SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 10/22/2015
My Worship Time Focus: Struggling
with the authorities
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: Amos 7:10-17
Message
of the verses: “10 Then Amaziah, the
priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has
conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable
to endure all his words. 11 For thus
Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from
its land into exile.’” 12 Then Amaziah
said to Amos, ‘God, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah and there eat
bread and there do you prophesying! 13
But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal
residence.’
14 Then Amos replied to Amaziah, ‘I
am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a
grower of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord
took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My
people Israel.’ 16 Now hear the word of
the Lord: you are saying ‘You shall not
prophesy against Israel nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.’ 17 Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘Your wife
will become a harlot in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the
sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line and you yourself will
die upon unclean soil. Moreover, Israel
will certainly go from its land into exile.’”
In this SD we will first admire the
courage of Amos as he faithfully went to prophecy to the place in Israel where
the king resided and also where the “religion” of Israel was based. He did this faithfully as the Lord had told
him to do. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Four
different messages were involved in this event.” I think that we will look at the first two
messages in this SD and then look at the last two in the next SD.
In verses 10-11 we see the message
that Amaziah gives to the king about what Amos is saying and prophesying. Amaziah was appointed by the King of Israel
so it was his job to tell the king what this farmer preacher was saying to the
people. We can be assured that the king
did not go and listen to Amos preach so he would rely upon what Amaziah told
him that Amos was saying. King Jeroboam
was living comfortably and although it would have done him good to go and hear
Amos it was not going to happen. I just
wonder what his thoughts were when the things that Amos said about him would
come to pass.
In verses 12-13 we see the second
message and that is what Amaziah said to Amos.
I have to believe that the Lord was protecting Amos in all of this for
we know that the king did not want to hear that the city where he was living in
was going to be destroyed and that the Assyrians were going to defeat him in
battle, so he tells Amaziah to tell Amos to just go on back to Judah and care
for his flocks and leave the preaching to one of his preachers who would not
tell him any bad news.
We see the word “seer” in what Amaziah
was saying to Amos and that word means a visionary and it was not something
that Amos would like to be called, but that is the kind of man Amaziah
was. Amaziah did not believe what Amos
was saying and if you look at it from a worldly perspective then you would
probably not blame him, but God is the God who can do what He pleases and
Amaziah should have taken the time to listen to the message of Amos. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The priest suggested that
Amos was also a coward, who would run away if the king began to deal with
him. He hinted that Amos was interested
only in earning bread. Finally, Amaziah
told Amos to get out and stay out because the kings’ chapel was for the elite,
and he was a prophet. It was a bitter
speech that might have cut the prophet deeply.”
I suppose that this message that Amos heard from Amaziah did hurt Amos,
but not in the way that Amaziah would have thought it was hurting, but I
believe that Amos was hurt because his message from the Lord had not been taken
seriously and therefore the children of Israel would be destroyed or at best
some sent into exile not to return to the way they were living at the time of
Amos’ message.
10/22/2015
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