PM Dec 18th Amos 9

December 18^th               Amos 9             There is no escape

1: I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. 2: Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: 3: And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them: 4: And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good. 5: And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt. 6: It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name. 7: Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? 8: Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD. 9: For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. 10: All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.

Israel will repent

11: In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: 12: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this. 13: Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. 14: And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 15: And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.

Obadiah 1         A. Edom – Destruction              Charge against Edom

1: The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle. 2: Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised. 3: The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? 4: Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD. 5: If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes? 6: How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up! 7: All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him. 8: Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau? 9: And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.

Crime of Edom

10: For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. 11: In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. 12: But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. 13: Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity; 14: Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.

Catastrophe to Edom

15: For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. 16: For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

B. Israel – Restoration               Condition of Israel

17: But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

Calling of Israel

18: And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it.

Consummation of all things

19: And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. 20: And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south. 21: And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD's.

Amos brings his surprisingly long prophecy to an end. He says to Israel there will be no escape. He sees the Lord standing by the altar who says to him hit the lintel of the door so that the door posts will shake and cut them all in the head so that they will all fall down dead. None will escape by any means of the house of Israel. The Lord asks will l not cut off Israel who has sinned against me. The Lord will scatter them among the nations but they will not be completely destroyed. In a future day the Lord will raise up the tabernacle of David and close up the breaches. The Lord will raise up the ruins again and build the temple as it was in the days of old. The LORD says that a day will come when the plowman will overtake the reaper. There will be such abundant crops that the reapers will not have completed their work before its time to plow the fields again. The mountains will literally flow with the over ripe grapes because the vine dressers will not be able to gather the abundance of the vines. The Lord will bring Israel out of their captivity and they will build the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and they will live long enough to drink the wine. They will build orchards and eat the fruit. The Lord will plant Israel in the land never to be uprooted from it.

Next we have the little book of Obadiah which describes the judgment of God on the Kingdom of Edom. This is the shortest book in the OT. The Edomites descended from Esau the brother of Jacob. Why did God Love Jacob but hate Esau? The answer is found in this book. The sin of Esau was pride and self-sufficiency and it comes out in his children - in the nation. Edom lived in the rock fortresses of the south. The Egyptian, Assyrian and Babylonian armies, put money and treasures there, where just a few men could hold off a large force. They lived in false security and despised God and his promises. 

The book of Obadiah is divided into two parts, first we have the judgment of Edom and secondly we have the deliverance of Judah. The charge that the Lord brings against Edom is pride. They are so full of themselves that the Lord brings them down very low. All the other nations despise them because they are so small. They think that they are so great yet the Lord will destroy the wise men and the mighty men. They will all be destroyed. So what was their crime Obadiah? They were violent to their brother Judah. They looked the other way when Judah were in trouble and they rejoiced in the day of their destruction nor should they have come into Judah to rob them in their day of trouble. The Lord will totally destroy this nation. When the day of the Lord comes He will judge them in the same way that they have acted. They will cease to exist as a nation.

However the promise of the Lord to Judah is that the Lord will deliver them. There will be salvation and holiness in the house of Jacob. The tribes of Jacob and Joseph will be a fire and Edom will be like stubble which once it is kindled will be totally destroyed. Israel will possess the land and the kingdom will be the LORD’s.