Motivational Atrocity-2

MOTIVATIONAL ATROCITY-II—Amos 1:3--2:5

OR--Indefensible National Atrocities/Pride

Attention:

A distraught husband is standing in the local florist’s shop pleading with the clerk about his need for geraniums.

“I'm sorry,” said the clerk, “we don't have potted geraniums. Could you use African violets instead?”

The customer replied sadly, “No, I’m absolutely certain it was ‘geraniums’ that my wife told me to water while she was gone.”

The husband’s neglect was an ‘atrocious’ act that motivated him to replace the flowers he had killed. His ultimate motivation was love.

On a heavier note:

ATROCITY—‘an extremely wicked or cruel act, typically one involving physical violence or injury.’

Need:

In a very real sense, any nationally motivated actions, levied thru a democratically governed people, are a result of the personal choices of the people of that republic. Those choices are spiritually telling & significant!

Rom. 2:4-5—“Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, & longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness & your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath & revelation of the righteous judgment of God,”

If the true Church backs nationally supported ‘atrocities’ to the ‘exclusion’ of God’s desire,...If the true Church ever ceases to recognize God’s morality & godliness, then the church will have ceased to be God’s Church. Then any country in which that so-called ‘church’ is housed—the true Church being absent—places themselves on the same level as any other country.

Ps. 33:12—“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.”

Ps. 144:15—“Happy are the people who are in such a state; Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!”

Amos declared God’s wrath to be justified/warranted due to nationally sourced atrocities.

Nationally sourced atrocities move God to retribution.

Why/When/How do nationally sourced atrocities move God to anger & retribution?

Some nationally sourced endorsements that move God to anger/retribution.

ENDORSE—“To approve openly, To recommend, or To declare one's public approval or support of.”—Merriam-Webster; New Oxford American Dictionary

Previously we’ve found that National atrocity motivates God’s retribution when that nation endorses...

1. CALCULATED BRUTALITY(:3-5)

Today we’ll discover that,

2—National atrocity also motivates God’s retribution when that nation endorses...

CALCULATED GREED(1:6-8)

Explanation:(1:6-8)Exploitation brought on by Covetousness/Desire

1:6—“Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Gaza, & for four, I will not turn away its punishment, Because they took captive the whole captivity To deliver them up to Edom.”

:7—“But I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, Which shall devour its palaces.”

:8—“I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, And the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; I will turn My hand against Ekron, And the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,” Says the Lord GOD.”

:6a-b—““Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Gaza, & for four, I will not turn away its punishment,”

Amos’ declaration now takes us to the judgment against a place called “Gaza.” Gaza’s judgment is taken up in vss. :6-8.

As Damascus represented Aram(:3-5), so “Gaza” represents Philistia, the land of the Philistines(:8d).

Ancient “Gaza”(as is modern “Gaza”) was located along the southwestern Mediterranean coast of Israel. Gaza represented Philistia, the land of the Philistines. Philistia encompassed a much larger area along the coast than is represented by the Gaza Strip today.

The warrior Goliath considered himself to be a Philistine who fought for the Philistines(1Sam. 17:1-10ff.).

“Gaza was a port city.”—NAC

Of the five major Philisine cities, “Gaza” was the southernmost.—TFWEC

There were five prominent city-states in Philistia. All but Gath are called up for punishment here. Gath was located farther inland from the cities named here, which four were located on the coastal plain.—AROR

“Gaza”—hze Az-zaw’—Noun Proper Locative Fem.—Azzah = “the strong”—1) Another name for 'Gaza', a city of the Philistines located in the extreme southwest of Palestine close to the Mediterranean. Strong—Strong; Azzah, a place in Palestine.

:6c-d—“Because they took captive the whole captivity To deliver them up to Edom.”

The charge laid upon Philistia by Almighty God was their enslavement of “the whole captivity.” Or because of the word’s(Mlv—“whole”) other meanings, it could indicate a ‘peacetime’ enslavement of Israelite people. Perhaps the Philstines raided & enslaved those who had been the slaves of the Israelites?

*Rather, perhaps given the time in history, Philistia may have made off with those whom the Assyrians had left in the land in the aftermath of their continual conquering & repopulation efforts. Thus fulfilling Philistia’s “taking captive” “the whole” or peaceful “captivity.”

The pagan city of Tyre is accused of the same atrocity, however coupled with an additional atrocity which we will address at a later date—that in regard to the captivity, they “did not remember the covenant of brotherhood”(:9).

Evidently there were ‘agreements’ among certain nations(as they are even today) regarding the very lives of peoples, particularly if they were considered to be ‘property’ as were all slaves. “Sale of such captives for use as slave laborers was to treat precious humans made in the image of God as mere commodities.”—NAC