SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/12/2015
10:25 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Hypocrisy
PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Amos 4:4-5
Message of the
verses: “4 “Go ahead and offer
sacrifices to the idols at Bethel. Keep
on disobeying at Gilgal. Offer sacrifices each morning, and bring your tithes
every three days. 5 Present your bread made with yeast as an offering of
thanksgiving. Then give your extra voluntary offerings so you can brag about it
everywhere! This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do,’’ says the
Sovereign LORD (NLT).” “4 Come to
Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your
sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years: 5 And offer a
sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings:
for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD (AVRLE).”
Amos is using “holy irony” in these verses as in 5:5 he instructed
them to do just the opposite: “"But
do not resort to Bethel And do not come to Gilgal, Nor cross over to Beersheba;
For Gilgal will certainly go into captivity And Bethel will come to trouble.” Dr. Wiersbe explains “It’s as though a pastor
today said to his congregation, ‘Sure, go ahead and attend church, but by
attending, you’re only sinning more. God
and visit the summer Bible conferences, but by doing so, you will be
transgressing more. Your heart isn’t
serious about knowing God or doing His will.
Since it’s all just playacting.
Since it’s the poplar thing to do, so you do it.’”
When we look at the history of Israel we find much rich
history that happened at Bethel, as we remember that Abraham was there and also
Jacob and even one time the ark was kept there at Bethel, however when it came
to Amos’ day the king chapel was there and a man named Amaziah the priest
served there as seen in Amos 7:10 and following. Saul was made king of Israel there but now
Bethel was not a good place to be as far as serving the Lord for the times
changed. When we look at the seven
churches in the book of Revelation we see that most of them are long gone as
things changed and go worse and so the Lord removed His presence from there in
the way it had been.
If we look on the surface at this time one may think that
Israel was experiencing a great revival as they were bringing their tithes and
sacrifices there. Their hearts were not
in their worship as they were not close to the Lord, but actually far away from
Him and this is one of the reasons that He sent Amos to them.
Amos says in these verses that they were offering
sacrifices with leaven in them and we know that according to the Law this was
not allowed. I remember when I was a
believer for only a short time that the Pastor at the church I was attending
said that one of the churches in the area changed the elements of the Lord’s
Table by using an apple instead of the grape juice or wine as some used. They probably thought they were being holy
before the Lord, but were disobeying His Word.
We can also see their pride in what they were doing as
they made sure everyone knew what they were doing in their offerings to the
Lord. “1 "Beware of practicing your
righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward
with your Father who is in heaven. 2
"So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be
honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 3 "But when you give to the poor, do not
let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving will be in secret; and
your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (These are the words of Jesus Christ found in
Matthew 6:1-4.”
We will continue looking at these verses in our next SD
on Amos chapter four.
9/12/2015 10:52 PM
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