Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20100509.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Amos: Heeding The Word Of The God Of The Whole World
Part IV: The Great Need For God's People To Appreciate His Grace
(Amos 2:6-16)
  1. Introduction
    1. Israel needed to heed God's written Mosaic Law as we learned in our last lesson out of Amos 2:4-5, but she was also responsible to value the lessons of His gracious provisions as Amos 2:6-16 reveals.
    2. We study Amos 2:6-16 to discern those practical provisions that we might heed their lessons for us today!
  2. The Great Need For God's People To Appreciate His Grace, Amos 2:6-16.
    1. After pronouncing God's judgment on the nations around Israel, including His judgment on the Southern Kingdom of Judah (Amos 1:3-2:3 and 2:4-5 respectively), God pronounced judgment on Israel, Am. 2:6a!
    2. Similar to Judah's sin of violating the Mosaic Covenant, Israel of the Northern Kingdom had likewise violated several major requirements of the Mosaic Law (Amos 2:6b-8):
      1. Israel treated the poor unfairly, Amos 2:6b; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 1431: (a) honest Hebrews who could be trusted to pay their debts were sold into slavery for the silver they owed while (b) those unable to pay their debts were sold "for a pair of sandals," a reference to the practice of sealing a land deed with the transfer of a sandal, Ibid. Thus, those able to repay were enslaved for what they could pay, while the poor lost their land altogether in violation of God's Deuteronomy 15:7-11 stipulation that the poor be treated fairly and generously, Ibid.
      2. Israel's court proceedings were perverted to exploit the poor opposite Deuteronomy 16:19; Amos 2:7a.
      3. Fathers and sons were intimate with the same girl either in idol worship or in relating to slave girls in violation of Exodus 21:7-9 that expanded on the Exodus 20:14 adultery prohibition; Amos 2:7b; Ibid.
      4. People in Israel openly violated the Law's prohibitions on items not to be taken as collateral in loan arrangements, items like the seizure of a poor man's cloak that kept him warm at night (Ex. 22:26-27) or a widow's garment (Deut. 24:17c). Men in Israel were both taking such garments and lying down to sleep with them or even spreading them out at their sacrificial feasts by their altars, Amos 2:8a; Ibid.
      5. The people of Israel were even rebelling "against the most basic covenant stipulation of all -- they were worshiping other gods," Ibid.; Amos 2:8b with Exodus 20:3, 4-6.
    3. However, going beyond just violating the Mosaic Law as the Northern Kingdom of Judah was reported to have done (Amos 2:4-5), God's prophet revealed that Israel had ignored God's great grace, Amos 2:9-12:
      1. God reminded Israel through Amos that He had long ago destroyed her seemingly insurmountable foes, the giant Amorites, so she could enter and possess the Promised Land, Amos 2:9.
      2. The Lord added He had also graciously saved Israel from Egyptian bondage where she had helplessly languished for hundreds of years, implying she would otherwise have stayed in bondage, Amos 2:10a.
      3. Then, God reminded Israel how He had graciously led her for forty years in the wilderness, providing for her every need so she could even reach the Promised Land, Amos 2:10b with Deuteronomy 29:5-8.
      4. Finally, God had raised up prophets and sanctified Nazarites, ministers of God's truth and examples of His holiness respectively for Israel to have as leaders and examples in righteous living, Amos 2:11.
      5. However, not only had Israel spurned God's grace in His provisions of defeating the Amorites, in having delivered Israel from Egypt and caring for her every need for forty years in the wilderness, she had gone so far as to give the Nazarites God had sent her wine to drink to corrupt their Nazarite vows (Amos 2:12a; Numbers 6:1-21) and told His prophets not to prophesy His message to her, Amos 2:12b!
    4. For such violations of the Law and rejection of His grace, God would crush Israel as a cart collapses under a huge load of sheaves, Am. 2:13 NIV. No one in Israel would be able to save himself from the invading army, and even Israel's bravest warriors would drop their weapons and cloaks (in retribution for unjustly seizing other's cloaks, Amos 2:8a) in a vain attempt to flee for their lives, Amos 2:14-16!
Lesson: Israel was judged not only for violating God's Word, but by resisting His evident expressions of gracious material provisions and His gifts of godly leaders and prophets to guide her in upright living.

Application: (1) May we heed Scripture for blessing. (2) May we especially heed God's expressions of grace in His supply of material provisions and godly leaders to guide and instruct us in upright living!