WEEKLY SUNDAY
SCHOOL LESSON
An international
Sunday school lesson commentary
For
Sunday June 21, 2015
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REBUKED
FOR SELFISHNESS
(GOD
abhors selfishness)
(Amos
6)
In Amos chapter 6 we find
the prophet’s fifth and final message. It is a message that is totally
dedicated as a warning to a certain number of people who wielded great power in
Israel, by way of their worldly success and wealth. Amos lived in a time when
Israel lavished in great material and financial prosperity. The lengthy reigns of
King Jeroboam II in the north, and King Uzziah in the southern kingdom of Judah,
had greatly stabilized and expanded the divided territories of Israel as a
whole.
Judah, under the leadership of King Uzziah, had conquered the
Philistines, who were situated to their north, the Ammonites, who dwelled to
the east, and all of the Arabic states, who dwelled beyond their southern
borders. In northern Israel, Jeroboam II was able to extend his borders
northward into Aram and reclaim Israel’s land that had been lost earlier in
Transjordan.
Through their expansions, Israel was able to gain control over the
lucrative trade routes triggering a boon for many of her cities, and as a new
upper class of citizenry emerged, the poor became targets of governmental and
economic exploitation. Just like in today’s society, luciferic laws and
ordinances were put in place for the express purpose of generating monies from
an already financially oppressed segment of the population.
This message from GOD, through the lips of the prophet Amos, tells
us plainly that HE will not hold blameless, those who have become selfish,
prideful and complacent in their own luxury. Here GOD sends a stern warning
that such people will suffer the same fate as the powerful surrounding nations
whom Israel strove to imitate, and, who had been brought down to a state of
humbleness before them. Their “pride” will be crushed into “humility” by an
enemy that GOD would raise up against them (Assyria in 722 B.C.), and there
would be no safe place of refuge that could be obtained or bought by their power
and wealth. In fact, GOD says, the rich and powerful who were self-oriented will
be the first to feel the pinch and effects of HIS wrath (v.7).
Wealth itself is not intrinsically evil, but, too often, wealth
promotes self-indulgence, and makes us indifferent towards others. It is “the
love of money” that is the root of all evil, not the money itself. We fall away
from GOD when we fall in love with the things of this world, and so it will
bode us well to remember that, the more we gain in life, the more we need GOD,
and not, the opposite.
When the Israelites were poor, they were humble, unselfish, and
full of worship. However, the fuller their pockets became, the emptier their
worship became. To go with everything in life, we need GOD, and with wealth and
prosperity we need HIM all the more. It is very possible, however, to be
wealthy, and also have a heart for GOD, but history tells us that most people
refuse to pursue both, and indeed, most choose “empty worship (playing church) and
prosperity”, over GOD.
Even though both Samaria and Jerusalem are mentioned in the
opening line of this passage, Jerusalem, the capital city of the southern
kingdom of Israel had only just began to awaken GOD’s terrible wrath. However, northern
Israel (Samaria was its capital) were well along their way, as far as trying
the patience of GOD. And so the remainder of this passage serves as a warning
to them and their prideful, selfish, sinful lifestyles which was also leading
all of the other people of Israel, both north and south, into disobedience to
GOD.
In verse 2 GOD advises the rich and affluent of Israel to go and
pay a visit to the former great pagan cities of Calneh and Gath and see how HE
had brought them down because of their selfish pride and arrogance, and their
hedonistic lifestyles. They had put away every thought of GOD’s warnings of
coming disasters believing that their wealth could extricate them from any
dangers or troubles. They sprawled around in their luxurious lifestyles,
fancying themselves to be great musicians as King David was, drinking wine by
the bowl-full, wearing sweet perfumes, and caring nothing about the nation they
were sucking dry, both spiritually and physically. GOD had also warned them too,
that they would be the first to go into captivity, and, they were (Vs.3-4).
No one ever understood the dangers of prosperity and materials
things as clearly as JESUS did. Because of HIS unprecedented closer walk with
GOD the FATHER, HE learned very early in HIS “human life” that, money and material
things could fix a person’s heart very firmly to this world. In fact, a person
can gain such a large stake in it, or have such a huge interest in it, that
they will find it very difficult to even contemplate leaving it. In truth, if
it were not for our “love of the things we have”, most of us wouldn’t find it
that difficult to die.
Even for professed Christians, who should understand clearly that
this life is immediately followed by “eternal life” in Heaven, still struggle
with the idea of having to leave the wealth we’ve acquired in this world
behind. It is said that, out of every one hundred people that can withstand adversity,
only one of that hundred is able to handle prosperity humbly. A person is
usually judged by two standards when it comes to prosperity; one is “how we
came about it”, and two is “how we use it”. Will we use it as if we have undisputed
possession of it? Or, will we remember that we hold it only in stewardship to
GOD?
And so, in the final analysis, it all boils down to this question,
“How bad do we want salvation? Do we want it bad enough to relinquish the people
and things of this world? To many of us, just like the rich young ruler in Mark
chapter 10, the answer to that question is, “I want it, but I don’t think I want
it as much as all that (as we point to our things)”.
It’s really, in the end, all about “salvation”, and JESUS sums up
the whole doctrine of salvation in a nutshell when HE states, in effect, if a
person is to depend upon his or her own efforts to achieve salvation, then, it
is impossible for anyone. Salvation is a gift from GOD, and with GOD, all
things are possible. If a person relies totally upon his or her possessions,
they can never be “saved”. However, if they can bring themselves to rely upon
the “saving power” and “redeeming love” of GOD, they can enter “for free” into
the Kingdom of Heaven.
That’s the thought that JESUS stated then, and that’s the thought
that the Apostle Paul and all the New Testament writers wrote about in all of
their doctrinal letters, and that’s the thought that, still, for us today, is
the very foundation of the Christian Faith.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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