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Amos the Seer: “I told you so (5x) – GOD showed me
I told you so!

Don’t we hate to hear it? While occupied in our own daily trespasses we stop up our ears to any who would warn of our sins: “Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold…”

And to make things worse, in the day of our demise the seer such as Amos could well lament, “I told you so, but you refused to listen.”

Amos 5:

Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament, house of Israel…

We’ve heard Amos previously warn:

Those who turn justice into wormwood
also throw righteousness to the ground.

Now the seer shows signs he tells Israel’s leaders ‘the Lord GOD showed me.’

Would a leader – a king, premier or president – dare ignore something that a seer [Amos] says the Lord God showed me?

How could a priest serving a people pledged to God not hear Amos when he demonstrates ‘what the Lord God showed me?’

Wailing in the streets

16 Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Lord,

“There is wailing in all the plazas,
And in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’

… For I will pass through you,”
Says the Lord.

It is not as if the LORD leads them out of their troubles as before from Egypt through the wilderness and before Israel subduing her enemies in the promised land.

Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord!
What will the day of the Lord be for you?
It will be darkness and not light.
Amos 5:18 CSB

The seer shows the fear of the LORD that will consume a man fleeing an enemy arrived safely at home, but there bitten by a snake.

Are we not all prey of the serpent of eden without the Lord God?

Rather than consuming Israel’s offerings for sin on the altar the Lord would consume Israel!

The Day of the Lord

20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light,
Even gloom with no brightness in it?

21 “I hate, I reject your festivals,
Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.
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We will have more about festivals to consider
when returning to the Gospel of John shortly.
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22 “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them…

The Lord will no longer accept Israel’s worship!

23 Take away from me the noise of your songs!

25 “House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the forty years in the wilderness?

Amos reminds that they had nothing to offer there before the pillar of fire of the LORD!

Idolatry

NO OTHER GODS!

The Law of the Living LORD our God is quite clear: He IS GOD and idols (even of good “Saints” or a Jesus of stone) are not. Yet Israel became a whore on the mountaintops of the stone images of idolatry.

26 וּנְשָׂאתֶ֗ם אֵ֚ת סִכּ֣וּת מַלְכְּכֶ֔ם וְאֵ֖ת כִּיּ֣וּן צַלְמֵיכֶ֑ם כּוֹכַב֙ אֱלֹ֣הֵיכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר עֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם לָכֶֽם׃
Amos 5:27 WLC

27 Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,”
Says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

Woe to those at ease

We have heard this before from the Prophet Isaiah who also preached against rituals and idolatry after Amos. The true prophet so often warns, “This is what the LORD God showed me.”

Warning & Advice to Scoffers Who Rule
Isaiah speaks to scoffers of God. Yet are your ears this day so filled with twisted speech that you do not even understand the significance of his warning?

Amos now warns the rich who govern and direct worship in Israel.

3 Woe to you who put far off the day of doom,
Who cause the seat of violence to come near;
4 Who lie on beds of ivory,
Stretch out on your couches,
Eat lambs from the flock
And calves from the midst of the stall;
5 Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments,
And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David;
6 Who drink wine from bowls,
And anoint yourselves with the best ointments,
But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

… now go into exile … And the sprawlers’ banqueting will pass away…

Judgment on Jacob

8 The Lord God has sworn by Himself,
The Lord God of hosts says:
“I abhor the pride of Jacob,
And hate his palaces;
Therefore I will deliver up the city
And all that is in it.”

God showed me five signs
I will leave it to you to read the five signs Amos tells us, ‘the Lord God showed me.’

Let the Holy Spirit convict the church!

The Lord Jesus, Redeemer of Israel, later showed signs no other Prophet could ever do. Yet even the Messiah Jesus was not believed.

So how do you think Amos was received by the leaders of the land and their appointed teachers and priests?

The five signs build in intensity and importance.

A brief glance

7:2 When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, “Lord God, please forgive! … So the Lord relented…

4 The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! …

“This too shall not be,” said the Lord God.

7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. And the Lord said to me,

“Amos, what do you see?”

And I said, “A plumb line.”

Opposition

10 Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying,

“Amos has conspired against you right here in the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words…

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer!

Amos responds to the priest with the anointing of the Lord in his calling.

“I was no prophet…, But I was a sheepbreeder.

I will spare them no longer

What do you think?

The Lord has relented from punishment for sin. Will you repent?

And once again, the Lord holds back and does not punish. Will you now repent?

So the Lord measures the place of your worship, the people of His pasture. It is a time for harvest, a festival of blessing in times before.

3 In that day the temple songs will become wailing”—this is the Lord God’s declaration.

“Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere!

Silence!”
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Do you now FEAR THE LORD?
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4 Hear this,

you who swallow up the needy,
And make the poor of the land fail…

10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth
and every head to be shaved.
I will make that grief
like mourning for an only son
and its outcome like a bitter day.

11 Look, the days are coming—
this is the declaration of the Lord God—
when I will send a famine through the land:
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and roam from north to east
seeking the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
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SILENCE! of the LORD. Do you hear it?
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God’s Judgment Unavoidable

Did you repent when you heard the word of the Lord?

And did you bow down when the Lord showed you mercy?

Now, therefore, the Lord stands beside the holy altar of worship and Amos speaks the unspeakable judgment of the Lord upon the people of His Own covenant.

I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said,

“Strike the doorposts, that the thresholds may shake,
And break them on the heads of them all.
I will slay the last of them with the sword.
He who flees from them shall not get away,
And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.

“Though they dig into hell,
From there My hand shall take them;
Though they climb up to heaven,
From there I will bring them down;
The word of the LORD – Amos 9:2 NKJV

The further words of the Lord paint a fearful judgment and death of the people of His promise, a covenant Israel has broken.

The Prophet Amos confronts you and says, God showed me all this that you might repent. Do you?

All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
Amos 9:10 KJV

The ending that is not yet the end

Amos offers only a distant glimmer of hope.

“On that day I will raise up
The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
And repair its damages;
I will raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old…

The Lord God will once again accept worship by the sons of David. Yet how?

We will learn more of this next in returning to the Good News of John.

וְשָׁפַכְתִּי֩ עַל־בֵּ֨ית דָּוִ֜יד וְעַ֣ל יֹושֵׁ֣ב יְרוּשָׁלִַ֗ם ר֤וּחַ חֵן֙ וְתַ֣חֲנוּנִ֔ים וְהִבִּ֥יטוּ אֵלַ֖י אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר־דָּקָ֑רוּ וְסָפְד֣וּ עָלָ֗יו כְּמִסְפֵּד֙ עַל־הַיָּחִ֔יד וְהָמֵ֥ר עָלָ֖יו כְּהָמֵ֥ר עַֽל־הַבְּכֹֽור׃
http://blb.sc/009Nio

“I will pour out on the house of David
and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the Spirit of grace and of supplication,
so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced;
and they will mourn for Him,
as one mourns for an only son,
and they will weep bitterly over Him
like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
Zechariah 12:10 NASB
March 21, 2020
Unless the Father draws you – Signs
Signs from God the Father

Perhaps as one of the multitude hearing the preaching of Jesus you may have missed His relational claim to God as His Father. Even now as one seeing signs on a mountainside and your amazement by the Lord’s miracles, your ears failed to hear His mention of the Father.

And like those in the crowds who followed Jesus for a time, but later left Him when their path to Heaven became steep and dangerous, you may have asked yourself a question like this:

Why would I follow Jesus or worship Him instead of God?

שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה אֶחָֽד׃
Deuteronomy 6:4 Masoretic Text

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6:5

Previously I asked you to “Follow Me” & support my Christian Social Witness by subscribing to new posts. Most will not.

Why? Same reason that the multitudes did NOT follow Jesus. The Lord asks us to submit to His will in place of our own.

Today we will show some signs of Jesus and address reactions of those who claimed to believe in God while selfishly opposing to follow the Messiah of Israel.

Miracles & Signs by Jesus

The Apostle John outlines several signs and proofs of the Good News that Jesus IS the Son of the Living God. That is to say, Jesus proves to witnesses that God IS His Father and He IS God’s only Son!

Before hearing (or reading) Jesus’ words about the Father, let’s briefly look at John’s list of proofs witnessed by many in several places.

Cana, Galilee
- John 2:7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. 9 When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom…
Jerusalem, Judea
- John 2: First Passover—Cleansing the Temple
  - 18 The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?”
  - 19 Jesus answered them,
  - “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
  - But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
- John 2:23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.
Galilee, along road through Samaria from Jerusalem
- There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.
Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
John 4:48 CSB

Do you and I tend to require more proof from God?

(I know sometimes my faith falters.)

Jesus provides proof of a miracle here even though the Lord lamented that we so often require signs.

49 “Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.”

50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.”

A pool by the Sheep Market gate, Jerusalem, Judea
- John 5: (Most likely during a second Passover) The Healing at Bethesda
3 Within these [five porches] lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

5 One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁸“Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Now that day was the Sabbath…

Son’s Signs through the Father

“Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing… And just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants.
John 5:19b,21 CSB

28 Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation.
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To be continued... 
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January 6, 2020
God’s Love Through John: Signs
John was the youngest of Jesus’ Disciples and the only Apostle who would live to an old age, actually several decades after Christ’s Sacrifice and Resurrection. The Apostle John makes a case to Jews and gentiles alike that Jesus IS God!

Andrew and John follow Jesus
He had been a follower of John the Baptist, whom many recognized as a Prophet. After John testified that Jesus was the expected Messiah, John’s disciples followed Jesus; some immediately like the young disciple John and others after Herod imprisoned John.

Do you believe in God?

If you believe that the heavens and earth are created, John illustrates the event which precedes all mankind in a manner similar to the Book of Genesis, then immediately makes a connection between God the Father and God the Son.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him…
John 1: CSB

We began this series with John’s ‘in the beginning’ explanation of Christ from his Gospel and some of John’s letters, then proceeded to ask some basic questions about God.

God is Spirit

John also points to the Spirit, in the same way as Genesis points to the Spirit of God having an active role in Creation.

The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
John 3:8 CSB

Jesus receives the Spirit of God

John introduces the respected Prophet John the Baptist, who testifies to the authenticity of Jesus as the Messiah.

And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he rested on him. 33 I didn’t know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The one you see the Spirit descending and resting on—he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.
John 1:32-34

Signs – Proof from God

John’s Gospel presents witnesses and evidence that Jesus is the Messiah with proofs presented throughout his Gospel.

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”
John 3:2 – the words of the Pharisee Nicodemus to Jesus

Perhaps you are a skeptic and because others saw the signs and attested to them a long time ago, you need proof.

This is where faith and a reasonable logic connect the evidence of the Good News witnessed twenty-one centuries ago.

‘What are these signs that Jesus is the Messiah of Almighty God?’

Seven Signs John Records
- John 2:1-12 Jesus turns water into wine, mentioned in an earlier post in this series.
- John 4:46-54 Jesus heals the son of a Roman official in Cana
Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
Jesus to a Roman nobleman – John 4:48

Perhaps Jesus spoke these words not only for the Roman official who showed respect and faith to Him, but also to the crowds of Jewish disciples who had begun seeking signs that Jesus IS the Messiah.
- John 5:1-16 At a festival in Jerusalem, witnessed by crowds of Jewish pilgrims, Jesus asked a man who had no strength [astheneia] for thirty-eight years, “Do you want to get well?” And the Lord heals him.
Pool of Bethesda

What a seemingly odd question, “Will you be made whole?”

The dual meaning from the Greek, Judea’s and the Empire’s common language, implies not only receiving a healthy body once more, but also receiving teaching which does not deviate from the truth.

Would that be something the multitudes present and saints today would want? Do you want to be made whole, by the Power of God?

What is your answer?

8 “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.”
… 14 After this, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.”

Jesus asks us, “Do you want to be made well?”

Miracle of the Loaves and Fish
- John 6:1-5 Feeding of the Five Thousand
A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick.
John 6:2

14 When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

15 Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
- John 6:16-22 Jesus walks on water.
Only the Twelve witnessed this directly; however note what the crowds would have realized after Jesus had left them to be alone.

22 The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw there had been only one boat. They also saw that Jesus had not boarded the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone off alone.

‘How did this Prophet get to the other side without a boat,’ the crowds witnessing a miracle the day before must have wondered? Then they got in their own boats and crossed to the other side to seek Jesus.
- John 9 Jesus heals a blind man
We will not dwell on the richness of this later sign of Jesus’ healing of a man who is blind from birth. This miracle as well becomes a sign to us that not everyone who hears the eyewitness accounts has ‘ears to hear’ the truth.

Not everyone who sees a miracle with our own eyes will ‘have eyes to see’ the wonder of God at work in the life of another mere mortal.

³⁹Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.”

Resurrection of the dead
- John 11:32-40 Jesus raises Lazarus from death
32 As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!”

33 When Jesus saw her crying,

and the Jews who had come with her crying,

he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled.

This is the compassion of the Lord, love for the family as a fellow friend of the dead man, Lazarus. Jesus loves them. Therefore, God loves them all; for they have suffered in the death of a loved one – a mortal man.

34 “Where have you put him?” he asked.

“Lord,” they told him, “come and see.”

35 Jesus wept.

The proof is not yet come. No miracle to have saved Jesus’ beloved friend from his inevitable death, even when Jesus was not present. And the sign of Jesus is not just so that they might rejoice in their friendship one last time before Christ’s own suffering.

Look again to the two very different reactions to this seventh sign John provides that Jesus IS the Messiah of God.

36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying?”

… ⁴¹So they removed the stone…

“Lazarus, come out!”
44 The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth.

Reaction to Jesus’ Signs

What was it they had said before Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb?

“Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying?”

Yes. He could have. But instead Jesus showed God’s power by raising Lazarus from death.

Lazarus would be a walking witness to Jesus, conviction to those who would crucify their own Messiah and proof of not only his resurrection but witness that Jesus IS the Messiah.

Many believed in Jesus because of Lazarus. Many others followed Jesus because of their personal witness to other signs recorded by the Apostle John.

Yet others remained unrepentant. It was not so unlike those we encounter in these last days.

“What are we going to do since this man is doing many signs?
If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
John 11:47b-48 CSB

The religious leaders could never again be comfortable with Jesus. Our comfortable status-quo will change, even before the judgement which follows death.

Indeed, what will you do, now that the testimony of John has shown you the signs of Jesus?
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To be continued...
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October 4, 2018