Amos, Pt. 4: Lessons From the Judgments of God

[0:00] So we're studying this minor prophet of Amos. We're studying to begin the words of Amos to the six Gentile nations that surround Israel.

[0:12] ! So this is the area. These are the nations that he's addressing.

[0:41] And before he directs his preaching to Israel and really targets and hones in on them, he's going to say a few words to the others. And he does it in each case in the same, very much the same format.

[0:54] For instance, in verse 3, Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Damascus, and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. And then he gives the accusation of what they're guilty of, followed by the judgment.

[1:06] And in this case, verses 4 and verse 5. I'll send a fire, I'll break also the bar, and cut off the inhabitant, etc. And he continues that same format for all six of these.

[1:16] We've studied through that. We've studied their accusations that God has against them. And then we've also considered the judgment that he has for them and how very much, very similar each case.

[1:27] I'll kindle a fire in the wall of this case or that place or this city or that location. So I looked at a few things of that nature the last couple weeks. Now one thing I pointed out is that these words cannot be taken strictly for the past only, and they cannot be taken strictly for the future.

[1:47] And if you do either of those two, then you're going to make a mistake, and the Bible is not going to make sense, or it's not going to be able to speak clearly to all that God has intended His Word to address.

[1:58] It does have a historical function where Amos preached at them and where some of these things, if not all of them, were fulfilled in their day. And yet at the same time, based off chapter 1 and verse 2, that context is very plainly the second coming of Christ, as we looked at with the previous prophet Joel chapter 3 and verse 16 and saw how that is just a strong knot tied together, scripture with scripture, that while Amos is speaking and charging them for their sins and addressing them, and God does do some, historically does do some things in these different localities, there is also on top of that, in addition to His words, a future application to the second coming of Jesus Christ where judgment will be dealt out once again, and this time with a greater measure to these kingdoms and nations, the enemies of Israel.

[2:53] And so the concept of this double application to the historical past as well as to the prophetic future, that's not a hard concept to receive when you consider the prophecies of Jesus Christ, how the Old Testament passages had words to say with historical context and content to a person in their life, and yet in the future, it also references or prophesies of Jesus Christ.

[3:19] Do you remember the one that was Ahithophel, David's counselor and his friend that lifted up his heel against him? And then it turns out that's a prophecy of Judas Iscariot. And yet historically, it fit for that man in that time and what he did to David, his friend.

[3:35] And so the scripture can say the same thing with the same words and be pointing in two different directions, and that's the case with these prophets in a lot of times. So we ended last week by going back over the first chapter and studying some of the outstanding remarks and points in the preaching of Amos, some things that are there for a reason, some things that we can learn from.

[3:57] For instance, we ended in verse 8 looking at these Philistine cities and discussing how originally when they came into that land under Joshua, that those cities were given to Judah.

[4:11] They were part of the inheritance of Judah, and yet the Philistines remained in those cities. They were supposed to be driven out, yet they weren't, and they became perpetual enemies of Israel. In Samuel's day, I showed you a verse.

[4:24] I don't recall the reference. It's 1 Samuel, early in 1 Samuel, maybe 7, where he sets up the monument, and it says that he subdued them in the days of Samuel.

[4:35] And he mentioned some of these cities, Ekron and Gath, and her suburbs are all the way to the coast thereof, that they restored those cities back to Israel. Those are Philistine cities in the red portion there that were restored back to Israel.

[4:49] And yet then it says that a little bit later that Saul, King Saul that followed, had sore war with the Philistines all the days of his life. And so they didn't go anywhere, and they kept continuing.

[5:01] The point we made last, when we closed, was when God comes into your heart, into your life, and he subdues, it's supposed to be subdued to Christ, that heart and that life.

[5:12] And yet there's some things, some victories that he gives you, and then there's some sins that remain that are your job to fight, and you're to learn how to fight the flesh. The Bible says to war, let me think of how that verse goes.

[5:27] To war against, or no, fleshly lust war against the soul. That's the verse I'm trying to think of. But we are to, I'm getting two passages mixed up, and I know it.

[5:41] What's the one in Galatians? The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. I want the verse before that. It's simple. 5.16, is it?

[5:53] It's just eluding me. Completely gone. Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These two are contrary to one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would.

[6:06] Okay, we got it back. But the picture there is inside that land, that heart of yours, was a lot of sin. And a lot of uncircumcised Canaanites and Philistines worshiping their idols, and doing what they wanted to do.

[6:18] And when God brings, comes in and puts his name there, he wants that stuff out. And it's your job to do it. And what we learned last week, was what you don't remove, what God says to get out, what you don't remove, is going to come back to hurt you.

[6:33] It will absolutely have consequences in this life. Early on, in the times of the judges, with Samson, or later on, in the kingdom of Saul, all the way into the book of Amos, they're still got problems, with those Philistines.

[6:46] And so you will suffer, and there will be consequences. So today, let's continue forward, and just kind of work our way, through chapter one, see if we can't, learn some more things, more lessons out of this book.

[6:57] One thing to point out, this is not something, we'll spend any time on. Verse number nine, you'll see at the very end, of that verse, it says, remember not the brotherly covenant. He's talking to Tyrus.

[7:10] They delivered up the whole captivity, to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant. I, for the life of me, don't understand, what the brotherly covenant is, in regard to Tyrus.

[7:21] What everybody says it is, or suggests it is, is that, when King David, had a relationship, with the king of Tyre, his name was Hiram, and he had a good relationship, with him, and they had a business relationship, and that relationship, continued to, King David's son Solomon, and, maybe that's, kind of this covenant, that they had, and calling themselves brotherly, I don't know, but, it's a hard one, to really figure out, or understand.

[7:45] I do see Edom in there, and we're going to get to that, in verse 11, so I don't know, that that really has anything, to do with, what comes up with Edom, and a brotherly covenant, but, you could look into that one, on your own, maybe you could turn something up, but let's look at verse 11 now, verse 11 says, thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions, of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away, the punishment thereof, what is it that Edom did, because he did pursue his brother, with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger, did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath, forever.

[8:23] Look how descriptive, these words are, toward Edom, pursuing his brother, with the sword, he wants to kill him, he wants to wipe him, off the face of the earth, he's so filled, with rage, and anger, and wrath, it says, he did cast off, all pity, not a shred of pity, in Edom, as he pursues his brother, he wants to get back, at him so bad, he did, his anger did tear, it says, perpetually, notice that word, that's ongoing, into the future, and he did, and he kept his wrath, there's another word, forever, forever, so, let's consider something, about Edom, now, these accusations, of extreme hatred, and violence, toward somebody, who is his brother, he's pursuing his brother, with the sword, who is Edom's brother, like who exactly, is the brother, of Edom, well, I don't, I don't guess, that every one of you, in here knows, so we're going to let, the Bible teach us this, come back to Genesis 25, and let's, start taking some scripture, and, and I'll show you, that this thing is, it's pretty important, to God, and it carries on, a lot more, than you probably realize,

[9:35] Genesis 25, remember two brothers, Jacob, and Esau, in verse 27, the boys grew, and Esau, was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents, and Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat, of his venison, but Rebecca loved Jacob, Jacob, sawed pottage, and Esau came from the field, because he was faint, Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint, therefore, was his name called, Edom, so who is Edom, it's Esau, now watch this, as we go forward, chapter, let's see, chapter 27, come to chapter 27, you know what Jacob did, the supplanter, Jacob, he deceived his father, and he stole, as we call it, he stole, away from him, the blessing, and in chapter 27, Esau's response, was he hated Jacob, in verse 41,

[10:38] Esau hated Jacob, because of the blessing, wherewith his father, blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning, for my father, are at hand, then will I slay, my brother, Jacob, Esau threatening, and desiring in his heart, to murder, his brother, Jacob, and that same hatred, is perpetuated, throughout generations, these two brothers, come to chapter 36, these two brothers, became two kingdoms, two nations, the Edomites, and the Israelites, Esau is Edom, and Jacob's name, God changed to Israel, and so the Edomites, versus the Israelites, going into the future, look at chapter 36, and I'm just going to point this out, kind of a, to me it's a little bit of an oddity, but I think there's a purpose for this, verse number one says, these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom, in case you forgot, who is Edom, look at verse number eight, thus dwelt Esau, in Mount Seir,

[11:45] Esau is Edom, is it odd, that he says it twice, in the same chapter, well what if he says it three times, look at verse 19, these are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their dukes, and just for one more, the very last verse of the chapter, don't read the names, but look at the last phrase of this, he is Esau, the father of the Edomites, and four times, and this little passage, describing some names, and some generations, it's very plain, it just, why does it reiterate this, why is it shoving this in our face, so strongly, on my take, it may not be the only take, but one thing is that the Bible, it has a way of laying groundwork, of emphasizing something, over and over again, something so small and subtle, but it's emphasizing it, because it's going to prepare the mind, for understanding, all the future conflicts, that are going to come down the road, what is the Bible, identifying the source, of some major, some ongoing struggles, that Israel is going to have, or the struggles between these two, come to Numbers chapter 20, after Israel comes out of Egypt, and they're in the wilderness, they're coming up, past his brother's country,

[13:08] Numbers chapter 20, and let's start in verse 14, Moses sent messengers from Kadesh, unto the king of Edom, thus saith thy brother Israel, thou knowest all the church of Eil, that hath befallen us, how our fathers are going to go in, and tell them about the history, and he tells us where, he says we're in Kadesh, verse 17, let us pass I pray thee, through thy country, we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water, or the wells, we will go by the king's highway, we will not turn to the right hand, nor to the left, till we have passed thy borders, and Edom said unto him, thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee, with the sword, the children of Israel said unto him, we'll go by the highway, and if my cattle drink of thy water, then we'll pay for it, I will only doing, without doing anything else, go through on my feet, and he said, thou shalt not go through, and Edom came out against him, with much people, and with a strong hand, thus Edom refused to give Israel, passage through his border, wherefore Israel turned away from him, and they took a long way around, the land of Edom, and they were discouraged, because of that way, now that's the relationship, the tension has never ceased, between the two, throughout history, of the kings of Israel, there's battles with the Edomites, and they're just consistently present, one time David went down, and slew all the males, things just get worse, worse and worse, and I want to take you, and fast forward, way up ahead, some hundreds of years, but look at, look at, back to Amos, and then find the very next book,

[14:52] Obadiah, giving you a little background, a little understanding, of why this accusation, and then this judgment, against Edom, and why the wording, of him, pursuing his brother, with the sword, what is that exactly, well what we're about to read, Obadiah preached, a hundred years, before Amos preached, so this has already, taken place, and Obadiah had some things, to say against Edom, I'll start in verse one, the vision of Obadiah, thus saith the Lord God, concerning Edom, we've heard a rumor, from the Lord, and an ambassador, sent among the heathen, arise ye, and let us rise up, against her in battle, behold I have made thee, small among the heathen, thou art greatly despised, that's what God's saying, I've did to you, and he's going to, if you read through, the rest of it, you think you lifted yourself up, I put you down, and now just for sake of time, skip ahead to verse number 10, and notice why, the reasoning, for thy violence, against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off forever, notice the word forever, that was a word, that we read in Amos, when he said, that he kept his wrath forever, now there's a point to this, so follow along, verse 11, in the day that thou stoodest, on the other side, in the day that the strangers, carried away captive, his forces, and foreigners, entered into his gates, and cast lots, upon Jerusalem, even thou, wast as one of them, but thou shouldest not, have looked, looked on the day, of thy brother, in the day, when he became a stranger, neither shouldest thou, have rejoiced, of the children of Judah, in the day, of their destruction, neither shouldest thou, have spoken proudly, in the day of distress, thou shouldest not, have entered into the gate, of my people, in the day, of their calamity, yea, thou shouldest not, have looked on their affliction, in the day, of their calamity, nor have laid hands, on their substance, in the day, of their calamity, neither shouldest thou, have stood in the crossway, to do what, to cut off those of his, that did escape, neither shouldest thou, have delivered up, those of his, that did remain, in the day of distress.

[17:11] So what the Lord did was he came against his people, Israel, and sent them into captivity, and yet, and he sent enemies against them. This isn't fully the captivity here unless it's prophetically, but he's saying, you, Edom, were there as one of their enemies.

[17:27] And when the one escaped, you stuck your nose in there and took a hold of them yourselves or pointed them out and wouldn't let my people escape. And so he threatens them, verse 15, the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen, as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee.

[17:43] Thy reward shall return upon thine own head. And he has nothing but threats and damage and destruction for Edom. Now I want to take you to one more place.

[17:55] This is Obadiah, a hundred years before Amos. Now we're going to go past Amos, 200 years into the future, to Ezekiel and find Ezekiel back to your left and find chapter 35.

[18:18] Ezekiel 35. And read, look how this same stuff.

[18:28] Verse 1. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and say unto it, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.

[18:49] I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, because thou hast had a perpetual hatred. That's exactly what the problem was that Amos preached.

[19:03] And has shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end. Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee, sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee, and I will make Mount Seir most desolate.

[19:26] And off he goes, threatening the Edomites and their land. So, God accuses Edom of harboring a perpetual hatred against his brother Israel, and acting upon that at any opportunity.

[19:44] So, come back to Amos here, and, well, we're going to get Malachi. If you want to get that, get that too. Get Malachi. Last one of the Old Testament. Chapter 1. This kind of attitude that Edom is showing and displaying toward his brother Israel, hating a brother forever, this kind of attitude cannot be overlooked by God.

[20:08] Absolutely not. When God executes judgment upon someone deserving, He's never unhinged. He's always controlled. He always remembers mercy.

[20:20] The Bible says He delights in mercy. And in other places, it says He doth not keep His anger forever. But Edom is acting outside of any kind of way that God would ever allow or accept.

[20:35] The Edomites retained their hatred for the Jews. Therefore, God is going to reward them justly. Let me read you just a quick verse out of Psalm 18 to show you the mind of God toward this.

[20:47] In Psalm 18, verses 25 and 26, with the merciful, thou wilt show thyself merciful. With an upright man, thou wilt show thyself upright.

[21:00] With the pure, thou wilt show thyself pure. And with the froward, thou wilt show thyself froward. For thou wilt save the afflicted people, will bring down high looks.

[21:11] And on He goes. And so God is going to deal with Edom according to His own attitude, His own heart, His own works. He wouldn't keep His, He wouldn't show pity.

[21:25] He would cast off all pity, would He? Keep, His anger tear perpetually? Keep His wrath forever? Well, then God's got something for Him. Look at Malachi 1, verse 1.

[21:37] The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord?

[21:49] Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places.

[22:03] Thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down. And they shall call them the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. Your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel.

[22:18] God is putting His stamp on that people and saying, No, they're not coming back. I'm going to see to it perpetually, forever. I'm going to put them down and put them down and put them down.

[22:30] Now, that's God treating Edom the way He treated His brother Israel. So now what can we, this is the historical, this is what's happening in Amos, but what can we take home from this?

[22:42] There's something for us. Come and take your Bible now and go to two places. Colossians 3 and 1 John 2. After all of that, surely it has some significance to the Christian life.

[23:04] God cannot overlook that hatred. God delights in mercy. He delights in compassion. He does not keep His anger forever. And when somebody does, He's going to treat them accordingly and act according to their wrath and according to their anger.

[23:22] So Colossians chapter 3. This is the command, the Christian command in verse 12. Put on therefore, put on like garments.

[23:39] Every one of you got dressed this morning and you changed your clothes throughout the day. And so before you come to church, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies.

[23:54] You feel like you're wearing any of that tonight when you walked in? Bowels of mercies? You've got mercy for everybody in your life. Put on kindness.

[24:07] Put on humbleness of mind. Put on meekness. Long suffering. You feel like you're wearing any of these layers tonight?

[24:18] Verse 13. Forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

[24:32] And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And if you can layer up in all of those things, verse 15, let the peace of God rule in your hearts.

[24:45] you will have the peace of God in your hearts if you can be humble toward your brethren and full of mercy and forbearing them and forgiving them.

[24:58] That's the only way you're going to have peace in your heart. You don't get to say, yeah, but you don't know what they did. As soon as you start saying that, as soon as you start throwing that arrow, giving yourself an excuse to not be merciful and not be forbearing and forgiving, look at 1 John chapter 2.

[25:16] Look what you are in. You're in darkness. 1 John chapter 2 in verse number 9, He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now.

[25:33] He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him, but he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth.

[25:44] Goeth why? Because that darkness, that darkness, singular, that darkness of hating his brother, whatever that thing is that you would say, yeah, but you don't know, yeah, but he, yeah, but she, as soon as you start with that excuse, that's darkness that you're walking in and that's what's blinding your eyes, keeping you from loving your brother.

[26:06] Look at chapter 3. In verse 14, we know that we have passed from death unto life, and I might even say darkness unto light, because we love the brethren.

[26:22] He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Now, to apply this to you and I, we've got two natures in us, the old man and the new man, and in that old man is a whole lot of things, including a murderer that hates his brother, and a whole lot of other ugly things, and in the new man is light, the old man is darkness, and in the old man is hatred, and revelings, and such like, and the new man's a different kind of guy.

[26:59] The new man's going to react and live according to God. He's going to obey the word of God and show kindness and humbleness of mind and meekness and long-suffering. The flesh is not.

[27:10] You can't fix the brethren, and you can't change the brethren, but what you can do and what I can do is learn to love them and to practice Colossians 3 on the brethren.

[27:26] You can do your best to exercise humility and forbearance and forgiveness and above all these, charity. You can't fix them, you can't change them, you can't make them do this and do that, but you sure can show the love of Jesus Christ.

[27:42] I believe it's impossible to get along with everybody in the earth all the time because we're just human beings. until God gets that human nature out of us, we're just stuck with it and it's going to be impossible.

[27:57] But as a child of God with a new nature and a spirit inside of you, you can't be right with God and despise your brother or hate your brother or speak evil against your brother because that's the kind of darkness that'll be to your own destruction like what we're studying back in Amos.

[28:19] Now come back there and let's read again that verse, verse 11, the problem God has with Edom, Amos chapter 1, verse 11, is that because he did pursue his brother with the sword and did cast off all pity and his anger did tear perpetually and he kept his wrath forever.

[28:43] God cannot overlook that and he will not. and so he's going to come at Edom and the application is to consider your relationships in your life with your brothers and sisters in Christ especially and to consider if you're walking in darkness and if there's any of that spirit or attitude of Edom inside of you, God help you to get it out and to make it right.

[29:10] Let's look at one more thing before we take off here. Amos chapter 1 and look down at verse number 13. Now he moves on from Edom to Ammon and over there on that map Ammon would probably, I can't tell if it's yellow, it looks yellow to me from here, be below that bluish color would be Ammon so they sit due east of the kingdom of Israel and notice now in verse 13, thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of the children of Ammon and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead that they might enlarge their border.

[29:49] That's what they did. Gilead. Gilead. We've already read something about Gilead. That was back earlier in chapter 1 in verse 3. Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Damascus for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.

[30:09] Now this Damascus, that's Syria to the very top there. It looks like it's light blue from this side. I don't know what color that is. I thought it was a little, whatever that is. The color on the top to the right, that would be the Syria and below that would be Ammon.

[30:26] And that little portion of land right on this side of the Jordan River to the top up in there would be Gilead. Do you remember where and why there's Israelites in Gilead?

[30:41] Do you remember when they came into the land? Before they got into the land, the Reubenites and the half tribe of Manasseh, who's the other one?

[30:53] Gad, yeah, Gad. The Gadites, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half of the tribe of Manasseh said, this is a place for cattle and thy servants have much cattle.

[31:05] And they made a decision and they pressed Moses saying, we want to stay here and we'll go fight the battles of the lower bow. This is where we want to inherit our portion. So two and a half tribes stayed over there on that side of the Jordan River.

[31:20] It was not God's desire or plan in leading them through and conquering that land of Canaan to leave two and a half of his tribes of his people over there, but he allowed it, didn't he?

[31:32] But it surely wasn't his doing. It wasn't his idea. It wasn't in the mind of God. It was in their mind. Why did it get in their mind? Because they saw and they said, this is good for cattle. We've got cattle.

[31:43] This just makes sense. So we should do this. And that's what they did. And the Lord allowed them to do it. Now before we quit, we're going to quit with this, but go to Proverbs chapter 3.

[32:00] Proverbs chapter 3. Gilead gets attacked by the enemies to the north, Syria. Gilead gets attacked by their enemies to the east, Ammon.

[32:13] And they would have had that Jordan River as a natural border. Proverbs chapter 3. But my, the trouble that they put themselves in, the harm's way they put themselves in because they chose to do something that was not God's, you might call it, his perfect will.

[32:33] If you like the terminology, his permissive will. But they did it because it made sense to them. It was their own reasoning. Chapter 3 and verse number 5.

[32:45] Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. And you should underline and figure this last part out. Lean not unto thine own understanding.

[32:58] that's Reuben and Gad and half of Manasseh. It makes sense to us to do this. And it wasn't their women that were being ripped up with child.

[33:10] It wasn't their grandbabies. It was down the road. But they faced it. It was their own flesh and blood down the road that had to face the consequence for their decisions there.

[33:21] Verse 6. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Verse 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes.

[33:35] Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord. And there's blessing that's coming out of the rest of this.

[33:47] But those two and a half tribes said, but we think this is a good idea. And God allowed him to do it. And it was blessed in the time and in the moment but down the road when the attacks started coming you can read if you want to write down a reference 2 Kings 10 verses 32 and 33 that's where the attacks started coming.

[34:09] Before they ever got into the land they got him over there in Gilead. You may remember in 1 Samuel 11 when Saul they were making him to be the king. Do you remember that somebody came down I think it was Nahash the Ammonite came down to Jabesh Gilead.

[34:25] That was a town right up there in that region of Gilead. And he came up to that town and said I'm taking this back and here's what we're going to do and you're going to be our servants and I'm going to give you 7 days respite but I'm going to pluck out the right eye of all your men and you're going to be our servants.

[34:41] That's the Ammonites what they wanted to do to God's people because they were in Gilead. And so just because God allows you to take a job or to marry somebody or to make a decision or to do something it doesn't mean that it's right or it doesn't mean that it's what he desires for you.

[35:03] You're going to have to learn if you haven't already to acknowledge him and allow him to direct thy paths and to be patient and not lean on your own understanding and not be wise in your own eyes and decide that this is good for me because it makes sense to me because it may not be what the Lord has for you and he may allow it and you can get away with it for a time but surely there's going to be problems and you're going to have to walk so close to God to keep those problems from happening that eventually more than likely they'll pop up.

[35:42] So let that be an admonition to you from seeing how Gilead's coming from Syria Gilead's getting attacked from Syria getting attacked from Ammon and God's got to judge him for it because he came after his people but in reality that wasn't their spot to be in in the first place so we'll dismiss with that men we'll see you Saturday night at 7 o'clock for a prayer meeting and so let's be dismissed with prayer.

[36:03] Father it's our privilege to be able to come together and study the word of God thank you for this King James Bible thank you for every perfect word in it help us to understand it and help us to apply it and to learn from it and to make wise decisions to learn to trust you and to wait on your moving hand and your wisdom from your word and God give us discernment in the decisions we make whether they're big or small help us God to learn that lesson of not being wise in our own eyes teach us to fear you and to trust you and to lean on you and to wait upon you thank you for the truth of the scriptures may it help us and change us and make us more like the Lord Jesus Christ and it's in his name we ask it Amen Amen You're dismissed