Let Justice Roll Down
Notes
Transcript
Order of Service
Order of Service
Welcome
Welcome
Prayer
Prayer
Hymn -
Hymn -
Notices
Notices
Prayer Meeting - 7:30pm Wed
Friday 7pm - Online
Sunday Morning 11am & 6pm
Tithes & Offerings - £
Main Prayer
Main Prayer
Hymn -
Hymn -
Reading
Reading
Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
Sermon
Sermon
Seek the LORD and Live
Funeral Song
your relationship with God is not based on what you receive
Darkness of the Day of the Lord
Darkness of the Day of the Lord
Desiring the Day
Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light,
They expected the Day of the Lord would bring victory, blessing and brightness
They considered themselves worth of salvation
Amos rembuke and warns them
It is a day of “darkness not light”
Darkness implies defeat, calamity and evil
No Escape from the Day
as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.
examples of inescapability of disaster
runing from a lion
runs into a bear
runs into the house thinking safe and gets bitten by a serpent
what ever he does he is doomed
No brightness in the day
Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?
A false sense of security was encourging sinful behaviour
for them a dismal future awaits
There was a blatent disregard for God’s laws and a lack of desire to be obedient
God is gracious and merciful but not to widespread apathy
apathy - a complete indifference
Rejection of Israel’s Worship
Rejection of Israel’s Worship
Amos now changes to first-person divine speech
Feasts
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
hate - antipathy
strong negative emotion
Dispise - reject with contempt
religious feasts - unlvened bread, passover, harvest, tabernacles and ingathering
They had not hated evil
But instead hated advocates of righteousness
Therefore, God hated their presumtueous worship
“ I take no delight [enjoy/stand the smell] in your solemn assemblies”
False worship arising from sinful lives is worse than unacceptable to God.
Offerings
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.
Amos lists the first three of the five Levitical offerings (Lev 1-7)
These were described as “pleasing-aroma offerings”
They represented consecration and worship
The other two offerings were solely for atonement
The offerings signified a communion between the worshiper and God
Their sin had tainted the offerings and made them unpalletable
Music
Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
Without a right heart towards God
the melody of singing and harps are but noise
Shut nostrals, closed eyes and now closed ears.
Their sinful attitude was an attack on the senses.
God’s acceptance or rejection of human worship is based on his assessment of the motives of the heart
Lack of Justice and Righteousmess
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Justice
reparations for the defrauded
fairness for the less fortunate
dignity and compassion for the needy
righteousness
mercy
generousity
honest dealings
imitations of the character of God
today Amos might point to other aspects of lightsyles that are signs of a lack of genuiness
making worship displeasing and unacceptable to God
religious activity is not substiture for personal righteousness
hypocrisy is hated by God
“It was because Israel were so ‘religious’ that they did not repent” Anderson & Freedman
No sacrifices or offerings in the wilderness
“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
The sacrificial system was not established until they entered the promised land
Yet God maintained a relationship with his people and blessed and cared for them
Sacrifices did not maintain that relationship
Salvation or God’s favour was not based on sacrifices
Idolatry
You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves,
Both now as in the wilderness they took up idols
Amos uses a play on words with the Hebrew word siqqus “abomination”
Exile
and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
Disobedience was to throw them back into exile
The promised land is only for those whose heart is circumcised
The absense of justice and righteousness and the presence of idolatry meantt that the nation would not survive the judgment of God
Hymn -
Hymn -
Q&A
Q&A
Hymn -
Hymn -
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Doxology
Doxology
