AMOS CHAPTER 9

HEART ISSUES
Today I am challenged again by a bigger view of God than I have so often. Many times “my God” doesn’t hate or get angered, nor does He deal that harshly with sin. He is very forgiving and kind of a pushover really. Then I find myself confronted with the one who touches the earth and it melts. I tremble before the one who holds the water back at the ocean from drowning all of human life. Our God is Holy and Awesome. He cannot tolerate our sin. It is encouraging today to know that I am a part of the righteous remnant of Israel that God still loves and cares for. I am also grateful today that He is a just God who does deal with sin and all wrongs will be righted. The world seems so unfair so often, but He reigns above all and is not worried as He sits on His throne. He is patient and wise, two attributes that I still long to have established in my life.

NOTES
-Begins with a very harsh view of God with His wrath ready to overtake and destroy the Israelites. It is also made abundantly clear that there is no hiding from God. He is omnipresent and omnipotent and against such a powerful being there is no escape.
-In verses 5 & 6 Amos declares a doxology proclaiming the magnificence of the Lord that He speaks for. This lends even more credibility to His prophecy as the people know from whom the words come.
-There are three doxologies in Amos: The first doxology praises God as the creator of the universe (Amos 4:13). The second begins with creation (Amos 5:8) and goes on to refer to God's control. In this third doxology Yahweh's creative power is turned into destructive might. We can learn a great deal about the presence of God through these. He is beyond our box of love that we put Him in so often.
-The promise and the seed of Abraham was not physical, it was spiritual God. Amos reveals in verse 7 that the Israelites are the same to Him as the Philistines and the Cushites. This is a slap in the face to “God’s people” as they thought they were. God has no more association with racial Jews or Christians for that matter than Germans or French.
-It appears in verse 8 to only apply to the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, but the text says the sinful kingdom. Israel and Judah are a part, but all of the sinful kingdoms of the world will be wiped out as we know from the promises in Revelation. There is a difference between the true Israel and the other Israel, the first was the people who love and obey God (still true today) and the latter was/is the economic secular state of Israel. The latter means no more to God than Cush, Edom, or Philistia.
-The Church that Jesus Christ would establish as a descendant of David is prophesied here. The only land that we will never be taken out of or will be fully safe in is heaven. We long for the land that God has prepared for the true Israel, His righteous remnant.