Translate

Sunday, June 21, 2009

a message for His people

According to Amos, the people were guilty of many sins, including...
  • Disobedience
  • Idolatry
  • Unrighteousness
  • Greed
  • Disregarding the poor
  • Injustice
  • Impurity
  • Drunkenness
  • Leading others into sin
  • Suppressing or preventing others from serving God
  • Complacency
  • Empty worship
And the consequences of these sins included being...
  • Crushed
  • Imprisoned
  • Weak
  • Ineffective
  • Shamed
  • Hungry
  • Thirsty
  • Unproductive
  • Sick
  • Defeated
Wow. My initial response was, why didn't the Israelites believe??? I think I would have believed Amos (or I would have been at least afraid) if he told me horrible things were about to happen to me :(

I think the Israelites did not believe the prophesy primarily because of 2 reasons...
  • They did not have the bible: It's easy for me to believe there are consequences/punishment(s) that result from sin because I have the bible that contains many examples of this truth. But the bible was not around for Israelites. They didn't know the prophets and prophesies were the real deal.
  • Pride: The Israelites did not believe they were THAT bad and surely God was not THAT angry at them and certainly God would not punish them THAT much. They minimized their sins. Perhaps they even minimized God.
Indeed, Amos' prophesy did come true and God did carry out His punishment (which will occur soon in the Chrono bible)... even what was stated in Amos 4:2 will be true, "The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks" (the Babylonians will later place hooks through the mouths of the Israelite captives and lead them by these hooks to Babylon).

We have it SO good... unlike the Israelites, we have the bible to guide us with many instructions and examples, and Jesus to wash away our sins including our pride. WOW :)

3 comments:

Justin Seibel said...

Thanks for lengthy post. It's a good break down of what's going on. I'm nt sure if they All had a copy of the bible or the law that they wouldve obeyed. Although it would be hard to know what is happening in other areas. Maybe some didn't hear what the prophets said. I wonder how that worked. There wasn't CNN to put the word out. And maybe some of the leaders prevented the prophets from sharing it too. It s a shame that they didn't listen and repent. I've got make sure I'm listening.

Mitchel Thomas Gonzalez said...

Thanks for posting this topic Tera, very thought provoking. Here's a thought to provoke, do you think we have modern day prophets? If so, what are they saying? If not, why not. Is it because God couldn’t find a righteous enough man to prophecy His will

Tera Chau said...

Great question Mitch, I personally don't know. But I found 2 views on this...

1) The teachers of our church did put a response to this question in the Discipleship Handbook, Pg.96...

If we define prophesy as "revealing and interpreting the will of God," then prophesy ended with the death of the first century apostles (Acts 8:9-18; 1 Cor 13:8-10). The apostles received all truth in the first century, and through inspiration delivered it to us (John 14:25-26; 16:13; Eph 3:2-5). Finally, the NT was complete and gives man all that he needs to please God.

2) The Life Application bible has a view on this as well (comment to 1 Cor 14:2)...

If we define prophesy as "preaching" God's word, then there would be prophets living today.