GRACE BIBLE FELLOWSHIP | 恩道堂

Scripture Reading        : Amos 7:1-8:14

Theme                          : Visions of Destruction

1. Visions of Destruction (7:1-9). God shows Amos three visions of Israel’s imminent destruction. For the first two visions, Amos pleads for mercy and God relents. But for the third vision, God did not relent. The plumb line symbolizes a standard of measurement. The Israelites have failed to measure up to God’s covenantal faithfulness. They have rejected Him and continues to spurn him. Therefore, God will not be patient with them (never again pass by them), but will judge them.

2. Visions Confronted (7:10-17). When Amaziah, priest of the sanctuary at Bethel, heard Amos’ prophetic judgment on Israel, he informed the king, Jeroboam, and forced Amos to stop and return to Judah. Because Amaziah continues to rebel against God and to defile God’s house, God will defile him. His children will die and his wife will become a prostitute. He himself will be exiled to an unclean land and be defiled.

3. Vision of Summer Fruit (8:1-3). The Jews love puns and rhymes. It is a literary device used to sear God’s truth into their heads. The Hebrew word for summer fruit sounds similar to the word end. This vision reinforces the certainty and inevitability of God’s judgment on Israel through the Assyrian exile.

4. Vision Described (8:4-14). The utter destruction of Israel is based on its spiritual adultery and subsequent social evils. God’s judgment will come like a flood like the flooding of the Nile. There will also be another judgment, which is the lack of God’s word. There will be a famine for God’s truth, which can nourish the soul.

Praying the Scripture

1. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10). Those who are rebelling against God need to fear God’s judgment on their sins in order to be saved. Although the fear of punishment alone cannot frighten people into heaven, it serves as a catalyst to true faith by leading people to see the glorious grace of Jesus and take refuge under Him. Let us pray that non-believers would fear the Lord and be convicted of sin, judgment and righteousness by the Holy Spirit (John 16:8).

2. Because we know our ultimate destiny is in the glorious heaven, we can suffer for Christ in this life, knowing that our rewards will be great in heaven (Matt. 5:10-12). We can be like Amos who boldly proclaimed the truth of God’s word in the face of opposition. May God give us this boldness in proclaiming the gospel.

Scripture Reading        : Amos 5-6

Theme                          : Social Evils

1. Funeral Song (5:1-17). The Jews are so stubborn that their end is near. To make their end even more graphic, God sings a funeral song to them. Again God highlights their spiritual betrayal and resulting social evils. Heresy will always turn into immorality. The Jews continue to worship idols. They turn justice into wormwood, i.e. bitterness. They afflict the righteous and needy by taking bribes. They love evil instead of good. Even as God accuses them, He again calls them to repentance. God is a compassionate and patient God.

2. Justice Called (5:18-27). God calls for justice to roll down like waters, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Since justice is not delivered in Israel, God will deliver justice on the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is a time of God’s reckoning. This is most likely referring to the Assyrian exile (5:27), not the end time judgment in Revelation since the context never describes any end time events. But the Assyrian exile, this near future day of the Lord, foreshadows God’s end time judgment against Israel, the future day of the Lord. Israel will continue to rebel against God until the end time, but a remnant will always be kept (Rom. 11:5). This is why evangelizing the Jews is important.

3. Carnal Ease and Security (6:1-14). While the nation of Israel languishing in spiritual filth and social evils, some of the Jews continue to live a carnal life of ease and false security. Instead of mourning over the sins of the nation, these men are apathetic to evil and God’s judgment. They trust in their own strength to protect themselves from foreign invasion.

Praying the Scripture

1. It is good to contemplate our eventual death, not in a morbid way, but in a way to remind ourselves of our glorious and ultimate destination with Jesus in heaven, so that we may live for what will count in heaven. If you are living in sin, your contemplation of death should sober you and cause you to forsake sin and live for eternity (Eccl. 7:1-5; Ps. 90:12)

2. It is sinful to put our security in things of the earth, whether it is in money, military or political power. Of course it is wise and responsible to provide for our family, but we put no trust in these things for security and life. We must put our trust only in God. Do not heap up treasures on earth and say to yourself, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” Judgment will come upon such foolish and sinful person (Luke 12:19), like these Jews.

Scripture Reading        : Amos 4

Theme                          : Women, Worship and Stubbornness 

1. Women (4:1-3). The women of Israel is referred as cows of Bashan for their gluttony and pleasure seeking. They obtain ill gained goods and prompt their husbands to do their bidding. It is a sign of a society’s deep depravity when women, who are to be more nurturing by nature, do the opposite by oppressing the poor and innocent for luxury.

2. Worship (4:4-5). Even while they sin greatly against God, they still regularly perform their rituals, thinking God is satisfied with just outward ceremonies. Like the Jews of Jesus’ time, they have turned God’s house into a house of thieves. They multiply transgressions in God’s house.

3. Stubbornness (4:6-13). God tried many times to get their attention, but they would never return to God. They are stubborn, not humble. God repeatedly indicts Israel for this sin (Is. 48:4, Hos. 4:16, Eze. 3:7). They are dead in their transgressions.

Praying the Scripture

1. Through Israel, we see how humans are stubborn and foolish. The human heart is a heart of stone that no punishment can take away. This is why hell cannot be corrective. Hell is final and a crystallization of the human heart. No one seeks God. Only by the grace of God and the proclamation of the gospel can sinners’ stony heart turn into a soft heart (Eze. 36:26) and seek God. Even as believers, we know how stubborn we can be sometimes. Let us pray that God will change our heart and give us a heart of humility and teachability.

2. The Israelites had hypocritical worship and it displeased God. Let us draw near to God with a sincere and clean heart. It dishonours God by not going to church and it is also dishonouring to come to church to sin against God. Before we come to church, let us prepare our hearts to worship God by giving Him thanks, by trembling at His word, and be prepared to love others (Is. 66:2; Ps. 100:4).

Scripture Reading        : Amos 2:6-3:15

Theme                                    : Judgment and Justification

1. Oracle against Israel (2:6-16). At the end of God’s seven oracles against Israel’s surrounding nations, Israel would have been at the height of their self-righteousness and rejoicing at the judgment of God and agreeing with God. But God shatters their self-righteousness by ending His oracle against Israel, who is the main recipient of the series of oracles. Their agreement with God’s judgment against other nations’ sins would also force them to agree with God’s judgment against their own sins. God does not just highlight one of Israel’s sins, He highlights multitude of sins, which meanings Israel has become worse than all of its neighbours, so God will severely punish them.

2. Justification of the Oracle (3:1-15). At the end of the oracle against Israel, some may think God’s judgment is too harsh and doubt Amos’ message. Others many think the calamities will not be God’s doing, but the devil or some other more powerful supernatural forces. To put these doubts away, God gives a series of evidently clear examples of cause and effect (Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing?…), in order to make it clear that Amos’ message is from God and it is God who will make this calamity happen, not the devil or idols. God will destroy their luxuries and their pleasure seeking lifestyle (summer, winter and ivory houses), which further corrupted their souls. “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear” means evidence that a hired shepherd would produce to proof he did not steal a sheep, but was devoured by a wild animal. So the few survivors of Israel in exile will testify to its ruin. God often employs graphic and easily understood imageries in order to warn them of judgment.

Praying the Scripture

1. Let us not look down on Israel with self-righteous pride, but to realize that, apart from God’s grace through Jesus, we would all be capable of committing the same sins as Israel. Apart from a relationship with God, any human heart will continue to degenerate and be capable of committing atrocious sins like the Jews. Give thanks to God for His grace and humble yourself before God. Be compassionate and gracious to sinners and share the gospel to them.

2. God is impartial. He does not have a double standard of holiness: one for His people and another one for ignorant gentiles. All are accountable to Him; all have fallen short of His glory and all need His grace (Rom. 3:9-20). God’s impartiality is a testimony to the divine quality of the Bible. The God of the Bible is not a man-made god, who always sides with his people, no matter how evil they are. Nor is He a god who does the bidding of the idol maker (cf. Josh. 5:13-14).

Scripture Reading        : Amos 1:1-2:5

Theme                          : Seven Judgments

Amos prophesied around 760 B.C. during the reign of Uzziah in Judah, while Jeroboam II reigned in Israel. During this time, both Israel and Judah were militarily strong and economically wealthy. Amos is a Judean prophet called to deliver a message primarily to Israel, the northern kingdom (7:12).

1. Judgment on Foreigners (1:1-10). God proclaims His judgment on Israel’s surrounding nations as a way to get Israel’s attention and poignantly show their sins. Israel would whole-heartedly agree with God’s judgment on their neighbours’ sins, but when God’s judgment climaxes at the end with Israel, they cannot be blinded to their hypocrisy (cf. 2 Sam. 12:5-7; Matt. 7:2). The phrase “three transgressions…four” is an idiom that means many sins, but only one sin is highlighted. Because of these sins, God will judge Damascus (Syria), Gaza (Philistine), and Tyre (Phoenicia). All these nations committed atrocities that led to war and carnages during war time.

2. Judgment on Blood Relations (1:11-2:3). Edom (Esau’s line), Ammon (Lot’s line), and Moab (Lot’s line) are relatives of Israel, yet they often fight against their relatives, both Israel and each other. For these sins, God will destroy them.

3. Judgment on Sister Nation (2:4-5). Judah is the last of seven judgments by God. Her top sin is that they forsook the laws of God, i.e. they rejected a relationship with God, manifested by their rejection of His commandments (John 14:15). All these judgments against the seven nations and Israel, were fulfilled when Assyria and Babylon sacked these nations.

Praying the Scripture

1. Every nation, every individual is accountable to God, whether they know God through His special revelation (The Bible) or through general revelation (Rom. 1:18-23). God’s judgment against every human being is just and righteous. God is not obligated to save anyone, but the fact that He does save some through the precious blood of His beloved Son testifies to His amazing grace. We should praise Him for His marvellous grace, instead of complaining and being suspicious of His “limited” grace.

2. God is a gracious God, slow in anger (Ex. 34:6). The seven nations had sinned often and continued to sin. God tolerated their sins for a while, but there is a limit to His patience. Eventually God’s patience ended and they were destroyed for their stubbornness. Even now, God patiently offers salvation to people, but that offer will not always be there. So if you hear the gospel today, do not harden your heart, but repent and return to God (Heb. 3:15).