Complacency & Consequences | Israel’s Wake-Up Call | Amos 4:1-13

Show Notes

Episode 635: 
In this episode, we delve into a discussion centered around the Book of Amos, highlighting the stark message of judgment that God delivers to Israel through Amos, emphasizing the consequences of ignoring divine warnings. We explore the metaphor of Israel as "fat cows" living in luxury while oppressing the needy, drawing parallels to the importance of being mindful of our actions and their impact on others.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to Friday's version of The Bible Guys. Today's Friday. That's amazing it is. Why is it amazing? Because we made it the whole week. Oh there you go. Yeah, we got all the way through it, the whole thing, man oh man. For those of us who made it. Yes, So this is everybody's favorite segment because it's Friday, is it? Yes, everybody's favorite segment. I just had a meeting yesterday. Did you hear the way that Desiree wrote it? She goes? You asked, you asked, we listened, we acted. It's Friday, and we're back with your favorite segment. Just mad this Well I had a meeting yesterday, Yeah, and with some folks and they're really regular listeners to the podcast, and they said that what made Chris mad this week is their their favorite segment. Well, thank you for that. Okay, So here's what I did before we get into what made Chris mad this week. I you know, I love AI love it, and so I asked AI knowing Chris Arball has a penchant for hyperbole, answer the question what made Chris mad this week? And it sort of knows me, and yeah, it's amazing. So people, I'm telling you, I've taken message outlines before and asked chat gpt to give us a transcript in Chris Zarba's voice. And it starts off the way you start off. It's got a ton of you've read it before. I've read actual actual phrases. Like I use yes, So so AI is really really intrigued by you and your personality. If we do it for me, it doesn't, it doesn't do it uses more Bible verses. That's that's the only difference between how it does it for me and does it for you. Mine is less personable than yours and uses more Bible verses, but yours is way more engaging and way more applicable. Right, we can't use too many Bible verses, Jeff. That's right, that's right. But that's the only difference. And I wasn't saying that to brag other than I am a Bible guy. But beyond that, it's the only like it's like, it doesn't have my voice, it just has my attitude. The Bible guy and his companion named Chris, but. It writes it writes, well, I'm pretty sure yesterday you said it was you. You're the companion. Yeah. So anyways, here's what I said. I asked it, knowing that Chris Arball has a pension for hyperbole. Answer the question what made Chris mad this week? Yep, it reasoned for a couple of seconds, and this said. It all started when someone dared misplaced Chris's meticulously sharpened pencils by a mere two millimeters? Do you or don't you have OCD a little bit? That is hilarious? Huh? How did you even know that? I know? Of course, in classic Chris fanhion, the fashion the minor offence got described as the single most catastrophic organizational apocalypse in stationary history. From there, every trivial annoyance snowballed. Someone used there instead of there. In an email, a Brista added whipped cream to his latte unrequested, and even mentioned the coworker who spoke at normal volume while Chris was clearly trying to drink. Is you know what my drink is? And I bet that was a lucky yes. Yet No, you've already talked about Barrista's and serving before. Okay, yeah, yeah, so it knows and so you know you basically, every each tiny misstep quickly got promoted to a crisis of epic proportions, and before you knew it, Chris was convinced the universe and conspired to rob him of every ounce of peace, every. Ounce of piece. It knows you talk about hypers. I'm saying that's pretty extreme. So anyways, so okay, all right, well okay, so what made you mad this week? Chris? It comes down to one. Thing, and this is the thing that everybody can relate to. And I think that everybody I'm mad on behalf of all folks. Thank you, Thank you, Chris. We wouldn't have even thought to be mad, but thank you for doing it for us. Okay, tell me you have not experienced this. It is when you try to get your broken car to perform for the mechanic and make that noise and it will not do it right, right, right, So it makes the noise, It makes the noise, It makes the noise, and then you pull up to the mechanic and you're like, it's making this noise and then and then all. Of a sudden, it runs perfect. You know what I'm talking about. Okay, So this happened to me just like a few days ago. So so my son, he's in the middle of buying a car right now, a truck, and so we're sort of using this really really old car that I had bought Sarah, and it's just sort of sticking around on the driveway. It's a two thousand and eight Ford Focus Get like two hundred thousand miles on. It's just pretty pathetic anyway. But this this this thing, Fernando is his name, by the way. The car. Yeah, I name car. Name is Fernando. You don't know I name all my car I didn't know that. You really didn't know. I name all my cars. I've named every car that I've ever had since I've since I've been driving. Wow. Yeah, and even your dealership cars, Uh no, you don't you know car that I owned, the ones that you own, Okay. And in the dealership cars that I'm in, they're all John Doe. All John Doe, Yeah, every John Doe. Yep. So because because I knew that, I knew i'd be switching cars anyway, So all my brothers name all their cars. All my family names the cars. All my kids named the cars. So Fernando thousand miles. It's kind of a but he sold Shanaia. Ok. So I gets old and so so he so he puts all his work tools into Fernando and it's just a small, dinky, little Ford Focus and uh So, anyway, he gets out there and it's like remember the remember last week, uh during uh it was like literally like negative five degrees outside. So he gets out there like four in the morning and he goes to start Fernando and. No, no, no, no, no, no, it's the crank. So it's like it's like the what do you call it, like the tethers or whatever. It's the it's the it's the where your keys go in. So it's not it's not the actual starter. It's that it actually won't catch. So and sometimes if you push up and push in it'll it'll start. But at the first couple of clicks, you know, the battery comes on, but it won't. It won't it won't crank. So and it's been this way for like three years. We've never fixed it. So so Steven's like you just have to push and push and then he starts it. So he goes out there at four in the morning. It doesn't start well. His car's parked behind my car, and so I said, well, just take my truck and he goes, I can't do it because fans behind behind that, and I said, okay. So it's four. So I literally get up and in my robe. So I literally am in my you know, underwear, put my robe on, and I put boots on. So I am freezing beyond belief and I am pushing the car but he's but he's late now. So I'm like, come help me, and he's like, I'm late. I gotta get this thing. So it runs back in the house. He's trying to get ready and then I'm pushing this car out to the middle of the road in just a robe and it is just I'm the coldest I've ever been in my life. So then it sits there for like three days. I got there. Every day I try to crank, it doesn't crank, and I'm like, fine, I get this thing, toad. I got Triple A. So I called Triple A and they say, hey, we'll be there. I got to pay extra money because it's beyond the miles my mechanic, so they finally sh up after waiting. Like two hours. So I figured I'll go out there and I'll brush it off for the mechanic. So I go out there and I want to brush off the snow, and so I think, oh, maybe i'll do is just I'll turn on the ignition. Just the winter wipers will help me, right, So I turn it on and it cranks yep. And so then I take it to the mechanic and he says, what do you mean it's starting fine? And I said, are you kidding me? For the last three years, when I put the ignition in there and I turn it, without fail, it does not crank like like, it doesn't do anything. And he said, I'm telling you right now that I'm putting the key in and I'm turning it every so gently, and every single time it starts right up. Well, are you kidding me? So did he replace it? Anyways? He still has it, still has it, So he's just just telling just tell. Him keep it until you find it, like right like, But. But does it happen for the doctor to where you take your kids to the doctor they're so sick, But by the time you get to the doctor, it's the adrenaline rush. They feel great. Doctor asks how you feeling? I feel fine? Right? They just talkative and all that kind of stuff. When that happens, is that funny? But I'm mad on behalf of every time the car doesn't perform for the mechanic for the world. That's right, and the car knows what it's doing. That's the cars of America. That's right. When when when you are are not functioning. Right, you need to show that off for the hashtag night writer, night writer doo doo? Yeah is real? Okay? Talking about failing to learn from uh. The anger of the owner? That was rough. That was by far. You're worship Israel. Israel is failing to learn their lessons from God. Who's the owner of h Yeah. I don't know, man. Okay. So so here's that's my favorite phrase in the Book of Amos. I'll say it the Lord I crank and nothing happens. All right, We're going to read literally in this next sentence is my favorite sentence in all of the Book of Amos, all the Book of Amous, the whole Book of Amos Amos chapter four. He says, listen to me, you fat cows living in Samaria whoa, wow, isn't it great? That is amazing. God's kind of ticked off. Remember he just said earlier, you know, your family's the only family I've ever been intimate with. Yeah, and now he's like, you bunch of fat cows. Hey. By the way, there's that. There's a note. I know we normally don't interrupt the reading, but it says Israel's wealthy women were called fat cows, pampered, sleek, and well see Psalm Chapter twenty two, verse twelve. Excuse me, well fed? These women selfishly pursued, or excuse me, push their husbands to oppress I can't read the uh to oppress the helpless in order to support their lavish lifestyles. Be careful not to desire material possessions so much that you were willing to oppress others and just please got to get them. So they were literally referred to fat house Psalm twenty two, verse twelve. Oh you gotta look it up. Look up Psalm twenty two twelve. So I'll read this and then you can get to it. So let me go. Listen to me, you fat cows living in some area, You women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, and who are always calling to your husband's bring us another drink. The Sovereign Lord has sworn by this, This by his holiness. The time will come when you will be led away with hooks in your noses, every last one of you be dragged away like a fish on a hook. You'll be let out through the ruins of the wall, and you'll be thrown from your fortresses, says the Lord. Go ahead and offer. Sacrifices to the idols at Bethel, keep on disobeying at Gilgal. Offer sacrifices each morning, and bring your ties every three days, present your bread made with yeast as an offering for Thanksgiving. Then give your extra voluntary offering so you can brag about it everywhere. This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do, says the Sovereign Lord. I brought hunger to every city and famine to every town, but still you would not return to me, says the Lord. I kept the rain from fall when your crops needed it the most, and I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. Rain fell on one field, while another field withered away. People staggered from town to town looking for water, but there was never enough. But still you would not return to me, says the Lord. I struck your farms and vineyards with blight and mildew locus devoured all your fig and olive trees, but you still would not return to me, says the Lord. I sent plgus on you, like the plagues I sent on Egypt long ago. I killed your young men in war and led all your horses away. The stench of death filled the air, but still you would not return to me, says the Lord. I destroyed some of your cities, as I destroyed Sadomighemora. Those of you who survived were like the charred sticks pulled from a fire. But still you would not return to me, says the Lord. Therefore, I will bring upon you all the dads. Is that all the disasters I have announced. Prepare to meet your God in judgment, you people of Israel. For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind. He turns the light of dawn into darkness and treads on the heights of the earth. The Lord, god of Heaven's armies, is his knee. Woh yeah. Once again, he's not messing around. No, No, you know what's interesting is I thought we were doing the highlights of the Old Testament. I thought we were too, but we're getting amos straight up. Straight up Amos. Yeah, And to be honest, it's a little bit more of the same now now today is obviously a little different. Right, So it's you know, so. Chapter two was God's announcing judgment on all of the different you know, chapters one and two he's announcing the judgment on different places, and then he includes Israel, and then all of a sudden, he goes on mostly about Israel. He expresses his you know, disappointment, his anger, his patience, you know. And then also, you know, doesn't it say that God's a jealous god? Right? That God admits that he's jealous. Good. Right, Not in a bad kind of way, no, but in a committed kind of way, right, right, the way that a husband would not want his wife cheating on him with another person, or a wife wouldn't want her husband cheating on her with another person. That's it's that kind of. It's the appropriate kind of jealousy. Yeah. And then and then so this chapter, sorry about. The Yeah, that's okay, you're yawning at yourself. It doesn't make me feel bad. Yeah, oh, that's right, because you're not talking. Usually when I'm talking. This time, you're boring yourself today. Yeah right, I'm yawning in the middle of my sentence. But but now it's now it's just God, uh, just going on about Israel's, Israel's failure to learn. And uh, you know, I've had this speech before with my kids. By the way, have you ever had a speech where it's like it's like, I just I don't know what else to do. I don't know what else to try. You know, I've I've taught, I've I've done everything I know, I did everything that I've known how to do, and and yet you just simply won't you know, respond, you know, or obey or whatever. So it's going to get hard, right right, right, so's the that's the note for Ams four six through thirteen. It says, no matter how God warned the people through famine, drought, blight, locusts, plagues, war, they still ignored him. Because the Israelites didn't get the message, they would have to meet God face to face in judgment. That's the scary one, right, Yeah, No, longer could they ignore God, they would have to face the one that they had rejected, the one that they had refused to obey when he commanded them to care for the poor. One day, each of us will meet God face to face to give account for what we've done or refuse to do. Are you prepared to meet him? You know that I think of that that we were just talking recently about this, I still think this'd be a good idea. I'm really intrigued with the idea of taking some of the great messages that were preached during the Great Awakenings in the first grade Awakening, second Grade Awakening, George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, some of these great messages about about how God deals with his people, how Hell is real, Heaven is real, judgment is real, opportunity to serve God, blessings are real, all these things, you know, because they're they're in the Old English, and so a lot of times when you read those they don't make So you know, if we just kind of updated them with the modern language, but go back and reintroduce, you know, these newer. Generations to that language. Because I could read those back when I was a kid. Can read because I grew up reading the King James Bible, so did you, right, grew up reading the King James. So so you know this Shakespearean level English. So to have that sophisticated seventeen hundred's English in preaching, wasn't that weird to us? We could? We could, But now I think this generation has no concept of that old English hardly. So I'd love to go back and grab some of those old messages. But there's there's a great famous message Jonathan dwi was preached sinners in the hands of an angry God. Right, I remember reading in my freshman year of high school. Yeah, I can remember a famous preacher judgment Days coming right as another one some of these great messages that were just rocked America at the time, going. And it's not just God hates you and He's going to judge you. That wasn't it. It was God is is. He mentions here multiple times, he's a roaring lion. I'm roaring from Jerusalem trying to get your attention right, And and so God is, God is merciful. He's this is what Jonah was mad at him about. You're so compassionate, You're so merciful. Right, you're so full of unending love for people. Right, he's mad about that. But the other side is God is a roaring lion. God is there is a limit to him saying I'm gonna I'm gonna stop you from going any further with the evil that you're choosing to do or the bad choice you're gonna do, and that that judgment also comes. So God is love and God is just. He's both, and so a lot of times we get hung up on the love and mercy side and we forget his justice, and then we're surprised. We're surprised when things fall apart in life, and then we want to blame everybody else instead of finally coming to the conclusion these things are happening because I'm choosing to not obey God. God says, how many famlinies do I have to send? How much blake do I have? How often do I have to send locusts? War Guys, what do you think I'm doing. I'm doing everything I can to get your attention, and you refuse to believe that this is my way of getting your attention. So all right, we're going to go face to face on this one and I think that you know you and I we don't have to hammer judgment all the time with people. But I have had conversations with people going why is this happening in my life? And I'll usually say, I think you know what you tell me? Why do you think this is happening in your life? And people that are experiencing God's judgment in their life almost always will say why it's because I haven't been walking with the Lord right at this and that I knew God wanted me to do the right thing. I chose not to, so it's costing my marriage. I knew God wanted me to do the right thing, I just didn't want to. That's why now I'm being investigated by the FEDS. Whatever. They knew what the right thing was. And then so if you're in a judgment kind of a place in your life where God is allowing heavy things to happen and consequences in your life, I think you usually know pretty clearly. The Holy Spirit speaks to you and lets you know this is a judgment thing. If you're going I don't know why, well, that's probably not judgment. It's just circumstances. It's how the world works. It's one of those things where then that's where you pray, like David prays, God, you are my refuge, You're my strength, You're the one and God. Then God allowed bad things in David's life early on to make David a strong, mighty warrior, a great king. So all those things, you look at it life and you go, God must hate David and know God was making David lift some heavy weight so it'd be strong as a king. So sometimes God allows difficult things in our lives to make us better. And in those moments, usually people go, I don't know why God's doing it, but I'm just trusting you. But there's other times when God allows really difficult things, the famines in your life, the locusts eating up everything that matters in your life. And if you go, I know exactly why, then the single best thing to do is repent. Do what Nineveh did, Go back and go God, I'm going the wrong direction, right. So I don't think that the Holy Spirit leaves it vague and leaves you confused. I don't know why this is happening in my life. If there's a judgment moment, it's because God's going to be clear on that with you, you'll know if it's not that God's just making you stronger and better, it's the circumstances in life that are going to make you stronger. Yeah, that's a good word. And I almost feel as you were saying that. All I'm doing is thinking back in like my childhood and my early days of ministry, and I was thinking about all the hardships and how things are hard, and honestly, had I not gone through like for instance, I had a group of ministry friends, leaders and pastors. We're going down the room, we're giving each other nicknames, and they said, oh, you're called this, and you're called this, And then I think I told you this before, but they said, we're going to give you things wolverine and I said, well, why is the white wolverine? They said, because you're a fighter. You've you've fought for everything your whole life. You're just a scrapper. And I thought, and I thought, how would they even know that? You know, and looking back and sort of seeing and piecing everything together. But honestly, it's probably one of the reasons why I'm still standing today. Yeah, right, is because you know, like you said, like you know, he makes you strong to be a great warrior. Yeah, the other side of it, I can remember, you know, And I've told this a little bit, the story, you know, coming out of high school going into college, I was kind of the golden boy in our little world, and a lot of the other famous pastors were saying, hey, as soon as you finished, you got a job with me, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I think that, you know, I don't know if you've heard I have a supreme level of self confidence. You have, you know, I have heard this, and so you know that can lead to an inordinate amount of pride, and everything that I did turn to gold. And so I can't remember I had an early season, you know, Paul Warrens, you know, don't lay hands suddenly on any man. Be careful with young leaders, right, Pride comes with four there's other things, and so I think, you know, I make jokes about it now, getting kicked out a couple Bible colleges. But the consequence that was I crammed four years into six years of college, but spread it over eight right, right, and where everybody else to get done in four years, it took me eight years. And by that point I was married. I had two kids. It was really really physically demanding and hard, and I was humbled. At that point, I wasn't the star anymore. I went from being the star to not being the star anymore. And then ever since, I feel like I'm about a decade behind where I should be for the talent level. That if I'm just being honest, the talent level, I feel like God gave me the achievements. I'm hitting them in my fifties when I other stars would have hit them in their forties, right, right, And I know that, I know I'm about a decade behind almost always. And that's not God hating me. That's God allowing me to go through a little bit of his judgment, to get rid of that pride, to get rid of that self, you know, sufficiency a little bit. And so I really do see that that little window of time in my life was God was I was refusing to learn how many Bible colleges do most pastors have to get kicked out of before they learned their lesson. Right, I got banished from the crowd I ran with afterwards, right, they declared to heritake all these things, and I think it was that was a judgment element in my life and I'm willing to go and I knew it. It took me a while. It took me a while to get to the point where I would finally confess that and believe it or not. That was kind of the beginning of the end of it was when I finally acknowledged God, your hand is really heavy on me. In the booky Hebrew says God rebukes his children. If God doesn't, he literally says, if God doesn't on occasion. Spank you. As are, then he says, you're an illegitimate son. You're not even really one of mine if you don't occasionally get it corrected. But the ending of the correction for me was when I finally admitted God, I know you're correcting me, and Okay, you're in charge. And so I feel like I've run about a decade behind my timing on this. So God didn't stop blessing me. I just had this wasted time in my life that I was spinning my wheels. More and it was pretty heavy hand. Interesting. Interesting, that's you're a point of view. You really believe that, huh, But you felt like that that is true, that is right. Well, that's what I'm saying, the Holy Spirit will tell you. Right. Is this so when you read the Book of Hebrews. Hebrews was written in the New Testament to Christians, and he says you are an illegitimate son if God doesn't punish you on occasion. Right. Matter of fact, King James says you're a bastard if God doesn't beat you on occasion. That's what it says, right, So it happens. But it's only because we know God is merciful and God is gentle and he's God is loving. But God also will say, listen, I've got more for you, and he'll smack you upside the head and say I'm gonna get your attention and you can learn it the easy way or the hard way. Yeah, we can't close out our time together without me reading the Psalm twenty two to twelve. That I looked. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember we started this whole podcast. Cows listen, listen to me, you fat cows living in Samaria. Well, it turns out this is a horrible thing. I can't even figure out why they told us. To look this up. But here's what it says. Herds of bulls come at me, the raging bulls stampede horns, lowered nostrils flaring like a herd of buffalo on the move. I'm a bucket kicked over and spilled. Every joint in my body has been pulled apart. My heart is a blob of melted wax in my gut. Now. I actually quoted a paraphrase version. The most Yeah, that'ssage, because I just thought, like, this other thing doesn't even make any sense. So if I go to NIV, just the first that they quoted, it says many bulls surround me, strong bulls of bashan encircle me. So there it is. So it's using the cow element because it's talking about the wealthy and the powerful are the ones bulldozing him? Yes, right, that's that's the reference there. Yeah, anyway, I thought it was gonna be different. Yeah, I was looking forward to something more fun. Yeah yeah, yeah. Well here he's using the same analogy but talking about the women who are encouraging their husbands to abuse other people so they can have more stuff. Right. Well, hey, that is our time together, so hopefully we will see you next time on Monday. On the Bible, guys,