Judgment Against Israel

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Judgment Against Israel

• Amos 2.6 3.15

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(No Transcript)
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With God On Our Side ?

• The people of God have forgotten that election
  means not only privilege, but also heightened
  responsibility they have not assumedIsrael
  misunderstood Gods election and nearness in the
  sense of the self-assurance of the favored one,
  instead of comprehending the commission to be a
  model for the world of nations (Jeremias 1998
  50-51).

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Reasons for Israels judgment

• They sell the righteous for silver, and the
  needy for a pair of sandals (2.6b).
• Joseph to Slavery
• Jesus to Death

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Reasons for Israels judgment

• They trample on the heads of the poor as upon
  the dust of the ground and deny justice to the
  oppressed (2.7a).
• Do not deny justice to your poor people in their
  lawsuits (Ex 23.6 cf. Deut 16.19-20).

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Reasons for Israels judgment

• Father and son use the same girl and so profane
  my holy name (2.7b).
• cf. Lev 18.6-24
• the law tried to protect the womans dignity as
  well as the obligation implied by the love
  between man and woman by contrast, Amos sees
  before him a society in which sexual desire
  determines a persons actions, desire shamelessly
  selecting socially dependant persons as its
  victims (Jeremias 1998 37).

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Reasons for Israels judgment

• They lie down beside every altar on garments
  taken in pledge. In the house of their god they
  drink wine taken as fines (2.8).
• If you take your neighbors cloak as a pledge,
  return it to him by sunset, because his cloak is
  the only covering he has for his body. What else
  will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I
  will hear, for I am compassionate (Ex 22.26-27).
  
• Fining was to be employed according to the law
  as a vehicle for guaranteeing restitution (e.g.,
  Exod 2119, 30-32 2214, 15, 17 Deut 2219),
  not as a means of enriching leaders who here have
  taken wine as payment-in-kind and debauched
  themselves thereby (Stuart 1987 317).

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Salvation History

• I brought you up out of Egypt, and I led you
  forty years in the desert to give you the land of
  the Amorites (2.10 cf. Josh 10.12)
• I destroyed the Amorite before them, though he
  was tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks. I
  destroyed his fruit above and his roots below
  (2.9 cf. Num 21.23-25).
• I also raised up prophets from among your sons
  and Nazirites from among your young men. Is this
  not true, people of Israel? declares the LORD
  (2.11).

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Gods Punishment

• Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says
  An enemy will overrun the land he will pull
  down your strongholds and plunder your
  fortresses (3.11).
• On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will
  destroy the altars of Bethel the horns of the
  altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. I
  will tear down the winter house along with the
  summer house the houses adorned with ivory will
  be destroyed and the mansions will be
  demolished, declares the LORD (3.14-15).

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Even Exile

• This is what the LORD says As a shepherd saves
  from the lions mouth only two leg bones or a
  piece of an ear, so will the Israelites be saved,
  those who sit in Samaria on the edge of their
  beds and in Damascus on their couches (3.12).
• According to the customary legal tradition of
  Israel and the surrounding culture, a shepherd
  had to give evidence to the owner of the sheep,
  when any of the flock had been captured, by
  producing what was left of the carcass. He had
  not stolen or sold it, for here was proof! (Mays
  1969 67).

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• Projecting
• into
• the New Testament

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The Abuse of Grace

• What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning
  so that grace may increase? By no means! We
  died to sin how can we live in it any longer?
  (Romans 6.1-2).
• There are people who change the grace of our God
  into a license for immorality and deny Jesus
  Christ our only Sovereign and Lord (Jude v.4b)

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The Abuse of Grace

• Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will
  enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does
  the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many
  will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we
  not prophesy in your name and in your name drive
  out demons and perform many miracles? Then I
  will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away
  from me, you evildoers! (Mt 7.21-23).