Bible Lessons

From: Messages of God's Love: 1937

Amos 1:13-2:16¹³Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border: ¹⁴But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind: ¹⁵And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith the Lord. ¹Thus 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: ²But 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: ³And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the Lord. ⁴Thus 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: ⁵But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. ⁶Thus 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; ⁷That 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: ⁸And 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. ⁹Yet 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. ¹⁰Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. ¹¹And 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. ¹²But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not. ¹³Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. ¹⁴Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself: ¹⁵Neither 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. ¹⁶And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord. (Amos 1:13‑2:16)

HAD the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of Manasseh been content to go over the Jordan with their brethren (Numbers 32; Joshua 13), they would not have been so exposed to attack. Joshua 22; 2 Kings 10:32, 33³²In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; ³³From Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan. (2 Kings 10:32‑33); 1 Chronicles 5:26,²⁶And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day. (1 Chronicles 5:26) and verse 13 of Amos 1, tell what befell them because of their seeking, what seemed like natural advantage instead of acting on the word of God. The children of Ammon were their immediate neighbors on the east, and these to gain more territory for themselves, wantonly and brutally killed women of Gilead. The judgment of Ammon is accordingly pronounced.

Moab, as well as Ammon, is the subject of prophecy, and in each case there is promise of judgment on them. Isaiah 11:14; 15¹⁴But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. (Isaiah 11:14)
⁵And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness. (Isaiah 16:5) and 16; 25:10-12; Jeremiah 9:25, 26²⁵Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; ²⁶Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. (Jeremiah 9:25‑26); Jeremiah 48 and 49; Ezekiel 25, and Zephaniah 2:8-11⁸I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border. ⁹Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them. ¹⁰This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts. ¹¹The Lord will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen. (Zephaniah 2:8‑11) disclose the penalty for their guilt concerning Israel. The occasion spoken of in verse 1 of chapter 2 is evidently that recorded in 2 Kings 3:26, 27,²⁶And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom: but they could not. ²⁷Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land. (2 Kings 3:26‑27) when the eldest son of the king of Edom, and probably joint king of that country, was made a burnt offering by the king of Moab who had got possession of him in war.

And now (verse 4) we reach the solemn pronouncements of God. upon His own earthly people, which occupy the remainder of the prophecy of Amos. Judah comes first; the charge against the two tribes is despising the law of Jehovah and lying, which had caused them to err. Israel, the ten tribes, is accused of utter selfishness, covetousness, immorality, and idolatry.

God had destroyed the Amorites for them; powerful enemies they had been; He had indeed brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt; had graciously led them forty years in the wilderness, and given them the land for a possession. He had raised up prophets from among their sons, and Nazarites, separated to God, among their young men; but the prophets were commanded to not prophecy, and the Nazarites (who were never to touch wine) were given it to drink.

What then shall God do to a nation that professes His name, but is guilty more than the nations that know Him not? He will commence to deal with them by removing flight from the swift, strength from the strong, power from the mighty, courage from the brave. Chapter 3 introduces a more solemn word from Him.

ML 01/10/1937

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