Category: Amos

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Amos 9 declares that terrible New Testament truth: all have sinned – the wages of sin is death! But God’s judgment is tempered with mercy. God promises that He Himself will deliver man from sin, the Devil and death through David’s collapsed family (the fallen tent).

SJA Notes

* Holy God, please write Your word on our hearts today. Please show us what You want us to know.

“In that day I will raise up the booth of the David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old,”

How good is this word from the Lord – How heart-warming and overflowing with grace and mercy.

The booth/house/dwelling place of David!

We see again another clear point to Jesus, great King David’s GREATER Son.

It is God’s promise to Abraham working out, all nations blessed, all the nations called by God’s Name.

It was never plan B to bring people from all nations to Christ. It was never a rush-job because Adam broke the world, to have God’s people from every race and nation.

“I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,”

We can take hold of these words, run them over and over through our minds and hearts.

What a day it shall be when all sin is gone and God is dwelling with us His people in the new heavens and new earth!

* Gracious Father God,

Thank You that in Jesus we are brought back into a right relationships with You, people from all tribes and nations, throughout all time and from across the span of this earth.

Hallelujah, what a Saviour You are!

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Locusts and fire are images that the Apostle John uses as well in Revelation when the angels sound their trumpets – first to fifth trumpets (Revelation 8,9). Isaiah 28:16,17 announces that justice is God’s measuring stick and righteousness is His plumb-line.

SJA Notes

* God Above, may we hearken to Your voice today, to listen and obey.

“Amos, what do you see?”

This question is twice asked by the LORD.

It is not an easy word that the Lord gives to Amos.

“The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.”

This isn’t a happy blessing from the Lord.

“The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”

Amos cries out,

“O Lord God, please forgive / please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!”

God’s answer to Amos is His answer to us.

“Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them;”

Another prophet, Habbakkuk, stood on his watchpost pointing to the sides of the plumbline. Arrogance and pride on one side, righteousness on the other.

“… But the righteous shall live by his faith.”

How can we be righteous? (all our works are filthy rags)

Because of Jesus!

It is only the RIGHT MAN who lived a perfect life and won us freedom at Calvary – Only because of Him, through and by Him, can we obtain righteousness.

It is His righteousness, not ours.

* God Above,

Praise You – You are the JUST God who separates the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats.

Thank You that even though we have no merit in ourselves, You chose Your people to be Your own – And You saved us unto righteousness that we find in Jesus.

Hallelujah, what a Saviour You are!

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

You find God’s heart in 5:4-6. Verse 5:24 is a good motto for police detective work and our lawyers and judges. God Himself and belief in Him is the foundation of good justice that is for our common weal! Complacency was and still is a besetting sin for believers.

SJA Notes

* Holy God, please put a right spirit within us, a true heart after Your own heart.

“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.”

We see here the stupidity of false religion – God hates it.

Unbelief manifests itself in hypocrisy.

Look at the Pharisees, Chief Priests and Teachers of the Law in Jesus’ time.

And deeper.

Look within our own lives.

The Lord is not speaking here to pagan societies of the day, not the idol-worshipping unbelievers in surrounding lands.

No.

The warning here in Amos is to the CHURCH!

“Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.”

Why is God speaking this way to His people?

Remember the previous passage,

“… Yet you did not return to me,”

Israel had rejected her King, her Lord, her God – Her FIRST LOVE (see Revelation 4).

How then could Israel resolve her complacency, her unbelief?

How can we today resolve our complacency, our pride in self and human achievement, our own dipping in and out of false religion?

The answer lies at the beginning of the passage,

SEEK ME AND LIVE.

This is it. Right there. The heart of the matter.

Let us seek God today.

* Righteous and Holy God,

Please help us to seek You in our lives, to follow You, to do what You tell us.

Thank You that in Jesus we find rescue and salvation, hope and assurance.

Please bind us up in You Lord, with cords that cannot be broken.

Amen.