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Amos 5:11  (Amplified® Bible)
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<< Amos 5:10   Amos 5:12 >>


Amos 5:11

Amos says that another change will be in a person's relationships with people. In the church, we call this "fellowship." The untransformed attitude toward people to use people to promote personal interests. People are objects to be used by the unconverted.

Consider Christ's words in Luke 22:24-27:

Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called 'benefactors.' But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves." (Our emphasis.)

We have a strong tendency to apply these verses only to those in authority, but it applies to everybody, regardless of status. The carnal-minded take advantage of every opportunity to promote themselves and their interests. The carnal will lie, scheme, steal, twist the truth, deceive, slander, dishonor their parents, and even murder to get their own way, to come out on top, to win, to look good, to get acclaim, or to get rich.

We have clichés like, "Winning is the only thing" or "If you've got it, flaunt it." Those are extremes, but the carnal mind thinks in that direction and attitude. The unconverted use people and situations for their advantage.

A converted person, one whom God is transforming, will not do that. He will put himself, humbly and willingly as Christ did, in the position of a servant. He will not misuse others. At times, he will allow himself to be used—evidence of his transformation into the image of Christ—to make a proper witness for God.

The attitude we see out in the world is especially important to those of us reared under the pervasive influence of American capitalism. Its attitude of intense competition is the driver, the motivation, behind almost everything going on in this country. So, what we witness out in public is an excess of virtually everything except genuine love for one another. It is a major reason divorce is so prevalent today. Vanity and pride are driving husband and wife to compete rather than cooperate.

Truly, coming into contact with God is a humbling experience because now we can start to see ourselves as we should. What happens then is transformation, and true fellowship begins when we seek Him.

Jesus brought this up for at least three reasons: One, to show what God is like in His attitude toward His creation. Two, to show us what we should try to emulate. Three, to help us see evidence of conversion in ourselves.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Prayer and Seeking God



Amos 5:4-12

Why does Amos specifically mention Bethel (verses 5-6) other than that it was where the Israelites were holding feasts? Why did they choose Bethel as a feast site? Bethel played an important role in Israel's history. Twice Jacob, one of the fathers of Israel, has important events happen to him there.

Genesis 28:11-22 records the first occasion Jacob has an encounter with God at Bethel, though it was not called Bethel then. It received its name—"House of God"—from God revealing Himself to Jacob there, and Jacob believing that He lived there. On this occasion, the patriarch arrives as a homeless wanderer, a man on the run from the murderous intents of his brother Esau. He is a man with a past, having just deceived his father and brother out of the blessing. Nevertheless, God reveals Himself to him there, and the transformation of Jacob begins. He leaves Bethel as a man with a future.

The second time he encounters God at Bethel (Genesis 35:1-4, 7, 9-15), he arrives after departing from his father-in-law, Laban, and having reconciled with Esau. He is a far better man than the first time, but he is not yet complete. However, he arrives as "Jacob" and departs as "Israel." The new name is assurance of the reality that he is a new man, that a transformation is taking place. In the Israelite mind, Bethel thus became associated as a place of renewal, of reorientation, of transformation by God.

Even as verses 1-3 of Amos 5 are a dirge, verses 8-9 are in the form of a hymn praising the true God, the transforming God. When God is at work, things change for the better; He is the God who makes a difference.

With this background, we can understand why Amos 5 calls attention to Bethel. God is asking, "Why aren't you Israelites being transformed in the conduct of your life when you keep the feasts?" He is saying, "You indeed go to Bethel for the feast, but no transformation of your conduct and attitude occurs. Are you going there to seek Me?"

One of the primary proofs that God is making a difference in a person's life occurs when one who was formerly hostile to God and His law begins to love God and His law. He shows his new love by obeying God and His law in his life in areas like those mentioned in verses 10-12.

Yet, the Israelites attended the feasts in Bethel and returned home with their lives still ungoverned by God's truth. When Jacob met God, his life began changing immediately, as his vow to tithe in Genesis 28:22 shows. Faith immediately became part of the conduct of his life. The lives of those in Amos' day should also have changed according to the dictates, principles, and examples of God's Word. They should have left Bethel singing and exemplifying, "Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97).

It seems that these people turned the feast in Bethel into nothing more than a vacation. Thus, Amos admonishes, "Do not seek Bethel! Seek the Lord and live!" Ultimately, the Bethel approach signifies death, not life.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Amos 5 and the Feast of Tabernacles



Amos 5:10-11

Despite their pilgrimages and their love of religion (Amos 4:4-5), the Israelites' real focus was getting for themselves. Since it was more difficult to accumulate wealth and power lawfully, they built their empires on the backs of the weak and poor and persecuted those who insisted on doing business legally. God promises He will avenge them.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Prepare to Meet Your God! (The Book of Amos) (Part One)



Amos 5:4-15

Central to understanding verses 4-15 is the word "seek," which appears four times: three times in relation to seeking God Himself and once to seeking good. The charge to seek God is not in the sense of searching to find Him?because He had already revealed Himself to them to some degree?but of seeking to be like Him.

A second important element is the listing of a number of their sins, all of which are what we would call "social sins." Amos mentions the "poor" twice, but he does not necessarily imply a person with little money. The term includes them, but here the meaning is "weak." The poor are those whom we would say have little or no economic, political, or judicial "clout" or "pull." The sins Amos addresses are matters of the strong taking advantage of the weak.

He also mentions other sins that afflict the poor, such as bribery, unjust judgments in the courts, truth being ridiculed, and righteous testimony being thrown out. Amos especially indicts Israel's corrupt court system.

Undoubtedly, the most important element in this passage, due to its impact on most of the instruction in the chapter, is the mention of Bethel, Beersheba, and Gilgal in verse 5. Amos notes these places because the Israelites were holding their festivals there. His overall warning to the Israelites is, "Don't go there because God is not there. Seek God instead." The rest of the chapter tells why God is not there, why what they were doing is unacceptable to Him, and what He will do about it.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Amos 5 and the Feast of Tabernacles




Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Amos 5:11:

Hosea 12:7-8
Haggai 2:11-14

 

<< Amos 5:10   Amos 5:12 >>



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