Amos: Prophet of Justice, Pt. 12

(Part 12 of 21)

Amos 5:9-13… God laments (sorrows) over Israel’s injustices to others… V. 9… They left off righteousness and God laments because He has to send a “spoiled nation” (Assyria) against the strong (Israel). This truth is also seen in the book of Habbakuk. There they prayed for revival. To see if they were serious about revival, God sent a strong enemy to ravage their land. When they cried out to God, revival came.

Amos 5:10… God laments (sorrows) because Israel hated those who spoke uprightly… Amos was not the first to confront the nation about its sins. The nation’s conscience was hardened. Paul tells Timothy that, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16, KJV). Amos is correct. You are hated if you come down on sin; you are not wanted.

Amos 5:11… God laments (sorrows) because the nation tread upon the poor… They stole the wheat, and used the money from the sale of the wheat to build expensive houses for themselves. God said that even though they built pleasant vineyards, they would not live to enjoy them and that the vineyards would be empty.

Amos 5:12… God laments (sorrows) when the just are afflicted… and when for a bribe the wicked turn the poor from what is rightfully theirs. The court systems were rotten to the core. The same is in our nation today. People who love justice and righteousness have an appetite for God. God laments because the nation has lost its appetite for righteousness and with it they lost their appetite for God. God will not turn away when He sees this injustice towards others. National sins will bring national accountability.

Amos 5:13… God laments (sorrows) because the prudent are not listened to… It is an evil time. Believers keep silent and are not speaking for fear of retaliation. There is a time when there is nothing more to say. The word of truth has been spoken. The nation was rebuked, but they decided not to listen to the truth, and turned on those who wanted to see repentance and restoration. Any further speaking was futile. Amos knows when to hold his tongue. Because of the incorrigibility of the people, the prophets kept silent. Since the people would not hear, they increased their condemnation. Jesus said, “Do not give what is holy to dogs” (Matthew 7:6, NASB).

Amos 5:14-15… Seek God and live. Seek good and not evil that you may live… God is extending compassion, mercy, grace and long-suffering. He invites the nation to change its lifestyle: make righteousness your goal and the nation will be preserved. Turn your faith around to the living God and away from idols. But the nation pursued more and more evil. Verse 15… “Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate” (KJV). If you do, God may show His graciousness to you. There is always hope when the Spirit of God hovers over a nation.

Amos 5:16-17… God laments (sorrows) because He sees the nation’s wailing… The people will wail in the cities and in the counties. Amos prophesies that there will be crying and grief. The people who said that Amos is a “pain” will soon be experiencing God’s pain. “I will pass through thee [the nation], saith the Lord” (v. 17, KJV).

Amos 5:18-20… God laments (sorrows) over the nation’s false hopes… They were looking for the day of the Lord. They had an escapist mentality. “God loves us; He will get us out.” But they were doctrinally wrong in interpreting what the day of the Lord was all about. The day of the Lord is what God says it is and not what we think it is. It’s a day of darkness. The majority of Christians in our nation today have an escapist mentality. “God loves us; He will deliver us.” God lamented when He found the nation feeling secure in an erroneous doctrine. It’s not what we believe that delivers us, but in Whom we believe, that delivers us. Verse 19 explains the darkness. When you run from the lion and you think you are safe, you may find that you have run right into a bear. You then run from the bear into a house, and get bit by a serpent. That’s what the day of the Lord is like. It’s darkness and not light. The day of the Lord can refer to any period of time when He enters into human affairs and judges it for its unrepentant sins. The day of the Lord also refers to end times tribulations and the coming of Christ. Here in Amos 5:18-20 it refers to a historical period in Israel’s history. The evils that came from the lion, bear, and serpent did come to Israel in the form Assyria, Babylon, Romans, Turks, and present day Islamic Arabs. Today, many in our own nation run from church to church, from one religion to another, and end up being bitten by the serpent (Satan).

(To be continued…)

Pastor George Belobaba

Copyright © 2011 by Scripture Nuggets Ministries
All Rights Reserved

Amos: Prophet Of Justice, Pt. 11

(Part 11 of 21)

AMOS 5… In this chapter, Amos pictures God as one who sorrows or laments over what He must do, and what Israel must do in order to avoid judgment. God sorrows over Israel for what they would not do. Remember, our theme in Amos is “see God, not judgment.”

Amos 5:1-3… What caused God to lament and sorrow… “Take up a lamentation,” God says to Amos. The nation thought that they were safe. They were prospering, but they could not see that their recklessness was leading them toward captivity and death. Remember how Jesus lamented over Jerusalem. In Matthew 23:37-39, He mentions that they had killed the prophets, they had rejected Him, and now they were facing desolation.

Amos 5:1… Hear this word… “Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel” (KJV). The word “lamentation” means “a wailing, a mournful song.” Amos is saying, “I have a song of bad news, a heavy song, a forceful song.” Verse 2 says, “The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise.” That’s a strong word. God sees the nation’s future. Often when we rejoice, God weeps. God hates it when He is forced to administer justice. We need to lament with God over the sins of our nation and the powerlessness of our church services. The Lord uses the word “virgin” here. It refers to the nation losing its purity, even though she boasted that she had not. Jeremiah 2:2 says, “I remember when you went after Me in the wilderness.” Amos is picturing Israel as a fallen woman, and there is no one to raise her up. The ten tribes never did return from their captivity. In verse 3, notice God said that 90% were facing captivity, while only 10% (the tithe) would survive. God preserved a remnant.

Amos 5:4-17… God laments (sorrows) over what Israel would not do. Three times Amos prophesies, “Seek God and live.” The word “seek,” as used here, means “to search after someone or something, to search sacred texts, to search the only Person and the only law that can preserve lives.” God says, “Don’t go to these three towns: Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba.” Seek God Himself and not historical places. “Seek not Bethel,” i.e., don’t seek past experiences. Past experiences are only memories. Bethel was a sacred place because Jacob had a God-contact there. Idols now inhabited Bethel; God was not there. “Seek not Gilgal.” This was their first encampment after they crossed the Jordan into Canaan. He was saying, “Don’t try to repeat prior experiences.” The ultimate in God is not a “repeat experience.” We can review the past and learn from the past, but we can’t repeat it. God always moves forward. People love to run back to the old, but God has moved on. ”Don’t go over to Beersheba.” Don’t seek the experiences of your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham met God at Beersheba. Israel reasoned that maybe they could get a fresh encounter with God in the place where Abraham walked and talked with God.

Amos 5:5… Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel” (KJV). Deuteronomy 30:19-20 teaches “life or death, blessing or cursing.” Amos knows that the nation had been taught this. Years later God would say this very thing to Judah. “It’s your choice. Seek God and live” (Jeremiah 21:8). God was lamenting over the nation’s wrong choices. Seek God and live, i.e., make the right choice. God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). He is also a well of life, and a God of mercy and grace and compassion.

Amos 5:7… God was lamenting (sorrowing) because the nation loved darkness rather than light. The word “wormwood” in this verse is referring to perverted justice. Wormwood is a poisonous root (Deuteronomy 29:18, Jeremiah 9:15, Revelation 8:11). God lamented because the nation had “[left] off righteousness in the earth” (KJV). They laid it to one side and then forgot it. God’s law was not their standard any more. Our own nation has done the same thing.

Amos 5:8… “Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name” (KJV). In verse 26, Amos talks of how Israel worshipped the star of Moloch even as they marched through the wilderness, secretly carrying their idols. The nation knew what Amos was talking about. Isn’t it tragic, that while walking in the wilderness, seeing God’s presence in the fire, in the cloud, seeing God’s miraculous protection and provision, and coming to the tabernacle to hear His word… they still ran off to their own homes, pulling out their “star” images to do their own thing? Seek God and not the stars of creation. God has the words of life and health. “Make a choice,” God is saying.“I can speak the words of health, of success, and strength.” “Seek God,” Amos cries out in prophecy, “God has the control of your future.” The nation did not respond and God sorrowed.

(To be continued…)

Pastor George Belobaba

Copyright © 2011 by Scripture Nuggets Ministries
All rights reserved

Amos: Prophet Of Justice, Pt. 10

(Part 10 of 21)

Amos 4:9… God touches the farm produce… “blasting and mildew and palmerworms.” Pesticides are not working as they should. Mildew is a type of fungus. “Blasting” refers to the winds being in a reverse course. and as a consequence, blight forms. Moses prophesied that this would happen when people turned from God (Deuteronomy 28:22, 39-42). Israel was going through a corrective measure, and still they would not turn. We are seeing this in our nation also.

V. 10… God sends sickness and disease… These are corrective measures. Pestilence refers to diseases that are difficult to cure. In Exodus 8:22 and 9:26, God smote Egypt with these things while preserving Israel. Now this was reversed. Israel was smitten because they turned away from God. God had shielded Israel even in warfare; now He was intervening to see Israel defeated. They were being left desolate (Matthew 23:37-38). Our nation has lost the secret of God’s protection from disease. Billions of dollars have been spent to stay healthy. I believe that God wants to turn our nation around and to heal the sick. However, Deuteronomy 28:58-62 tells us that if a nation does not observe the words of God, plagues will come. Today, it seems that we have become passive against disease. We are not listening, nor seeking God. We are not thinking biblically.

V. 11… God overthrows some folks… In other words, mighty men, both religious leaders and business leaders, have fallen from their positions of power because of scandals. Still the nation learns nothing. The nation’s judicial system is trying to overthrow God. Think of the different parts of our nation in recent years. Sudden calamities have devastated counties and cities through tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and wildfires. With every disaster, God plucked us out of judgment at the last moment. Each disaster has been a call for repentance, because God wants to save nations.

V. 12… “Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God” (KJV). That’s powerful. Here God is saying, “If these five things will not turn you back to me… then you must face Me. I am going to get more severe.” Israel was meeting prophets, pastors, teachers, priests, apostles and still they hadn’t repented of their sins. Now, they had to “prepare to meet God.” Verse 13 says, “The LORD, The God of Hosts, is his name” (KJV). The Septuagint translated reads for verse 12, “Prepare to call upon thy God.” There are great troubles coming. Some are predicting great riots, fires, race wars, and street killings such as this nation has never seen. These are upon the world at this time. Are these things judgments?

Leviticus 26 tells of God’s conditions for enjoying the land (vv. 1-13… please read these verses). Then He says, “But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments” (v. 14), He will punish seven times harder. When sin is repented of, God returns to keep His covenant. Why can’t our nation learn this? Amos 4:12 says, “Thus will I do.” We don’t always know what God will do, but He will do justice. It’s like God is saying, “I’m coming; prepare to meet Me. I am giving you an opportunity for peace.” When God said, “Prepare to meet thy God,” this is mercy, love, and compassion talking. This is not anger or hate talking. God wanted to spare the nation from captivity. God was offering them security.

V. 13 teaches… “Listen, nation, this is God talking, the God who built the mountains, who created the wind, who declares to man what his thoughts are, that brings darkness and light.” No nation can fight God and win. God controls everything visible and invisible. You can’t fight God who knows exactly what your thoughts are and what your secrets are. God controls time. You can’t out-wait God. He operates outside of the confines of time. Time can run out for us, but it never runs out for God. Amos is telling the nation that he was sent to prophesy that God is reasoning. He is contrasting their lifestyle with His holiness. He is saying, “Get a fresh glimpse of God; get a fresh understanding of Him.” Amos asks that we prepare to meet God. This is the conclusion and the decision that God wants you to arrive at. Meet Him, not judgment. Embrace Him. Submit to Him. Do not rebel. Stop giving God orders and start taking His orders.

(To be continued…)

Pastor George Belobaba

Copyright © 2011 by Scripture Nuggets Ministries
All rights reserved

Amos: Prophet Of Justice, Pt. 9

(Part 9 of 21)

Amos 4:4-5… God reasons here… He contrasts a sovereign Lord versus their golden calves… The city of Bethel was precious to God; so was Gilgal. God was saying, “Go to Bethel and Gilgal and do your transgressing. Worship your idols and sacrifice in the place I am not in.” You can almost hear God asking, “Where is your idol worship getting you?” A golden calf (idol) is contrasted with a living sovereign Lord. Israel had a religious program, but it was not God’s program. God’s real program was with the people of Judah.

1 Kings 12:26-33 tells the story. Jeroboam feared true worship at Jerusalem would erode his power, so he made two golden calves, put one in Bethel and one in Gilgal. His worship, priesthood, sacrifices, feasts, and doctrines were wrong. God was reasoning and contrasting His program with theirs. When worship is only an imitation of the true, problems are going to develop. “But it looks like Judah’s worship”… This is not good enough. As Christians, if we are going to offer something to God, we ought to offer it His way and not how we think it should to be done. God wants purity in our worship. In a sense, we often bring a praise offering and a tithe offering, but hardly ever a trespass offering. We come to church without repentance for any trespasses we may have committed during the week. Have you noticed that today there is very little preaching about the cross or about holiness? We love to hear preaching about the “blessing.” “What good is it,” Amos says, “when your worship is without a relationship with a living God? It’s a living God that you need, not golden calves.” Israel was faithful to religion, but not to God. God’s justice must now take over; they had crossed the line. Ceremonies without true repentance will not win you God’s favor. Today in our nation, there is a lot of religious zeal, but it’s unbiblical zeal. Note verse 5, “for this liketh you” (KJV); i.e., “this you love to do.” Our nation loves its religion, but there is no change of heart. Today it’s easy to perform, to donate, to attend, and to follow, but there is no fear of the true God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a fear of commitment.

Amos 4:6-11… God reasons further… Five times God says, “Ye have not returned to Me.” God is now contrasting His fatherly care and corrections with their childish rebellions. God gave the nation five corrective measures filled with mercy and love and truth, yet still they rebelled.

V. 6… Famine, hunger, crop failures, lack of food, cleanness of teeth… Hosea 2:8-9 confirms that God gave Israel corn, wine, oil, wealth, and what did she do? She gave it to Baal. God said, “I will return and take it back.” God gave the nation “cleanness of teeth.” Crop failures are not always the devil’s doings. “Cleanness of teeth” also refers being empty or bare, having a lack of bread, unemployment, or inability to supply. Note verse 6… “in all your places” (KJV). We see a lot of homeless and hungry people in the cities of the world. In Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26, God warned nations that one of His first judgments on society is unemployment and taking away the ability to make a living. The problems in our nation are not political party problems; they are sin problems. Our nation is wicked, and it is under the corrective judgment of God. God is warning our nation that it is losing its prosperity. And still she will not return to the Lord.

Vv. 7-8… God withholds rain in one city and gives too much in another city. This has happened in our nation. Floods in one area and drought in another. Just as Israel would rather travel miles to get water than repent, people still do not listen when the weather gives us warnings. In the past, when the rivers have overflowed their banks and caused billions of dollars of damage, people said they were angry at God. Rain and flooding washes away crops and farmers watch helplessly. God demonstrates a corrective measure, but not one word is heard about repentance and returning to the Lord. God is behind the rain, not the devil (Deuteronomy 28:24). God often uses weather as His rod of correction against a sinful society. God is speaking to us.

(To be continued…)

Pastor George Belobaba

Copyright © 2011 by Scripture Nuggets Ministries
All rights reserved

Amos: Prophet Of Justice, Pt. 8

(Part 8 of 21)

AMOS 4… In this chapter the Lord, like a lawyer, gives contrasts of thought. Amos is picturing God as One who uses the power of intelligence to treat a problem and to arrive at a conclusion or decision. Like a lawyer, God presents an argument and gives a contrast of thought to influence a decision. After God presents His reasoning, Israel must make a decision. God reasons, ponders, and draws a conclusion about what He is going to do. Remember, see the justice of God at work in Amos, not the judgment.

The theme of Amos 4 is prepare to meet your God. God wants us to know some things. It is not His purpose to cure sin by judgment. Judgment does not cure a nation of sin. Remember Egypt and Pharaoh? God sent many plagues to put pressure on Pharaoh to let Israel go. Pharaoh said, “Go,” but as soon as the pressure was off, he changed his mind and said that they couldn’t go (Exodus 7-13). You can’t cure national sin by punishment. People must be educated to fear the Lord. One of the reasons people do wrong is because they do not know how to do right. They do not know that God is a God of righteousness and a God of justice. God is compassionate, but He is not permissive. He will give us loving discipline to teach us to be responsible for our own negative behavior. In Amos 4, God reasons. He is not going to force His principles of behavior on the nation, but He does lay them out so that the nation can make a decision.

Amos 4:1-3… Hear this word… God begins to reason by contrasting Himself as a holy God and the nation’s unholy lifestyle. God lays out His ways against Israel’s ways. Every time Israel went their way, they got into trouble. Remember, Amos was a herdsman, so God lets him speak in the area of his expertise. He uses the word “kine,” which means “cows.” God called them “cows.” The strong-willed were pushing others around. The rich who were prospering were pushing around those who were weaker. Often the “haves” look down on the “have-nots” with a spirit of condemnation. God was teaching them that it is not always the poor that bring sin into a nation; it can also be those who are rich and bored. God called them “cows.” He addressed them in the feminine gender. He was accusing the men of losing their manhood and their strength. Luxurious living caused them to lose their manliness and their will to do right. They reveled in their unrighteousness. There is something about wealth that causes people to oppress the public. “Bring us drinks” (v. 1). They want to receive rather than give. The word “masters” is taken from a Hebrew word adon, which means “ruler, sovereign, controller (human or divine), owner, lord.” Here in verse 1, these masters were trying to order the populace around. As Christians, we act like these same folk and try to order God around. “Here’s our plan, Lord; sign here.” But God will not bless and sanction what is not His will.

V. 2… God responds… “By my holiness” (Psalm 89:35, KJV). God is going to take action because He is holy and not because He is angry. God chastens His people when they err because He is holy. God deals with sin, trespasses, and mistakes out of His holy character. God demands that which is right, and until the nation does that which is right, nothing else is of any importance. God, through Amos, is trying to get Israel to respond to His holiness. Look at the contrast… “Let’s reason,” God says, “Put My holiness up against your lifestyle.” Israel’s lifestyle fell short. We need to pray, “Lord, cleanse me of my unholiness and impart Your holiness to me.” Amos prophesies in verse 2 about the nation’s fate. When the Assyrians come, they will act like “fishhooks.” Fishhooks are used to catch fish. They are cruel instruments that savage and tear the flesh. The Assyrians were going to do this to the nation. Israel’s wall of defense would be breached, and her people would be pulled out like a fish on a hook and sent into captivity. Today, God is putting His holiness against our nation’s lifestyle, and that lifestyle is falling short of God’s holiness. Who is there among us that can stop God’s justice? Right now, our nation is not showing the slightest evidence that it is returning back to God. Our nation is not thinking biblically.

(To be continued…)

Pastor George Belobaba

Copyright © 2011 by Scripture Nuggets Ministries
All rights reserved

Amos: Prophet Of Justice, Pt. 7

(Part 7 of 21)

Amos 3:9-15… God talks of impending judgment…

Vv. 9-10… God judges openly, not in secret… When He is about to judge He sends word to the leaders of the nation. “Watch this.” In other words, He is saying, “Come and see what I do to those hypocrites who violate My word, My ways, My covenants.” Let God know your sins through repentance or else God will let your sins be known to the surrounding nations. Amos is prophesying, “Your enemies, Ashdod (“spoilers”) and Egypt (“that which troubles or oppresses”), are being summoned to witness what God is about to do to Israel.” That’s very powerful. Amos is pointing to these witnesses and is saying, “Look at the tumults, disturbances, violence, oppressions, and injuries through violence. You need to understand why I am punishing Israel.” God is saying, “My people do not know how to do right anymore.” This is happening right now in our nation. The nation does not know how to do right anymore. The nation’s sins have caught up to her; she has crossed the line. With our laws of liberty, people do not know what’s right or wrong anymore. Our nation used to be looked upon as the safest nation in the world.

Amos 3:11-12… “An enemy, even one surrounding the land, Will pull down your strength from you And your citadels will be looted” (NASB). The lion that roared in Amos 1:2 now feasts in Amos 3. When God backs off from a nation, even a small enemy can overwhelm it. Amos is prophesying that Israel is going into captivity (Assyrian captivity by Shalmaneser; see 2 Kings 18:9). Amos 3:12 tells of Israel being pulled to pieces as if a lion was biting off chunks of flesh. Very often we wonder, “Why does it seem that our nation is being pulled to pieces?” One who obeys the word of God can never be torn to pieces. This is a powerful truth: “[We] are kept by the power of God” (1 Peter 1:5, KJV), “and by the word of [our] testimony” (Revelation 12:11).

Amos 3:13-15… The idols that led Israel away… are the first thing that God judges. Every false religion is the first thing God targets. God will touch the very thing people worship. Even today’s churches will not escape because there is so much idol worship. God will visit the altars of “Bethel” (“house of God”). Jeroboam made Bethel Israel’s place of worship, installed false priests, and changed the word of God to fit his false program. Despite the preaching of Elijah and Elisha, Israel kept this false worship. (Jeroboam feared his people would return to Judah and to true worship.) Israel was over two hundred years old during the time of Jeroboam. Our nation is now over two hundred years old as well… what was once a bastion for freedom and for what is right is now full of godlessness and is repeating the errors of Israel in allowing so much false worship.

Remember… God is a God of justice… Are you seeing God at work in the book of Amos? National sins bring a national judgment. God will smite those who use religion for their own prosperity. Israel under Jeroboam did this. Possessions of luxury and idolatrous things are no match for God when His wrath is full and when He begins to roar. Having a big church is not a sign that you will escape the Lion’s roar. Note in verse 15 that winter houses and summer houses refer to prosperity gained through greed. Today the magazines are filled with how-to books such as how to increase your faith, how to prosper, how to strengthen your marriage, how to receive your healing, and much more. The writers charge big fees for their books and they are getting rich off people’s desire to know. God is pictured as an Evaluator and an Examiner in the book of Amos. God will review our performances as well… yes, yours. God will review our works whether good or bad. We need to examine what the Lord has done for us and how we responded. Are we walking in agreement with God? Is God walking on without us? Are we going on with Him? Are we, like Caleb, following the Lord fully? Our nation has been caught in a trap (snared). Many Christians today are also caught in a trap. The Lion is roaring. Remember Amos was called “the pain.” Has the preaching of “thus saith the Lord” become a “pain” in today’s churches? We must come back to God; substitutes cannot help us. Romans 11:22 says, “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God” (KJV). God has been good to our nation. Will He continue to be good? Romans 2:4 talks about a people despising God’s goodness, yet it is God’s goodness that leads us to repentance. When God examined Israel, He reviewed His goodness to them, but instead of coming back to God they kept going on in their sins. They crossed the line.

(To be continued…)

Pastor George Belobaba

Copyright © 2011 by Scripture Nuggets Ministries
All rights reserved

Amos: Prophet Of Justice, Pt. 6

(Part 6 of 21)

Amos 3:1-15… GOD CONTINUES TO EVALUATE ISRAEL’S HISTORY…

Amos 3:1-2… God examines their covenant relationship… This is a powerful truth. God is saying that He is the God of Israel’s life. God is saying, “You have forgotten your exodus, you have lost your sense of freedom, you have begun to live carelessly.” God is love. He is also holy, and His holiness demands that we live holy. His righteousness demands that we live righteously. God will never violate His covenant, but Israel violated their part of the covenant. “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for your iniquities” (v. 2, KJV). The greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility, and the greater the punishment when all the privileges have been abused by careless living.

Keep in mind that whatever happened to Israel happened as examples for the New Testament church. We are fortunate that genuine repentance brings forgiveness and mercy. The angels that sinned lost the privilege of repentance. When they crossed the line and when God said, “That’s it,” they lost their privilege of repentance. When a person is filled with the Holy Spirit they come into higher privileges. When they get careless with it, they suffer loss. See Proverbs 29:18… “Without a progressive vision, the people dwell carelessly” (Swedish translation). “Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint” (NIV). Here in these verses of Amos, God is examining Israel’s treatment of His past mercies. If God’s mercies do not restrain us from living carelessly we will be reminded that God is a God of justice. God is an Evaluator and an Examiner. God cannot condone sin even in those who are close to Him. Remember Lucifer; iniquity was found in his heart and he was cast out from the presence of God (Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28). When Jesus was bearing our sin on the cross He cried out to God, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Psalm 22:1, KJV; see also Matthew 27:46).

Amos had a word from God… “You only have I known”… The New Testament church is God’s family in the earth today. The word “known” is the Hebrew word yada which means “to know in the sense of perception, intellectual understanding with intimate experiences and fellowship.” Nearness to God is a priceless gift. Abuse of that nearness is a terrible waste. What a fearful sin it is that when we have been brought face to face with God we take the attitude, “God, I am leaving You.” God in evaluating the nation was saying, “I made you My own people, I cherished you, loved you, provided for you, protected you, exalted you, but you turned from me and set up your own gods. Therefore I have to discipline you.”

Amos 3:3-8… God now reviews Israel’s walk… “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (v. 3, KJV) When we make God our personal friend there will be fellowship, relationship and agreement. When we violate the word of God we are not in agreement. Either God must become evil and walk with us or we must become holy and walk with God. God wants agreement, not alienation. Amos is challenging Israel to change. In verse 4, the lion waits to catch the prey before he roars; so does God. Amos is saying that Israel is in His grasp, for judgment is already set for them. In verse 5, the bird has no difficulty flying when it is free from a trap. Amos was saying Israel was now a bird in a trap. They were trapped, snared by their own sins and unable to soar. Some years ago prior to a Sunday morning service, I had a vision of a parakeet in a cat’s mouth. It was desperately flapping its wings trying to get away. When I referred to it in the morning service a couple came up for prayer. They said that morning their parakeet got out of the cage and ended up in the cat’s mouth. God was dealing with a problem in their life.

In verse 6… A trumpet is sounding (a prophetic voice)… “When there has been wrongdoing and a prophet speaks, shouldn’t you tremble?” Amos was prophesying that calamity is coming. All disasters are not from the devil. Often when God uses circumstances to chastise us for wrongdoing, we mistakenly rebuke the devil as the source of our problems. God judges nations, individuals and churches too. Revelation 3:20 teaches that God stands outside every church that has left Him out. In Amos 3:7-8, God has revealed to His prophets the sins of the nation. So often when God speaks, we shut out the prophecies, just like Israel did in Amos 7:12, and we tell the prophets to go and speak somewhere else. A true prophet will only give out what God told him. Amos sat close to God and was told to go and prophesy. “The lion has roared” is the message. God has spoken. God is evaluating. God is examining. The sound of impending doom has been voiced. Amos, like Paul, is saying, “Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16, KJV).

(To be continued…)

Pastor George Belobaba

Copyright © 2011 by Scripture Nuggets Ministries
All rights reserved

Amos: Prophet Of Justice, Pt. 5

(Part 5 of 21)

Amos 2:9-3:1-15… The Lord as the Examiner of past performance… The Lord is an Evaluator. The word “evaluate” means “to fix a value or worth upon, to examine and judge, to appraise and give an estimate.” Evaluation is a big thing in today’s job market. Employers very often sit down with their employees and evaluate their job performance. In these verses the Lord looks back on Israel’s history. He reports through the prophet on their performance. It’s God examining an action in order to correct an error and put a person or a nation back on course. The Lord never undervalues nor does He underestimate. Remember that national sin will bring national accountability. Amos was an unspoiled layman sent to a spoiled nation. When people disobey God, God must respond. In this lesson we will see God portrayed as an Examiner. God does look back on history, on the history of every nation, including our nation. Our nation has a great history, a great past performance, and still has, but it has strayed off course. May He extend mercy. We are responsible and accountable for our behavior. Our concepts of God must enlarge to see also that God does not tolerate sin when He gives mercy.

Amos 2:9… God destroyed the Amorites… The word “Amorite” means “of a sayer.” A “sayer” is one who cuts down by words. Amos is prophesying here and reminding the nation of God’s destroying the giants that were in her path to Canaan. God is a destroyer of giants. Giants rise up when there is weak leadership (remember Saul). We cannot defeat giants without the help from God. We must face them, but it’s God who defeats them. Note, “I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath” (KJV). See the story of Joshua 2:10-11; God has destroyed Satan’s power over us. “For sin shall not have dominion over you” (Romans 6:14). The Amorites were the mightiest of the Canaanites. They were the descendants of the fourth son of Canaan. When God destroyed the Amorites He was extending mercy to Israel. Here, God was examining His past mercy to Israel and reminding them of it.

Amos 2:10… God is continuing to remind them of mercy… which was God releasing them from the Egyptian captivity and bondage to bring them into their inheritance. God had trained them for forty years to possess the land of the giants. Jesus delivered us from the world’s bondage and its sins to the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:13). Before we were born again we were slaves to sin. Just as God enlightened Israel in the wilderness, so He enlightens us. Here God was examining their deliverance. We too have a story to tell of our deliverance.

Amos 2:11-12… God continues His examining of His mercy… God is examining the prophet ministry that He gave them. This too was part of His mercy, In the Old Testament, prophets were used for guidance. Prophets proclaimed the word of God. God raised these prophets to be Nazarites (Numbers 6:1-21; they were to avoid strong drink). The prophetic Nazarites were to be separated as examples of godly separation from the world. They were the visual demonstration of what God had determined for all His people. It is as if God said, “See, this is what I want.” All Israel had to do was read in the Nazarites what God wants to see in the nation. Paul teaches (2 Corinthians 3:2-3) that Christians are God’s epistles for men to read. The prophets came from the sons of Israel… What happened? The nation ruined their separation by giving them strong drink to make them drunk and then they were taunted to “prophesy not.” God was examining the nation’s treatment of prophets. God gave to Israel prophets, but they gave them drink to ruin their separation to God. Many prophets today are drunk on the riches they have accumulated and so they have lost their separation unto God. They didn’t want the word of God coming from the prophets to bring conviction. The people didn’t want their consciences bothered. God is going to examine the standards of separation that He has laid down. He will evaluate the people’s corrupting of His ministers by refusing to live by the word He lays down. Non-drinking Nazarites are a strong condemnation of a “drinking” church. Most churches today are intoxicated by worldliness. You’d be surprised how many people sit in churches and say, “Stop the message… We don’t want to hear what you are saying.” Satan and the world are angry at the true message of God because it condemns them. Psalm 2:3 teaches this: “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us” (KJV). Today, our nation is rejecting the standards of separation.

Amos 2:13… God is pressed… What is it that presses God? “Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves” (KJV). God was letting the nation know what was bothering Him. God is still evaluating. Can you imagine God saying, “You are pressing me.” That’s a powerful examination. The nation was weighing God down. God said to Moses, “I bare you on eagles’ wings” (Exodus 19:4), and “Thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee” (Deuteronomy 1:31). Isaiah 63:9 reads, “He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” Now Amos prophesies, “You have pressed Me.” “Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities” (Isaiah 43:24). “Ye have wearied the LORD” (Malachi 2:17). Israel had worn out God’s longsuffering. Nations are “pressing” God a little too far. Many saints, including preachers, are doing the same thing.

Amos 2:14-16… When you press God you have no strength… and no courage, no weapon to war against the devil with. You do have fear and trembling when you stand before God in the day of evaluation because you cannot escape the truth. God will examine the treatment you gave Him when He extended mercy. God gave victory; Israel replaced it with things that bring defeat. God says, “The mighty shall flee away naked” (v. 16, KJV). Even the strongest nations that abandon God will fall swiftly. Sin is weakening our nation. When the Assyrians took the ten tribes captive they went naked into captivity. The Bible says, “Your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). It always does.

(To be continued…)

Pastor George Belobaba

Copyright © 2011 by Scripture Nuggets Ministries
All rights reserved

Amos: Prophet Of Justice, Pt. 4

(Part 4 of 21)

Amos 2:4-5… God roars against Judah… “because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments” (KJV)… and their “lie-living” angered the Lord. This sin is as bad as any other sin. All people, including Christians, are accountable to God. Christians may not do some of the things that God has judged the heathen nations for, but God calls it a transgression when Christians fail to keep His Word. Many Christians today have a desire to know the Word, but not to obey the Word. God judged Judah for not obeying; they rebelled against obeying. Note verse 4, “their lies caused them to err.” Did they compromise the truth? Did they feel that because they were Judah, they could lower God’s standards? Note, they followed their fathers into error rather than following the word of God. Many today listen to preachers with a magnetic personality who are birthing error, and people are following them into error. Errors that are preached long enough begin to seem like the truth. One such error is embodied in the doctrine of the rapture. The doctrine of the rapture was not at all common in Christian belief until the early 1800s, when Edward Irving and John Nelson Darby developed and popularized the concept of a pre-tribulation “rapture.” Up until that time the church preached that, in the end times, the church would experience tribulation. Millions of saints will fall away when tribulation comes because they have been geared towards escapism and not towards going through the difficulties of end-times pressures. The first six roars in the book of Amos brought judgment because of man’s injustices to man, but here… judgment came to Judah because of their injustices to God.

Amos 2:6-8… God roars against Israel… “because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes” (v. 6, KJV). Adultery and manipulation were rampant. We can very easily see our nation’s errors here (the sanctifying of that which God calls ungodliness). “[They] pant after the dust of the earth [Satan’s food]” (v. 7). This speaks of greed, covetousness, and gain (Luke 6:20-26, 1 Timothy 6:3-12). Eternal life is spiritual gain and not material gain. When people prioritize money and materialism over holiness, they will soon cross the line and God begins to roar. Note also, “they . . . deny justice to the oppressed” (v. 7, NIV). Often people who want more of God are turned away. Why? Because they are a hindrance to greed and covetousness. “Blessed are the meek,” Jesus says (Matthew 5:5). Note also, sexual impurities that profane God’s Holy Name. Note also that they misused what they took in pledges from others. There is nothing wrong with making faith pledges, when it is to service the kingdom of God. But God begins to roar when pledges are misused. They spent in sensuality that which they got by injustice. They perverted justice and God saw it, and He roared, God is roaring against this spirit today. He is using the heathen to bring it to light.

The results of these roars… Sin, when it is finished, brings death (James 1:15). When there is no repentance, divine punishment begins. The word “punishment” refers to “beginning the penalty; the paying for damages by discipline, by correction, by chastisement, or by forfeit.” The six heathen nations received no mercy. Deuteronomy 7:10 says, “And [God] repayeth them that hate him to their face” (KJV). In Adam’s and Eve’s case, sin cast them out of Eden, yet God gave them mercy and a way back. Sin forces men and women out from God’s presence. In the New Testament it’s called “not inheriting the kingdom of God.”

All of this judgment did not get sin out of the world. Judgment does not destroy sin. Only the blood of Jesus takes sin out of people and nations. Only repentance takes away those judgments. Judgment is simply God executing justice upon mankind. God is the Judge of the whole earth. When mankind sins, God holds both the nations and each individual man responsible. The Bible teaches both the blessing and the cursing of God (Deuteronomy 27-28). Note two mountains, Gerizim and Ebal. Each mount took of the law with them. Balance… The church that “amen’s” the blessings only, and does not “amen” the curse that disobedience brings, is out of balance. Today in our nation, when preachers preach strongly against the sins of the nation, the crowds applaud and shout their “amen’s.” When that same preacher preaches against the sins of the Christians, there is a deep silence. When Amos told of God’s roaring against the heathen, Israel loved it, but it was a different story when he told of God’s roar against them.

God loves us very much and ministers grace and favor, but He also ministers justice. He is a God of righteousness. God can get angry, but He is also gentle. God condemned Israel with the world. Judgment fell upon the unjust and upon the just. Isaiah 26:9 says, “When thy judgments are in the earth, then the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (KJV). We are all accountable to God. If we do not learn the easy way, we will have to learn the hard way. Amos said, “The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither” (1:2).

(To be continued…)

Pastor George Belobaba

Copyright © 2011 by Scripture Nuggets Ministries
All rights reserved

Amos: Prophet Of Justice, Pt. 3

(Part 3 of 21)

Amos 1:6-8… God roars against Gaza (Philistines)… “For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, and delivered them up to Edom” (KJV). These people sold the captives into more bondage. During Amos’ time, the Philistines occupied four cities–Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron. These names stand for overpowering strength that spoils with gross crimes the uprooting of people. Gaza deported the entire population and gave them to Israel’s enemies (2 Chronicles 21:8-17). Edom was known for being God-rejecters. They had a Satanic hatred for Israel. Their sin crossed God’s line and God could not withhold judgment any longer. We also, in our hearts, deport people away from us… push them away so to speak, because we do not like them. Today, there is a spirit of hatred towards Christians in nations. Remember the word “deophobia,” “the unreasonable hostility of people towards God and towards Christians.”

Vv. 9-10… God roars against Tyrus… “because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant” (KJV). Breaking covenants is a sin. Tyrus broke a covenant between brethren (Joel 3:4-7; they sold the population to Greece). In 2 Samuel 5:11 and 1 Kings 5:7-18, Hiram the king of Tyre made a covenant with David concerning the building of the temple. Later, they turned against both Israel and Judah to make money by the selling of the slaves. There is a lesson here… wealth obtained by covenant-breaking practices brings God’s judgment. Nations have broken covenants that they made with other nations. Many employees sell secrets of the businesses they work for to competitors for money. Even in Christian circles, covenants are being broken. The Lord will roar from Zion…

Vv. 11… God roars against Edom… “because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever” (KJV). Edom is Esau’s descendants. Unforgiveness is a sin. Remember the Jacob-Esau controversy. Esau never stifled his anger against Jacob. (Ezekiel 35:1-5 tells the story; Edom had a perpetual and ancient hatred for Israel.) Edom had a reputation for hatred, cruelty, and resentment. Esau could not get victory over this sin (Numbers 20:14-21, 2 Samuel 8:14, 2 Kings 8:20). Judgment will always come when there is anger, unforgiveness, and resentment between brethren. It will show up in the physical body. There comes a time when this sin has reached its full course and God begins to roar: the judgment begins. Over the years, many Christian have held deep resentments in their hearts against other Christians. Their differences have never been resolved, and their relationships are strained. God will roar from Zion…

Vv. 13-15… God roars against Ammon… because they ripped open the women who were with child. Ammon was a descendent of Lot (Genesis 19:29-38). Ammon was judged because he wanted to leave Israel without an heir so that he could enlarge his borders (Judges 11:12-28 tells the story of Ammon’s sin). Some enlargements do not have the blessing of God. Today many churches boast of enlargement because they have gained new members that have come from other churches. Enlargement needs to come from the birthing of new converts. God is not going to buy any of these arguments to justify wrongdoings which result in enlargement at the expense of others. Many nations have ripped open the economy of other nations just to enlarge themselves. There comes a time when this sin has reached full measure and God begins to roar.

Amos 2:1-3… God roars against Moab… “because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime” (KJV). Moab was a descendent of Lot (Genesis 19:29-38). Moab became indignant with a friend who had befriended an enemy (2 Kings 3:7-27). The king of Moab sacrificed his own heir to his false god. This act sickened everyone who saw it and the battle was abandoned. Here, God judged the holding of grudges. They crossed the line when they were not satisfied with an enemy’s death; they wanted to inflict further hatred by burning the bones. We sometimes manifest this same spirit when we see someone in a trial and we say, “Serves them right.”

God’s roar against the six heathen nations had ended and now God began to roar against both Judah and Israel. Amos now begins to tell Judah and Israel that they too had crossed the line and now must face God’s judgment.

(To be continued…)

Pastor George Belobaba

Copyright © 2011 by Scripture Nuggets Ministries
All rights reserved