by Paul Apple | Jan 17, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: RESTORATION TO THE PROMISED LAND AND REVERSAL OF FORTUNES CHARACTERIZE FUTURE MILLENNIAL BLESSING INTRODUCTION: Gary Smith: This final promise of hope contains two salvation oracles that introduce positive promises about Israel’s “day” of restoration: Verses...
by Paul Apple | Jan 17, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: THE AWESOME ALL-POWERFUL GOD JUDGES WITH THOROUGHNESS AND FINALITY REGARDLESS OF CLAIMS OF SPECIAL PRIVILEGE INTRODUCTION: Billy Smith: The climactic fifth vision is unlike the other four from start to finish. Among the differences are the following: no...
by Paul Apple | Jan 15, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: THE ROTTEN NATION OF ISRAEL CONDEMNED TO ITS DESERVED JUDGMENT WITH NO MORE OPPORTUNITY FOR RECOVERY INTRODUCTION: John Goldingay: Chapter 8 begins with another report by Amos of a revelation concerning Yahweh’s intention to bring disaster on Ephraim; this...
by Paul Apple | Jan 14, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: GOD’S MESSENGER MUST STAND UP TO OPPOSITION BY RELYING ON DIVINE AUTHORITY INTRODUCTION: Gary Smith: The incident focuses on two factors: (1) the authority of Amos’s vision about the future destruction of Israel’s temples and ruling family, and (2) the...
by Paul Apple | Jan 10, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: FAILURE TO CONFORM TO GOD’S STANDARD (RIGHTEOUSNESS) CONDEMNS ISRAEL TO CERTAIN JUDGMENT WITH NO MORE DELAY INTRODUCTION: Warren Wiersbe: God’s law is His plumb line, and He measures His people to see how true they are to the pattern in His Word, and if they...
by Paul Apple | Jan 9, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: INTERCESSORY PRAYER CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE INTRODUCTION: Gary Smith: These vision reports in Amos 7 begin the third major section of the book. Five visions are described (7:1–3, 4–6, 7–9; 8:1–3; 9:1–4), with the first two having a common structure: an...
by Paul Apple | Jan 8, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: PROSPERITY MUST NOT PROVIDE A PLATFORM FOR PRIDEFUL FALSE SECURITY ON THE PART OF LEADERS WHO FAIL TO PURSUE JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS INTRODUCTION: Thomas Constable: [6:1-2] Amos challenged these proud leaders to visit other cities that had once considered...
by Paul Apple | Jan 7, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: RIGHTEOUSNESS BEFORE RITUAL — GOD DESIRES JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS RATHER THAN VAIN RELIGIOUS SHOW INTRODUCTION: Gary Smith: This section is divided into three paragraphs: 5:18–20 addresses the sad state of Israel’s deceptive theology concerning the...
by Paul Apple | Jan 3, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: FUNERAL LAMENT: JUDGMENT DESERVED FOR FAILING TO SEEK AFTER GOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS INTRODUCTION: Ray Stedman: Now this is the reason this book is so loved by the liberal; Amos is called the prophet of social justice, the man who demanded that man treat their...
by Paul Apple | Jan 3, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: JUDGMENT MUST FOLLOW WHEN GOD’S PATIENCE AND FORBEARANCE WITH HIS STUBBORNLY REBELLIOUS PEOPLE HAVE REACHED THEIR LIMIT INTRODUCTION: Alec Motyer: Basically the word translated ‘holy’ throughout the Old Testament seems to have the meaning ‘separate’, or...
by Paul Apple | Jan 1, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: THE FACT OF ISRAEL’S GUILT IN THE PRESENT – ISRAEL STANDS GUILTY OF IDOLATRY, VIOLENCE AND MATERIALISM INTRODUCTION: J. Sidlow Baxter: [following his outline in this section] (3:1 – 6:14) THREE MESSAGES OF CONDEMNATION AGAINST ISRAEL Key introductory...
by Paul Apple | Jan 1, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: THE CLIMAX OF GOD’S JUDGMENT IS DIRECTED AGAINST HIS OWN PEOPLE – ESPECIALLY ISRAEL INTRODUCTION: Gary Smith: Amos 2:4–16 treats the final pair of nations, Judah and Israel. These oracles bring the sermon to a climax by applying the theological principles...
by Paul Apple | Jan 1, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: THE SOVEREIGN GOD ROARS IN JUDGMENT AGAINST SURROUNDING NATIONS FOR SPECIFIC MORAL TRANSGRESSIONS INTRODUCTION: Thomas McComiskey: Overview A striking pattern runs through these oracles. The prophet began with the distant city of Damascus and, like a hawk...
by Paul Apple | Jan 1, 2025 | Bible-OT
BIG IDEA: THE VOICE AND THE MOUTHPIECE – THE LION ROARS IN PROPHETIC JUDGMENT AGAINST ISRAEL THROUGH HIS SURPRISING MESSENGER AMOS INTRODUCTION: Gary Smith: The heading to this scroll of sermons (1:1) introduces the readers to the person God uses to deliver his...
by Paul Apple | Jun 4, 2024 | Bible-OT
Richard Clifford: The poem on the capable or valiant woman is an acrostic poem of twenty-two lines, each line beginning with a successive letter of the alphabet. . . As with most acrostic poems in the Bible, the unity of the poem comes more from its alphabetic...
by Paul Apple | Jun 2, 2024 | Bible-OT
Richard Clifford: Verses 1–9 are skillfully composed. The first section (vv. 3–5, 26 words) is an admonition against the imprudent use of sex and alcohol (“wine,” “strong drink”) lest the luxury-loving king forget the poor. The second section (vv. 6–9, 28 words) is an...
by Paul Apple | Jun 1, 2024 | Bible-OT
Paul Koptak: There are five numerical sayings in this section, all list “four” items. Four use a “three plus one” pattern. The numerical sayings are early examples of reflections on nature and society, distinct from the numerical lists in chapter 6 and elsewhere. The...
by Paul Apple | May 30, 2024 | Bible-OT
Paul Koptak: The introduction to the “sayings of Agur” asks a series of four rhetorical questions, followed by one person’s despair at finding wisdom and God. In a sense, the “oracle” is actually a prayer in two parts, first for knowledge of God and second for a life...
by Paul Apple | May 29, 2024 | Bible-OT
I. (:17-19) BENEFITS AND DIFFICULTIES OF TRAINING REGIMENS A. (:17) Benefits of Parental Discipline “Correct your son, and he will give you comfort; He will also delight your soul.” Paul Koptak: this hopeful proverb stresses the positive aspect of “discipline”; if a...
by Paul Apple | May 28, 2024 | Bible-OT
Paul Koptak: While chapter 29 does not fall into an obvious outline, the repetition of “thrive” (root rbh, “increase”) in 29:2 and 16 and the recurrence of “wise/wisdom” in between (29:3, 8, 9, 11, 15) ties the first half together. (:1) TRANSITIONAL WARNING –...
