Amos (Session 1) Intro & Chapter 1

the Book of Amos and this is just the first chapter in the introduction and just to get a background here if we look at you as you all know when Solomon finally died there was a civil war and the nation of Israel split into two houses the southern kingdom called itself Judah the northern kingdom called itself Israel will try to avoid using the word Israel because that will confuse you with the term for the total nation also it's used two different ways connotative Lee and denotative Lee but the the top half of the diagram there is in 1st Kings to make the diagram a little more useful I'll cut that off and just take the bottom one and expand it because that deals with the era that we're dealing with here and the northern kingdom as you know went from bad to worse in dekap into it idolatry and ultimately was taken over by the Assyrians and the the captain of the Assyrian Empire was Nineveh and we're going to have a there was some interaction prophetically with Nineveh before they finally take it all over the southern kingdom goes into captivity for 70 years and what most people fail to realize in when they excited exceeded the power they included the Assyrians so the Assyrian Empire was included in what we call the Babylonian Empire and therefore this the captives were commingled following the Babylonian captivity we have what's called the Exile they were out for 70 years that is the nation the southern kingdom they come back and we call that coming back from that's post exile if you will and under the rubble and the book of Ezra just to give you a perspective here and but so the most of us are familiar with the major prophets that's an unfortunate label it simply means their books are larger not more important but the major prophets of course are Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel and Daniel and they whenever you study these prophets it's worthwhile putting doing some homework as to where they sit in and to what kings are reigning where they fit in in history that's important but anywhere these are anyway the major prophets Daniel Ezekiel being in the Babylonian captivity but tonight we're really focusing on the first of 12 prophets that are called the minor prophets and these minor prophets are minor not that they're less important the books are smaller these this is a librarians categorization but even so it's puzzling to me as to why their list in that order in your Bible I'll show you what I mean see Hosea was called to preach against the northern kingdom fair enough Joel was a very early prophet and addressing the southern kingdom Amos the one we're going to talk about tonight is cotemporary Gnaeus with Hosea addressed to the Hosea came from the north and preached against the north Amos came from the south but was sent to preached against the north we'll get into all that but then we have Obadiah who's preaches against Edom we have Micah and again in the southern kingdom Naaman follows Jonah both of them dealt with the Assyrian Empire under Jonah they repented and got an extra hundred years but they didn't underneath them and that mayhem and that's when the a certain certain Empire falls to the Babylonians and they ceased to exist in history but continuing then some of the other we have Habakkuk and Zephaniah and in the southern kingdom area in the post exile period we have Haggai Zechariah and Malachi in that order that's logical or left okay so after the Old Testament that book of Malachi we have four hundred years between the Old Testament of the New Testament that many people call the silent years and that's a misnomer because most people don't realize those 400 years are in your Bible and not talking about the apocryphal books I'm talking about the Book of Daniel chapter in chapter 11 verse 5 to 35 is a profile of those missing years so to speak that are so accurate and so precise that critics have said it had to be written later it couldn't really be Daniel and all that which is silly because it was translating the Greek three centuries before Christ's ministry so be that as it may we'll move on to give you a flavor of the chronological order the ones before the Exile would be Obadiah that's one of the earliest then Jonah and Joel and their each to a different group obviously Obadiah was to eat him and that's a special study we'll talk a little bit about later Jonah de Nineveh of course we all familiar with that famous story Joel was one of the earliest prophets and he introduces the concept of the day of the Lord that all the other prophets echo back about Amos is sent from the south to the north and we're going to be studying him Hosea was also the northern kingdom hi Isaiah big book very important days of Hezekiah done in to the southern kingdom Micah also to Judah a.m. is the second prophet and an event that wraps it up then we have Zephaniah on Habakkuk and Jeremiah really comes to the end of the it's not during his prophecy that they go into exile and Amos will be talking about obviously in detail in the study but just to give you patience the picture during the Exile we have Jeremiah in Jerusalem Ezekiel in Babel and both prophesying about that period and of course Daniel is also in in Babylon and Daniel goes in the first a portation Ezekiel in the third and on it goes so after the Exile we have the three post exile prophets Haggai Zechariah Malachi and that's the whole enchilada okay and the between Testaments thing I pointed out to you but that what puzzles me is why they're in this order because I don't think that's too useful they're not in chronological order that was different the order that would seem logical to me would be by the people they're sent to there's two to the northern can to to Nineveh five to the southern kingdom and through the Exile let me expand that to read look at it northern king of Hosea Amos that's the area we're going to be dealing with Nineveh is Jonah and Nahum that's a whole nother study southern kingdom is the focus of five of these guys Joel Micah Zephaniah Habakkuk and Obadiah and of course the book of Isaiah is the southern kingdom and reason we're so interested in that is we're going to find out about did the Davidic Kingdom which is yet future forthcoming many people probably nine churches out of ten deny that's gonna happen Bible says it's going to we'll talk about that and then of course the post exile prophets would follow so that all seems logical to us and of course the one we're interested in is Amos that's the one for tonight but I thought this perspective never hurts even those of you that have been through some of this it'll put help develop a perspective how long will judgment tarry is a question that's asked all through the scripture amos is sent to israel at a time when the nation feels militarily secure and prosperous or a look at that it was the best of all possible times and yet in spite of that they're turning to idolatry and they're abandoning their heritage the northern kingdom does that sound familiar you're beginning to get a feeling already maybe how relevant this book is to us in our day and that's going to echo all the way through this with some surprises that many scholars have missed the southern kingdom that's the truck one that called itself Judah was under can use aiya he reigned in Judah he was a righteous King he enjoyed their Lord's blessing he subdued the Philistines to the southwest he seized going to end up being a buffer state that's where you get this perspective here he subdued the felicity's of the southwest the ammonites themselves paid him tribute he conquered the Arabians to the south and we understand from 2nd chronicles 26 that his fame spread to the borders of Egypt so this was a high time for the southern kingdom also he had a large standing army and all that sort of stuff Amos came from this kingdom the southern kingdom calling itself Judah he was contemporary contemporary of Hosea up in the north but God sends him to the northern kingdom that calls himself the house of Israel and you can imagine how welcome he was in any case we'll get into that now the northern kingdom was under Jeroboam ii here he was the fourth king of the Jehu dynasty he ruled in Samaria that was their capital and he was experiencing a boom of prosperity from his father Joe ashore jehoash he had a reign of 41 years the boundaries of the northern kingdom to the West was Lebanon the coastal plain retaken from Syria to the north it was Damascus itself was the subject subjugated think about that southeast they controlled pagan Moab and to the south Jeroboam second father had defeated Jude and war so they had a war Judah lost but they're stabilized if you will both prospering interestingly enough Jeroboam ii retained the strength over the southern kingdom Uzziah kept amman under control to the east Edom to the south Phylicia the southwest so in effect you see the summarize this eat Jeroboam the second had ironclad military strength strong standing army ironclad defensive configuration Silvia Syria was a buffer against Assyria to the east and they had the what we call the Golan Heights today was a buffer to the east also Judah the sister nation in a sense was the buffer against Egypt to the south so from Northern Kingdom they felt very secure never had so good and of course the Mediterranean to the west they were very prosperous Samaria their capital they had peace and power of conquest for 41 years think about that that's a long time they had new markets they had trade in every direction they were they had a growing wealthy class many had summer and winter homes they had a BMW in every garage to use the modern vernacular Charles Dickens opens his famous novel Tale of Two Cities with an interesting line that's very because echo echo all through this in a sense he was talking about London in Paris and a different kid but his line is very well-known it was the best of times and it was the worst of times very Dickens like remark but very descriptive in this period because from their point of view it was the best of times and yet two prophets Hosea locally and Amos from the South preached not really repentance really simply announcing their their destiny I'm going to catch on that as we go so the times Amos lived in times of material prosperity long reads of both Uzziah and Jeroboam ii both up in north both long rains brought stability prosperity and expansion to both of those kingdoms the southern kingdom stirred the fishing's to the west the ammonites to the east and the arab states up his arse political influence was felt as far as egypt that just a review who i said here the northern kingdom to whom a missus message was directed was at the zenith of their power never had it so good Aram think of that as Syria had not recovered from their defeat NATO TC from Assyria under a bad knee re of the third Assyria however had been unable to press their advantage any further so there are somewhat neutralized even though they they've been successful a succession of inept rulers and troublesome Rotarians to their north that is to the assyrian north kept us area preoccupied until the accession of pink left players of the third in 745 so their main enemy to the north was distracted with other issues so given a free hand airbone ii was able to extend his borders northward to the aramean or call it Syrian territory and to reclaim Israel's lands east of the Jordan because of the control this gave Israel over the trade routes wealth began to accumulate in their cities commerce thrived an upper class emerged expensive homes were built the rich enjoyed an indolent indulgent lifestyle that sound like anyone you know the poor became targets for legal and economic exploitation they always are slavery for debt was easily accepted standards of morality had sunk to a new low ebb they weren't great to begin with so idolatry isn't the root of all of this Jeroboam the first a ancestor of the existing king at Institute idolatry 150 years earlier at both dan and beth-el the two golden calves you read about Aaron's golden calf of Exodus with 700 years prior religion understand that's not religion in this negative sense flourished the people thrown to the shrines for the yearly festivals enthusiastically offering their sacrifices but you'll quickly find out God was not impressed they steadfastly maintained that their God was with them and considered themselves immune to disaster I'm hoping this has a familiar ring to it okay they did not welcome the uninvited prophet from the south of amos his message was that israel was experiencing mercy before the storm his message is one of God's impending judgment and now that you think as we go through the study come to your own conclusions if whether or not there's a parallel today and I might just insert here a comment this is one of the reasons we have two parallel studies in the Institute the Bible study we call the Berean Avenue of study is paralleled with what we call the Issachar Avenue study which is that be like the sons of Issachar who understood the times and knew what their country had to do we will be dealing in this study with the brilliant aspects what did Amos say and what did it mean kind of thing but what your task is to parallel that on your own with your own resources what's really going on here today in our country different time different place may be a similar destiny and what then then we have resources intelligence networks and other things for the Institute for those of you that are members I encourage you to avail yourself of those United States today are we militarily secure we're closing down bases while the world the world is worldwide nuclear proliferation going on we think we're prosperous it's only because we can borrow materialism rains but our debt service is so large the cash flow of the US can't pay the interest on the existing debt and we probably got too much debt and the solution of government is too big it is to get more death first law of holes is to stop digging huh godly foundations are abandoned in our country prayer God in schools and all of that you've all heard that echo before definition of marriage itself and family at risk teenage condoms provided by taxpayer money sexual perversion is promoted in this country are we experiencing grace before judgment are we in the twilight of our years is that the twilight's last gleaming is the question remember this though God will judge sin Billy Graham quipped so colorfully several decades ago if God doesn't judge America he'll have to apologize in sodom and gomorrah great soundbite well it's up on amos the man the red ammas is an infrequently used verb which means to load a burden upon an animal as a noun it means a I have a suspicion can't prove it just a suspicion I wonder if this is really a nickname given to him by his adversaries how often life someone will use a pejorative and it becomes a desirable label Yankee Doodle Dandy was a joke by the British but the Yankee Doodle became a proud label and you can think of a lot of other examples maybe he recorded as a sheepherder from Tekoa but we also learned in Chapter 7 he was a grower of Sycamore figs which didn't grow in the Toccoa region that's interesting and he was a rancher a breeder and a farmer a substantial and respected man in his community and his community may have been actually quite large Toccoa is about six miles south of Bethlehem 12 miles southeast of Jerusalem there's a story there in second samuel 14 a wise woman sent by Joab to persuade David to permit his murderous son to return to Petra me was from Tekoa the cause also the birthplace of ira the son of a Kish which is one of David's thirty mighty men it was fortified by Ray of home as an outpost to delay the attack from the south when they were at war with the north and so forth the zeal of the men of Takoma often spoken of their nobles reproved in nehemiah 3 and so forth so he's he's a rich guy well-established coming from a place of good reputation and yet called to a district in which he was a foreigner Amos the man he had came from an agricultural background had no formal religious credentials he wasn't a prophet he wasn't a priest or anything like that he was a foreigner to the Northern Kingdom keep that in mind as we read his elegant work he was sent to rebuke Samaria the royalty the pop and the false priests craft you know a lot of examples of this kind of thing in the Bible Moses on the backside of the desert it's called to be the Redeemer is Gideon on the threshing floor David a few sheep out on the hillside Daniel refusing to eat the Kings meat John the Baptist in the desert Peter in his fishing boat Paul in Arabia each one of these are not professional religionists they're self-made men whose private lives were in contrast to their subsequent ministry so we never can you can never guess who God is going to call in this room there may be some that will be surprised that God will normally call them but empower them for a worldwide ministry or whatever we'll see we just recognize each one of these had private lives that were interrupted by God's call so there's a message here of warning Naima says improbable warnings were fulfilled in less than 50 years with the utter destruction of the Northern Kingdom the Northern Kingdom didn't go into captivity like a Southern woman there's southern 1:1 indicate captivity for seven years and came back why only for one reach there weren't any better they were worse than some respects only because of God's promise to David so we want to understand the Davidic covenant which will come up especially before this book finishes but a mrs. visions are not limited the Northern Kingdom that's why we're so especially interested because it he they do include the whole house of Jacob that's an expression meaning not just the northern house of Israel the senate-house Judah the whole enchilada if you will and they also include the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom so we want to have that in view as we go here it's far as a much larger horizon than would seem evident at first the style is like vivid poetry is a balanced line of three thought units per half line there's an uneven rhythm collie kena and another that is a Hebrew term for lament there's something else you'll notice there's a strange rhetorical device sometimes called the X and the X plus one formula it's a Hebrew way of emphasis I'll give you three reasons no.4 you'll do that again and again and again all through the Proverbs by the way Solomon does that all the time there are three things that God hates no.4 and and so on and well Amos picks that all the way up here to it apparently was a frequently used Hebraic format if you will he's all kinds of to use as rhetorical questions imperative for rhetorical effect irony humor personified ocation climactic tension hyperbole a courtroom stipe scene and in Chapter four and lots of times you'll repeat phrases and expectations and him nick phrases there's a skillfully he's a skillful writer is the point well let's talk about what we're getting into it we're in the introduction chapter one first couple of verses okay then we're going to encounter eight judgments he's going to talk about the judgment on Damascus judgment on Gaza judgment entire judgment on Edom judgment on Amman judgment on Moab judgment on Judah and judgment on Israel relax we're not going to there's not a lot of detail each one of these we get virtually all of that well the first six of them are heathen nations okay so he just goes through a couple of verses each and we'll go through those as we go that'll be our thing tonight primarily he gets the heathen out of the way first then he talks about the judgment on Judah that's his own hometown side so to speak before he gets to eat then he'll have a judgment on Israel those last two are in Chapter two we'll pick up just a verse or two before tonight's over hopefully and we'll leave the judgment Israel simply because next time we'll take not only it but chapter three well let's go talk about like daughter becoming here after from chapter three through Chapter six our three sermons the first sermon in chapter three is Israel's present second sermon is Israel's past and the third is Israel future so we'll try to next time get the first two of those on the next session that's then followed that by the way covers chapters three through six chapter seven through nine are five visions of judgment there's a vision of locusts which is a very strange one because Amos talks God out of it there's a vision that something could happen he says please don't do that God says okay I won't say what's that in there for to give you that's called a remiz there's a hint of something deeper there that God wants to disclose to you and we'll talk about that when we get there vision of the fire a vision of the plumb line then there's a historical insertion here then the summer fruit that's by then we get to chapter eight and then the stricken doorposts in chapter nine and then we have a wrap-up with the Davidic Kingdom restored and that's going to be a surprise to many okay that's the warmup let's just jump in the words of Amos Amos one versus one Amos who was among the herd men of cacoa which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah the king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joyce king of Israel so he mentions the northern king of the yeah the southern king first northern King last two years before the earthquake Wow the herd men of tacola the word actually means sheep breeder he evidently managed and owned herds of sheep and goats and was in charge of other shepherds as the implication here and he's described himself elsewhere as one who took care of sycamore trees in Chapter seven that's a very broad leaf tree twenty-five to fifty feet high which produced a fig like fruit three out of four only three or four times a year and the sycamore did not grow in the heights of Toccoa but only in this warmer lowlands as in the Jordan Valley and the Fertile oasis by the Dead Sea so the fact that he has evolved that implies he was a man of lands not just a few sheep on a hillside these three terms together indicate that Amos was a breeder a rancher and the farmer and was a substantially respected man in his community but that's in the southern community and he sent to head north two years before the earthquake wow that must have been some earthquake 250 years later it will be referred to in Zechariah 14 that must have been quite a milestone in people's lives two years after a Miss visions now is this a divine portent does that earthquake somehow prophetically relevant they've done excavations at Azure that show the evidence of a massive to trembler they try to date it if they can there's also in the Mars flyby hypotheses that we study when we get into Joshua let one of those flybys or six of them will was October 7 56 BC that's close enough that maybe somehow fit the model we'll see and they've seen in 762 it occurred forty years before the Assyrian invasion so there's some scholars that think it may that earthquake may have been a trembler to speak of the forthcoming collapse of the Assyrian Empire could be Josephus can mix all this with Uzziah sin in 2nd chronicles 26 we won't depart and going to all that here it's all speculation anyway but earthquakes often do precede God's involvement for example at Sinai at Exodus 19 and we also see them echo all through the book of Revelation chapter 6 8 11 19 and 16 let's move on verse 2 got a whole verse there we're making good you I see some people taking off this calculator so I figured gee we're gonna finish here about a week from Tuesday okay let's move on Amos verse 2 and he said the Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the habitations of the Shepherd shall mourn and the top of caramel caramel shall wither Lord of war yet lion roars just before seizing his prey and the grassy lowlands that Cartmell is literally fulfilled by the Assyrians in 722 that's the opposite sense of what Joel says about in his chip is some 60 years before but anyway the next several verses portrayed the judgments against the six even nations that I outlined for you let's just jump in eight judgments on Damascus Gaza tyre Edom Taman Moab Judah Israel and the last two are the ones close to home so the first one here we'll take a look at the judgment on Damascus if you look at a map you want to get familiar with us a little bit we're going to be looking for Damascus Gaza tyre Edom Ammon Moab Judah in Israel Damascus of course represents the capital of the of Iran but it's under northern Israel's control at the moment but it when you think of Aram think of that is what we know is Syria if you will okay you notice also this pattern I mentioned before thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of such-and-such or for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because and so what you know for three reasons no I'll give you four that's a Hebrew pattern we'll see all three here okay X plus X plus one and it's just it's a it's a structure intended to be of emphasis and you see it all through the Bible let's move on here thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Damascus oh and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have thrashed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron and of course Damascus found it probably about 2000 BC the world's oldest continually inhabited city on the planet Earth and Syria conquered it some fifty years before and that's just history and Gilead is what we think of as the Golan Heights if you will it's pretty close enough here but I will send a fire into the house of Hosea and will devour the palaces have been hated and they were both has a land been dead were destroyed by this is like my army they they thrashed the conquered prisoners with metal thrashing floors is pretty brutal and I won't get into that history of snide sort of peripheral to our interests here anyway but big laugh police are with the third was the big conquer of Assyria that would descend on Syria from the northeast subsequently fifty years later Isaiah labeled her the rod of my rod my God's anger so God uses these things as a way of judgment I will break also the bar of Damascus and cut off the inhabitant from the plane of oven and him that hold of the scepter from the house of Eden and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto kir saith the Lord now I will break also the bar we means break the door and the same phrase that we have in Genesis 19 9 when the sodomites try to get the the two angels that were with lot God breaks human security whatever the plain of oven is is a place called Beth Eden is by some about thirty miles northwest of Damascus and it was the heat in the center of idolatry Baalbek heal hilly AAPIs the famous Baalbek temple in Lebanon is there and so forth okay and here is the assyrian province on the banks of the river of the same name i rama is the ancient name for what we think of his mountainous syria if you will and so this was all literally fulfilled when the Syrians were exiled to here in 732 BC when tiglath-pileser the third killed Reza and their king of Syria and theirs will be dealing a lot Latin detail when you get into the Isaiah commentary well let's move on to the next one Gaza a couple verses there Gaza is what you and I would think of as Phoenicia because we're going to mention not only gods that we're gonna mention Ashkelon Ashdod the other cities that make up the Philistine group there thus saith the Lord verse 6 for three transgressions in Gaza and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they carried away captive the whole captivity to liver to deliver them to Edom Gaza okay the Philistines ward against Israel from Samson's day until the days of Joel the last recorded invasion was against the king - Herman his family and only the youngest son survived that to Horeb he was the wicked king of Judah sold captives to the Phoenicians and thus to the Greeks if you will and to the including joram sons all but one and their wives bad stuff all the you may know them better by their Greek name the idiom ands Herod was the Romans thought he was Jewish no he was an Edomite and as we'll get into that more when we get to eat him here but they continually fought against Judah in Israel and there was a satanic hatred at the roots of this that will touch upon and later in a minute the text continues verse 7 but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza which shall devour the palaces thereof and I will cut off the inhabit from Ashdod and from him that hold of the scepter from Ashkelon and I will turn my hand against Ekron and the remnant of the Felicity shall perish saith the Lord so we've got Ashdod Ashkelon and Ekron and these and echo and maybe what we think Noah today is got the lands of the Phoenicians and Felicity's were given to Israel as an inheritance so they're really usurpers but there's a problem with that they've got the his rights were instructed to drive these people from the land but they failed to do so in judges 1 therefore they've been a thorn on their side ever since interestingly enough and if you and if you study the book of Judges with a map you'll discover all those places that they failed to deal was the Glen heights was Gaza and the core center which is called now called the West Bank those places are to this day the same area that is a thorn in their side well let's go on to the next one tire and the tire is actually a reference to Phoenicia in general and so we'll take a look at that thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of tyrosine for four here it is together I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they delivered up the whole captivity to eat him and remembered not the brotherly covenant in other words they served as slave traders so prohibited by the brotherly covenant between Solomon tires King Hiram they were active with David Solomon the temple but they abandoned that heritage big mistake in their own exaggerated sense of importance they appeared to have thought they could defy him and get away with it big mistake so tires destruction interest is predicted here well it took Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years to besieged tyre he then completely destroyed and enslaved this people but he wasn't through well get into them the remnant of tyre escaped to a small island off shore for two hundred and forty years they survived until Alexander the Great laid siege for seven months and ultimately built his famous causeway from it to the mainland in 332 BC took Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years it took Alexander the Great seven months but in any case Ezekiel's prophecy of Ezekiel 27 was fulfilled they were destroyed and sold into slavery by Alexander the Great who obviously was Greek fulfilling even the details of the prophecy it was rebuilt in Matthew 15 and acts 2 anyone talks about it it was ultimately destroyed by the Muslims and 1291 Sidon the sister city and the Philistines suffered the same fate as Tyre did subsequently Amos says I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus which will devour the palaces thereof and that exactly what happened this is we talked about the slave trade and the highlight the trade relations between Phoenicians greece Mesnick and to Baal are mentioned in Ezekiel seven Greece had acquired one million three hundred and thirty thousand slaves it's it's recorded by Herodotus I think it was said that there are ten thousand slaves per day were sold at Delos in the training centers so okay let's move on to the more probably the most interesting of the whole game and that's Edom just two verses here but they're profoundly significant so let's take a good close look at it Edom most of us think of it as the slaying south east of Judah extending from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba bordered on the west by the valley of Arabah and on the east by the large mountain range on the and on the north by Moab at one time it was very cultivated area enduring the fatness of the earth and the dew of heaven descended from Esau there should have been a close feeling between the two because Jacob and Esau were twins in the womb and they started fighting while they were still in the womb but instead there's perpetual enmity to them it's a subject that most one a very important study in the Bible that you need to dig into now many obviously under Isaac we had two sons Esau and Jacob they were twins Esau does something people overlook he deliberately and to offend his parents marries the daughter of nebajoth in the Genesis 28 he does that to offend his parents which means that his offspring can be called or Ishmaelites because they co-mingled is the point okay and so we could talk more about that but that's understand that most people have no grasp both they're talking about what they're talking about an arrow but let's move on here so there is Edom and we associate it with a zone south east of the Dead Sea except what we're not going to get into in length here they get driven by the Nabataeans and form a country called idiom ayah just to the west southwest of the Dead Sea that becomes a major major element that you need to understand because there's probably not for one person in 100 that knows who the are today and to get into that you want to get either our commentary on Obadiah and/or our Psalm 83 commentary but we're here we're just going to take the highlights remember that the Exodus came around the traditional sight crossed the Red Sea and into Jabal al lawz that's been pretty well confirmed these days and then meanders up to Kadesh and then to Hermann Houma and then back and they want to cross over to Moab and the king of Edom won't let them he forces them to go around the long way to get to where they're going and that is something that God frowns upon because they're supposed to be brothers not adversaries but that there's a a Olam haba an everlasting hatred from Edom against Jacob and it's echoing to this very day in some surprising ways here's deny passage he refused passage by the king's highway numbers 20 and so on and when he refused to let them pass they D turned around the country because of his show of force and also because God ordered them to do so rather than to wage war he didn't want them fighting now Israel was forbidden de Porres brother Balaam predicted the conquest of Edom in numbers 24 Joshua a lot of the territory of Judah up to the borders of Edom but did not encroach on their lands for these very reasons for two centuries later King Saul was still fighting with David finally conquered him put their Garrison's throughout the land Solomon built the port of is in Hebrew and the Jehoshaphat's from the time joined the ammonites and Moabites in a raid on Judah but the Allies fell to fighting each other didn't get very far then Jer home and eat him rebelled but he could not reduce them to subjection Edom had a respite of some 40 years and Amaziah later invaded made him stew about ten thousand in the value of salt captured the sale of their capital and sent ten thousand more to their deaths by casting them from the top of Salem and desire a messiah successor restored the part of a lot that brings us to the time of Amos here but later under Ahaz when Judah was being attacked by Pekka and resen the invaded Judah and carried off captives and Judah never again recovered Edom and they are a thorn in their side worldwide to this day in a very surprising way anyway he was defeated by Saul David and Joab almost destroyed all the male population Josaphat defeated them in the valley of america and although a messiah captured Petra Petra or sailor the same places also called Basra Israel is never able to completely subdue him and they committed their worst crime when they betrayed their brother nation during the Babylonian conquest that deserves some special mention because God singles it out for mention the time about 586 BC the place Jerusalem the event the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian armies we see the angry soldiers as they wrecked the wall slay the people burn the cities get the picture but we see something else we see a group of neighbouring citizens as they stand on the other side encourage the Babylonians to ruin the city raise it raise it they're calling - their little children against the stones and wipe out the Jews that's the they're suppose they're the same family or in the family yeah Isaac Jacob there's a psalm 137 when you read it you won't understand it if you don't lose background you'll be puzzled the psalmist says remember O Lord the children of Edom in the day of the Jerusalem who said raise it raise it even a foundation thereof Oh daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be that rewarded thee as thou has served us happy shall he be that taketh and - if thy little ones against the stones when you read that Psalm and get to that last verse where what kind of phrases that in the song no he's echoing what they did to the Jews during the Babylonian incursion so raise it raise it the term meaning make bear raise it in the sense of bring it to the ground let's continue with verse 11 let's say at the Lord for three three transgressions of EDA and for I will not turn away the punishment Thera because he did pursue his brother with a sword he did cast off all pity and his anger did tear perpetually and he kept his wrath forever well Edom I will send a fire upon teaming and which shall devour the palaces of Basra teaming is a key cities in in Edom and Basra is a synonym for what we know today is Petra and so in Basra is the chief city of the northern part and by the way the fame for died garments interesting enough and now it's a desolate wilderness and will remain so and Obadiah deals with all of this and it's in his commentary the judgment against Edom is mentioned in more Old Testament books that it is against any other foreign nation and you go through it all the way through there is one book alone that's dedicated to it the little book of Obadiah in fact in that country actually append to that a full our study on who eat'em really is even today and i won't try to get in that here we're all running running a little behind so bear with me here the judgment of Amman ok what do I mean by Amman ok Amman is still the capital of what we know as northern Jordan if you will thus saith the Lord for three transgression of the children ramen yen for for I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have ripped up the women with the children of Gilead that they might enlarge their border so that's bad news both moab and ammon were descendants of lot let's keep that in mind a lust for land 325 years earlier the ammonites confronted jaffa with a claim on the Iliad which had belonged to them before Israel to enter the land they claimed it sound like something today interesting ammonites justified terrorism on pregnant women God took away the royal family of Eman and they attacked Jairus Gilead under Nash the Eman by the way is that same term that the capital of the north during his Amman today and they joined the galleons in their invasion and plunder of course in second Kings 24 well i will kindle a fire in the wall of rama and i will devour the palaces thereof with shouting the day of battle with a tempest in the day of the world rim and robber was the capital it's now known today as amman desolation pronounced prophetically on Emin in ezekiel 35 and elsewhere today no me9 exists on the face of the earth their prophecy was fulfilled sort of but not quite because the have a different character today and you need to study the commentary to get into that and their King shall go into captivity he and its princes together saith the Lord let's go on to the next one which is Moab we're now in the chapter 3 bear with me we'll just take a few verses of the next chapter to complete this segment if you will so Moab is south of Amman north of Edom let's say at the Lord for three transgressions of Moab and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime boy we could talk a little bit about the history but that's not that critical to us so a lot of people talk about cremation the biblical form of of entombment is burial people say what does it what difference does it matter well in a sense you're burying a body is a testimony to your belief in the resurrection I'll be the first to admit that God can resurrect a cremated person don't misunderstand me but it's a testimony issue and it's interesting that in the Bible burning the bones was a crime some people ask me GTA what's wrong with cremation I don't know but it's certainly not biblical and it's relatively recent and a certainly a pagan form of dealing with the issue so I'll leave it there and we'll move on the Byrne de Bohun second King at 2nd Kings 3 C 90 years earlier more was a tributary to Israel after Israel's King Ahab died moab rebelled am Sundaram secured the assistance of Jehoshaphat of Judah and the king of Edom who was friendly at that time and Moab is king and army were trapped Edom held in desperation the king of Moab sacrificed his own eldest son and heir on a high wall to hear much the Moabite national deity you see gee that's disgusting everybody else thought so too the act is so sick and everyone that work was abandoned they all went home but I will send a fire upon Moab initial devour the palaces of carry off and no I shall die with the tumult with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet and Kure often may have been the capital we believe of that event at that time and I will cut off the judge from the midst of there and I will slay all the princes thereof with him saith the Lord it's interesting when you read the book of Isaiah when Jesus comes back he is going to deal from Ezekiel 25 to 32 to wipe out seven nations Ammon Moab Edom Philistia tyre Sidon Egypt they are very diversified ethnological II but they have one thing in common they're all Muslim interesting interesting okay well we've seen these eight judgments there's two left to do Judah and Israel having dealt with the Gentile nations Amos now turns his attention on Judah and Israel but Israel to leave for next time so Judah is there in the south and as I was the King as I mentioned he did right but he didn't remove the high places he didn't go far enough pride led to his usurping the authority of the priests he entered the temple and burned incense on the altar that's a no-no for a king to do the house of Judah and Levi were supposed to stay separate Uzziah followed by Jotham who did right but he also didn't remove the high places no words they did reforms but they didn't go all the way Jotham six it was succeeded by a as and that was bad news he married Jezebel you know that little story and not saying I'm just using you don't let me do mixed except yes he has was followed by Hezekiah who did remove the high places and broke up the bronze serpent you may recall the host on a thing of brass and reforms over short-lived Manasseh the worst of the bunch followed desire fected another reformed after him more far-reaching than Hezekiah is indeed but not deep enough to have lasting results interestingly enough don't mr. saying Hezekiah and Josiah two bright spots in the in the line here but that's the good news the bad news was they didn't go quite far enough even Josiah didn't leave deep results course he got killed trying to go after the Ark of the Covenant that was in putting safekeeping in Egypt and Ethiopia thus saith the Lord for three transgressions engine of Judah before I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have despised the law of the Lord and have not kept his Commandments and the lies caused them to earn after the which their fathers have walked they despised the Lord 3+1 again this for pattern to reject it a spine that Moz is to reject despise to have an aversion for can them to have contempt for the very strong terms when I'm trying to get across their Vittorio a way that we love the Lord Judah actively repudiated God's law and passively despised it by not keeping it the consequences are consequences if rejected and Leviticus 26 speaks of that four times he says if they reject by law I will multiply their punishments by seven very profound prophecy in Leviticus 26 it's all detailed in our study of Ezekiel for but let's get back here three consequences have rejected despising of the holy law and is wholly in life-giving law consequent breaking of his Commandments and regulations concerning worship in life consequence self-deception that ignoring God's regulations did not matter much in daily living wow there's three consequences despising the law breaking his Commandments and that concept self-deception that accompanies all this these brought divine wrath upon Judah Wow and I will set a fire upon Judah and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem the word there is Armond it's a high tower fortress it's the strongest point in a placer castle the citizens Citadel's of Jerusalem were destroyed in the Babylonian evasions under Nebuchadnezzar in 606 BC in 597 BC and then totally in 586 BC on the ninth of of almost every major disaster in Jewish history occurs on the ninth of the month of a knob and this is recorded by Casillas by the way to should be up Temple of Solomon looted torn down burned and the city itself raised with all his towers pull down by Babylonian ropes same thing happens by the Romans on the Tisha B'Av in 70 AD that's why tisha b'av is a dark day the Jewish experience about this time king uzziah's intrusion into the office of the priests attempted offer incense in the temple struck him with leprosy because only Levite is supposed to go in the temple his son Jonathan had to take over his duties as King Hezekiah confronted by his Seneca ribs 185 thousand Syrian Army prays oh I love this he goes before the angel lays out the letter that was written and an angel intervenes let's say it politely one angel after dinner one day slaughters a hundred and eighty-five thousand Syrian troops you don't mess with angels demons don't do that they can't embody they all they can do is to dwell no angels can materialize God postpones judgment of Judah for over a century thanks to him and 701 all calendars change we deal that in the Joshua commentary signs of the heavens their briefing on that about why did all calendars and it's 14 different cultures changed in 701 day BC well now having talked about judah amos will now turn to his primary assignment which is israel in this list he steals with it in the next 10 verses of chapter 2 we'll deal with next time but what we're going to do and just to give you a perspective that's obviously up north that's the northern kingdom calling itself the house of israel but he's after after those couple of verses in chapter 2 he's then going to turn to three sermons on that very subject so we'll defer the front end of this for as an introduction for next time and so we have these three sermons of judgment forthcoming and then the five visions of judgment i mentioned before and then de vide game and it's these three sermons that are going to be our next target that's where amos now is going to focus on what he was called to do do all this up till now is a preamble and next time we'll take two of the three will take chapters three and four together next time actually check - and those next time so with that let's stand for closing word of prayer

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Length: 50min 56sec (3056 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020