But There's One

The entire book of Amos can be summed up in the word "judgement" God is getting ready to pour out his wrath and judgement upon the wicked and especially upon His chosen people that are wicked. Chapter 5 is actually a funeral dirge somewhat like a eulogy. Can you imagine this hillbilly farmer from Tekoa coming to the big city in his greasy overalls, straw hat, and southern accent going through the city main streets with possibly a few paid mourners behind him singing this. That is what is going on here.

Amos a sheepherder and fig salesman, was from Judah but was used of God to prophesy to Israel and the Northern Kingdom. "Amos, like Hosea, prophesied during the reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel (793– 753 BC) and Uzziah (= Azariah) of Judah (792– 739 BC)."[1]

It was a time of great wealth, prosperity and political stability. The spiritual side of Israel was deeply lacking. They had added to their worship of the Lord the idolatrous worship of not only Baal but Asherah…"This spiritual decay displayed itself in social injustice. The rich exploited the poor; the powerful dominated the weak. Morality meant little or nothing." [2]

In the first two chapters of Amos he prophesies against eight nations that were due for judgment. "Each of the eight judgement speeches contains an announcement of God's judgment, the reason for judgment, and the nature of judgment. …Numerical expressions like “For three sins . . . even for four” … was indicating that God would be gracious to these nations no longer. The time to pay for their sins had come. "

The eight nations were Damascus, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah and then finally Israel. If you look at these nations on a map and draw a map it spirals around like a bullseye with Israel at the center. Amos wasn't just prophesying against these nations, he was trying to show the reality of the situation. The other nations were truly wicked and ripe for judgement, but Amos deals far more extensively with Israel's sins than with the rest of the nations. They were God's chosen people and they forsook him, and now in chapter 5 he is singing their funeral dirge. It's over he says it's done.

He uses word pictures to show its over, In verses 2 he uses the picture of a virgin. A young lady who never had the chance to marry or bear children, she has died, there is on one to raise her up.

In verse 3 he uses the picture of an army losing by 90% If a thousand goes out only 100 will return, if 100 go out only 10 comes home.

In the next stanza we have a contrasting list of what to seek and what not to seek

Seek not:

Bethel - Meaning "House of God" We just learned about in our Journey Through Genesis. It received it's name when Jacob saw a vision of angels going up and down the ladder from heaven. It became a sacred place to Jacob and to the Israelites. Jeroboam the first however, built a temple here and in the north putting a golden calf and non-Levite priests to worship. Mixing true worship with false. Gilgal - Was where Joshua set a memorial where they crossed the Jordan River when they began their invasion of Canaan. (Josh. 4:19-20) Beer Sheba - far to the south, is closely associated with the sojourns of Abraham (Gen 21:14), and we know from archaeology that there was a shrine there.[3]

The "holy places" would all be destroyed. The people of Gilgal would go into captivity (5:27), the shrine would be abandoned, and Bethel, the "house of God," would become "Beth Aven," the "house of nothing" (see Hosea 4:15, 5:8; 10:5) and go up in smoke (Amos 5:6). Even if pilgrims traveled into Judah to visit Beersheba, that was no guarantee of blessing. Eventually Judah would fall to the Babylonians.[4]

Seek God:

Three reasons to seek the Lord - They might have life 5:4No other way to experience spiritual blessing 5:5Judgment is coming 5:6 (Our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29)[5]

Two Turnings

Verse 7 - You turn justice - into poison - you throw what is fair and right to the ground. (From NET)Verse 8 - I like how the NET puts it - "But there is ONE!!!" This ONE made the "seven stars" or Pleiades and Orion - They worship stars - but YOU, YOU SEEK THE GOD WHO MADE THE STARS!!!Did you know the Bible commands the stars to worship God!!! Psalm 148:3 - Praise ye him, sun and moon: Praise him, all ye stars of light.Gen 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: HE MADE THE STARS ALSO!!!Gen. 15:5 And he brought him [Abraham] forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.2. Did you know that approximately 7,000 stars can be seen from earth without a telescope, but only 2,000 can be seen at one place at any time. Yet, what is beheld with the eye is but a fraction of the stars that exist in the universe. According to one source by estimating how many stars there are in our Galaxy and by estimating how many Galaxies there are, it is estimated that there are about 3 thousand million billion stars (that's 3 with 16 zeroes after it). According to one article I read recently about Jeremy Harper who won a Guinness world record recently, counted aloud from 1 to one million. It took him 89 days and was live streamed online. Now Mr. Harper took a few breaks here and there but he "neither left his apartment nor shaved during the event; he recited numbers aloud (read off a computer monitor) for about an average of 16 hours every 24 hour period for 89 straight days." The article went on to calculate that using the same method of Jeremy Harper except giving about 6 seconds to count the larger numbers instead of 2 seconds and assuming you are reading the numbers off a computer screen it would take around 244-285 years to count to 1 billion. The estimated number of stars do you remember that number? 3 thousand million billion stars. We are talking hundreds of lifetimes for us to count the stars. But the Psalmist says in Psalm 147:4 He telleth (or counts) the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. God knows the exact number of stars in the Universe, He does not have to estimate. He counts every one of them and call each of those 3 thousand million billion plus stars in the sky by name!!! I love 1 Corinthians 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory!!! NO wonder David said in Psalm 8:3-4 When I consider thy heavens, and the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou ar mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? NO WONDER THE SONGWRITER WHO WAS AWED BY THE MAJESTY OF GOD PENNED _ HOW GREAT THOU ART!!![6] Amos mentions just two star clusters, Pleiades and Orion are found in two other places throughout the Bible. Job 9:9; 38:31-32, The Pleiades star cluster – also known as the Seven Sisters or M45 – is visible from virtually every place that humanity inhabits Earth’s globe. It can be seen from as far north as the north pole, and farther south than the southernmost tip of South America. It looks like a tiny misty dipper of stars. November is often called the month of the Pleiades, because it’s when this star cluster – sometimes called the Seven Sisters – shines from dusk until dawn. [7]Pleiades in Greek mythology says, however, that actually these were the seven daughters of Atlas. The seven daughters of Atlas were pursued by the giant Orion, and Orion was a great giant of a fellow. They were pursued by the giant Orion, causing them to come to Zeus to appeal to the great god for protection. Zeus changed them into a constellation of stars, so no longer were they the daughters of Atlas. However, during the destruction of the city of Troy, one of these daughters could not stand to see the destruction of the city and was given a leave of absence from the constellation. That daughter has not been heard from since, so now there are only six daughters shining in the skies as stars forever and ever. These remaining six stars are supposedly not as bright as they used to be because they too were humiliated at the defeat of the city of Troy.

Now let's look toward Orion. Orion, in Greek mythology, was a great giant, the son of Neptune. He was a mighty hunter; and while out hunting one day, he noticed a beautiful girl. Her name was Diana. He wanted Diana and began to chase her. The day came when Diana's brother, Apollo, decided he was going to do something about this giant who was chasing his sister, Diana. Apollo took Diana down to the sea and found Orion swimming in the sea. All that could be seen was his black cap. "Now," said Apollo to Diane, "you're pretty good with a bow and arrow, but I bet you couldn't hit that black speck out there on the sea." It happened to be the head of Orion. She loved him, but she did not know that the black spot was his head showing above the water. She took her bow and arrow and shot him in the head. She killed him. (Don't cry about this; this is not a true story.) Orion was brought to shore with the tide, and the beautiful Diana came and saw that she had killed her pursuer. In so doing, she transformed him into a star and placed him in the heavens. From that day till this, Orion has been chasing the six daughters of the Pleiades. [8]

He turns darkness into morningDaylight into nightHe turns the oceans into rain He has a name - "THE LORD IS HIS NAME."

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[M] Arnold, Bill T.; Beyer, Bryan E.. Encountering the Old Testament (Encountering Biblical Studies): A Christian Survey (Kindle Locations 11856-11865). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.[M] IBID[M] Jeremy Royal Howard, ed., HCSB Study Bible, (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2010), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "Amos 5".[M] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary – The Prophets, (Colorado Springs, CO: Victor, 2002), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 355-359.[M] IBID[M] From <https://recordsetter.com/world-record/highest-number-counted-to/13623> < http://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-outlines/15962/lessons-from-the-stars-pleiades-and-orion-5-of-7/>[M] http://earthsky.org/favorite-star-patterns/pleiades-star-cluster-enjoys-worldwide-renown[M] https://www.baptist-city.com/sermons/pleiades.htm