Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast. Powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. Let's be honest, a lot of us are still treating digital ministry like it's a backup plan from 2020. But discipleship isn't just happening on Sundays anymore. People need gospel centered connection every day of the week. And if you're stuck juggling five different platforms, one for giving, another for sermons, something else for events, it's no wonder engagement feels off. That's not ministry. That's a mess. Subsplash changes that one platform. Everything you need, media, giving, events, messaging, your app, your website built specifically for churches. No hacks, no workarounds, just clarity and simplicity. Because every day you wait, families scroll past your sermons, new guests click away from clunky sites, and real people miss real moments with Jesus. Don't waste another summer stuck in digital survival mode. Use it to get ahead, simplify, upgrade, get back to what matters. Head to subsplash.combible-dept and schedule a free no pressure demo. And let this be the summer your church gets focused and fully equipped family. Welcome to day 184. We are making our way through the Book of Amos. All right, we got Amos, chapters three, four, five and six. We got four chapters. Sometimes we break up the reading not just to keep it the same amount of reading every day, but so that you are thematically experiencing one thing in the same day. Okay, if you're ever like, wait, we had two chapters yesterday, we got four chapters today. What's going on? It's because we don't want to put breaks in places that don't make thematic sense. So this entire section, okay, if you've already read the reading for the day, shout out to you. You've read chapters three to six, then you'll notice that everything in chapters three and six is really concerning three words that Amos is going to speak against Israel, and then three woes that Amos is going to deliver against Israel. You can think of a woe to as like a lament or a cry. Okay, three woes. This is. It's a lament over something that's done that is actually heartbreaking in a. In a moral sense. And this is another place to just remind people that the book of Revelation really requires this. This is the end of the Bible the very last book of the Bible. Revelation requires that we understand the totality of the rest of the Bible. Okay? So the Book of Revelation is. I would say what makes it difficult is that you kind of have to have the other 65 books of the Bible in mind when reading the 66th book of the Bible. And so there are gonna be woes in the Book of Revelation. And so John the Revelator is drawing on a tradition of woes, of lamenting about something that is doomed to happen, but we are lamenting about it in preparation. Okay? The other thing that I think is really, really fascinating about reading to the prophets is that this is emotional language. So it's poetry on Valentine's Day or for my wife's anniversary. Well, not my wife's anniversary, our anniversary of being married. I don't just write a list of, like, Here are the 13 things I like about you. That would be stripped of emotion, right? A list for feels sterile, can feel cold. But poetry is evocative, right? Poetry is emotional. Poetry is a language of passion. And so one of the things that I love about the prophets is that God's emotions, God's passion is on display. Okay? If you want a God who's not emotional, then don't choose the God of the Bible, okay? Because Yahweh is emotional. No, I've said this in the past, but just know a God that never gets angry is also a God that doesn't love or have the capacity to love. Okay? If, God forbid, if I, like, went home and someone had, you know, kidnapped my wife or my son or, like, murdered them, and, you know, I just went outside like, man, this. This is not good. And I was just kind of, like, apathetic or not really emotional about it. People would kind of think that's strange. Whereas because I love them, the emotion that should go along with something happening to them should be anger, outrage, depression, sadness. Like. Like, those would be normal. And so through the prophets, we're gonna see God's anger, his emotions, his feelings, his passion. That doesn't mean that he's just some unpredictable, fly off the handle kind of God. But that does mean that he deeply loves his people. He's. He has a covenant relationship with his people. And so we're gonna see a lot of that emotion in the language that God, through Amos, chooses to use. All right, so let's kind of break down a little bit of what's happening. Let's jump into Amos, chapter three. As soon as we jump in, it's going to be really, really Clear like what God is, is mad about. Okay? Hear this word. The Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt. Okay? So you're going to see Egypt mentioned a lot, not just in Amos, through all the prophets, through really the entire Old Testament. So I just want to say this statement and I want you to, like, remember it just. Okay, What? The cross is for the new covenant. The Exodus is for the Old covenant. So it's the salvation moment. So the reason that God continues to allude to bringing I brought you out of Egypt is because that is the defining salvation moment in the old covenant. Whereas the defining salvation moment in the new covenant is the cross of Christ. I brought you up out of Egypt. You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your sins, okay? With great power comes great responsibility. All right? Only you have I chosen. Of all the families of the earth. Good job. I chose you, all right? Therefore, I will punish you for all of your sins. So that first part is like, oh, so sweet. You chose us like you chose that of everybody. So that's so awesome. Therefore, I will punish you, okay? For all your sins. And I want you to see this in contrast, because this starts out, the whole book starts out with the prophecy against Damascus, against Philistia, against Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab. Why is it that God can judge these foreign nations? Well, because Romans is going to tell us that everyone has general revelation. Like every human has a conscience like this. There's something in us that tells us that murder is wrong, that lying is wrong. So he can judge everybody on the earth, whether or not they are a Jew or not, a Christian or not. However, he can hold the people of Israel accountable to the covenant. And so now when we get into chapter three, we've got God holding them accountable to a covenant. He's going to ask a litany of questions, right? Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? Does a lion roar in the thicket when it has no prey? Does a trap spring up from the earth when there is nothing to catch it? This is like Amos's like, poetic style, right? I don't think that the prophets are in a trance and like receiving a word from God. I actually think that they get a message from God and then they translate it into their own poetic style, which, if you were around couple days ago, as we studied Jonah, I. I don't think that prophets are in a trance, just dictating what God says is they're in a trance. I think they're receiving a download from the Lord. I think they're receiving a message from the Lord. But clearly Amos has a different poetry style than Isaiah has a different poetry style than Jeremiah. And so there's still differences and there's human creative expression. And so if you're a creative person, like, if you, if you're just creative by nature, please know, like, God doesn't have a problem with any of the humanness that you choose to add to the message of the gospel or a prophetic message that he gives you. Okay. God has no problem with Amos's creativity. And if all the prophets were just blindly dictating, as they were in a trance, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos would all sound very similar. Cause the same person's dictating all the content. But the fact that they sound different is because God is using a different medium. And the medium is the human being. Which means that when I preach, it sounds different than when another person preaches. And that's good that God didn't have a problem with that. I think when I was immature, I would say things like, let me decrease and let you increase God, which is still good in sentiment. Like, that's not a bad sentiment. But what we don't want is God. You just, you. You preach through me. I want to disappear. God didn't have a problem with your humor, with your creativity, with how you choose to express the message. As long as the message isn't compromised, I think God is cool with creativity. All right, Amos is going to ask a bunch of rhetorical questions then, are going to lead to this. Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets. So that whole, all Those verses, verse 3, 4, 5, 6, were all just designed to get you to realize, oh, got it. It's God who's laying a trap. It is God who's doing this. And he's actually telling us about a future calamity that's on the way. He's warning us. Verse 8. The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken. Who can but prophesy? Okay, so he starts to prophesy against Ashdod, Egypt, the mountains of Samaria, and then here we go. This is the prophecy about Assyria, verse 11. Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says. An enemy will overrun the land. He will put down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses. This is what the Lord says. And the shepherd saves from the lion's mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear. So will the Israelites be saved? Those who sit in Samaria on the edge of their beds and in Damascus on their couches. So he's saying, imagine you've got, you know, farm animal. You know, he's talking to shepherds. He said, imagine, you know, you got a sheepdog or something and a lion comes and all you were able to save was like an ear or like a leg. Like that's gruesome like that. That gives you an image. For us, I think it would be more like imagine you're, you got some pets. Imagine you got a poodle and a dang on lion gets a hold of it. And all you were able to say with a leg saying, when Assyria comes and, and plunders and, and pillages you, the only thing that will be saved is a random, unidentifiable leg or an ear. Judgment has been decided by God and you will be judged. And then it gets into verse 13. And again, well, let's do verse 14 and 15 and you'll begin to see the two issues that God has. Verse 14. On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel. So the altars of Bethel are a big problem. This is idolatry. The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. Verse 15, I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house. This is opulent wealth for those of you who have two homes, okay? And there are poor people in the land. So the first issue that God has is idolatry. The second issue that God has is injustice. Okay? So idolatry. Is there something broken in my relationship with God? Injustice? Is there something broken in my relationships with other people, family? The wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold, literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. The house adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished, declares the Lord. So those are the. The two things. There we go. It continues right into chapter four, verse one. Hear this words, you cows of Bashan. Oh boy. Okay, so here's the biggest nerdy nugget, okay? He's talking to the wives of these wealthy noblemen and he's saying, your wives are like cows of Bashan. So here's what you need to know in, in the Bible, when we think about people being overweight. People are not overweight in the Bible for the same reason they're overweight in our culture today. In the Bible, if you're overweight, it means that you've robbed the poor of food and you've eaten it all for yourself. Remember? Different cultural context. Different. So God through Amos is calling these women cows of Bashan. In the same way that you lead a cow with a hook and you, you get a cow and you lead it to the slaughter. God is prophesying that Assyria is going to put a hook in your mouth and lead you off to the slaughter. Okay, you cows of Bashan, this is rude. This is not good. You know, you know, calling a woman a cow in any, in any culture, not good. Not good, not good. Not. Yeah, pretty bad here though, this word, you cows of Bashan in the next verse, next line, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy. So you see how the line beneath begins to give context to the line above, okay? He's calling them cows of Bashan. And cows of Bashan are just like very well fed, you know, that'd be like Kobe, a Kobe beef cow, you know what I'm saying? Use real manicured cow like you was taken care of real good. And now the next verse is telling us, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, bring us some drinks. So this is the prophet going in on these women. So these are women who are causing their husbands to oppress the poor to finance a luxurious life for their wife. And, and God calls them cows of Bashan. So by the way, these are insults, just to be very, very clear, okay? So Amos calls them cows of Bashan, comparing them to the fat, well fed cows of that region. They oppress the poor and they sit around and drink. Yet just like cows, they will be led away with hooks in their noses. Then you get to chapter four, verse four and five. One of the main points of Amos is that Bethel is not a place of true worship of Yahweh. They do not follow the festivals, have the right priesthood, and Yahweh is represented by a golden calf. So the worship there is idolatrous, and so it is worthless. Amos sarcastically calls them to Bethel to continue their worthless worship. That will not help them. So Amos is, is going to lean in to, like, insult, insults and sarcasm. Okay, go to Bethel and sin. Straight up, go to Bethel and sin. Now Bethel is the place they worship. I just explained that. Go to Bethel and sin. Go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your free will. Offerings, boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do, declares sovereign Lord. And then God is letting them know, like, hey, drop all the way down to verse nine. Many times I struck your gardens and your vineyards. I struck them with blight and mildew, locusts devoured your figs and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. So God is saying, hey, I don't just let bad stuff happen for no reason. I'm actually, I. I struck your gardens in your. In your vineyards, I set blight in mildew, and you still didn't return to me. You still didn't think, oh, the. The rod of the Lord is punishing me, is chastising me. The Lord, as my shepherd, wants my attention. And then chapter five, starting in verse 14, we're gonna get calls for justice. I'll start reading in verse 14. Says, See good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good, maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. So there is a call. God calls Israel to love good and hate evil, to establish justice in the gate. This. The NIV translates this as in the courts. But this isn't just a translation, it's an interpretation. Okay. The original Hebrew would say, in the gates. Okay, I actually wonder what my NRSV says. Let's go to Amos really quick. Is gonna say, seek good and not evil that you may live. So the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said, hate evil and love justice and establish justice in the gate. That's actually a better translation or a more accurate translation that to establish justice in the gate. Now remember, the reason of the NIV is translating that as courts instead of just keeping it as gate is because it was at the gate of the cities that justice was given. They were the equivalent of courtrooms today, where the elders would sit, give out wisdom, and pronounce judgments. For example, Naomi and Ruth's fate was decided in the gate of Bethlehem. Or in the poem about the righteous wife in Proverbs 31, her husband is known in the gates when he sits with the elders of the land. What Amos is saying is, hey, get the gates back to a place where they are a place of. Of justice and not a place of bribes and oppression and where the poor get poorer and the wealthy get wealthier. Thomas truth. Amos highlights the two sins that encompass all sins. Okay, so all sins can get put into these two categories. It's not just true in the Bible, this is true forever. It's a Thomas Truth. Idolatry and injustice. Okay, idolatry is the first. What is it? Three commandments. And then injustice is the commandments four through ten. Okay, the first three commandments are all about my relationship with the Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. And then Commandment 4 through 10 is, love your neighbor as yourself. Again, that's morality and injustice create a righteous relationship. So idolatry is not worshiping God correctly, having idols in the place of the one true God. Israel worshiped God in their own way, not as he had asked. So their worship was worthless as it was all about them, not him. Idolatry is not just worshiping the wrong God. Idolatry also is worshiping the right God the wrong way. There are a lot of Christians. You're not guilty of worshiping BAAL or some foreign God or Buddha or some Hindu God. You just been trying to worship the right God in ways that you like. So people leave church and say, man, they didn't sing my favorite songs today, bruh. Your favorite songs? As long as God likes the songs. I think that's the only thing that really matters here. Like, because, like, worship's not about you. And the moment it becomes about you, it actually stopped being about God. Now, I think this is really hard because obviously worship should engage us. It should be something that captivates us, but we're more concerned with the one we worship, not the style of music or whether or not we were entertained or whether or not we felt like we connected to God, but whether or not he found it pleasing. And I think for a lot of us, our main concern with worship is whether or not it impacted us, not whether or not it impacted God. So idolatry. And then, second, okay, all sins can be wrapped up into these two sins. Okay? Idolatry and then injustice. God's call is to love your neighbor as yourself. The moment you start to love yourself more than your neighbor, then it becomes about you and what you can get from them. So what's the root of idolatry? Selfishness. And then what's the root of injustice? Selfishness. And so the call of living like Christ is to live a sacrificial life, to actually live my life in service to others and to the glory of God. I'll leave you with something that has marked me for my whole life. In middle school, I had to memorize the Westminster Shorter Catechism. I just went to a school that had us memorize it. It's actually pretty brilliant if anybody, you know, wants to start memorizing it. I'm Pentecostal. But I do think catechism is important. I think that, like, I think liturgy is actually really, really good. It can be really healthy. And the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is this. What is the chief end of man question mark. And there's an answer. The answer is the chief end of man is to love God and enjoy him. Sorry. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. To glorify God. To reflect the glory of God and enjoy him forever. Not to be happy, not to live my dream life, not to. Not to accomplish my purpose. No, it's to glorify God, to bring glory to God and to enjoy him forever. That's the chief end of man. When I live from a place of does this bring God glory? It's easier to live self sacrificially. When I'm thinking, even on my worst day, even in the middle of the valley of the shadow of death, or even though I'm walking through pain, man, am I living my life in a way that glorifies God? How does this glorify God? It may not be what I want for myself, but man, if it glorifies God, then. Then we'll keep it pushing. All right. That's my timeless truth for the day. Tomorrow. We're ending the Book of Amos tomorrow. We got Amos, chapter seven, eight, and nine. We got three chapters tomorrow. So if you're on a streak, do not break your streak. I'm so proud of you. I'll see you right here tomorrow as we continue our trek through the Book of Amos. Love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebible department if you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.