Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 210 Treasures From The Prophets - 8 To subscribe just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org [Apologies for all the emails yesterday. I sent Treasures From The Prophets 7 because it was yesterdays devotional. I also re-sent no.5 as it did not go out properly the first time and many did not get it. However I must have hit the send button too many times when I sent no5 and you got three copies. Ooops. Sorry about that.] Amos 5:21-24 LITV I hate, I despise your feast days; and I will not delight in your solemn assemblies. (22) Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not be pleased; nor will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals. (23) Take away from Me the noise of your songs; and I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. (24) But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Worship without discipleship is an irritation to God. A couple of days ago we saw that God's idea of the good life was revealed in Micah 6: "(8) He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does Jehovah require of you but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?" Then we noted the priority of obedience over worship - though worship is commanded and is good. Both Micah and Amos deal with the problem of religious hypocrisy - the fake outward performance, with the sacrifices, offerings and rituals merely cloaking disobedient hearts and defective lifestyles. These prophets tell us that the Christian community must be a place of justice and righteousness and mercy and humility. A church riddled with favoritism towards the rich, despising of the poor, haughtiness, pride and harshness of spirit cannot please God no matter how good the organist is or how beautifully the songs are sung. God is watching us with loving interest. He probes our motives and our free choices. He seeks people who love the truth and lead lives of mercy and justice and humility. But these words seem like political catch-phrases, "motherhood and apple pie" clichés. What do they really mean? Justice is the objective application of God's will to daily life without fear or favor. Justice requires a steady, objective trained mind that can discern between good and evil and a heart with the courage to follow that discernment and the strength to put it into action. There are three things that are the opposites of justice - perjury, favoritism and oppression. Perjury is bearing false witness against one's neighbor and is a corruption of the evidence, favoritism is when the judge is biased to act for one party over another and is a corruption of the objectivity of the judiciary, and oppression is when the judge is subject to no-one and does what he or she wants and this is a corruption of the power of the law itself. A close cousin to injustice is sentimentality - where emotion sways judgment and the evidence is not examined rigorously if at all. On the other hand the Christian mind, the renewed mind, the mind of Christ - is objective, clear, pure, wise, discerning and always fair. The Christian community, if it is to "let justice roll down like waters" must train its leaders to possess this clear and objective, just and truly biblical mindset. The other thing that Amos mentions is righteousness. This is simply living rightly, living in an upright fashion. The opposites of righteousness are crookedness, deviousness, criminality, unethical behavior, and a cunning and warped disposition. When the ends justify the means abominations abound. Righteousness means treating others rightly. Paying fair ages, helping the poor, being considerate to others, doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Righteousness is the straight stick, the rod, the biblical image of the tree growing straight and strong. Righteousness is living and growing straight upward. Righteousness is often neglected in the name of the budget. When churches pay low wages or are inconsiderate to their staff they are often being unrighteous. Righteousness and conscientiousness are close cousins. Righteousness needs careful application in order to flourish. Slip-shod Christianity breeds many little injustices that rankle people and destroy fellowship. True Christian discipleship involves having a clear objective mind that knows the good and judges rightly and which then applies this good diligently and carefully in all the circumstances of everyday life so that others are treated fairly and well and God is glorified. When God sees justice and righteousness He is pleased. However nothing can please Him when they are absent and solemn assemblies and sacrifices and offerings become merely irritations to God: "I hate, I despise your feast days; and I will not delight in your solemn assemblies. (22) Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not be pleased; nor will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals. (23) Take away from Me the noise of your songs; and I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. " God's disgust at their hollow and hypocritical worship rebukes the pagan notion that the mere act of worship placates God by flattering Him or emotionally manipulating Him in some way. Worship is not mechanical, God is not pleased by a mere incantation or operation, words said in the right way, in the right place at the right time. God sees all and desires justice. Worship does not placate God, repentance and obedience in faith does. Worship without discipleship is an irritation to God. We are not called to be perfect religious performers but rather to be holy and blameless saints. Sanctification is more important than incantation. When church loses its ethical bearings it also loses the approval of God. Righteousness, justice, mercy and humility are foundational to God being pleased with our lives. In fact Jesus kept telling the Pharisees that justice and mercy were more necessary than anything else: Mat 9:13 But going, learn what this is, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." For I did not come to call righteous ones, but sinners to repentance. Mat 12:7 But if you had known what this is, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice," you would not have condemned the guiltless. Hos. 6:6 The verse that Jesus keeps quoting is from Hosea 6:6 "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. " The prophets are unanimous on this - how you live is more important than what you sing or what you put in the plate. The color of the hymnal and the raising of hands are minor matters. Truth, justice, righteousness, mercy, love and humility are major matters. A convert is not fully a Christian until they are a disciple who has been taught to obey "all that I commanded you" - including Jesus' teaching on love, righteousness and mercy. Every Christian must have some signs of justice, righteousness, mercy and humility in their lives. Jesus Christ is fair and just and wise and good - and we should be so too. Blessings, John Edmiston Were you blessed by Eternity Daily Bible Study? To subscribe just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org Visit the Eternity Daily Bible Study Archives - http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ Study at the Asian Internet Bible Institute- Free online non-formal, in-service, bible and ministry training: http://www.aibi.ph