This is Daniel Whyte III president of Gospel Light Society International with The Scripture & the Sense Podcast #421, where I read the Word of God and give the sense of it based on an authoritative commentary source such as the Bible Knowledge Commentary or Matthew Henry Commentary. This podcast is based upon Nehemiah 8:8 where it says Ezra and the Levites “read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” The aim of this podcast is that through the simple reading of the Word of God and the giving of the sense of it, the church would be revived and the world would be awakened.
Today we are reading Amos 2:6.
6 Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
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That was Amos 2:6. Now here is the sense of it.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary reads:
Having shown that the Lord is sovereign over the universe and holds all nations accountable for their rebellion against Him, Amos now addressed the Northern tribes of Israel. His message was that God would also judge them, because they had broken His covenant, despite His gracious acts on their behalf. Israel had violated the Mosaic Covenant in several ways, including social injustice, legal perversion, sexual sin, abuse of collateral, and idolatry. The first charge against the Israelites is that they callously sold into slavery the poor who could not pay their debts. Honest people (the righteous) who could be trusted to repay eventually, were sold for the silver they owed. The desperately poor (the needy) were enslaved because they could not pay back the insignificant sum they owed for a pair of sandals. These sandals might refer to the custom of giving one’s sandals as a kind of mortgage deed or title to confirm the legal transfer of land. The meaning would then be that the poor were being sold for either money or land. Such hardheartedness against Israel’s own people, not against a foreign nation, was rebellion against God’s covenant which called for generosity and openhandedness toward the poor.
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Thank you for listening to the Scripture & The Sense Podcast. Remember to read the Word of God each and every day and pray without ceasing to God for wisdom to understand it and apply it to your life. Most importantly, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Please stay tuned for a complete presentation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ so that you can get your soul saved from Hell to that wonderful place called Heaven when you die. May God bless you and keep you is my prayer.
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