In this episode, we delve deep into Amos Chapter 2, guided by the teachings of Dr. J. Vernon McGee. With discussions ranging from societal injustices to personal responsibilities, we reflect on how ancient warnings from Amos resonate with today’s world. Dr. McGee’s analysis sheds light on the parallels between the Israelites’ disregard for God’s commands and contemporary issues. As we traverse these significant historical and spiritual landscapes, we are left pondering our path and calling in the world today.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. I’m Steve Schwetz, inviting you to find a seat on the Bible bus as we continue our journey through the small but powerful book of Amos. So grab your Bible and turn it to chapter 2 of Amos. And while you do, we’re going to hear some introductory thoughts from Dr. McGee, specifically prepared to accompany our study. Here’s Dr. McGee.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, I want to say just a word in the introduction today about Amos. I mentioned the other time or two ago about this man, Amos. Really, he was a country boy. And he has a worldview. And there’s something else about this man. He’s one of the most practical of the prophets because he talked right down to the people and up to the rulers. And he dealt with the problems of that day. Actually, he saw how the poor were being hurt by the expenditure of government. In that day, it was on luxury and pleasure. And I think a lot of government money is going that way today. I personally resent some of the things that taxes are going for today. We have no voice at all, and we’re seeing our nation today being smothered by brainwashing. We have seen it here in California relative to all of these issues of today, like abortion. and the homosexual issue, all of that has been brainwashing by the news media. And there’s very few men in the pulpit that are standing up tall and straight and taking a stand on these things.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that’s certainly a thought-provoking take from Dr. McGee, and it gives us an idea of just how often neglected books like Amos have a lot to teach us. And that’s why one of our core values here at Through the Bible is to teach the whole word, not just cherry-picking books and verses.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right, Steve, and it’s what makes us fairly unique. There are some other ministries that teach the whole Bible from cover to cover, but it seems like God has just uniquely prospered and blessed Dr. McGee’s handling of the entire Word of God.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and the systematic approach and doing it in a relatively short time frame, five years, Old Testament, New Testament, has been very successful. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think one of the many, many reasons this is such a great approach, first of all, it is God’s word and we should pay attention to all of it. But I’ve found it gives me so much more confidence in the Bible, not that I lacked it, but it makes you more and more sure this really is the word of God.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. And you’re exposed to the entire counsel of the word of God on a regular basis. Yeah. You know, not everybody, although it’s a good idea to be reading through the Bible in a year by yourself. Yes. But at a minimum, you can be going through the Bible every five years with through the Bible, reading the scripture as you go along the way.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and I know for myself, when I do read through the Bible in a year, I find I’m pushing a little too hard, and I’m not taking the time to enjoy the sights. And I think Dr. McGee’s wisdom in laying it out over five years, which to some people sounds like a long time, but once you get into it, like you and I, it’s a habit. The next thing you know, you say, wow, I’ve been through many cycles of this.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, you’re literally saturating yourself with the Word of God. And Dr. McGee referenced and was really fairly – he could be critical at times. A little bit. And when he was in a study in Isaiah, here’s what he said. And I think this is a pretty serious critique. The greatest sin in the church today is the ignorance of the Word of God and the lack of study of the Word of God. It’s nonsense today to say, oh, I believe the Bible from cover to cover. I believe it is God’s Word. I’ll defend it with my life. And then to never study it. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, well, he called it like he saw it, and I think he’s correct. I mean, if we believe that this is Almighty God, the creator of the universe, the heavens and the earth, the source of every breath, every heartbeat, he has written a message to us. How in the world could we not care enough to understand the whole message?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, Dr. McGee makes it so obvious. I love it where he says, if God has spoken between the pages of Genesis 1-1 and Revelation 22, so the whole word, in other words. Yes, yes. then somewhere between there, he’s got a word for us, and it is God speaking, and we ought to listen to him.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I’ll tell you, Steve and I are speaking to you as fellow listeners, fellow travelers on the Bible bus. And we often, when we talk, we’ll say, wow, you know, Dr. McGee, he was in this passage that you like to say the Bible pages are stuck together in a lot of our Bibles. And there is something for all of us in all of the Bible. And that’s really what we want to encourage you to do is join us. If you’re just joining us, get on, make this a habit. Steve will save you a seat.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, absolutely. Greg, pray for us as we begin.
SPEAKER 03 :
Father, what a joy and what a privilege that you have given us your word and you allow us to share it with others, not just here in North America and in the English-speaking world, but all over the world in hundreds of languages. We pray that you will continue to bless and prosper your word as it goes out. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re off to Amos chapter 2 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, I want to come to our study today, and I’d gotten down to the ninth verse of the second chapter of Amos, and he’s now speaking directly to the congregation that’s out in front of him. He did speak about the sins of the Moabites, but now he’s going to talk about the sins of the Israelites. And they are the ones that are listening to him there. And he’s not making himself very popular because he mentions the specific sins of which they are guilty. And those were the sins of immorality, injustice, and blasphemy. And he spells them out for them. They were mistreating the poor. God notes that so much in the word of God concerning that the Lord Jesus could rejoice that the poor had the gospel preached to them. And he speaks of the fact that they couldn’t get justice before the judges of that day because the judges were accepting a bribe from the rich one in the case that was probably suing them. And naturally, the poor were not getting justice. And he mentions the fact that justice was being turned aside in disfavor to the meek of the earth. The meek were in disfavor. Why? Because they didn’t speak out. The fact of the matter is the old saying is true that it’s a squeaking wheel that gets the grease. And the meek are not inheriting the earth today. It’s the forward and those that are grabbing all they can. And therefore, God is saying he’ll judge them because of the fact that they are not giving justice to the poor and to the meek. He condemns them for their immorality, for adultery. He condemns them for the fact of idolatry because they were taking pledges by every altar. And that Means that Israel had only one altar and it was in Jerusalem. Now they were in idolatry and they were breaking the Mosaic law because God says you can’t take a man’s coat as a pledge. You can’t use it as collateral because you’re taking away that garment which keeps him warm. And we talk about how just our laws are today. And it’s permitted today to absolutely move an entire family out of a house when they cannot pay the rent because of poverty, by the way. And the Word of God has a great deal to say on behalf of the poor people. Then he condemns drunkenness here. Now, he’s coming back to that. And I have something more to say when we get to that, because that is the great sin of our nation today. Now, in verse 9, God says, Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks. Yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. God likens the Amorite here using now the language of this man, this country. Bumpkin has come up from Tekoa, way down yonder in the desert in Judah. And it is figurative and expressive language that he is using here. He’s tall like the cedar. He’s strong like the oak. But God said, I destroyed him. I destroyed the fruit above. I destroyed the roots from beneath. Now, God got rid of the Amorite. That’s exactly what we have in the book of Joshua. In the 24th chapter of Joshua, verse 8, he says, “…and I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side, Jordan, and they fought with you. And I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you.” Now, we said last time there are no Moabites around today. I don’t think you’ve seen one recently. And I wonder when the last time was that you saw an Amorite, when God put them in the land. You remember he had said way back yonder to Abraham, he said, now I can’t put you in the land right now because the Amorite is in the land and his iniquity is not yet full. That is, God says, I’m going to give him an opportunity to turn to me, to turn from these gross sins that he was committing, and I am going to give him an opportunity. Now, someone is going to say to me, well, Dr. McGee, after all, these heathen nations didn’t have the Mosaic Law, and they didn’t know There’s a very interesting statement that Paul makes in Romans, the second chapter. I think probably I ought to turn and read that. He says in the second chapter of Romans, verse 12, “…for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.” For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves. Well, now, why would they refrain from murder? Why would they refrain from lying? Why would they refrain from stealing? Well, listen to Paul. Now, I continue to read here Romans 2, verse 15, which show the work of the law written in their hearts. their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one another.” You and I have a conscience, and if we’d never heard of the Ten Commandments, it would either accuse us or excuse us. We’d either say, I’m guilty, or we’d make some excuse for breaking it, so that the Gentiles Man has had a sense, he’s been given that, of that which is right and that which is wrong. And it was on that basis that God judged the Amorite. He continued in sin. And God says, I’m going to put you down in Egypt, told Abraham that, that is his offspring, for 420 years. Now, friends, I don’t think the most rabid liberal would want to ask God to give more than 420 years. Now, if you feel like 421 years would have been better, then I’m sure the Lord must have made a mistake. But I personally will go along with the Lord that when you give a nation 420 years to decide what to do, that they’ve had a long enough time. Well, the fact of the matter is the Amorite didn’t turn to God. Now, when Joshua crossed over, he came into the land of the Amorites. Jericho was an Amorite city. And this woman that was there, the harlot Rahab, she was an Amorite. These people were destroyed. Now, the Moabites disappeared, but you have Ruth, the Moabitess, in the genealogy of Christ. Now you have Rahab the harlot in the genealogy of Christ. But the Amorites have long since disappeared. Now God says, I judge them for committing the same sins that you are committing. And I have given you my law and you have broken it. Now, verse 10, also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, led you 40 years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up of your sons for prophets and of your young men for Nazarites. It is not even thus, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord. Now, God says that I wanted you to serve me in that land. I wanted you to bring up your young men to serve me, to be prophets and to be Nazarites. Now, what happened? Verse 12, now chapter 2 of Amos, But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not. This was the picture that we have here. Now, a Nazarite was an Israelite who took a vow that he did voluntarily. He’d be dedicated to God. Three things that he did. First, he didn’t cut his hair. Now, he was really the first hippie that there was. And why? Because for a man to have long hair, Paul says, it’s a shame to him. And when I look around me today and see some of the fellows that I see, I agree with Paul that it’s sort of a shame for a man to have long hair. But we’ve long since passed that. And it’s not my business, and I don’t try to tell anybody how to cut their hair. But I’m just telling you that the Nazarites let their hair grow because they were willing to bear shame. Now, the second thing, they were not permitted to drink wine or touch any fruit of the vine, not even raisins. They were not to eat grapes. Now, there are some that have tried to say the Lord Jesus was a Nazarite. He was not. They actually called him a wine beverage. He made wine there at the feast yonder in Cana of Galilee, the wedding feast. Now, I’m going to come back, though, to this matter of drunkenness a little later on. They were breaking a vow when they gave the Nazarite swine. And then the Nazarite was not to touch a dead body or come near it. That is, when one of his loved ones died, he didn’t even attend the funeral. Why? Well, because he’s putting God first, and that’s an evidence of it. Now they said to the prophets, prophesy not. They say to the prophets, we don’t want to hear you. We don’t want to have any message from you at all. Huh. They wouldn’t listen to the prophets. May I make an analogy to our own nation today? I was talking to a man who has been a history professor in the college. He was telling me that he was very much interested in the statement we made in Daniel that our nation today is following the pattern that Rome followed when Rome went down. You see, Rome was never destroyed from the outside. And I’ve never believed that there is coming a missile over the North Pole that will destroy this country. I think that the missile that will destroy us today is this propaganda that is abroad, that we have now become a sophisticated, very progressive nation, and we’re a great nation, and nothing can happen to us. We are probably going down as fast as any nation. A leading statesman says this nation has gone down faster in the past 10 years than it did in its entire history from its inception. And that, of course, is true today. And one of the things, in fact, two of them, and we’ll deal with both of them later, One of them, of course, is drunkenness. There happen to be 10 million alcoholics in this country today. One half of the accidents that take place in Southern California are drunk drivers involved. And we today say we shouldn’t say anything about it. But we are to make laws concerning the use and abuse of drugs. And I agree with those laws. But what about liquor, friends? That’s the thing today that’s destroying us as a nation. And then the other thing that characterizes us today is that we’re not hearing the word of God. The liberal preacher today is the popular preacher. And if they’re going to have anybody on TV, it will be the liberal preacher. They had a panel discussion on abortion. They had a minister there. You guessed it. He was a liberal, and I mean a liberal. They had a discussion about women’s rights. They had a preacher on there. You were right again. He was a liberal. They never asked a Bible preaching preacher today to voice anything. And we talk about religious liberty. My friend, today the voice of God is not being heard in this land. A few of us weak fellows that are around trying to declare the Word of God. Now, that’s what they were doing in Israel. They said, at least Amos says, you’re giving the Nazarite wine, causing him to break his vow. and turning him from God. And you’re saying to the prophet, prophesy not. You say to me, don’t talk like that. We want to hear something that’ll butter us up, make us feel good. Now, listen to him. He’s not through. Verse 13, he says, Behold, I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. Now, there are different ways of interpreting this. In fact, I’m told different ways of translating it. And that it’s the belief of some that it’s rather degrading to think of God as being pressed down like a cart. Well, I don’t feel that way about it. My feeling is that God is saying here, you have put me in a difficult situation. You are my people. I put you in the land. And I put the Amorite out. Now, here you are committing the same sins they are. Do you expect me to shut my eyes to you because you’re my people? I’m being pressed down. Verse 14, Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself. Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow, and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself. Neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself, and he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.” Now, there are some expositors that believe that this refers to that earthquake we’d heard about before. I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s any reference here to an earthquake at all. What I think is just simply this, that they were a strong nation, and God kept the enemy out, and none ever advanced into their land. Now, everything is breaking down. The walls of the cities, The enemies come in and the strong are no longer strong and those that handle the bow. I think that probably we ought as a nation to do a little thinking about what has happened in our land. We were able in two world wars across the sea and to bring an end to two world wars. We became in that a great nation. And we were very proud. We didn’t need God at all. We had the atom bomb. And then a little country called North Vietnam, we thought that we would subdue them overnight. One of the presidents in the early 60s, why, he began to send troops in. Then the next president did, and then on. And I’m not attempting to fix blame on any president, but I do say that America should have learned a lesson. We did not win a victory, and we were never able to subdue the little enemies. Now, it is true that we did not want to bring the full force to bear, but it reveals the fact that we are becoming weak as a nation, and we were divided at home. Maybe somebody ought to wake up today. And instead of shutting our eyes to the condition of our land, that we ought to begin to call attention to it, that God is already beginning to bring us down as a nation, as he brought his own people down. He said, you’re becoming weak, and you don’t seem to realize that I’m moving now, and I’m beginning to judge you. That is the message that is there. And no wonder they wanted to run Amos out of town. No wonder they didn’t want to hear his message but say he’s not through. Now, in chapter 3, he’s going to bring all of the nation together. God’s charge now is against the whole house of Israel, the 12 tribes. Though they’re divided, listen to him. Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt. God ignored the fact that they were split. Now he says, I’m speaking to the whole family that I brought up. And you’re not two nations. You’re one, one family before me. And he says, you only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. Now that’s getting right down where the rubber meets the road. And that’s the kind of prophet Amos was. He didn’t beat around the bush. He didn’t mince words. He says, God will punish you for your iniquities. And you know what? God did. This man happened to be right. It’s too bad the politicians and the priests didn’t listen to him. If they had, it could have been a different story. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 02 :
If you want to share this study with a friend, you can direct them to our app or call 1-865-BIBLE to request a pack of Bible bus passes. Now, these little cards, they’re the size of a business card, make it super easy for you to share through the Bible with others. Well, our journey through Amos continues next time as Dr. McGee walks us through seven powerful and timely questions from the prophet. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll save you a seat here on the Bible bus.
SPEAKER 01 :
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 02 :
Through the Bible exists to take God’s whole word to the whole world. And we invite you to stand with us with your faithful prayer and financial support. Where will God’s word go today?
