SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/23/2015
11:12 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Hear God’s
Word
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Amos 5:1-3
Message of the
verses: “1 Hear this word which I
take up for you as a dirge, O house of Israel: 2 She has fallen, she will not
rise again-The virgin
Israel. She lies neglected on her land; There is none to raise her up.
3 For thus says the Lord GOD, "The
city which goes forth a thousand strong Will have a hundred left, And the one
which goes forth a hundred strong Will have ten left to the house of Israel.’”
To begin with I want to look at two other times that Amos
has called the people to give their attention to God’s Word: “Hear this word which the LORD has spoken
against you, sons of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from
the land of Egypt (Amos 3:1).” “Hear
this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress
the poor, who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands, "Bring now, that
we may drink!’ (Amos 4:1).”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “The way we treat God’s Word is the
way we treat God, and the way we treat God’s messengers is the way we treat the
Lord Himself (John 15:18-21). ‘God…has
in these last days spoken to us by His Son…See that you do not refuse Him who
speaks’ (Heb. 1:1-2; 12:25 NKJV).”
I have to believe that this sermon that Amos was giving
to the people of Israel was what we have looked at in other prophets and
described it as an action sermon, for Amos is giving a funeral dirge but as far
as the people were concerned no one had died so they probably thought it was
strange. Amos was giving the funeral
dirge to the nation of Israel, but most of them may have thought that there was
nothing wrong with the nation as they were prosperous and they were in their
own way worshiping the Lord. Amos knew
the vital signs and they were not good.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Israel’s enthusiastic concerts would become funerals
(5:23; 8:3, 10) and their sacred shrines ruins, for the Assyrians were destined
to destroy the kingdom of Israel.”
Israel is described as a “virgin daughter” by Amos in
verse two and Dr. Wiersbe has an endnote to help us understand this statement: “Virgin
daughter of Israel is a common phrase in the Old Testament (2 Kings 19:21; Isa.
37:22; Jer. 18:13; 31:4, 21; Lam. 2:13) and it is also applied to other
nations, such as Egypt (Jer. 46:11) and Babylon (Isa. 47:1). It refers to an unmarried daughter still
under protection of the father. Because
the nation of Israel turned their back on their Heavenly Father, they got in
trouble and were defiled and slain in their own land. Paul used a similar image in writing about
the local church (2 Cor. 11:1-3).”
Amos also says in verse two that there would be no one to
lift her up and after the Assyrians were done with Israel they ceased to be a
nation again and actually turned into a mixed people called the Samaritans
which was neither Jew nor Gentile. We
have gone over this before writing that when the kingdoms split that representatives
from all the ten tribes moved to the Southern kingdom.
Amos speaks of how a town of 1000 people would turn into
a town of 100 and so forth, and this is what happened because this is what God
said would happen in the covenant He made with Israel of which mostly is found
in Deuteronomy chapter 28 and also in the book of Leviticus chapter 26.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes “The first step toward revival and
returning to the Lord is to hear what God has to say to us from His Word. ‘Will You not revive us again, that Your
people may rejoice in You? Show us Your
mercy, O Lord, and grant us Your salvation.
I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace to His
people and His saints; but let them not turn back to folly’ (Ps. 85:6-8 NKJV).”
9/23/2015 11:40 PM
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