Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you notable men of the foremost nation,
to whom the people of Israel come!
Go to Calneh and look at it;
go from there to great Hamath,
and then go down to Gath in Philistia.
Are they better off than your two kingdoms?
Is their land larger than yours?
You put off the evil day
and bring near a reign of terror.
You lie on beds inlaid with ivory
and lounge on your couches.
You dine on choice lambs
and fattened calves.
You strum away on your harps like David
and improvise on musical instruments.
You drink wine by the bowlful
and use the finest lotions,
but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;
your feasting and lounging will end.
The LORD Abhors the Pride of Israel
The Sovereign LORD has sworn by himself—the LORD God Almighty declares:
“I abhor the pride of Jacob
and detest his fortresses;
I will deliver up the city
and everything in it.”
If ten men are left in one house, they too will die. And if a relative who is to burn the bodies comes to carry them out of the house and asks anyone still hiding there, “Is anyone with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the LORD.”
For the LORD has given the command,
and he will smash the great house into pieces
and the small house into bits.
Do horses run on the rocky crags?
Does one plow there with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness—
you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar
and say, “Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?”
For the LORD God Almighty declares,
“I will stir up a nation against you, O house of Israel,
that will oppress you all the way
from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” All scripture includes the Old Testament, including the Major and Minor Prophets. Although these words were written for specific people at a particular time in history, there are still lessons we can learn from these writings today, as they are applicable to our lives, and as they fit within the context of the New Covenant relationship with God via Jesus’ shed blood on the cross for our sins.
Complacency
Zion today is the kingdom of God, the church (temple) of God, the heavenly Jerusalem. It is comprised of God’s people, spiritual Israel, i.e. true believers in Jesus Christ. The people are the church, the body of Christ, and our hearts are his temple. He dwells within the lives of those who are truly his by his grace and through faith (repentance and obedience). Collectively the body of Christ makes up the church. So, in today’s context, this is speaking to believers in Jesus Christ, i.e. to the church.
Woe (distress; trouble; affliction) to the complacent in Zion (the church; the body of Christ). Complacent means to be “pleased, especially with oneself or one's merits, advantages, situation, etc., often without awareness of some potential danger or defect; self-satisfied:” http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/complacent. People who are complacent generally are not moved to change, and are content with status quo, even if the status quo is not the most desirable, and generally have a “care-less” attitude. They are content with their lives, their own accomplishments, life patterns, hobbies, careers, etc., and feel pretty good about the direction in life where they are headed. They don’t want to hear that anything might be wrong with the direction they are going, and so they resist any suggestions that something in their lives might need to be altered or changed.
Not only as a people of God was Israel complacent, but as a nation they were complacent. They were described as “notable men of the foremost nation,” though these words may have been spoken in irony or in sarcasm, basically echoing how the people saw themselves. The people were bragging about their national security and their military and political power. They trusted in the strength of their nation. They had much national pride. They had much wealth and luxury, and apparently spent much time lounging around and entertaining themselves, indulging in the finest of food and wine.
My Country
I live in the United States of America, so it is really the only nation I really know much about. This description (above) of the nation of Israel, which was also a spiritual nation (a people of God), as complacent, self-sufficient, boastful and proud could be descriptive of many people and nations throughout the globe, I am sure. Yet, I see very much that the USA has become a very proud and boastful nation, bragging and feeling secure about our political and military strength and power. We take much pride in our form of government and in our military, thinking that we are the “good guys” of the world going throughout the world killing the “bad guys.” Yet, the Lord has consistently shown me for the past six years that we are not the good guys, but we are the bad guys, and we are just as guilty of what Amos was speaking to Israel about in his day, only this is speaking to the USA today.
They rejected the law of God (his word), were led astray by false gods (idols of men), they oppressed those who were less fortunate than them and/or took advantage of the righteous (ones in the right), and they were promiscuous and immoral. They were complacent, proud, arrogant, boastful, and had much self-assurance that they were better than others and that they were invincible. I see much of this same attitude today in our nation, and in the church. We promote and support those who we really don’t know, and don’t have a clue what they are really doing in our government and throughout the world, and don’t really care to try to find out what they are really doing, either. We involve ourselves in our own pleasures of entertainment and eating without knowing or caring to find out what our nation is doing to the people throughout the globe, and in our own nation, or the direction our own nation is headed. We have this euphoric idea that life is just going to continue as it is and so we should just sit back and relax and have a good time. Life is a party!
You Do Not Grieve
“…but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.” This is really the crux of the matter. “Joseph” was symbolic of the northern kingdom of Israel. Basically, the people of God were so caught up in their own lives, their own schedules, their own interests, their own sense of self-importance, and national pride, etc., that they were absolutely complacent with regard to the sins of their nation (government and military) and the sins of the people of God (Israel). And, this is so true of much of our nation and church here in the USA today. It appears to me that very few people, with whom I communicate, have met, or have observed over a period of time, truly are grieving over the sins of our nation and over the sins of the people of God in our nation. The church has so engrained the people with national pride and loyalty, that we don’t question what is really going on. We are gullible, naïve and too easily believe everything we see, hear and read without checking it out to see if it is true or not. I know. I did that, too.
And, we don’t grieve over the sins of our brothers and sisters in Christ, because we are taught not to say anything to offend anyone, and that we should only say “happy, happy” stuff to people to make them feel good about themselves, and so we only help feed this idea that the sins of our brothers and sisters is none of our business and that we should just let the Holy Spirit speak, and so we say nothing and allow our fellow believers to just continue in sin. May it never be! May we be ones who grieve over the spiritual ruin of our nation, and over the spiritual ruin of the church (Zion) within our nation.
God has judged our nation previously, and he will judge us again. Christians are not exempt from God’s judgments (discipline, rebuke, chastisement). True believers in Christ are only spared the final judgment of God, i.e. we have been saved from eternal punishment in hell because of our sins. Yet, the scriptures clearly teach that God judges and disciplines those he loves, so we should be earnest and repent of our sins. And, we should put our hope and trust in God, not in men. Man will fail us and will disappoint us, but God will never fail.
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms / Elisha A. Hoffman / A. J. Showalter
What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
No comments:
Post a Comment