Amos 6
Notes
Transcript
Continuing Woe
Continuing Woe
This week we actualy continue on from last week in the WOE category. Just like in 5:18 we had a Woe, we start Amos 6.1 with one as well
“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria,
the notable men of the first of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel comes!
Zion is usually interchangeable with Jerusalem but it’s a little more specific. If I asked where is capital hill, what would your answer be? Washington D.C.
but for a lot of things I could use that interchangeably right? It might have a more nuanced meaning though because I’m talking about where the power is, where the rulers make those decisions not just the city, although if I changed out a sentance and put in D.C. you’d still understand everything I said. e.g. They decided on capital hill today to spend more money on war. It’s no different really if I said they decided in D.C. today to spend more money on war. You’d get what I’m saying. But there is nuance. If I said Captial Hill is full of crooks! you’d have a different idea of what I meant (if you know anything about crime rates in D.C.) if I said Washington D.C. is full of crooks! So when we’re saying Zion here understand it’s an actual hill in Jerusalem but it’s connected to the religious and civil leadership of the nation. This is compared with the northern kingdom equivalent hill, the mountain of Samaria where their capital is located, and presumably some religious power. Which we see the affects of all the way down to Jesus’ time with the woman at the well who asks which mountain (hill) is worship supposed to be done at?
So these groups feel like they’re secure they’re set they don’t need anything from God that they can’t provide themselves. So go compare yourselves to these other places…
Pass over to Calneh, and see,
and from there go to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than your territory,
So what’s up with these three city states? They’re all in the borders of North/South Israel now… They were also big important cities but where are they now? They’re under the influence of someone else. They weren’t any bigger than those places had been. The next verse picks back up on what we talked about last week. They just couldn’t imagine that there would be a day of destruction for them.
O you who put far away the day of disaster
and bring near the seat of violence?
They “put off” or “reject” the day of disaster, they don’t think this is something that happens to them because that’s for God’s enemies and we’re the chosen, we can’t be his enemy. Instead this rejection and their continued sin brings in the very violent end they deny will happen.
“Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory
and stretch themselves out on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock
and calves from the midst of the stall,
The Woe isn’t there in the Hebrew. I don’t like it but I understand the reason, it’s an open sentence the woe is implied for the beginning of the rest of the verses through 7. These verses just start waxing about the opulence these leaders have gotten into.
who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp
and like David invent for themselves instruments of music,
music making isn’t bad, but when your population is poor and struggling should you be lounging and making up little rhymes to your own amusement? probably not...
who drink wine in bowls
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
oh Woe to the bowl sized wine drinkers… A cup is not gonna do it, I need a BOWL. Let me get my spa treatment too while we’re at it… Who cares that the place we’re running has gone to the dogs!
Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile,
and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.”
So… this is the deal. The leadership is the first one to get the axe or the exile.
Then we get another oath from God… This is serious again.
The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts:
“I abhor the pride of Jacob
and hate his strongholds,
and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.”
In Amos 4:2, here in 6:8, and then again in 8:7 we have an oath that declares punishment. First swearing by his holiness, here by himself and third by the pride of Jacob.
And if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. And when one’s relative, the one who anoints him for burial, shall take him up to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him who is in the innermost parts of the house, “Is there still anyone with you?” he shall say, “No”; and he shall say, “Silence! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
So, anyone that escapes the initial punishment and destruction of Samaria will only have their death to look forward to. They won’t even get a proper funeral where God’s name might be mentioned.
For behold, the Lord commands,
and the great house shall be struck down into fragments,
and the little house into bits.
Destruction is indeed decreed, and utterly not just cracked, but put to bits.
Do horses run on rocks?
Does one plow there with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
Like our other rhetorical questions the expected answers are NO. This sets us up for the statements that are equally absurd as the question.
you who rejoice in Lo-debar,
who say, “Have we not by our own strength
captured Karnaim for ourselves?”
“For behold, I will raise up against you a nation,
O house of Israel,” declares the Lord, the God of hosts;
“and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath
to the Brook of the Arabah.”
Lo-Debar might be a pun of a town name, but I might have just translated it as the word nothing. Karnaim is a pair of horns, so they’re boasting of taking nothing and the bull by the horns… not a good idea outside of a business meeting, with a real animal...
Then we get explicitly told God is going to bring a nation that will take them out, from the northern border to the southern border.
This completes our first Major section of Amos like we laid out in our first session. Thus says the Lord is done and next week we will begin What God Showed.