in regard to their their transgressions before God is to say you know you guys are self-satisfied you are self-righteous you're so sure that I've done everything I'm supposed to do and you're doing it all wrong wrong and
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you're doing it while you're doing all of these other things to your fellow man you know you think of of the you know you you bless God with your mouth and you curse your brother with the same mouth you know it's it's absolutely that
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you're chewing up your your countrymen while you're offering these things these Spoils of Oppression to God as you wereing in mind CH of thees when he came
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yeah and thees he told just enraged them beond reason beond reason yeah very similar it's absolutely similar it's and you know there's that element of the they didn't change you
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all of those years you know you have the um you could be taking care of your your penniless and aged parents but oh no I put that under Corban to God that's an offering to God my parents can't have
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that um it's for my I mean God's use um you know you have that same heart there of the you know we're we're using our wealth for God when in fact you are just
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out and out oppressing your your fellow people um the the other part of it is you know again it pleased you to do so I think is
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sort of straight on Heart Of The Matter there of of the sort of will to well it pleased us to go to these places and do these things it's a lot more convenient than going down to to Jerusalem frankly
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I think we had an example of it during the earlier prayer time we actually discipline these people because they're sending their TI check yeah yeah well and and and that's that's
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true and and you will see this kind of thing in um our day and age unfortunately and I'm sure many of you can think of similar examples of the you know as long as they're paid members of
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the church it's all well and good additionally again I I don't need to belabor it in your hearing many of you have heard I'm sure sermons on the idea of will worship and on the idea of doing
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things before God that are pleasing to us despite the fact that they're not commanded there's quite a lot you can read in the commentaries in this section if you want that's the gist of it though Abe you had your hand up oh okay um as
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we close though we're going to have to pick up that next section six uh through the end in next week but reflect also I think there's a it feels a little Stark
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at first when he says but but I think if you look at this most of these sacrifices again think of of the teaching out of Leviticus most of these sacrifices involve food in some format
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either cooked or raw ingredients um most of its food in some format or another and the immediate thing is you brought all this food you heaped all this stuff up I gave you
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famine that's the hinge that we're going to see here as he moves into the sort of the Lash that he lays on them but we're out of time for this morning so unless there's a particular question here we'll we'll close in prayer
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father we do thank you again for your word for the chance to read and to to seek after your heart we ask that you would reveal yourself to us through your scripture that our our striving would not be in vain but it would be blessed
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by your spirit that we would find you and speak rightly of you glorifying you for your Justice Your Grace your
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uprightness your Holiness the unchangeableness of your ways that um you are the same yesterday today and forever we thank you for being our God
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and for being the great God the only one worthy of of honor and praise As We Gather and assemble upstairs to continue a time of worship we ask that you would
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anoint it by your spirit that it might be a blessing in your sight and a blessing to your people we ask these things in Jesus name amen
