Then said the LORD unto me, “The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them anymore.”
The above, from Amos 8:2, is the LORD’s declaration to His people, today. Amos begins with the LORD speaking, uttering His voice from Jerusalem, against the shepherds’ habitation, describing their transgressions and misleading. He speaks of the coming punishment, of the fire He has now kindled “in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind [cuwphah – Isaias {Isaiah}].”
Rabbah, meaning great, is from the root word rabab, a nineteen-times used word, meaning “to cast together, i.e. increase, especially in number; also [abundance] to multiply by the myriad.” The name is referring us to Isaiah 22:9, where it’s used to describe the “many” breaches in the city of David. The chapter says, it’s when the rulers of God’s people have fled, when the great men (Rabbah) have broken down the houses of Jerusalem to build their wall. It says these men built their walls to hold the waters of the old pool (the word of God, constrained by what they’ve created) and “haven’t looked to the maker thereof, neither had they respect unto Him that fashioned it long ago.” These are the men who throughout history (Elam) have done violence to God’s people using His word and their own creations. He says He has called them to mourn for this transgression, but instead, they rejoice, saying, “let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.”
As we know, Amos 8, after telling of the church (sun) darkened (become ignorant), and the resulting famine for hearing this authentic word of God, speaks of these same people as those are who swear by these sins. It says, “They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Your god, O Dan, lives; and, The manner of Beersheba live; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.” This end is spoken of, in Isaiah 22:14, as when the LORD reveals these sins will not be purged until these men, who refuse to mourn and repent, die.
As we know, Dan and Beersheba are referring to the breach in the house of David, when the kingdom was divided, and Jeroboam became king of the ten northern tribes of Israel. His sin, the sin that caused the breach and kept God’s people from going to Jerusalem where He said He would manifest His presence to them, is recorded in 2 Chronicles 11:15. “And he [Jeroboam] ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils [sa’iyr – misleading he-goats – the mark of Esau, the enemies mixed among us], and for the calves which he had made [and told the people these idols are God – as it is this day].”
Through Amos, the LORD speaks of the end of the sin that divides us: the misleading of those among us sitting in seats of power giving their misleading advice and keeping all from this right word of God. This end is now, when the LORD trough me, manifesting His presence and power, leads us out of temptation and deliver us from evil (the advice of known liars telling known lies). It’s when, as Amos says in Amos 9:11 & 12, the breach in the house of David is repaired and all God’s people are joined again as One Nation Under Him.
James, in Acts 15 quoting Amos 9:11 & 12, tells this Nation, when the LORD builds on the ruins it’s become, “That the residue of men might seek after the LORD, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, says the LORD, who does all these things.” Per Amos’ wording, we know the above is speaking of Esau (Edom), those who have been as enemies mixed among us, who are the ruins, people worshiping idols men put in God’s place, who call upon His name, even while not knowing Him. “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Acts 15
13 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:
14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
17 That the residue of men might seek after the LORD, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, says the LORD, who does all these things.
18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols.
Jeremiah 31
31 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, says the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
35 Thus says the LORD, which gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divides the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
36 If those ordinances depart from before me, says the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.
37 Thus says the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the LORD.
Isaiah 22
1The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops?
2 You that are full of stirs, a tumultuous city, joyous city: your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
3 All your rulers are fled together [in fear], they are bound by the archers [by their arrows of lies and false accusation]: all that are found in you are bound together, which have fled from far.
4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.
5 For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the LORD God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.
6 And Elam [eternity] bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir [the breaking down of the wall] uncovered the shield.
7 And it shall come to pass, that your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.
8 And he discovered the covering of Judah, and you did look in that day to the armor of the house of the forest.
9 You have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10 And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have you broken down to fortify the wall.
11 You made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but you have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.
12 And in that day did the LORD God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.
14 And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die, says the LORD God of hosts.
15 Thus says the LORD God of hosts, Go, get you unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna [vigorous growth], which is over the house, and say,
16 What have you here? and whom have you here, that you have hewed you out a sepulcher here, as he that hews him out a sepulcher on high, and that graves a habitation for himself in a rock?
17 Behold, the LORD will carry you away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover you.
18 He will surely violently turn and toss you like a ball into a large country: there shall you die, and there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your LORD’s house.
19 And I will drive you from your station, and from your state shall he pull you down.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim [who God has raised up] the son of Hilkiah [whose inheritance is Jehovah]:
21 And I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will commit your government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.
22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.
24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.
25 In that day, says the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD has spoken it.
Below is a portion of the post of 19 January 2019, followed by Psalms 16.
1 John 2
18 Little children, it is the last time: and as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
20 But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things.
21 I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denies the Father and the Son.
23 Whosoever denies the Son, the same has not the Father: he that acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 Let that therefore abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
25 And this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life.
26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
27 But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.
28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that every one that does righteousness is born of him.
Amos 7 tells of the actual burden not being in the word Amos speaks in the name of the LORD, but rather of ignorance wrought by the religious leaders and the king, the corrupted institution of church and state, which they infest. They are the mowing and the locust the LORD shows Amos as the chapter begins, that cut down and devour the people under them, and when the plumbline measures their institution they are found to be crooked. These things are seen as the fire consumes their corrupted ideas, the means and source of the ignorance they teach and preach, and their true nature and character become apparent.
Amos 7
1 Thus has the LORD God shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.
2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O LORD God, forgive, I beseech you: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
3 The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, says the LORD.
4 Thus has the LORD God shewed unto me: and, behold, the LORD God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
5 Then said I, O LORD God, cease, I beseech you: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
6 The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, says the LORD God.
7 Thus he showed me: and, behold, the LORD stood upon a wall [the wall of Amos 1:14] made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.
8 And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what see you? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the LORD, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:
9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear [kuwl – comprehend] all his words.
11 For thus Amos says, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.
12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O you seer, go, flee you away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
13 But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.
14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit:
15 And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
16 Now therefore hear you the word of the LORD: You say, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not your word against the house of Isaac [Esau and Jacob].
17 Therefore thus says the LORD; Your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you shall die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land [as it is this day].
Here is some of the background, which is found in 1 Kings 11 & 12. God’s people have just separated into two kingdoms, after Solomon’s death, and Rehoboam is set to become king – until Jeroboam, returns from Egypt, where he had fled from Solomon. Earlier in Amos 2:13 we read of the LORD saying He is as a cart that has been fully loaded, which speaks of Rehoboam rejecting the advice of those who advised Solomon and deciding to increase the burden upon the people, which they had asked him to lighten. Because of this the ten tribes, which are then called Israel, separate themselves and make Jeroboam their king – thinking the burden would be lighter under him.
Reading 1 Kings 11 & 12 we are able to better understand the specific phrasing used in Amos. We read and understand that Jeroboam becomes worried the people will return to Jerusalem to worship in the temple, now part of what is called Judah, ruled by Rehoboam. He therefore makes calves and puts them in Bethel and Dan, and tells Israel they can worship there, instead of going to Jerusalem. We are told he made priests of the lowest of the people, and ordained a feast – to offer sacrifices to the calves.
Amaziah, the priest in Bethel, who is speaking against Amos, is one of the lowest, now a priest raised up by Jeroboam. What we see in Amos speaking of his own origin, being taken by the LORD and put in office, and his saying this to Amaziah, is referring to his (Amos) having actual authority (ordained by God). It is Amos pointing out that if the king has power to raise Amaziah up, using nothing more than his own authority, then surely God, the higher authority, has power to raise Amos up to act in His name.
The breach we read of, God’s people separated into two kingdoms, is what is spoken of in Amos 9:11, when it says, “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:” The verse before this tells of the people who are saying the evil will not overtake them, as the verses following this one tell of the plowman overtaking the reaper, and the treader of grapes the sower of seeds. This takes us to the name Amaziah, meaning the strength of Yah, from the word ‘amats, which is used in both Amos 2:14 and 1 Kings 12:18, the only time in each book. In 1 Kings it tells of when Rehoboam “made speed” as he fled from Israel after they revolted when he told them of his plan to increase their burden. In Amos 2 it tells of the strong who will not be able to “strengthen,” as it speaks of those who have pressed the people and the LORD under the full cart. It is speaking of Amaziah as the strong who will not be able to strengthen or deliver any who are thinking they will escape the coming consequences.
Amos 8
1 Thus has the LORD God shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
2 And he said, Amos, what see you? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
3 And the songs of the temple shall be howling in that day, says the LORD God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
4 Hear this, O you that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? [These preachers, teachers, and false prophets are asking when will this interruption end, so they can get back to their same old corrupted ways.]
7 The LORD has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwells therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
11 Behold, the days come, says the LORD God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Your god, O Dan, lives; and, The manner of Beersheba lives; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
Amos 9 [Speaking to these houses of separation – see 1 John 2:19 above.]
1 I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that flees of them shall not flee away, and he that escapes of them shall not be delivered.
2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
5 And the LORD God of hosts is he that touches the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
6 It is he that builds his stories in the heaven, and has founded his troop in the earth; he that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.
7 Are you not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? says the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the LORD God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD.
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, says the LORD that does this.
13 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the LORD your God.
Psalms 16
1 Preserve me, O God: for in you do I put my trust.
2 O my soul, you hast said unto the LORD, You are my LORD: my goodness extends not to you;
3 But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
5 The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: you maintain my lot.
6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
7 I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
8 I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
10 For you will not leave my soul in hell; neither will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life: in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
