(Amos) Yet You Have Not Returned to Me — David Guzik

Amos 4:1–3 — Wealth Built on Oppression

Tonight we begin in Amos chapter 4 the prophet Amos was from the southern kingdom of Judah. But he had his ministry mostly among the northern kingdom of Israel it seems. He went to a city there named Bethel and he spoke out against corruption and injustice in the northern kingdom of Israel and Tonight we're going to read three chapters of his prophecy together.

Amos chapter 4 verse 1. Hear this word you cows of Bashan. Who are on the mountain of Samaria who oppressed the poor who crushed the needy who say to your husbands bring wine. Let us drink. Now Amos wasn't trained as a prophet.

He was a simple herdsman a farmer and When he wanted to get a point across about the indulgent women of the northern kingdom of Israel. Well, basically he called him a bunch of fat cows, that's verse 1 you cows of Bashan.

Bashan was a well-known Area well known I should say for its excellent grazing lands. And so the cattle and the livestock and the cows of Bashan were beautiful and fat and healthy. And so when he says you cows of Bashan and when you notice he says there in verse 1 who say to your husbands bring wine.

Let us drink. He's talking to the wives. He's talking to the affluent wives of the kingdom of Israel. It's funny there's a few places in the scriptures where it talks about livestock from Bashan in Psalm 22 David mentions the strong bulls of Bashan that have come against him, you know.

And if they come from this great grazing land, they're strong. They're mighty. They're they're fearsome bulls. Ezekiel 39 also mentions the large the large livestock the fatlings of Bashan it calls them.

And so it's no exaggeration that Amos calls these women fat cows. Now it's very true that the Very skinny ideal of female beauty. It's a modern phenomenon. Kind of twisted too. Don't you think I mean, it's just it's just a funny ideal that we have in our modern world.

About the ideal of feminine beauty it's true that especially in the ancient world a Plumpness was sort of a valued sign of affluence. They liked it if a man or a woman was a little bit plump I mean it shows you have plenty to eat.

It showed you didn't have to work so hard in life. But I think you can count on it that at no time in human history. As a woman appreciated being called a fat cow and they would have taken offense when Amos said this.

And so he really lays it on him. I like what Adam Clark says here. He says the Prophet here represents the iniquitous opulent idle lazy drones. Whether men or women under the idea of fatted bullocks. Which were shortly to be let out to the slaughter and that's what's in his mind here.

Now notice what the crime is of these well these fat cows. He says in verse 1 who crush the needy and oppress the poor. It wasn't that the crime of these women were that they were plump or affluent. That wasn't it at all.

Was that they gained their wealth and their affluence by oppressing and crushing the less fortunate. God saw this and he promised to hold them to account. He said well, maybe it wasn't the women directly maybe it was their husbands if but you could see how perhaps that the nagging of these women the constant pressing for greater luxuries and Greater ease and greater affluence it pushed their husbands on To make more money and to make it through oppressing the poor.

You can just see the picture here at verse 1 where it says who say to your husband bring wine. Let us drink. It wasn't just that these women were plump and affluent. It was they use their affluence in a pure Self-focused pursuit of pleasure and God saw this.

God saw it and he promised to hold them to account. Look at it here in verse 2 the Lord God has sworn by his holiness. Behold the day shall come upon you when he will take you away with fishhooks and your posterity with fishhooks.

You will go out through broken walls each one straight ahead of her and you will be cast into harm on says the Lord. It's an exceedingly solemn oath. Don't you think in verse 2 where it says that the Lord God swore by his holiness when God swears by his holiness?

It's a serious oath. And what does he swear to he swears that they will take? You away with fishhooks. God tells unrepentant Israel of their coming agony when they're conquered and exiled by the mighty Assyrian Empire.

You see the Assyrian Empire had a Policy in that day. Maybe you've heard in recent times and wars in Europe and Africa where they practice Ethnic cleansing or they move or force out populations from one area and make them go to a completely different area.

That's nothing new the ancient Assyrians did that and when they conquered a people such as the Israelites what they did was they basically? Depopulated the country and brought in new people. They wanted to sever the bond that those people had but between their heart and the land they said what's this movie away?

Movie to someplace else. And so you can imagine long trains of Israelites walking for hundreds of miles being Repopulated from the land of Israel to some distant point in the Assyrian Empire and when they were let out Through their broken down city walls the the Assyrians had a way that they kept order in the ranks as they were marching these hundreds of people away.

First of all what we do is commonly while they were marching along the way they would strip them naked just to humiliate Them and make them feel like they would bearish to run away somewhere. The second thing they would do is they would take fishhooks and attach them on a big line and They would take those fishhooks and pierce them through either the nose or the lip of each person.

Now you're not going to sass somebody if you've got a fishhook through your lip or your nose and are attached on a long line Of other people that's going to completely humiliate you could complete you bring you under the submission of somebody else.

And you're going to do whatever they say. So you can you see this long line? Hundreds thousands of humiliated degraded Israelites some of these fat cows. Who lived it up in their self-indulgent affluent lifestyles that when they made their fortunes on the backs of the poor.

And here they are now now being brought low by the Lord in their humiliation marching through as it says there in verse 3 the broken walls of the cities of Israel and notice here he speaks in verse 4 come to Bethel and transgress a Gilgal multiply.

Transgression. Bring your sacrifices every morning your tithes every three days. Offer a sacrifice of Thanksgiving with leaven Proclaim and announce the freewill offerings. For this you love you children of Israel says the Lord your God.

Corrupted Worship at Bethel and Gilgal

You see now God remembers. Well listen it is realized. They have religion. Don't they? So don't they worship the Lord. Don't they serve him. Well yes, and no they make a name to serving God. They make an outward display of it, but actually God almost mocks them in verse 4 where he says come to Bethel and transgress.

Bethel was one of the centers of worship that the northern Kings set up in Israel. So that the people of Israel wouldn't go down to the southern kingdom of Judah and worship at Jerusalem. They did this to keep their citizens away from the rival kingdom of Judah.

And so you had these rival centers of worship Bethel and Gilgal. He says go go there and worship give your best shot because all you got to do is transgress. You know God said don't make Bethel a place of sacrifice.

Don't make Gilgal a sacrifice. There is to be one place of sacrifice in all of Israel, and that was the city of Jerusalem. So God says go ahead go to Bethel and transgress. Matter of fact if you notice there in verse 4 it says offer your tithes every three days.

It's very interesting because there was a certain tithe that was required of the people of Israel that they had to bring once every three Years. Deuteronomy chapter 14 describes it and God says you know that three-year tithe.

I don't care if you bring it every three days. Everybody's oh my that's impressive how much they must love God to bring the three-year tithe. And they're bringing it every three days. God says he doesn't care.

It means nothing to him. Go ahead and offer your sacrifice of Thanksgiving with leaven proclaim and announce the freewill offerings for this you love you children of Israel. Once you notice those last few lines of verse 5 for this you love Friends notice it please the children of Israel Loved their corrupted worship.

They loved it. It was disobedient both in heart and in action, but they loved it. Might I make a point that we've made several times before but we just need to remind ourselves of it. It's always wrong to measure worship by how it pleases us because it's possible for corrupt and Disobedient worship to be wonderfully pleasing they loved it for this you love God said.

Now of course we don't want to get into the thinking that worship has to hurt to be acceptable to God. But the more dour it is the more honoring it is to God. No, that's not it at all. That's not the point.

The point is simply this we don't first measure worship by how it makes us feel. We measure it by how it honors God and if it makes you feel like a million bucks. If you love it as the Israelites loved their Disobedient and rebellious worship if you love it, but if it doesn't honor God, it's not real worship.

You measure worship first by how it honors God. Now, please again. We don't want to get off onto some other extreme as I said before to think that worship has to hurt or be miserable. You're not really worshiping God unless you're miserable.

No, that's not the idea at all. It's just we put God at the center not ourselves. And we don't evaluate worship by how it makes us feel. We evaluate it first by how it honors the Lord God. So what would God do look at here verse 6?

Also, I gave you cleanness of teeth and all your cities and lack of bread and all your places yet. You have not returned to me says the Lord. I also withheld rain from you and there were still three months to the harvest.

I made it rain on one city and I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon and where it did not rain. The part withered so two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied.

Yet you have not returned to me says the Lord. You read the first line of verse 6 you think Oh God's blessing them. He gave them cleanness of teeth. Wasn't that great God promoting dental hygiene among the kingdom of Israel.

Friends, that's not at all. You know why their teeth are clean because there's no food to eat. I Gave you cleanness of teeth and lack of bread and all your places. God's disciplining them, but do you see the line in verse 6 yet?

You have not returned to me. And God says I withheld the rain. That's it. I started doing tricks with the rain. I made it rain in this city, but not in this city just to show you that I was in charge of the rain.

I made it rain on this farmers fields. But not on this farmers fields just to show you that I was in charge of the rain yet. You have not returned to me says the Lord. This is the greatest tragedy, isn't it friends?

Any one of us can stumble into sin and feel the correcting hand of God. But we're in far greater trouble when we feel God's correction and will not return to him. Maybe that's the question we need to seriously ask before the Lord tonight Lord.

Are you trying to correct me in some way and I'm not listening to you. Could it be said of our life in some place the Lord says well I did this in this and yet you did not return to me and then I did that and the other thing and you did.

Not return to me and it goes on and on look at it here verse 9. I blasted you with blight and mildew. Friends, he's not talking about, you know green stuff around the shower. Those are agricultural kind of diseases.

It's the kind of thing that wastes crops. He says I blasted you with blight and mildew when your gardens increased your vineyards your fig trees and your olive trees. The locusts devoured them yet. You have not returned to me says the Lord.

I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt your young men. I killed with the sword along with your captive horses. I made the stench of your camps to come up to your nostrils yet. You have not returned to me says the Lord.

I overthrew some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning. You could finish it for me. Couldn't you yet? You have not returned to me says the Lord.

I want you to notice a few things here. First of all, it's obvious the main message here. Israel would not listen to the chastisement of the Lord, right? God was trying to correct them. They wouldn't listen they had their fingers in their ears and God was screaming to them through the circumstances of their life.

But they wouldn't listen. But the other thing I want you to see is how God keeps trying. Doesn't the Lord love us? How many of us would stick with somebody as disobedient as rebellious as us? I would never tolerate somebody like me.

But the Lord has so much love so much compassion. What a great God he is. And then the other thing we think about is how a loving God is in the way that he does it. I mean, he doesn't start off with the with the highest thing.

He doesn't start off with Sodom and Gomorrah. He starts off small and that doesn't work. So he gets it a little bigger and then we're still not listening and God so kindly so graciously. It's as if the Lord says look I want to.

I want to chastise them as little as possible. As little as it will take to bring them to repentance. That's all I want to do. My goal isn't to punish them. My goal is to bring them to repentance. So I'm gonna do it step by step and hope that someplace along the way that they will return to me.

At the end of it all God says you were like a fire bland Propped from the burning yet. You have not returned to me. God sees Israel as a glowing ember plucked from the fires of judgment like the same judgment that devoured Sodom and Gomorrah.

And even though God spared them, they didn't respond in gratitude. They have not returned to God. How important it is, it's a clear out our ears Lord. Are you trying to get through to me in some way? Notice how God vows he vows to perform what he promised verse 12.

Therefore thus I will do to you Oh Israel because I will do this to you. Prepare to meet your God Oh Israel. For behold he who forms mountains and creates the wind and do declares man. What his thought is and makes the morning darkness who treads the high places of the earth the Lord God of hosts is his name.

Preparing to Meet God

That's heavy, isn't it? God coming up before Israel and he says Prepare to meet your God. That's a sober warning, you know, it's appropriate for all men for all women and at all times. Shouldn't every one of us hear that right now and say listen you prepare to meet your God.

Because we never know when we're going to meet our God for eternity. Because we don't know we must always be prepared to meet our God. Friends I would say this is especially true To those who are in sin and facing the judgment of God.

That's suggesting that you can apply this text in three ways. You can take prepare to meet your God. You can take it as a challenge. You can take prepare to meet your God as an invitation. Or you can take prepare to meet your God as a summons.

Versus a challenge it's as if God invites his enemies to prepare to meet him. I have a confession to make our Children wanted to watch some videos the other day. And so I went out to the video place and I rented him Rocky Rocky 2 Rocky 3 and Rocky 4.

Was the Rocky thon at the Guzik house this last week? And you know every every one of the movies is the same, you know. He he trains he fights. He's a human punching bag in the fight and somehow he wins or nobly loses, you know the same thing every movie.

But the big thing and the biggest point of the movie is the preparation for the boxing match, right? That's what takes up the most of the plot him training him preparing. I mean, he's gonna face an adversary so he'd better be ready a boxer would be nuts to know.

Well, I'm gonna face the champion of the world in three weeks and well, I'll just take it easy. Maybe the day before I'll start thinking. I know you said you better prepare to meet the champion of the world.

Well, God says prepare to meet your God. Crosses you you want to fight with me? You want to rebel against me that then you better prepare for it, mister. And I don't know how you're gonna prepare to fight against God, but you better do the best you can.

So you can take it as a challenge. You can also take that phrase prepared to meet your God as an invitation. Yeah, it's a blessing isn't it doesn't God say to his people every day every time they gather together with you prepare to meet your God.

I Wonder if that's not what you should put on the mirror at home and every Sunday morning for you getting ready for church. You read right there prepare to meet your God and that's what you should prepare.

You know if you would prepare to meet your God when you come on Sunday morning. You'd meet him so much more wonderfully if you started to prepare your heart at home. If you started to thank God and to worship him and to set your heart in the right place before you even get in the car.

Before the devil gets to you and your wife in the car and you start arguing fighting with each other if you'd prepare to meet Your God even before that. Oh. How much more profitable that meeting would be?

Think about that call going out think about call going out to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Edom Adam. Prepare to meet your God. And Adam would get all excited. Yes. Yes, God now. We're gonna walk together in the cool of the day.

Yes, I want to prepare to meet my God but ever since the fall. But since the fall it's our nature to hide from God. So here this call to prepare to meet your God. It has a different sense entirely still if you're going to come to God prepare yourself prepare to meet your God.

So it's a challenge. It's an invitation. Your friends it's also a summons. We recognize that one day we will all stand before God and give account. I Can't resist a quote from Charles Spurgeon here. He says think a while upon who it is that you have to meet.

You have to meet your God your God. That is offended justice. You must meet whose laws you have broken whose penalties you've ridiculed. Justice righteously indignant with its sword drawn you must confront.

You must meet your God. That is you must be examined by unblinded omniscience. He who has seen your heart and read your thoughts and jotted down your affections and remembered your idle words. You must meet him an Infinite discernment.

You must meet those eyes that you are never yet duped. The God who will see through the veils of hypocrisy and all concealments of formality. There will be no making yourself out to be better than you are before him.

So prepare to meet your God now. Humble yourself now. Say Lord God save me now. And If it could be any more serious, I don't know how it could be more serious. Look at how he adds on it here at the end of verse 13.

The Lord God of hosts is his name. You know what God of hosts means don't you? It's not the God of hosts and hostesses like the God of Martha Stewart's and that kind of thing. God of hosts means God of armies the God of heavenly armies.

This is his military title, you know, the military title of the president. United States commander-in-chief. Well, this is the military title of God the Lord of hosts and he says that's my name. God emphasizes the point.

He emphasizes but just who it is making the point a God. We should never trifle with. He's the God of all creation. He forms the mountains and creates the wind. He's the God who's absolutely sovereign over man.

He declares to man what his thought is. He's the God with the power over nature. He makes the morning darkness and he's the God who rules above all. He treads the high places of the earth. Amos says so it's time to get serious.

Amos 5: Seeking the Lord and Living

He goes on now chapter 5. Hear this word which I take up against you this lamentation. Oh house of Israel. The Virgin of Israel has fallen. She will rise no more. She lies forsaken on her land. There is no one to raise her up for thus says the Lord God.

The city that goes out by a thousand shall have a hundred left and that which goes out by a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel. To catch that phrase there the Virgin of Israel has fallen.

Amos sees Israel as a tragic young woman who's fallen and forsaken and no one's coming to her aid in Rebelling against God. Israel is as helpless as a young woman among violent men. It's as if he chose a title that would emphasize the vulnerability and the dependence of Israel.

And he says the city that goes out by a thousand you're going to have a hundred left. Amos predicts that things will be so bad among the children of Israel that when an enemy comes a City that before would have sent out a thousand soldiers.

Well now now they'll only send out a hundred. They're only going to have a handful war weary men to defend their cities and they'll be completely overcome. And so God offers an alternative here. Look at it beginning at verse 4 for thus says the Lord to the house of Israel Seek me and live.

But do not seek Bethel do not enter Gilgal nor pass over to Beersheba. Well Gilgal so surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it with no one to quench it in Bethel.

You who turn justice to wormwood and lay righteousness to rest in the earth. He made the Pleiades in Orion. He turns the shadow of death in the morning and makes the day dark as night. He calls for the water of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth.

The Lord is his name. He reigns ruin upon the strong. So that fury comes upon the fortress. See what God says there at the beginning of verse 4 Seek me and live. And God looks at this destruction that's right to come upon Israel and he says seek me and live.

And some people did. You know what the godly in Israel did before it fell to the Assyrians that would come after this prophecy of Amos. The Bible tells us that the godly in the northern kingdom of Israel said that's it.

We've had it here and they moved down to the southern kingdom of Judah and they were spared this Assyrian invasion. And that's exactly what they did seek me and live. They sought the Lord. They responded to his voice.

They got out of Israel and they lived but those who didn't oh God says don't seek Bethel nor enter Gilgal nor Passover to Beersheba. These were rival centers of worship. These were places other than Jerusalem where they had gathered together for worship.

Interesting each one of those places where at one time places of great spiritual privilege. Bethel. That was the place where the Lord God met with Jacob when he came out and was escaping from Esau. The Lord gave him a beautiful vision of angels ascending and descending upon a ladder up into heaven.

And Jacob said I'm at the very house of God and he named it Bethel which means house of the Lord. And then Gilgal. Oh what a place that was. Gilgal was the place where Israel got right with God in the days of Joshua when they came into the promised land.

Gilgal means rolling and it was a day when the when the shame of Israel was rolled away because they ministered the Lord in radical obedience and Then Beersheba that was an ancient place connected to Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

All those places that were once places of great prestige great honor a great name now. They were places of vain empty worship. God looks at them and he says you you who turned justice to wormwood and lay righteousness to rest again.

Amos confronts the corrupt legal system of Israel. Justice had been thoroughly spoiled and righteousness. It was as good as dead. Wormwood is something that's spoiled and bitter. Amos is trying to give a wake-up call to Israel.

He says look he made the pleadings in Orion. Those are constellations in the sky this God mighty enough to make these great constellations in the sky. This is why God is worthy to be sought. This is why God can deliver Israel from their coming doom.

He can do it because he's smart enough to set the constellations in the sky. He's mighty enough to do it. He's mighty enough to manage creation, but we rebel against him. Means that God is strong enough to say but it also means that God is plenty strong enough to bring judgment.

Did you notice there at verse 9? He says he reigns ruin upon the strong so that fury comes upon the fortress. If the strong and the fortress can't stand before God's power. Well, then no one can. He goes on now.

Here's a section Where he talks about the cause and the curse and the cure that's going to come or at least is offered unto Israel. Verse 10. They hate the one who rebukes in the gate and they abhor the one who speaks up rightly.

Therefore because you tread down the poor and take grain taxes from him though. You have built houses of hewn stone yet. You shall not dwell in them. You've planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from them.

But I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins. Afflicting the just and taking bribes. Diverting the poor from justice at the gate therefore the prudent keeps silent at that time for it is an evil time.

Seek good and not evil that you may live. So the Lord God of hosts will be with you as he has spoken hate evil love good. Establish justice in the gates. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Justice, Righteousness, and the Day of the Lord

Here again the Prophet Amos in his bold and fearless fashion. He touches on the great unrighteousness and iniquity the social institutions of Israel notably here in the courts. They hate the one who rebukes in the gate.

You see the gate was the law court in ancient cities and Israel's courts were so corrupt that they silenced the poor and the righteous and the effect of this culture of injustice. Was that the prudent keeps silent at that time for it's an evil time.

Righteous people were afraid to speak out because they knew that the judge they knew that the magistrate wouldn't back them. They were afraid. You know, that's how it is when unrighteousness rules and courts people are afraid to stick up for what's right?

Because they know that the justice system will hang them out to dry. We look at this in Israel and we're amazed. The Prophet Amos he speaks about money and power being able to buy justice. Well haven't things come to a pretty pass.

When you have money and influence where that can get you off. Where that can get you a presidential pardon or or where that can get you preferential treatments in the courts? Because you have the right lawyers and the right connections.

Staggering isn't. My father used to say the more things change the more they stay the same. The godly and righteous people in there so they wouldn't speak out. They feared retribution or they just knew that it wouldn't do any good.

What good is it to speak out? So I'll keep silent. And Amos speaks to the the rich and the affluent people. He says though you've built houses of hewn stone yet You shall not dwell in them. This is God's curse for Israel's wickedness.

Though the wicked in Israel they gained fancy houses and vineyards from their oppression of the poor in the way that they railroaded justice. Those gains were only temporary. Here's a rich man in Israel and through his manipulation of the courts and his robbery of the poor.

He built this great majestic house out of carved stone and everybody. Oh, it's the most magnificent house in town. God says you're only renting it. You may as well turn the title deed over to the Assyrians because pretty soon they're gonna take it over.

You've got it just for a short time. And at the end of this passage God gives them prescription that could be a cure for Israel's sin. He says seek good and not evil that you may live. So the Lord God of hosts will be with you.

We have to do is simply seek good and not evil. Transform the corrupt courts and establish justice in the gates now. They wouldn't do that. So there's going to be wailing and woe when the day of the Lord look at it here verse 16.

Therefore the Lord God of hosts the Lord says this. There shall be wailing in all the streets and they shall say in all the highways alas alas. They shall call the farmer to mourning and the skillful lamenters to wailing and all vineyards.

They shall be wailing for I will pass through you says the Lord. Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord for what good is the day of the Lord to you? Will be darkness and not light. It'll be as though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him.

Or as though he went into the house leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him is not the day of the Lord. Darkness and not light. Is it not very dark with no brightness in it? That's is there's going to be such wailing in the streets when his judgment comes upon Israel.

And friends if you read the account in the books of first and second Kings of what happened when God's judgment came upon the northern Kingdom of Israel through the Assyrian army, it was horrible stories of gross cannibalism in the cities of Israel because of the great hunger they were through from the siege armies of the Assyrians.

Just terrible brutality and viciousness both among one another and then from the conquering armies. It's going to be so bad. They're going to be a shortage of mourners. Did you see that there it says they shall call the farmer to mourning and skillful lamenters to wailing.

You see in Israel back then indeed. They still do it today at a funeral. They will hire professional mourners. They'll hire people to come and to add to the sadness of occasion people who are I guess good at turning on the tears.

And they'll they'll wail and they'll weep that you you hire them and they're the professional mourners, but you see there's a shortage. So you have to call the farmer to mourning, you know, he's not even a professional but you need to hire somebody.

So here's a we'll call the farmer. We need somebody to help us mourn. That's how bad things are. There's a shortage of professional mourners. It's a staggering thing that he says there. What good is the day of the Lord to you?

You know when we're not right with God and We have our wits about us. The last thing we want in the world is the day of the Lord. Oh, no Lord wait till I get right with you. Don't come now. Don't show your strength and your triumph and your victory now Lord I'm not right with you.

And that's what the Lord's saying to this wicked nation this wicked northern kingdom of Israel. What good is the day of the Lord to you? It's going to be darkness to you and not light. You see in their religious Ritualism the people of Israel still claim that they long for the day of the Lord.

And Amos says you don't know what you're asking for. You don't know what you claim you want. Because the day of the Lord will bring to you judgment not mercy. It's as if a lion is chasing you and you finally escape the lion only to fall to the clutches of a bear and Then the bear is chasing you and so you run and you finally able to shut yourself into a house and you're safe from the Bear and you put your hand against the wall and it slips into a hole and there's a deadly serpent in that hole and it bites you.

See what means it's unescapable. If the lion misses the barrel gets you if the bear misses. And the snake will get you you're going to be got by the day of the Lord if you're not walking right with him now a Lot of people they look at a nation the way that the northern kingdom was at this time.

And they say that the answer is religion. You know you need that good old time religion. Well, let's see what the good old time religion did for the northern king of Israel verse 21. I Hate cut says I hate I despise your feast days.

And I do not savor your sacred assemblies though you offer me burnt offerings in your grain offerings. I will not accept them nor will I regard your fat and peace offerings take away from me the noise of your songs.

For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness 40 years.

Oh house of Israel. You also carried sick of your king and chin your idols the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves. Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus says the Lord.

Whose name is the God of hosts? Can you imagine how this would have amazed or offended those in Israel who heard Amos say this? Oh God you you you hate you despise our feast days. Well Lord, those are days for you.

We all gather together at Bethel or Gilgal and we have a wonderful feast unto the Lord. Why are you so sore about this God? They told themselves. We're really honoring the Lord. We're really pleasing him by observing these feasts these sacred assemblies, but God was offended at their religious ceremonialism.