AMOS

Amos Chapter 3

Israel's Guilt and Punishment

• Amos 3:1  Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 
• 2  You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. 

God chose Israel to be the people who brought forth the Messiah. He chose Abraham who  obtained favor and salvation just by believing God. God spoke to him to leave the land where he was leaving behind kinfolk and go to a place He had chosen for Him. He was a type of being saved by faith. The country he left was around the area of Syria. They worshiped idols and had long ago departed from the real God.

God was going to choose a people to bring His own Son into the world who would willingly die for our sins and usher in a new and living way whereby both Jews and Gentiles could be saved by faith. Faith in the Son of God grants us a new beginning, a life cleansed from sin and having our names written in the book of life. The curse that came upon us when Adam sinned would be broken and we are made new creatures in Christ, the Son of the living eternal God.

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now all we have to do today is believe God the Son, believe that He died, was buried and rose again so that we also who believe  and receive Him into our lives, will be able to overcome death both physically and spiritually.

As we know from reading the Old Testament journey of the nation of Israel, that they fell away from following God except for a few that remained faithful like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, David, Nehemiah, Samuel, Elijah, Moses, Joshua, Caleb and many others. God always has a people that stay true to Him. Amos is speaking to them in his day about their backsliding away from God after they were delivered from the bondage they suffered in Egypt, saw the miracle at the Red Sea and were fed manna in the wilderness until they got to the promised land of Caanan.

A few years after the death of David, many kings and those that followed their ways, succumbed to idolatry and followed the ways of the heathen nations surrounding them. The same nations that now are their enemies out to remove them from the face of the earth. The ones they followed  after are the ones that hate them.

This is the reason why they have suffered so much throughout history. They departed from their protector. The real everlasting God and the savior sent into the world to save them was there to protect them if they would have turned to Him; but they ignored God and did what was right in their own eyes like many of us do today. They rejected Jesus as a nation except for a few like the apostles and others. After their rejection of the Son of God, Paul the apostle with many others preaching the gospel of Jesus, went to the Gentile nations of whom many received. It is the latter days now and some Gentile nations are returning to their pagan roots and losing their way. The gospel will be going back to the nation of Israel.

All both Jew and Gentile though can be saved by grace just by receiving Jesus into their lives. The gospel is simple. BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

• Amos 3:3  Can two walk together, except they be agreed? 
• 4  Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? 
• 5  Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? 
• 6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? 
• 7  Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. 

They were not to marry, follow after or go the way of the heathen nations but follow God. The same applies to us who follow Christ today. We must abide in Christ, not to the way of the world around us.

• 2Corinthians 6:14  Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 

God does not send out warnings by prophets if there is nothing to be warned about. He sends them warning before He sends judgment. Today He still sends teachers, preachers and prophetic prophesies to warn to the days to come.

It is sad to see the country that use to believe in God cast Him out of the public schools as being unconstitutional. Look now and see what that resulted in. Troubled teens, drugs, abortions, school shootings, violence, rioting, fear and hate. I'm old enough to remember the days that even those that were not church goers had respect for God and the people that lived for God. Many of them had rifles standing in the corners of their living rooms and never had to use them on people.

We could keep our doors unlocked during the day. Everyone looked out for each other. Kids could walk to school without the fear of someone picking them up. Those things would happen but were rare.

• Amos 3:8  The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy? 
• 9  Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof. 
• 10  For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. 

The places mentioned here are exactly where there is trouble and violence right now as I write. Horrible violence is being committed in these places now. Things I use to just read about in history are happening now.

• Amos 3:11  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled. 

As long as a nation stays true to God, God's hand of protection is upon them. When they depart from God and live apart from Him even forbidding the preachers from preaching or the prophets from prophesying, God's hand of protection isn't there as much as before. Without His hand of protection and the prayers of those that believe, no nation is guaranteed to survive very long.

• Amos 3:12  Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch. 
• 13  Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts, 
• 14  That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. 
• 15  And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD. 

Most of this prophecy has been fulfilled but some may be repeated in the latter days. When I read Revelation, I see that a lot of things have returned. Someone set up a large statue in New York recently for worship. They don't realize how dangerous that type of thing is. Evil spirits of Satan accompany all idol worship. We should avoid it like the plague. There is much corruption, sexual immorality, gender confusion and departing from that which is holy and good. Yet there are those that still believe in Jesus and are faithful to Him. There is hope but it is only in Jesus our Christ. -DC

• Ecclesiastes 12:1  Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; 
• 2  While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: 

Amos Chaper 4