Bobservations' Column
Titled - "God's Case Against Israel"
Written by: Pastor Bob Lawrenz
God’s Word to Amos comes as a lightning bolt. Israel was not prepared for it. It came suddenly and without warning. However, Amos’ previous 7 chapters should have been enough warning. They should have known that there would soon come a change in the weather.
The fruit of summer is ripe, sweet, full of flavor, and refreshing for all its nutritional value. Israel had enjoyed it for many years. God’s design for agriculture is that seeds be planted, gardens be tended, and God for the rain.
The work can be hard, but it’s good for us, and the fruit of our labors is its own reward. Israel had enjoyed the benefit of God’s design year, after year. When Israel followed the Law and its ordinances, the benefits of it were their own reward. The Jews were called to be obedient to all the Law, to be recipients of God’s grace and provision. The lives of the Jews were about to change drastically. Not only had they chosen to not let the land rest every seven years, but they chose to ignore the ordinances regarding God and where they were to worship Him. Practices of idolatry were common-place, as well as fair and ethical business practices. They had forgotten God, and so God tells them He will not forget what they have done. They had ignored most all of the Law, so all God’s benevolence will depart from them.
They were to be taken away from their homeland, the land God had reserved FOR them. In hindsight, we know that His grace and mercy prevailed, and they would be returned to the land after 70 years. But that’s more than one generation, so many of the Israelites would die in a strange land.
~ Deuteronomy 18:15 ~
“The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;”
God’s Word to Amos comes as a lightning bolt. Israel was not prepared for it. It came suddenly and without warning. However, Amos’ previous 7 chapters should have been enough warning. They should have known that there would soon come a change in the weather.
The fruit of summer is ripe, sweet, full of flavor, and refreshing for all its nutritional value. Israel had enjoyed it for many years. God’s design for agriculture is that seeds be planted, gardens be tended, and God for the rain.
The work can be hard, but it’s good for us, and the fruit of our labors is its own reward. Israel had enjoyed the benefit of God’s design year, after year. When Israel followed the Law and its ordinances, the benefits of it were their own reward. The Jews were called to be obedient to all the Law, to be recipients of God’s grace and provision. The lives of the Jews were about to change drastically. Not only had they chosen to not let the land rest every seven years, but they chose to ignore the ordinances regarding God and where they were to worship Him. Practices of idolatry were common-place, as well as fair and ethical business practices. They had forgotten God, and so God tells them He will not forget what they have done. They had ignored most all of the Law, so all God’s benevolence will depart from them.
They were to be taken away from their homeland, the land God had reserved FOR them. In hindsight, we know that His grace and mercy prevailed, and they would be returned to the land after 70 years. But that’s more than one generation, so many of the Israelites would die in a strange land.
~ Deuteronomy 18:15 ~
“The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;”
Bobservations' Column: Audio Version
Sunday Morning Audio Message:
Amos 8:1-14 - "God's Case Against Israel"
Summary/Additional Commentary & Definitions:
In chapter 8 of the book of Amos, the prophecy continues against Israel.
They say a picture paints a thousand words. In the first couple of verses of chapter 8, the vision given to Amos portrays what God sees in His people, Israel. While Israel viewed themselves as fruitful and blessed by God, God sees the rottenness their hearts. God's people had become a nation filled with sinful pride.
What can be more susceptible to rot and disease than ripened fruit? There is a short window of time for the beautiful and refreshing sweetness of ripe fruit to be tasted. But after that window, there is no escaping the swift decay. The analogy used here not only illustrates the end result for Israel but also represents the swiftness with which it will occur.
God will strip away everything in order to get their attention. Though they will face His judgment, repentance will come, and they will remember their God and His Word, and what truly matters in their lives. Since they no longer had an appetite for God's Word and His ways, the Lord will allow their enemies to take them captive. In their tribulation, they would seek for the Word of God, but not find it. They disregarded God's law, they mixed idolatry with their worship and they refused to heed the prophets send by God. God's Word would no longer be available to them. They would search the land for it, and not find it.
This is the great problem of mankind. God has given us His Word, and mankind rejects it.
Sunday Morning Audio Message:
Key Words and Definitions with Reference:
Basket of Summer Fruit (8:1) - In this fourth vision, as fruit was fully ripened by the summer's sun so Israel was ripe for judgment. This vision symbolizes the imminent end of Israel's production of spiritual fruit.
New Moon (8:5) - Based on a lunar calendar, Israel would celebrate the day with a festival. Like the Sabbath, no work was to be done on this day (1 Samuel 20:5-6; 2 Kings 4:23; Ezekiel 46:3). The merchants' eagerness for the day to end revealed their appetite for greed.
Ephah Small. . . Shekel Large (8:5) - By dishonest weighing, the merchant decreased the actual amount received and inflated the apparent cost of the mis-weighed merchandise.
Ephah Small. . . Shekel Large (8:5) - By dishonest weighing, the merchant decreased the actual amount received and inflated the apparent cost of the mis-weighed merchandise.
Bad Wheat (8:6) - This denotes the chaff, which was mixed into the good wheat to cheat the buyer.
Pride of Jacob (8:7) - As surely as the nation was filled with sinful pride (cf. Hosea 5:5; 7:10), so the Lord, who should have been "the Pride of Jacob" (Micah 5:4), would not forget her heinous works (cf. 6:8). This is a play on words in which the Hebrew word for the worst of human pride is the same for the greatest of God's majesty. What God detests in Israel (6:8), He will swear by in Himself.
Cast Out and Drowned...by the Flood of Egypt (8:8) - Like the Nile River, which annually provided water and rich soil deposits for farmers by greatly overflowing its banks, so judgment would overflow the land of Israel for the unrighteous arrogance of the nation.
The Sun Go Down At Noon (8:9) - This probably brings to mind the total eclipse of the sun c. 763 B.C. as a picture of God's coming judgment. The darkness will symbolize their mourning and actually increase it.
Sackcloth (8:10) - This detailed picture of a mourning nations is similar to the residents of Babylon mourning her ultimate demise (Revelation 18:9-19)
Hearing the Words (8:11) - During prosperity, the nation rejected the prophets (cf. 7:10-17); in captivity no word from the Lord could be found (cf. 1 Samuel 28:6). What they once had in abundance and had rejected, they now desperately wanted but could not find, no matter how far they searched. It is an amazing fact that, in the land where God's Word was revealed, and where His living Word became incarnate, there ensued a famine of scriptural teaching form almost 2,000 years - a famine only slightly relieved even to this day.
Samaria . . . Dan (8:14) - Jeroboam I (931-910 B.C.) had built altars at both locations in an effort to keep Israel from going to Jerusalem to worship (1 Kings 12:26-29).
Beersheba (814) - Located in southern Judah, fifty miles southwest of Jerusalem, Beersheba had a rich Israelite history (cf. Genesis 21:33; 26: 23; 1 Samuel 8:1-3; 1 Kings 19:3-7). Their idolatrous practices will be eliminated permanently (cf. 5:2).
