[Faith-talk] {Spam?} Baffling Bible Questions Answered for Monday, July 18, 2016

[Paul Smith]

Hello and greetings to all my fellow Bible students.  I hope that you 
are all doing well today and keeping cool if your weather is 
unpleasantly hot, by God's matchless grace and His providential care.

This week we have two books to consider, namely, Amos and Obadiah, so 
let's look at them both right now.



Amos

Question:  Who wrote this book, and what themes and issues does it deal with?

Answer:  Amos was a sheep rancher from Judah who was sent on a 
preaching mission to Israel sometime between 780 and 760 B.C.  His 
message was one of warning and a bold call for a return to social 
justice and morality.  The book reminds us that true piety will reflect 
a concern for the poor.  Religious, moral, and social corruption go 
hand in hand.



Amos 1:3

Question:  What does the phrase "for three sins ... even for four" mean?

Answer:  It simply means "for repeated sins." God can forgive sins that 
we commit when we repent and turn away from them.  Amos announced God's 
judgment on sins that peoples of his time kept on repeating with no 
thought of repentance or reform.



Amos 4:4

Question: What is the significance of the repeated references to Bethel 
and Dan?

Answer:  The Old Testament required God's people to worship the Lord 
only at one place, where He chose to "put His Name" (Deut. 12).  That 
place was Jerusalem, where Solomon's temple stood.  But Jerusalem was 
the political capital of Judah, the southern kingdom.  When Jeroboam, a 
rival to Solomon's son, led the northern tribes to break away from the 
south, he feared that going to Jerusalem to worship would ultimately 
lead to a political reunification of the kingdom.  So he set up worship 
centers at Bethel and Dan and devised an entirely new religious system 
patterned on but a corruption of the worship required in Moses' law.  
When God speaks contemptuously of Bethel and Dan and the sins committed 
there, He refers to the corrupt form of Yahwehism practiced at these 
worship centers.



Amos 5:21

Question:  Why does God say, "I despise your religious feasts?"

Answer:  On the one hand, the religion practiced in the north was in 
constant violation of Moses' law (see above).  But even worse, the 
people who enjoyed religion were morally corrupt.  They claimed to 
sacrifice to God, but they trampled the poor, took and gave bribes, 
sold themselves to materialism, and deprived the poor of justice in the 
courts.  God will not accept the worship of people so materialistic and 
uncaring, neither in Amos's time nor our own.



Amos 9

Question:  What future does Amos see for God's people?

Answer:  Each of the Old Testament prophets, however bleak the warnings 
found in his book, ends with a note of hope.  Chapter 9 of Amos is 
typical.  Israel will suffer a devastating judgment that comes as a 
consequence of sin (9:1-10).  Yet, after the judgment, God will restore 
His people.  A descendant of David will sit on the throne, ruling not 
only Israel but all the nations.  At that time, the exiles will be 
returned to the Holy Land, and perpetual prosperity will follow.

This theme, echoed so frequently by all the prophets, has led many to 
expect the return of Jesus to initiate a restoration of the Jewish 
people to their homeland.



OBADIAH

Question:  Who wrote this book, and what themes and issues does it deal with?

Answer:  This brief, undated book contains a prophecy concerning the 
doom of Edom, a land whose people delighted in the fall of Jerusalem to 
an invading force.  Jerusalem was successfully attacked several times 
in history, so there is no way to fix the date of this prophecy with 
any certainty.  However, the prophecy reminds us of one provision of 
God's ancient covenant with His people:  The Lord will "bless those who 
bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse" (Gen. 12:3).

And there you have a look at both Amos and Obadiah.  Again, there are 
probably some themes here that perhaps you would have wanted the 
original writer to address, but I can only give you what I have.  At 
any rate I trust that today's column was a blessing to you all.  And 
now until next Monday when, Lord willing another baffling Bible 
Questions Answered column will be posted, may the God of Abraham, Isaac 
and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these 
last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul