Seek the Lord and Live - Amos 5-6

0:57The book of Amos starts out by going all around Israel and speaking of all these other nations that the Lord says that he's seen their sins, he knows what they're doing, and they're going to be punished because of the violence that they've had and because of other sins as well. And then he finally gets to Israel itself, and the biggest judgment is for Israel itself. Then last week we saw exactly what were some of the things that Israel was being So wicked about? What are they suffering for? And the Lord, towards the end of chapter 4, said, I tried to warn you like this. I sent pestilence, I sent locusts, I sent this. All of these were signs in the covenant that would say, that was God's way of showing that they were being disobedient. And yet, over and over and over, they failed to get the message, or they got the message and didn't care. And now the Lord is saying he's going to send a nation against them to utterly destroy them. That nation we've been looking at, so again, the date of Amos is around 760 BC. That nation, the empire that would come against them 40 years later is the kingdom of Assyria. And they do destroy the northern kingdom totally in 722 BC, just as the Lord promised.

2:27All of this, as we read in the book of Amos, all of this so far has been messages of judgment. The Lord has been very clear: the sins that the people have done and the punishments that they deserve because of it. But as we read earlier, that any time the Lord gives a message of judgment, there is at least an expectation or hope that they would repent. And when people hear that message of judgment, Judgment and they repent, the Lord forgives. That's part of his character. We read that in Jeremiah's writing, who is prophesying about 150 to 200 years later about the southern kingdom. And he's saying the same thing. He's saying, if I give this message of judgment, but the people actually listen and repent and turn from their ways, then I'll relent. And of course, we saw that in the book of Jonah. Jonah goes to Nineveh, he preaches a message of judgment, but the whole city repents and God relents. And that's what makes Jonah so angry. Well, in our passage today in Amos, God's going to make it clear that if they want to, there's still a chance for them to repent. Yes, this whole book has been judgment so far. He's saying, I've seen all the sins you've committed, and I'm telling you exactly what's coming. If you want to, you can repent, and those who do will be blessed. But unfortunately, we know the history, and we know what will happen, and they don't repent, and they are destroyed. But let's pray once more before we jump into Amos chapter 5. Father, we pray that you'd help us as we study. Help us as we look at this passage and observe your amazing character, your grace toward your people, your outstretched arm toward them, willing to accept them back in spite of how wicked they've been.

4:33Help us to see how amazing it is that you're continuing to speak through your prophets to this wicked kingdom. Help us see and be in awe of you. And help us leave behind any stubbornness in our hearts and be people who are abounding with soft hearts that long to repent, that long to be humble before you. In Jesus' name, amen. So, Amos chapter 5, verse 1. Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel. So, this is continuing, chapters 1 through 6 in Amos. Amos keeps receiving words about Israel. That's what he keeps saying back in chapter 1. And now again in chapter 5, he is receiving words about Israel. Starting in chapter 7, that'll change. He's receiving visions about Israel, but we'll save that for another week. But he gets another word: hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel. So, this is going to be a word of lamentation, and it seems to be a poem or a song, like a lament that you'd hear at a funeral. Look at verse 2: Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel, forsaken on her earth. Land with none to raise her up.

6:04I personally think that's the whole song. That's the lament. They are grieving like you would at a funeral for someone who has fallen, no more to rise. The virgin Israel, forsaken on her land with none to raise her up. Israel's doom is so sure that they're already singing a funeral song about her. This northern kingdom, fallen no more to rise. That's what's about to happen because of their wickedness. No one is going to come help. She's going to be forsaken on her land with none to raise her up. Why? Verse 3. For thus says the Lord God, the city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left.

6:52That which went out a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel. This is why they're singing such a devastating song, or at least saying such a devastating poem, is because these armies or these houses that went out a thousand strong only come back a hundred. You know, when we use the term decimation, that comes from a practice from the Romans of where they would decimate an army. But that was when they would destroy one-tenth of an army. That was decimation. This is God is saying that he's going to. Destroy nine-tenths of these house. So, this is decimation times nine. Ninety percent of the population is going to be wiped out.

7:41Verse 4. For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, seek me and live. This is the first time we hear something like this. God is saying, This destruction is sure, but even now, seek me and live. They haven't been seeking him, but he's still calling out to them, seek me and live. And I think what's implied there is if you did, this destruction wouldn't be coming upon you. Thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, seek me and live, but do not seek Bethel. Do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba, for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing. So remember, those are the cities that we saw last time. That when they made the northern kingdom, they couldn't worship where God had told them to worship, where the glory cloud had filled the temple in Jerusalem. They had split apart from that kingdom. So they had to make other places of worship. And so they remembered where God had met their fathers. And rather than submitting to God's command to worship at the temple, instead, they're pretending. To worship the Lord in a way he would want by going to Bethel, the place where the house of God is what that means, the place where Jacob had his vision, had his dream, and then later the Lord tells him to sacrifice there. Or Gilgal, the place where they crossed over the Jordan and set up the twelve stones to remember that the Lord had let them cross over. These were very special places in Israel's history, but they're pretending like they can just go there and worship the Lord, and that's pleasing to him. And last time, the Lord points that out almost in a sarcastic way: okay, keep going to those places, but you're still just going to be destroyed. Now God is saying, seek me and live. Don't seek those places. Do not seek Bethel. Do not enter into Gilgal or cross over into Beersheba. The reason why it says cross over is because that's actually at the very bottom. So they'd have to cross over the land of Judah to get to Beersheba. It's kind of the bottom-most major city, and it was also a special place for the fathers of Israel, a place where they lived and spent some time down in Beersheba. And it's kind of the bottom-most major city. So that usually when God wants to say something like across the whole land of Israel, he might say something like from Dan to Beersheba. And that's the whole northern and southern kingdom, the whole thing, all the way from top to bottom. And so Beersheba is way down there. So he's even saying, He's saying, don't even go there. Don't go to Bethel. Don't go to Gilgal. Don't cross over to Beersheva. Everywhere is going to be destroyed. You're not going to be helped by fleeing to these other cities. It's not going to help. Gilgal shall surely go into exile. Bethel shall come to nothing. Instead, verse 6, seek the Lord and live. He says it again. He said, seek me and live. Now he says, seek the Lord and live. Lest he break out like a fire in the house of Joseph and it devour with none to quench it for Bethel. Seek the Lord and live. Lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and it devour with none to quench it for Bethel.

11:20He's saying, this fire is about to break out. Seek the Lord. And you can be spared from this. It's going to break out in the house of Joseph. Usually, that could be just the tribes that came from Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh. But usually when it's used in prophecy like this, it's just another name for the northern kingdom, the house of Joseph. God is saying, I'm going to break out like a fire against it. Even Bethel is going to be devoured. Verse 7, O you, who turned justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness. To the earth. So now he's saying exactly what they've been doing wrong. They've been seeking the Lord in the wrong places. They haven't been worshiping him how he's told them to worship. But they've also taken justice and turned it to wormwood. That was this really, really bitter herb and cast down righteousness to the earth. So they're taking justice and they're making it something bitter. Instead of having this society where justice should be good, where people should be able, if they've been wrong, they should be able to come and make a lawsuit or bring their case to a judge against somebody. All of that justice is just gone. It's bitterness. It's a mockery. Righteousness is cast down to the earth. The people just don't care about justice. They just want what they want. They don't care about justice. They don't care about righteousness. God is telling those people, instead, seek the Lord and live.

13:05Verse 8: He who made the Pleiades and Orion, those are constellations of stars, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth. The Lord is his name. Yahweh is his name. Who makes destruction flash? Forth against the strong so that destruction comes upon the fortress. God is reminding them of who he is. He's the one who made the stars. He's the one who made the night and the day and who can change those with light and darkness and bring darkness in the day. He's the one who can pick up the waters of the sea and pour them out on the earth.

13:59Yahweh is his name. He can flash forth destruction against the strong, even the fortress. He is completely in control and completely powerful. This is a God who's calling them to seek him and live. He's the one who's in control. And they've disdained him. Verse 10. They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth. So he returns to this idea of judgment. The gate was the place of bringing court cases. The judge would sit in the gate, and people would, like the city gate, the entrance into the city, would maybe have a long corridor or something, or a long pathway where they could set up these seats, and the wise men would sit in the city gates and talk. You could bring judgment. And that's where judgments would be decided. And so, for somebody who had a case or who wanted to make sure that someone was punished for wrongdoing, they would reprove in the gate. Even a judge, a wise judge, would make sure that the wicked were reproved in the gate. But the people are hating those. Look at verse 10 again. They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth. So they want what they want, even though they know they're being wicked. And so they can't stand it when there's actual judgment in the gate. They're going to yell at him and reprove him and get rid of the righteous. They hate the truth. They want to cover up the truth because they want to be wicked. And they don't want anyone telling them not to be wicked.

16:00Verse 11. Therefore, because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. God says, since you have done these wicked things, and you've got the courts on your side, so that you can now go trample on the poor and force. Force them to give you grain. Maybe they've taken their land and said, Oh, yeah, you could still live on this land, even though it's mine. You just have to give me all this grain now, because it's my land now. Maybe they've brought unjust lawsuits in the court to these people who can't defend themselves, something like that. They've made a mockery of justice, they've gotten a wicked court system on their side, and they've used that to oppress the poor and steal their money. Since they've done that, God says, You have built houses of hewn stone, so they've built these really nice houses that are going to last forever, last for generations, but you shall not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. God is saying, You have used all these unjust ways to enrich yourselves, to plant these beautiful vineyards, to build your retirement home, but you're not going to live there. These are going to be taken from you. Verse 12, for I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins. You who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy and negate. God's saying, I've been watching. I know how much you've done this. I've seen it when you've done these things. You afflict the righteous instead of upholding the righteous.

18:02You afflict him and are violent towards him, who take a bribe. They're willing to look the other way, give favor to different people based on how much money they can get out of the situation. And they turn aside the needy and negate. So when a needy person does come to the courts or come to the gate and bring a case against somebody, they're turned away because maybe the person that they're bringing the charge against has already bribed the courts. And so, of course, they're going to go with the wicked person. That's how they're going to make more money. They can't make any money off a needy person.

18:46But God's saying, I've seen all of this. You, Israel, you who are the ones who are supposed to uphold my law, be the nation that exemplifies my character to all the other nations, who are supposed to care about the law and justice, care about the people that I care about. You have instead trampled on the poor. And you've used the courts and the justice system to turn against them and enrich yourselves. It's so bad, verse 13. Therefore, he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it's an evil time.

19:28You know things are bad in a Society when there are good people, but the good people can't even speak. They're going to get screamed at, they're going to get sued. They're going to be the ones that are trampled over. I don't think he's, some people think that maybe he's giving some kind of proverb: therefore, he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it's an evil time, saying, you know, if you're really wise, when things get really bad, you're just not going to speak up about it. But I don't think that's what he's saying. I think he's giving an indication of just how bad things have gotten in Israel. That those who are good and those who are wise, those who the nation should be lifting up and looking to for help, making decisions, those people have been silenced.

20:20They don't even feel like they can come and give their judgment. The wise aren't going to come and sit in the gate because no one's going to listen to them. Instead, the powerful are going to take charge of the courts and use them to their own advantage. It's an evil time. Sometimes that reminds us of our own time, I think. If we think of at least certain parts of the media or something like that, that it's bothersome in our hearts as we're trying to think with discernment about truth and righteousness.

21:00And some people can't even speak their mind without getting shouted at or yelled at or ridiculed because it's an evil time. Well, here's God's instruction for them. Look at verse 14. Seek good and not evil that you may live. So far he has said, seek me and live. Do not seek Bethel. Seek me and live. Seek the Lord, he live. Seek the Lord and live, he says in verse 6. And now he says, seek good. Seek good and not evil. They've been seeking evil. They've been seeking these ways to enrich themselves. Now God says, instead, seek good, not evil, that you may live. And so the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of armies, will be with you, as you have said. So maybe as they're doing all these wicked things, they've been saying, God be with us, or something like that. You know, the Lord be with you. God be with you. God bless you. Lord, please bless me. Something like that. They've been saying these things as they wickedly enrich themselves.

22:15Amos is telling them, or God is speaking through Amos, to tell them, if you want the Lord to be with you, the Lord of armies, the Lord of power, if you want him to be with you, seek good and not evil, that you may live. Verse 15, hate. Evil and love good and establish justice in the gates. It may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. So, again, like we talked in the beginning, he's holding out this offer of mercy. It's still not too late. Yes, it's a total mess. People are wicked everywhere, and it's so bad that the justice system is with them, so you can't even prosecute the wicked because it's the wicked who are running the gates, the courts.

23:12God says, hate evil and love good, and establish justice. Lay down justice as a foundation. Get your justice right so that you can hate evil and love good, and maybe turn this society back upside down to where it's supposed to be, so that the Lord will have mercy. Verse 16: Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord, that's the name Yahweh, the God of hosts, that's the God of armies again, and then the Lord, the Master.

23:51In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, Alas, alas, and they shall call the farmers. To mourning and to wailing, those who are skilled in lamentation. And in all vineyards, there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst, says the Lord. So the implication is they're not going to do this. God said, Look, if you want to live, if you want to seek me and live, seek the Lord and live and seek good. Here's how you do it. You need to establish justice so that you can hate evil and love good. But God is assuming that they're not going to do that. And so he's saying, Therefore, the Lord, this is what God says: is that everywhere there's going to be this wailing. Remember, in their society, they had people who were like professional wailers in Jewish society. We see this all the way down in Jesus' day, so that you could hire people to come and wail and make a song of lamentation for if there was a funeral or something like that.

24:55God is saying those people are going to be everywhere. Everyone is going to be wailing and lamenting because it's going to be so bad. Just like he spoke about before: if a thousand go out, only a hundred are going to come back. So many people are going to die. There's going to be wailing and lamentation. Why? Verse 17. In all the vineyards, there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst, says the Lord. Does that language sound familiar? Do you remember another time when the Lord passed through? A land.

25:32He passed over his people in Exodus. But the words that it used in Exodus was that he passed through the land of Egypt. And it was a terrifying judgment. And now God is saying, I will pass through your midst. God is going to visit them for judgment. And as a result, there's going to be this great wailing. So that is the first part of our reading for tonight: that there's a song of lamentation for the virgin Israel, for this nation that should have been pure, but instead turned to wickedness and total injustice and made a mockery of righteousness. And God is saying, Seek me and live. That's the only way you can live. Seek the Lord, not these other things you've run after.

26:31Next, the Lord is going to give a series of woes, a series of cries of judgment. Look at the first one in verse 18, chapter 5, verse 18. Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness and not light. And so we get another glimpse into the attitude of these people. These people are so wicked. They have turned society upside down. They hate good and they love. Evil, and yet they can't wait for the day of the Lord.

27:09We read about the day of the Lord in Joel and Obadiah, these two prophets that I think predated Amos. We read about the day of the Lord, and it seems like these people are excited because they think the day of the Lord is going to be great for them. Maybe they just think that just because they're part of God's nation, that God is going to come and visit and destroy all these other nations, the great day of the Lord where he destroys all these nations and lifts the northern kingdom up so that they can be on top of the world again. Maybe they have that kind of idea.

27:47But the Lord is saying, look, it's not going to be good for you. You are not living in righteousness. The day of the Lord is going to be darkness for you. Verse 18 again: woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. Why would you have the day of the Lord? Why would you want that? It's not going to be good for you. It is darkness and not light. Verse 19, as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him. So you have this picture of a man who sees a lion and turns around and runs as fast as he can to get away from the lion and then runs right into a bear. Bear. So he escapes from one judgment and gets right into another. And maybe he escapes that bear and runs all the way to his house and finally shuts the door and is so excited to be home. Phew, I'm safe from the lion and the bear. And he leans on his wall and he gets bit by a snake on the wall. As if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or he went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him. He's saying, the day of the Lord isn't going to be good for you. If you escape one judgment, you're just going to get judged by another judgment and by another. If you flee from the sword, you're just going to get killed by disease or famine or something else. Verse 20, is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light and gloom with no brightness in it?

29:28These people are pretending like this is going to be such a great day for them as they kick back, take advantage of the poor, and just wait for the Lord to make it so they're on top of the world again. God's saying, look, it's not going to be good for you. This is not a good thing. Verse 21, I hate. I despise your feasts. And I take no delight in your solemn assembly. So, as part of their hypocritical attitude, as they think that the Lord is on their side, as they do all these wicked things, God, they're still partaking in the feasts of Israel. They're having these festivals and solemn assemblies. God is saying, I hate them.

30:19I despise them. I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Verse 22, he says the same thing about their sacrifices. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. In the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. They're trying to pretend like they have this great relationship with the Lord. They're still sacrificing to him. Even the peace offerings, you know, some of these offerings were they would burn apart for the Lord and eat the rest to show a sign of this relationship that they have with the Lord. But of course, all of it is fake. They're totally wicked. God is saying, I don't accept those offerings. I won't even look at them.

31:08So he hates their feasts. He hates their offerings. He even hates their music. Verse 23, take away from me the noise of your songs. To the melody of your harps, I will not listen. He's saying, all these ways you're pretending to worship me so that you might be on my good side on the day of the Lord or something like that. I hate it all. Instead, verse 24, but let justice roll down like waters, in righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

31:46He's saying, bring the things back that I want, the things that you've neglected. Let justice roll down like waters, in righteousness, like an ever-flowing stream. I think he's trying to picture, you know, in Israel, they have all these little streams, but they're usually all dried up. And then they'll have a big rain, and it'll become really dangerous for a while because they become rushing rivers really quickly. I think the Lord is saying, be like one of those rushing rivers. Have that much justice and righteousness where all the water comes, but let it be like an ever-flowing stream, one that doesn't just come for a second and then go away. Let justice roll down like the waters, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Establish these things in your society. Verse 25. Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the 40 years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

32:53What do you think the answer to that question is? No. Right? Pretending like God doesn't care about all these other sins they do as long as they keep these sacrifices. But God's saying, hello, wasn't there this time in the wilderness where you couldn't bring those sacrifices and you were still my people? That's clearly not the most important thing to me. In Numbers 15, verse 2, he even says, After they sin by not entering the land, he gives them instructions about the sacrifices, but he specifically says, after you get into the land. And so you have this time where they're wandering through. And God has given them rules about the sacrifices, but he says, after you get in the land. And it makes sense why, right? I mean, how are they going to do these grain offerings and these meat offerings? Where's all the grain and the food? They're wandering in the desert. They can't even feed themselves. Instead, God is sending them bread from heaven, right?

34:00And so he's saying, Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the 40 years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? He's saying, you're missing the main point. I want righteousness, not just sacrifices on top of a wicked heart. David got that point in Psalm 51. Do you remember? He says, you would not be pleased with sacrifices at this time. You know, he's saying, a broken and contrite heart is what you want. And that was after David's sin with Bathsheba.

34:31He says, I'm going to have this broken and contrite heart first, then later I'll bring the sacrifices. This society has flipped that upside down. Verse 26, you shall take up Sikots, your king, and Cayun, your star god, your images that you made for yourself, and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. God's saying, okay, go ahead, take up your idols, and have fun, you know, going with them into exile.

35:09If you're really going to abandon me and not listen to my prophets, not worship me the way I told you to worship me, then just go ahead. Your idols, I'm sure, would be fine going with you into exile. And he reintroduces himself to them, says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies. He has another message of woe. Look at chapter 6, verse 1. 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. Pass over to Kalna and see, and from there go to Hamath the Great, and then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms, or is their territory greater than your territory? O you who put far away from the world. Away the day of disaster and bring near the seat of violence. So he says, Woe to those who are at ease in Israel and Samaria. Woe to those who are saying that the day of the Lord is far away. We don't need to worry about that.

36:18Instead, we can bring near the seat of violence as we sit in judgment on the needy and the poor. We can be violent as much as we want. The day of the Lord is far off. We don't need to pay attention to that. But God is telling them, look at all these other places. Look at Kalna. Look at Hamath the great. Look at Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than any of these kingdoms? These are other kingdoms that had been destroyed. And God's saying, look, they were even bigger than your cities.

36:55Surely you know that you could be destroyed just like that. Why would you be at ease? Verse 4, another message of woe. 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. So these are the rich. They're able to, instead of work, they're able to just lounge around as they eat the best of the best, right? The lambs of the flock, the calves of the stall, the veal. They get, you know, the. Best food who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David, invent for themselves instruments of music, who drink wine and bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils. Let's stop there. He's saying all of these things. They are the rich. They are living these opulent lives.

37:56They have so much leisure time that they just are using their time to invent instruments and play all these songs, who drink wine and bowls instead of in a cup. And they've got the finest oils to anoint themselves, maybe for medicine or makeup or something like that. He's targeting the rich now. And not just because they're rich or something. It's because things are wicked. The northern kingdom is about to be destroyed and they just don't care. See, look at the end of verse 6, who drink wine and bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph. The society has turned totally upside down, and they don't care. The whole northern kingdom is about to be destroyed, and they don't care. They have a comfy couch and delicious wine and lots of new instruments.

39:00Verse 7. 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 they are stretching themselves out on the couch, but their joy and their revelry is going to go away. The rich are going to be the first to go into exile. We don't have a specific historical account of that being true of the northern kingdom, but we do have that being true of the southern kingdom, that the first wave of the exile was not just all of the people in the southern kingdom, but it was the princes and the young men. That was the part of the exile that Daniel was with when he went into Babylon. And it seems to be that the same was true of the northern kingdom, that even the rich, their houses were going to be destroyed. They had no reason to be at ease. Maybe they thought, even if these armies come, it's not going to be a big deal for us. They're going to wipe out the armies. They're going to wipe out the farms and everything, but we've still got our couches and our instruments. We've got our big houses. We can go down to our winter house. They're at ease. But God's saying, you're going to be the first to go. Verse 8. 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. So we had a song. Of lament for the people of Israel. We had this messages of woe, and now we have a promise from the Lord. But it's not the kind of promise that we like to find in Scripture. It's an oath. The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts. I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds. The nation of Israel has been so prideful and so pompous. They think that their strongholds can protect them, and God is saying, I hate that. I hate that they're prideful. I hate that they think that they're safe in their cities in spite of their wickedness. I will deliver up the city and all that is in it. Verse 9, and if ten men remain in one house, they shall die.

41:21And when one's relative, this is how haunting the situation is. Look at verse 10. 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. You just have this picture of everybody in a whole house dying, and some other relative coming and has to gather the bones so he can come and bury them.

41:57And they shout into the house, is anybody alive in the house? Anybody else? And they shout back no, but then they say, you know, don't even mention the name of the Lord. Maybe in case it gets his attention or something, and he kills us too. He's already killed everyone else in this family. They're totally afraid of the Lord because of the destruction that will occur. Verse 11: For behold, the Lord commands, and the great house shall be struck down into fragments, and the little house into bits. So God is saying, I have sworn that I am going to destroy Israel, even the great houses, so that everyone's going to die, and even when their relatives come, it's going to be so haunting and such a frightening situation that they're going to say, don't even say the Lord's name here, in case they're struck down as well. Verse 12, do horses run on rocks? Does one plow there with oxen? He's talking about in kind of the craggy mountain rocks. That's not a place where you just gallop with the rock, with the horse. You know, maybe a horse could walk across on the side of a mountain or something, but you're not going to just be sprinting with a horse. It would not be smart. That would be foolish. Does one plow there with oxen? You also don't take your oxen up on the side of a rocky mountain and plow there.

43:29It would be sad. Silly. In the same way, you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. Just as opposite and silly as those situations were. A horse running on these craggy rocks and the oxen trying to plow there, or it might mean plow in the sea, something else totally foolish. You have done something totally foolish and silly, idiotic. You have taken justice and righteousness and turned it into poison and bitterness. You've made the thing that's supposed to be good about a nation.

44:10You've flipped it up on its head and made it so no one can even approach the seat of judgment without it being poisoned to them. There's no hope for the righteous to make a case. Verse 13: You who rejoice in Lo Dabar, who say, Have we not by our own strength captured Carniam for ourselves? These were apparently two cities that they had conquered, but even the names here, these were cities. We have record of these names elsewhere in the Old Testament, but even these cities, the names, the first one means nothing. That's what the city means. The name means nothing. The other one means two horns. And so I think he's saying, you know, oh, whooped. Do. You've conquered these two cities. You've got a lot of nothing and two horns. And you feel really good about yourselves.

45:11I don't know if you remember, whenever we studied Jonah, we read about the reign of King Jeroboam, the same king that Amos is prophesying during. And it says, he restored the border of Israel from Lebohamath as far as the sea of the Erebah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who is from Gath Hefer. And Jonah had prophesied that Jeroboam would take these cities, but it was really the Lord who gave it to him. And it makes it clear. You can write down 2 Kings 14, verse 23 through 29. It makes it clear in that passage that God was the one who gave them the cities, and it's just because he loved Israel. It's not because they were so powerful and strong or that they were being righteous. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Jonah said, in spite of your wickedness, Jonah prophesied that they would take over these cities, and God gave it to them. And so now they have taken over these cities and these lands and are feeling really great about themselves because they've taken over nothing and two horns. God says, verse 14, 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 Labo Hamath to the brook of the Erebah. Those are the exact same names that we just read in 2 Kings 14, verse 25.

46:42That they were feeling good about themselves, how in the reign of Jeroboam, they had expanded the land out because of the Lord's mercy to those places. Now they're pompous, they're arrogant, they're living this wicked lifestyle, and God's saying, I'm going to destroy everything, even the parts, the outer reaches that you've just conquered. Well, God, in this passage, gave them a song of lament about their destruction. He gave them these words of woe, and he even gave them this oath of destruction that he was going to totally wipe them out. And he said that it is because they have this arrogance, this pride. They think they're untouchable. And so, since they think they're untouchable, they have no problem being completely wicked to those who are needy. They have no problem flipping the justice system on its head, taking bribes instead of enforcing the truth and true judgments. And it's because they think that the day of the Lord is far away, or they think that the day of the Lord's going to just be another great thing for them.

47:58Totally wicked attitude. And so the Lord says, stop doing what you're doing. You're pretending. I hate your festivals. I hate your sacrifices. I hate your music. Everything you do to worship me, I hate it because you won't actually do the things that I want you to do, the things that I've asked you to do. Even now, you could seek the Lord and live, but you won't. You won't listen to the word of my prophet. And so the Lord makes an oath that he will destroy them. Well, as we come to this passage ourselves, I think the principle is the same for us, right? We can pretend like we have this great relationship with the Lord. We can pretend on the outside like we do a certain amount of things that we're sure will make it so the day of the Lord is great for us.

49:00These rules that we've made up ourselves, or these rules that have been passed down from our parents, these rules of morality about going to church a certain number of times or following some code of ethics, and we think that that just makes all of our wickedness okay. And like these people, we can be people who ignore what God actually wants. He's made it very clear to us in His Word. He made it really clear to them. And I'm telling you, he's made it very clear to us as well in his word exactly what he wants from us. He's made it clear what his character is.

49:44We can pretend all we want, but God isn't fooled. Instead, we need to seek the truth, seek what he's actually saying. If you give a child an instruction, and they disobey because they just made up something else that they thought you would like and did that instead, that child needs to be disciplined, right? They disobeyed your instruction. It's the same with the Lord. He has given us his word, and we are experts at ignoring it. We are experts at making up what we think God would want us to do.

50:29Instead, we should dive into his word as much as we can. Seek it as much as we can. Learn as much as we can about his character and continually be learning, correcting all the spots in our head that we've messed up about who the Lord is by coming to his word and correcting those wrong thoughts. Let's be people who long to find out what the Lord truly wants. Let's also be people that cherish His word. Mercy. You know, if you are somebody who has never come to the Lord, if you're somebody who hears these messages of judgment and knows that that should be judgment towards you as well, because you know you're wicked, the Lord says, no matter how intense the message of judgment is, you can still seek him and live. You can still turn to him and find forgiveness. We know that's true because of the sacrifice of Jesus, that he offers to pay for our sins, and we can find forgiveness. So maybe you're watching this with your parents, like we said last week, and maybe you need to ask your parents and say, I know I deserve God's judgment, but how can I find God's forgiveness? Ask your parents that question.

51:59And for those of us who have found God's mercy, let's be grateful that we deserve his wrath, like he speaks about in these chapters. And yet, he has had mercy on us. And because he's had mercy, we can be forgiven and we can be people who seek good and not evil, who love justice. Let's pray. Father, Let us be people who care about righteousness. Let us be people who care about justice. Let us be people who take up the cause of the needy.

52:55People who use our voice, or at least our vote, to defend righteousness and justice. Defend those who wouldn't be able to defend themselves. Lord, at the heart of it, let us be people who want the same things you want. This society that Amos is speaking to was so opposite of you. They ignored all that you said. They pretended like they could come to you on their own terms. They didn't care about justice. They didn't care about righteousness. They didn't care about the needy. They only cared about themselves.

54:03And you made it clear that they were the opposite of you, that you did care about justice and righteousness. Help us be people that are like you. And help us be people that echo through our voice and through our witness this message of mercy to those who would repent, to those who would seek you and live. Help us be people who revel in that mercy, knowing what we deserve. Help us, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.