Shabbat Shalom everyone. Please open your Bibles to the prophet Amos today to the fifth chapter. Amos chapter 5 is the ministry today and I would like to read the first 17 verses. Amos chapter 5 and the reason that I am stopping at verse 17 for this ministry meeting is because Amos has three sermons that he gave our people Israel when he was speaking to the northern tribes of Israel in chapter 3, 4, 5 and 6. Those messages or those messages or those sermons called hear or Israel messages. Every one of these chapters began with the word hear this word. But in the third sermon that he gave to Israel in Amos chapter 5 and 6, there are additional two woe judgments that are mentioned in chapter 5 and 6.

And verse 5 and verse 18 and 6 and verse 1 which we're going to deal with it in the next ministry meeting. So today I would like us to read Amos chapter 5 and verses 1 to 17 and please follow me. Hear ye this word. Hear ye this word which I take up against you even a lamentation or house of Israel. The virgin of Israel is fallen. She shall no more rise. She is forsaken upon her land. There is none to raise her up. For thus says the Lord God, the city that went out by a thousand shall live a hundred and that which went forth by a hundred shall live ten to the house of Israel.

For thus says the Lord unto the house of Israel. Seek ye me and ye shall live. But seek not Bethel nor enter into Gilgal and pass not to Be'er Sheva for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to naught. Seek the Lord and ye shall live. Seek the Lord and ye shall live lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood and live off righteousness in the earth. Seek him that maketh the seven stars of Orion and turneth the shadow of death into the morning and maketh the day dark with night.

Seek that calleth for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth. The Lord is his name. That strengthens the spoiled against the strong so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. They hate him that rebuke in the gate and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. For as much therefore as your treading is upon the poor and ye take from him burdens of wheat. Ye have built houses of yun stone but ye shall not dwell in them. Ye have planted pleasant vineyards but ye shall not drink wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins.

They afflict the just. They take a bribe and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time for it is an evil time. Seek good and not evil. Seek good and not evil that ye may live. And so the Lord the God of hosts shall be with you as ye have spoken. Hate the evil and love the good and establish judgment in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. Therefore the Lord the God of hosts the Lord says thus wailing shall be in all streets.

And they shall say in all the highways. Alas! And they shall call the husbandmen to mourning. And such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing. And in all vineyard shall be wailing. For I will pass through thee saith the Lord. And I am going to stop here in verse 17. Amos chapter 5 verses 1 to 17. You remember beloved brothers and sisters if we are looking at this map one more time. The map here right here remind us that Israel the nation have been divided into two separate nations. The one huge nation of Israel now have you might say two nations. Judah in the south. Yehuda. The kingdom of Yehuda.

And Israel in the north. The kingdom of Israel. In Hebrew we call it Malchut Yehuda and Malchut Yisrael. Two separate kingdoms. Now sadly this happened after Solomon died and his son Rehovam have not submitted to God. And by being so harsh and so self-willed he lost the kingdom to a man by the name of Yeruvam. This man Yeruvam became the king of the northern kingdom. And this man Yeruvam built two golden caps. One of them in a place called Bet El. And another one above there in a place called Dan. Dan. And the northern kingdom of Israel instead of coming to worship in the city of Yerushalayim there in the center.

They remain in the north. They worship their own idols. They worship the golden calves. And they had altars and burnt sacrifices and incense to gods that are not God. To idols. That brought about the necessity of God judging the northern kingdom which is called Yisrael. So he raised a man as we have been speaking about it from the beginning of the study of Amos. Amos. A man that is called Amos. Who was a herd man. Who was a man from Tekoa. Who came all the way from below Bet Lechem. Traveled all the way up north. Went to the city of Bet El. And there he preached the messages that God gave him against the northern kingdom.

He preached eight prophecies in chapter 1 and 2. And in chapter 3, 4, 5 and 6 he gives additional three sermons. And each sermon began with the word heal ye the word of the Lord. In chapter 3 and verse 1 we read heal this word that the Lord had spoken. We covered chapter 3. In chapter 4 verse 1 we read hear this word ye kind of Bashan. We have covered chapter 4. And now we begin with sermon number 3 that Amos is giving to the northern kingdom of Israel. And you notice in chapter 5 verse 1. This third sermon is in chapter 5 and in chapter 6 together. And in this third sermon it began with verse 1. Hear ye this word which I take up against you.

And so Amos is giving now not only that he gave eight prophecies in chapter 1 and 2. Now he is giving three sermons in chapter 3, 4, 5 and 6. And at the end of the book of Amos he will give additional five visions that he received in chapter 7, 8 and 9 which we will cover in the future. So chapter 5 and chapter 6 really the title is hear Yisrael your punishment is imminent. You might think that your punishment will be delayed but no it is imminent and it is coming very shortly against you because of your rebellion against your God the God and father of the nation of Israel. And in these two chapters 5 and 6 we have the third sermon of warning that Amos is sharing with the nation of Israel.

Now in these 17 verses of chapter 5 we really have the Lord through Amos is lamenting over the people of Israel who were in darkness. You see God is lamenting. You know the word lamenting in Hebrew comes from the word kinah. Kinah is a word that you often use in scripture like the book of lamentation of Jeremiah that we have covered together. We see God through Amos lamenting weeping and mourning over his own beloved nation the nation of Israel. It's like a funeral service. It's like a funeral service. When you go to a funeral service and you are walking behind the casket and there is the lamentation and the weeping of the women and the men and those who lamenting over someone who died.

And you also said and we also said because this person passed away. Well in this case God through Amos is really lamenting over his people. He's weeping over his nation the nation of Israel. And you can see that in these all these 17 verses God is lamenting but appealing to his people who are now in spiritual darkness. You see there is always a warning that God gives to his own people to alert to be awake and get out of sleep and don't be like dead individuals. But be alive and spiritually alive to him in order to honor him and to be a good servant of the God of the scripture.

The apostle Paul years ago when he was writing to the local assembly in Ephesus he really said to the brothers and sisters in Ephesus in chapter 5 and verse 14. He says wherefore he saith awake as thou that sleepers and arise from the dead and the Messiah will give you light. You see there is a way whereby God's people including us today that while we are saved and we go to heaven and our sins are forgiven. And so in a sense here in chapter 5 verses 1 to 17 Amos is the servant of God lamenting over the people of Israel and appealing to them to turn around and come back to a relationship with God.

So you notice that as we read the 17 verses and I want to highlight some things that are important for us to learn from the prophecy of Amos. First of all look at the first three verses Amos chapter 5 and verses 1, 2 and 3 look at the lamentation itself. We read, notice in verse 1, "Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation O house of Israel." Amos is speaking to the northern kingdom of Israel and he said I want you to hear these words which I, this is Amos, by the name of Jehovah, by the name of the Lord. "Hear ye this word which I, this is Amos." "Hear ye this word which I, this is Amos." And then notice he said I take up against you, notice it's not I take up for you at this point of time, but it is against you because I know what I will have to do to you my people Israel.

I am going to have to judge you, I am going to have to send you to be captive by the Assyrian. You are going to suffer, many of you are going to die, you are going to be perishing from your very own homeland. You are going to become like a fugitive in no time where the Assyrians are going to take you captive. So here the word of the Lord which I, this is Jehovah, by the mouth of Amos, take up against you, namely Israel, even a lamentation O house of Israel. The word, notice it says not only the people of Israel, but it is the house of Israel.

Israel is the nation that came out of Yaakov, whose name was changed from Yaakov to Israel. So he is speaking to the whole house of Israel, but in this context, in light of our map here as we can see, he is specifically speaking about the Northern Kingdom. Because the Southern Kingdom later on is going to be taken captive, but he is now speaking about the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And so now, notice what he said. What a sad thing to say in verse 2 and verse 3. Notice Amos sees Israel as a virgin that has fallen into sin and forsaken by her master. Look how sad. Look how sad.

Look how sad. Look at verse 2. The virgin of Israel, Betulat Yisrael in Hebrew, is fallen. She shall no more rise. She is forsaken upon her land. There is none to raise her up. Now, as far as God is concerned, Israel was his own nation. Israel was like a virgin that is marrying to her husband and have a relationship with her husband and become his own. But what did this virgin have done? What did this woman have done? Instead of staying close to her husband, she departed away from him. And then she adopted into her life all sort of idols and all sort of, we were represented on a human level.

All sort of men become her men, but her own husband she had left. So the virgin of Israel, notice, the virgin of Israel is fallen. What a sad state. God is speaking. She was his wife. She was the bride, you might say, the wife of Jehovah, and he was her husband of the nation of Israel. But she has gone so far away by worshiping other gods and idols and have turned away from him that she became no longer enjoy a relationship with him. She had fallen into sin and she's unable to rise. And you notice it said, she's forsaken upon her land. There is none to raise her up.

Think about it from a human perspective. When a woman gone astray and no longer enjoy a relationship with her own master, her own husband. And she's dumped and no longer care. They were using her for a time and no one cared for her anymore. Imagine how it's an awful feeling. It's a terrible state to be forsaken. No one is able anymore to, she's unable to rise. And she's, in a sense it says here, and there's none that is able to help her to raise her up. What a sad thing. You know, if you read some of the other prophecies that the prophets of Israel gave about Israel who have gone astray from the Lord.

And the prophet was called to act on behalf of God and to restore the people of Israel. You remember the prophet Hosea. Hosea. Whom God said to him, go marry a woman which had been gone astray. And she became a picture of Israel whom God himself alone was willing to restore her back to himself. And this is exactly what we see here, beloved brothers and sisters. How sadly that is the people of Israel have left the one who loved the nation so much. And now he's weeping over his own bride, his own wife who have gone astray. And he's sad and lamenting and weeping, you might say, through Amos, his own servant who became the prophet of Israel.

In Hosea chapter 3 and verse 1 we read, Then said the Lord unto me, go yet love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress. According to the love of the Lord towards the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love flagons of wine. Or I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver. Hosea became picture in his life behavior toward that woman in the same way that God is here seeing. He loved this woman Israel. He called her the virgin of Israel, but she had fallen. She had been forsaken because she had gone elsewhere and she found herself destitute, unable to lift herself up.

Sad condition. Happened in 721 BC, 722 BC when our people Israel were taken captive by the Assyrian. Destitute. Destitute. Dispersed. Forsaken. Left without a land. Scattered in the diaspora among the nations of the world no one cares for them. Persecution. All sort of things that had happened to our people Israel when the Assyrian came and took them to Assyria. But God is lamenting because ahead of time he knows what's going to happen to them. When Amos preached this message, it was about 770 BC. When Israel was taken captive by the Assyrian about 40 to 45 years later. Knowing that death will happen to them. And notice verse 3. It says, listen, what it says in verse 3.

Amos described what's going to happen to Israel once they will be taken captive. Only 10% will remain while the rest of the nation will be taken away. Notice what it says in verse 3. For thus says the Lord God, the city that went out by a thousand shall live a hundred. And that which went forth by a hundred shall live ten to the house of Israel. In other words, you see what's going to happen to you Israel? It says, you who once enjoyed a relationship with me. You who once have been my, you might say, my possession that I've enjoyed to be with. You have turned away from me.

Look what's going to happen to you. From one thousand, they'll be left only one hundred. From a city that had one hundred, they will be only left ten. Ten percent, you might say, will remain in the land while the rest of them will be scattered all over the nations of the world. In other words, beloved brothers and sisters, the Lord God will allow Israel to be taken captive and only a remnant shall remain in the land while the rest of them have been scattered. And as I mentioned before, ten tribes of Israel have been scattered in 721, 722 BC. And up till today, their descendants are still scattered all over the world.

And God, who knows his people, will ultimately will restore them back to himself. But here, he's, you might say, predicting what's going to happen to the nation of Israel through the man by the name of Amos. So God is lamenting. He's weeping over his people. He's singing that song of lamentation already ahead of time, seeing what's going to happen to the nation that he loved so much. So now from verses 4, all the way to verse 15, now God is appealing to Israel to repent and to turn around and to seek him because he's, he doesn't want to judge them. He doesn't want them to be scattered.

He doesn't want them to be taken over by the nations of the world and lose their possession and be scattered in the diaspora. God does not want to see this happen to his people. He wants them to be close to him and blessed and enjoying his presence. So he's appealing to them. And you notice how he's interesting. There are four points that are mentioned here from verses 4 to verse 15. In verses 4, 5, 6, and 7, the Lord is calling for Israel to repent and to seek God. You notice what he tells them in verse 4. He says, "For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, seek ye me, and ye shall live." Look at the option.

He says, "If you're only going to seek me." The Hebrew word here to seek, it means dirshuni. Dirshuni means tidreshu oti. Look for me. Investigate where I am. Look for me and you will see you're going to live. I'm appealing to you. Seek me and you are going to live. He's saying to them in verse 4 because he doesn't want them to die. He wants them to live. He wants Israel to be sustained and enjoyed. So he's appealing to them in verse 4. And he's saying to them, "Look, seek me and ye shall live." You know, brothers and sisters, this is an expression that is very important to mention and to elaborate about it a little bit.

We sometimes preach the gospel to the world and we want the world, the unsaved people of the world to turn to the person of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. And we tell them to seek the Lord, to seek God, and they will be able to find him. If they only will turn their hearts to the living God and accept the Messiah, Yeshua himself, they will be able to receive eternal life. Seek the Lord is essential for the unregenerated men and women in this world in order to find salvation. But will they seek the Lord? Will they turn to God and accept him? It is another thing.

But that's what we preach when we share the message of the gospel. But it's not only applied to the unbelievers, it's also applied to God's people as well. Because when God's people are turning away from the Lord and they don't enjoy a relationship with the Lord, they themselves find that if it were we can't find God, we don't enjoy his presence. And you notice that in Isaiah, Isaiah was speaking to the people of Israel before, this is the people of Judah. Later on in Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 6, Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous men his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord.

And he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon. See, in the case of Isaiah, he was speaking to the southern tribe of Judah before Judah was taken captive. In the case of Amos, Amos is speaking to the northern tribe of Israel before they will be taken captive. The one was going to be taken captive by the Assyrian. The other was going to be taken captive by the Babylonian. But both people of God were called to seek the Lord while he may be found and turn to him and find salvation in him and find blessing at his presence. Will they turn away from their evil way and turn to the Lord?

It's another story. Another story. They didn't. And they were sent into Assyria. You remember when Yeshua was here on earth some 2,000 years ago? And in the Sermon on the Mount, notice what he said in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 7, he said, "Ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh it shall be opened." This is Matthew 7 verses 7 and 8. Yeshua himself in his life here on earth, when he spoke to our forefathers, the Jewish people in the land of Israel, he told them the very same thing.

Seek. Knock. Seek. Ask. And you will receive a response from God. Will you do so? He was challenging the nation at the time when he was here on earth some 2,000 years ago. Well, God through the prophet Amos is telling Israel in verse 4, "For thus says the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live." In other words, if you will not seek me, you will not find me, you will not live. The Assyrian will come and they will take you and many of you will die. Notice in verse 6, I'm sorry, in verse 5. In verse 5, Amos chapter 5 and verse 5, he says, "Don't seek that place which dishonoring me." You see, in verse 5 he says, "But seek not Beit El, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Be'er Sheva." Why?

"For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bet El shall come into naught, into nothing." Don't look for places that there is idolatry, that there is dishonor to God, places where you are not submissive to the ways of the Lord. Don't look for those places, because I tell you what's going to happen. It says here, "Gilgal will surely go into captivity, and Bet El shall surely going to come to naught." Remind me what John said in 1 John chapter 2. He said it to believers, like you and I. He says, "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world, for all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

It's not of the Father." Don't love the world and its system, because there is nothing for God there. The world passes away. The world is going to vanish and end. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. As Shlomo said, "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy path." You know, when you really think about it, beloved brothers and sisters, Gilgal did go to captivity. Bet El came to naught. And if you remember once again, in Gilgal, and in Bet El, you remember here in Bet El, there was a golden calf there. And they were going to worship the golden calf.

God was not there. He says, "Don't go into Gilgal. Don't go into Bet El. Make sure that you seek me, and you don't seek the things which will come to naught." But eventually, God had to judge Bet El and Gilgal. And you notice also very interesting, I took a note of it, because in verse 5, it says, "But seek not Bet El, nor enter into Gilgal." And then he continued, and he said, "Also pass not to Be'er Sheva." Now, why does he mention Be'er Sheva? If you look at the map of Israel, Be'er Sheva is right down in the south of Israel. Right down in the south of Israel.

And why does he use Be'er Sheva? Because already the southern kingdom were departing and turning away from the Lord, because the southern tribe, Judah, will also eventually going to be taken captive. And God said, "Hey, Israel, I'm telling you, don't go, don't enter into Gilgal, don't enter, seek not Bet El, neither pass on to Be'er Sheva." And you remember Be'er Sheva, brothers and sisters? It was when Abraham, Abraham Avinu, Abraham our father, when he came all the way from Mesopotamia, actually have lived for a while in a place called Be'er Sheva. And the word Be'er means well. And there were wells that were found in Be'er Sheva, and the name of the city or the town became Be'er Sheva, where he made an oath, where there was an oath that was made there.

And it became like, you might say, a monument city because of Abraham our father was there. What happened? Look, even there. When God's people turn away from the Lord, God says, "Don't even go to Be'er Sheva because all these places I will eventually will judge them because these places are places where the people who go there or the people who attend there or the people who lead there are leading you away from the Lord. Don't go there. Seek me. Don't seek Bet El. Seek me. Don't seek Gilgal. Seek me. Don't seek Be'er Sheva. Seek the Lord while he may be found and he will respond to the call if they only have sought the Lord." And now notice as I continue here in verses 6 and 7, he continues here repeating it again in Amos 5 verse 6.

He said again, "Seek the Lord and he shall live lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bet El." Notice what he says now? Again, he repeating and he asking Israel, "You seek, Jehovah seeks the Lord because you're going to live, but if you don't, look what's going to happen. If you will continue in your way going to Gilgal, going to Bet El, going to the place where idolatry is there and not honoring the Lord, the Lord will break out like fire in the house of," notice he's using the word the house of Yosef.

Why does he use the house of Yosef? Because Yosef, Joseph in English, Yosef in Hebrew, was the father of Ephraim and Menashe. And Ephraim became the one that became prominent and the first man that had led the northern kingdom to build the golden calf was Jeroboam, who was a descendant of the tribe of Ephraim, which was a son of Yosef. So the name of Joseph is mentioned here, but Joseph was a godly man. Yosef was the kind of a man that was willing to suffer for the name of God whose brethren have sold him to Egypt and then eventually he became second to Pharaoh. Joseph is a picture of our Lord, Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah, who suffered and was rejected by the hands of his brethren in his first time but was accepted later on by his brethren.

And it's the type of Yeshua, the Messiah, who died and was rejected at his first coming and eventually he will be accepted by our people Israel in the second coming when the Messiah will come in his second coming. Now here you notice that the house of Joseph, Beit Yosef, God will have to rise up and they break out like fire in the house of Yosef that is in the northern kingdom and like a fire to judge them and to send them to be captive by the Assyrian. In verse 7, Israel, he says, God blaming them, he show Israel, you Israel who turn away from justice, you turn away from justice.

He said to them in verse 7, ye who turn justice to warm wood. The word for judgment should be really justice and the word for warm wood should be bitterness. You are turning things that should have been just, that should have been fair, you make it to become bitterness. Verse 7. And then you leave off righteousness in the earth. In other words, you really, things that are right, you dump it to the ground as dirt. You don't behave in justice and in righteousness. You cause things to become bitter and you dump it down to the earth as if righteousness has no value. That's what he's accusing the nation of Israel in these verses.

Seek ye the Lord and you will live. Don't seek Bethel and Gilgal because these cities will become not. Then seek the Lord, he's saying, and you shall live. But I want you to see Israel, he's saying to them, you turn justice into bitterness, you turn righteousness and you dump it to the earth as if it is not valuable. And you see, brothers and sisters, this also shows us why God was so pleased with Yeshua the Messiah because he was a man that was just, a man that was righteous, a man that lived his life in this world to please God the Father to the fullest.

And anything that is done in a small measure to learn from him is honoring the Lord. But unfortunately, in the days when Amos was giving his message to Israel, sadly, justice was become like bitterness and righteousness was cast into the earth like dirt it has no value before God. But now notice, brothers and sisters, in the next verses, in verses 8 and 9, the Lord called Israel to himself. He says, really, you really need to come to me because I know everything and I'm the creator of all things. I'm the sovereign God. You need me, Israel. Just turn to me and you will see what a blessing you're going to enjoy.

Notice in verses 8 and 9. Amos 5, verse 8 to 9. Seek him or seek the one that, notice, it mentions a list of the things that the Lord is doing. Seek him, seek Jehovah. Number one, because he makes us the seven stars. The Hebrew word for seven stars is Kima. In other words, in the English elsewhere, it's mentioned a Pleiades. It's mentioned in Job 9, verse 9. These are the seven stars that give direction that men in past history use those seven stars. I have no idea about this, but it's amazing to those who understand the manner whereby the stars are positioned. God is the one who created the stars and he positioned them exactly where they belong to be there.

Notice it says here, seek ye the one, him that maketh the seven stars and Oryan. And then he says, he turneth the shadow of death into the morning. In other words, he can turn sadness into joy. You remember what we read in Scripture, the joy of the Lord is your strength. He can turn everything into joy if we turn to him. Thirdly, notice it says here, he says, the shadow of death into morning. And then he said the third thing, and he maketh the day dark with night. And then notice that he, in verse 8 at the middle, he calls for the waters of the sea and he pours them out upon the face of the earth.

He's the one who gives us the rain to enjoy. And especially in the land of Israel, when Israel depended so much upon the rain that come down from heaven. There's a famine in the land of Israel that means that God disciplined his people and he didn't allow the rain to be poured upon the earth. And then he continued and he said at the end, he said, the Lord is his name, Jehovah is his name. And verse 9, he continued, that his strengthens the spoiled against the strong so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. In other words, the weak one he can strengthen so he will be able to defeat the strong.

That's the one that you need to turn to. You remember when Shaul Paul had his thorn in his life, in his body, and he besought Yeshua the Messiah three times. He said, I besought him three times to take away this thorn in the flesh. And you remember what the Lord Yeshua the Messiah said to him, Paul, he said, my grace is sufficient for you. And then Paul understood, he said, when I'm weak, then I'm strong. You know, spiritual strength comes when we recognize our weakness and we recognize that we are failing people. We need God's grace in our life. This is what God can do in the life of his own people.

He can strengthen as the one that is spoiled and weak. And he can allow him to go against the strong and to come even against a fortress and to defeat it when he turned to the Lord. What an amazing truth to learn. God is saying to Israel, seek this one. Don't seek Betel, don't seek Gilgal, don't seek idolatry. Seek the true and living God and you will see what a blessing you will enjoy. Well, will Israel will respond to the call of the Lord. Notice it says here in verses 10 to verse 13, the Lord points to Israel's wrongdoing. He points to that which they have done wrong.

And you notice the list here that we have in this is verses 10, 11, 12, and 13. Look what they have practiced and that's made it necessary for God to punish the nation and to send them eventually to captivity. Notice verse 10 first of all, they hated and abhorred the one who rebuked them and said to them, you're wrong. Notice verse 10. They hate him that rebuke in the gate and they abhor him that speaks uprightly. In other words, if there will be someone there by the gate, maybe one of the leaders or one of the people who passed by the gate in Samaria, in Shomron. And he's telling, hey, listen, that is wrong.

That is not the way that you should behave. Turn back to the Lord. But you know what they do? They hate him. And they abhor the one that is speaking upright. When one is speaking upright, they don't like to hear it. Isn't it true, brothers and sisters, when we persist to carry on in our own wrong way and we are not humbling ourselves before the Lord and we are not repenting before the Lord and in ego and pride, we continue in our own way. And somebody is going to come to us, a brother or a sister, says, hey, brother Gideon, that's not right. And if we are not broken before the Lord and we are not humble before the Lord, we say, no, I'm going to do my thing.

I hate this person who come and tell me something that I don't like to hear. This is us. This is the nature of those who rebel against the Lord and continue on in their own way. They don't like to hear someone telling them, you need to change your ways. You need to behave better. You should not continue in that path. God is dishonored and you are not going to be able to be used by the Lord if you're going to continue in your own way. But we don't like it. They did not like it. They hate the one and they rebuke the other. They simply did not want to submit to it.

Look at verse 11. Not only that, but they also, Israel, treated the poor wrong so that they become, if you know, they were not just with them. Notice as we read here in verse 11, it says, For as much, therefore, as you're treading upon the poor or trampling the poor. And then it said, And ye take from him burdens of wheat. This is taxes from them. Ye have built houses and hewn of yule stone, but ye shall not dwell in them. Ye have planted pleasant vineyard, but ye shall not drink wine of them. In other words, Israel, you didn't behave in the right way to the poor and to the needy.

What did you do? You stepped upon them. You took from them taxes. You really treated them well in order to build for yourself things that you wanted for yourself. But I can assure you, God is saying in this verse 11, Ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them. And then why? Because the Assyrians are coming. And captivity is going to be coming very shortly. And he said, you planted vineyard, pleasant vineyard, but you are not going to enjoy them. You're not going to drink of the wine of the vineyard because of the manner of your behavior or Israel. In verse 12, Israel is really an afflicted just.

And they bribed and ultimately they diverted justice among the nation. Look at the condition that we read here in verse 12. Now remember, beloved brothers and sisters, God says it about his very own people. He doesn't talk about the nations around. He will deal with those nations. But he's speaking about his own people. And notice what he says. And I'm reading verse 12 again. He says, I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins. I know them all. They afflict the just, number one. They take bribe, number two. And they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right way. So what really happened is that they really afflicted the people who were doing right.

They also bribed others. And eventually they really diverted justice. Imagine if you go to the court and the judge who knows what's right and what's wrong diverted justice and make you guilty, even if you are not. You know, a few days ago I was listening to a YouTube that spoke about the babies that are being killed by abortion, by the thousands. And those babies cannot speak for themselves in the womb of their mothers. They cannot stand and speak. And the person who made a reference to that reminded us of a judgment of a court case that happened about 120 years ago. It's known to Israel. In Israel it's known as Dreyfus.

The court of Dreyfus. The Mishpat Dreyfus. Dreyfus was a 35 years old Jewish man, an officer in the French army. Wrongfully, he was sentenced to life behind bars for allegedly providing French military secrets to the Germans. Dreyfus was placed in prison on Devil's Island in French Guyana where he spent nearly five years. He was declared guilty while he was innocent. They diverted justice. And this particular person who took this and he says, just imagine the thousands of babies who have nobody to stand for them and to defend them because someone decided that they are not considered as living beings. And every day abortions are made. And many babies that can't defend themselves die.

Fortunately for Dreyfus, someone came and spoke for him later on. And he was declared innocent. And he was declared innocent, but not for the many babies who die. Justice are being diverted. Just heard recently that one of the governors, what state it was that he said that now it can be legalized in their own area that a baby can be born even, put on the desk and the woman can decide if she wants him to be alive or dead. Imagine, beloved brothers and sisters, how far man goes when God is not in the picture. That's the condition that exists in a time when Israel did not submit to the authority of the Lord.

The wrongdoing are multiplied here. It says in verse 13, the righteous in Israel kept silence in that time. Why? Because there was no use. Because the time that was there, nobody seemed to listen. Notice verse 13. Therefore, the prudent shall keep silence in that time. Why? It says here, because for it is an evil time. It was an evil time. It says here in Hebrew, it was an evil time that even the just one, the people who knew it was wrong, did not speak because they knew. No use. Nobody going to listen anyway. That made it necessary for God to bring the Assyrian and take the nation of Israel into the land of Assyria.

And so you notice we are in Amos chapter 5. And in verses 14 and 15, now the Lord again emphasizing his call to Israel to hate that which is evil and to love that which is good. And we read here, notice that in verse 14 he says, seek good and not evil. That ye may live and so the Lord, the God of hosts shall be with you as ye have spoken. Notice verse 15, hate the evil and love the good and establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Yosef. You see in the last two verses here, verses 14 and 15, in the portion that the Lord is appealing to Israel to repent, here he is appealing to them, seek that which is good and not that which is evil.

In verse 15 he says, actually hate evil and love the good. You see this is what makes it so unique when God's people are truly turning to the Lord. And they change their behavior by making a decision for that which is honoring unto the Lord. You see what is in those two verses, God is appealing to the conscience and the hearts of the nation. And he's saying, listen, I want you to seek that which is good and not that which is evil because of the list that he just presented before him, before them in verses 10, 11, 12, and 13. They ought not anymore to treat the poor in a wrong way.

They ought not anymore to afflict the just, to bribe the others or to divert justice. They have to change their ways. Otherwise, the judgment will have to come. And sure enough, beloved brothers and sisters, listen, as we are drawing nigh to the last portion for our ministry today. And notice that it says in the last verses, and I want us to highlight those verses 16 and 17. Because of all this, because Israel did not react to what God have called them to do, judgment was going to come. And here Amos is speaking on behalf of the Lord in verses 16 and 17. And God's call for repentance was actually rejected and judgment eventually will come.

And so notice the use of the word therefore. Notice in verse 16, therefore. Every chapter when God is bringing a promise of judgment is therefore, it's because. Notice in chapter 4 and verse 12, therefore, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel. And now again in chapter 5 and verse 16. Therefore, the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord saith, thus, wailing shall be in all streets. And they shall say in all the highways, alas, alas. And they shall call the husbandmen, this is the farmer, to mourning, and such that are skillful of lamentation, to wailing. God said, therefore, there will be, you might say, a funeral service. There will be, the Lord said, wailing in all the streets.

He's speaking about Samaria. He's speaking about the northern kingdom of Israel. He's speaking about Gilgal. He's speaking about Beit El. He's speaking about all that northern kingdom that the streets will eventually will experience wailing. And you notice what they're going to say, alas, alas. And that word alas, alas, it comes from the Hebrew, oi, oi. In other words, when they will cry out because of what is going to happen there when the Assyrian will come. Notice they're going to call to the farmers to come to mourn. The people are going to come from all the farms. They're going to leave their farm land, you might say, to come to the streets.

And they will, as it were, will have this procession. And they will be mourning, saying, oi, oi, hoi, hoi in Hebrew, alas, alas. And notice, beloved brothers and sisters, at the end of verse 16, even such as skillful of lamentation to wailing. Now, who are those skillful to do lamentation? Do you know in those days of old? There were also, you might say, almost professional people who came to funeral services to lament. They were, in a sense, you might say, they had no relationship to the family or so. They didn't know what's, but they were professional lamenting people. They were crying. They were, in a sense, almost, you might say, it was almost their business to come and to lament on behalf of a dead person.

And he says, they will call such that are skillful. The professional lamenters will come to wail. The Hebrew word wailing is mispod, or mispad, or lispod, is when you are gathering around a person who died, and there will be a, people will speak about that person who passed away, and they will wail, and they will weep, and they will cry on behalf of a person that passed away. Sad, sad, sad thing we find out. And notice in verse 17, because why it's going to happen? Because now the Lord himself will pass through Israel to cause the people to wail, because the judgment that will come. Notice, brothers and sisters, this is a direct intervention of the Lord himself.

It says in verse 17, it says, And in all the vineyards, or in all vineyards shall be wailing, for I, God is saying, I will pass through thee, saith the Lord. I'm going to be the one who's going to come through thee, O Israel, and I'm going to be the one that will cause these wailing to come to pass because of the judgment that I will bring upon you. It is sad that God had to come to this point of saying this about his beloved nation of Israel. You know, this expression, I will, as it says here in verse 17, I will pass through thee. It reminds me of what God had done when he passed through the land of Egypt and delivered our forefathers out of bondage into liberty.

We read of it in Exodus chapter 12 and verse 12. I will pass through the land of Egypt this night. And I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and beasts, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am Jehovah. You see, when he brought our forefathers out of the land of Egypt, he passed through the land and he brought about the judgment upon the Egyptians. But now there is a reverse. He's passing through the land. It's no longer Egypt. It is the land of Canaan, the land of Israel. And he's executing the judgment no longer upon the Egyptians there.

It's upon his very own people. The northern kingdom of Israel that have gone astray. And the day of judgment had to come to pass. What a sad commentary we have here about the judgment of God against his beloved nation of Israel. So I'm going to close with this. But I want to just read the very same old verse that we read every time in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 17. Applicable to God's people today. Where Peter says, For the time has come the judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first began at us, Peter is saying, What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Verse 18 says, And if the righteous scarcely be saved, Where shall the ungodly and a sinner appear? If God judge his own people, What do you think will happen to the unregenerated world who refuse to accept the person of the Son of God, the Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus himself? God is holy. And he judges sin, but he appeals to his people. Seek good, not evil. Seek me, and ye shall live. And we all need to heed to it and respond to it and turn to the Lord to have fellowship with him, and we will be eventually blessed by the Lord. The good, gracious, loving God who loves to bless his people.

Can we say amen to that?