Day 192 (Amos 1-5) - Year 4
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Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Today we drop in on a sheep-herding fig farmer named Amos, who happens to be a minor prophet in his spare time, and one of my favorites at that. Not only do I like wool and figs, but Amos is also a brilliant writer. The timeline hasn't really moved ahead for us in a few days, we're just reading things from various people written in the same era.

So a lot of what Amos says is doubling down on what we read from Isaiah yesterday. Lately, the people of Israel have been doing really well financially and they think it's a sign of God's blessing. They keep offering up meaningless sacrifices to him because they think it keeps them in good standing with him. And they anticipate the day when he will rain down judgment on their enemies. However, God is about to flip everything they think on its head, as per Amos.

The book opens with eight separate statements from God. Here's how those break down. The first seven statements are against the nations surrounding the northern kingdom of Israel. Of those seven, the first six speak specifically to the nations that don't know Yahweh as their God. Despite not being in relationship with Yahweh, they're still held to his baseline moral standard.

But when it comes to the seventh nation, it's the southern kingdom of Judah, and they do know Yahweh as their God. They've seen what he's capable of. They're in covenant with him, so they probably think they get a pass since he obviously likes them so much. On the contrary, he says they're held to an even higher standard because of that. They're accountable for what they know. And God makes it clear through these chapters that in order for him to be a God of justice, no one can escape judgment.

whether it's the base level judgment or the higher accountability judgment, because we're all guilty. Specifically, God says the first six nations are guilty of: cruelty, slave trade, treachery, harboring a grudge, murder, greed, and desecrating a corpse. When it comes to the seventh nation, the southern kingdom of Judah, God gives a more general word: "You've rejected me." This has always been about the relationship between God and his people.

His accusations against them may sound far more humane or tame, but they're also far more personal. The punishment for all seven nations is that God promises to send judgment in the form of fire. Now that God has addressed all the nations surrounding the northern kingdom of Israel with a few lines each, He addresses an eighth nation. This time, He makes a lengthy diatribe against Israel itself, going into detail about their offenses.

They sell people into debt slavery, they oppress the poor, they ignore the afflicted, they're sexually immoral and exploit people for their own pleasure. They worship false gods and forget that Yahweh is the one who rescued them when they were poor and afflicted and enslaved. They've broken the covenant. As a result, God is about to bring oppression and destruction their way.

As I mentioned earlier, the way Israel views itself is about to be flipped on its head. Not only is their power and wealth not evidence of God's blessing, as they'd suspected, but it's actually evidence to the contrary. And as a result, God is going to destroy it. Their strength and riches won't be able to stand against him. And yes, they're right to think that God is going to judge the wickedness of their surrounding nations, but he's also going to judge their wickedness.

And their sacrifices aren't going to appease him because even those are done in a way that dishonors him. Their so-called good deeds are tainted with pride and showy behavior. And the sacrifices they bring are being offered away from Jerusalem as God had ordained.

Lest we think that God is being harsh with them or having some kind of knee-jerk reaction, he says he's already used less severe methods to prompt their repentance. Drought, famine, locusts, mildew, disease, death, but none of it has turned their hearts. He has been so patient with them. And did that list feel a little familiar? Can you see how they're sort of mirroring Pharaoh at this point?

All these things have come against them, and they haven't put two and two together that they have become the stubborn oppressor whose heart is hardened toward God, the very thing God rescued them from. God implores them to seek him and live. He begs them to repent and turn from oppressing the poor and seeking to build their own kingdoms. He commands them to hate the evil things that break his heart and to love the things that align with his character.

He tells them that the day of the Lord is coming, which refers to the day of his judgment here. Judgment that won't just fall on their enemies, but on them as well. By the way, we've previously included a link to a short video with more info on the day of the Lord, but if you missed it then and are interested now, we'll post that again in today's show notes. What was your God shot today?

Mine was in 3.6, where God reminds Israel that He's where the buck stops. He says, Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it? God takes ownership of disaster here. He's not always the active agent, but He's sovereign over all of it. And this is a hard pill to swallow sometimes. It's okay to wrestle with this or to feel the tension of it. You're in good company. But here's what's important to remember as we wrestle.

First, while it may seem comforting to think of tragedy as always coming only from the enemy of our souls, we don't actually want the enemy to have the upper hand, do we? I certainly don't. Second, God's judgment for sin is always deserved, and often even delayed, because he's patient. Third, we want a God who judges sin. He wouldn't be a good, trustworthy God if he ignored evil.

And finally, as we'll continue to see, God's judgment on his people is ultimately for the purpose of restoration. This is not the end. He's preserving a remnant. God is faithful to his people even when they rebel against him. I love seeing that even our God of justice is also a God of mercy. Watching all his attributes interact with each other and seeing how complex and detailed his character is truly delights me.

He's where the joy is. No matter how long you've been doing TBR, chances are you'll start to ask some good questions like, what version of the Bible do you use? Or which study Bible do you recommend? Or does she go by Tara or Tara Lee? Good news, we have an FAQ page for all of that. So check it out at thebiblerecap.com forward slash FAQ. We'll also drop a link to that in the show notes today. And it's Tara Lee.

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