STUDY THEME: AMOS: PROPHET TO THE NATIONS 4-28-02

"PROCESS OF RESTORATION."

AMOS 8: 11-12; 9: 5-6, 7, 8-10, 11-12, 13-15.

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO AMOS 8.

In our lesson planning this week it was suggested that we collect all the Bibles in the room and stack them on a chair or table. We are then to imagine that these are the only Bibles left in our nation. These are illegal. All other Bibles have been destroyed. You ask, "Isn’t that a rather silly idea?" Not in a nation that has already declared illegal the display of the "Ten Commandments" and "Prayer in the School".

If this scenario were true, what difference do you think it would make? What effect would it have on our daily lives. Would you consider such a situation to be God’s judgment on our nation?

The lesson this Sunday is the last one in our series from the Book of Amos. Much of the book has to do with God’s righteous judgment upon a sinful and rebellious nation. Some people might think that God is only a God of judgment, but that is not true! Even though His righteousness and His justice required God to bring judgment upon His people, God still was a God of love and mercy and forgiveness and therefore offered a hope for their future after they had been punished. God’s judgment was not the final word. God also had a word of hope.

The lesson seeks to answer the question, "Is there a future beyond the Lord’s judgment?" The Scripture passage will answer that question very clearly. God does punish sinful people but He does offer hope of forgiveness if they will repent and live for Him. Even in judgment, the Lord offers hope through a process of restoration.

The lesson writer’s suggested "Biblical Truth" is that the sovereign Lord offers hope beyond judgment. The suggested "Life Impact" is to help us depend on God who restores His people.

Many people think of the O.T. prophets primarily as people who predicted future events. They did some of this, but they were primarily preachers of God’s Word to their own generation. Their preaching emphasized judgment on human sin, but it also contained calls for mercy based on divine love. The predictions concerning the future were often warnings of judgments coming on the generation to which they preached: however, the prophets also made predictions of events beyond their own generation. Many of these predictions have been fulfilled already, but some remain unfulfilled. Much of the prophets preaching and their predictions focused on Israel, but they also focused on people of other nations.

One of the judgments on Israel would be a famine of hearing God’s Word. Almighty God is sovereign over not only Israel but also over the Gentiles. God would shake Israel like a sieve, so that only the faithful remnant would be spared while all the sinners would be judged. God would rebuild the fallen house of David and restore the people to a land of rich and fertile fields.

1. PLEASE READ AMOS 8: 11-12.

In Amos 8:1 God, in His 4^th vision given to Amos, compared Israel to a basket of beautiful ripe summer fruit. Ripe is just one stage away from ruin. The nation had reached the peak of sinfulness, and, were ripe for the painful judgment to come. In vs. 4-6 Amos denounced those in Israel who selfishly oppressed the downtrodden, poor, and needy, just to benefit them selves. In vs. 7-8 the earthquakes, solar eclipse, flood and famine would turn their festivals into funerals and change their glad songs into cries of grief. That day would be bitter to the end.

Ch. 8 focuses on warnings of sure and severe judgment. The enemy would leave bodies lying everywhere and turn joy into the silence of despair.

This fourth judgment (the first three were in Ch. 7.) depicts the corruption and rottenness of Israel as a basket of overripe fruits. So God proclaimed that the day would come when God or His Word would not be available to Israel. They would need Him desperately, but He would not be available. What a terrible and severe judgment!

Amos knows why the judgment is to come. The key to Amos 9: 1-10 is in the last part of Vs. 10. Many of the Israelites were saying "that the evil shall not overtake or prevent us." They claimed to be immune to any judgment of God because they were God’s chosen people and He would never destroy His own people. This presumptuous attitude was similar to the view of the people of Judah in Jeremiah 7. As Jeremiah later did, Amos spoke the word of the Lord that condemned His people for their sins and pronounced inevitable judgment on them.

It is in this fourth vision that God shows Amos the extent of the judgment. The very foundations of Israel are to be destroyed. All of the people were involved. Their land, their buildings, all were involved and destroyed.

Why? One reason is that it establishes the sovereignty of God. It is just as a child will test a parent to find out who’s the boss. The child challenges the parent’s authority. If the parent does not answer the challenge by discipline then the child does not fear the parent’s authority. How the parent exercises that discipline can effect the challenge. With one of my children a good strong word or a time in the corner would be good enough.

For others that would do no good at all. For some, nothing short of a spanking would do. They see the type of discipline as either a strength or weakness on the part of the parent. Discipline to be effective must present the parent in a sovereign position over the child, and not vise-versa.

The same is true of God. He does not send judgment just for the sake of judgment. He send is to exert His sovereignty on a people who have challenged it, or no longer believe in it. He allows us to know who is really in control of this world, that it is the Creator, not the created.

2. PLEASE READ AMOS 9:5-6.

The first four verses of this chapter introduces us to the fifth in the series of visions God gave to Amos concerning the ultimate judgment of Israel. In this Ch. 9 we are gong to see three things:

1. The Sovereignty of God in vs. 1-10.
2. The promise of restoration in Vs. 11-15.
3. The agent of the restoration in Vs. 11-15

Amos Ch. 9 begins by establishing the sovereignty of God. He shows this in the vision of his judgment in the first four verses. God is pictured by the altar with a sword in his hands. He was to attack as the sword is only an offensive weapon. In Vs. 1 Amos saw God standing by the Altar of the temple in Bethel. God commanded that the temple be knocked down so that most of the people would be buried beneath its ruins. He promised to pursue and overtake any who escaped its ruins. He promised to pursue and overtake any who escaped, no matter where they sought refuge.

After He destroys the temple, God then continues His judgment on the survivors. They could not hide in the center of the earth, or in caves. They could not hide on the mountains. They could not hide in the depths of the sea. The Sovereign God would find them wherever they hid.

Amos continues to describe the sovereignty of God in vs. 5 and 6 in the third doxology in the Book of Amos. It begins and ends with the name of the Lord. He identifies God as the Lord, the Lord almighty. God who can control the actions of the earth and the water; He can make the earth melt. God was warning that His judgment on their sins would melt away their world before their eyes. Thus they all would mourn what they had lost. We have seen this before with Noah and the flood; with Moses and the Red Sea. God can send forth the life giving rain, and he can send forth the death-dealing storms and floods. In His Word we have countless examples of where God shows His sovereignty through the elements. The rest of the hymn contains earthquake imagery.

Having established the sovereignty of God, we now look at Vs. 7.

1. PLEASE READ AMOS 9: 7.

In this verse God establishes the fact that He considers Israel to be the same as the Cushites or Ethopians. The dark skinned tribes south of Egypt. Sinful Israel has rejected the Covenant and is no more privileged than Ethiopians (descendants of Ham). The Jews did not have much regard for the people of this distant land, but the Lord said, "The Ethiopians are no less important to Me than you are!" By making Israel’s Exodus from Egypt practically equal to His bringing up the Philistines from the Island of Cyprus and the Syrians from Kir, God tells Israel that she has become no better than the pagans. God has in the past delivered countries that were not His chosen people out of captivity. They would not recognize it, but Amos does here.

The point of vs. 7 in answering the presumption of the Israelites in vs. 10 was that Israel stands on the same ground, as do all nations. God loves all people, but He will spare none who persistently sin against Him. God’s involvement with the nation of Israel did not make them any more immune to judgment than His involvement with other nations made them immune to judgment.

2. PLEASE READ AMOS 9: 8-10,

The nation of Israel as a political entity is the sinful nation. The eyes of the Lord were upon it and He said He would destroy it from off the face of the earth. This prediction came true in722 BC, when Assyria defeated Israel, killed many, and scattered most of the rest of the people of Israel away among the nations.

In vs. 8 we find the first glimmer of hope for Israel. The sovereignty of God is established in His righteous judgment. God is also to destroy Israel from the face of the earth. Israel is recognized as evil by God. They show no signs of repentance by the leaders. But in His destruction God makes a promise not to totally destroy Israel, or the house of Jacob.

One cannot just talk about the destruction of Israel without looking at its restoration. In fact, the only time we can speak of judgment without restoration is the great white throne judgment. It is here in vs. 8 that we see the bud of the roses start to develop.

God has promised in vs. 8 that He will not destroy the house of Jacob. This means, while a great number will be destroyed, as we know from vs. 1-4, that not all the Israelites will be destroyed. This leads to two interesting questions. Who will be destroyed and who will be the remnant? And why?

To understand the reason for destruction in judgment we need to look historically at what led up to this judgment. The history of his judgment goes back to the death of Solomon and the division of the twelve tribes into two countries. Jeroboam, the king of the northern country, Israel, wanted to make sure that the countries stayed divided. To do this, he introduced idol worship to Israel, so that they would not go to Jerusalem and make sacrifices to God. >From then on things went downhill. A series of successive kings did not look to God for leadership, trusting rather in their own power to lead Israel. This is the foundation of their problems. They challenged the sovereignty of God in that they say they can lead God’s people better than God can.

It is also at this time that they develop a false sense of independence. They had the sacrificial system that they could fall back on. If they did everything according to the law then they would be all right to do anything they wanted. Their worship became mechanical not authentic. They would make sacrifices to God, and then turn around and worship idols.

The people in power found they could take advantage of the poor. Justice and position could be bought by those who had money. If the poor needed money, the rich would take advantage of this, as the poor would sell themselves into slavery for a pair of sandals. They did not take care of the poor. So evil had infected all aspects of Israel for literally hundreds of years. God would not stay His judgment forever in light of this.

It is also important to realize that not all the Israelites bowed to Baal. They would all be part of the judgment, but God would protect them. God also left an opportunity for individual repentance even though the country would be judged. Figuratively, in vs. 10, separating the wheat (the faithful) from the chaff (sinners), the exile will serve to purify the nation of Israel.

With this background we know who is to be judged:

1. the religious leaders for their allowing idolatry.
2. to the political leaders who wouldn’t look to God.
3. To the wealthy for how they abused the poor.
4. To the judicial leaders for abusing the system of justice.
5. To the people who followed these leaders.

Those who repent or have not turned their backs on God, those both while in captivity, although they go through judgment, will be the remnant. They would return to Israel.

1. PLEASE READ AMOS 9: 11-12.

Vs. 11-12 tells us that God will restore the fallen tent of David. That God will repair its broken places and restore its ruins. He will bring about a new nation that is stronger and more powerful than what was there before. No mater how bad things get, believers can have hope based on the mercy of the Lord for His faithful people. Such assurance based on hope is different from presumption based on status.

This is a new day of the Lord. One that is not brought forth in judgment, but in liberation. This is a day where the people can once again enjoy the goodness of the relationship with the Lord. The N.T. says that Jesus Christ fulfilled the promise God made to David. Jesus is the Messiah-King of David’s line, and He has established a reign in human hearts that is eternal. He will also bring His Kingdom and His people to a consummation at the time of His future coming.

Amos 9:11-12 is quoted in the N.T. At the Jerusalem Council, James quoted it as scriptural support for the inclusion of Gentiles in the church on the same basis with Jewish believers. He thus followed Simon Peter in supporting the missionary work of Paul and Barnabas and disagreeing with some of his fellow Jews that gentiles had to become Jews before they could be saved. The quotation is in Acts 15:15-17. James quoted here from the Greek translation of the O.T. called the Septuagint. Thus the N.T. explains Amos 9:11-12 as being fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s leadership in including Gentiles as well as Jews among his people. In Jesus, the greater Son of David, the dynasty of David has been reestablished.

6. PLEASE READ AMOS 9: 13-15.

At this point all of the talk of judgment turns to restoration and hope. One is immediate: This would be their restoration under Nehemiah and Ezra. The other is a future restoration when Christ comes back to establish His Kingdom on earth.

Let’s deal with the immediate restoration first. What happened when Israel was in captivity. Several things. First, all of the buildings in Israel were destroyed. This is significant because with the destruction of all things, any references to idol worship were destroyed. The places where the idols were worshipped were gone. The idols themselves were gone. Any place that could bring back any memory at all of the infection of their idol worship was gone.

It was to be a new start for God’s people with a new relationship with God. Sacrifices and worship would be authentic and re-established under the law. But the future restoration God brought about was even more reconstructive than just a return to an existing form of worship. The form of worship had to change for throughout Israel’s history, they showed that they repeatedly turned from God while under the Law. They could not keep all of the law, therefore they could keep none of it. For Israel’s restoration to be complete they would have to have a new way to worship.

This new way of worship would come with Christ. He came to complete the law. With Jesus life, death, and resurrection God completed the restoration of the law. The restoration of the law was the doctrine of grace. The doctrine of grace wrested control of religion from the hands of mortals, and placed God in control. It was no longer a system, a bunch of rules and regulations that man could follow, like directions on a road map. Salvation was now a gift that was open to everyone. It was based on what God can do for man, a gift that God and God alone could give.

NEXT WEEK WE BEGIN A NEW FOUR SESSION UNIT ON "BEING GOD’S AGENT OF MINISTRY IN CRISIS TIMES." VARIOUS N.T. SCRIPTURES WILL BE USED IN THIS UNIT. WE BEGIN WITH "MINISTRY IN PHYSICAL CRISIS." MARK 5.

A.V. DAUGHERTY 4-28-02.