Amos -- the burden of our sins

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1 The words of Amos,

Joel means that Jehovah, He is God. That is the point of the festival of Trumpets and that is the point of the book of Joel. The festival of Trumpets announces that Jesus is God. Amos means “burden” and it is reasonable for anyone to hear what God is about to do and to then wonder what is the burden, what is the cause for this. It is the burden of sin.

one of the shepherds of Tekoa—

As a school teacher I also feel like a shepherd.

the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash[a] was king of Israel.

There is a distinction here between the people of God, some were of Judah and some were of Israel. My understanding of prophecy is similar to the golden ratio. I feel that you can look at a small event and see a big event in that. At the end of the age we know there will be a great earthquake and I am going to look at this prophecy as referring to a period 2 years before that earthquake, “the earthquake”. There are some similarities. Uzziah the king is puffed up with pride, invades the priests office and enters the temple to burn incense. He becomes leprous and it is thought that this event provoked God to bring about this earthquake. Likewise, at the end of the age, in the middle of the last week the son of perdition goes into the temple and sets himself up as god. At this time there is a great earthquake as the sixth seal is opened. So to my understanding Joel presents the beginning of this week mentioned in Daniel, and it begins in typology with the festival of trumpets. This festival takes place about two weeks before the end of the year in the Jewish calendar. After this festival the Israelites were to take stock of the year and consider their sins that they needed to make an account of. This takes place for ten days. That would signify the time it takes for a complete and thorough accounting of our responsibility before God. I believe this is what this two years signifies, the time right up until “the earthquake”, the sixth seal, where we are taking account of our sins prior to the day of atonement. This may seem confusing to those who have not studied end time prophecy, so I’ll briefly explain. I believe the end of the age is 7 years known as the tribulation. The first 3 1⁄2 years are natural events. In the middle of this time we have this supernatural event referred to as “The earthquake” though it includes more than that. The second 3 1⁄2 years is called “the Great Tribulation” and includes supernatural events. The book of Joel describes the start of this 7 year period and likens it to the festival of trumpets. Now we are in Amos and Amos helps us do a thorough accounting before God. We consider our sins, and we consider God’s great works in the past. We also see how God has been warning us but we have not heeded those warnings.

2 He said: “The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers.”

This is where we left off in Joel:16 “The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem”. So what is future tense in Joel is now present tense in Amos. Most commentaries focus on the historical and archaeological aspects of this prophecy. I don’t care about that. I want to reflect on our sins that we need to repent of, not what someone 2,000 years ago needed to repent of. This prophecy helps me run down the really big sins that we need be held accountable for.

3 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not relent. Because she threshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth,

It is certain that this is referring to a cruel and barbarous way in which you treat your prisoners of war. In recent times I am aware that many countries are especially cruel with this and operate in a way that would be illegal in the US. Which is why US military intelligence often subcontracts out our interrogation to these countries. In the US we like to think of ourselves as more moral and more humane than these countries which use cruel forms of torture. Of course it was a shock to us to see what was happening at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and of course what was happening at Guantanamo Bay where we weren’t even observing Habeas Corpus. We were simply tossing them in jail and throwing away the key without so much as giving them a hearing or even admitting they were there.

4 I will send fire on the house of Hazael that will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad. 5 I will break down the gate of Damascus; I will destroy the king who is in the Valley of Aven and the one who holds the scepter in Beth Eden. The people of Aram will go into exile to Kir,” says the Lord.

On the one hand if you have supported Amnesty International you should be happy, on the other hand there should be an uneasy feeling that if the Lord is judging these 3rd world nations for this behavior, what happens when He gets to us?

6 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not relent. Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom, 7 I will send fire on the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses. 8 I will destroy the king of
Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon. I will turn my hand against Ekron, till the last of the Philistines are dead,” says the Sovereign Lord.

This sounds like imperialism. I did see something when I was in Taiwan. At the very same time that the cigarette companies were being exposed for having manipulated cigarettes as a drug to make the smokers addicted, at the exact same time that they were being sued and losing one of the largest cases in US history the US government was negotiating with Taiwan. The island of Taiwan needed F16s and AWACs to defend themselves, but as part of the trade the US government required that Taiwan sell American made cigarettes. At the very same time that they were putting laws in place to limit the sale of cigarettes in the US they were requiring smaller countries dependent on us for national security to buy them and sell them to their citizens. The US took captive of whole communities and sold them to the cigarette companies.

9 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not relent. Because she sold whole communities of captives to Edom, disregarding a treaty of brotherhood, 10 I will send fire on the walls of Tyre that will consume her fortresses.”

It isn’t hard to remember the US breaking treaties to sell entire communities. From 1778 to 1871, the United States government entered into more than 500 treaties with the Native American tribes; all of these treaties have since been violated in some way or outright broken by the US government.

11 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Edom, even for four, I will not relent. Because he pursued his brother with a sword and slaughtered the women of the land, because his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked, 12 I will send fire on Teman that will consume the fortresses of Bozrah.”

There are genocides around the world. Rwanda, Pol Pot, Stalin and Mao spring to mind. But what about us? Do we need to list these? Sand Creek massacre, 163 men women and children were massacred by the Colorado militia. They were living in peace at the time. Three knolls massacre in California. Marias massacre in Montana, 173 killed primarily women, children and the elderly. Camp Grant massacre, killed 144 with all but 8 being women or children. Wounded Knee massacre killed around 250 men, women and children. This is but a few.

13 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not relent. Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders, 14 I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah that will consume her fortresses amid war cries on the day of battle, amid violent winds on a stormy day. 15 Her king will go into exile, he and his officials together,” says the Lord.

It is estimated that the abortion industry brings in $1 billion a year. (https://www.culturallegacy.org/abortion-profit). In Bloodmoney, a documentary on abortion they show how one doctor made over $2 million a year by performing abortions. We know that abortions have targeted minorities and blacks.

 

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2 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Moab, even for four, I will not relent. Because he burned to ashes the bones of Edom’s king, 2 I will send fire on Moab that will consume the fortresses of Kerioth. Moab will go down in great tumult amid war cries and the blast of the trumpet. 3 I will destroy her ruler and kill all her officials with him,” says the Lord.

Wow, what a relief! Thank you Jesus! Whenever someone starts enumerating the sins of the US I always dread that they will bring up slavery. Is that fair? First of all not all the states had slavery, and then in the ones that did only 25% of the people had slaves, and then when you are talking about plantation owners with 100 or more slaves it was only about 3%. So is it really fair to go back several hundred years and dig up some cursed plantation owner and say the entire US is cursed because of this guy? Even God, right here in Amos condemns doing that! Of course slavery was cursed, but were these men who were made in the image of God cursed because of the US, or were they cursed by God? Oh yeah, Moab, they were amateurs, they only went back one or two generations to justify themselves, we went back much further than that. We went back to before there even was a New World, before Jesus, hey we even went back before Moses, we went all the way back to Noah. We went back to Noah and dug up Ham, and believe it or not, that is why all these people thousands of years later were cursed! Did we stop there? No, no, no we then brought out our witch doctors with their mumbo jumbo science as a racial justification. Burning bones to ash? That is kid’s stuff. We put those ashes into baby food. By the 1950s you could put two dolls before a young child, one black the other white, and ask which is the pretty one, which is the smart one, which is the good one and they would point to the white doll. Which one looks like you? They would point to the black doll. Which one is ugly and stupid? They would point to the black doll. Do you really think this generation will escape the judgement and wrath of God?

4 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not relent. Because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed, 5 I will send fire on Judah that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem.”

The US claims to be a Christian nation that trusts in God. His commandment was to love our neighbor as ourselves. Torture, violating treaties, hunting down and killing women and children, selling communities to the highest bidder, and cursing man made in the image of God are all examples of rejecting that law. Money and power are false gods that have led this nation astray.

Judgment on Israel 6 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not relent. They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.

Where was your phone made? How about your slippers? You want to blame covid on China, a poor country eating bats and living in crowded conditions, yet you don’t blame the sweatshops that you buy from for creating these conditions.

7 They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed.

Build the wall. Not so that we can keep illegal immigrants out because if we did that who would do all the menial tasks we don’t want to do. No, we build the wall so that we can deny justice to the oppressed. You don’t like the oppression, fine, we’ll send you back to the other side of the wall.

Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name.

Is this true? Some things I am glad I don’t know about.

8 They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge.

The law in the OT said you had to give the pledge of a garment to the poor at night so they could sleep and not be cold. The Lord is saying that they put the poor out into the cold and take their pledge, their downpayment. This is precisely what happened during the Mortgage crisis. People paid for their house for a couple of years, then a balloon
mortgage kicked in, they couldn’t pay, the bank took back their house, keeping the money they had paid for about 5 years as well as their downpayment.

In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines.

I worked for a bank and learned that the overdraft fees and other “fines” were their bread and butter. I once saw a person who had written ten small checks for a total of about $100. If the checks had been paid out in the order they were received one would have bounced, but by paying the big one first, and then bouncing the next biggest one, they were able to cause the other nine checks to bounce because of the fees. This person had to pay $75 in bounced check fees because of the clever way in which they paid out the checks. Sadly the money to cover these checks had been deposited, it just hadn’t cleared yet. Cheers!

9 “Yet I destroyed the Amorites before them, though they were tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks. I destroyed their fruit above and their roots below.

There were two main battles, in the wilderness the children of Israel asked for permission to pass through the land of the Amorites and they refused, instead coming out with their full army to attack them. Israel defeated them which was a great sign to all the nations round about. Later, in the good land 5 kings of the Amorites came out to attack Joshua and that was the day the sun stood still so he could finish the battle. You saw what God did to these people who you have dispossessed and now you have taken their place. Why would you imitate them? We defeated Britain, the superpower of the day, a leader in banking and finance, and then we imitated them!

10 I brought you up out of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness to give you the land of the Amorites. 11 “I also raised up prophets from among your children and Nazirites from among your youths. Is this not true, people of Israel?” declares the Lord. 12 “But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

There have been many great spiritual leaders in the US. There is no denying that. It is also true that we have laws that forbid the word of God in schools. But how did they “make the Nazarites” drink wine? That is a violation of their vow. I suspect this is much like the Lord’s word: But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. (Matt 23:13)

13 “Now then, I will crush you as a cart crushes when loaded with grain.

Many times the poor feel like the system is designed to run them over like a truck. So, as you have done it will be done to you.

14 The swift will not escape, the strong will not muster their strength, and the warrior will not save his life. 15 The archer will not stand his ground, the fleet-footed soldier will not get away, and the horseman will not save his life. 16 Even the bravest warriors will flee naked on that day,” declares the Lord.

You have designed a system so that the poor are trapped, so loaded up with pressures they can’t escape. A system so confusing the poor don’t know how to even use their strength to save their life. I recently wanted to pay off the car for my wife, feeling that eliminating this debt would make our financial situation more secure. She was against it, she wanted to keep the money in reserve in the event of an emergency. I did the math, I showed her that paying it off now would save her $700. She was stunned, she had no idea how the system was designed. The archer has a nice distance between him and the battle, when you lose your house they give you a month, two months, even three months warning. But in the end you lose your shirt and wind up fleeing naked. As they have done it will be done to you.

 

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3 Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you—against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt: 2 “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins.” 3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? 4 Does a lion roar in the thicket when it has no prey? Does it growl in its den when it has caught nothing? 5 Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground when no bait is there? Does a trap spring up from the ground if it has not caught anything? 6 When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? 7 Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

We have a duty and a responsibility. We know God’s words, we know His laws. We are supposed to be the light of the world and the salt that kills the germs. If God and His people are going to walk together they must be in agreement. If you are a servant of the Lord you should hear when the Lion seizes the prey. You should be aware when the trap has sprung. You need to sound the trumpet! The fool in his heart says there is no God, but we need to let them know that when disaster comes to a city the Lord has caused it. This plan has been revealed to His servants, so the servants have a responsibility and a duty to sound the alarm.

8 The lion has roared— who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken— who can but prophesy? 9 Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod and to the fortresses of Egypt: “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria; see the great unrest within her and the oppression among her people.” 10 “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “who store up in their fortresses what they have plundered and looted.” 11 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “An enemy will overrun your land, pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses.” 12 This is what the Lord says: “As a shepherd rescues from the lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued, with only the head of a bed and a piece of fabric from a couch.”

The Lord has spoken that He will judge them for what they have done to the poor. They have plundered and looted the poor like an invading army, therefore an invading army will plunder and loot your strongholds. Joel describes this invading army as a “bug” and uses five or six different analogies. But consider what this virus will do to the banks and investment banks that sell mortgage backed securities. Shopping malls and theaters are done. Concerts and sports arenas are done. They will be bankrupt. Even if they are allowed to reopen they won’t be allowed to operate profitably. Also, all the small businesses in the malls will also go bankrupt, if they survive it will be through an online presence. And therefore the anchor businesses like Sears and Macy’s will also go under. Now the saying in the real estate business is this: if you owe $1 million to the bank you have a problem, if you owe $1billion to the bank they have a problem. The banks have a huge problem. The trap has been sprung, the lion has the prey in his mouth and is roaring. Maybe a few scraps here and there will be rescued, that is it. This situation has forced everyone to use the internet and you can expect orders over the internet to companies like Amazon.com will increase greatly but these in turn will cause most of the stores with a retail presence to go out of business. With unemployment at Great Depression levels you can expect the housing market to also collapse. Car sales are seeing a 30% drop nationwide, it is hard to imagine that showrooms can keep much of a retail presence anywhere other than cyberspace. The oil industry in the US has collapsed. Many banks finance oil exploration based on the estimated value of the oil that is in the ground. Since the price of oil has hit rock bottom those “collateralized loans” have collapsed. One of the easiest ways for an oil company to extricate itself from bankruptcy is to walk away from those loans. The banks will be left with oil in the ground that is worth less than the cost to drill it. Now one thing you can be sure of is they will keep a smile on their face and pretend all is well with the hope of somehow selling what few scraps they have left.

13 “Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the Lord God Almighty. 14 “On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. 15 I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished,” declares the Lord.

This is talking about a “golden calf”, interestingly down by Wall Street they have a bronze bull indicating a bull market. The stock market has several sources of power, of course you have the major stock indexes like S&P 500, and you have the bond index, you have the commodities market, and you have currency markets. These will all be cut off. The stock market is currently down about 30% since the virus hit and it appears to be primed to drop another 40%. The US has passed major stimulus packages, about 6xs what we did during the Mortgage crisis, this is inflationary and will destroy the bond market. The collapse of the oil market as well as the meat packing plants will crash the commodities market and the currency market will be useless as this is worldwide, there is no safe haven.

 

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4 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!” 2 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness: “The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.[a] 3 You will each go straight out through breaches in the wall, and you will be cast out toward Harmon,” declares the Lord. 4 “Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years.[c] 5 Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings—boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,” declares the Sovereign Lord.

These are the fattest, biggest cows in a land that worships golden cows. They are described as women, they are the “Kardashians” of the ancient world. They will get the hook. They will no longer be able to afford or justify their lifestyle, they’ll lose their house, their job, no longer will stadiums of 70,000 people support their debauchery. All of their charitable donations, free will offerings, are major press events where they can brag and boast about them. But with this contagion and collapse of the economy we’ll see these fat cows each go through every breach in the wall to get to their safe “villas” in the mountains. All of them will “head for the hills”.

6 “I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord.

We saw that during the Great Depression

7 “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up. 8 People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord.

We saw this during the dust bowl.

9 “Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, destroying them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord.

We saw this during the potato famine that brought the Irish to America.

10 “I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord.

We saw this during the World Wars, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars and the Spanish Flu, etc.

11 “I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord.

The AIDS epidemic and these recent fires in California and Australia come to mind.

12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God.” 13 He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord God Almighty is his name.

You can roll all of that into one, from the Great Depression, to the natural calamities, the famines, the wars, the epidemics. We need to reflect not only on our sins but also on the experiences that we have had with the Lord. Have they caused us to appreciate that Jesus is Lord, or have they caused us to become proud and boastful. Did they cause you to turn to God or rather to become hardened towards God? Did we refer to the greatness of God after the war or the greatness of the generation? Therefore the scope and scale of this coming judgement is designed to put an end to our pride and cause us to return to God in humility. Prepare to meet your God. That is the point of this period between the festival of trumpets and the day of atonement, we are to prepare to meet our God. We are going to have this coming plague revealed to us, there will be no way to escape, do not waste time trying to escape our focus needs to be on preparing to meet our God.

 

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5 Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you: 2 “Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land, with no one to lift her up.” 3 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel: “Your city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left; your town that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left.” 4 This is what the Lord says to Israel: “Seek me and live; 5 do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.[a]” 6 Seek the Lord and live, or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it.

We are preparing to meet the Lord. We began by going over our sins. We then considered some of the things that God has done just in the last 100 years to cause us to return to Him. Now we need to also consider how God treated Israel. We are the Israel above, so the things that happened to Israel are an example to us. They turned justice into bitterness when they demanded that Jesus be crucified. They cast righteousness to the ground. What did God do? Israel fell, never to rise again for 2,000 years as long as they persisted. It wasn’t until the holocaust that Israel returned to the Lord. The description here is not of Israel being decimated. To decimate means to kill one out of ten. No, the description here is that one in ten lives. It is a description of the holocaust. During the holocaust the judgement swept through like a fire. They were burned in a furnace. If we reflect on this history it should make it very clear that God is serious. Do you really need to face the holocaust before you will return to God, seek Him, seek good and live?

7 There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground. 8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land— the Lord is his name.

And now we are reviewing some of the past judgements that God did on the Earth. This is referring to Noah’s flood. We now have geologic evidence that a meteorite struck the Indian ocean (we can see the crater on the ocean floor). This created a huge tsunami which created giant chevrons on the island of Madagascar with fossils from the ocean floor. We can use these to date the event. It would have vaporized a tremendous amount of water that would have gone into the stratosphere, circling the globe, before returning as rain. This rain caused giant floods to sweep down out of the glaciated highlands of the highest mountains. We have evidence of the biggest flood ever coming out of the Himalayas and sweeping across the continent of India. We can tell the water was 30-40 feet deep in this flood. We see the same thing coming out of the Rockies and sweeping across Washington State. This flood also caused sea level to rise, flooding the bosphorus so that the Black Sea which had been cut off from the ocean was flooded. This is a very likely place where Noah built his ark. We also know at this time large ungulates on all the continents went extinct. As a result we have 18 animals suitable for domestication at present, all but 2 of them come from mesopotamia. Because this area had horses, cows, oxen, etc their civilizations became dominant. There are over 100 ancient civilizations that have an account of this event and which also talk about this boat with the animals. God took the waters from the sea and poured them on the land. So then do not be proud, humble yourself before the mighty hand of God.

9 With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin. There is also the case of God’s judgement of Sodom and Gomorrah. 10 There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth. 11 You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. 12 For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. 13 Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil. 14 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. 15 Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

In the US you get the justice you can afford. If you can afford the best lawyers, teams of lawyers, like large corporations, then you can abuse the poor. Dupont did this with the Teflon scandal. The cigarette companies did this. The NFL did this. There are many, many examples of corporations using their team of lawyers in a hateful and detestable way. The Lord knows every one. Think about Schindler’s list. Schindler gave a very big bribe to get his factory up and running and to use slave labor (those who were destined to go to the death camps). He was buying them to save them alive, but it revealed how corrupt and how evil the German “justice” system was. He was an example of someone who did repent, he did return to the Lord, he did seek good and not evil, and he did live.

16 Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, says: “There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail. 17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord.

Remember the Passover. Imagine how terrible the wailing will be when you realize you were warned, you saw this happen in the past, you were told it was coming, you were told what to do, and yet you did not put the blood of the lamb of God on your doorpost? You did not take Jesus as your Passover feast. You were outside the house when the avenging angel passed through your midst.

18 Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. 19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. 20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? 21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. 22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! 25 “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? 26 You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god— which you made for yourselves. 27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.

True religion is to visit widows and orphans in their affliction and to keep yourself unspotted from the world. If your religious festivals are all show and entertainment without this reality, then God hates it. This is what Jesus condemned when He said these religious leaders were making long prayers for a pretense, while at the same time stealing widows houses. That is precisely what happened in the Mortgage crisis. Right now the poor feel like they are running from lions and bears, only to get bitten by snakes in their house. As you have done it will be done to you. So then when you behave like that you are not worshipping God, you are lifting up a shrine to an idolatrous king. For 2,000 years the Jews were exiles. Christians have been warned that they too could spend a thousand years in outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

 

[ZNP]

6 Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!

The issue here is complacent and feeling secure. Many times I have considered what would I do if I were a Jew in Germany as Hitler took power. I have thought that the only thing to do would be to flee to the US while there was still time. But Amos here includes “to whom the people of Israel come”. You have a responsibility to take care of others, fleeing is equivalent to shirking your responsibility. Imagine a rabbi flees to the US and later learns everyone under his care was executed in a concentration camp. That would be a terrible burden of guilt. The complacency of those in charge of protecting election integrity has been utterly despicable. Stacy Abrams has a sister who is a judge and who ruled in her favor on a recent case involving the election. How does she not recuse herself? The law is that if you have a relative who might have a stake in the outcome of the ruling you need to recuse yourself. Texas and about 20 other states sued the states who had violated their laws and the constitution in the election. The only court that can hear a case between one state and another is the Supreme court yet they ruled that Texas didn't have standing? What does that mean? Texas has no legal standing as to how the elections are conducted or whether or not they are free or fair? The media has been despicable as well. Two months ago the Hunter Biden laptop was "Russian disinformation" and everyone and anyone who mentioned it got censored. Today they admit that it is not disinformation, rather there are numerous criminal charges against Hunter being prepared. We have three different cases of conflict of interest with these charges. Joe Biden's direct family members are being charged with criminal charges and RICO charges, Joe Biden could be called as a witness and the Justice department sat on this evidence for two years. Because of this the law says you have to have a special prosecutor, you cannot allow Joe Biden's justice department handle this yet Joe Biden is ignoring that and saying his justice department will handle this. Remember your word O Lord, woe to them for this.

2 Go to Kalneh and look at it; go from there to great Hamath, and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours? 3 You put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of terror.

Wow, that is exactly what happened with Hitler. Chamberlain put off the day of disaster, and instead he brought in a reign of terror. He appeased Hitler rather than confronting him head on, and early. We are acting like Banana republics, is that what we want the US to become?

4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. 5 You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. 6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. 7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end. The Lord Abhors the Pride of Israel 8The Sovereign Lord has sworn by himself—the Lord God Almighty declares: “I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”

France was content to ignore the ruin that Hitler was inflicting on Eastern Europe. France thought their Maginot line was an impregnable fortress. It was detested, Germany just went around the wall. As a result Paris was delivered up and everything in it. These are not idle threats from the Lord. This reminds me of the California governor dining at the fancy French restaurant while shutting down small restaurants. California, once the richest state in the US is now the poorest, they have 28% of their population living below the poverty line based on the cost of living in California. Yet the governor doesn't grieve over the ruin of his state. Lord we pray that Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee and Phoenix would be delivered up.

9 If ten people are left in one house, they too will die. 10 And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them[a] asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.” 11 For the Lord has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits.

Just read the diary of Anne Frank. This was the case for those Jews who were not rounded up first. It was true of the Jews in France. The Democratic party is a great house and all of their local election operations are small houses. We pray you would execute the command and smash them into pieces.

12 Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness— 13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar[c] and say, “Did we not take Karnaim[d] by our own strength?” 14 For the Lord God Almighty declares, “I will stir up a nation against you, Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”

Wow, I can’t stand this. You warn people of the impending danger and it is like they are on drugs, “can Hitler’s tanks get through our concrete barricade”? No, he can’t, so they are complacent. But Hitler didn’t go through the concrete barricade, he went around it. So the real question was can Hitler’s tanks drive through the forest of Belgium? Yes! Learn from the mistakes the French made, learn from the mistakes the British made, learn from the mistakes the Jews made. All of these are examples for us to help us find God and find life. Where is the justice? Where is the righteousness? The entire country knows there was election fraud, over 50% of all votes know the election was stolen and yet the judges refuse to listen to the cases on the merits and the legislators refuse to do their jobs and the governors refuse to call special assemblies, and the states certify the election even though the fraud has been documented and the evidence presented to them. Wake up! China, Russia, and the UN are trying to take over.

 

[ZNP]

Hebrews 7 -- Censoring the Prophet​

1 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. 2 When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!” 3 So the Lord relented. “This will not happen,” the Lord said.

We have several previous “pandemics”. SARS, MERS, Ebola and all of them ceased. They were a token of what the Lord would do and He relented when we prayed. Taiwan paid attention and after SARS in 2004 they instituted strict measures which they followed in December, long before anyone else was taking Covid19 seriously. Taiwan appeared paranoid. But six months later it is clear that they took those warnings to heart. They only had 6 dead and they had the lowest morbidity rate per capita of any country by a very large margin. Also, isn't it interesting that these "swarms" would take place after the King's share had been harvested? Wow, can't get any luckier than that. If you reaped your fields and then swarms of locusts ate up everyone else's crops your crop would become exceedingly valuable at the very same time that so many people would go bankrupt. Just when you get a huge bonus there is a huge going out of business sale. Wow, so lucky for the king.

4 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!” 6 So the Lord relented. “This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.

We have had several “apocalyptic” fires in California and Australia. Again, they were a token of what the Lord would do and He relented when we prayed.

7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,[a] with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A plumb line,” I replied. Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

The Lord is going to build His house straight and true. So while He has listened to our prayers in the last few decades and relented, He will spare us no longer. These previous cases were warnings, now it is the real thing. Those fires and the pandemic are revealing who is not "straight". We now know that Covid19 came from the Wuhan bio lab, not from the fish market, and that China hid the danger for 50 days before alerting the world and that they fought to keep their borders open during this time. We know that they hid the genome from the world slowing down our ability to manufacture a vaccine and they censored scientists that tried to warn the world. There are several plausible explanations of why they would act like this but what is undeniable is that they "have not been straight" with the world. We also know that China has the major equity stake in the voting machines used in these states that are currently being disputed and that over a hundred thousand ballots were printed the night of the election in China and then flown during the night to the US. We know that several million CCP agents have been discovered working in all the major multinational corporations, particularly in the US. We also know that the biggest cyberattack on the US government took place at the same time as our election. Some people, particularly the CCP have just not been straight with us.

9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”

The high places of Isaac may be translated as the altars of laughter. The sanctuaries of the US are not the house of God, they are the TV and Youtube. They will be destroyed. It is very difficult to be making jokes at a time when the Earth is on fire. Already with Corona virus these comedies like Saturday Night Live can’t operate because it violates social distancing. They are ruined. The Lord will rise against this new world order. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and the mainstream media have all been compromised. They censored the Hunter Biden laptop scandal which tied the Biden crime family to the CCP prior to the election. The Lord's sword is the sword of the Spirit, the living word of God in the hands of His army. Jeroboam rebelled and divided the kingdom setting up idols in the north and prohibiting the people of Israel to go up to Jerusalem for the set feasts. In the US our set feasts would be Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos is saying: “‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’” 12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.” 14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’16 Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say, “‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’ 17“Therefore this is what the Lord says: “‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan[c] country. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’”

Amos sets his face as a flint, he knows God is speaking through him. That is his strength. We should not be surprised or think it a strange thing that these attacks would include a false witness. Instead the Lord said we should rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer reproach for His name. The Lord told us that the weak and foolish things of the world have been chosen by Him to confound the wise. That is what the previous visions do, they expose the wise who would ignore the Lord’s warnings and who would appease the antichrist and open the door for a reign of terror. He exposed the foolish trust in their leaders who had designed a “fortress” to protect them from God’s judgements. Amaziah’s job is to protect Israel as a priest to God. He should be warning them and getting them to repent and return to the Lord that they might live. Instead he is forbidding this warning to be spoken, so as a result Israel will be ravished. This is just like a husband is supposed to protect and provide for his wife, but because he isn’t doing that it is a just judgement that his wife becomes a prostitute after the nation has been carried off to Babylon. There is a consequence in whatever we do. If you shut your ears to the Lord’s word there is a consequence. Amaziah’s wife becomes a prostitute, his sons are killed, and he dies in a pagan land. It’s like the saying “freedom is not free”. You need to pay the price, you can pay God now or you can pay God later, but one way or another you will pay the price.

We have also seen there are many of these "prophets" speaking on the internet and Youtube, Facebook and Twitter have basically kicked them off their platform. As a result they have gone to sites like Parler and Rumble. So what is the judgement going to be on these companies. Surely they will be broken up in anti trust legislation and divided up. The legacy of these tech giants will fall and be snuffed out just as we did to the telephone company. These companies have "wed themselves" to the left. These are people who push abortion, confuse gender, they ban church services while saying that Casinos can stay open. They claim that these ANTIFA riots are "mainly peaceful" while trying to smear the "Stop the Steal" protests as violent. They have sold themselves to do evil.

 

[ZNP]

8 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked. “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered. Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

I have read Amos before, at least 25 times, and yet it never made sense. I think before the fires in Australia, in California and the Coronavirus it would have been very hard to make sense of this. For example, there is a verse in Joel that says they don’t push or crowd each other, they march in a line, and yet he breaks through our defenses. Who could possibly understand that word before coronavirus and social distancing. Social distancing is our defense, we are not crowding or pushing on anyone and yet the virus is breaking through our defense. The point is “the time is ripe”. This word was locked up before but now the time is ripe and so you can understand it. The mortgage crisis really brought it home to me that God can spare them no longer. They knew what they were doing, they knew all these people would lose their houses and the economy would have a melt down, but they also knew the Government would bail them out and the poor taxpayers would have to pay. But wait, there is more. The censorship of Facebook, Twitter and the mainstream media, it is lies and bias and falsehood. But wait, there is still more, with Zuckerberg giving $400 million dollars, not for campaign ads, but to those running the election to illegally tilt the odds in favor of the left. What he did was the same thing as paying off the referee. But wait, there is more and this is the most heinous. The pandemic is man made, it is released after the "kings" brought in their crops. There are many multinational conglomerates that have profited mightily from this pandemic. Many people have been forced onto the internet and applications like Zoom. Others have been forced to do their shopping online with companies like Amazon.com. But at the same time Amazon.com is trying to get people to shop at their online grocery store local grocery stores were shut down and many people were threatened with the fear of the disease. Yes it is a man made disease that was designed in a bio lab. Yes, China hid this fact for almost two months giving it a chance to spread widely. That is true but you can't possibly think these rulers would be so evil as to willingly unleash a pandemic on the world and irrationally shut down businesses and schools just so that they would profit? Yes the pandemic was extremely convenient helping them commit election fraud. Also it is extremely effective at rapidly moving them to electronic currency and implanted RFID chips. There are no conspiracies and there are also no coincidences. The people who are profiting hand over fist are also the ones who committed the election fraud and they are the ones who would like the small businesses shut down and enter the labor force for them.

3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.[a] Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!” 4 Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, 5 saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”— skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, 6 buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

There are Christians who are wailing, claiming it is unconstitutional to prevent churches from having meetings, they have been silenced. Some of the most vocal were silenced when they died. I see this shut down as the enforcement of the Sabbath. The festival of Trumpets is both a sabbath and a new moon. Right now everyone is asking when will this end. When will the stores reopen. When can we again have foreign trade and sweatshops operating. Christians need to take a stand for righteousness. They are bankrupting these small businesses while providing cash payment that will tide the laborers over. When they are finished there will be two classes of people, servants and masters.

7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done. 8 “Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? The whole land will rise like the Nile; it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt.

It is outrageous. The festival of trumpets announces the coming of the victorious king. You celebrate this with a burnt offering and you stop everything else to celebrate His coming. You think this attitude and behavior is not insulting to the Lord? You think He
will forget what you have done? This is the day we have been waiting and looking for and you insult the Lord? These are the Lord's people who are being cheated, usurped and abused. The Lord has sworn that He "will never forget".

9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

My best guess for this is something that happened this year. December 17th we had a total solar eclipse. This took place the last evening of the celebration of Hanukkah. Meanwhile we had a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that lasted until Christmas. Christmas is associated with singing and Christmas carols. In that day I think refers to the start of the Day of the Lord, a reference to Jesus coming in glory as the returning king to judge everyone according to what they have done.

11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. 13 “In that day “the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst. 14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria— who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives’— they will fall, never to rise again.”

Read Amos. He sees God’s word in current events and in History. He sees God speaking to the US, to the UK, to France, to Germany. Yet these people are staggering from sea to sea and can’t find the word of God? Did they think to read the Bible or has it been locked up so that they are unable to? The "days" are coming indicates that this term "day of the Lord" does not refer to a 24 hour day. Also it seems very strange that the days are coming at this point that there will be a famine for the word of God. Right now the word of God is everywhere. Go online and people are posting everywhere their Bible exposition, dreams, visions, prayers, meetings, etc. There are word studies, the internet is overflowing with the word of God like running water. But imagine what happens after the rapture. All those people sharing testimonies and posting the word will be gone. All those people who were rejecting what they were saying now all of a sudden want to hear what they have to say and yet they are gone.

 

[ZNP]

9 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Bring them down on the heads of all the people; those who are left I will kill with the sword. Not one will get away, none will escape.

How do you bring down the CCP? How do you bring down this treason? You can't just prosecute a couple of poll workers. You can't allow them to just pin this on Hunter Biden. You have to strike those at the very top. These corrupt traitors have confidence because they are under the headship of others. The Poll workers are under the Lieutenant governor, he is under the governor, they are under these multinational corporations like Walmart and Facebook who bankroll this, etc. You have to bring down the head, if Walmart, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter fall, then the NY Times, mainstream media will also fall, and then you can be sure many, many more legislators will fall, and you will see the entire house of cards fall.

2 Though they dig down to the depths below, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens above, from there I will bring them down. 3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, there I will hunt them down and seize them. Though they hide from my eyes at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them. 4 Though they are driven into exile by their enemies, there I will command the sword to slay them. “I will keep my eye on them for harm and not for good.”

Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Anytime you want to take revenge for some wrong or injustice, remember that, no one can repay like the Lord. Whatever you would do would be puny in comparison. So be at peace, love the Lord, do good to others, love your enemies and forgive and let God take care of the rest. I am so happy that I taught forensics for a couple of years. For years I tried to figure out how a crime could be committed without a trace (basic principle of forensics is that every contact leaves a trace) and we were unable to do it. We tested these theories. One man explained how to set up a game where people could lie or tell the truth, you wouldn't know which one, but by reading their face you would. We offered a $500 reward to anyone who could lie to us without us detecting it. A number of students took us up on this but no one got passed the second round (there were three rounds: 5$, 50$ and 500$). There is no way for the perpetrators to hide. Think about this, five poll workers caught on video tape committing fraud. You don't think they will exchange prison time for a deal and rat out those who organized this? A fraud on this scale costs money, lots of it, and you can trace the money. With NSA we have a copy of every phone call, text message and email. No one can hide.

5 The Lord, the Lord Almighty—he touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn; the whole land rises like the Nile, then sinks like the river of Egypt; 6 he builds his lofty palace[a] in the heavens and sets its foundation on the earth; he calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land—the Lord is his name. 7 “Are not you Israelites the same to me as the Cushites[c]?” declares the Lord. “Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor[d] and the Arameans from Kir? 8 “Surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord are on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not totally destroy the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord.

The Lord brought Noah through the flood and he brought Israel out of Egypt. He split the Red Sea and He also brought a deluge on the Earth. He is the sovereign Lord, trust Him. The Lord knows what is going on, He knows how to deal with this, and He is fully able to destroy the evil ones. Why doesn't He do it? Why does He allow this? Because He is training His army, Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren, Jesus is bringing us all into His glory so that we also could participate in this victory.

9 “For I will give the command, and I will shake the people of Israel among all the nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, and not a pebble will reach the ground.

There is not going to be any "collateral damage". When the Lord judges He is going to make sure He doesn't lose one person that is His, He treasures His people.

10 All the sinners among my people will die by the sword, all those who say, ‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’

This is similar to what John says in the book of Revelation that anyone who changes the words of that prophecy would be cursed. I have heard all kinds of human logic to explain away the prophecies concerning the Day of the Lord. You should be aware that the Lord knows this and has made it clear there is a curse for anyone who tries to nullify His word.

11 “In that day “I will restore David’s fallen shelter— I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins— and will rebuild it as it used to be, 12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name,[e]” declares the Lord, who will do these things.

I have worked in construction. I have been involved in demolition and I have been involved in repairing, restoring and building up. The Day of the Lord is a demolition of the satanic world followed by a restoration of the natural world, and a building up of the heavenly kingdom.

13 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, 14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.[f] “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

Both Joel and Amos talk about the “trickle down economy”. I love it. The tax structure was set up to favor the rich at the expense of the poor and it was justified as a “trickle down” economy. What we saw was the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. That is one of the causes for God’s judgement. But in the coming age we will have the real trickle down economy.