Amos: The Shepherd Prophet (Part I)

Well, we're not going to get very far with it tonight.

We're going to kind of look at Amos, the man, before we get well into the book. And so we'll be working on this probably longer than the ladies are going to be studying through Amos.

Of course, you know that about me. And so I want to begin then tonight with just kind of focusing on Amos himself. And not really necessarily bringing into play any extra biblical material that we might be able to find, but just simply going by what the Bible tells us about him.

And really the Bible doesn't tell us a whole lot about it. But right off, we can understand, I think, something about the name. His very name, the root of his name means load or to lift a load, which is kind of interesting, especially as we consider the load that he did lift.

As a prophet, he carried a great burden. And so that's the meaning of his name. He came from Toccoa, Tennessee.

No. That's a different Toccoa, isn't it? In fact, I don't think it's quite spelled like that. And there are different pronunciations, which brings up the note that Hebrew, ancient Hebrew words, we're going to speculate how they are pronounced.

And so I'm just going to use Toccoa. And it means a trumpet clang, which I'm not sure how that works. A trumpet clang.

I mean, yeah, all right. In fact, you use that kind of motion there. I remember when I was in high school, I played the cornet, which is just kind of a version of a trumpet, a little smaller version.

And I remember one time that I sat it down real hard and bent the bell on the thing. And so I had to, I had just slightly.

So I put it at my knee here and kind of working it back and bent the thing. I mean, just so it's facing backward. And I had to have it professionally repaired.

But I remember when I did that, it clang. So there's a trumpet clang. So a trumpet really can clang. I think what we ought to focus on here is the idea of a trumpet.

And this is interesting, too. Now, you know, God, I think, ordains all of these things, the meanings of names and the meanings of towns.

Not that he's trying to put in there some secret message. But God is just sovereign. And in his providence, these things kind of work together.

So from Tekoa, his name means lifting a load. Tekoa, by the way, is in Judah as opposed to Israel, the southern kingdom, northern kingdom.

And you see from the map there that not very far from Bethlehem. And though part of Jerusalem is kind of cut off there, you can see Jerusalem just due north of Tekoa.

So in that region, in that part of the nation of Israel or where the Israelites lived, that part called Judah. But Amos was, according to the Bible here in verse 1, was a sheep breeder.

That's how it's translated in the New King James Version. I don't remember what it says in the King James. Maybe it's herdsman. All right. But it's a sheep breeder, which is a little bit strange.

The word is found only twice in Scripture. And it's not per se talking about, or usually is not in reference to your typical everyday run-of-the-mill shepherd.

It's very likely that sheep breeder includes someone who breeds sheep, and not just to shepherd them, but it's very much involved in that process.

Again, it's only found twice in Scripture. It's found, the other place is found in 2 Kings. You might jot this down. You can look at it some other time, but not really all that important to the study.

But 2 Kings 3.4, and it refers to Misha, king of Moab. And it says that he possessed hundreds of thousands of sheep and rams.

So, the word appears twice in Scripture. One for Misha, who had vast numbers of sheep and rams. And it refers to Amos, though it doesn't describe him as a wealthy man.

It could be that he was. More than just a common shepherd whose main focus was to breed sheep. But he could have been a very wealthy man.

Now, could have been, so we don't really know for sure. In chapter 7, verse 14, there are two other words that describe Amos.

Though one of the words is translated exactly the same, at least in the New King James Version. Sheep breeder, for one, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.

A gatherer of sycamore fruit. Those two things are mentioned in chapter 7, verse 14. Now, again, I think the King James probably has herdsman also there in chapter 7.

And that would be the English translation. But in the Hebrew, we have an entirely different word. Even a different word from what is used in verse 1. Now, what that means, I don't know.

There are still unique words that specifically point to something more specific than just a shepherd.

And so, it's thought that maybe this word that's found in chapter 7, verse 14 is the more common, more usual word that is used for a sheep breeder. This other job that's mentioned, the gatherer of sycamore fruit, that also is a little difficult to understand.

It actually comes from, the phrase comes from, I think, just one word in the Hebrew, maybe two. And if described someone who, this is just simply the bare meaning of the word, means to scrape or puncture or do something to sycamore figs.

I didn't know sycamores produce figs, but I guess they do. So, now, why did he do that and for what purpose? Is this some part of some sideline, some extra, you know, just another vocation, maybe a hobby?

Now, it's probably that he gathered these figs and processed them as a source of food for his sheep. Apparently, that's what scholars say is most likely.

All right, so, who's Amos? He's a guy who lived in Judah, the nation of Judah, which was the southern kingdom of that time.

And he was a sheep breeder, a herdsman, a gatherer of figs. All right, so, just a regular guy, though he may have been wealthy.

I think I also added on there, yeah, Toccoa was also a military town. And this is important because it was a place where international news would have been very available to the people of that community.

And that would explain Amos' apparent understanding, keen awareness of his world, world around him. Let's ask a little bit about the man.

Now, let's, I mean, let me say, let's look a little deeper into the man and ask the question, was he a prophet? Was Amos a prophet?

And, you know, I referred to chapter 7, verse 14 a while ago. And if you look at that passage, it seems there that he was not, that he was not a prophet.

Because Amos himself says there, I was no prophet. No prophet, nor was I the son of a prophet. You know, we've heard that phrase used before, you know.

Every time somebody wants to make some kind of, you know, off-the-wall prophecy about something. Well, I'm not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but, you know, here's my prophecy. But this is exactly what Amos said of himself.

So, I guess if we just take that literally, then he was not a prophet. Amos, I guess I've got to keep clicking my button here.

Amos, I think the idea is that he was not an official prophet. In the sense that he didn't have come as a representative of one of the prophetic guilds, the prophetical guilds.

And they had those in those days. And so, what was he? If he wasn't from one of the official guilds of a prophet, then he was a layman.

A layman that was under a divine order. An order to perform a function. What kind of function?

The function of a prophet. I mean, clearly he was. A prophet, or performing the function of a prophet. And clearly, he acted upon some divine call in his life.

And if we'll look at a couple of phrases here in verse 1, I think this becomes clear. In verse 1 of chapter 1, we have this phrase, the words of Amos.

And that phrase implied a spoken message from God. These are the words of Amos. But the implication, in fact, the literal phrase or term would be a saying.

A saying of Amos. Amos. Which points us to imply some message that he is saying. He's speaking for someone else.

And then notice the phrase, which he saw. Now, you put these two together, it becomes really clear that he was performing the function of a prophet. A saying.

Words of Amos. Which he saw. Which implies a divinely revealed message that Amos had and delivered.

And so it refers, then, both to the receipt of a divine message and the proclaiming of a divine message.

Those two things are put together. I'm putting them in reverse order there. Well, he put them in reverse order. He spoke what he saw. And so it's a divinely spoken or proclaimed message because it was a divinely received message.

It came from God. And so, it's interesting that these two phrases, right here in verse 1, also reveal the two main divisions of the book.

You can divide the book very neatly into these two parts. You have the words of Amos and the visions of Amos. The words of Amos, chapters 1 through 6.

And the visions of Amos, which he saw, chapters 7 through 9. All right, so you have, right on the front end, kind of an introduction or rather a revealing the main divisions of the prophetic book of Amos.

Now, the point of all that is, the conclusion I think we can safely come to, though there was never any doubt in your mind that Amos was a prophet.

But based upon what he said of himself and then going back to look at verse 1, the introduction to the book, then it's pretty clear that Amos was a prophet come from God.

And, you know, I'd make a point here. This is not in your notes. You can jot this down if you want. But let's just be honest here.

Formal training, even a formal official ordination, or any kind of official title, these things are not required to speak for God, to be a spokesperson for God.

The only one who has a word from God has proper credentials to speak for God. All right, now, I'm not talking about a word from God other than what we have in this book.

All right, now, in Amos' day, this book had not been completed. He was part of the Holy Spirit's revealing of God's whole word of God, and eventually he would complete that with the last word written in the book of Revelation.

So we're not getting, there's nobody getting a word from God other than what's in this book. But what's in this book, and if you have read it and you've got it, then you can speak for God.

You can say God said, because it says so right here in this book, and you don't have to have any special credentials for that. Now, obviously, we're not talking about the office of pastor.

There's some specific qualifications and such in Scripture for that. But you don't have to be a pastor to speak for God. And we need laymen in America today to speak for God.

And I had the question asked me when I was teaching in China the first week. We were going through the qualifications for a pastor, and the question was, well, what if no one qualifies?

And so, you know, right off you want to, the temptation is to kind of backpedal a little bit and say, well, you know, maybe God understands that no one qualifies, so the best person you got can be the pastor.

But no, God's word is very specific. Here are the qualifications, and if no one qualifies, then there's not a pastor. Does that mean the church can't be led? Can't have anybody speaking for God?

Even preaching? No. I just told him, I said, there would need to be a godly leader in the church who can preach, and then lead the church to pray that he would send a pastor who's qualified.

But, so, laymen can do that. All right, now, the next question is, to whom did Amos speak? Or was he speaking?

The words of Amos, this is how it begins, which he saw, and it's pretty clear from Scripture, which he saw concerning who?

Israel. All right, so he's speaking to Israel. I've mentioned this earlier, but Israel in this time, in Amos' day, was a divided kingdom.

Israel, I use the term Israel in the general sense of God's covenant people, the children of Israel. They were a divided kingdom at this time, but we're not going to get into the history of that.

The division took place during the days of Rehoboam, king of Judah. That would be the southern kingdom. That would include Jerusalem. And Jeroboam I, who was the king of Israel, that would be the northern kingdom.

And you can study that for yourself in 1 Kings 12. And other places in Scripture about the divided kingdom. All right, so, we're in the divided kingdom at this time.

And so, Amos is prophesying, speaking his prophecy, his divinely received divine message to, he says, Israel.

Now, where is Amos? He's living in Judah. And he is then going from Judah to Israel, from the southern kingdom to the northern kingdom, to deliver God's message.

And it's interesting that he addresses them by their covenant name, Israel. Now, indeed, they went by that because they live in the northern kingdom, and they're referred to in Scripture as Israel.

But Amos is very specific, and he refers to them as Israel, and that would be their covenant name. Judah would also have that same covenant name.

All of the children of Israel. And so, there's a reason why, I think, that he addressed them by their covenant name. And I think it is because their rebellion, and they have rebelled.

That's why God is sending Amos with a very clear message to them. Their rebellion had not canceled their covenant with God. Now, it's going to have tremendous ramifications for their identity as a nation.

That's going to come to an end. But as God's covenant people, they're still God's covenant people. And so, Amos called them to remember.

This is what his prophecy is all about, to remember. Or rather, this is why he referred to them with their covenant name. It was a call to them to remember their responsibility as God's called people, as covenant people.

And so, he's really saying, remember who you are by using the covenant name. Remember who you are. You've forgotten. You have forgotten your relationship with God.

Remember your relationship with Him. And that idea is, I think, further reinforced in verse 2 with the phrase, The Lord roars from Zion, the very term Zion, and He utters His voice from Jerusalem.

Now, Jerusalem is not in the northern kingdom. And so, He's not here referring to the nation, the northern kingdom, as some other kind of people.

He is referring to them and appealing to them on the basis of their covenant with God. And so, He says, God is speaking to you from Zion. You remember what happened at Zion.

Theirs was a covenant that was established by God at Zion. And it was there that the covenant people encountered the covenant God. And so, He's using the name to remind them of this relationship they have with God, a relationship they have apparently discarded because they rebelled against Him.

And so, Israel, the northern kingdom, were to hear the message from God spoken through Amos as people in a covenant relationship with God.

That's very important. And it's important for us today because there's a principle here that we need to understand today. And that is that every message that is delivered, a message that is from the Word of God.

I'm not talking about man's message or some worldly principle or something. We're talking about a message delivered that's based upon God's Word.

It has as its origin the covenant-keeping God. We ought to receive every message from the Word of God, first of all, on that base, understanding that this is coming from God who never breaks His covenant.

We might break it and often do, but He will never break it. That's behind Amos addressing them as Israel. He wants them to remember God has not broken His covenant.

And so today, every time we hear a message from God's Word, we ought to realize who it's coming from. And it's coming from a covenant-keeping God.

And then, we ought to realize that every message based upon the Word of God has as its intended audience, this is key too, and these two go together, has as its intended audience the covenant people of God.

Every message, by the way, even evangelistic messages, are received, if they're received at all, are received by covenant people.

Even though they don't know they are yet. Alright, so, this is important to understand about the Word of God. And, you know, I don't have to, as a preacher, every time I get up to preach, remind you that you are God's people, and so you better listen.

We just should always approach the preaching event, teaching event, whether it's in Sunday school, or some other forum, or even in our own private study of God's Word.

And so, the principle could be articulated this way, when God speaks, covenant people should listen. Listen and obey. I guess I should have added that extra little thing there.

So, you can add that on. They should listen and obey. That's what we should do. Alright, now, what did Amos speak? We'll continue with that.

He begins here with a, really a description of God speaking. Alright, this again, helps us understand that Amos is not speaking for himself.

And even the way in which he begins his book, after kind of this introduction of who he is, and so forth, even the way he begins the book, is the standard way that prophets would communicate their message.

And they do it by identifying the source of the message, who the message is coming from. And so, this is how Amos does it. The Lord will roar from Zion and utter, and it's, I think, literally, maybe some translations translate it this way, thunder, utter, thunder his voice from Jerusalem.

So, he's describing God speaking here. Alright, so, from here on out, the words that Amos is going to be speaking are not his words, but God's.

The word roar, or roars, means, could mean one of two things. And, the first one would be, and I say it could mean one of two things based upon the word and its usage in other places.

Could mean a lion's roar. Alright, so he's roaring like a lion would roar. It could also mean, and it's probably this second one, the sound of an approaching storm.

Which would be more fitting to the occasion here, because Amos is about to inform them that a major storm's coming. And not just for them, but all the nations around them.

In fact, the rest of chapter 1, and on in chapter 2, and we'll not get to that tonight, are going to be describing this storm that's going to blow in, and it's a storm of judgment that will rest upon Israel and all the nations that are around her borders.

The word thunder goes along with the sound of an approaching storm, doesn't it? Thunder means he gives his voice. And that sounds rather mild, but the idea is a forceful kind of a voice with an awesome force.

It's like thundering. And it's described that way in a lot of places in Scripture, but one I think is very interesting is Psalm. Let me read it to you. You can look at it if you want to, but Psalm 29, starting with verse 3.

The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon. He makes them also skip like a calf.

Lebanon and Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bare. And in His temple, everyone says glory. This is tremendous. But what's the idea here?

Pretty clear. That there's this... The voice of God is awesome. It's an awesome force. You know, we may shout and, you know, at the top of our lungs sometimes get angry and want to make a point and we shout, you know.

But likely nothing's ever going to happen. You know, it doesn't usually happen. Somebody might wake up if I shout in the middle of the sermon. But it doesn't mean that something major is going to take place.

But God speaks and things happen. I mean, at one point, of course, He spoke and everything was created. So His voice has great force.

And so this is a... We could say that this is a thunderous message that Amos is giving. It's a thunderous message from God. Now, this is what is known as a theophany.

A theophany. And a theophany can manifest itself in many different ways. It is, by definition, a manifestation of deity.

I mean, just in its bare definition. Some kind of manifestation of God or deity. But it usually results in something. It results in some catastrophe or something that affects nature, affects the world, affects man.

and there's some examples of it in Scripture. Sometimes a theophany will be in human form. A manifestation of God in human form.

For example, Jacob wrestling with the angel of the Lord. That's a theophany. It was not just mere angel he was wrestling with.

It was God Himself because in Genesis 32, 30, Jacob said that he had seen God, referring to that experience. He had seen God. So he wrestled with God. Now, don't get the idea that there was some question about the outcome of that wrestling.

I mean, if God wanted to win, He could. And remember, Jacob said, you know, I won't let you go until you bless me.

And here's the angel saying, let me go. Can you imagine God saying, let me go. I can't get free. The point of that whole story is He didn't want Jacob to let go of Him.

He wanted Jacob to hold on until He blessed him. But that's a theophany. I think another one would be Moses speaking directly to God. There's that occasion when he's speaking to God as you would a friend.

And not only that, but he saw God. God allowed Moses to see the back parts of God. He couldn't see the face of God and live, the Scriptures say.

But that's a theophany. Also, another example would be in visions. And you have a number of those in Scripture. Maybe one of the most well-known is Isaiah seeing the Lord in the temple.

that was a vision. He didn't look straight in the face of God, but he saw a vision and I don't know what exactly it looked like. He described a lot of the things about it, but he saw the Lord.

That's what the Bible says. I saw the Lord. That's what Isaiah said. That's a theophany. There's some other forms. One example would be a burning bush, the one that Moses saw.

That's a theophany because he drew near the burning bush. You know, the bush is burning yet it's not being consumed. And as soon as he draws near, God speaks to him and he says, take off your sandals.

The ground on which you walk is holy. And God's speaking out of the burning bush. But, you know, the burning bush is not God, but it's a theophany, a manifestation of God.

And then, too, we have to add to that, as is the case here in Amos, words. In words, God manifested himself and his very words and specifically what those words will bring about.

Alright, so, God is going to manifest himself to Israel, going to do so through Amos, going to manifest himself as the covenant God, covenant-keeping God.

But he's going to manifest himself as the enforcer of the Mosaic law, the Mosaic curse that was attached to rebellion and rejection and disobedience toward that covenant.

And God's going to deal very harshly with Israel about that. Alright, now, what will be the result of this thunderous message?

This roaring, thunderous message? Well, we need to look at verse 2. The pastures of the shepherds mourn.

! Literally means to dry up. And the top of Carmel, that's the top of the mountain, Mount Carmel, withers. Those two words, mourn and withers.

Or, more literally, again, dry up and wither. Now, this is known as a Hebrew parallelism. You see a lot of this in the Old Testament.

They're easy to notice. I mean, you see these, especially in the, you see them a lot in the Psalms and the Proverbs and other poetry books in the Bible.

Parallelism. It's just, you know, simply stated it's saying the same thing twice, yet using different words, different images, but the idea is the same and they're just parallel thoughts.

And you can see that here. Dry up and wither are parallel thoughts. or parallel conditions. But what's the point here?

And, especially, you know, how does this work? I mean, rain usually follows thunder. Alright, so he's already saying thundering.

And, you would expect then the parallel thoughts to refer to something else, but, dry up and wither is the result of God thundering or the result of an approaching storm.

But it's not rain, which is what you would expect. It's something else. Now, that brings us to another kind of technical literary device that Bible writers used.

and it is a use of parallelism that is known as a merismus. Merismus, which is a literary device.

Writers use this technique. And, in this device they use opposites in order to convey wholeness or a totality of something.

So, here's the idea that he's conveying here. And that is that the Lord will bring about total devastation. So, here is the voice of the Lord thundering.

And the result of that is dry up and wither. And, it's going to be used to the parallelism means that it's going to be a total devastation.

The total end of a nation as it existed at that time. In fact, when it's all said and done, none of the nations that we're going to be considering that are part of the prophecy will get into these next time.

None of these nations, and there are six of them, and also Israel, none of these nations that he's about to pronounce judgment on, including Israel, will continue to exist.

They will come to an end. And so, these words of Amos, and these visions of Amos, this theophany in words, the manifestation of God, will mark total extinction, by the way, ultimately of Judah and Israel, and every nation mentioned here.

Now, Israel will be restored, not as divided kingdom, anymore, as they have been, and you know, historically. But, the judgment will be carried out, and it will be total, total extinction of all of these nations and their borders.

Now, starting with verse 3, and continuing on into chapter 2, Amos is going to show how God's thunderous message would affect each nation around Israel.

And he started with the six foreign nations that bordered Israel, and we'll get into those next time. Now, it's important to note that he did not speak these words to these nations.

All right, you've got all these six nations that border Israel, and here's Amos speaking for God. He's this thunderous message that comes from God. He's not speaking this message to these nations.

He's not speaking to them to warn them. It's not a message going to be carried over to Moab or some of these other nations and warn them of God's impending and coming judgment.

He's not speaking to them at all. It's not for them. He's also not speaking these messages to them to pronounce judgment. Like Jonah walking into Nineveh and pronouncing God's judgment upon Nineveh.

That was a prophet, in fact, uniquely, a very unique situation where a prophet of Israel spoke actually the words of God to a Gentile nation in pronouncing judgment.

But Amos is not doing that here with these Gentile nations. Amos spoke these judgments for Israel's ears. for them to hear. And I think it was to shock them, shock them into listening, shock them into understanding what they've been doing and their rebellion, to shock them into fearing the severity of God and judgment, whatever the purpose.

But he spoke these to Israel's ears. believers. These words of Amos reveal then the sovereignty and authority of God over all people and all nations, not just his covenant people.

And that's an important thing to understand and to apply to our day today. His sovereignty and authority is over all nations.

Not just Israel and not just quote Christian nations, but over all nations. He is sovereign over all the Muslim nations of our world today.

And so forth. He's Yahweh. Yahweh God. He's the creator. He's the king of all the earth. I remember one of my favorite old movies, and I like a lot of old classic movies, but The Rogue, one of my favorite.

I never liked Victor Mature's actor, but, you know, he was Victor Mature, wasn't he? Yeah. Anyway, and he played a Roman soldier, remember, who took part in the crucifixion of Jesus, and then later he was saved.

Have you ever seen The Rogue? Anybody? It was just all. It was just the Roman. Okay, well, I should have just brought it tonight. I had one. Alright, so he became a believer, and at one point in the movie, he's standing before Caligula, the Caesar, and Caligula asks this question, is Jesus your king?

Asked Demetrius this, and Demetrius says, yes, and he's yours too. That's quite a poignant statement. Now, Demetrius didn't believe that, of course, and we understand that.

The Roman Empire didn't understand that either. Pilate didn't understand that. That's a capital crime. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, exactly, and it turned out that way too, didn't it?

Yeah. So, we need to understand that he's sovereign over all nations, and even though, by the way, these other nations had no covenant with God like Israel did.

They had no special covenant with God. They were subject to his standards of justice and righteousness, and God will judge all nations based upon that.

We can understand that, I think, from Romans chapter 1. Let me read that to you, and as soon as I read it, you'll remember it. Romans chapter 1, verse 18.

In fact, I could read all the way to the end of the chapter because it kind of deals with that, but let me just read verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

All unrighteousness of men. And that's focused not just upon individual people but all men. And that would include all groups of men.

That would include nations. Okay, and the application of this is very apparent, isn't it? Because we're a nation. And if God's sovereignty and authority applied to all those pagan nations that bordered Israel, Israel, in Amos day, then it would apply to America today.

And we should take that very seriously, and I think you all do. We're not immune to God's judgment. In fact, I am one of many who believe that we're already experiencing His judgment.

Maybe not His direct judgment, because God doesn't always operate that. One day He will, but His permissive judgment, where He just removes His hand upon a nation.

I think it's gradual, allowing sin to run its course. And part of the, I think, problem or responsibility lies at the door of the church, church.

Because I believe we're the restrainer of evil in the world today. And one day we'll be removed totally, as the restrainer is removed, before the Antichrist reveals Himself, and before the tribulation.

I think we'll be removed through rapture. But right now, in our nation, we are self-removing that influence, that restraining power that we've been given.

And that's part of God's judgment, I really believe. And there are people that say, well, you know, we're not Jews and covenant people, are we?

No, we're not Jews. We're not part of that covenant. We're not subject to the Mosaic curse. That's what some would argue. But the point of that is that didn't help to Damascus or Philistia or Tyre or Moab or Edom or Ammon, those were the six nations that God judged here through Amos' prophecy.

They weren't part of that covenant either, but that didn't help them. And so, it won't help America either if we continue on the course that we're going. And then there would be others who would argue, but in a way, we are covenant people because, you know, we're a Christian nation.

I think at one time we could have said that. I don't think we can say that anymore. But even if that argument were to hold water, God's pronouncement of judgment did not end with the foreign nations.

It also encompassed Israel and Judah, ultimately Judah as well. And so, God's very serious about justice and righteousness.

righteousness. Some questions maybe to close it off here tonight. I'm a little past the time anyway. For us to just think about, based on what I've just said, you could answer this question pretty easily.

Is the message of Amos just something locked away in the past, not important for today? And the answer, of course, is no. we've already made a couple of applications here tonight.

And especially this last one, that God will judge unrighteousness, unrighteousness of a nation. The second question would be, and it's why I have this antique globe sitting up here, can God today redraw the map of nations?

And he certainly can, and he has. Many times. I've got my grandfather's, this was my grandfather's globe, and it's fallen apart.

In fact, around the equator, somewhere in there, it's about to split open. So I'm going to have two hats, you know, eventually. But, you know, if you were to take a look at that, especially in the Middle East, and especially in the Soviet Union, Europe, those places, number one, you'll find no Korea on there, no Vietnam on that globe.

There's no Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan or any of the other host of stands. They're not on there. And other names of some countries I can't even pronounce because those were all swallowed up by the Soviet Union.

That's on there. And, you know, Leningrad is St. or it's Leningrad rather than St.

Petersburg on that map. And there's a host of changes in Africa, too, that I didn't jot down, but it's interesting to see. And then what about Israel?

It's not on that globe. Israel's not on there. And that wouldn't happen until May 14, 1948, when they became a nation again.

And that globe predates that time. So is God still in charge of redrawing the globe and the borders of nations?

He is. And God has appointed nations, their times, and their borders, the Bible says. And he changes them, too.

And so it's not, it's all under his sovereignty and under his control. And after Amos prophesies, at some point after that, all the whole map of that part of the world is going to change.

Its borders are going to change. And Israel and Judah are going to be no more. And there's other nations, Moab, and so they're all going to be swallowed up by other empires.

And those will be taken over by other empires and then another after that. And so it's interesting. God is still redrawing the map of nations today.

Thank you.