Wednesday, April 17, 2024 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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That was a Baptist 30 seconds. All right.

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Well, let's uh open our Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter 1 Let's begin with a word of prayer father.

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We thank you for the day. Thank you for your provision to us The fellowship and the feasting and what we thank you for your word pray that you would help us

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To rejoice in its truth to understand it to appreciate it to apply it in our lives

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Thank you for your love for us, thank you for the gift of your son Jesus Christ and it is in his name that we pray

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Amen But we have been thinking about the

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Historical background to the book of Isaiah Lately, we have had an extended study on what is a prophet?

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And this was I mean Isaiah is like the golden era of the prophets

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We're going to talk about some of his contemporaries tonight but You can't help but when you read the book of Isaiah You can't help but be incredibly impressed

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With his giftings with the way that the Lord uses him The impact that he had the variety of his writing the depth of his writing and More than one person has denoted

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Isaiah as the Romans of the Old Testament and It is truly a marker of the golden era of Prophets so what mean we've been talking about what a prophet is the calling of the prophet the nature of the prophet the concerns of the prophet the the main goals of the prophet and so forth and Now we're going to talk about coming kind of back on track to talk about This period of time so you'll notice in verse 1 of Isaiah chapter 1 the vision of Isaiah son of Amos which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah Kings of Judah So we're taking this first verse

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Seeing that the significance of Isaiah's prophecy is really embedded here in the first verse it really does a good job of Getting us up to speed very very quickly if we just meditate on it, and we're taking it in reverse order

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We're starting with the latter part of the verse and saying okay. What is the chronological time period here?

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What is the what is the scope of? Time in which Isaiah is preaching ministering where his concerns were being heard for the first time and we find it's during the days of these kings these four kings that are mentioned and tradition holds that Isaiah was murdered by Hezekiah's son

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King Manasseh, so we threw him into the mix and thought about those kings already we talked about those kings of Judah and of course

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Right along with them were were contemporary kings of Israel because of course the the nation was divided.

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There was the northern kingdom called Israel sometimes Ephraim Sometimes Samaria, and there was the southern kingdom it was called

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Judah and These two nations were separated under Rehoboam Solomon's son

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And so there was there was a different arc of history for each of those nation. They were often intertwined in political affairs

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Sometimes they were at war with each other But the kings of Israel we've looked at those kings that were contemporaries with the kings of Judah though they fizzled out really fast and then we also thought about the kings of Assyria because When we went through the book of Jeremiah The big bad world power was

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Babylon but in the book of Isaiah the big bad world power is Assyria and of course

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Babylon's on the horizon being prophesied about but they weren't a present reality like in the dates of Jeremiah Assyria was the present world power

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Defeating everybody In Isaiah's time so we thought about the kings of Assyria And that's when we came to the prophets the different prophets who were serving during the reigns of these kings

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And when we look at these different prophets Amos and Hosea and Micah They were preaching at the same time that Isaiah was they were ministering at the same time

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Isaiah was So when we find in their writings And their writings are much shorter than Isaiah's they're part of those minor prophets the shorter prophets

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But they do share some common themes and often some direct quotes are shared between the prophets and so we can kind of Hone in on some of the crucial matters that were going on not only in the southern kingdom

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But also in the northern kingdom we do read here in verse 1 of Isaiah that Isaiah's ministry was focused on the southern

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Kingdom he does address the north, but mainly he's just working in the southern kingdom though Amos preached to both north and south and Hosea was ministering to the northern kingdom and Micah was

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Probably Isaiah's best friend. I think I imagine they they

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They shared hummus together. I bet they About once a week. I think they must have got together. I think you'll see why

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But we're gonna start with Amos Amos was because he started a little bit earlier than the other two

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Amos was from about 676 well reverse all those integers 767 to about 753 which means

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He served during the first eight years of Isaiah's ministry So there wasn't a whole lot of overlap

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But he was a contemporary of Isaiah for about eight years and Amos was not a professional

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Isaiah was a professional He was extremely well -trained He knew what he was doing

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Amos had no idea how he and so I was just I was minding my own business was basically the way he would

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Start his biography if he had written one there I was minding my own business and now

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I have to mind everybody else's business And tell them thus sayeth the Lord and I in Amos chapter 7 verses 14 and 15

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The The priest of Bethel is

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Angry with Amos. Oh, come on Amos. Why are you making the priest mad? Notice he's the priest of Bethel now great name house of God, right?

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Great name What's at Bethel? Jeroboam's golden calf.

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That's what's at Bethel. So the priest of the golden calf at Bethel is Upset with Amos and he's telling him

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Get out of here leave the north alone go south to Judah leave us alone and Basically the priest at Bethel is giving

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Amos the cancellation treatment his account has been suspended Nobody can see his posts anymore

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He is he's being he's being fired from the job and So Amos responds to this

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Warm reception of his message in verse 14 then Amos answered and said to Amaziah I was no prophet

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Nor was I a son of a prophet But I was a sheep breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit

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Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said to me go prophesy to my people

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Israel Now therefore hear the word of the Lord you say Do not prophesy against Israel and do not spout against the house of Isaac Therefore thus says the

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Lord Your wife shall be a harlot in the city your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword

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Your land shall be divided by survey line you shall die in a defiled land and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land

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Well, we can tell why Amaziah didn't like Amos very much But Amos was a country guy he was from Tekoa He cultivated fig trees and harvested figs.

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He bred cheap and he tended cheap. That was his business. That's what he did and now now he's having to preach and Proclaim in a land desolate of righteousness in the

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Word of God Amos was accustomed to the wide open country south of Bethlehem.

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So he was being up in Israel. I mean Amaziah was saying go back home.

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That's what he was saying. Like what are you doing up here? I can tell by your accent, you know, go back home to Judah get out of here

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Amos was in the same wide open country West of the Dead Sea where that he was in the same stretches of wilderness where David Kept his flock and later on was always one step ahead of Saul.

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Remember those stories? He's always just the Rob where Robin Hood came from they got it from David stories

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David on the run. That's where Amos was at just minding his own business, but now he's preaching The Word of the

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Lord. So in the book of Amos, you're gonna find eight burdens that are pronounced in two chapters whoa, whoa, whoa, here's the burden of the

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Lord about this nation in that nation and Included amongst the eight wicked nations that he has a burden against all our

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Judah in Israel and they make the list They're just like the other nations You see they've become so wicked and so degraded in their idolatry in their immorality and in their injustice

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They get just listed right along with the other pagan nations because that's how far gone they are and throughout chapters one and two

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Amos has a has a way of saying things every preacher every teacher has their their idioms and their way of saying things and Amos was

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Famous for saying for three transgressions and for four All right, you kind of remember the the turn of phrase in Proverbs Three things the

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Lord's The the Lord is against for he hates and so on and so forth

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This is a similar way of bringing attention to these number of things and in chapters three through six

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He preaches three sermons where he shows how the judgment is deserved and then how the judgment is decreed

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So he says here's how here's the wickedness of the people Here's all the nations that are under the target of God.

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They really deserve the judgment and here's the judgment that has been decreed and And then the book concludes in chapter seven through nine with five visions at which are have a variety of metaphors and word pictures and symbolism that really captured the attention

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But Amos has the same concerns that Isaiah does so if you look in Isaiah chapter 1 if you look at Isaiah chapter 1 and Verses 15 through 17 you hear the

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Lord's complaint against This very religious people because when you spread out your hands

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I will hide my eyes from you even though you make many prayers. I Will not hear now there might be interesting to note that This is not the only place by the way.

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It happens in Jeremiah as well in other places Folks generally have the idea that that God is on call and even back and call

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For all humans everywhere at any time you know, he's uh He's just just chomping at the bit to do something for us

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You know because after all he is our biggest fan People get the idea that that's the way

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God is he's just on the edge of his seat saying come on ask me to do I'll do something for you. I promise and here as in other places the

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Bible he says, you know You might as well stop praying. I'm not listening to you That's that's kind of a surprise to Define in the

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Bible, but this is a reminder that God is God centered. He's not man -centered

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He's God centered and by the way, he made us to be God centered. He made us in his image

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All right, so he says why is it that God's not listening?

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He said I'm not gonna pay attention to your your religious goings -on and your prayers. Why because your hands are full of blood so they're out there doing wickedness doing iniquity and so on and then going and doing the religious rigmarole and God says no, that's not gonna cut it

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Wash yourselves make yourselves clean put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes

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Cease to do evil learn to do good seek justice rebuke the oppressor defend the fatherless plead for the widow

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Those were covenant obligations of Israel And if they were going to continue to break covenant with their

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God Then he was going to respond in judgment and curses upon them saying I'm not gonna listen to you

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So he's calling them to repentance Calling them to repentance. Well Amos had the very same concerns as he was preaching in Amos chapter 5 and Verse 22

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He says though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings. I will not accept them nor will

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I regard your fattened peace offerings Take away from me the noise of your songs

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For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments But let justice run down like water and righteous just like a mighty stream.

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So again God reminds them of their covenant obligations Okay, so they've got this.

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They've got the Psalms. They've got the Psalter. They they've got their musicians and I don't know.

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Maybe they had their fog machines and laser lights or the equivalent thereof They could put on a good show.

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It could get really loud and be very Exemplary in their in their talents and God says

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I'm not listening I'm not listening because you haven't repented you haven't turned to me with your heart.

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So it really doesn't matter What what you're doing in your in your worship because you're not really worshiping me

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They probably enjoyed the songs that music and culture is great. Do you know that you can be moved?

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Aesthetically and not be moved religiously There's a difference between the aesthetic feeling and the religious feeling one being moved by art

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Which is fine and of itself being moved by art is it is a real deal about being human But it's not the same thing as getting moved by truth

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So They they kept on they kept on doing these things because they enjoyed them, but they weren't really seeking

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God So that's in a similar interest and then Isaiah chapter 3 And Isaiah chapter 3

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God has a concern About the how the prosperity of Jerusalem in Samaria, so you know

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Isaiah is talking about the prosperity of Jerusalem and Amos is talking about the prosperity of Samaria the capital city of the northern kingdom and The the folks had gotten the idea that because they were prosperous they were secure which is not nothing

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Unique to that generation or to ours. Okay, when people are prosperous they consider themselves

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Secure I think it's in Proverbs. It says that the wealthy man's riches is like a high wall in his mind

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Okay, a lot of wealth and you feel real secure Okay well in Isaiah chapter 3 in verse 16 more over the

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Lord says because the daughters of Zion are haughty and Walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes

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Walking and mincing as they go Making a jingling with their feet

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Therefore the Lord will strike with a scab The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion and the

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Lord will uncover their secret parts In that day the Lord will take away the finery the jingling anklets the scarves and the crescents the pendants and the bracelets the veils the headdresses the leg ornaments and the headbands the perfume boxes the charms and the rings the nose jewels the vestal apparel and the mantles the outer garments the purses and the mirrors the fine linen the turbans and the

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Robes and so it shall be Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench instead of a sash a rope instead of well -set hair

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Baldness instead of a rich robe a girding of sackcloth and Branding instead of beauty your men shall fall by the sword and you're mighty in the war her gates

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We shall lament and mourn and she being desolate shall sit on the ground so the daughters of Zion become this metaphor for the entirety of the of the city of Jerusalem and Jerusalem is you know decked out in finery everybody likes to go out and show their best

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And it's and it's a sense of like a life is good and we're living it up however,

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God is saying in this you're ignoring the warnings that my prophets are bringing and ultimately all this is going to go away and Be utterly reversed

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And judgments going to fall and it's gonna be utter desolation Because they're trusting in their outward appearance and trusting in their wealth rather than trusting in the

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Lord That's gonna be a theme that goes all the way through Isaiah The same thing happened in a and with Amos as he was preaching in Amos chapter 6 in Amos chapter 6 verse 1 woe to you who are ease in Zion, that's

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Jerusalem and Trust in Mount Samaria, so there's the northern capital Notable persons in the chief nation to whom the house of Israel comes

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Go over to Calna and see and from there go on to Hamath the great Then go down to Gath of the

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Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms or is their territory greater than your territory? Meaning learn from those who have already fallen

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Woe to you who put far off the day of doom Who caused the seed of violence to come near?

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Who lie on beds of ivory stretch out on your couches eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall?

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If you were eating lots of meat that meant that you had no fears about the future All right, that wasn't normal to just eat meat all the time you save that for special occasions

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But if you're eating up the flock you're saying it doesn't matter we have so much, okay

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Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments and invent for yourselves musical instruments like David?

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Who drink wine from bowls and anoint yourselves with the best ointments but are not grieved For the affliction of Joseph so rather than pay attention to the problems.

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They put off they put far off the day of doom. Oh The the problems are not going to fall upon us

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And they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. They're saying Don't pay attention that let's party

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Let's just party. Let's get the music going Let's let's butcher the the calves and the and the lambs

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Let's get the wine going let's just party we're not going to pay attention to the problems. We're just going to enjoy life so I so Amos says in verse 7 therefore

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They shall not go captive as the first of the captives and those who recline at banquet shall be removed

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The Lord God is sworn by himself the Lord God of hosts says I abhor The pride of Jacob and hate his palaces therefore

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I will deliver up the city and all that is in it so the things that Jacob prides himself in the palaces the city the the wealth and everything that Jacob or Samaria will be pointing to saying you know look at look at our pride look at all the wonderful things that we have

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God says I hate all that and So just like in Isaiah those who were felt very secure in their wealth are going to be taken away as slaves and everything

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Taken away from them So there's some similarities with Amos and Isaiah also

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Hosea Hosea Actually Preached throughout the entirety of those seven kings of Israel that we talked about Remember that they

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They went through seven kings in quick succession as the instability of the latter days of Israel Was on display

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Sometimes there was a king who only reigned for a month As king after king ended up getting assassinated by another dynasty and everything was falling apart but Hosea Saw it all he was there for the whole thing from from the first to the last king and while Isaiah was preaching to the southern kingdom of Judah Hosea was preaching to the northern kingdom of Israel and in the first three chapters of the book the the entire

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Israel story is is captured In symbol as Hosea is instructed by God to go marry a prostitute

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Who was bound to be unfaithful to him and she was having children whom he progressively named with certainty not mine

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No mercy, you know think you know things that you would never name your children And then after a time of separation

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There is a reconciliation between Hosea and his wife Gomer and they are brought back together

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And that's really the Israel story where him when God went out and and got Got Israel when there was there was nothing inherently worthwhile in in this people and he was faithful to her and he did everything for her and then she became idolatrous and was was going around to every every nation all the other gods and Then God has

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Compassion on her and even though it things are a mess. He goes and gets her and brings her home anyway

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Okay, so that is in symbol is the whole story of Israel there in the life of Hosea right there in the first three verse three chapters and then the rest of the book contains

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Hosea's preaching about God's perspective and his relationship concerning Israel kind of Breaking out with the meaning of that symbol the meaning of that metaphor that just occurred

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So we see in chapters 4 through 7 that Israel's sin is intolerable because God is holy

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That's the way Hosea puts it and in chapters 8 through 10

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Israel is going to be punished why because God is just and then in the last

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Chapters 11 through 14 there are promises that Israel is going to be restored because God is love

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When we when we go through the book of Hosea and we'll end with Just looking at some key verses and the next time we'll begin to look at the the crossover between Hosea's preaching and Isaiah's preaching but Hosea is the longest of the scroll of the twelve twelve minor prophets all in one scroll

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Hosea has pride of place It starts there not because he was the first of the minor prophets to write not because he was the most ancient but because he is the material that he writes is the largest and it kind of serves as Establishes some things that are going to be important for all the rest of the minor prophets

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So there's some many there's many famous passages in Hosea but in Hosea chapter 4

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In Hosea chapter 4 in verse 6 There is a verse

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My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge You may have run across that verse before not not in the knickknacks on your your kitchen walls, but You may have run across it before my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge

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Because you have Rejected knowledge. I also will reject you from being priest

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For me like the whole nation Served as a priest corporately a nation of priests is what

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God originally conceptualized the people of Israel as Because you have forgotten the law of your

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God. I will also forget your Children, which is a way of him talking about the coming exile, right?

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And then Hosea chapter 6 in verse 6

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I'm gonna read my translation and if you've got something different on the key word, you can just tell me what it is

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Okay, but Hosea chapter 6 verse 6 for I desire mercy and not

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Sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. So when he says

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I desire mercy Do you have any other translation? Loyalty. Yeah, that's because this is the

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Hebrew word chesed Yeah, that's right. And that's what you have a variety of translations for it.

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But chesed is talking about covenant faithfulness Okay. So what

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God is saying is look we have the sacrificial system

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But the point is not to make a whole bunch of sacrifices. He says the point is you're supposed to be a

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Faithful covenant servant He's saying to his people you have a job to do and you're not doing it

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He says I want covenant faithfulness not sacrifices. I don't need a lot of oops.

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Sorry. Here's my Pinch of incense. I'll just move on right? He says

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God says I don't want that I said he's I'm interested in covenant faithfulness and I just he says

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I desire the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings In this particular servant

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Israel He did not find in them Mercy, he did not find in them loyalty.

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He did not find in them chesed Covenant faithfulness, but he would in a later servant who would fill that role in Israel's place

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Speaking of which Hosea chapter 11 and verse 1 when

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Israel was a child. I loved him and Out of Egypt I called my son

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Out of Egypt. I called my son. And so when we come to the Christmas story in Matthew chapter 2

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Joseph of Mary having evaded the murderous intent of Herod Taking the child down to Egypt when it came time to return and they returned to the land

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Matthew takes the time to stop and say thus this was to fulfill But the prophet has spoken out of Egypt.

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I called my son one of many places in the Bible where the

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Apostles Point at something that the Old Testament says about Israel and says that's Jesus That's Jesus and so there's a there's no there's no hint at the moment

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When you're reading through Hosea and you come to Hosea chapter 11 verse 1 you have you have no

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Inkling on Hosea's own terms that this is about Jesus Christ about that one particular verse however

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The broader reading of the prophets that we're going to see in Isaiah and so forth the broader reading of the prophets continually shows that all of the promises to Israel as a whole as a nation

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Concentrated in their hopes of a king Ultimately rest on whether or not

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The Messiah is going to come and of course they were hoping that in waiting for and trusting that he would come

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And that he would bring to pass all those promises that God had made To them so this first in and of itself you don't see why it would be about Jesus Christ But in the aggregate throughout the prophets you're going to see that What the

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What the Old Testament says about Israel in their role in their purpose the

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New Testament says about Jesus Christ Next time we'll talk about where Hosea and Isaiah preached about some of the same themes and There's going to be some some connections that Hosea makes that Amos didn't so there's going to be some connections there

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And then we'll look at Micah and Micah and Isaiah Shared notes okay.

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There's just there's no way around it They I'm pretty sure Isaiah wrote it and was sharing and I think

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Micah said oh, that's good stuff. Can I use it? So we'll talk about that, but Micah is like Isaiah in miniature

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Don't have time to read all 66 chapters of Isaiah Just read

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Micah, and you'll get the gist of Isaiah pretty quick, so All right, well, let's go ahead and close with a word of prayer father

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We thank you for the time that you have given us in your word. I pray that it has been Encouraging and helpful to us.

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I pray that you would continually help us to trust in you and to rejoice in your truth We pray all these things in Jesus name