Bible Book of the Month

Amos

Lesson #2 -- Teacher's Notes

AMOS -- God Rules Over the Nations

 
Read the Verses As They Are Dealt With in Class.

          (Teachers -- don't let the class get bogged down on
          anything for more than two minutes.)

The Setting:
     It would be good to draw a diagram of the divided kingdom and make
it clear that Amos is preaching to the northern kingdom.
     Q-1.  Amos was from the southern kingdom of Judah, and was
preaching to the northern kingdom.  They were probably prejudice against
him on that account also.

Amos' Beginning:
     Q-1.  The Lord will roar from Zion, even Jerusalem.
     Q-2.  Fertility in the land will suffer as a result of God's intervention
in judgment.

* Teacher -- be sure to use a map if possible to point out Amos' pattern of
talking about nations around Israel, north, then south, northwest, then
southeast, etc., ever drawing closer to their homeland.

-- page 2--

     Q-3.  (see scriptures)

Damascus:  Q-4  "threshed Gilead (the eastern side of the Jordan) with
threshing instruments of iron."  NIV "with sledges having iron teeth" 
(Whether they literally had done this very thing, or just a figure of speech
that they had done just awful and terrible things we aren't sure, but this
very type of thing was often literally done to one's enemies.)

Gaza: 1:6-8  Q-5.  Possible Comment:  The "Human Rights" issue is a
matter that God is concerned with.  It is a moral and ethical matter.  God
is concerned about "slave trading" etc. and man's inhumanity to man.

Tyre:  1:9-10.  Q-6.  Their brotherly covenant.
Tyre was guilty of "covenant breaking."
Get comments on Q-7 from the class!

Edom:  1:11-12.  Q-7.  The Edomites were the descendants of Esau,
brother of Jacob, sons of Isaac, thus, cousins to the Israelites.
     Q-8.  Get comments from the class on this question.

Ammon:  1:13-15.   Q-8.  The Ammonites were also distant cousins of
the Israelites.  They were the descendants of Lot by one of his daughters.
     Q-9.  They were guilty of killing pregnant women in the brutality of
war.
     Q-10.  Their motive was aggressive expansionism, they just wanted
more territory.

Moab:  2:1-3.  The Moabites had desecrated the remains of an Edomite
king.  Just when they did this we don't have an record in the OT.  The
burning of the bones or corpse of one was a way of showing disdain.

Judah:  2:4-5.  Q-11.  Judah had rejected the Law of the Lord.  Though
Judah claimed to be faithful (while the north went off into idolatry), her
faithfulness was only in lip service if even that much of the time.
     The charge is not leveled against the gentile nations around because
they had not been given God's law.  (cf. Deut. 5:1-5)

LESSON:  Along with blessings come obligations.  "...for unto
whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required ..." Luke
12:48.

Israel:  2:6-26.  Q-12.  The subtle message for Israel was that just as God
took the land away from the Amorites, he could take the land away from
Israel and lead them into captivity, which very thing he did.
     Verse 13 ... Read.
     Q-13.  This lesson clearly points out God's supreme place of control
over nations.  He controls their rising-up and their down-fall.  Then and
today!
                                                                                -- Windell Gann
     
 
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