Amos 7

This is a warning for our time today.

We talk a lot about Amos 7.

Look at the lead up to it.

Amos 5:4 it says, "For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek you me, and you shall live.

For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought." It says, "Seek the Lord, and you shall live.

Lest, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it, and there be none to quench, quench it in Bethel." God says, "Seek him and we'll live.

Don't seek after Bethel." And you go into Amos 7 and you see how that Bethel is the seat of, uh, of Jeroboam's reign or rule or his religious following, his government.

Family, what was it? Love, God, religion and tariffs.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I feel like we can make the same of the same points here that we've made in the United States as our editor in chief was very strong throughout the Biden years that President Trump in particular was going to come back to power due to prophecies in 2 Kings 14 and Amos 7 about an end-time Jeroboam figure who would save Israel temporarily, but also made a strong warning to not get overly complacent because the fact that this saving wasn't due to a change in the American character or increasing American righteousness or American repentance, but just due to the fact that given the censorship and the government espionage and some of the other things under the Obama-Biden administration, we're getting to the point where we're about ready to lose our republic, where a deep state could just rig elections and Americans wouldn't actually have the freedom for much longer to chart their own life course or voluntarily choose to repent.

And so there needed to be this temporary resurgence to give Americans that chance to repent.

Now there's not specific prophecies in the same way about Latin America.

2 Kings 14 and Amos 7 doesn't mention these nations specifically.

But just... looking at what is happening, you can draw comparisons between what happened in the United States and what happened in Latin America, where it does seem like some of these nations are being saved temporarily, but same warning applies, not due to a shift in the righteousness of the people, maybe an opportunity for more of God's message to go out to the region, more people to chance to deliver a warning message, get more co-workers, get more members.

But if the nations as a whole don't repent, these prophecies about the Holy Roman Empire will continue.

And I think there's a really great example of that with a guy named Amos.

And so I'd like us to read Amos 1.1 and then someone else read Amos 7.10-15 and specifically listen for Amos' credentials.

Okay,

I'll get the 1.1.

CJ, how does this book end?

All right, so in Amos 7, Amos starts to plead on behalf of the people, sort of like Moses has done, maybe like during the golden calf incident.

And he comes down, he prays before God.

He says, I plead with you, please leave these people alone, take me instead.

So this was no doubt a stretch for him.

Let's look at Amos' description of himself in Amos 7, verse 14, where it says, I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a sheep breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit, which is figs.

So, in chapters three and four, there's a theme that privilege brings responsibility and sin brings consequences.

Amos starts chapter three with an emphasis on the special privilege the Israelites had by being the only people chosen by God to walk with him, and the extra accountability that comes with that, much like the privilege that we all have by being called into God's kingdom, and the extra responsibility we have in being good witnesses and good examples to others.