amazing how many times the minor prophets point to the first century coming of Christ. And for our reading from Amos, I'll be preaching on the whole book, but I'm going to read chapter 9, verses 11 through 15. You'll recognize the first two verses quoted in Acts 15 as referring to the church. On that day, I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down and repair its damages. I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the Gentiles who were called by my name, says the Lord who does this thing. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, him who sow seed. The mountains shall drip with sweet wine and all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of my people, Israel. They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them, says the Lord, your God. Father, we thank you for the promises that you have given to us in your word. And we know that you are a God who cannot lie. You always fulfill those promises. And we thank you for the things we can learn from this book of Amos. May our hearts be open to your instruction. Guide my lips as I proclaim your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. One of my pet peeves is the way modern socialistic Christianity loves to cherry-pick just a few phrases from the book of Amos, take them out of context, and then apply them in a call to what they speak of as social justice for the poor, and what they mean by that is socialism. And there are two reasons that their use of Amos is totally, totally illegitimate. First of all, they do not allow Amos to define what justice is. And secondly, in fact, his definition of justice completely overturns theirs. But secondly, they reject the law of God and Amos is constantly pushing people back to the law of God. It's not saying, okay, minister to the poor, but do it any way that you want to do it. Now you minister to the poor in the way that God has defined in His law. And so God defines both the means as well as the goals. And I'll give you some examples. Many of the modern social justice warriors are calling for more state control, more government theft from one group, and through the state redistribution of that stolen wealth to another group, usually a very irresponsible group. They are calling for more state-imposed definitions of racial justice, gender justice, workplace justice, economic justice, you name it. The word justice comes behind it. And ironically, the Bible would say that what they call justice is gross injustice and gross unrighteousness. What Amos is doing is it's calling us to look at life through biblical eyes. And so when Amos cries out the popular very often quoted verse, but let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream, we need to ask, who gets to define justice and righteousness? Okay, he who defines the terms really can control a society. Does Amos mean reparations for slavery that happened hundreds of years ago? Does He ask us to feel guilty and miserable over things we've never done and our ancestors have never done? We'd say no. Instead of social justice, what Amos is calling for is biblical justice as defined by God's law. The cry of every one of the prophets, by definition, their covenant lawsuits was a cry, similar to Isaiah's, to the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. You do not have a legitimate prophetic covenant lawsuit if it's not calling people back to the law of God. So what I would recommend when you run across one of these Ronald Sider type of people that appeals to Amos is to tell him, look, you don't really believe Amos at all. Because everything that Ronald Sider held to, Amos is undermining. It is castigating. Press the details of Amos to show that, for example, God hates government inflation of currency. Chapter eight, verse five, something that Ronald Sider has absolutely no problem with. Amos hates government taxation of its citizens. Chapter five, verse 11. Which is absolutely essential for Ronald Sider's plan of government redistribution of wealth. He has to use taxation to do that. But it says God hates that. Amos hates wars of aggression that do not submit to God's laws. Chapter 1 verse 3 through 2 verse 5. Whereas Ronald Sider has sided with Marxist guerrillas. Ronald Sider insists that the kind of economics that the law of God mandates, which is free market economics, has passed away. We don't go to the law to define our economics, but what does Amos press every person to? It's summarized really in chapter 2 verse 4 where he says, you are being judged because they have despised the law of the Lord and have not kept His commandments. So modern social justice warriors actually stand condemned by Amos. So I think Amos is really a fantastic book that biblicists need to get to know so that SJWs don't get away with abusing this book. It is a marvelous book of what true mercy, true love, true justice, true righteousness is all about. It's a call for all of the nations to return to God's grace and to His law. And so I hope by the time we get through Amos in the next 35 to 40 minutes or so that you will come to love and appreciate Amos as well. It's a marvelous book that protects the liberties of citizens. Who was Amos? Well, he was the second earliest of the minor prophets. In terms of dating, only Jonah comes before him. You'll find some differences of view on one prophet, but on my chronology, only Jonah comes before him. Jonah prophesied in the 15th year of Amaziah's reign, and Amos prophesied during the reign of the next king, Isaiah. And then you have Hosea and Micah who would come next among the minor prophets. Let me just tell you a little bit just based on the first verse of the book, Amos 1 verse 1. The words of Amos who was among the sheep breeders of Tekoa which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel two years before the earthquake. Now Amos was not simply a sheep herder as many people, or a shepherd as many people portray him as. The Hebrew word noked refers to a very specialized industry of a sheep breeder who was breeding specialized sheep with specialized wool. It took a lot more to engage in this than your typical shepherd would have had. So he had taken the raising of sheep to a whole new level. In chapter 7 verse 14 he mentions again that he was a sheep breeder and also a tenderer of Sycamore figs. Now I love the fact that God uses people from all walks of life. All walks of life. Jesus spent most of his years as a carpenter. Some of his disciples, his apostles, were shepherds. The patriarchs were herdsmen. Paul was a tentmaker. The Bible mentions the importance of a fuller Fuller is basically somebody who washes your laundry for you, right? Of a Fuller of musicians, innkeepers, potters, soldiers, hunters, cooks, and many other occupations. Indeed, it was extremely rare that a person went to schools of higher learning in order to get an education. And yet these tradesmen, the Bible mentions, could read, they could write, They could craft high literature. They were far better educated than Americans are today. They could do things that people who have graduated from the university nowadays cannot do, just saying, okay? His literary form, everybody agrees, was on an extremely high level, and he was a tradesman. So I think we put way too much stock in schools and too little stock in self-learning. Now, verse 1 mentions that Amos' prophecies began two years before the massive earthquake that caused so much destruction during the reign of Uzziah. The earthquake was so devastating that it was still in the corporate memory of Israel over 200 years later when Zechariah chapter 14 verse 5 prophesied, hey there's going to be another earthquake just like the earthquake that happened under Uzziah. That's how big of an impact that this had. We did look at that earthquake that was prophesied by Zechariah happened on the day of Pentecost, AD 66, split the Mount of Olives, scared the daylights out of a lot of the unbelievers, but it made a place where the remnant could flee through to Pella. And so it was perfectly fulfilled. But in any case, mentioning this huge earthquake sets an ominous tone for the book of impending judgment. God is about to shake this kingdom. In verse 1 he mentions Jeroboam II of Israel in the north and Uzziah of the southern kingdom. And he not only does that for dating, obviously it's important for dating the book, but he does it because he's wanting us to realize this guy had a very lucrative trade. And it was a lucrative trade. It was something that brought in a great deal of wealth. He lived in Tekoa, south of Jerusalem in the southern kingdom. And God called him to go way up north to a kingdom that was hostile to Judah to prophesy against that kingdom. So he gave up a prestigious trade to become a hated and despised and persecuted messenger of God. And I think this speaks volumes about his character. God came before money. God came before fame. God came before honor. He moved in order to serve. In chapter 7, when the priest of the northern cult of Jeroboam accused Amos of treason against King Jeroboam. basically as the king's representative, ordered Amos, get out of this country. Do not preach in this country. Amos tells him, look, I didn't take this. I was a sheep breeder. In other words, I came from a pretty prestigious thing. I didn't do this because I want to do it. It's the Holy Spirit who caused me. And over and over in this book, he points to the Holy Spirit, overwhelming him, almost forcing him to prophesy against Israel. And so even though the words that he speaks are his own vocabulary, his own words over and over in this book, we see it was the spirit of God who was giving God's very words through him using his vocabulary. And because it is God's own word, it was powerful. It was powerful. Power of the prophetic message could be seen in verse two. And he said, the Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem. The pastures of the shepherds mourn on the top of Carmel withers. When God speaks judgment, that judgment automatically happens historically. There is a power in His prophetic word. God's word casts down all obstacles. And so this is a book that speaks of God's judgments and His punishments. And by the way, punishment is a key word in the book. And some people say the name, as in the name of God, is a key word as well. God, because of His jealousy for His own name, does bring punishments and disciplines against nations. Even the key verse Amos 3 verse 2 reflects this punishment because they were His people. It says, you only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. And the idea is the same as in Hebrews 12, whom the Lord loves He disciplines. So there's a difference between how he dealt with Israel and how he dealt with other nations. And I'll save the key chapter for when we go through the book, but just to give you a bird's eye view of the theology of this book, let me outline just a few of the major themes that you find in Amos. Most would agree that the central theme of this book is summarized in the two words justice and righteousness. On chapter 5 verse 7 and again in chapter 6 verse 12 he condemns Israel for having redefined those terms. They thought what they were doing is justice, but it's because they were not defining their terms by the law of God. They had turned it completely upside down, and Amos blasts them for that in much the same way that modern people turn those definitions upside down. We've got to define terms by the Bible. In chapter 5, verse 24, he calls for true justice and righteousness, saying, but let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. And I'll save my exposition for that for later. But Israel no doubt thought what they were doing was right. Again, because they're not allowing their terms to be defined by the law. A second major theme found throughout the book is God's sovereignty over every detail of life and over every nation. In chapter 3, verse 8, Amos could not resist God's sovereign call for him to be a prophet. So God is sovereign over Amos. In chapter 2, verses 4 through 16, God asserts His sovereignty over Judah and over Israel. They had strayed from His paths, and God says, hey, just because you strayed does not mean I'm not sovereign in your life. In chapter 1 verse 3 through 2 verse 3, God asserts His sovereignty over the pagan nations. Every nation answers to God on a day-to-day basis for their inhumanity to man and for their lawlessness. And the hymns that are scattered through the book show that God not only created absolutely everything in the universe, but that he also governs, sovereignly governs all things. Chapter four, verse 13 calls God, he who forms mountains and creates the wind, who declares to man what man's thought is and makes the morning darkness. God declares even what our thoughts are. Chapter 5 verse 8 says, He made the Pleiades and Orian. So over and over again in this book, you find this theme that God is sovereign over everything that happens inside of man and outside of man. And it was written in a way that was designed to make us worship God and submit to Him and trust Him and love Him. If God were not sovereign, He would not be worthy of worship. But of course, man's heart is depraved and refuses to respond appropriately. And so a third major theme is God's judgments against sin. And wow. The litany of sins that he mentions is incredibly pervasive, unlike Hosea. I have mentioned just a few, but here it's just everywhere. You see, for example, that he brings up all of the national sins and the international sins that were going on. For example, he blasts kings for wartime tortures in their wars against other nations, chapter one, verse three. You know, the threshing instrument that they run over people. In chapter 1, verse 13, he blasts the nations for deliberately provoking wars. You know, the treatment, mistreatment of Abbad. Deliberately provoking wars. For breaking peace accords, chapter 1, verse 6 and 9. For using more force than was needed, chapter 1, verse 11. For imperialistic land grabs, chapter 1, verse 13. You go through the book, you realize, okay, he's interested in international politics, but he's interested as well in national politics. So he blasts each of these nations. He blasts Judah and Israel for materialism, for example. Materialism is condemned in this book in many, many ways. And by the way, don't think it's only the rich who are materialistic. That would be to grossly misrepresent the book of Amos. I talked to a pastor in Africa, Kenya actually, one time, and he said that the poorest of the poor in his country were just as materialistic as the rich in America were. And they were preoccupied with stuff. But in any case, Amos does focus on the wealthy, not just because they had wealth, but because they were not stewards of their wealth to God, and because they used it in a way that abused other people. When I think, for example, of Amos' outrage that some of the rich there spent more on shoes than they did on helping the poor, I thought of Imelda Marcos, who was the wife of the former president of the Philippines, who had 1,220 pairs of extremely expensive shoes, as well as a ton of, a vast collection of clothing and accessories. And people might think If you're a billionaire, who cares? You can spend what you want to spend. And I say, no, even a billionaire is a steward before God. And I don't care what definition of stewardship you have. That is lousy stewardship to have 1,220 pairs of shoes. So Amos blasts those wealthy women in this book, and he calls them, you cows of Bashan. Them fighting words, I mean, you start naming people like that, you're gonna get yourself into trouble. But this was basically his way of saying, these were fat cats who got rich at the expense of justice in their dealings with other people. But with name calling like that, you can see why he got in trouble. In chapter seven, verse 11, Amos told Jeroboam that he would die by the sword, and that he would be led away captive. Well, that immediately gets Jeroboam's attention. And he, through his representative, the priest Amaziah, tells him, this is treason that you're speaking, and you need to get out of this country right now. For sure, don't preach in Bethel because this is the king's sanctuary. Well, Amos just pours it on all the more when he, you know, that does not turn him off at all. So he tells Amaziah, the false priest, your wife shall be a harlot in the city. Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword. Your land shall be divided by survey line. You shall die in the defiled land and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land. Amos was fearless in his denunciations of all evil and oppression. He blasted them. Let me just give you a quick list of some of the sins. I won't give you every reference here. Their cavalier attitudes toward the poor, sexual sins, breaking the Sabbath, cheating people with selling products. poor products, injustice in the court system, cruelty in warfare, slave trading, border expansion, desecrating a grave. And actually that last one is a pretty interesting one. I think it's pretty relevant. Rodney preached on this sometime back. If you think it's really unimportant how you treat your body after it's died, read chapter two, verses one through three, where it says, no, you cannot even treat a pagan's body with disrespect. And that was indeed based upon the law of God, which said that even when you hang a criminal, You've got to take him down at the end of the day, and you've got to treat his body in a dignified way. So our modern cavalier attitudes toward dead bodies is not biblical. Amos also blasted Israel for debasing their currency. Chapter eight, verse five, says it was a sin when they were making the ephah small and the shekel large. Well, that's exactly what our government does with its shameful and evil Keynesian economics. The dollar buys less and less over time, and it's especially hurtful to the poor. Amos also blasted them for engaging in hypocritical worship in chapter five. So those are just some samples of some of the sins that he goes against. It's an amazingly relevant book for modern times. If he were to live today, I think he would probably step on everybody's toes, everybody's. As a result of these sins, another major theme in the book is that the nation of Israel would soon end. This was inconceivable to those who heard this message because that nation had been around for a long time. They expected it to continue for a long time. Jeroboam the two had brought unprecedented wealth and prosperity to the nation. He was a competent king and general and administrator. He protected the nation. Everything looks secure. But the citizens were judging reality by economic indicators instead of by a moral compass given by God. By God's moral compass, they were doomed. And Amos encourages us to look at our own nation through the same eyeglasses. Now, in terms of structure, David Dorsey has done a good job of showing all of the microstructures that make the book interlock in a beautiful series of chiasms. I don't agree with his analysis of every book, but I think he's done a great job on Amos. I've not included those. I've only included the very brief seven-part outline that forms as a chiasm. I'm not even going to talk about that chiasm, other than if you just take a glance at it, you'll see that the heart of the chiasm is what? It's the lament. It's the call to repentance that reverses things. And that's the way it has always been and always will be. It is only with repentance that God's judgments can be reversed. Apart from repentance, America is doomed. China is doomed. Every other nation is doomed. Repentance is the key. But I do want to draw your attention to my chart that is titled Progressive Outline of Amos at the bottom there. It shows the overall logical flow and linear progress of the book. I think that chart will help you to kind of make your way through the book as a whole. And I'm going to walk you right now chapter by chapter through it. You'll see from the different colors on the chart that it moves from the promised judgment on the nations in the first two chapters, to the reasons for those judgments in chapters three through six, to the results of the judgments for Israel and then for Judah, and finally ending in the green text with predictions related to the new covenant messianic times. And so there's a very logical flow to the book. Now let's start with the black text on the left. First two chapters deal with imminent judgments that are coming upon all of the nations, and these covenant lawsuits start with Damascus, totally pagan nation, that was the capital of Syria, and then move to the climax of judgments in Israel. Why on earth would he move in that direction? Well, there's a number of reasons, but I think one of the chief ones is the psychological impact that this would have because when he starts condemning Israel's enemies, people are cheering. They're thinking, yeah, this is a good prophet. I like this guy. He's systematically spelling doom on every one of the threats that Israel has. And by the time they get to the end of chapter one, they probably are fully prepared to listen. But that's when he starts meddling. And he goes to Judah and then to Israel. I put another graphic that helps to visualize the logic of these first chapters under the first part of the chart. It's the one that's shaped like a bullseye target. And it again shows where God is aiming. So the first nations mentioned are on the outer ring of the target. Those three nations are much more distant in terms of genetics, but they're still neighbors and they constitute Syria, Philistia, and Tyre. The next smaller ring on the target that God is shooting at are Israel's cousins. Why do I call them cousins? Because they are literally related. Edom descended from Esau, who was the brother of Jacob. So they were distantly related. Moab and Ammon are on that ring as well. They are the children of Lot, who was the, what, the nephew of Abraham. So that ring constitutes genetic cousins that are now being judged. The next smaller ring is Israel's brother Judah. Judah would suffer from this imminent invasion by Assyria as well. In fact, Assyria swept through, conquered everything except for the capital. And the capital city, Jerusalem, would have been conquered as well if it was not for Hezekiah's repentance and humbling of himself before the Lord. But you'll see that the center of the target is Israel. This is the key focus of this book of Amos. And so there is a logic even to the ordering of the nations in chapters 1 through 2. And again, these nations are great chapters to go to in order to prove that all nations are subject to God's laws. It is not just Israel's, not just Judah. Virtually all anti-theonomists have to assert that the Old Testament law was for Israel alone. It doesn't matter whether they're radical to kingdom, dispensational Amish, pietists, or some other form of law hater. They have to in some way come up with a theory that says, hey, the law has nothing to do with us. It only had to do with Israel. Well, this is a great book actually to go to to prove that that is absolutely false. Just like the other prophets that we have looked at, Amos treats all nations as subject to God's law. And so there is no logical way in which you can say America is not subject to God's law. Whether they're cousin nations or whether they're pagan nations, they are subject to his law. So he blasts Ammon for deliberately killing non-combative civilians in war. That's a violation of God's law. He blasts Moab for treating the dead body of a pagan king of Edom disrespectfully. Now, if the law had no bearing upon those pagan nations, it would make no sense for him to bring that up. But more to the point is this phrase that keeps coming up, for three transgressions and for four, they are about to be punished. for three transgressions and for four. Now the word transgressions all by itself shows that these pagan nations were overstepping the boundaries that God's law had put in place and dictionaries point out it deals with a covenant. It's rebellion against a vassal, a king that's involved in that. Now you might wonder how on earth could pagan kings be said to be in covenant with God? Wasn't it just Israel and Judah that God had made a covenant with? Well, no, if you go back to the time of Noah, where all nations began to be formed, they're all in covenant. Every nation is in covenant with God and is therefore subject to God's laws. Now, the New American Commentary words it this way, the wrongdoing named in each oracle represented rebellion against God's standard of conduct. And I love the way that Paul and Cross worded in their commentary. They say, all of mankind is considered the vassal of the Lord, whose power, authority, and law embrace the entire world community of nations. His sovereignty is not confined merely to the territorial borders of Israel and Judah. Offenses against him are punished directly wherever they are committed and whoever the guilty party may be. The Lord enforces the law he authors and imposes punishments against his rebel vassals. His law binds all peoples, for the God of Israel is the God of all the nations." And I say amen and amen. Cross and Paul, in their commentary, I think that is such a rebuke against the law haters of our current day. God has never given up his position as king of the nations. He does not excuse nations from accountability to his laws. And to say that America does not have to submit to the Mosaic law is to rebel against God. That's what Amos says. That is at the heart of what Amos says. Now, some might wonder why Amos says for three transgressions and for four, but then he only lists one transgression of each nation. Well, commentators point out that that is a Hebrew idiom that means that these nations have rebelled against God over and over and over again. So basically what he does is he says, okay, I'm gonna list one transgression, but there's three. There's even more that I could specify. It's basically a way of saying over and over, these nations have repeatedly violated my law. Just as the Canaanites were vomited out of the land for what? violating the laws of Leviticus. These nations are vomited out of the land for exactly the same thing, violating the laws of Moses. And since God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, I don't think we can ever say any nation is free from the law of Moses. They are all subject to it. If anything, they're more responsible because they have more light. Now, even though the first section gives one reason for the judgments and implies many more. The next section of the book, this is the section that's in yellow letters on my chart, and the next section outlines more reasons for why Israel, so the focus is now going to be on Israel, why Israel was judged. First reason given in chapter 3 is that Israel had enormous privileges as a chosen nation, as a nation that had the law so clearly given. To whom much is given, much more will be required. And so he says in verse 2, you only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for your iniquities. Now that word for no in the Hebrew is yada and it can be used even for the knowledge that comes the intimate knowledge of marital relations, as in Adam knew his wife and she conceived. Well, Israel previously had been married to God and yet had committed adultery against her Lord, to whom much is given, much will be required. And as you progress through the chapter, you see other metaphors, not just a wife, but a son. is likened to a son, likened to a sheep. So there's different metaphors. You've been in a special relationship with God, and you've rebelled against that, and that's why I'm bringing this covenant lawsuit. In chapter 4, we have another reason why Israel was being judged. As God's son, he absolutely refused to be corrected despite repeated disciplines in the past. So it's not as if this is the first judgment God has brought. He documents numerous times that He had given milder judgments and they had ignored them. Take a look, for example, at verses 7 through 8. This is chapter 4, 7 through 8. I also withheld rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city. I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain, the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. In verse 9, he says, he blasted them with blight and mildew. He sent locusts, yet they still did not return. Repeatedly, God sent disciplines with no effect. And why does he consider this to be a reason for dropping the hammer and killing the nation? What consider the law of God? What happened to a rebellious son who was incorrigible, no matter what discipline and correction you brought, this son continued to rebel. Well, they were, that son was eventually brought to the civil magistrates with witnesses to prove the incorrigibility and he was stoned to death. And God says, this is what I'm going to do with you. You have been so incorrigible. You absolutely have not submitted to discipline over and over again. Now the first 17 verses of chapter 5 show a third reason for dropping the hammer, lack of repentance. Fourth reason in the yellow text was hypocrisy. They pretended to honor Yehovah in their worship while disobeying God. And God says, I hate your worship. You can't come to church. with rebellion and expect God to be pleased. You cannot ignore God's law six days a week and then expect God's going to be delighted with the cool worship that you bring before him. God says, I hate your worship. I hate, I despise your feast days. I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Verse 23 says, take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. I mean, I could see God saying this to many an antinomian church today. And here comes what at least some people consider to be the central verse in the whole book. But let your justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Who defines justice and righteousness? Not the social justice warriors. Only God's law can define those two terms. Now the first term, justice, does not just deal with following God's law in a courtroom. It's following God's law in the entire social order. So it's how things are ordered. The second term deals with relationships. It's following God's law in your relationships with man, your relationship with God. And so God wants individuals transformed so that they in turn transform society. The last reason given in the yellow section of your chart is complacency or uncaring attitudes in chapter six. He says, I brought profits to you, and it's like, you're not phased, you don't care, you're complacent. Well, you're not gonna be complacent once I bring this final judgment and the hammer falls. Now let's move to the next section. The red section of that chart shows the results. And we'll go through this real quick because it's pretty obvious. First, God gives the results for Israel using the figures of locusts, fire, and a plumb line. And he predicts an imminent exile of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BC. That's all I'll say about that. Chapter 8 begins by pointing out that Judah will remain But it'll be like late summer fruit. Not the early fruit, late summer fruit. In other words, there's gonna be a judgment coming upon Judah as well, but there's gonna be a godly remnant. Even though the bulk of the nation will become rotten fruit, there's going to be, even the good fruit is gonna be cast into exile. That's in 607 BC. Now some might wonder whether chapter eight really even deals with Judah. You'll see disagreements amongst commentaries. But the fact that Israel is already prophesied to be cast out in chapter 7, the presence of the good fruit, the mention of Jerusalem's temple in verse 3, there being only one son left to God, not two sons now, but one son left to God in verse 10, to me it all says that it's Judah. After northern Israel had been exiled, the southern kingdom expanded its borders all the way to the northern tip of of what formerly had been Israel. 2 Chronicles 34, for example, says that Judah controlled all the way to the tip of Naphtali. That's the entire extent of former Israel. But despite the fact that Josiah, and it's in 2 Chronicles 34, 6-7, despite the fact that Josiah conquered, and so there's now, it's almost as if there's one nation of Israel again. They didn't quit worshiping the gods of Samaria. They continued in their apostasy. And so it was a very short lived revival under Josiah. And the next kings followed the gods of northern Israel. And they're eventually cast into exile. Now, what follows the exilic period? Obviously, there is a return from exile, but verses 11 through 12 predict a period that's future to that. where there will be no prophecy. Now, this period is spoken of as the 400 years of silence from Malachi to the birth of Christ. Let's read chapter eight, verses 11 through 12. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, from north to east. They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it. Now, unlike the days of Eli, when it says the word of the Lord was rare in those days, when there was no widespread revelation, that's 1 Samuel 3, 1, Amos is predicting a time when there will be no revelation whatsoever. They shall not find it. And it was God himself who sent the famine of revelation. God says, I will send a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. And I want you to notice that this absence of revelation between Malachi through to the birth of Christ is not because people were not seeking after prophetic insight. Prophecy doesn't come by the will of man anyway. Amos describes passionate searching for revelation. They shall wander from sea to sea, from north to east. They shall run to and fro seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it. So you didn't get prophecy back then simply because you sought it. God sovereignly gave it or withheld it. And the cessation of revelation was predicted to be universal. The phrase from sea to sea is used elsewhere to speak of a global universality. Since the Mediterranean bordered Israel on the west, the phrase from north to east would include all of the other pagan nations. In other words, the famine of Revelation would be everywhere in the world. Not until the Messiah would that change. And then other scriptures say when the Messiah comes there is going to be a flurry of Revelation. OK, moving on, chapter 8 ends that section of 400 years by pointing to yet another apostasy on the part of Israel. And this gradual rejection of the Bible leads into chapter 9 that predicts a final exile of Israel in AD 70 in the first 10 verses. Now there is debate on that, some people think that was earlier, but verse 8 gives hope that a remnant of Israel will still be saved during that time. It says, yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob And then goes on to show how they would be scattered throughout the world, but still preserved. And it is remarkable how the Jews were preserved around the world, even in China. You know that there are Jews in China, and there have been for centuries. They're everywhere. But the focus of that section is first century. Now, verse 11 begins the hope section of the book. Those are the green letters in the outline. It starts, first of all, predicting that there would be a new Israel established. And Acts 15 quotes verses 11 through 12 and says that those two verses were predicting the establishment of the church from the remnant of Israel. The early church, first chapters of Acts, were 100% composed of Jews. So it was a new Israel. And then there is the inclusion of the Gentiles, and that's where the controversy in Acts 15 comes in. He said, wow, this is exactly what Amos prophesied, that there would be a new Israel established, and the Gentiles would be coming into this new Israel. They would be incorporated into it. And in a previous sermon when I gave an exposition on this, I pointed out that the phrase, the tabernacle of David, so perfectly prefigures the New Testament times in which the church or Israel is composed of Jew and Gentile. David's tabernacle was a remarkable thing. It was not the temple. He set up a tabernacle and the only temple furniture that was in there was the Ark of the Covenant. Weirdly, he had Gentile priests side-by-side with other Levites. And anybody who came to worship there came face-to-face with God. The ark was visible. It's just a remarkable symbol of New Covenant times when there would be Jew and Gentile worshiping side-by-side, going directly to the throne of God. I don't have time to get into it, but read Acts 15. And you will see the apostles give their inspired interpretation of this section. Finally, verses 13 through 15 show much later progress of the New Testament church as Christ's kingdom advances. Verse 13 shows millennial glories beautifully symbolized as a harvest where reaper can't keep up with plowman. And mountains literally are dripping with wine, hills flowing with rivers of wine. I shouldn't say literally, metaphorically is the word I should have used. But it's a beautiful image of the incredible success of the gospel that's eventually going to be happening worldwide. The church will have a hard time keeping up with the influx of new believers. And then following this gospel success, verses 14 through 15 show that the nation of Israel, according to the flesh, not spiritual Israel, but the nation of Israel, according to flesh, will be grafted back into the true Israel from which they have been cut off so that all nations are saved and all nations constitute the true Israel of God. That, my friends, is the message of Amos. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the message of Amos. It gives us hope for the future, but it also warns us concerning taking you for granted or violating your laws. We realize that you are a holy God, a sovereign God, and we must submit to you and fear you and tremble at your word. But we also thank you that when the church has faith that we can go from glory to glory and that you have anticipated times in the new covenant period when the church will indeed flourish, will follow your laws, and that you will bless this world so mightily that it's like the rivers of wine on the hills that are described here. I pray that you would hasten the day in which Israel, according to the flesh that is a Sodom and a Gomorrah and is an Egypt right now, would be converted so that all nations would know you and all nations would be grafted into the true Israel of God. I pray that you would cause your church to embrace your law and to be a pattern of what it means to be the people of God who trembles at your word and who loves your law. May we be like David of old who said, Oh, how love I thy law is my meditation all of the day. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.