our Bibles to Amos 6, we are still in our study of the Old Testament prophets, and there's quite a few of them. So we've covered the prophet Hosea, now we're looking at his contemporary to the northern kingdom of Israel, Amos. So in Amos 6, we see right away the fifth message of Amos to Israel. So we've already looked at the first four, now we're up to number five. So Amos is gonna highlight the reason for Israel's judgment, which would include the southern and northern kingdoms. Primarily the north is his focus, but he does include the southern kingdom in verse one. So the reason for God's judgment was because of their pride, their spiritual complacency, we'll see that, and their indulgent lifestyle. independent or with no regard for God. We'll see that in this chapter as well, so let's pray. Father in heaven, we just pray that you prepare our hearts for this message and that you'll build on all the things we've studied in the Old Testament, building up to this particular prophet, bring to mind the things of Torah that are the background for all of this, and particularly what we've studied in this book of Amos all the way through the first five chapters. And may we see application in our own lives through the failure and successes of Israel. And we'll ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. So let's start in verse 1. It doesn't start off good, does it? When you see woe, it can be a bad thing. So, woe to those who are at ease in Zion and those who feel secure in the mountains of Samaria. the distinguished men of the foremost of nations to whom the house of Israel comes." So these leaders and distinguished men in Israel are leading the people and he's going to show how they lead them terribly. So Amos pronounces this woe of judgment on the spiritually complacent Jews. Notice in Zion in the southern kingdom, And those who felt secure on Mount Samaria, that's the northern kingdom, so he's getting both the north and the south that had divided back at the time of, right after Solomon, way back in our study of 1 Kings 12. This included men who thought themselves superior and a guide to the people of Israel. Verse 2, go over to Kalna and look and go from there to Hamath the Great. So Kalna and Hamath were city-states in northern Aram and were defeated by Assyria. So he goes, go look at those cities that are defeated. Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. So Gath was defeated by Uzziah, king of Judah. So he says, go look at all these defeated areas. He says, are they, talking about the elite Jews of the north from 6-1, are they better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than yours? So the nations mentioned in verse 2 were not able to resist attacks from the enemy, and Israel is not going to be able to do that either. So in verse 3, he says, do you put off the day of calamity? And would you bring near the seed of violence? So Israel felt comfortable and confident that they had nothing to worry about, there's no day of disaster coming. But they failed to learn from the defeat of the other nations around them, those other areas. We learn from history that we learn nothing from history. Now some interpret this as Israel establishing a reign of violence through their own leaders which would come to an end. Others see this as Israel not turning to God, therefore inviting judgment on themselves. I mean, I think both could work here. I go with the second one. They continue to turn from God, and all they're doing is going to invite a day of disaster, and it was their own choice. So, Amos 6, 4 through 6. Now here's their indulgence. He says, those who recline on beds of ivory and sprawl on their couches. So ivory is a very expensive material. So obviously they're wealthy, they're sprawled out. You have sprawled on their couches, something like that. Now one commentator said of this, he said, at their opulent feasts, they lounged on their couches. He says the Hebrew word for lounge, conveys a sprawled stupor of satiation and drunkenness with arms spread hanging over the side." It's like they're in this just drunken stupor spread out. He says, you eat lambs from the flocks and calves from the midst of the stall. So in other words, nothing wrong with having food on the table, right? But this is not how they've acquired it and they have no care for God who provided it. Verse 5, who improvised the sound of the harp and like David have composed songs for themselves. So you improvise, I guess it'd be like taking your hands and have nothing, a harp not in your hands or a violin or anything and you're just making the motions. I guess we could say today it's like doing the air guitar. So they're just doing this, composing songs for themselves. So they improvise music and act like they're playing a harp as they celebrate. Remember David played the harp, but remember his music was true worship. They're not doing that. So he's mocking the way they're doing this. Who drink wine from sacrificial bowls while they anoint themselves with the finest of oils. And here's their problem, in all their indulgence, yet you have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph. So there's no repentance toward God. Matter of fact, God is not even in the equation for them, they don't care, they're not afraid of him, and they're just gonna go on doing what they do, acting like the pagan nations who worship false gods. Now, I have a question in your translation in verse 6, do you have they drink wine from sacrificial bowls? Okay, some may have that, some may not. If the idea is a sacrificial bowl, And it's a reference to the holy vessels of God that were set apart for the priests. Remember they had holy vessels in the tabernacle? Even the priest was called kadosh. He was holy or set apart to the Lord. I mean the high priest even had a turban. and written on the turban on this band was Kodesh L'Yahweh, holiness to the Lord. So everything in the priesthood was dedicated to God, the utensils, the bowls, all the vessels were holy to God. You could not use them for profane or common use. And if that's the idea here, and they're using holy vessels set apart to the priest, for example, Exodus 27 three talks about that, then it shows a disregard for the things of God and His holiness. You see? If that's the idea, they don't care. They'll use the holy vessels. It doesn't really matter to them. There's no respect for God. Does drinking from holy vessels remind you of any passage in the Bible that comes later? Go to Daniel 5. Because they are really imitating the pagan nations, Gentile nations of all people who worship false gods and have no regard for God, and now they're acting like them. Remember, the Jews were to represent God as a light to the nations. They're not doing that at all. And it's so prevalent among the leadership to whom the people look up to that God is really gonna take this down. So in Daniel 5, you have the Babylonians in power. Remember, after they go into the Babylonian captivity, after the Assyrian captivity, Babylon will take over and bring Judah into captivity, destroy the temple. And so they're having this big party, even using the spoils of the temple. to drink from, so after they destroy the temple in 586 BC, Solomon's temple, they take all the spoil, right, all the valuables, they take all that back, he had gold and silver vessels, very expensive, so they take those from the temple, and in their party, they're drinking from these, which God says you cannot do that, the Jews couldn't do it, and much less the nations now, who are really tempting God's judgment, So in all their luxurious distractions while they're having this party in Daniel 5, the armies of the Medes are just outside to overtake them. And they don't even know it, they're so distracted. Remember the statue dream in Daniel? In chapter 2, you had a head of gold. Who was the head of gold? Babylon, and Babylon's still in power, but they're about to be taken out because they would be replaced by the chest and the arms of silver, the Medo-Persian Empire. So the Medes are right outside. And then it went to the belly of, you had bronze, that was the Greek Empire who would take over after, next, the Third Empire. And then the fourth one was, Rome. Daniel 7 even calls it the beast with iron teeth. Of course, the Medo-Persians will end up in power right after this incident in Daniel 5, and that was represented in Daniel 7's vision of the lopsided bear, remember? He's heavier on one side, he's lopsided because one of those empires was stronger. So we got a problem here, and of course, just like Israel, they don't care, they're not thanking a God at all, they're drinking from holy vessels. Well, they were doing this in Babylon and didn't even know that judgment was about to happen. So Daniel 5, I'm sorry, let's go to Daniel 5.1. So Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles. He was drinking wine in the presence of thousands, of the thousands, excuse me. When Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar, his father, remember King Nebuchadnezzar, he was over Babylon. So he gives orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. So again, that was when the temple was destroyed in 586 BC, and they took the valuable spoil back to Babylon, and now they're using it for profane and common use. Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God, which was in Jerusalem. Remember, the house of God is the temple here. And the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, drank from them. So these were these holy vessels dedicated to God and the Levitical priesthood, and they were never to be used for anything common, but to be used in the service and worship of God through the priesthood. Verse four, they drank the wine and notice their idolatry. They praised the gods, plural, the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone. So then King Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's son, becomes afraid. Why? Because he sees his hand. A human hand writing on the wall of the palace, as you see here, and it was writing in that native language, mene, mene, tekel, ufarsin. So the queen assures the king that Daniel, because remember Daniel is now in captivity, that he can interpret the inscription. Everybody goes to Daniel for help, right? Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar seeks Daniel who could interpret the vision he had and so forth. So Daniel appears before the king and tells him that you have set yourself up against God. Therefore, the hand writes those words, mene, mene, tekel ufarsin. Mene would mean something like God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel is you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Upharsin would be, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. There's the silver part of the statue, the chest and arms. So this transfer is about to happen. Look at 522. Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart even though you knew all of this. So he knew that God had humbled Nebuchadnezzar in the past, remember? Remember in chapter four when God humbles Nebuchadnezzar, puts him out in the wilderness for seven years like an animal? So you knew about this and yet you have not humbled your heart, so what's about to happen to him? He's exalted himself, he will be humbled. Didn't Jesus say that too in his ministry? The Bible says it all the time, he who exalts himself will be humbled, he who humbles himself will be exalted. This is happening now even with the nations. So you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. That's who he's offended. And they have brought the vessels of his house or his temple before you, and you and your nobles, your wives, and your concubines have been drinking wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold. of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see." In other words, you're praising things that are just made by the hands of man. The prophet Isaiah had an old chapter about that, Isaiah 44. So they don't see, hear, or understand. So you're worshiping these false gods, so he mocks that. But the God who is in whose hand you are, or who are your life, breath, and all your So can't God just take the life of anybody? He gave it to him, he can take it back. He says, you have not glorified him. So Israel in Amos' day is committing the same sins of the pagan Gentiles in the time of Daniel. They're turning from God, turning to idolatry, and profaning the name of the Lord. I mean Hebrews 10 says it's a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, 10.27. The Jews in context in that passage who were believers in Christ turning from Him, unbelieving Jews it would be terrible, and even the nations, they're falling into the hands of the living God. So that same night King Nebuchadnezzar, or Belshazzar, excuse me, He was slain and Darius or Darius the Mede took over the kingdom. So it all came down just like the hand on the wall wrote. So in a similar way the leaders of Israel have been found wanting before God. Their days are numbered because the Assyrians are going to take them out. And all because they ignored Amos' warnings, God's warnings through the prophet Amos concerning their covenant failure before God. They could care less. As he said in Amos 6, 6, they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph, which is a reference to the impending judgment on the northern kingdom that was just around the corner. So in application, it just kind of makes me wonder about our country. I mean, we're so distracted by our own physical prosperity, which there's nothing wrong with physical prosperity, but when it becomes a distraction before God, it becomes a huge problem. Like Jesus said, you can't serve God and money in the Sermon on the Mount. He never says you can't have money, but if you have it, you can't serve it ahead of God. So our country is so distracted by our own physical prosperity. that we're not paying attention to our spiritual condition before God. I think that's clear, with wonderful exceptions. So I always wonder, is our destruction just outside the door and we're not really concerned about it? Are we more concerned about our economy? I'm concerned about the economy and I want it as good as possible. But is that our primary focus? Are we missing the elephant in the room, which is Jesus Christ, who is saying, where am I in this entire equation in this world, in the United States? That needs to be our central focus. Everything else is a detail. So the surveys indicate that as time goes on, with great exceptions in some places, our country is less interested in the things of God. They believe less about the Bible. Many don't think the Bible, and these are Christians they poll, many of them don't even think the Bible is the Word of God. It's just man's opinion. So there's been big names in Christianity I've seen in the last six months that have really large churches that have noticed their church attendant has declined. Now some of them are so big you may not even notice, but they notice. I mean they're just saying people aren't going to church like they used to. And I've seen some renewed interest with young people, which I love to see in the Lord, and that's always positive. But generally speaking, I think the interest has waned. And in some of the places where they're attending, they're not really getting taught, because we try to attract people with things that really aren't scriptural, and then you get people for the wrong reasons. But, Time will tell where our nation is and where all this is headed, but I do know a kingdom's coming and I don't think things are gonna be the same when Jesus rules. And that needs to be our primary focus. So let's go to verses seven through 10. So with all that said, he says, therefore they will not go into exile I'm sorry, they will now go into exile, excuse me, at the head of the exiles. So these leaders to whom they look up to that are not caring for God at all, they're actually gonna lead the procession. These sprawlers banqueting will pass away. Or the sprawlers banqueting will pass away. So all that indulgence is going away. You're actually gonna lead the procession of others in the nation who go into captivity. Verse 8, the Lord God is sworn by Himself, the Lord God of hosts has declared, so we have the Lord swearing an oath. And when God swears an oath, that's legitimate, it's just showing that this is going to happen. He says, I loathe the arrogance of Jacob, so there's their pride. Remember Jacob is a reference to the nation Israel who came from the patriarch Jacob. Remember who had 12 sons in the book of Genesis? And that actually formed the nation. So I loathe the arrogance of Jacob, the nation Israel, and detest its citadels. Therefore, I'll deliver up the city and all that it contains. And it will be if 10 men are left in one house, they will die. Then, verse 10's a little challenging. Then one's uncle, or his undertaker, will lift him up to carry his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house, is there anyone else with you? And they will say, no one. Then he will answer, keep quiet, or hush, for the name of the Lord is not to be mentioned. Now this is, a lot of scholars are debating on that verse 10, exactly what the nuance is. Let me give you what the Net Bible said, which I thought was helpful. They give three possibilities. I quote them, they say, this verse is notoriously difficult to interpret. And I found that to be the case among a lot of people I looked up. So the last sentence has been interpreted in several ways. a command not to call on the name of the Lord out of fear that He might return again in judgment." I mean, oh, there's somebody left, let me go back and get them, as if God didn't know they were there or not. But, so don't call on His name since He might return and judge those who are still left, which that was an extremely popular view of this text. Number two, the realization that it's not appropriate to seek a blessing in the Lord's name upon the dead in the house since the judgment was deserved. Just don't seek a blessing, this was a deserved judgment. Which is true, it was a deserved judgment. Number three, it's an angry refusal to call on the Lord out of a sense that he has betrayed his people in allowing them to suffer. So why call on the Lord who's dared to allow this to happen to us? So it's a very negative look at God, don't even call on Him, which fits their pattern because they weren't calling on Him anyway. And even after judgment, sometimes they still persist in defiance. So verses 11 through 13, for behold, the Lord is going to command that the great house be smashed to pieces and the small house to fragments. So both houses of the wealthy and the poor I think are all gonna be affected by this. They're all gonna be demolished. And then he asks a question of absurdity to make a point. Do horses run on rocks? What's the answer? No. Or does one plow rocks or them, the rocks with oxen? No. Yet you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. You who rejoice in Lodabar and say, have we not by our own strength taken Carnaim for ourselves? So horses don't run on rocks well, they run on smooth surfaces. And oxen don't plow rocks. Horses like smooth paths and what would they do before they would get a field ready for planting? They would remove the stones and then they would put the ox in front of the plow and they'd plow and till up the soil and then they plant the seed. So obviously these are absurd questions about horses running on rocks and plowing rocks with oxen to show how perverted Israel had become. And he even says that they have actually perverted true justice into wormwood. Remember wormwood? We saw this back in Amos 5-7, here it is on the slide. We know wormwood was a plant known for its bitter pulp and sometimes it was associated with poison. So in Amos 5.7, he says, for those, the Israelites, they turn justice into wormwood, he brings up that same word again, and cast righteousness down to the earth. So again, the perversion of true justice and righteousness. Deuteronomy 29.18 shows its association with poison. And God warned them in Torah through Moses that there not be among any of you, man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away from the Lord, which it's already happening in Amos, and go and serve the gods of those nations, which they have been doing in the north over and over after the kingdom split, that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood, And now he's brought up Ormwood twice in this book, because that is exactly what they're doing. And they've totally perverted true justice into bitter poison, as it were. Now here's something, I'll bring it up. It's hard for me, because I have a working knowledge of Hebrew, but I don't speak it conversationally, and the way they pronounce words. You know, we have word plays by how we emphasize things, and you have to know English and have it as a native tongue sometimes to catch it. All languages have this. But in Amos 6.13, he spoke of them as those who rejoice in Lodabar, and say, have we not by our own strength taken Carnaium for ourselves. Now, let me see. Okay, that was back in, there's 613. Let me read you what one commentator said about 613. He says, under Jeroboam II, they had won an unbroken string of military victories, 2 Kings 14, 25. They had even recorded all their lands east of the Jordan. But Amos subtly and intentionally mispronounced the name of one of the captured towns, Lo Debar, a town east of the Jordan. You can see this in 2 Samuel 9.4, it's a real town. So he mispronounced the name intentionally of one of these towns so that it came out in Hebrew as Lo Debar. I'm not even probably pronouncing the difference correctly. But you know what lo-de-var means? It means nothing. So he's changed it slightly in the pronunciation and changed it to a meaning nothing. And with biting sarcasm, he stressed the name of another subdued city, Carnayim, whose literal meaning of horns symbolized the strength of a bull. Amos scoffed as they were rejoicing over what was really nothing and were falsely imagining that they had seized strength by means of their own strength." So kind of an interesting thing he mentions on words and the pronunciation to highlight his point. I think you saw the point either way. They've tried to do everything in their own strength and now it's all coming down. So even if it was not an intentional mispronunciation of Lodabar, other scholars clearly see the irony. For example, the Net Bible said, Lodabar was located across the river Jordan and Gilead, which the Israelite army had conquered. However, there's stinging irony here, for in Hebrew, the name Lodabar means nothing. In reality, Israel was happy over nothing of lasting consequence. So he even sees a wordplay here too. So if we could speak Hebrew like they did back in that day and we read the Bible, could you imagine how much more full it would be? We would be catching all this stuff that we just miss in an English Bible. And even someone with a working knowledge like me misses a lot because I'm not a native speaker. I'm sure if Moses was in my audience, he might laugh a little at my pronunciation. That's Moses from the Old Testament. I know we have a missionary named Moses, not him. So let's go to the next verse, verse 14. So he says, behold, I'm going to raise up a nation against you. Okay, here it comes. O house of Israel, declares the Lord God of hosts, and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah. So it's going to be devastating in a large area. So God's going to raise up the Assyrians against his own people, and they're going to take their land, which includes the northern territory of Hamath to the southern border of the Arabah, so it's a long range there, a big piece of real estate. And remember, when you read Torah, the covenant curses said it was a blessing to be in the land and have land, but when they were under the curse of God, they would lose land and eventually just be kicked out or taken captive. And so all this is happening, again, covenant failure. And notice, do you see, do you know the word afflict? And they will afflict you. And the reason I bring this up, because we've looked at the word affliction in our study of the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the poor in spirit, this whole idea of the afflicted, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And we looked at that Hebrew word in the Old Testament, which I think is comparative to the Sermon on the Mount. Ani, ani can mean affliction, trials and affliction during trials. But here, this is a different Hebrew word. It's lachatz. Lachatz, for here, translated afflicted, has the idea to squeeze or press. to squeeze, it's kind of like thelepsis. The Greek word means to, when we have troubles or trials, sufferings in this world, this word sometimes shows up in the New Testament, the trials of life or thelepsis. And also meant to squeeze, to press. Here it's figurative for oppression. So there's gonna be oppression that God will allow the Assyrians to afflict his people with. And I think this is reminiscent, this Hebrew word is used of the Jews' oppression in Egypt when they were slaves. He's reminding them, look where you came from, you were an oppressed people and now you've become the oppressors and you're going to be oppressed. The cycle will continue, you're going to go back into slavery as you guys have praised me for delivering you out of it back in Egypt and now your decisions and sins are going to put you right back under it. So in Amos 6.14 I see a comparison with Exodus 3.9. Remember when Moses goes up to Sinai and he sees the Lord at the burning bush? Well in Exodus 3.9 Behold, God says, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me. Furthermore, I have seen the oppression," there's l'chatz, that same word in Amos, which the Egyptians are oppressing them. So God noticed their oppression and now he's going to send Moses in to bring his oppressed people out of bondage. and through the ten plagues, and then God will deliver them. And now what are they doing? He said, but when you enter the land, keep my word or you will be oppressed again. And it's happening. Oh, how they forgot. So in remembrance of their bitter oppression, God had instructed the Jews not to be oppressive. Exodus 22, 21 in the law. You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him. There's lachatz again. For you are strangers in the land of Egypt. I mean, you should know what oppression's about. Why would you turn and do it to somebody else? And what are they doing? They're not only oppressing Gentiles, they're oppressing their own people in the leadership of Israel in the time of Amos. So God notices Israel's oppression under the Egyptians in the time of Moses, delivered them from the oppression of Egypt, taught them not to be oppressive. Then later in the time of Amos, they forgot God who delivered them from Egypt, they forgot his word. They became oppressors of their own people with the result that the Jews would return to oppressive slavery. But under a different nation now, not Egypt, it's gonna be Assyria. I don't know who would be worse, the Egyptians or the Assyrians. From what I understand, the Egyptians would not intermarry or interbreed with the Jewish people. The positive about that is God can preserve the seed and keep the tribes pure, right? The Assyrians would amalgamate the people into the culture and breed them out. They had a different way of doing it, but is that a challenge for God? he can work through that, he could preserve the 12 tribes of Israel, because I've read the end of the Bible, when you get to the tribulation, the seven years before Jesus returns, God seals the 144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel in Revelation 7. Somehow God was big enough to work through all that, because who's the one who wants to destroy the seed? Satan, he's always working that to destroy all of this, so God's plan won't come to pass. So when we think God's out of control and can't help us, believe me, he's much more capable than you might think of dealing with things and getting you through stuff. That's always comforting to know, especially as you read the Bible as a whole, you see how everything was created perfect and then from Genesis 3 all the way to the end of the Bible, it's disaster. But then Jesus comes back and easily defeats the enemy and brings blessing. So keep that in mind as you're going through your struggles. Well, that leads us to chapter 7, which we're going to need a lot more time. I don't even want to start it and break our thought. So we'll pause here. Next week, we'll look at chapter 7. We'll see the broader section and right through 7.1 through 9.10, we're going to see the results of God's judgment. But next week, we'll just focus on Chapter 7. Father in heaven, thank you, Lord, for revealing yourself to us through your word. We thank you for the word inscripturated. given through the prophets and apostles by the Holy Spirit, and thank you for preserving it for us, even giving us Bible programs that have more than we could ever use. Lord, we have no excuse. We thank you for all that you give us, and we know you expect us to learn this, and then understand it, perceive it, and then apply it in any way that glorifies you in our lives. But Lord, we thank you for sending your son, Jesus, to make this kingdom that will one day come and all this perfection that will one day come to this world, that through Jesus Christ only can we enjoy that. Eternal God who became flesh, who went to the cross and bore the sins of all the world, including ours, and that through faith alone and Christ alone, we have eternal life, we're born again, we have spiritual regeneration, and that qualifies us to be in that kingdom. But Lord, we see the importance of obedience as we serve you now, and I think that will affect our service and responsibility when we rule with you in the kingdom. I think great reward, as you have taught us, great reward comes for those who choose to obey you. not only rewards and rulership in the kingdom, but a greater intimacy with you right now as we walk with you each day. So Lord, thank you that when we draw near to you, you draw near to us. And may we keep doing that throughout the week and the rest of our lives, in Jesus' name, amen.