EMMAUS SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES

Micah stabs at the injustice in leadership. Greed. Wanting as much as they can get no matte the cost. The hope of restoration when the messiah comes…Yay Jesus!! God calls us to a life completely opposite of what it is now. He requires us to live justly, love kindly, and walk humbly. ( Micah 6:8). This verse is what charlie Hall sings about in his song “Micah 6:8″

In the judgment you can see God’s heart for his people, if he didn’t care he would send punishment. God is merciful to not wipe out entire nations, the remnant is saved and the hope of one day every knee will bow and confess.

Greed is an American dream. We live in a society that sees problems with stealing, and lust and murder, but our consumer, capitalist mentality sees incredible value in greed. The business model I was taught through business college not in textbooks, but in practice was that you used people like you use products. The ultimate goal is to keep them complacent so you can produce the greatest amount of product for the least cost of money, therefore, reaping the “benefit” of your hard work. I realize now how wrong we are…

Micah attacks the Injustice of the leadership in Israel by describing their land hungry, money grubbing techniques as that of cannibalism. Tearing off the flesh of the people, chopping them up like meat in a kettle. The figure of speech used is gruesome, but it is true. I do not see an issue with working hard to accumulate “enough” for me to live on, while others, whom I deem to be lazy, do not deserve what I have worked for.  

Am I really in touch with the man who is sleeping outside tonight, rummaging through a trash can to eat? Am I in touch with the man who has had to run from his home to keep from being wiped out in a mass genocide. I am out of touch.

Something I see in Micah that is also in most of the prophets really, is that God’s love is in the judgment of sin. He has to discipline things not good because he is good and wants people to know him in a good way. Through the sin of unfaithful Israel and the judgment they are to receive for it, God is seen being faithful as the only source of redemption. Along with sin and judgment, he executes hope and restoration, which finally came to completion through Christ. God is the only one who can pardon iniquity and he does because he wants us to know him and know his goodness. I really like the key verse, which is 6:8 “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” It is interesting that he doesn’t mention to follow the commandments and I think that is for a reason because God wants our hearts and not a legalistic, religious system that turns us into not truly knowing God’s heart. He wants us to walk humbly with him and see his justice and kindness. It is a very good thing. Many times people have a hard time understanding how all the sin and judgment lines up with God’s character of being good, genlte, compassionate etc but it is important to keep in mind that God is not bi-polar. All of his attributes and characteristics work together for good, which is how he is just, loving, good etc.

Micah showed me mostly a lot about the character of God. It seems so strange and contradictory all this judgment and yet God is merciful throughout. The other thing that I loved seeing is that Jesus was prophesied about. How encouraging is that to see that God had a plan from the beginning. I learned from this book that God wants people to be just and kind to each other. I realize that I need to watch my mouth in order to do this. But I want my motives to be pure and to be from love for God and not just to do it. I do not want to check off a list, I want a heart change!

I have learned a lot from Micah. He has revealed His heart to me in Micah. The Lord is so faithful. He is so good and there is no one like him. I am thankful to serve such a wonderful and might God. The part of God’s heart I gathered from the pages of Micah was that He desires good things because He is good. He requires things from me and I can rejoice in Him wanting me better each day. I want to love justice and kindness as He does. I want to walk humbly with Him. I have also learned how gracious and compassionate the Lord’s heart is. That he forgives so much iniquity just to be with me because He loves me.
            I don’t know what that looks like completely in my life. I know I want to know more about it and learn His heart for my life and my obedience more specifically. I think in my life I definitely long for authentic worship of the Lord. That I want to be the change I wish to see I the world. I want to fully understand oppression so I can speak against it to Christians and non-Christians. I know I am God’s will so I am in His will so I can follow it thoroughly. I love the Lord and am thankful for his love and guidance in my life. I want to know Him more and His heart for His people. I need more compassion in my life for more people. I will do, as the Lord requires for His is my rock and salvation. My ever present help in time of need.

God does not hate me when I sin He hates my sin. He loves me despite my sin. He is faithful in my life even when I am unfaithful. He loves me when I turn away and when I am idolatrous with my heart. He pursues me over and over again with His steadfast love. I want to change my life by basking in the glory that my Father has provided. I will change my life by not being self-condemning because I am not longer my sin. Jesus took that upon himself that I would no longer be in bondage. I will be faithful to the Lord because He is faithful to me. I will empowered by the Holy Spirit to love God and fully realize His perception of me and sin.

 I am thankful the Lord hates sin so much and found a way to reconcile humanity to himself in Jesus. I am grateful He does not get fed up and walk away when I am too difficult to deal with. I will welcome His loving discipline to help me know His very best for my life. And how He wants me better the next day. I know He is worthy to try hard for because He is the only thing that satisfies. I will stay with the Spirit and not try and muster up any goodness. I will rely on Jesus to be my righteousness and not think I am every going to be good enough. I know His is the only One worthy and I will cling to Him for hope.

Hosea is a beautiful story of the covenant faithfulness of God to a people who don’t really care about him. Hosea is called by God to marry a woman that is a prostitute and then later he has to go back and buy her from a pimp, because she has gone to satisfy herself with “lovers less wild.” This enacted symbol serves as an example of God’s love for his unfaithful wife Israel, and also translates into our lives as New Testament believers. We often times play the prostitute, running after lovers less wild.

The judgment of Hosea is pretty intense, he attacks the leadership of Israel for their role in leading the people into Baal worship. Once there the people no longer view sin against God as any kind of issue. They are still religious, but they begin to attribute the blessing of God to Baal. So Hosea predicts the coming judgment, but the judgment can only be properly understood in light of God’s covenant faithfulness. His love requires the removal of sin, because it is perfect, and so his judgment is love, not hate, or scorn. The judgment is coming from a God that has been in a relationship with an unfaithful people for hundreds of years.

The application point I expounded on was the idea of growing in understanding of this perfect love. The more we press into God the more we understand that his love satisfies and it will begin to remove the sin and mess from our lives.

  

C.S. Lewis – Perfect love, loves in spite of sin, but cannot cease to will its removal.

Its sort of ironic how the Lord sees fit to show his love to his people. Hosea does just that. many of the chapters in the book focus on the sin of Israel and the judgment that is to come. The marriage of Gomer and Hosea is perfect illustration of how Israel is towards God. Hosea finds love for Gomer given to him from the Lord just as the Lord finds still love in his heart for Israel. Israel is asked to repent of their sin, not fix it. The oswald chambers insert for March 23 speaks a bit about this, just how God wants us to just admit we need him, we have sin and flaws and can’t fix them on our own. In the midst of prosperity and wealth Israel forgot their need for a savior. so punishment is necessary. Israel can never run too far from the Lord and neither can we. we must not be ashamed to bring our mess to the table and admit we are needy. The song by Bryan Adams “Everything i do, i do it for love” is an example a love that is never escaped. Having a love that they are not willing to just give up on, knowing there is nothing better anywhere. This is the type of love the Lord offers us even in discipline for our sin there is love. the hope of restoration is right along side with the judgment and sin in Hosea.

Hosea is such an amazing vivid picture of God’s love to the Israelites and us today. Hosea is a prophet that is told to marry a whore and have children with her and he does so and continues to prophesy the judgment that is coming on the Israelites if they do not repent. What God revealed to me was that he bought me just as Hosea had to buy Gomer back from a pimp. God bought me from my slavery to sin. I could not get out on my own and the other thing is I didn’t want out because there was no way I could get out on my own. Christ came and got me. WOW! He bought me, he shed his only son’s blood to buy all of humanity out of slavery. I have always heard about being redeemed and thought I knew what it meant but God really showed me; he opened my eyes gave me a EUREEKA moment. Thank you, God! So how do I apply that to my life? First gratefulness and love should flow from me to God and others and secondly God bought me from my sin and so I am his. He owns me, I am now a slave to him to righteousness. I want my life to reflect that slavery and I want to get to know God so that I can trust him and obey him and produce righteousness in my life. The way of the transgressors is hard as proverbs tells us and it is. I want to stick close to Jesus and walk in this crazy world hand in hand with him. Love you Lord!

Amos is the first prophet book we are starting and for the rest of the year we will be studying them. The prophets are books a lot of Christians today seem to ignore and stay out of except for the occasional verses like Jer 29:11 but I am just really excited to final understand the big picture meaning, the backbone and heartbeat behind all these prophetic books. They aren’t meant to be vague and scary to read but to allow us to see more clearly the heart of God. Amos is a mere shepherd who was told by God to go tell Israel that judgment was coming on them for being in idolatry and perverting justice. This book really gives you a glimpse into God’s heart for the poor and needy. They are people made in his image that he loves dearly and he hates injustice being done to them. He repeatedly tells Israel how he hates that they practice deceitful things like “buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals” (8:6). The Israelites are living in a “prosperous” time of luxury and their hearts are turned away from God. They worship other gods and they oppress the poor.

It is heavy on my heart how much this reminds me of our own culture. I am one that tries not to be critical and negative but I cannot ignore the fact that we as American people are living luxeriously while we promote unjust causes and trading so that we can have an oversupply of what we want. I know there is a deficit of communicating how much God hates injustice in the American church today. Most Christian Americans probably don’t even realize the severity of this issue and how they promote it. Many of the prophet books deal with how God hates injustice and I think the lack of the American church wanting to understand the prophet books has been a part of this problem. There are not very many churches that will preach from the prophet books. It can be discouraging to think how we can change injustice because it is such a complicated situation worldwide that seems like it will never completely be stopped but that does not mean we should quit promoting justice. I have made efforts in my own life to be careful what I buy. If the tag says “made in China” for example, it is not guaranteed that it is from an unjust sweatshop or not but if I have the choice to buy something else made in the USA for example, where I know it has not been unjustly manufactured, then I will choose to buy that instead. It is important to not just give charitably to organizations that give to those in need but to also be in awareness of where our money is going when we buy things for ourselves. It is also important to pass on to others the importance of this idea and I think as word gets around, change can happen and I believe that the small things I do in life like this can have effect on the world and it can start changing mindsets collectively. I think of Mother Teresa and how her simple mindset of wanting change has made a difference. She wasn’t looking for fame but justice and change in individual’s lives who were in desperate need. She gave her whole life to this and it is such a beautiful thing to see the results of it.

Amos prophesied to the people of Israel concerning the judgment of God. The main points of reproof in life of the Israelites are their treatment of the poor, their idolatry, and their pride. Amos calls the people to repent, to seek God and live, but they do not listen. They live in a time of opulence and comfort and they simply have no need for a God that cramps their style. This is seen best in his interaction with Priest Amaziah who asks him to no longer speak the truth, but to return to Judah, because his words are too hard to hear. The people have walked in the path of disobedience for so long they have become deaf, to the messengers of God. The worst part of the story is that they never failed to be “religious” they simply failed to find the Living God behind the sacrifices. 

An application point I found in this short prophecy has to do with our treatment of the poor, the outcast, and undesirable. This is a good indicator of our relationship with God. The reason is because if we press into God his very nature forces us to see him and we are faced with our own selfishness and his grace and mercy; a grace and mercy that produces change. So the contrary is true as well, that as we drift farther and farther from God, we begin to care less and less about the things that are close to his heart, and we become more selfish and the outcast, those that are hard to love no longer seem that important. Until finally we have marginalized all of society that does not support our own selfish world-view.

How do we walk in obedience? Seek him and live.

I can change my life by continuing for the rest of my life to have spiritual disciples. If I seek God daily in His scriptures I will know Him. When I know Him I will know His heart and His heart will transform mine. When my heart is transformed I will trust him. When I trust the Lord with my life I will be willing to obey. My heart will be filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit that will also lead me to obedience. Obedience will lead to blessing and blessing will lead to abundant life. I am thankful Jesus died for my sins and made it possible for God to be known by me. I can approach Him and be in His presence no longer as a sinner but as a child of His that He cares for. I will change my life by knowing the God of my faith and the Creator of the world more intimately each day. I look forward to knowing Him. I can learn to walk in His ways and rejoice in His faithfulness and goodness too.

 

            To change my life I will stay diligent to the covenant I have made with the body of Christ and with the Lord. I will meet with the Lord thirty minutes a day. I will fast one day a week. I choose to include small group time, accountability, and meeting corporately with the body. I know the root of idolatry and social injustice is not knowing God and having a heart unto Him so I will choose to receive help from the Holy Spirit to walk in the ways of the Lord. I want all things done in my life to be done unto the Lord. I want to persevere through my struggles and know the God of the scriptures has my best interests in mind. I want to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh who desires sin and is contrary to God who hates sin. I do not want to be idolatrous with my life and not see the needs around me. As I seek God I can see His heart for the poor and needy. I will choose to help with my time my friends who need help and when I get a job I will find ways to contribute to ministries who enable the needy to stand on their own two feet with the help of the Lord. And maybe I can physically be a part of a team that in tangible ways helps the poor and needy break through social injustice and help themselves.  

What really hit me in Amos was that God is really merciful. At first glance the book looks like gloom and doom judgment but then the character of God shines through as you see how he is warning them and giving them time and time again to turn back to him. An application point that I gleaned from this book was that God’s answer to the sin problem is for us to seek him. I am renewing my relationship with him. My one on one time seems to be pushed aside when I am faced with the busy schedule up here on the mountain and that is ridiculous because I am here for him. So with that I am going to start seeking him for my lifestyle problems and not force myself to some list of do’s and don’ts. That is not to say that I am going to make unwise decisions, no I just want my change to be at the root and not at the branch.

Kings and Chronicles–>

 A huge history lesson of Israel and Judah. I think there are many differant things on could take out of these books. Many leadership skills can be taken from the kings, accountablitiy can be taken from the priests and prophets. The Lord showed me what happens when our wants become his wants. Trusting him to give us what we need. Throughout the book the people’s biggest issue is their own desires. Then when a good king comes along and steers them in the right direction it doesn’t stick, they fall back into what they want. So if we sit today saying we believe truth and are holding firm to that, everything is going to be ok. As we seek Christ we will be shown how to live and what to do. I think Israel and Judah missed this, they wanted what they thought was theirs.

The author of Chronicles draws a interesting parallel to the book of kings, he demonstrates to the reader that when the Kings were obedient to the things of God they received blessing. The things the author centered on were the temple, the priests, and Levites, and obedience to the commands of God. The idea established was that those kings drew close to God were seen by their obedience to adhere to these religious practices.

As I studied and did several biographies on the kings, I began to see that the issue was trust. Those that didn’t trust God but chose to trust in their ability to buy off enemies and use political maneuvering, quickly began to slip down hill. Personally for me I see how I attempt to make the world work around me by my abilities. I see that if I can manipulate circumstances in different ways I typically can get the results I desire. The conviction sets home when I do not get the desired results and I become frustrated, at this point my reaction reveals my motives. I am learning to seek God first in what happens next in my life and to spend time knowing him and understanding his heart in order to make decisions. This has been a sweet journey.