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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 4
Bashan
was a well watered area east of the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. It was part of the
land that was given to Manasseh. It
was good for grazing cattle because of the abundance of good pasture
land. Thus the reference to
"cows" in verse 1. Note
also the word "women" in verse 1.
The word "women" is linked to the word "cow".
You might note that chapter 3 of Amos was devoted to men, but
chapter 4 is devoted to women. Women
are referred to as cows. That
may not sound very nice, but God is upset with the women just as much as
He is upset with the men. Even
the women in the northern kingdom oppress the poor and needy as verse 1
states. So, you can see, the
oppression of the poor was not simply done by the leaders of the
northern kingdom of Israel, and not just by the men. The
women participated in unjust activity as well.
This was a real social sin. It
was not an isolated sin. It
penetrated all of society, and I would suggest that the western world
today is well on its' way to the same sin.
This sin was based on affluence.
The northern kingdom was very wealthy.
Much of it was gained through unjust measure towards the poor.
The wealthier the kingdom got, the more wealth they wanted and
the more unjust things they did to get the wealth. Also
in verse 1 the women say to their husbands, "bring us some
drinks". This suggests
that women were demanding, and their demand was for luxury, relaxation,
a even more wealth that they already had.
They simply demanded the good life from their husbands.
This demanding attitude suggests to me a mentality of
"entitlement" that seems to be spreading across the world of
young women today who idolize women pop and movie stars who have it all
and expect it all from life. Verses
2 and 3 tells us that God tells the women of the northern kingdom that
they will be dragged away with hooks from their land.
The same terminology is used in Ezekiel 38 when God drags Gog
from the north down to attack Israel
at the end of this age. God
tells the women that they will be cast out of the land towards Harmon. When
it comes to hooks, as mentioned here, the Assyrians literally used hooks
when capturing their enemy. They
would put hooks in the noses of people and drag them away.
So we see how exact the prophecies of God are.
They are more exact than what we might think at first glance.
Many of us don't take the Bible as literal as we should, which
is to our detriment. Just
where Harmon is, is uncertain. Many
Bible scholars actually think this is another name for the This
prophecy was fulfilled when Assyria, who would have come from the
direction of In
verse 4 God is being sarcastic. Can
God really be sarcastic? Apparently
so. He tells the women
to go to Verse
5 continues with this tone of sarcasm.
The Lord mentions a number of things that Israel
was supposed to do in accordance with the Law of Moses, but was to do
them out of pure motives. Israel
was still doing these things
but strictly from routine and tradition, and, all along worshipping
other gods as well. God was
not happy with the northern kingdom, which included the women. From
verses 6 to 11 God reminds the women of One
warning to repent is seen in verse 7.
God withheld rain on some fields while causing rain on other
fields. This reminds me of
problems we are having with our weather today.
It's not mother nature behind our current weather problems, it's
the Lord. These problems are
meant to be a warning of worse days ahead.
As the text states here, these problems are also meant to cause
us to repent, but, as in the days of Amos, we are not repenting today,
as Verse
8 gives us another warning. The
lack of good water caused people to "stagger" from town to
town looking for water. Today,
as I write these words, I hear on the news that people are doing the
same right now in Verse
9 continues in the same vein, as well as verse 10.
The one thing to note in verse 10 is that God judged Israel
with these warnings in the same way He judged Verse
12 begins with the word "therefore".
As is often noted. When
you see the word "therefore" at the beginning of a sentence,
you need to know why it is there for.
In this case the word "therefore" begins verse 12
because of Israel's refusal to repent. Therefore,
Israel
will "meet their God', but we will see that this meeting is not a
meeting of joy and celebration. It
is a meeting of judgment and punishment. We
see God's creation in verse 13. It
is God who is behind what we call nature.
There is no such thing as "mother nature".
A Christian should never use that term.
Mother nature isn't in charge of nature.
God is. The
chapter ends with "the Lord God Almighty" is His name.
Or in Hebrew, Yahweh Elohim" is the name of our God.
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