Operation Reclamation: Week 3

Please remind your group about this weeks step and prepare your group for mailing a post card next week.

Thanks!
John

February 10, 2013

Use any of the suggestions below to supplement your Discover Study Guide plans or ETB Leader Guide teaching plans.

The Target
Focus on what adults should leave knowing, understanding, and doing.

God is just therefore He must punish all sin. He is merciful therefore He provides a way of escape to those who place their hope in Him. Adults should identify how to live with hope in a world that is under God's judgment.

Look Up

Use "Soft Methods" to draw attention to the study as adults are visiting and gathering for Bible study.

Option One: Download this weeks Discovery Study Guide Teaching Plan and use the first three steps under Get Started and then transition to the Context. If you aren't using the study guide you can still use the material even though you don't have the complete illustration about the peaches. Click here to download.

Option Two: Copy and paste the picture on the right into a PowerPoint slide or bring a bowl of fruit and display in the front of the room. After most adults have arrived call attention to the fruit and ask when fruit is most plentiful and fresh in Tennessee. Transition to the context as you explain the first vision in Amos 8.

Look In

Ideas for communicating and studying the Word

Context
The people of Israel were entering into God's court as unrepentant criminals:

• They denied they had done wrong.
• They felt the rules of the court were slanted in their favor.
• They believed they would be acquitted for their sins.

They  were wrong. God would bring judgment but also act redemptively. He gave the deserved death sentence to His people yet He promised life and renewal. In Amos 8:1-14, God gave the fourth of a series of five visions. The vision was that of a basket of ripe fruit.

Read Amos 8:1-3. The word in Hebrew for "summer fruit" is very similar to the word for "end." (ETB Adult Commentary, p111). The summer fruit came in late summer and was the last of Israel's annual harvests. This vision marked the end of opportunity for Israel.

Explain: In addition to perverting the places of worship, verses 4-6 describes even more about the depths of Israel's sin.

1. The wealthy took advantage of the poor, especially through bribing the courts.
2. Business people despised the restrictions the Sabbath put on their businesses. They felt the Sabbath impeded their ability to make more money.
3. Business owners cheated their customers by using dishonest scales.
4. Wealthy members of society would sell their debtors into slavery.
5. They sold wheat that had chaff mixed with it.

God states emphatically and simply, "The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them." God then announces the type of judgment He will bring on Israel.

Amos 8:11-12 (Judgment brings Silence from God)

Discussion Options:

• Copy and past the following image on a PowerPoint slide or write the title and sub-title on a markerboard or tearsheet.

After reading the passage, call attention to the title and ask them what their thoughts are about the words, particularly the sub-title. Allow time for discussion. Explain how this book is not recommended reading but provides a pretty good title that causes us to think about what might lie ahead for the United States. In the context of the lesson, it also provides us with a picture of what could happen to individuals and nations that rebel against the God they once acknowledged as their God.

• If you were Israel, how would you respond if you knew you would no longer have His presence with you?
• Ask individuals to read the following Scriptures: Exodus 33:13-16; Exodus 34:16; Joshua 4:13; 1 Samuel 2:21; 1 Kings 19:11; Psalm 73:28; 95:2; 139:7. Ask the group to discuss all that the people of God was giving up. Is God being too harsh by pronouncing this famine? Explain: "Even when the Israelite's wandered in the wilderness, they had Moses, manna, and pillars of fire to remind them that God was among them. But during this upcoming exile, they would wander among the nations, separated from their land and their God." (Discovery Study Guide, p75)
• Ask the group to identify in verse twelve the people's response to God's absence. What kind of situation does this describe? What does this say about the people? (When God removed His presence it made them long for His presence)
• Describe the opportunities we have to hear from God today. How could the abundance of opportunities lull someone into a sense of spiritual complacency?
• Consider asking the following questions from the Discovery Study Guide, p75: When have you felt a drought of God's Word and work in your life? How did you respond to that famine? What are three practical steps you can take to maintain a "listening posture" when it comes to hearing and obeying God's voice? 

Summary: 
"God declared that His people faced a time in which they would desperately seek a message from God but would not receive it. We can strengthen our trust in God and thus our relationship with Him by always being ready to hear and respond to His Word's instruction, correction, and guidance." (ETB Adult Commentary, p113)

 

Amos 9:8-10 (Mercy is Part of God's Justice)
Transition: 
In Chapter 9, the prophet's fifth vision was of God standing beside the altar. Not only would the temples, shrines, and altars fall; but, Israel's leadership would be dismantled. In 9:1, "the capitals of the pillars" refer not to architecture but to the leaders of society. Verses 2-4 describes the reach of God's judgment--no one can escape it.

Discussion Options:

• Explain: In verse 8 Amos uses a double name, "Lord God." This stresses God's absolute sovereignty over His creation. Identify: Review verses 8-10 and identify actions, phrases, or words that describe God's absolute sovereignty. (examples: eyes illustrate all-knowing; I will destroy; I will not totally destroy; I am about to give the command; I will shake; will die). Ask: Do any of these descriptions make you feel uncomfortable? Why?
• Describe the people's response to the warning. (Discovery Study Guide, p76)
• Explain: God wanted to renew His covenant relationship with the nation, but the only route to that end was judgment. Ask: How did God distinguish between the kingdom of Israel and the house of Jacob? What is the significance of that distinction? (Although Israel would be decimated, God would preserve a remnant of Jacob's descendants) -- Discovery Study Guide, p76.
• Ask: What parallels can we draw from this passage about our personal walk with God if we rebel against Him? What about His church? (He will judge us but will not totally destroy us). Explain: This should not be used as an excuse to sin because who would want to go through the experience of judgment? Why not remain committed without compromise to God instead?

Summary: 
The Israelites had developed a false sense of security in their relationship with Him. They assumed that history and heritage were enough to protect them from disaster. Judgment would come but mercy was also at work. That mercy would produce hope.

Amos 9:11-15 (Mercy produces Hope)
Study Helps:
In addition to the information found in the ETB Commentary, Study Guide, and Leader Guide, consider reviewing the following information related to God's restoration of Israel and its significance then and now. Keys words to explain are: Fallen booth of David; remnant of Edom.  Click here for information.

Discussion Options:

• Activity: Underline in your Bible the positive ways in which God would move among His people. Ask: What would this message of hope mean to a nation experiencing God's discipline?
• What do these images of Amos 9:11-15 say about how God provides for His people? (Discovery Study Guide, p77)
• When have you seen God bring restoration out of despair? How does that influence the way you approach difficult times in your life? (DSG, p77)
• Why did this passage end with the statement, "Yahweh your God has spoken"? (It is because Yahweh is the covenant name for God. The Israelites knew this was the covenant God speaking--there was a pre-established relationship.)

Transition:
Read: Acts 15:13-18.
Explain: James quoted and understood Amos 9:12 as it related to God offering salvation for all. This promise is fulfilled now, as Gentiles all over the world worship Israel's God and Messiah. God assured the people through Amos that, even though times were tough and going to get worse, He was not through loving and blessing them. We can also have that same hope through Christ.

Look Out
Hitting the target and applying it to daily living. 

• Consider reading the illustration from the February 10 Extra article related to judgment day for Pamela W. Click here for the link.
• Challenge believers to reflect on their walk with the Lord and to consider if they have compromised and taken advantage of God's grace by living a life that doesn't honor Him. Encourage them to correct their path by confessing to the Lord and turning back toward Him.
• Challenge those who may not know Christ to accept the hope that is offered to them through a relationship with Christ.
• Remind the group to continue to pray for those they listed as needing Christ during the study last week.
• If you are using the Discovery Study Guide, consider using the the final question on Page 78 to close the session.