Amos 8:4-
Notes
Transcript
The future destruction and restoration of Israel
The future destruction and restoration of Israel
Hear this, you who trample on the needy
and bring the poor of the land to an end,
saying, “When will the new moon be over,
that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great
and deal deceitfully with false balances,
that we may buy the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
We follow up the visions of last week with the indictments of the people. The ones who trample the needy and bring the poor to an end. We can see throughout scripture the intentional protections of these people. God has laws that ensure the poor can still feed themselves with gleaning provisions, there are cheaper sacrifices that are acceptable for the poor. People have a way out of their poverty that isn’t a lifetime of struggle. Yet instead of following God’s example there are some who trample over and exploit these people. I think we see the same things happen even to this day. There’s a scam that’s perfectly legal that’s gone on with many wealthy parents who have assigned legal guardianship of their children to a housekeeper for instance. That enables them to apply for and obtain financial aid for low income people. The exploitation of the system to better themselves is a prime example of obeying the law without fulfilling it. The purpose God had was to care for the vulnerable yet there were many who would exploit them, but still keep the law by closing down on the Sabbath and claim to be followers of God fulfilling what was asked of them.
Here we see the indictment of the merchants. All Shabbat long they aren’t resting and reflecting on God instead they’re thinking I can’t wait for this to be over so I can make more money. They have plans for how to cheat people out of money and then profit from their poverty. So we see next the consequences this brings.
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
We mentioned this two weeks ago as it came up that there are three things God swears by in Amos.
The first in Amos 4.2 “The Lord God has sworn by his holiness...”
The second in Amos 6.8 “The Lord God has sworn by himself...”
The third Amos 8.7 “The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob...”
It seems weird that the first two are similar. An attribute of God and of God himself yet the third is something considered sinful of Jacob. What do you think this is about? What’s your first impression here?
They all three have something in common and it’s something that’s important if you are going to swear by it. It should be something highly valued, or something that doesn’t change. These cases in Amos are all things that don’t change. The Pride of Jacob doesn’t change. It’s an insult in an oath. Then the very next line of never forgetting their deeds should make us think of what?
That God won’t remember our sin! so what’s this about that he won’t forget. Let’s find out the context of what we remember.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
They were still in the old covenant here in Amos… this promise that we hold to is not to them. So this sounds like a strange phrase to our ears about never forgetting their sin, but it’s right in line. Why would the promise of forgiveness where sin was remembered no more be so good? Because there was a time where sin was remembered forever.
Okay we need to keep this moving along or we’ll still be in chapter 8 next week.
Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
“And on that day,” declares the Lord God,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on every waist
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
Whoah, that’s gonna be painful. But let’s look at how these line up with another event. Jesus’ crucifixion had taken place and we pick up in
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
The 6th hour is noon.
Christ says he came to fulfill the law and the prophets
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
They still do not have a temple to this day. They’ve re-interpreted the scriptures and don’t actually observe any of their feasts biblically because they can’t. That’s sad and lamentable. Let’s see if it continues to fit with what we know.
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.
“In that day the lovely virgins and the young men
shall faint for thirst.
Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria,
and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
and, ‘As the Way of Beersheba lives,’
they shall fall, and never rise again.”
So far we’ve talked about calamity in the physical sense but here we bring the imagery for a different purpose. We understand this is judgment in the famine context but we’re told this is a famine and thirst of the words of God. They will not hear, they’ll wander all over, they’ll seek the Word but not find it. They will swear by the “Guilt of Samaria” what the heck is that? The guilt of Samaria was the false gods they worshiped, so this is another way of saying they swear by their false gods. In fact all of these phrases here point to their false god worship. ‘As your god lives’ and as the way/road/pilgrimage to Beersheba lives’ all point to the idol worship.
How much do these consequences sound like nearly 2000 years of history from June 5th, 70AD with the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the people of Israel until May 14, 1948 when Israel became a nation again. Not that that ended the famine of God’s word because even now many in Israel reject their Messiah Jesus. Some day soon though they shall all believe. Maybe that soon is tomorrow, sunset of September 16, 2240 or another thousand years from now. We don’t get to know. But “That Day” part 2 will come where, as it says in Phil 2:10-11 “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”