SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2015
11:30 PM
My Worship Time Focus: I will Strike
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Amos 9:1
Message of the
verse: “1 I saw the Lord standing
beside the altar, and He said, "Smite the capitals so that the thresholds
will shake, And break them on the heads of them all! Then I will slay the rest
of them with the sword; They will not have a fugitive who will flee, Or a refugee
who will escape.”
We begin our last main section from Dr. Wiersbe’s outline
in our SD for this evening and he entitles that last main point “The prophet
affirms” and it will cover the ninth and last chapter of the book of Amos. He writes the following in his introductory
comments: “In this final chapter of the
book, the Prophet Amos shares four affirmations from the heart of the Lord—three
of which deal with judgment and the fourth with mercy.” We will look at the first of these four which
surely has to do with judgment.
I want to go back and look at some verses from the third
chapter of Amos which is believed to be a parallel passage to this verse as in
this verse we see the Lord standing by an altar, and it is believed that the
altar in question is the one in Bethel and then it goes on to talk about how
this building will be destroyed. The
verses in Amos 3:13-15 speak of how the Assyrians were going to destroy the
people of Israel when they entered the land.
“13 “Hear and testify against the house of Jacob," Declares the
Lord GOD, the God of hosts. 14 “For on the day that I punish Israel’s
transgressions, I will
also punish the altars of Bethel; The horns of the altar will be cut off And they will fall
to the ground. 15 “I will also smite the winter house together with the
summer house; The houses of ivory will also perish And the great houses will
come to an end," Declares the LORD.”
The problem was that the altar, although it was suppose
to be the place of sacrifice and atonement, was not accepted by the Lord for
this was a man made religion. You have
to go back to after the death of Solomon to understand how this false religion
got started, for after the death of Solomon the nation of Israel split and
became two kingdoms. Now the first
person who became the king of the Northern Kingdom started his own religion
with a calf in order to keep the people from going to Jerusalem where God’s
temple was set up as directed by Him.
This is how this religion by man got started and in 722 B. C. God had
had enough as His longsuffering ran out and He had the Northern Kingdom
destroyed by the Assyrians.
10/28/2015 11:45 PM
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