Monday, February 17, 2014

The LORD's judgments


Whether or not you are in a covenant relationship with God, he hates sin and will bring judgment against those nations who continue to sin.

Moab judged 

Amo 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:

Desecrating the king of Edom by throwing his body into a lime pit. The Moabites were enemies against God's people.

Amo 2:2  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:
Amo 2:3  And I will cut off the judge
(king) from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD.


Judah Judged

Amo 2:4  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:
Amo 2:5  But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.


They kept not the commandments and were rebellious for a long time - fire would come by Babylon

2Ki 17:19  Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.

Hos 12:2  The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

Hos 8:14  For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

Jer 17:27  But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

Israel judged

Amo 2:6  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;

They sold the righteous; to sell the innocent person in a lawsuit, perhaps to bribe the judge, and the poor for a pair of shoes. In one of our cities a person was killed for his shoes. There was and is little reverence for God or others.

Jdg 2:17  And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so.
Jdg 2:18  And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.
Jdg 2:19  And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.
Jdg 2:20  And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice;

Amo 2:7  That pant after the dust of the earth (or heal)  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:

Eze 22:11  And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.

Amo 2:8  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.

Exo 22:26  If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down:

Amo 2:9  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.

Num 21:25  And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof.

Mal 4:1  For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

Amo 2:10  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.

 
Deu 2:7  For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.

Amo 2:11  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.
Amo 2:12  But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.


1Co 14:39  Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.

Num 6:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD:
Num 6:3  He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.

Isa 30:9  That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
Isa 30:10  Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

Amo 2:13  Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.


Now really you need to almost go over to the land and notice how they load the sheaves on the carts, or on the donkeys, or even upon the women, to get a real picture of this. I've seen donkeys so loaded down with sheaves, that it looks like a huge bundle of sheaves with four legs. You can't see the donkey. But you see this huge bundle of sheaves moving down the road, and you look underneath and you see the four legs. Or, in some cases I've seen them so laden the women down, you see two legs underneath, and this huge bundle. You can't see the woman, but underneath all of these sheaves someplace is a woman straining under the load. These carts that they have don't look that sturdy anyhow, the wheels are usually a little out of kilter, and they just heap them so high with sheaves that it just presses them down. So he is using a picturesque description, which of course the people there immediately relate to because they have seen these little carts pressed down with these huge loads of sheaves. And God said, "I'm pressed down like a cart that's overloaded with sheaves." (Chuck Smith)

Amo 2:14  Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:
Amo 2:15  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.
Amo 2:16  And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.
 

There is no escaping God's judgment on Israel.

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