"The course of a nation is determined by the amount of sound doctrine resident in the hearts and minds of the populace, but the leaders are always going to try to corrupt that.
"They're doing it here in Amos and what happens is 'the people like it so,' as Jeremiah says. So the whole nation gets its heart eaten out," explains Richard Jordan.
"The 'oppressing the poor' thing winds up being the big issue in the tribulation. In Micah 3 he's going to talk to the leaders of the nation:
[1] And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?
[2] Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
"This is the condition of the leaders of Israel. They're swallowing them up; they're just taking everything from them and they'd take their skin off of them if they could.
"They will literally eat people in the tribulation but it doesn't have to get that far; you know, you take the clothes of their back kind of a thing.
Verse 3: [3] Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
"Notice, because Israel is doing these things, God isn't going to listen and answer them; they're going to cry and He's not going to answer. He's going to be silent.
"Amos 8 says they're going to go all over the land looking for the Word of God and won't be able to find it. God's not going to talk to them.
Verse 5: [5] Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.
"They're saying, 'Peace,' but God doesn't put that word in their mouth; they're lying.
"So you've got the heads of Jacob, the princes of Israel and now you've got the prophets and the priests.
Verse 6: [6] Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
[7] Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
"There's going to be a blank. There's going to be no more prophets, no more light from God. God isn't going to use a prophet to speak; He's just going to pull a window down and revelation is going to be over with.
[11] The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
[12] Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
"They're out for money. The priests teach for hire. Prophets divine for money. They're so blinded by their idolatry that they think God's with them. That's what he's talking about in Amos 8. The whole deal here is they're oppressing the poor.
"Can you think of a reason why people might be poor in the tribulation? If you take the 'mark of the beast' you can't buy or sell. You can't enter into commerce, which means pretty soon you're going to be hungry. If you can't sell, you can't work. When you work, you sell your time.
"In Matthew 25, when Jesus talks about those nations that had been through the tribulation period and He said, 'When you did it to the least of these my brethren you did it to me,' what did they do? They gave a cup of cold water, they fed people, went to see people in jail.
"They were visiting and taking care of poor people. They were doing exactly what James 1 says is pure religion. That's why there's this constant emphasis on the poor because it's the specific issue that comes to its head during that time of Jacob's trouble.
"You know what the 33rd book in the Bible is? Micah. I've told you that each chapter in Isaiah will echo something about the book that is that number in the canon.
Isaiah 33 is about the Second Coming:
[7] Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
[8] The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.
[9] The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.
[10] Now will I rise, saith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.
[11] Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
[12] And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.
"Here He comes in flaming fire taking vengeance, coming to get them. There's that fire. He'll burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
(new article tomorrow)
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