Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to
OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on
Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests
to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian
Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
This is what the Lord says:
“For three sins of Moab, even for four, I will not relent. Because
he burned to ashes the bones of Edom’s king, I will send fire on Moab that will
consume the fortresses of Kerioth. Moab will go down in great tumult
amid war cries and the blast of the trumpet. I will destroy her ruler and kill
all her officials with him,” says the Lord.
Amos 2:1-3
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
“For three sins, even for four.”
These words spoken by the Lord are translated to mean
someone committed a lot of sins before Him and thus far in the first two
chapters of Amos, we have found them applied to nations existing in the times
of the prophet this book is named after, times that were just before God’s
judgment on the Israelites which resulted in the destruction of the Promised
Land and a seventy year exile. The nations we have examined to date are Aram,
Philistine, Phoenicia, Edom, and Ammon. Today, we see the Lord addressing Moab.
Look again at His words here:
This is what the Lord
says:
“For three sins of
Moab, even for four, I will not relent. Because he burned to ashes the bones of
Edom’s king, I will send fire on Moab that will consume the fortresses of
Kerioth. Moab will go down in great tumult amid war cries and the
blast of the trumpet. I will destroy her ruler and kill all her officials with
him,” says the Lord. Amos 2:1-3
Going back to yesterday’s devotion, you’ll remember we did a
little history lesson in delving into the origins of the Ammonite nation,
learning that the progenitor was none other than Ben-Ammi, the son produced
when Lot, the nephew of Abraham, had relations with his youngest daughter in a
cave after fleeing from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In that same
cave, Lot also lay with his oldest daughter and she bore a son who was named
Moab who you now know was the founding father of the Moabite nation (Genesis
19). And just as we saw with the nation of Ammon, God commanded the Israelites
to “not harass the Moabites or
provoke them to war” as He would not give them any part of the land the
Moabites lived in because He had given “Ar to the descendants of Lot as a
possession” (Deuteronomy 2:9).
Originally, the Moabites occupied a territory west of the
Jordan River which ranged from south of the Jabbok River to well south of the
Dead Sea with the southern border at Kadesh. But the Amorites who were east of
the Jordan, crossed the river and warred against the Moabites, driving them
south of the Arnon River which became the northern boundary of Moab (Numbers
21:13). This land would later be taken from the Amorites by the Israelites who
defended themselves and defeated the attacking nation. This placed them at the
border of Moab on the other side of the Arnon River (Numbers 21:21-25).
Scripture tells us that this occupation of what was Amorite
territory by the Israelites brought great alarm to the king of Moab, Balak.
After all, if the Amorites had defeated his people and the Israelites defeated
them because of the God they served, then how could the Moabites stand a chance
if war came from the north. So Balak sent elders from his nation and Midian to
summon a prophet named Balaam who ended up being a spokesperson for God, more
than a curse deliverer for Moab’s king. Three times, Balak asked Balaam to
curse Israel who was encamped just on the other side of Moab’s northern border
but each time, Balaam blessed Israel instead with the final words of his third
message simply proclaiming this about Israel:
“May those who bless
you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!” Numbers 24:9b
This angered Balak who rebuked Balaam who spoke this
chilling prophesy in response:
“The prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of one
whose eye sees clearly, the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who has
knowledge from the Most High, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falls
prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:”
“I see him, but not
now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will
rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the
people of Sheth. Edom will be conquered; Seir, his enemy, will be conquered, but
Israel will grow strong. A ruler will come out of Jacob and destroy the
survivors of the city.” Numbers 24:15-19
This prophesy was fulfilled during David’s reign as king (2
Samuel 8) who subjugated the Moabites to his rule.
As we look back to our scripture passage from Amos, we find
the Moabites having fallen out of favor with God in other ways beyond wanting
to curse God’s people or worshiping pagan gods and idols, chief of which was
Chemosh, their national god. God calls out Moab for burning to ashes the bones
of Edom’s king, a gruesome imagery and sinful in that it deprived the king’s
spirit of rest that was believed to come from a decent burial. Obviously,
cremation was not an accepted option in the day.
So God called down punishment on Moab for their sins in the
way of fire that would be sent on the nation, specifically burning down the “fortresses
of Kerioth”, while the nation itself would “go down in great tumult” in the
midst of “war cries and the blast of a trumpet”. When the judgment was over,
Moab’s king and all his officials would be killed.
Another nation. Another list of transgressions against that
nation who had opposed God through their actions and their idolatrous worship
practices. It’s a series of messages meant to raise our level of awareness
today, to send warning to all nations who would choose to follow the lead of
these biblical countries and commit sins before Him.
Are any nations paying attention and looking to change their
ways or are we simply repeating the mistakes of the past and daring God to act
again over three sins, even for four?
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment