(The previous post covered God's review of His many overtures to Israel with Israel ignoring everyone of them and Israel eventually going into captivity.)
Amos 7
(Verses 1-3: the locust judgment.)
1 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me: and, behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.
2 And it came to pass that, when they made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord Jehovah, forgive, I beseech thee: how shall Jacob stand? for he is small.
3 Jehovah repented concerning this: It shall not be, saith Jehovah.
(Amos prayed and God repented of this judgment.)
(Verses 4-6: the fire judgment.)
4 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me: and, behold, the Lord Jehovah called to content by fire; and it devoured the great deep, and would have eaten up the land.
5 Then said I, O Lord Jehovah, cease, I beseech thee: how shall Jacob stand? for he is small.
6 Jehovah repented concerning this: this also shall not be, saith the Lord Jehovah.
(Amos prayed and God repented of this judgment.)
(Verses 7-9: the plumb-line judgment (line of judgment).)
7 Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand.
8 And Jehovah said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb-line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more;
9 and the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Beth-el sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
(Amaziah the priest sent a message to Jeroboam regarding Amos. Remember, Jeroboam was mentioned as the king of Israel in the first verse of the Book of Hosea.)
11 For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.
12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thou away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
13 but prophesy not again any more at Beth-el; for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a royal house.
(Amaziah, the priest over the idolatrous worship in Beth-el, complained of Amos. Amaziah told Amos to flee to Judah and prophesy there because Beth-el (House of God) was the king's sanctuary and royal house. Amaziah confused the king's authority with God's authority.)
14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a dresser of sycomore-trees:
15 and Jehovah took me from following the flock, and Jehovah said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
(Amos told Amaziah that he was just a herdsman who God took and said to prophesy to Israel. Remember, true prophets do not assert themselves to be prophets.)
16 Now therefore hear thou the word of Jehovah: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac;
17 therefore thus saith Jehovah: Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou thyself shalt die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.
(Because Amaziah told Amos not to prophesy, Amos prophesied judgment against Amaziah and his family and that Israel would go into captivity.)
Amos 8
1 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me: and, behold, a basket of summer fruit.
2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said Jehovah unto me, The end is come upon my people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
(The summer fruit symbolized Israel's end.)
3 And the songs of the temple shall be wailings in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah: the dead bodies shall be many: in every place shall they cast them forth with silence.
4 Hear this, O ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,
(Israel was not strengthening the hand of the poor, one of the four causes of God's judgment against Sodom according to Ezekiel 16:49.)
5 saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
6 that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
7 Jehovah hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? yea, it shall rise up wholly like the River; and it shall be troubled and sink again, like the River of Egypt.
(This river was the Nile.)
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah.
(God would send a famine to Israel, a famine of "hearing the words of Jehovah.")
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, As thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, As the way of Beer-sheba liveth; they shall fall, and never rise up again.
(These cities (Samaria, Dan, Beer-sheba) were centers of idolatry in Israel.)
Amos 9
1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar: and he said, Smite the capitals, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape.
(Amos saw God standing upon the altar in the idolatrous temple at Beth-el.)
2 Though they dig into Sheol, thence shall my hand take them; and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.
3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
(God set His Eyes on Israel for evil and not for good. With God, short term evil brought long term good, which resulted in creation.)
(Verses 5-10: began a prophecy of dispersion.)
5 For the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, is he that toucheth the land and it melteth, and all that dwell therein shall mourn; and it shall rise up wholly like the River, and shall sink again, like the River of Egypt;
6 it is he that buildeth his chambers in the heavens, and hath founded his vault upon the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth; Jehovah is his name.
7 Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith Jehovah. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; save that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith Jehovah.
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, like as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least kernel fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, The evil shall not overtake nor meet us.
(Verses 11-12: the restoration of David's kingdom under the Messiah.)
11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old;
(Acts 15:16 recorded that James the Lesser referenced this verse during the council's meeting concerning circumcision.)
12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations that are called by my name, saith Jehovah that doeth this.
(Verses 13-15: the future restoration of Israel.)
13 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith Jehovah thy God.
(The Book of Amos was the third book of the twelve books that made up the minor prophet section of the Old Testament. Amos was a prophet that preceded Joel. Amos' message focused on God's judgment upon all nations. Amos was specific as to why judgment would come upon each nation. While the tone of this book was dire, this book did finish with an encouragement that Israel would be regathered and restored during Christ's Millennial Reign.)
Day 269
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