 Okay, good morning. If we can all settle down please, we'll get started. Good morning. At least one energetic good morning. Okay, so today we are going to be starting the minor prophets, the prophetic books which are smaller in size. So we will be covering Hosea, Joel and Amos. So we'll begin right now with the book of Hosea. So if you can turn in your Bibles to Hosea, we can get started. Hosea was the prophet whom God asked him to prophesy to northern Israel. So he was doing his prophetic ministry in the northern kingdom. Basically there are three well-known prophets who ministered to the northern kingdom. Jonah is one of them. Of course Jonah did not minister to the northern kingdom but he was from northern Israel. So Hosea, Jonah and Amos. Amos also ministered to the northern kingdom. In fact Amos was from the southern kingdom but God sends him to the northern kingdom to do the prophetic ministry over there. So if these people are ministering to the northern kingdom, it means that they would have had their ministry at an earlier date because if you remember the northern kingdom falls almost 150 years before the southern kingdom. The Assyrians come and invade the northern kingdom and take away the northern kingdom's people as slaves almost 100 years before the southern kingdom falls. So which means if these people are ministering to the northern kingdom they belong to an earlier date. So Hosea and Amos were simultaneously doing their ministry in the northern kingdom. God was asking both of them to prophesy to the people and ask them to repent. We also have another two prophets, Isaiah and Micah who also started off their ministries maybe halfway through after of course Hosea and Amos were doing their ministry a little earlier and then halfway through their ministry is when God calls Isaiah and Micah. All these people belong to the same time period. Approximately around the same time you have all of these prophets doing their ministry. So Hosea prophesies to the people in the very last days before the Assyrian attack and so he tells even now it's not too late, even now if you choose to repent God is willing to change his mind but then the people are not interested. So during around the end of his ministry, around the end of his 40 year ministry is when the Assyrians they come and they attack and it's generally believed that Hosea probably escaped to the southern kingdom when the attack happened. Many of the people they try to escape and go to the southern kingdom for shelter when the Assyrians attack and so it's generally believed that Hosea was able to escape. He was able to go to the southern kingdom and take shelter over there when the Assyrian army attacked. So he most probably wrote the book of Hosea while he was staying over there recording all the prophecies which God had given him during his time of ministry. Now Hosea was probably a farmer. He uses a lot of agricultural illustrations in his, in his prophetic works. If you know the Lord allows the ministers of God to use their own language, to use their own background to preach in a particular way, to minister in a particular way. He inspired them but he allowed them to use their own illustrations, their own vocabulary. So which is why it's generally believed that Hosea he was probably a farmer. So when he was doing his prophesying, he used a lot of agricultural illustrations to do his prophetic work. Let's just look at one example from the book of Hosea. Hosea chapter 10 verse 12. If we can have someone read out for us. Hosea chapter 10 verse 12. Hosea chapter 10 verse 12. So for yourself righteousness reap in mercy. Break up your fellow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes and reigns righteousness on you. There are two agricultural illustrations used over here. The first one he says, so righteousness for yourselves. And if you do that, then you will be able to reap the fruit of unfailing love. He's using a gardening term. You put a seed into the, maybe let us say the flower pot. Okay, you put the seed inside and you wait for it to grow. Depending on what kind of seed you have put inside the pot, that particular plant will finally grow. If you have put rose plant seeds inside that pot, what you're going to get is going to be a rose plant. On the other hand, if you have sown weeds into that pot and if you keep waiting for a rose plant to come outside, it's not going to happen. What is going to grow outside only weeds will grow out of that particular pot. So over here, Hosea is telling them depends on what you are sowing. If you are sowing righteous deeds, if you are sowing a godly lifestyle, if you are sowing the right kind of choices, then what will come out of the ground? You will reap the fruit of God's unfailing love. So no matter how difficult the circumstances that you are facing, when that fruit comes, it will be the fruit of God's unfailing love. Nothing is impossible for the Lord. He will help you. He will provide whatever you require for your life, for your ministry. But it depends on what kind of seeds you put into the ground. Did you sow righteousness? Did you sow holiness and honour honouring of the Lord? What did you sow into the ground? That is the plant which is going to come out. And so he uses a second illustration in the same verse. He says, break up your unplowed ground. The ground of your hearts has become so hard that even when God's seed falls on it, it's not able to go into the ground and bear fruit because the ground has become so hard. So he basically, the terminology used over here is to break up the unplowed ground. You got to dig that ground, make that soil lose. Those of you who know gardening, who are interested in such things will be familiar. You know, you put water, you dig it, you make the soil soft. Then when you put the seeds over there, something will grow. On the other hand, if that soil is hard and it is not ideal for the seed, even if you put the best seeds over there on that hard ground, nothing will happen. The seed will just be sitting over there. The ground will be there as it is and no result will come out. So he's giving the warning, you people, instead of sowing seeds of righteousness, you have allowed your hearts to become so hard that even though profits are coming, multiple profits are coming and prophesying. At this point of time, you basically have four prophets who are prophesying and saying, you know, change your ways, but these people are not listening. And that's because the heart has become so hardened. So he says, it's time for you to plough it, dig. Start removing all the rocks which are there inside. Start removing all the wrong things which are there. Then the soil will be soft. Then when God's seed is sown, immediately you will be willing to receive it and fruit will come out of it. So he says, break up your unplowed ground for it is time to seek the Lord. And how long should you go on ploughing and softening up the soil until he comes and showers his righteousness on you? Over here it's talking about the fruit of righteousness, the blessings which will come out of your life if you are following him. So two things, what are you first of all putting into the ground? What kind of seeds are you putting in? Second, are you putting those seeds on hard soil or is it soft soil which is willing to receive? So both of these things matter. So a lot of Christians, what do they do? They don't even bother sowing the seeds of righteousness. They live as they want to live and then they cry out and say, Lord, I want this, please help me with that. And they say, oh, nothing is coming out of this ground. God is not providing a fruit of unfailing love. Why? That's because they did not sow the right seeds. If they had put in the right seeds, they would be getting the right harvest. So it's logical. Whatever you have put into the ground, that is what is going to come out. And so one day, they may go to a gospel meeting or they may go to some church service and then that day they feel very emotional. And so the next two days, they try to live very, very godly lives. And then two days after that, they say, oh, okay, now God is going to start giving me the fruit of unfailing love. And then they wait and they see and nothing happens. So they think that just because the two days they lived right, now suddenly a grand harvest of blessing is going to come out. It doesn't work like that, right? I mean, you have been putting weeds into that flower pot year after year after year. And then two days you bring a lot of good seeds and you put them inside. And in two days you want a lot of roses to come out. It's not going to work that way. That's not the way logic works and that's not the way gardening works and that's not the way spiritual principles work. So you got to do it week after week, month after month. You continue to hold on to God. You continue to serve Him. You continue to honor Him. You continue to sow righteousness. And then one day suddenly there's such a beautiful harvest of righteousness where all that you have worked for, the reward for it comes, but it takes time. So we cannot say two days I'm going to sow something into the soil and on the third day, fourth day, I want the harvest to come out. It's a lifetime process. And this lesson I think is especially important to those of you who are sitting here because you are all so young. What you are sowing now in these current days, in these current years, the fruit of that you will see in the years to come. So it is so important now when you have the time, you can make the soil of your heart soft, break it up, remove all the rocks, remove all the things which will hamper the growth. Let the soil be soft and right. And then as the seeds are falling in, the seeds of God's word, the sermons that you're listening to, the books that you're reading, oh my, a lot of feedback. Yeah. So if you are prepared for hearts now and sowing right things, then tomorrow will be a good harvest. All right? So this is the point which Hosea is trying to bring out over here to the people. And this is what the people of that time have actually been sowing. This was the time of Jeroboam II. He was the ruler at this point of time. And during his time, because he was a very powerful military warrior, the Israelite people were able to have many, many victories in war, which means they were able to gather wealth from many, many nations. They were in a very good position financially. Everyone was getting rich. Everyone was flourishing. Even trade and commerce was going really well. So the people were feeling, oh yes, everything is good. And they were not sowing the correct seeds. So they were thinking everything is going fine. So I think even our future also will be good. And so they did not prepare themselves for the future by sowing seeds of righteousness. So right now you're young, you are strong, you have a world of opportunities in front of you. And so you may say, everything in my life is going well. And if you are careless and you don't sow the seeds of righteousness, tomorrow, 10 years from now, the harvest which is going to come out may be very, very bitter. Because in this day when things are going well, you became careless and you were not careful to plow the ground of your heart. Which is what happened over here. So Ozia was saying all these years you have been sowing the wrong kind of seeds just because everything around you is prosperous and good. But be careful because what you have sown is going to start coming out of the ground. All the weeds which you have put inside are now going to start coming out and that time the judgment will be great. Even now, even now in these last days, it's not too late. You can repent, you can start sowing seeds of righteousness is the lesson which Ozia speaks to the people and the people refuse to listen to this message which he is giving. So in Ozia chapters one, two and three, God talks to Ozia and says, I want to use you. I want to use your life as an object lesson. I want you to marry a woman who is unfaithful. I wanted to marry that kind of a person to show these people what they are doing to me. In the same way, your wife will be unfaithful. I want to show these people that even they are being unfaithful to me and then maybe they will learn something in these last days and maybe they will change their hearts. So in chapters one, two and three, God asks Ozia to marry an unfaithful lady and in chapters four to fourteen, God brings out the lessons from that. God says in the same way this lady was unfaithful, you people also have been unfaithful to me but look at Ozia, look at the faithfulness that he showed from his side to his unfaithful wife and in the same way that he is trying to remain faithful, I also in these final days I'm trying to be faithful, I'm giving you one last chance. Are you willing to change your ways? So chapters one to three talks about the life of Ozia, the very difficult marriage that God asked him to enter into, the very difficult life that he experienced because of that and then chapter four to fourteen, God uses that example of his marriage and says in the same way that this lady was unfaithful, you are being unfaithful for this danger. Are you willing to change your ways? So the book of Ozia basically talks about that and this person that Ozia chooses to marry, that he's commanded to marry, is somebody named Gomer. We don't have much details about Gomer in the book of Ozia, just a few verses which talk about her. Maybe we can have one person read out, Ozia chapter one verses two and three. Ozia one verses two and three. Ozia chapter one verse two. When the Lord began to speak by Ozia, the Lord said to Ozia, go take yourself a wife of a hallowed tree and children of a hallowed tree for the land has committed great hallowed tree by deprating from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer, daughter of Diplom and she conceived and bore him a son. So the Lord very clearly says, go marry a woman who is promiscuous, a woman who is unfaithful, a woman who is immoral in her character. So which means this lady was already living an unrighteous life. Already she had been going after men and spending time with them. Already her character was bad. So God asks Ozia to go and marry such a person because the Lord in the same way, in his mercy came to these people of Israel but they in their hearts were unfaithful. So God wants to demonstrate that. So Ozia chooses to marry this person and then together they have three children. Now we do not know for how many years Gomer stayed with Ozia but one day after having three children she starts going again after other men. So we learn that she commits adultery, she goes to another person where the details are not given but something happens over the next few months and finally she ends up in the slave market. So most probably the person to whom she goes maybe he abandons her and then she tries to go and find somebody else and then at some point of time she'll have to sell herself. So we don't really know what happened and what the time span was but once she leaves her husband and starts going after other people a series of bad things happen to her till finally one day she ends up in the slave market where they are selling the slaves and she is also being sold as one of the slaves. So at that point of time the Lord comes to Ozia again and this is what the Lord says to Ozia. So Ozia chapter 3 verses 1-3 Ozia 3-3 Ozia chapter 3 verse 1 then the Lord said to me go again love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel to other gods and love the resin cakes of the pagans. Verse 2 So I bought her for myself for 15 shekels of silver and one and one half homers of Barley. Verse 3 And I said to her you shall stay with me many days you shall not play the harlot nor shall you have a man so too will I be toward you. These are very significant verses over here in the book of Ozia. The Lord says to Ozia go show your love to your wife again though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. So you're not going and showing your love to someone who is honorable and good and deserves kindness. You are going to go and show love to a person who is in adultery who doesn't even deserve any kind of kindness and from that the example the Lord is bringing out is that even though Israel you have been unfaithful to me even now I am willing to come and show my love to you are you willing to respond is what the Lord is saying and so this man in obedience he goes and he doesn't even have enough money to purchase her. He gives 15 shekels of silver but the 15 shekels of silver is not enough and he doesn't have any more silver left then because he is a farmer he has Bali he also joins to that money one and a half homers of Bali and then that amount is finally sufficient to purchase this woman. So much money being spent on a lady who is not even worth it and the same thing the Lord is trying to bring out to the people of Israel and saying you people have reduced yourself to such a level of spiritual adultery that you don't even deserve any mercy but I am willing to make the ultimate sacrifice and buy you back are you willing to respond to me so we see that this man Hosea who is not very rich gives everything that he has to purchase not an honorable lady but to purchase someone who had been living an adulterous life who had abandoned him and gone away and these are the words which he speaks to her you know this is what he says to Gomer in verse 3 after purchasing her with all the money that he has this is what he says to her he says then I told her you are to live with me many days you know so he is not saying the next time I am upset with you I will throw you out after all I purchased you I spent on you so now I can do what I want no he says I want to renew the commitment I want you to stay with me many many many days and then he says you know you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man and I will behave the same way toward you he says you know I am going to be very very faithful to you in spite of what you did in the past I am going to forget that and I am going to be very faithful to you I will show all my love and commitment to you and in exchange I want you to show me the same kind of commitment so this is a object lesson which God is using to speak to the people and ask them to be faithful towards him he is saying even though you have sinned against me for so many years I am willing to take you back I am willing to be completely faithful towards you and bless you and help you and I want you to be in the same way towards me is what the Lord is saying so it is actually a very powerful object lesson that God tries to bring out over here in this book of Hosea and even the names which are given to the children you know the three children who are born to this couple the names given to these children are also very significant names if we could have someone read out for us in chapter one itself maybe verses six chapter one verses six to eleven if someone could read out Hosea chapter one verse six and she conceived again and bore our daughter then God said to him call her name Loh Roma for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel but I will utterly take them away verse seven yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah will save them by the Lord the God and will not save them by Bo nor by sword or battle by horses or horsemen now when she had weaned Loh Roma Ruhama she conceived and bore our son then God said call his name Loh Ammi for you are not my people and I will not be your God understand yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered and it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them you are not my people there it shall be said to them you are sons of the living God verse 11 then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and appoint for themselves one head and they shall come up out of the land for great will be the day of the Israel so over here she has a daughter and the daughter is supposed to be given the name Loh Ruhama which means not loved imagine you are holding a newborn baby in your hand and you have to give the name to that baby saying not loved again a very powerful object lesson so God is saying you know it's like as if I adopted you people as my children and I wanted to make you my own family but you did not want me you rejected me so now I am declaring to you you are not loved anymore I am not going to love you anymore but in the very next sentence this is what the Lord says Lord says yes in spite of what your people are doing at least I will save a portion of this nation at least Judah I will save them is what the Lord says and then this one more child who is born a third child and this is a son and he is to be given the name Loh Ami which means not my people so these two children are named not loved not my people but in the very next sentence again the Lord says yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore and he goes on to say in verse 10 they will be called children of the living God so it is such a beautiful thing God speaks anger and judgment in one sentence in the very next sentence he reveals his heart and shows how compassionate he is so there is always this tension between the love of God and the judgment of God God has because he is righteous he must judge sin but at the same time he does not enjoy judging sin he wants to show mercy so he says even though I am giving you these two names I am still willing to come to you and have compassion and make you children of the living God if only you will respond to me and he makes this promise he says a day will come when the people of Judah and the people of Israel will once again be joined together a king will rise from them who you know basically is referring over here the Lord is referring to the Messiah so a king will rise over them and he will be their ruler and then there will be a great day of Jezreel that word over there is basically talking about how there will be a great battle in the end times and then this king he will come out victorious and then he will rule all the nations so over here that word day of Jezreel is referring to the end time war maybe the war of Armageddon or something you know so it's referring to that so these two children are given these names are not loved and not my people the first child that first child is given the name Jezreel in fact let's look at that that would be chapter one versus four and five if we can have someone read out for us Hosea chapter one versus four and five Hosea chapter one was four then the Lord said to him call his name Jezreel for in a little while I will arrange the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel verse five it shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel so we looked at the names of the second two children but the first child the first child who is a son is given the name Jezreel and that word Jezreel literally means God will so okay the sowing of seeds so God will so now the valley of Jezreel was a very very beautiful and very prosperous valley it had a lot of what do you call this small streams of water it had springs of water so it was a very luscious, prosperous valley in which you had a lot of plants growing the crops grown over there would be really good so it was that kind of a prosperous valley and so it was named Jezreel because the people were declaring and saying God himself has sown blessings into this valley so that word actually had very good meaning but then from the time of Ahab onwards there's a lot of bloodshed which happens in that valley you know we know the story of Ahab how he wants to take away the vineyard of Naboth and so he has murdered so that is the first bloodshed with which this whole you know story starts after that constantly there's one bloodshed after another one murder after another in that valley so what was supposed to be a valley of blessing instead becomes a valley of bloodshed so finally one day God comes to somebody named Jehu and God says to Jehu and says if you will destroy the entire house of Ahab and bring judgment upon them then I will make you the next king and you know we actually see Jehu doing that he kills the northern king of Israel who is Ahab's son he kills the southern king of Jerusalem who is the grandson of Ahab then he goes to Jezebel and he says you know I'm going to kill you and then the servants they pick her up and throw her out of the window so she also gets killed all this happens in Jezebel so there's a lot of bloodshed which happens in Jezebel and God brings judgment upon this house of Ahab now God says the same kind of judgment which I brought upon Ahab's household I will bring it even upon Jehu's descendants because they have followed in the same footsteps that Ahab followed they have not repented they have not changed so God wanted to sow blessings in that valley but these people sowed bloodshed in that valley and in fact the Lord says in Hosea chapter 4 verse 2 there is only cursing, lying and murder stealing and adultery they break all bounds and bloodshed follows bloodshed in fact after Jeroboam II you have I think about 6 rulers who are left among those 6 kings who follow Jeroboam II 4 of them assassinate their own family members and they climb on the throne I mean that's the kind of household that they are and God is disgusted with this northern kingdom of Israel and he says I will sow bloodshed in this valley because of the way that you people have conducted yourself so the 3 children are given very negative names but God makes a promise and says one day Judah and Israel will be joined together a righteous king will come out of you and on that day there will be another Jezreel, another war but that day it will be a Jezreel of victory when righteousness will be established and so after that you know you would have the millennium rule of the Messiah so it talks about that so these are just some of the lessons which come out of the book of Hosea giving them one last chance to start putting new kinds of seeds in the flower pot but the people of course choose not to do that and so the spiritual lesson that comes across to us believers today what are we putting inside our own flower pot are you putting in weeds or are you sowing in seeds of righteousness when everything is prosperous around you you are succeeding everyone is speaking well of you you have a lot of supporters and friends at a time like that do you grow overconfident and start being careless what you are putting inside the ground if you start putting in the wrong kind of seeds it is dangerous because the seeds which you have put inside they will come out and there will be a harvest a very important verse that we can you know dwell upon even before we close this book of Hosea that would be from Galatians the last chapter of Galatians I have noted down the reference here somewhere but I cannot seem to find it you know if you can just turn in your Bibles to Galatians second last chapter where it talks about what just a minute I will try to find it because I am sure I put it in somewhere Galatians 6 Galatians 6 verses 7 to 10 if you can read out because this is basically what happens in the book of Hosea Galatians 6 7 to 10 Galatians 6 7 to 10 Galatians 6 verses 7 Galatians 6 verses 7 do not be deceived God is not for whatever a man's source that he will also read verse 8 for he who source to his flash will of the flash reap corruption but he who source to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life verse 9 verse 9 and let us not grow very while doing good for end due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart we will stand as we have opportunity let us do good to all especially to those who are of the household of faith so here you know these are the words in verse 7 do not be deceived God cannot be mocked a man reaps what he sows so if you are going through a period of prosperity favor where everything is going well in your life do not grow careless and start sowing the wrong kinds of seeds because do not be deceived God will not be mocked God knows exactly what you are putting in the ground and that is what will come out of the ground tomorrow so be very careful what you put inside the ground in verse 9 it says therefore do not get tired of doing good because one day that harvest which you have put inside it is going to come out may it be a good harvest of reward not a a bad harvest of judgment okay so maybe this could be the worst you know this passage could be applied to the book of Kozia the people thought that just because Jeroboam is you know making them a very prosperous nation and everything is going well they are going to be fine they forgot that God cannot be mocked God is not deceived what you have put in the ground will come out and so because of their spiritual adultery because of the oppression of the poor because of all the sins which they have done in the time of Kozia himself at the end of his life in the last of his ministry in the last days of his ministry Assyria comes attacks them and they are completely defeated they are all taken away as slaves and placed in different nations and even up to today we don't know where they all got spread out because they completely lost their identity as Israelites they got mixed up with the other nations and now nobody even knows what happened to those 10 tribes but the promise of God is there that one day even a remnant from those not 10 tribes will be collected by God and they will be joined to the people of the remnant of Judah and the messiah will be the king over them the end time promise which is there for these people. Now coming very quickly to the next book so after the book of Kozia which book would you have basically you would have the book of Joel but let's look at Amos first because you know Kozia and Amos were after all doing ministry at the same time for the same nation the Northern Kingdom so maybe we look at Amos first and then maybe we will look at Joel so Amos like we just saw in the introduction he was actually not born and brought up in the Northern Kingdom Kozia was born and brought up in the Northern Kingdom. Amos belonged to the Southern Kingdom he was staying in a place called Tekoa Tekoa was like a border town it was on the border of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms it was like a hill station it was on a higher level cooler weather so this man Amos he was a shepherd who looked after sheep and because of the good weather which you have at that higher level he also had fruit orchards he used to grow sycamore figs yeah so he was an orchard owner and he was also a shepherd that was basically his background when Samuel was prophet he established a lot of prophetic schools where people were trained for full time ministry they were trained on how to be prophets how to minister to the Lord how to preach in the different towns and villages so there were prophetic schools which Samuel had established but Amos was not part of any such school he was a completely secular person he was a shepherd and he was an orchard owner but God takes a person like that and says I want you to leave the comfort of your life and I want you to go to the Northern Kingdom and start prophesying against the leaders and the king and the powerful people over there so he is asked to give up his comforts go to a hostile place where he will not be wanted and preach to them not nice words but harsh words of judgment that's the difficult assignment which Amos is given so yeah maybe we could just read chapter 7 Amos 7 verses 14 to 15 where it tells a little bit about his background Amos 7 14 to 15 Amos chapter 7 verse 14 then Amos answered and said to Amazia I was no prophet nor was I a son of a prophet but I was a sheep breeder and a tender of saikama fruit verse 15 then the Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said to me go prophesier to my people is right okay so he says I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet but God told me he asked me to go to the land of Israel and prophesy over there so if you were to look at the structure of this book of Amos the first chapter gives prophecies against other nations on all the neighboring nations which are there around Israel so you have prophecies against Damascus Gaza, Edom, Tyre Wab and a few others so first God starts by giving prophecies of judgment against all these surrounding nations and in the middle you have Israel and God finally brings judgment even against them he speaks out a word of prophecy against them in chapter 2 so chapter 1 and a little bit of chapter 2 are all the prophecies of judgment against the neighboring nations and if the people are feeling very happy to hear about the judgment being brought against them God says wait your turn is also coming you may be sitting in the middle but you are not safe judgment is coming even upon you so in the half way through chapter 2 God starts speaking judgment even against these people so that will be chapters 1 and 2 and then chapter 3 all the way up to chapter 9 which is the last chapter the first 10 verses of chapter 9 so from chapter 3 up to chapter 9 verse 10 God gives him a series of visions of judgment he has a vision of swarms of locusts he has a vision of fruit which has become overripe which you are going to throw away he has a vision of scorching fire God coming like fire and judging he has a series of visions of judgment so that would be chapter 3 up to chapter 9 verse 10 and the last 5 verses of chapter 9 is where God gives 5 promises of how one day in spite of all the judgment one day God will restore his people so that's basically the structure if you remember when we were doing the book of Hosea a few minutes ago we talked about how one day both Israel and Judah will be joined together once again and you know a righteous king will be established that was in Hosea chapter 1 verse 11 here something similar is promised even to Amos so in this last 5 verses where God is promising restoration this is what God says in Amos chapter 9 verse 11 verse 11 if you can have someone read out Amos 9 verse 11 Amos chapter 9 verse 11 on that day I will raise up the tippernacle of tippet which has fallen down and repair its damage I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old okay so so the Lord tells Amos also that one day Judah will be restored Israel of course is going to be destroyed but Judah will be restored one day that's the promise that God gives and this is the main judgment which God wanted to speak against the land of Israel if you remember you know when the when the entire land of Israel got divided into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom in the northern kingdom it was Jeroboam who had been placed as king and he decides that he doesn't want the people to go to Jerusalem year after year and make their sacrifices over there because he's afraid that the people will want to go back and rejoin themselves with the southern kingdom and so he comes up with this idea of making two golden calves he places one golden calf in Dan he places the other one in Betel so Amos ministry is mainly in Betel he is supposed to prophesy against the priests and the ruler over there and all these people and say you have gone into idol worship you know the people were now worshipping that golden calf and after they began to worship the golden calf they also began to worship all the other Canaanite gods and goddesses so Amos ministry was mainly in the city of Betel against some of the most powerful people who were living over there so God was very angry about the idol worship which was taking place and also the economic exploitation so in Betel all these spiritual leaders and the political leaders they were coming up with wrong schemes and policies to grab the peer the land of the common people and when the common people would go to the judges for justice the judges also will get paid off some bribe and so they will not give justice so that way the rich were getting very very rich and the common people who even had small portions of property all their property was being grabbed by these rich people so a lot of exploitation was going on and a lot of idol worship was going on so Amos was sent to speak judgment against these specific people so maybe we will look at Amos chapter 7 we will cover how much ever we can before the break and then after the break we can continue so Amos chapter 7 if someone could read out verses 7, 8 and 9 Amos chapter 7 7, 8 Amos chapter 7 verse 7 thus he showed me behold the Lord stood on a wall made by made with a plumb line with a plumb line in his hand verse 8 and the Lord said to me Amos what do you see and I said a plumb line then the Lord said behold I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel I will not pass by them anymore verse 9 the high places of Isaac shall be desolate and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam. Okay so Amos is standing over here in a very powerful city and he is talking against the most powerful people and he is saying this is what the Lord says I saw a vision in the vision I know God was standing on the wall and he was standing with a plumb line so I mean in your vernacular bible I am not sure what the wording is for that a plumb line is basically a long string at the end of the string you will have a weight attached a metal weight attached so when you hold the string up and the weight hangs down you don't find the weight hanging slightly at a slope that way or at a slope this way it hangs straight exactly 90 degrees if you were to measure because of gravity so when you are holding the string and you have the weight down holding it down the weight does not hang slightly this way or that way it hangs straight exactly down and if you were to take a measurement it would be literally 90 degrees so this is basically what they were using in those days when they were constructing walls when you start constructing the wall they would take the plumb line they would hold it against the wall which is being constructed to see whether it is completely straight or there is a slight slope so when you are holding the plumb line against the wall if the wall is perfectly straight the string and the weight will be parallel exactly to the wall on the other hand if your wall has now started going slightly crooked when you hold the plumb line it hangs out to the open it does not hang exactly parallel to the wall which means that the wall is now going slightly wrong then the mesons will break down that portion they will again straighten the wall so that is basically a plumb line and God is using the illustration of a plumb line to say something to these people and then when we come back from the break we will see that the powerful people become very angry with Amos when he says this and a whole bunch of other things happen so we will look at those details after the break