WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.440 We get to start a new series this morning in Amos. 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:06.799 We're going to spend seven weeks. 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:08.320 Originally I had said nine weeks. 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:12.720 We're going to spend seven weeks in the book of Amos. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:18.160 We're going to look at the first two chapters this morning. 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:33.840 What I want you to remember as we go through the book of Amos is what we've talked about before, that God has created you to be a blessable, image-bearing, covenant partner with God. 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:35.439 You're blessable. 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:41.600 In Genesis chapter one, God created the humans, but then he blessed them. 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:47.920 You're a blessable, image-bearing covenant partner with God. 00:00:47.920 --> 00:01:07.760 And now we're invited, not forced, but invited to follow Jesus according to his new covenant, and we are following Jesus as his kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:17.680 And so when we step into any part of the Bible, we're stepping into the Bible as those blessable, image-bearing covenant partners. 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:23.519 Where we're wanting to learn how do we follow Jesus from the book of Amos? 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:24.159 Right? 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:26.400 So this is an obscure book. 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:28.000 It's in your Old Testament. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:30.959 It may be a book that you've never read before. 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:35.439 And it's not on many people's like top five books of the Bible. 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:37.840 But that's okay. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:41.519 You're going to be Amos experts by the time we're done. 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:44.560 Seven weeks in the book of Amos. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:53.120 As I plan out like the preaching schedule for the church, we like to go through books of the Bible generally. 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:55.359 I don't do many series. 00:01:55.359 --> 00:02:00.959 We just finished up Paul's first missionary journey from Acts 13 and 14. 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:02.239 Now we're doing Acts. 00:02:02.239 --> 00:02:07.760 And I like to jump from both from the New Testament to the Old Testament back to the New Testament. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:11.919 So when we're done with Amos, we're going to 2 Corinthians. 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:18.560 Now some people have a negative view or perspective on the Old Testament. 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:27.599 If you're new to the Bible and you have a physical Bible in front of you, the bigger chunk on the left-hand side is the Old Testament. 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:35.919 And sometimes people don't like the Old Testament because they're like, well, where's the story of Jesus? 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:43.840 Like I'm just learning to read the Bible, but Jesus doesn't show up anywhere in Genesis or Exodus or Leviticus, Numbers. 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:45.039 Where's Jesus? 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:50.240 Other people have a negative view of the Old Testament because it's long. 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:58.560 And sometimes it feels like you're bogged down in the history of the nation of Israel. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:07.599 Some people may feel like, man, I don't like the Old Testament because it's got these outdated social codes of how society is supposed to work. 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:12.159 I hear that talking in the back there. 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:15.919 You gotta, you gotta, you gotta, like, so we can all hear. 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:21.199 Exactly, exactly. 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:21.520 Thank you. 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:24.639 You're jumping ahead in my notes. 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:27.199 From the beginning. 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:29.759 But I I'm still in my negative list here. 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:32.240 You're jumping ahead, you're you're jumping into the positive part. 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:38.800 That's right. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:47.280 So the other issue that people have with the Old Testament is that it's like um not your culture, right? 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:53.039 It's referencing all these things about culture where it's like a covenant's made by splitting an animal in half, right? 00:03:53.039 --> 00:04:03.520 Or there's things about garments or um uh monetary systems and and kingdoms, and um, and so there's this just this gap, right? 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:09.599 All of those are these gaps that can be felt as you're learning about what the Bible is saying. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:19.839 But this is the thing that you've got to understand, kind of like what Felicia's saying, but I think the most important thing to understand when you look at your Old Testament, you need to know that that was Jesus' Bible. 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:22.000 There was no New Testament yet. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:28.800 So when Jesus talked about God's word, he was talking about your Old Testament. 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:47.040 And it was also the proof text that the apostles would use as they're explaining Jesus to new converts, they're saying, listen, you've got to understand Jesus in the light of the Old Testament. 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:57.439 Now, the church has made mistakes over the last 2,000 years where they've gotten away and they've said, like, well, the Old Testament is not for today, but man, spend some time. 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:07.439 First of all, just obviously it's Jesus' Bible, it was used by the apostles, but you start looking at it, you start like one of my favorite resources is like the Bible project. 00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:12.000 And one of the things that they do is they help you see the design patterns. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:15.680 The first, just the first nine chapters of the Bible. 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:23.920 The design and the design patterns of Genesis 1 through 9 are unparalleled literature. 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:30.319 The repetition, the inversion, the irony, what's going on in your Old Testament. 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:36.720 I've got this book I just randomly was looking at my books yesterday, and it's called uh the serpent in Samuel. 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:56.959 Some guy went and he found all of the ways in which Genesis 3, where you've got the serpent tempting Eve, he went and found all the times where the serpent without being named is being um the motif is being surfaced in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel. 00:05:56.959 --> 00:05:59.759 I mean, your Old Testament is beautiful. 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:00.879 What is there? 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:06.319 What's like the coded language where it's kind of like you're supposed to see the hyperlinks between stuff? 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:08.879 It's just incredible, incredible. 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:16.000 So as a church, we spend time in both the Old and the New Testament, and we're gonna do that for the next seven weeks. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:19.279 Let me read to you Amos one and two. 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:40.800 Amos one and two, it says this the words of Amos, who was one of the sheep breeders from Tekoah, what he saw regarding Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:56.000 He said, The Lord reigns from Zion and makes his voice heard from Jerusalem, the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the summit of Carmel withers. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:00.720 In a minute we're going to pray, settle our hearts before the Lord. 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:06.079 But before we do that, I just want to briefly introduce to you this character, Amos. 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:08.879 Here we see that he is a shepherd. 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:16.079 We'll see in a later chapter that he's also a sycamore fig dresser. 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:22.560 Or in other words, he would take care of sycamore trees and harvest sycamore figs. 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:41.120 He's from Tekoa, the southern tribe of Judah, and he was called by God to preach to the wealthier nation of the kingdom of Israel in the days of Jeroboam the Second. 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:43.360 He was a prophet. 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:52.079 And what it's important to understand is that prophets are not primarily people who guess the future. 00:07:52.079 --> 00:08:08.879 They are God's covenant attorneys who explain what is wrong right now and what God's covenant, sorry, what is wrong right now and what God is about to do about it. 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:19.680 So a prophet is one who oftentimes, we use this metaphor to call the kettle black, who just speaks truth in that very moment. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:28.079 Now there are times where they jump over and the Spirit of God is giving them predictions about the future that come true. 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:42.480 But primarily these prophets are these bold men or women that stand in the middle of their culture and speak on God's behalf, saying, This is what God thinks about this moment. 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:46.639 And with that, let's bow our heads and pray. 00:08:46.639 --> 00:09:01.519 Lord, we ask that as we listen to the words of Amos the prophet and we look at how you guided his prophetic speech, God, we pray that you'd speak into our lives individually. 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:08.639 We give you permission to speak to us, and we give you permission to speak into our church as a whole. 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:11.759 God, where there are things that are wrong, where we need correction. 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:13.360 Lord, you have permission. 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:23.840 We know that you love us, and you only point out the things that are wrong because you love, you desperately love humans, and you want them to get it right. 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:27.039 And so, God, we we just receive from you. 00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:29.360 We we bow our hearts before you. 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:35.519 We come in humility before you with an attitude where we're ready to say, yes, and amen. 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:37.759 We're gonna take what you say, God. 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:38.720 We're gonna obey you. 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:40.799 Lord, we want to obey you this week. 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:44.000 We say these things in Jesus' name. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:44.960 Amen. 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:49.840 Let me show you a map so just you have a little context. 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:58.320 Where again, we're talking about Israel, the nation of Israel, but broken into two pieces. 00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:07.360 You'll remember in the story of Israel, they had three kings before the nation broke into two parts. 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:09.200 Who was the first king? 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:11.440 Saul, that's right. 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:12.720 Who was the second king? 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:15.200 David, that's right. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:16.559 And who was the third king? 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:19.519 Solomon, that's right. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:21.600 Solomon was the third king. 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:26.240 Now, Solomon committed a grave error. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:36.159 He allowed his hundreds of wives to draw his heart away from the Lord, and he became an idol worshiper. 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:42.399 He would worship Yahweh, the God of Israel, and he would worship these pagan gods. 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:55.600 And a prophet came to Solomon and said, Because you have erred in this way, and you have a divided heart, God is going to divide the nation. 00:10:55.600 --> 00:11:04.559 And so as history unfolded, you ended up with a northern kingdom of Israel and a southern kingdom of Judah. 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:06.159 I know the map's hard to see. 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:16.000 And I'm as we're working on the website, one of the things that I'm hoping to do is make this so that you can see my notes on your phone in front of you as well as on the screen. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:23.440 But for this morning, we have the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:43.120 And this guy, Amos, he is from Judah, the southern tribe, but his message is going to be primarily for the northern nation, the northern tribes that are called Israel proper. 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:46.879 So you have north and south, is really the division. 00:11:46.879 --> 00:12:12.080 Now, if you imagine this northern kingdom of Israel in Amos' day, think of like a booming stock market, strong borders, busy churches, and God uses Amos to say to this very strong nation, something is terribly wrong. 00:12:12.080 --> 00:12:14.720 Something is terribly wrong. 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:19.759 So the nation itself is in a season of prosperity. 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:32.240 They're doing really well, they're really strong, they're confident, and yet God sends this prophet Amos to say, there is a disease in this nation. 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:36.399 There are things that are not right in God's eyes. 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:46.399 Remember, you're supposed to be a covenant people, and you are, at a societal level, violating your covenant with God. 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:56.080 Amos's central burden is that the covenant God who cares about justice as an expression of true worship. 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:57.039 God cares. 00:12:57.039 --> 00:13:06.000 The covenant-making God cares about justice in society as an expression of worship. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:14.639 Later in the book, he's going to cry out, let justice roll down like waters that uh Martin Luther King Jr. 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:18.879 quoted from Amos in his speech. 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:25.679 But chapters one and two are this dramatic setup for this prophetic message. 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:30.720 This morning we're going to look at all the way through up until the end of chapter two. 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:48.159 And what you need to know is that verses three, Amos one, three through two, five, they function as a geographical trap or rhetorical encirclement. 00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:50.639 Here's what I mean. 00:13:50.639 --> 00:14:10.480 There are seven oracles, seven prophetic messages that Amos aims against the surrounding nations: Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Amon, Moab, and Judah. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:15.279 And they each begin with a pattern. 00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:19.279 There's actually a pattern way that these messages go. 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:24.639 Here's another map. 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:30.960 And you'll see on this map as well as the last that you have these surroundings. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:38.399 Here we have the southern nation of Judah, northern nation of Israel, but we have these surrounding regions. 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:42.240 So here's Gaza, right? 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:42.960 Gaza. 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:44.720 Up here you have Tyre. 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:47.279 You have Damascus over there. 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:50.960 We have Ammon, Moab, Edom. 00:14:50.960 --> 00:15:02.399 And basically the message of Amos is it draws a circle around the nation of Israel, including Judah. 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:10.080 He has this indictment that God speaks through Amos against these surrounding seven nations. 00:15:10.080 --> 00:15:19.600 And then after he's done with that, the center of the bullseye, or the bullseye that's at the center, is the nation of Israel. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:29.600 So Amos goes through this exercise and God speaks through Amos to say, all of you have something that's wrong. 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:33.679 And God is going to deal with you for those things. 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:35.279 So there's a template. 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:38.399 If you look in verse 3, you'll see. 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:40.799 You'll see that it always starts. 00:15:40.799 --> 00:15:50.559 For each one of these nations, it's the Lord says, then he says, God says, I will not relent from punishing you. 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:53.039 I'm not going to hold back my punishment. 00:15:53.039 --> 00:15:54.399 I'm not going to stop. 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:55.600 I'm not going to relent. 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:57.200 You are going to be punished. 00:15:57.200 --> 00:16:02.960 And then there's this repeated phrase, for three crimes, even four. 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:06.639 In our culture, we talk about three strikes, you're out. 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:10.960 For them, it's basically four strikes, you're out. 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:16.399 It's you've done these three things, but because of this fourth, you've crossed a line. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:24.159 God's been merciful to you in these three things, but with this fourth, it tipped the scale where God has to deal with you. 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:27.120 And then he says, because they. 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:32.240 So there's always a description of what exactly they're doing wrong. 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:35.120 And they're doing different things wrong. 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:43.120 And then the next part of the pattern is that God says, I, therefore, I will send fire. 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:49.840 And it's always fire against the citadels, or your version might be fire against your palaces. 00:16:49.840 --> 00:16:56.159 It's always this like it's always that God's going to send fire against them. 00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:02.960 And so he covers Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and Judah. 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:04.160 We're going to just take one. 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:10.640 We're going to look at Tyre, and I just want to show you this example played out in verses 9 and 10. 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:12.480 The Lord says, right? 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:14.160 Each one starts with that. 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:33.759 The Lord says, I will not relent from punishing Tyre for three crimes, even four, because they handed over a whole community of exiles to Edom and broke a treaty of brotherhood. 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:38.880 So do you see here we have God speaking, he's not going to relent. 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:42.079 There's three crimes, even four, and then he's going to give them. 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:44.720 It's because here's what you've done. 00:17:44.720 --> 00:18:01.119 And in Tyre's instance, they've gone and they've handed over, they've taken a community that was amongst them of exiles, and they handed them over to Edom and broke a treaty of brotherhood. 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:06.960 One of the themes that comes up in the book of Amos is this word transgression. 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:08.480 In Hebrew, it's pasha. 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:19.599 We use the word uh transgression almost synonymous with sin, violation, um, iniquity. 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:27.200 But in Hebrew, these Greek words for sin, or in Hebrew, these Hebrew words for sin, they mean different things. 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:32.400 Transgression refers to a violation of a relationship. 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:43.200 And here we see treachery by those people of Tyre, that they're taking exiles and handing over. 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:47.119 We don't know why they handed them over, at least the text here doesn't tell us. 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:57.359 But God looks at that and he says, That right there crossed a line, and that's why I'm gonna deal with you. 00:18:57.359 --> 00:18:59.440 And here's how he's gonna deal with them. 00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:07.119 Therefore, I will send fire against the walls of Tyre, and it will consume the citadels. 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:08.960 And that's it. 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:12.240 That's all that Amos has to say to Tyre. 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:14.640 This is what's gonna happen to you. 00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:27.839 So he does this again with Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and Judah in a circumference around the nation of Israel. 00:19:27.839 --> 00:19:35.759 We read through this. 00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:39.839 We read through each of these accounts. 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:43.119 You can look at it this afternoon if you want. 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:58.400 And the inclination in our hearts is to say, yes, Lord, judge those war crimes, those traffickers, those who profit from the sufferings of others. 00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:07.359 We want a God who takes these things seriously, especially if we're the victim. 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:21.839 If God looked at genocide, trafficking, and violence, and he said, ah, it's no big deal, you're not my chosen people, we would not call him loving. 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:24.400 We would call him a monster. 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:29.200 And so when we come through, so so you read through this and it's like, man, that's yucky. 00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:31.279 What am I gonna do with that in my morning devotions? 00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:37.200 You know, it's like he's sending fire on Tyre, fire on Damascus, fire on Amos. 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:46.640 But you need to know that the God of the Bible sees not just Israel, but he sees the whole picture. 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:56.880 He knows who's violated you, he knows who's wronged you, he knows your station in life, and it doesn't get past him. 00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:04.559 The reality, the theological reality that comes forward is that God is omniscient. 00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:06.960 He knows everything. 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:10.240 He knows exactly what's going on in Tyre. 00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:16.880 He knows that these exiles that were there in Tyre were vulnerable. 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:27.440 And when Tyre said, ah, we're sending you off to Edom, he knew that individuals, families, kids were hurt. 00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:32.640 And God says, when you did that, you crossed the line. 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:39.359 It wasn't just three things, that was your fourth thing that you did, and I'm gonna send fire against you. 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:42.400 And that's the God that we want to follow. 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:47.279 We want a God who cares deeply about injustice. 00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:59.759 Well, we're gonna turn to Israel, and we're gonna begin to focus in on um what Amos had to say to Israel because. 00:21:59.759 --> 00:22:04.799 Each of these surrounding nations, they just got one or two verses. 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:12.079 But Israel's going to get the whole 10, 11 verses here at the back half of chapter 2. 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:23.920 It says, The Lord says, I will not relent from punishing Israel for three crimes, even four. 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:35.359 Notice the same pattern, the same treatment that God does with the surrounding nations is the same pattern for Israel. 00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:42.880 It's because they sell a righteous person for silver and a needy person for a pair of sandals. 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:44.640 Here's what you need to know. 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:59.839 If you are well off, if you're well off, you and I, we have a moral obligation for those who are powerless, vulnerable, and poor. 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:07.359 You do not, at least the picture that comes forward in the book of Amos is that you don't live in isolation. 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:13.279 As much as you may want to say, oh, that's over there, that's a different city, that's a different geography. 00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:28.000 No, the Bible says that if you are a position, if you're a person of means and power, you have a moral obligation towards those in your community who are powerless, vulnerable, and poor. 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:45.920 God's chosen people in this text get a treatment, get a focused treatment from God while it follows the same pattern. 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:51.680 What comes forward is that you're my people, so I'm gonna, I've got some special words for you. 00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:53.200 It's kind of like parenting, right? 00:23:53.200 --> 00:24:02.799 Like you might go on a field trip with a bunch of kids, and your kids are on the field trip, and you might give a little bit of structure and tell some kids like, hey, shut up, you know, you're in the in the bus, you gotta calm down, kids. 00:24:02.799 --> 00:24:07.839 But man, when it's your kid that's speaking up, you got some special words for them, right? 00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:11.200 You got a different relationship with them. 00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:12.000 Yeah. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:20.079 And that that's how it is for God as he's working with um with the nation of Israel. 00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:30.880 And so he says to them that he has there's three crimes, even four, and then he's gonna begin to name them. 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:38.319 And we're gonna go through a couple verses here where there's specific things that Israel is doing wrong. 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:47.519 First of all, they sell a righteous person for silver and a needy person for a pair of sandals. 00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:48.400 Do you see that? 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:54.559 Because they sell a righteous person, they sell a righteous person for silver and a needy person for a pair of sandals. 00:24:54.559 --> 00:25:04.400 This likely refers to perverting justice for a bribe or even using debt slavery to sell people into servitude. 00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:20.319 The point is not the footwear, but the triviality that a poor person is sold or handed over for an absurdly small amount. 00:25:20.319 --> 00:25:25.839 It just trifles in terms of the value of a human life. 00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:35.279 We have wealthy people, powerful people making decisions about individuals and families as if they're a pair of crocs. 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:37.119 You have a pair of crocs? 00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:39.920 Got a phone. 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:43.599 Grab that phone. 00:25:43.599 --> 00:25:49.039 And so God cares. 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:52.480 Who is God defending here? 00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:55.279 The needy person, right? 00:25:55.279 --> 00:26:00.400 The righteous person who may be righteous but powerless. 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:12.880 And God's saying, look, as a society, those of you that have means and have power, you're treating other humans, poor people, as if they're worth a pair of crocs. 00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:17.920 Isn't that crazy? 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:29.440 A few years ago, in in 2018, uh Baltimore City decided that Perkins homes needed to be torn down and redeveloped. 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:34.240 If you're new to the city, that's a housing development that's less than a mile from here. 00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:38.799 There were 605 or 604 apartment buildings. 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:40.319 There's Section 8 housing. 00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:42.240 So the poor lived there. 00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:44.480 Some of you live there, right? 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:48.240 You got an you got a stipend to be able to live there. 00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:57.759 And those of you that live there, you know that the city came, they had meetings with the neighborhood, and they said, listen, we're gonna do this in a gentle way. 00:26:57.759 --> 00:27:10.079 We're gonna move you out just one apartment at a time, and and we're gonna move you out, we're gonna help you find housing, and um, but we're not gonna move your neighbors out because we're just gonna do it one building at a time. 00:27:10.079 --> 00:27:21.279 Once we move you out, we'll tear down that building, we'll build a new one, and you can come move back in, and then we'll we'll tear your neighbor's building down, and um, we'll do it in a phased way. 00:27:21.279 --> 00:27:26.319 Meetings and meetings and you know, neighborhood council meetings. 00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:28.079 How do we how do we be gentle? 00:27:28.079 --> 00:27:32.000 How do we care for this neighborhood of the most vulnerable? 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:48.000 They got approval, they got the city approved the thing, they wanted a grant of I think $35 million from the federal government to do the project, got greenlit, got approved, and I think it was in October 2018. 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:55.119 I started hearing, oh no, they're moving everybody out in 30 days, 60 days. 00:27:55.119 --> 00:27:56.480 Everybody's gotta go. 00:27:56.480 --> 00:27:58.880 They said the infrastructure is were you there? 00:27:58.880 --> 00:27:59.680 Yeah. 00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:01.279 They said, oh, it's the infrastructure. 00:28:01.279 --> 00:28:03.519 The infrastructure we we can't do it how we said. 00:28:03.519 --> 00:28:05.039 Everybody's gotta go. 00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:08.240 It was just this violent process. 00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:17.759 And I attended as an as uh representing the church and representing uh the neighborhood, and I looked at this and it was just like that is wrong. 00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:27.519 That is that is like a violation of the poor, that it was more convenient to just be like, yep, whoop, we're wiping the whole thing out. 00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:31.359 That's the kind of thing where God is watching that happen. 00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:45.119 People of power who decide, you know what, we're in power, we can make this decision, and nobody's gonna be able to to um nobody's gonna be able to like oppose us. 00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:47.119 There's nobody has the power. 00:28:47.119 --> 00:28:48.400 Who's gonna oppose? 00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:57.519 They will complain, but but there's nobody that's just gonna be like stand up and say that's that's wrong and have any influence. 00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:09.599 And that's the type of thing that God's looking at in Israel, the northern tribe of Israel, the kingdom of Israel, and he's saying, This stuff is wrong. 00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:18.480 Verse 7 says this they trample the heads of the poor on the dust of the ground, and they obstruct the path of the needy. 00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:25.359 A man and his father have sexual relations with the same girl, profaning my holy name. 00:29:25.359 --> 00:29:28.240 So they trample. 00:29:28.240 --> 00:29:32.400 It's a this vivid picture of crushing the poor. 00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:38.079 Imagine someone's face just being pressed into the dirt. 00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:46.720 It covers both the physical and legal oppression, grinding the poor down. 00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:56.079 Taxes, rent, interests, harsh labor until they cannot lift their heads. 00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:57.839 God cares. 00:29:57.839 --> 00:30:06.319 God cares if you're a person of means and a person of influence, he cares how you operate in society. 00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:12.000 If you are that poor person, he cares for you deeply. 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:18.880 He sees your head being tread down and being pressed down. 00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:27.519 He talks, he goes on, and he says, he talks about the obstruction of the path of the needy. 00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:31.839 The way, like the way that you're gonna go, right? 00:30:31.839 --> 00:30:35.920 You've got you've got a path that you want to go in life. 00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:46.559 They block, there's these people of power who are blocking the afflicted from getting justice and moving forward in life. 00:30:46.559 --> 00:30:55.200 Now, listen, listen, if you're a person of means, it is very easy to be like, well, it's not my problem. 00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:58.640 It's not my problem, right? 00:30:58.640 --> 00:31:04.400 It's very easy to put yourself in a position where you just kind of be like, well, tough, man. 00:31:04.400 --> 00:31:08.880 You know, you you you made your bed, you got to lie in it, right? 00:31:08.880 --> 00:31:12.799 You're poor, and maybe you're poor because you made bad decisions. 00:31:12.799 --> 00:31:26.400 It's it's easy if you're a person of means to just kind of like shrug your shoulders and not realize that maybe you're obstructing the path of the person who is needy. 00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:36.640 Then he goes on, and he talks about this man and his father having sex with the same girl. 00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:44.960 This is likely a cultic, um, like a cult prostitute at a temple. 00:31:44.960 --> 00:31:49.839 And they're having some kind of sexual, there's some kind of sexual exploitation. 00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:55.359 And this would be like analogous to our human trafficking that would happen today. 00:31:55.359 --> 00:31:58.400 It's not like these girls were like, oh yeah, I want to be a temple prostitute. 00:31:58.400 --> 00:32:08.640 No, they would be forced into this horrible position, and they're being taken advantage of both by this father and son. 00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:12.559 It's a picture of generational corruption. 00:32:12.559 --> 00:32:13.519 Hold on. 00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:19.279 It's sin passing from the father to the son and normalizing abuse. 00:32:19.279 --> 00:32:34.880 And so we have this idea: the poor are under their boots, and the vulnerable women are in their beds, and God says, profaning my name, that's what you're doing. 00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:37.279 You are giving me a bad name. 00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:39.200 Did you see that at the end there? 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:43.839 He says, You're profaning my holy name. 00:32:43.839 --> 00:32:55.119 You see, as much as Israel as a kingdom had rebelled against God and they were worshiping idols, they were still God's covenant people. 00:32:55.119 --> 00:32:58.960 They still were the they were Yahweh's people. 00:32:58.960 --> 00:33:06.160 And they represented to those surrounding nations Yahweh. 00:33:06.160 --> 00:33:09.440 And this is how they're acting. 00:33:09.440 --> 00:33:15.680 And God's saying, you're making me look bad to those surrounding nations. 00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:18.160 Now, I know Christians don't ever do that. 00:33:18.160 --> 00:33:21.119 Like we don't ever make God look bad in society. 00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:23.359 Right? 00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:25.680 That's the idea here. 00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:35.200 That's the idea here is that these, the behavior of these people in society was profaning God's name. 00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:41.759 And so the the the um the indictments continue. 00:33:41.759 --> 00:33:49.680 Remember, Amos is acting like a covenant lawyer, an attorney that's indicting this northern kingdom. 00:33:49.680 --> 00:34:02.079 And he says this they stretch out beside every altar on garments taken as collateral, in the house of their God, they drink wine obtained through fines. 00:34:02.079 --> 00:34:16.000 It's the picture of wealthy worshippers lounging by altars, likely on shrines and shrine feasts, and they're relaxed, they're satisfied. 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:25.039 But notice he says this you're stretched out beside every altar on garments that are taken as collateral. 00:34:25.039 --> 00:34:42.880 One of the interesting things that comes up in the first five books of Moses, the Torah, is that God allowed for a person's cloak to be used as the asset backing a loan, right? 00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:50.000 When you go to get a loan, they look at what assets do you have that can be used as collateral or to back your loan. 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:57.920 Well, God said in the Torah through Moses that a person's cloak can be used like a pawn shop, right? 00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:01.519 You can use the cloak at the pawn shop. 00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:11.119 But in in Deuteronomy, it said that the cloak, whether the loan was repaid or not, the cloak had to be returned at the end of the night. 00:35:11.119 --> 00:35:15.519 Because that was the only way to warm yourself through the night. 00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:20.719 That was your only protection through the desert chill that they would face. 00:35:20.719 --> 00:35:37.840 And yet these people in the northern kingdom of Israel, they were using that garment as a cushion as they're worshiping their pagan altar, at their pagan altars, their pagan idols. 00:35:37.840 --> 00:35:40.880 The cushion is under their elbows. 00:35:40.880 --> 00:35:47.519 It's while it's supposed to be the only coat of some poor person out there. 00:35:47.519 --> 00:35:50.960 And then they're drinking wine. 00:35:50.960 --> 00:35:58.239 They're drinking wine in the house of their God that was obtained through fines. 00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:09.039 So they're going to their church essentially, having communion in their church setting to modernize it. 00:36:09.039 --> 00:36:17.119 But it was obtained through these like gross fines, these societally endorsed fines. 00:36:17.119 --> 00:36:19.519 Anybody ever park in like a bus stop? 00:36:19.519 --> 00:36:23.360 Yeah, that's a fine, right? 00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:33.280 One time I challenged a ticket from Fells Point like eight years ago, um, and I went to traffic court, and it was a great learning excuse. 00:36:33.280 --> 00:36:38.800 Everybody should go to traffic court because you learn a lot in traffic court if you have like a half a day to waste. 00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:47.840 And um the judge sits there and he listens to different people who've gotten fined, and they have really good excuses. 00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:59.119 Like one lady, she was a nurse, and she had come to pick up, she was uh like a caretaker for somebody who was um handicapped. 00:36:59.119 --> 00:37:04.960 So she parked in the handicapped parking spot in front of the house to get her patient. 00:37:04.960 --> 00:37:10.639 But she didn't have the handicapped stickers, she got the $502 fine for parking there. 00:37:10.639 --> 00:37:18.320 And so that judge, the judge listened to the case and he was willing to knock down the fine to like $25 or something like that. 00:37:18.320 --> 00:37:37.039 But there's all these different scenarios that happen in society where fines are given out, and in this society, there's fines being given out, probably to the poor, the needy, and then that revenue is being used to go and worship in the house of their gods. 00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:39.199 How perverted is that? 00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:41.440 Like, how messed up is that? 00:37:41.440 --> 00:37:46.480 They brought their injustice to church with them. 00:37:46.480 --> 00:37:51.199 The very coat they took from the poor became the cushion in worship. 00:37:51.199 --> 00:37:58.079 The wine they wrung out of the venerable became their communion cup. 00:37:58.079 --> 00:38:01.599 It's a serious, serious indictment. 00:38:01.599 --> 00:38:08.239 And so God says, Listen, we got some history here. 00:38:08.239 --> 00:38:10.320 You ever did that with your kids? 00:38:10.320 --> 00:38:12.960 Say, look, look, we got we got some history. 00:38:12.960 --> 00:38:15.280 Like you didn't just come into my life today. 00:38:15.280 --> 00:38:18.880 We got some history. 00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:21.039 And God goes through their history with them. 00:38:21.039 --> 00:38:26.719 He says to them, Yet I destroyed the Amorites as Israel advanced. 00:38:26.719 --> 00:38:35.199 This goes back to the story of being in the wilderness for 40 years, and God's wiping out Israel's enemies as they're going into the land. 00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:37.679 He destroyed the Amorites. 00:38:37.679 --> 00:38:42.639 And he describes the Amorites, their height was like the cedars. 00:38:42.639 --> 00:38:44.639 He was as sturdy as the oaks. 00:38:44.639 --> 00:38:51.199 So you had these nations and these tribes that were compared to sturdy trees. 00:38:51.199 --> 00:38:56.400 And God wiped those sturdy trees out on Israel's behalf. 00:38:56.400 --> 00:39:00.079 I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. 00:39:00.079 --> 00:39:02.719 And I brought you out of the land of Egypt. 00:39:02.719 --> 00:39:08.719 I led you 40 years in the wilderness in order to possess the land of the Amorites. 00:39:08.719 --> 00:39:16.639 I raised up some of your sons as prophets, and some of your young men as Nazarites. 00:39:16.639 --> 00:39:24.400 In other words, I gifted to you as a nation godly people, consecrated people. 00:39:24.400 --> 00:39:28.559 Is this not the case, Israelite? 00:39:28.559 --> 00:39:30.320 This is the Lord's declaration. 00:39:30.320 --> 00:39:31.760 It's posed as a question. 00:39:31.760 --> 00:39:34.000 Do you remember your history? 00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:37.360 Do you remember what God has done for you? 00:39:37.360 --> 00:39:40.719 But then look at verse 12. 00:39:40.719 --> 00:39:43.119 But you made the Nazarite drink wine. 00:39:43.119 --> 00:39:47.840 One of the things that a Nazarite was was their life, their whole life was just different. 00:39:47.840 --> 00:39:49.440 Kind of like a John the Baptist. 00:39:49.440 --> 00:39:52.719 They're consecrated to God and they couldn't drink wine. 00:39:52.719 --> 00:39:59.119 And so these people are taking their Nazarites and they're making them drink wine. 00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:03.199 And then they're commanding the prophets, that's God's gift to them as a nation. 00:40:03.199 --> 00:40:05.760 They're saying, don't prophesy. 00:40:05.760 --> 00:40:14.000 They're turning their back on God's, God gifts this work to them as a nation, and they're rejecting God's work. 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:24.480 We often do exactly this by pressuring serious Christians around us, devoted Christians around us. 00:40:24.480 --> 00:40:26.400 We say, hey, just relax. 00:40:26.400 --> 00:40:29.599 You know, get off your get off your high horse. 00:40:29.599 --> 00:40:31.840 Chill out, right? 00:40:31.840 --> 00:40:38.480 And yet God's gifting you, gifting to your life somebody that's willing to speak into your life. 00:40:38.480 --> 00:40:47.119 Maybe it's a counselor, maybe it's a parent, maybe, maybe nobody else would tell you the thing that that person's willing to tell you, but you know it's true. 00:40:47.119 --> 00:40:50.639 But instead of responding to it, it's like, no, stop it. 00:40:50.639 --> 00:40:51.599 Stop it. 00:40:51.599 --> 00:40:52.559 Get away. 00:40:52.559 --> 00:40:54.320 Get away from my life. 00:40:54.320 --> 00:40:58.639 He goes on in verse 13. 00:40:58.639 --> 00:41:07.039 And God says, Look, I am about to crush you in your place as a wagon crushes when full of grain. 00:41:07.039 --> 00:41:09.280 So he's going to go into the indictment here. 00:41:09.280 --> 00:41:13.199 He's going to describe, look at the description. 00:41:13.199 --> 00:41:21.039