Prepare to Meet Your God

Messages from the Minor Prophets

 Study Guide Week One

Message for Sunday July 22, 2018

This Week Reading:   Amos 4:1-12  Additional Reading: Amos chapters 1:1; 7: 7:10-17                                                                                                                                                              

Introduction 

Here is the scene: You are going about your normal everyday activity and suddenly God calls you to go to a neighboring country and proclaim to them that because of their sins God is going to judge them and destroy them. What would you do? Jonah ran away in the opposite direction when God called him. Jeremiah gave God excuses (Jeremiah 1:6) as to why he was not the right person to send when God called him. But Amos obeyed without question or complaint. Amos was a shepherd and he also cultivated fig trees and sold the figs as a business. He had no background as a prophet or religious leader at all. He lived in the Southern Jewish kingdom known as Judah. God called him to go to the northern Jewish kingdom of Israel and proclaim to them that God's judgment was coming. Amos faced opposition from the religious rulers (see the additional reading above) but he did not let that stop him. Amos faithfully delivered God's message to the people of Israel. Unlike in the book of Jonah, there is no evidence that the people listened to Amos and changed their ways. In fact they persisted in their wrong ways and Amos' message came true and God judged them by sending the Assyrians to destroy the Kingdom of Israel.

Some Background Information

There were three basic problems in the Kingdom of Israel at the time of Amos that caused God to judge and destroy them. It is important to understand that over the course of 100 years God repeatedly sent prophets to Israel warning them of judgement if they did not change (repent). The people did not listen and finally God brought judgement. The three main issues were: 1. The economy of Israel was doing great and the rich were getting richer but the poor were forgotten, mistreated and taken advantage of. The law of God forbids the oppression of the poor and needy (Deuteronomy 15:7-180). The poor were to be taken care of by those who had the ability to do so. 2. The people had turned away from worship of the true God and were ritualistically worshiping idols. 3. Sexual immorality had become normal. 

In the verses for this week it is important to understand some of the words that Amos uses. In verse 1 - 3 he refers to the women as cows of Bashan. Bashan was the most fertile area of Israel as was Mount Samaria. This is a reference to well feed rich looking cows. Verses 4 and 5 refer to Bethel and Gilgal. These were towns where temples to the false golden cow gods were set up for the people to worship (1 Kings 12:28 -33). They had huge ritualistic ceremonies in these places. The people thus had a ritual form of religion but no true relationship with God.

The phrase that is repeated, "says the Lord" indicates that these are God's words spoken through Amos.

Digging Deeper Questions:

1. What would you say are the top 3 sins of our society as a whole today? Why? 

2. What does it mean in verse 1 to oppress the poor and crush the needy? Do you see that happening today? What does God expect the church's and a Christian's attitude to be to the poor? 

3. Read verses 4 and 5. Describe what rituals they were doing. What religious rituals do people do today? Why does God hate ritual without a right heart and a just life towards the poor?

4. What things has God already done to try to get their attention (look at verses 6-11)?

5. Has God been trying to get your attention about anything in your life?
6. Are you prepared to meet God? If you knew that one month from now would be judgement day what would you change in your life?
7. How will you live different as a result of this study?

This Week’s Victory Challenge: Implement together a plan to reach other people through your group. (same as last week - keep at it until you have a plan)