T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
March, 1940
INT ERNAT IONAL L E S S ON Commentary Outline and Exposition Blackboard Lesson Children's Division Object Lesson Golden Text Illustration By B. B. S utcliffe By G retcheiî S ibley By M ildred M. C ook By E lmer L. W ilder By A lan S. P earce Points and Problems B y A lva J. M c C lain ,’ President of Grace Theological Seminary, Winona Lake, Ind.
off without giving them opportunity to repent (vs. 14, 15). They were reminded to “seek good, and not evil” and were told that obedience to this divine com mand would result in the epjoyment of the presence of the Lord God of hosts among them. ■ The Lord held out to them the possi bility of restoration to His favor, if they would take counsel from His knowledge of their evil and His threatened judg ment upon it. Thus the words, “it may be” become a message of deepest com fort to all who, tired of the ways of re bellion and sin, would find and enjoy God’s favor. in. T he C onsequence (21-14) But the call went unheeded, and now nothing was left but for the Lord to cast the people off. He declared that their religious ceremonies and feast days were despised by Him; there was no life in these rites, however solemn they m ight" appear; they were mere motions with out meaning to Him. Furthermore, their prayers were unheard by Him; He would not “smell” their holy days. The “ smell” speaks of the incense burned, which in turn speaks of ascending prayer. But the kind of prayer that was being of fered could not be a sweet savor to God. Their offerings w o u l d be rejected (v. 22), and they could present no ac ceptable worship. Nor could they have any fellowship with Him, because their peace offerings, speaking of fellowship, would be disregarded by Him. More over, their vocal and instrumental praise would be a mere discordant noise to Him; He would not hear it. It may be said that this is a true picture of the state and condemnation of all rejectors of the g o s p e l today. Whatever these individuals may do— supposedly to gain favor with God, while refusing to accept Christ as a per sonal Saviour—becomes an abomination to God; He will not accept it nor listen to it. The abomination could be turned at once to acceptable sacrifice by obe dience to the gospel call. The Lord once more gives the people opportunity of being restored to His fellowship and favor (v. 24). Instead of their hypo critical worship and praise, their lifeless observance of feasts and fasts, they were told to remember His indictment o f their injustice and refusal of authortiy and to cast these things away. The figure is of waters rolling down and carrying all before them—thus should be their return to justice and judgment. And righteousness should be as a mighty stream, not to be damned up, but over-
APRIL 7, 1940 AMOS PLEADS FOR JUSTICE A mos , C hapters 5 and 7
Amos 5:1 Hear ye this w ord w hich I take up against you, even a lamentation» O house o f Israel. 10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speak* eth uprightly. 11 Forasmuch therefore a» you r tread ing is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens o f w heat: ye have built houses o f hewn stone, but ye shall not dw ell in them ; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine o f them. 12 F or I know your m anifold trans gressions and your m ighty sins; they a f flict. the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. 13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that tim e: fo r it is an evil time. 14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye m ay live: and so the Lord, the God o f hosts, s h a l l be w ith you, as ye have spoken. 15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgm ent in the g a te : it may be that the Lord God o f hosts w ill be gracious unto the remnant o f Joseph. 21 I hate, I despise you r feast days, and I w ill not sm ell in your solemn as semblies. • 22 Though ye o ffe r me burnt o ffe r ings and you r m eat offerin gs, I w ill not accept them ; neither w ill I regard the peace offerin gs o f your fat beasts! 23 Take thou aw ay from me the noise o f thy son gs; fo r I w ill not hear the m elody o f thy viols. 24 But let judgm ent run down as w a ters, and righteousness as a m i g h t y stream. LESSON T E X T : Am os 5:1. 10-15, 21-24. GOLDEN T E X T : Hate the evil and love the good, and establish judgm ent in the gate” (Am os 5:15). DEVOTIONAL READING: 2 Sam. 23:1-4. Outline and Exposition I. T he C all (1) B EING a true patriot, Amos felt deeply the condition of his peo ple, and his call became a lamen tation over Israel. Men of true patriot ism in any country will seek to view the condition of their people from God’s standpoint, rather than through the eyes of national pride. The call of Amos, while it was uttered by the prophet, was direct from the Lord whom the people professed to serve. [ These lessons are developed f r o m outlines prepared by the Committee on Improved Uniform Lessons of the In ternational Council. The outlines are copyrighted by the International Coun cil of Religious Education and used by permission. The Scripture portions quoted are from the King James Ver sion unless otherwise stated .)
DID YOU KNOW— that you can s e n d a BUNDLE of 25 copies of THE KING’S BUSINESS, to any one address (outside of Los Angeles) for only ONE DOLLAR? This economical plan appeals greatly to pas tors, Sunday-school teachers, tract distributors. Why not send in YOUR order today? The “gate” was the place of judg ment (V. 10) where justice should have been dispensed. But the people hated the authority which the gate bespoke, and abhorred the one who dared to speak uprightly in testimony before the court. Hatred of authority is the root from which springs the ruin of nations. The prophet, indicted the leaders be cause of their treatment of the poor; they were trampling upon them and grinding them to p o v e r t y . And he warned the l e a d e r s that while they * might amass wealth.in this unholy man ner, all their wealth would not profit them (v. 11). They would not be per mitted to use the houses they built with their ill-gotten gains, nor would their vineyards give them pleasure. They were told that w h i l e t h e y thought no one knew of their evil con duct, God was aware of it. Their afflic tion of the just by false witness—giving and accepting bribes for false testimony —and their rejection of the poor by the same falseness, were all b e f o r e Him (v. 12). Their bribery had been carried so far that justice was entirely over ridden, the prudent kept silence, and true testimony was unheard. But even for all that, God would not cast them BLACKBOARD LESSON H. T he C ause (10-15)
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker