God's Restoration
Book of Amos Chapters 5-9
One thing we all must remember is that once our bond with God is broken, death has entered into our lives.
We know this flesh we wear will certainly die, but the death that is real is the death of no longer having God involved in our lives.
If we reject Him long enough, we will then be rejected by our Heavenly Father.
Israel in this Scripture relates to the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom and not the Israel we know of today.
The message, though, is the same for everyone who lives upon this earth.
We are all given a choice.
*****Amo 5:4 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
The verse is a call to repentance. God will contrast His requirements with our actual conduct.
We cannot just say we are Christian there must be some proof.
Jas 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
Now we have no work to do for salvation; the Lord Jesus Christ did all that work, but there should be signs of a changed life after our salvation. There should be some signs of our faith.
There should be some fruit of the Holy Spirit since He immediately comes into our lives.
This is what James is saying in this Scripture.
God will contact every individual during their lifetime, and each of us will be offered this choice.
We must seek the Lord or else face God's judgment!
God promises us that if we seek Him, we will find Him.
Deu_4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
Act_17:27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
It is easy to see that this seeking is not about religion; it is about a personal relationship.
This is the difference between religion and Christianity. In Christianity, we get up close and personal with God, as a family should be.
As Israel, the ten Northern Tribes found out, God's invitations will stop at some time.
And the greatest truth of this seeking is that we cannot seek the Lord God of this Universe if we are also seeking false gods.
*****Amo 5:5 But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
Amo 5:6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
Bethel had once been a place to seek God, but when the ten tribes split from Judah, Bethel became one of the places where there was false worship of man-made golden calves.
1Ki 12:28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
1Ki 12:29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
Gilgal too had been a place where the people could seek God, but it too had become a place of false worship.
Hos 9:15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.
God used to speak to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at Beersheba, but traveling to Beersheba in the day of Amos was like going on a pilgrimage.
God would be south at the Temple and not some pilgrimage.
Amo 8:14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
Amos was preaching to the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, and his message was, "There is no need for you to seek God in these places where He could have been found at one time because He was no longer there.
It's like passing a church that was once full on Sunday but is now empty every day; you could say that God is no longer there, and there would be no need to seek God there.
It has become no more than a building because it was the people who came who were the church.
Many of us used to attend other places of worship than we do today. Most of us would not have left those places if we were being fed the truth of the Lord.
The fact that the Lord used to be there is no guarantee that He is there today.
In fact, if we start preaching or teaching some new gospel in the place where we are today, we can be very sure that God will leave this place of worship.
We have an obligation to attend church!
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
We cannot just attend any place of worship; we must worship in a place where we can find the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the cornerstone of the Church.
Many places of worship today do not even acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ, or they do not have the true Word of God.
What is a true Church? Eph_2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
The Apostles taught what Jesus taught them,
The prophets tell us what lies in our future.
Jesus Christ is the God of the true Bible, and He is also our Creator.
If Jesus Christ is not your God, then you are serving the wrong God.
This makes a lot of people mad to say this, but we have to tell them the truth.
It is Satan who has lied to them!
*****Amo 5:7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
Amo 5:8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
Amo 5:9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
The truth is that those who are not seeking the LORD are seeking themselves, and they have no care for others.
There is very little natural affection for other human beings today.
Hatred dominates the minds of most people!
As Christians, we cannot say we have the Lord Jesus Christ and to Hell with everyone else.
Our job is to show all others the way to seek our Savior.
We cannot do this if we do not first show them love!
Wormwood is a shrub or bush with an unpleasant smell and is very bitter to taste.
It is a type of unpleasantness and grief that leads to the thought of death and destruction.
Rev 8:10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
Rev 8:11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
The justice I have received from God has been sweet. He is so full of mercy and grace; His justice can be nothing else but sweet.
I did not deserve it, but the grace of God is shown to those who seek the Lord with all their heart in truthfulness.
If we teach a distorted message on the mercy and grace of God, that message will become bitter to those who have never known the truth of the Lord.
If we do not seek our Creator, what chance do we have that we will find Him?
We must seek the right God, and there is only One true God and only one true Way to Heaven.
Our Creator and our Savior are the same God!
His name in the Scriptures is YAHWEH or Jehovah.
Our world exists because Yahweh caused and causes it to exist.
God spoke our world into existence and made from nothing all the things we see.
If we cannot see Him in His Almighty Incorruptible Majesty, who only needs to speak one word and we become no more, then we will never understand His love for us, and we will deserve His judgment, which is far different from His justice.
It is this God, Jehovah, Yahweh, Jesus, who wants us all to be saved!
2Pe_3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
We should clearly understand that no man, no matter how strong or how strong the works of that man, no matter how powerful, can withstand the Divine Majesty of our Savior, who is also our Creator.
There is no military that God has not already overthrown. Read your Bible and your history book.
It is this same God who allows changes in nature to succeed or fail at His choosing.
It is this same God who allows the politics of this world to succeed or fail at His choosing.
It is this same God who allows the cycles of time to go and come as He wishes.
This world is moving right along just as God said it would; the plan of God never has to change.
It is not God who has allowed this world to be so close to destroying itself on any given day; it is the sinful people who live in it, but He still gets the blame, though He wants to save the people who live in it.
*****Amo 5:10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
Amo 5:11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
God is saying that those who do not acknowledge Him as the Creator will never enjoy life.
It was at the city gates where man's justice took place on the day of Amos.
If there were a judge who could not be bought or bribed, the people would hate them.
If that judge bends the law, then he is okay, but those who spoke with integrity or used reliable witnesses were hated.
We live in the time of bought and sold-out judges, if not for money, then for a political stand and hatred.
If not for money, it is for fame, or political stance, when it is supposed to be about the laws of the land, and judges have no right to make laws.
We do not even get a chance to vote for these people, so who gave them such power?
Today, if we stand up for the rights of the unborn, those who are disabled, or those who are elderly, and those who are vulnerable in our society, then we are hated, as the other side stands up for illegals, murderers, and lawbreakers to buy a vote; the hatred just continues to spread.
There is no justice beyond God's justice!
God will judge this world one day; He never forgets the works of those who refuse to repent!
We might ask ourselves; can anyone sin so much that they will never be forgiven?
*****Amo 8:4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
Amo 8:5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
Amo 8:6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
Amo 8:7 The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
Though we do not know much about Amos, he is spending this time being an advocate for these sinful people.
As we read these words, it seems that God is leaving these people no way to escape, but we see the accusations and God's verdict.
It is not about the amount of our sin; it is about how many times we deny God’s remedy and payment for our sin.
What is social injustice?
It is a violation of another's rights. It is withholding what is due, or fraud.
If all people are created equal, then why is there an unequal distribution of rights or privileges among people who have equal claims?
I am not talking about equality in riches, I am talking about equality in rights and justice.
Israel was guilty of many things, but the main thing was superficial worship.
By law, they had to honor the Sabbath and all the other religious holy days and national celebrations.
This law became a thorn in the flesh of the politicians, the merchants, and the business leaders of that nation.
You tell me we are not experiencing this today. God's laws are a thorn in the flesh of commerce and wickedness.
Sunday, our day of worship, means nothing to most businesses today.
Even our schools will try to practice sports on Sunday.
All sorts of professional sports use Sunday rather than a weekday.
Even Wednesdays are taken up with secular events.
Alcohol can now be purchased seven days a week.
Politicians are pushing to legalize popular drugs using the excuse to raise taxes when they should be making ways to spend less.
It is our tax system that drives businesses to run twenty-four-seven.
This world is trying to take away any time set aside to worship God.
The alternatives to God that this world offers are nothing more than idol worship!
The guilt of Israel was that while they were supposed to worship, their minds were on how to make more money, or how to rob the poor even more, or how they could take away the land of some poor person.
We see these same things in our politicians today>.
I cannot imagine sitting in God's house trying to figure out a way to falsify the balances or more ways to deceive more people.
They knew the Law, and they knew this was an abomination to the Lord:
Deu 25:13 Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.
Deu 25:14 Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.
Deu 25:15 But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
Deu 25:16 For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.
Amos's job was to announce these judgments to the people of the Northern Kingdom, and Amos knew it would not sit well with the people, but God offered Amos no other answer.
We cannot soften the truth of God and say we are God's followers!
Only those who feared the Lord would be afraid.
There would be no joy on the Sabbath.
God's judgment would bring death to many people.
If there were survivors, they would be traumatized, wondering what God would do next.
We do not have to wonder what God will do next!
He either tells us, or He shows us in His Word, examples of what He has already done because He never changes.
If there is one truth in this world, it is that God's judgment on unbelievers is a sure thing!
God's "judgment" on sin is a sure thing!
Amos got a chance to witness these things in a vision that God sent to him.
God has every right to judge this world because He created it!
We all will stand face to face with our Almighty God, our Creator!
Some, at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
The rest, at the White Throne Judgment.
The even clearer message is that until that day of judgment, we need to repent and seek the face of God.
We will all give an account for the things we have done unless we repent.
Mat 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Mat 25:45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
Mat 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
If we do not want to hear what God has to say, then one day God will take away His Word, and we will know nothing and be like the evolutionists who come up with unbelievable theories and fantasies.
*****Amo 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, 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 the LORD:
Amo 8:12 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 the LORD, and shall not find it.
Amo 8:13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
Amo 8:14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
We may be in that time when the Word of God is hated, and the world does not want to hear what God has to say!
Remember what the Lord Jesus said as He spoke unto the seven churches of the Church Age, the Age we are in now.
To the church at Ephesus: Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
To the church at Smyrna: Rev 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
To the Church at Pergamum: Rev 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
To the Church at Thyatira: Rev 2:29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To the Church at Sardis: Rev 3:6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To the Church at Philadelphia: Rev 3:13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To the Church at Laodicea: Rev 3:22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
The Prophet Jeremiah wrote down these words given by the Holy Spirit:
Jer 23:30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.
Jer 23:31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.
Jer 23:32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.
The most tragic thing that can happen to this world is for God to abandon it to its own ways.
It is easy to see that wicked men of this world would destroy it.
It is this same wickedness that says we have too many people to feed in this world and do everything they can to stop population growth.
The ways of God are perfect!
Psa 18:30 As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
The ways of the world are sinful:
1Jn_2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
The world is tired of God telling them they are full of sin and need to repent.
No one in the world has any desire to repent!
The world does not want to hear the Word of God.
When we look at what the Lord Jesus was saying to the Church, He was saying that much of the Church does not want to hear what He has to say.
When this point is reached, God has said He will send a famine of hearing the Word of God.
We must understand that if we reject what God has to say, He will quit speaking to us.
He will put false prophets and preachers in places of worship, and they will do nothing more than tickle the ears of the congregation.
Act_28:27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
2Ti_4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2Ti_4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
I believe we are in this age or this time now.
Even here in America, the Ten Commandments cannot be posted anywhere without somebody bringing a lawsuit, but why?
People just do not want to hear what God has to say about the way they live their lives.
To repent is just a word in most churches and means nothing.
There is coming a day when this world will become so lawless that the people will once again want to hear what God has to say, and they will not be able to hear it or even find it.
They will go to some church, but that one in the pulpit will teach them about some dream they had that did not come from God.
If they find an old version of a Bible, the Holy Spirit will not open their eyes to what it says.
The young people will see a world falling apart, left by their elders, and seek guidance from God, but they will not find it because the Word of God has been altered to become the word of the world, with just enough of the truth to cause confusion
They will be told they can find the Word of God at the Luciferian Church, but it will not be found there because it never was there.
It was at Beersheba that the enemies of Isaac caused all the wells to go dry, and Isaac had to dig new wells that were also filled.
God is saying that the well of knowledge in the Word of God is dry, and there is no one to clean out the dirt and sludge of the world from it, where there still remains the Water of Life.
Jhn_7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Jhn_4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
We should understand that every person worships something. Whatever they hold first in their lives is their god!
It may be an image of their goal, it may be some idol, it may be something from some religion other than Christianity.
Even the so-called Christians must place God first in their lives, and many refuse.
If we fail to worship anything other than Jehovah in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ in the New Testament, or Yahweh, we are sinning Blasphemy.
All false religions will fall, never to rise again.
No one can escape the Judgment of God!
Amo 9:1 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.
Amo 9:2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
Once all false religions have been removed, God will do certain things to reclaim Israel.
*****Amo 9:11 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 his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
Amo 9:12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.
God will make Israel the honcho nation of this world.
God will restore His people, Israel, to the national pride they had when King David ruled Israel.
"In that day", the day of the return of Jesus Christ, when He will publicly appear to save that remnant of the Jews that is mentioned throughout the Old Testament.
The Northern and the Southern tribes will be reunited as it was in the time of King David, but this will be the time of the Second Coming of the Messiah.
All those who were against Jehovah will be removed: Amo 9:10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
We should also understand that at this time, all the land that was promised to Abraham will be restored to Israel.
This is the same land that came to Israel in the days of King David and King Solomon.
This would be the land of Israel, but King Jesus will rule from Jerusalem, and He will rule this entire world.
Psa 72:6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.
Psa 72:7 In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.
Psa 72:8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
Psa 72:11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.
The government of the Messiah will be universal. There will be no one who can hide from the rule of the Messiah.
It is the fulfillment of God's covenant with Abraham: Gen 15:4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
Gen 15:5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
The world will look a whole lot different, even from what it looks like today.
There will be major climate change!
*****Amo 9:13 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, 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.
Amo 9:14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of 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.
Amo 9:15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.
When we know God up close and personal, we will always have a bright and wonderful future. It is His promise!
The judgment of Israel is over after all these years; they now accept all the Word of God, even the New Covenant(Testament).
They have realized that all the Old Testament prophecies were true all along.
They now know the Son of God whom they had rejected and worship Him.
God had broken them because of their sin, and they had now repented and returned to Him.
True prosperity had finally come to Israel, and Jerusalem was now truly the City of Peace.
For the ploughmen to overtake the reaper means that it would take the reaper all Summer to gather in the harvest.
Even the vineyards would produce much more than was needed.
God would also cause cities that had lain in ruin for so many years to be rebuilt.
For the people in the day of Amos, this last part was a message of hope for the people of Israel.
All they needed to do was to believe the God who had delivered them so many times!
They would not have to depend upon foreigners or anyone else around them. God would make their land sufficient, just like their God is sufficient to meet all our needs.
I know this is true because He meets all my needs.
The prophecy of Amos could only be fulfilled by Jehovah, the Living God.
They would never have to leave their land again.
God would make sure these things happened just as Amos had delivered to them.
God means what He says, and God says what He means.
Amen.
