From this chapter, you learn that lack of trust in God and pride can cause your house to be destroyed. Do you wonder why bad things happen to good people? Could it be that they place their security in the things they have? God wants you to walk in complete trust with Him. You may have all the power and riches the world can give, but without your holding God's hand, you can never be secure.
By now you have studied the five previous chapters of Amos. In this chapter, God through the Prophet Amos addresses those living in Israel who lack trust in the One True God. First Amos addresses the rich, and those living in luxury. He addresses the arrogant and prideful, too. The things which they trust in for personal security and safety will be smashed and destroyed.
Vv 1 – 3 Those at Ease in Zion
V 1 “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to
those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria,
The distinguished men of the foremost of nations, to whom the house of
Israel comes.”
Those in Zion would be living in the house of David. Those
secure in the mountain of Samaria would be the ten northern tribes.
Notice how vainly and conceited they are in their sin. They
feel secure; yet, it is a false sense of security.
Shouldn’t it be “Happy are those who are at ease in Zion and
feel secure?” It should be, but because of their sin, idol worship and robbing
of the poor, they need to be on the lookout for danger to come.
Remember, these two countries are very prosperous. They feel
that God is pouring out blessing after blessing on them. Both were well
fortified. We read of Zion’s strongholds and her bulwarks—a wall or rampart
raised as a means of protection.
Then too, Zion was the Holy City. God would never allow
anything to happen to her. Wasn’t the temple located there? The people there
knew that God’s sanctuary sheltered them there, and God would never allow
anything to happen to their sanctuary.
Jeremiah tried to warn them, “Do not trust in deceptive
words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple
of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”
(7:4). Also Zephaniah also said, “On that day you, Jerusalem,
will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me, because I will
remove from you your arrogant boasters. Never again will you be haughty on my
holy hill” (3:11). They were haughty because of the Holy Mountain.
Many in Zion are puffed up with
pride. They feel secure because of their church privileges. Also, their station
in life adds to their false sense of security. Remember, Amos is addressing the
elite of their society.
Both of the cities valued
themselves as the chosen of God; therefore, nothing could touch them. Salvation
came from these hills. Although Samaria wasn’t thought of a holy place as was Zion.
Yet the hill of Shemer was a good hill as well. To those in Samaria at this
time, the hill served nearly as well as did the Holy Hill of Zion.
They operated from a false sense of security because they
thought Zion would protect them. They thought they could do anything they
wanted, and because they were children of God’s living in Israel, no harm would
ever come. The importance of the mountain addressed in the text here can be seen in the words of the Woman at the Well of John 4:20.
V 2 “Go over to Calneh and look, and go from there
to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are
they better than these kingdoms, or is their territory greater than yours?”
Calneh was an ancient city built by Nimrod, Genesis 10:10.
The idea is to see what has happened to it. Hamath was one of the chief cities
of Syria, and it has already been destroyed as well.
Look and see if they are better than your hill. Was their
territory better and greater than yours?
Gath of the Philistines was also destroyed by Hazel, 2 Kings
12:17. Go check the city out. I’m about to bring the same on you.
These cities were better fortified than Judah and Israel.
Their borders were greater and harder to penetrate than was Israel’s.
V 3 “Do you put off the day of calamity, and would
you bring near the seat of violence?”
Because you feel secure, you think the day of calamity won’t
come for a long time. You put it so far away that it makes no real and present
danger to you.
In reality, your acts of injustice and oppression brings the
day closer and closer. You actually have fellowship with the throne of iniquity
(Psalm 94:20).
Men take sin near themselves whenever they think judgment is
far away.
Vv. 4 – 7 They Lived in Luxury
V 4 “Those who recline on beds of ivory and sprawl
on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst
of the stall.” V 5 “Who improvise to the sound of the harp, and
like David have composed songs for themselves”
Here you see how they indulged themselves in all manner of
pleasures and delights. Instead of indulgence in riches, they should have been
in real self-denial instead of pretending that they truly were denying
themselves. In other words they justified their sensuality.
They could be saying, “I worked for all that I have. I
deserve to live a little.”
Could the songs they composed for themselves justify their
actions?
V 6 “Who drink wine from sacrificial bowls while
they anoint themselves with the finest of oils, yet they have not grieved
over the ruin of Joseph.”
They have not grieved for their country because they are too
busy doing the things they want to do. They are getting their own way. They
trust in their prosperity rather than God. They are selfish and care only for
themselves.
The golden bowls set aside for sacrifice they are using to
drink wine from.
V 7 “Therefore, they will now go into exile at the head
of the exiles, and the sprawlers’ banqueting will pass away.”
Can you only imagine how they felt going from indulgencies
of all kinds to poverty? How hard it was for them to go from days of never
working to days filled with the tasks of daily chores for other rich people?
What do you make of “the sprawlers’ banqueting?” What
happens when you sprawl? Do you see the picture of drunk men and women lying
all around after a big party? That’s what I see here.
Vv 8 – 14 Pride and Lack of Trust Destroys
V 8 “The Lord God has sworn by Himself, the Lord God of
hosts has declared: “I loathe the arrogance of Jacob, and detest his citadels; therefore
I will deliver up the city and all it contains.”
The Jews have brought on themselves the wrath of God. If God
speaks, are his words true? Does the fact that he swears by himself make the
words heavier?
Notice that he doesn’t hate Jacob or the offspring of him.
He hates their acts of sin! God detests their attitude of arrogance.
V 9 “And it will be, if ten men are left in one house,
they will die.”
Above God through Amos tells them that if 1000 were in a
house 100 or 10% would be saved. If 100 men were left in a house, 10 of them
would be saved or 10%. Now he changes to if 10 are in a house, all of them will
be destroyed.
Then too, the idea could be that 100 could protect
themselves enough that some would live. When there is only 10 men in a house,
no one can survive.
V 10 “Then one’s uncle, or his undertaker, will lift him
up to carry out his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in
the innermost part of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” And that one will
say, “No one.” Then he will answer, “Keep quiet. For the name of the Lord is
not to be mentioned.”
Someone will carry out the dead. As they remove the dead
from the house, they check to see if anyone is left. If there is someone hiding
in a secret place of the house, the one taking out the dead will warn this
person not to mention God. It could identify them as a Jew.
Another thought on the subject comes in the next verse.
V 11 “For behold, the Lord is going to command that the
great house be smashed to pieces and the small house to fragments.”
If the house belongs to one who claims to be a God fearing
person, his house will be destroyed.
V 12 “Do horses run on rocks? Or does one plow them
with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of
righteousness into wormwood,”
The idea is that horses can’t climb on the rocks of the
mountains as say the mountain goat can. Further, you can’t take a team of oxen
and plow these same rocks. Yet Israel is defying the very thing that she can
do. She is indeed plowing the mountains and riding on the rocks.
Her deeds are contrary to the Living God. She does opposite
of her defined purpose.
V 13 “You who rejoice in Lodebar, and say, “Have we
not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?”
Remember, at this time Israel is prosperous and have
increased its borders. Here they are telling God that he wasn’t involved with
their prosperity or their victories in battle.
V 14 “For behold, I am going to raise up a nation against
you, 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.”
The Assyrians will take the country from the north to
the south. However, at this time, God spares the city of Jerusalem because of
Hezekiah’s faith and prayer to God.
2 Kings 14:25 where Jeroboam II had restored their
boundaries from Hamath to the plains.
Amos
Chapter 6
Questions
Where is Zion? ______________________. Give another name for
this city? ______________________.
Who would those “secure in the mountain of Samaria” be?
____________________________________.
Why will danger come upon them in Zion?
________________________________________________.
Why did the Jews believe that nothing would happen to Zion?
_________________________________.
What’s the purpose in mentioning the three Gentile cities of
V 2? ______________________________
_________________________________________.
Why does God swear by himself? _______________________________________________________.
What do you make of “the sprawlers’ banqueting?”
________________________________________.
What is it that God hates?
_________________________________________.
One’s close relatives won’t carry his body out of the house.
Why? _____________________________.
Why not mention the name of the Lord v 10?
_______________________________________________.
What’s the meaning, “Do horses run on rocks?”
__________________________________________.
How much of the country will God destroy?
_____________________________________________.
Amos points out clearly that your trust is God keeps you safe in spite of danger from outside forces. Walk with God! Only he can provide shelter from your storms.
PS: A complete study on your freedom through rest can be had from B. C. Ministries, Inc. Email us at bcministries1@gmail.com for your free copy.
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