“When You're the Target!” – FBC Morning Light (6/26/2024)

Well, a good

Wednesday morning to you. Today in our Bible reading, we're in 2 Kings 15, 2

Chronicles 26, Isaiah 6, and then Amos chapters 1 and 2.

Now just a reminder, our Bible reading plan is a chronological plan, and so because you might wonder, well,

I can see going from 2 Kings to 2 Chronicles because there's a lot of parallel between those two, but why jump to the prophecy of Isaiah?

Well, because in 2 Kings and Chronicles, you're reading about one of the kings of Judah, Uzziah, and in Isaiah 6, you're reading about in the year that King Uzziah died, and then

Amos, the prophet Amos, was prophesying in the days of Uzziah, the king of Judah.

Now what I want to do today and tomorrow is just make a few observations from this book of Amos, the prophet

Amos. I just want to mention these things, I won't elaborate on them in any detail for the sake of time, won't read a lot of the passage, you can read it yourself, but just to make some observations to get us to pause and think.

So the first one is right away what we see in the very first verse. It says, the words of Amos, who was among the sheep breeders of Tekoa, Amos the prophet by occupation was a sheep breeder, or a sheep herder.

He took care of sheep. He may have been a wealthy man, he may have had a lot of sheep, we don't know many details about him, but he was a sheep breeder.

And the point is that God, in his grace and in his divine purpose, sovereign plan, chose this man to deliver the prophecies that he wanted delivered to Israel, and he was from Judah.

And so the observation is that the Lord uses all kinds of people to get his message out and to accomplish his purposes.

So you may think, well, I'm not a preacher, I haven't been called to be a missionary,

I'm not called to full -time Christian service, so my usefulness to the

Lord is limited, balderdash. No, it doesn't matter what your occupation, the

Lord can use you to accomplish his purposes and to deliver a word of the gospel to other people.

So allow yourself to be available for those purposes.

A second observation we get from chapters one and two together is that it's easy to cheer when judgment or calamity falls on your enemy or your rival.

So here's the strategy of Amos. He brings the message of God's judgment, and of course the strategy is a divine strategy,

God gives him the messages, but he delivers these messages of woe, of warning, of impending judgment to all of Israel's surrounding neighbors who have historically been their enemies.

So for example, in verse three, for three transgressions of Damascus and for four,

I will not turn away its punishment, says the Lord, and the punishment will be, verse four, to send fire into the house of Hazael.

In chapter one, verse six, for three transgressions of Gaza and for four, I will not turn away its punishment.

The punishment is, I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza. In verse nine, for three transgressions of Tyre and for four,

I will not turn away its punishment. The punishment will be, fire upon the wall of Tyre, which shall devour its palaces.

Verse 11, for three transgressions of Edom and for four, I will not turn away its punishment.

And the punishment, I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.

In verse 13, three transgressions of the people of Ammon and for four, I will not turn away its punishment.

The punishment, I will kindle a fire on the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour its palaces.

And then in chapter two, verses one and two, for three transgressions of Moab and for four, I will not turn away its punishment.

What's the punishment? Can you guess? Can you guess? You've only heard it a few times already.

It's the same thing. I will send a fire upon Moab. So, you know, the strategy here is the prophet is picking out these enemies of Israel that surround

Israel and is saying, God's going to send punishment upon them, he's going to send fire upon your enemies.

And you can see Israel hearing this message on the sidelines saying, yeah, go get them, yeah, let them have it, let them have it.

And then in chapter two, verses four and five, he issues a warning of judgment upon Judah.

Now, remember, Amos is delivering his prophecy in Israel, the northern tribes.

That's who's hearing this message. And in verses four and five, the message is against Judah, the southern kingdom, says for three transgressions of Judah and for four,

I will not turn away its punishment. And so what's the punishment? You got it.

Verse five, I will send a fire upon Judah. Think of Judah as a rival of Israel, if you will, not the same as the enemies that are the

Moabites and the Ammonites and all them, but definitely rivals. And you hear that God's judgment, his punishment, his chastening is going to come upon your rival and you hear it and what do you do?

Yeah, let them have it. But here's the observation. What about when that message of confrontation and conviction comes to you, comes to you?

And that's what happens in verse six and following. For three transgressions of Israel and for four,

I will not turn away its punishment. How are you going to respond to that? Will you respond in humility and brokenness and repentance or in anger and rage?

Oh, let the, let my enemies get God's judgment. Let my rivals be judged by God, but you leave me alone.

You leave me alone. Well, Israel could hardly respond that way legitimately after hearing and cheering about God's judgment coming upon all these surrounding people for their sins, their transgressions.

And by the way, that repeated phrase for three transgressions and for four is just sort of a

Hebrew idiomatic way of saying the, speaking of it, the completeness of it all.

The fullness of it all. That Edom and Moab and Ammon and so forth, they are just completely filled with their sin and therefore the punishment is ripe.

It's time for judgment to come. Well, just a couple of observations from these first couple chapters.

Tomorrow we'll look at a few more and come back to the book of Amos and see some more of these observations.

So let's bow in prayer. Father, we do thank you for the challenge of your word and what we can, what we can gain from these

Old Testament passages, warning us and encouraging us to stop and think.

May we do so today, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your