CHAPTER 2

1 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime: 2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet: 3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD.

Amos continues to state "Thus saith the Lord" prophecies against countries. Moab was a nation that descended from Lot's oldest daughter (Genesis 19:37). Lot was Abraham's nephew, so they were closely related to Israel, as were the Ammonites.

The continued transgression of Moab was awesome cruelty. The king of Moab, in a battle against the Edomites, saw that he was losing and offered his son as a sacrifice to his god! (2Kings 3:26-27)

Then, when he won the battle, the king of Moab burned the king of Edom's bones to ashes. Some say he used those ashes to cover the walls in his house.

Cruelty will not go unpunished. God determined that His punitive judgment should fall upon the capitol of the country (Kerioth), and upon the leaders of the country (vs 3).

Leadership is an awesome responsibility. Leaders must be careful not to depict cruelty for others will "follow the leader."

4 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked: 5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

Judah was not without it's sin. Their sin is named as "they have despised the law of the Lord..." How? By not KEEPING God's commandments! They who were closest TO God's will, did not DO God's will!

Too often,they that have the Word of God, fail to abide IN the Word and BY the Word. When a Christian fails to ABIDE by God's Word, he/she DESPISES God's Word!

Instead of following the will of God expressed in the Word, they invented "lies," and those lies led them to "error."

Jerusalem, the holy city, thought by all Jews to be God's personally protected property, would suffer because of her sin! God determined to DESTROY Jerusalem because of her failure to keep His Word.

Friends, when a Christian or church fails to abide by God's Word, then God will bring suffering. The reason for the suffering is to call the Christian or church to repentance. God was trying to call Jerusalem and Judah to repentance, but they weren't listening. They would rather believe a lie than the truth!

6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes; 7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name: 8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. 9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. 10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. 11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD. 12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not. 13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. 14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself: 15 Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself. 16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.

Notice the long list of sins here for the separated nation of Israel. Participation in sin BEGINS with leaving off of God's Word! That's what Israel did at the beginning. Their first king, Jeroboam, made idols and led the people into false worship so they wouldn't go back to Jerusalem to have real worship.

Soon they began to worship all sorts of idols with superstitious beliefs planted by the errant imaginations of man. Then their FOCUS changed. They began to worship SELF more than God. Soon they worshipped self alone, and forgot about God totally.

Their prolific lifestyle, coupled with selfish desires soon led them into all kinds of sin. They "sold the righteous for silver." In order to get gain, they "sold out" to unrighteousness rather than follow God's righteousness. In effect, they sold GOD for silver!

They also sold the "poor for a pair of shoes." To them, it was more important to buy a new pair of shoes than to help the poor.

Amos names several other sins: sexual sin (vs 7), spiritual sins (vs 8), corrupting the priesthood and forbidding real prophets to speak (vs 12).

God was forgotten and real worship was oppressed (vs 13). Therefore, God would cause them to be "pressed" under a heavy weight.

Because these were CONTINUAl sins, God would destroy them as a nation and scatter them across the world. None would escape (vss 14-15) and warriors would be destroyed as well as civilians (vss 15-16).

To be without God is to be without His protection from the onslaughts of humanity.
To refuse God is to bring destruction upon self.

PLEASE CONTINUE WITH US IN BIBLE STUDY TOMORROW.