Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: amos

Truth for Gentiles who turn to God
How will the Jerusalem Council judge Gentiles according to the Jewish Law of Moses?

Acts 15

6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.

Simon Peter has testified.

“Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
Acts of the Apostles 15:7b ESV

And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.
Acts of the Apostles 15:12 ESV

Response of Jerusalem’s Pastor James

¹³After they finished speaking, James replied,

“Brothers, listen to me. ¹⁴Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name.

Leaders and Witnesses of the Jerusalem council

Let’s be clear who is speaking and which leaders have witnessed the truth of events leading to a church meeting about the gentiles.

Simon Peter.

In verse 14 the King James and English Standard versions translate Συμεών from the Greek as Simeon; however the NKJV, NIV and other versions use “Simon” while the NLT uses the most familiar identification of the Apostle, “Peter.”

Barnabas and Paul

Their mission journey has brought about this council and clearly both are leaders in their testimony of the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles and leadership of the church at Antioch Syria.

James

And let’s not miss who now speaks a the representative pastor and leader of the local church at Jerusalem where the council meets.

It is none other than James brother of Jesus who was raised with the Lord, yet did not believe that his half-brother was the Christ, the prophesied Son of God until after Jesus’ resurrection at which time James became a faithful disciple called to lead the Jerusalem Church.

Witness of the Prophets

James refers to the Prophet Amos from ~760 BC and Samuel Prophet of David three hundred years before that.

“Brothers, listen to me. ¹⁴Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. ¹⁵And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,

¹⁶“‘After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;
I will rebuild its ruins,
     and I will restore it,
¹⁷that the remnant^[a] of mankind may seek the Lord,
    and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,
     says the Lord, who makes these things ¹⁸known from of old.’

In A.D. 49, James witnesses the promises of God to David a thousand years before. Now it seems that the kingdom promised to David is all but defeated.

The Temple of Solomon was destroyed, the Jews were captured and taken to Babylon and Persia. The distant hope witnessed by Amos and the Prophets seems near to slipping away once more at the hand of Rome (which will again destroy Jerusalem and Herod’s temple in A.D. 70).

Yet Scripture is true and God’s word comforting to those faithful few who wait for the Lord to save — for the Lord to redeem the captives who hold to His Name — saving them from God’s judgment of sin and eternal punishment and granting His true worshipers the glory of the kingdom of the root and the son of David. Yes, even the Nations of the world beyond the hills of Jerusalem.

Amos 9:

I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:
“Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake,
and shatter them on the heads of all the people;
and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
not one of them shall flee away;
not one of them shall escape.

8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,
except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
declares the LORD.

“For behold, I will command,
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
but no pebble shall fall to the earth.

All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’

This was just one judgment of Jerusalem!

Amos had prophesied it.

Twenty years earlier, the Sanhedrin of Herod which meets in this same Jerusalem as today’s council had crucified Jesus Christ, brother of James and Son of David. The leaders of a semi-captive Israel disregarded the revealed will and written word of the Lord God.

The Jewish council of Herod’s Temple had also slain the Apostle James by the sword, another politically expedient death which it thought would prevent the sword of Rome from overtaking their city of sin.

It didn’t. (For as most of us know Rome would destroy Jerusalem just twenty-one years from this time of the Christian Council in Jerusalem.)

Amos 9:11-12 (to which James refers)

“In that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins
and rebuild it as in the days of old,

that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,”
declares the LORD who does this.

It is a remnant of Edom. Yes even a remnant of Judah and Israel after these many centuries — only a remnant who remember the Lord their God and look for the redemption paid on the Cross for “all the nations who are called by my name, says the LORD.”

Judgment for the Gentiles

You have probably never thought of James, brother of Jesus, pastor of the Jerusalem church and author of a New Testament letter to the church as a Judge.

But this is his role here with the Council at Jerusalem.

The accusations (concerning circumcision) have been presented. Several witnesses have presented evidence about the truth of events where gentiles have interacted with Jewish witnesses (including the Apostles).

A defense of the truth by Barnabas and Paul recounts incidents for which some Jews have accused them of breaking the Law of Moses.

Pastor James, head of this Christian Sanhedrin gathering of Apostles and other leaders has even preceded his decision as Judge with Scriptural prophesy of their very actions concerning the gentiles. So here is his verdict speaking on behalf of this council at Jerusalem as its leader:

19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God
Acts of the Apostles 15:19 ESV – Verdict of the Council of Jerusalem pronounced by James

The verdict pronounced by James on behalf of the Council at Jerusalem, however, is conditional. Addressing the concerns of which Gentiles have turned to God by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, he continues with clarification of what the Council must do to go into the Gentile world with the Gospel.
```
NEXT, God-willing, we will join James and the Council of Jerusalem as they take action by way of a letter and messengers sent on another mission trip to the Gentile Nations.
```
January 9, 2023
Wailing in all the Public Squares (Social Media?)
Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:

“There will be wailing in all the public squares
and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets.
Amos 5:16a – Berean Study Bible

and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets.

The Public Square and our Platforms of Wailing

WE THE PEOPLE do NOT like to be told what WE have done wrong.

You may claim in the public square that your ‘ONE NATION’ is ‘under god,’ but what if its leaders never listen to the Lord God, let alone obey?

Prophets, false prophets, anti-Christs and demagogues all deliberate in the public square. Yet like nations before, WE THE PEOPLE will wail at our destruction while stopping up our ears to Truth.
Roger@TalkofJESUS.COM

WE tend to avoid the PROPHETIC BOOKS of the #Bible, God’s Holy Word.

The prophets were extremely nationalistic. They rebuked sin in high as well as low places. They warned the nation. They pleaded with a proud people to humble themselves and return to God.
J. Vernon McGee

Amos
```
Amos’ name means “burden” or “burden-bearer.” 
A “sheepbreeder” (1:1; cf. 2 Kin. 3:4) and a “tender of sycamore fruit” .. Politically, it was a time of prosperity
Amos addresses Israel’s two primary sins: 1) an absence of true worship, and 2) a lack of justice.
Source: Commentary of John Macarthur
```
Amos – Not immune from judgment

(As you can see, I shared a brief series from Amos as recently as March 2020.) Did you Comment on it in the ‘public square’ of your Social Media?

Stephen commented on Amos in the public square of his trial in Jerusalem eight centuries later!

ACTS of a first century Martyr (who also quotes Amos)

Did you have any thoughts to SHARE your witness for the Lord in the public square of #twitter or Facebook for any Scripture from this series in ACTS of the Apostles?

The Testimony of Christ by Stephen

Today’s Short Take from Amos 5:
- A Lamentation against Israel
- A Call to Repentance
  - “Seek Me and live!
There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.
Amos 5:10 BSB
- Woe to Rebellious Israel
  - Also from Stephen’s speech in (Acts 7:39–43)
The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.

There will be wailing in all the vineyards,

for I will pass through your midst,”

5:23 הָסֵר מֵעָלַי הֲמוֹן שִׁרֶיךָ וְזִמְרַת נְבָלֶיךָ לֹא אֶשְׁמָֽע׃

But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

From the footstool of one shot on 15 April, 1865, to the steps of a Nation yet divided seven score and sixteen years hence, WE neither remember nor proclaim the Lord WE claim.
Roger@TalkofJESUS.com

But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:24 BSB

What’s your Short Take in the ‘public square?’
January 20, 2022
God will raise up for you a prophet
I HAVE COME DOWN TO RESCUE THEM

Stephen: ‘God will raise up a Prophet like Moses’

As he stares intently into the souls of those leaders of Jerusalem who have brought him to trial for preaching about Jesus Christ, Stephen continues to compare Jesus to Israel’s ancient fathers. He also compares these judges he faces to defiant Hebrews who rejected Moses for forty years. But what point does Stephen make about Christ when he quotes from Scripture concerning Moses saying, ‘God will raise up a Prophet from your countrymen?‘
“This Moses whom they disowned..

is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer
led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt
and in the Red Sea,
and in the wilderness for forty years.
“This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel,
‘GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR COUNTRYMEN.’
ACTS of the Apostles 7:37 NASB20 – Defense of Stephen to the Sanhedrin

ACTS 7: of the disciple of the Apostles, Stephen

38 Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God’s people in the wilderness, when the angel spoke to him at Mount Sinai. And there Moses received life-giving words to pass on to us.

To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us:
Acts 7:39-40a KJV – Stephen compares Israel’s leaders to those who turned from Moses to Aaron, asking Aaron to lead them back to Egypt and their gods

“You are to be blameless before the LORD your God.

“For these nations, which you are going to dispossess, listen to soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so.
Deuteronomy 18:14 [& 13 above]

A Word from the Source:

Deuteronomy 18:

“Adonai will raise up for you a prophet like me..

..pay attention to him, just as when you were assembled at Horev and requested Adonai your God,

‘Don’t let me hear the voice of Adonai my God any more, or let me see this great fire ever again; if I do, I will die!’
Deuteronomy 18:15-16 excerpt
Complete Jewish Bible

אֲדֹנָי

ăḏōnāy (H136)– an emphatic form of אָדוֹן (H113)

The following Scripture verses precede Stephen’s defense he quotes from Deuteronomy to leaders of the Jewish High Council of the Sanhedrin:

Powerful Pleas of the Prophet Moses
- ‘Lord H136 GOD, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as Yours? – Deuteronomy 3:24
  - – Mōšê, at the time when the Lord God would allow him to see the Jordan, but would not allow Moses to cross over because of his disobedience.
- “And I prayed to the LORD and said, ‘Lord H136 GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand! – Deuteronomy 9:26
- “For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord H136 of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe. – Deuteronomy 10:17 *[quotes from NASB20]
Open your eyes to the full context of the scripture above from which Stephen preaches.

Powerful pleas from Deuteronomy by Stephen
- Why does Stephen use this Book of Moses for his defense?
“Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.
Deuteronomy 10:14

Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,

for all the signs and wonders which the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land— and for all the mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

Deuteronomy 34:10-12
- And the Lord God, who belongs to heaven and the highest heavens is the only One who can send down another Prophet like Moses to earth, a son of man,
- The Apostles and many more disciples of Jesus had witnessed the Lord Christ Jesus taken up into heaven just a few weeks prior to that first Pentecost when Peter had preached in Solomon’s Colonnade.
  - God the Father ‘will raise up another Prophet like Moses: One Redeemer Son of God greater than Moses, as One Perfect Sacrifice for sin for those who believe — Stephen stands accused before these same men who sent the Lord Jesus – the Righteous One — to hang on a Roman Cross.
  - Moses had assured that the Father of all creation and created would ‘raise up’ such a prophet and teacher — and these disciples of the Apostles of the Messiah Jesus are His witnesses.
Stephen has now preached Christ crucified and risen to Jerusalem for two years, prior to his trial.

Tabernacles and Temples

Acts 7: Stephen continues..

⁴¹At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

42 Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods!
```
Remember: Stephen is preaching this to Jewish leaders who idolize Herod's Temple, Israelites who have been dealing with this 'Jesus challenge' for five years now, even as the church grows dramatically even as Rome becomes increasingly impatient with their State of Judah.
```
Stephen now quotes Judah’s Prophet, Amos of Tekoa, a small village just 10 miles from Jerusalem eight centuries earlier.
```
“Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings
In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
You also carried Sikkuth [*] your king [*]
And Chiun, [*] 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.

Amos 5:25-27 NKJV - [* pagan idols including Moloch]
```
In the book of the prophets it is written,

‘People of Isra’el, it was not to me
that you offered slaughtered animals
and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness!
No, you carried the tent of Molekh
and the star of your god Reifan [Ῥαιφάν],
the idols you made so that you could worship them.
Therefore, I will send you into exile beyond Bavel [Babylon].
Acts 7:42b-43, Complete Jewish Bible

What is Stephen’s point in quoting Amos to the Sanhedrin?
(Amos 5:1 introduces Stephen’s lament to his Jewish judges:)

Hear this word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel:

Moloch, god of Canaan
5:24 וְיִגַּל כַּמַּיִם מִשְׁפָּט וּצְדָקָה כְּנַחַל אֵיתָֽן׃

“But let justice roll down like waters
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:24

The trial and defense of Stephen before Jerusalem’s leaders of the Sanhedrin —–

To be continued…
January 14, 2022