Praize Blogs

“Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed” (Amos 6:7).  “They” are the people who either didn’t believe the captivity would come, or didn’t think it would be in their lifetime.  These are the people whose primary pastime was satisfying their lusts for food, drink, and sound.  These would be the same people who would not show a bit of sympathy for the poor.  They were prideful, self-indulgent and practicing a blasphemous religion.  They placed their trust in gods made with hands rather than in the One True God. 

When Bible people attended a meal, they didn’t sit on hard chairs pulled up to a table.  They relaxed as they reclined on couches close to the floor and could just about scoop the food into their mouths.  Servants and slaves waited table and made sure there was always an abundant supply within reach.  Soon God would send the invading army and take everything away from the “chief men.”  They would be the first taken in the captivity and they would lose their power, position, wealth, luxury, fabulous homes and worst of all, their freedom.  They would go from riches to rags just about overnight.  But they could not believe this.  They had come to depend so heavily on their wealth for everything, they could not see that a just and living God could take it all from them. 

“The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein” (verse 8).  When we want to convince others of the truth of what we say, we might say, “I swear to God!” which is blasphemy, or, “I swear by all that’s holy!” which is God in three persons, which is blasphemy, or, “I swear on my mother’s grave!” which is sinful.  We are told in Matthew 5:33-37, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’  But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.  Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.  But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”  Because God could not swear by anyone greater than Himself, He swore by Himself. (Hebrews 6:13)  The reason God can swear by His own head is that He is perfect.  We can’t swear by God or anything else because we swear with ulterior motives, and we are surely not perfect.

God hated the “excellency of Jacob” which is the pride the people were steeped in.  He hated their palaces which confessed to their pride.  And, because pride goeth before destruction, Jerusalem and Samaria would be destroyed and all that is within them.  What we have to remember is that all they had was allowed by God.  He blessed them mightily before they entered into idol worship and greed.  God sustained all of Israel, before she was divided into to nations, Israel and Jerusalem, and even afterward.  They didn’t need to kill, steal, or destroy in order to attain greatness.  God meant it for them all along.  If the people had done as God required and taken care of the poor and needy, every one of them would have had abundance of all, including an abundance of days in which to enjoy the blessings of God.  But they wanted to do things their way. 

Pride is what makes it so much harder for a rich man to enter Heaven.  He thinks he acquired all his wealth on his own merit through hard work and deceitful practices.  He thinks in his heart, “Why do I need this God?”  He also says, “Look at all I have accomplished for myself.”  We saw a king who said that end up on his hands and knees eating grass out in the pasture with the cows.  That was the mightiest king of all, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  You can read Daniel 4 for the story.  It’s very interesting.  As with Nebuchadnezzar, pride would cost them all they held dear.

More studies at http://www.newbeginmin1.org/BIBLESTUDYOPENING.html