NORTHERN STYLE NEWSWATCH No. 32 CREDO
`For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem . . .'

The writings of the prophets of Israel are the usual hunting grounds of today's modern prophets in the Church, and they would find much to their liking in the series of `woes' being spoken by Isaiah to the obstinate people of the southern kingdom of Israel. However in the middle of the `woes' we hear the true heart-cry of those ancient prophets, which is sadly not always echoed in the words of those who speak today. One such heart-cry, from where comes the title of our Credo, is found in the Book of Isaiah: (Isaiah 30:18-21)

"Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
He rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for Him.

O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious He will be when you cry for help! As soon as He hears, He will answer you. Although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, `This is the way, walk in it'. "

Clearly speaking to those who are in Zion in Jerusalem, there is the suggestion in the very unusual Hebraic words of verse 20 that there had been teachers who had led the people into the deceptions of idolatry and ease in their `secure position as chosen of God', but that those false teachers would be removed and the True Teacher of Israel, God Himself, would reveal Himself in the midst of the times of `the bread of adversity and the water of affliction'! This is implied in the verse where Isaiah says, `Your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, `This is the way, walk in it'. As Isaiah's words have not yet been fulfilled - for we speak of the living Word of God and are aware of the changing time in world history in which we live - these verses would appear to be very pertinent to those who now journey on the parallel walk with the ancient people of God. We also need the reassurance that although there is the same `bread of adveristy and water of affliction' for the redeemed people of God in the Church, He will make Himself heard to those who are truly listening to Him and not to those teachers who have led His people into a falsely secure position.

With that in mind we would turn to an earlier prophet of Israel, to Amos, to seek understanding of what is being asked for by God through the outworking of today's adversity and affliction that Isaiah spoke of. Amos, a native of Judah, one of the `shepherds of Tekoa', is so often used by preachers as an example of how even a simple shepherd could be used by God, and whilst we have nothing to say against this message of humility we feel that such preachers miss what is being revealed here. Tekoa, a small village just to the south of Bethlehem, would have been the place where shepherds cared for the sheep destined for the sacrifices at the Temple. The shepherds caring for those special sheep were no ordinary shepherds, for just as the sheep were set aside and cared for to ensure their purity, without spot or wrinkle, so too the shepherds (an extension of the Temple sacrificial system) were set aside and would be aware of their responsibility regarding purity and righteousness. So it was with this understanding of the righteous requirements for sacrificial sheep that Amos spoke out his ringing denunciation of the idolatrous `worship' that was being conducted at Bethel where the northern tribes offered sacrifices to the golden calf god.

The ministry of Amos lasted for a short two years, but although short in time the whole of his words reveal the intensity of his righteous indignation at what was happening in the northern kingdom as well as in the southern kingdom of Judah, thus revealing the anger of a righteous God who nevertheless has an undying love for His people. This righteous anger, coupled with an undying love, is seen in these words of Amos, said to be spoken during a Jubilee year in the religious calendar of Levitical Law. Those who have studied this cycle of years will remember that fourty-nine years were counted as man counts years, and the fiftieth year was a year overlaid onto the fourty-ninth year of the old cycle and the first year of the new cycle. The fiftieth year can therefore be seen as `God's Year' - one not counted as man counts - when all things were to be returned to their original owners. Amos, the righteous shepherd of Tekoa, a shepherd herding the sacrificial sheep for the Temple sacrifices, spoke for `two years before the earthquake'. Because of the rejection of his message, many years later an even greater `earthquake' reverberated throughout the northern kingdom when the invading Assyrian armies scattered them among the nations, as well as touching the very heart of the southern kingdom of Judah - a foreshadowing of THE Righteous Shepherd who was also the Sacrificial Lamb who, because of the rejection of His message to the whole nation of Israel, became an `earthquake' that reverberated throughout the whole world, even to this day. A reading of the whole message of Amos will reveal that Amos knew and spoke of the religious requirements asked of Israel as a separated people of God. He spoke of the Patriarchs and of history pertinent only to Israel, for he spoke of the Exodus and the wanderings of the tribes in the Wilderness. Amos had an intimate knowledge of the Ceremonial Law and constantly referred to the sacrifices. This was no ordinary simple shepherd, as portrayed by modern-day preachers, but a man who knew the righteous requirements of God, and he spoke fearlessly against idolatrous worship - a foreshadowing of the Great Shepherd of Israel, the Messiah Jesus.

With this background in mind we would enter the prophecy of Amos, pausing briefly to look at what is recorded as the `First Woe' in Amos 5:18. Here we read of a warning against false security, against a presumption that all will be well because `we are the people of God':

"Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD!
To what end is it for you? "

Security based on self-righteousness is a deceptive delusion - as can be seen in the words of the `Second Woe:

"Woe to you who take your ease in Zion . . . "

Those caught in idolatrous worship at Bethel may well have been in the forefront of the thoughts and words of Amos, but for those who understand the whole Council of God there could be no ease for those in Zion who turned their backs on their idolatrous brothers in the southern Kingdom of Judah. God sees only ONE people finally gathered to Himself through His Son Jesus, and it is in verse 6 that we see the full burden of the heart of Amos, now extended to the people of the southern kingdom of Judah: (6:6)

"They drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with fine ointments,
but they are not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph. "

Many fine sermons have been preached on Joseph, but to understand the relationship of his story to the context of the `woes' of Amos we need to go back to the beginning, to Genesis, where is recorded God's foreknowledge of what would happen so many years later. Genesis 49 records the blessing of Jacob to his sons, and in verses 22-26 we come to Jacob's words over his son Joseph: (Genesis 49:22-26)

"Joseph is a fruitful bough,
even a fruitful bough by a well
whose branches run over the wall.
The archers have sorely grieved him,
and shot at him and hated him;
but his bow abode in strength,
and the arms of his hands were made strong
by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob,
(from thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel:)
Even by the God of your father, who shall help you,
and by the Almighty, who shall bless you
with the blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lie below,
blessings of the breast and womb.
The blessings of your father have prevailed
above the blessings of my progenitors
unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills;
they shall be on the head of Joseph,
on the crown of the head of him
that was separate from his brethren. "

There is, of course, a general understanding that this passage reveals the True Joseph, the Messiah of God, `a fruitful vine whose branches climb over a wall', reaching out eventually to the people of all the nations of the world with the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Verse 26 reveals the power of God where He says `the blessings of your fathers have prevailed', and centuries later the Apostle Paul, when writing to the Ephesian Church, revealed the purpose for that power: (Ephesians 1:19b-20 and 22-23)

" That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms . . . . . And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him who fills everything in every way. "

Here Paul reveals the fulness of God's purposes seen in the foreshadowing of His will in Jacob's blessing of his son Joseph (as recorded in verse 26 of Genesis 49 - and here we are using the KJV):

"The blessings of your father have prevailed
above the blessings of my progenitors (my ancestors)
unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills,
(created by time) they shall be on the head of Joseph,
on the crown of the head of him
that was separate (set apart - consecrated) from his brethren. "

We need not repeat the personal pain and distress revealed in the story of Joseph who was sold into slavery into Egypt for it is well-known and has been the subject of many sermons over the years, and that personal pain and distress is not the object of our search for the truth contained in the words of Amos, the shepherd of Tekoa. Genesis, God's Beginning, His Purpose, closes with the final acts in the life of Joseph Jacob's anointed, separated son, who earlier revealed his affliction, his distress caused by that separation which his brother's rejection of him had caused. It reveals Joseph's love for his family, that even in the distress carried in his heart over the long years he could cry out that `you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good'! God's Beginning, His Genesis, ends with a foreshadowing of God's blessing on His Son, which came to fulfilment through His affliction - His Separation

In our search we would move on to the Book of Deuteronomy, where we find in chapter 33 `(this is) the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced on the Israelites before his death' and in verses 13 and 16 we read:

"And of Joseph he said,
`May the LORD bless his land
with the precious dew from heaven above
and with the deep water that lies below . . . . . .
Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph,
and upon the top of him that was separated
(anointed - set apart) from his brethren'. "

The Book of Deuteronomy is a recitation, a reminder to the assembled people of Israel of all that had occurred over the past years, and here `in the desert east of the Jordan' those who were assembled - by the grace of God and in spite of the rebellion of their fathers - would cross over into the Land of Promise as One People, the assembled 12 tribes of Israel under the headship of Joshua. Moses, a man of the Law, had led this one people to the Land, but now only a man of Faith, Joshua, who had endured those terrible days in the Wilderness, could lead them into the fulness of God's promise.

The Books of the Law finish with the Blessing of Moses over the twelve tribes of Israel, and in verse 13 (Deuteronomy 33) we find again:

"And of Joseph he said,
`May the LORD bless his Land' "

This time the blessing had moved beyond Joseph to all his possessions, his land and all that the boundaries of his land encompassed! Only then do we hear again of Joseph's personal blessing: (Verse 16)

"Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph,
and upon the top of him that was separated from his brethren. "

This was the tenth and final blessing of Moses that ended the Books of the Law! The fulness of the purposes of God lay within those Books and revealed in the Affliction of Joseph - God's anointed, separated one - a foreshadowing of His Son, who was anointed, set apart for His purposes.

Surely now we can begin to understand the intensity of the words spoken by Amos, the shepherd of Tekoa. His cry, echoing the words of God, was against those who did not `grieve over the affliction of Joseph' as well as those who separated themselves in rebellion against the righteousness requirements of God to worship only at the place God had chosen to place His Name, in Zion in Jerusalem. The affliction of Joseph was NOT his physical pain of slavery in Egypt (real though it was) but the pain of separation from the family of Jacob, his father's house - which makes the words of Amos, spoken in a Jubilee Year, very pertinent today for the Church of the Firstborn, in the sense that all those who have accepted Jesus as Lord have been restored to their rightful owner and are His total possession, His land, upon whom the Blessing of God was spoken by Jacob and Moses, the Patriarchs. Pertinent too in the sense that if there is a time of change unfolding in our day `two years before the earthquake', the Affliction of our `Joseph', the Lord Jesus, should surely be the heartcry of all His people lest we too have to face `the bread of adversity and the waters of affliction' (spoken of for Israel) before the promises of God are fulfilled.

This is not a false unity of Anglicans uniting with Methodists uniting with Baptists uniting with Pentecostals et al! There must be an understanding of how such man-made systems have separated true believers over so many years ((each at ease within themselves with their part of the truth and hardened into denominational doctrine)) and a renunciation of those practices springing from repentance for our `ease in Zion' and for the idolatry of man-made structures! Only ONE nation entered into the Promised Land . . only ONE people are Jacob's Household, under the Headship of Jesus! Is it not therefore time to heed what is seen in the words of Amos when he spoke of the Affliction of Joseph over the separation of His people - speaking two years before the earthquake came, which when ignored led to the devastating fury of the Assyrian invasion: (Amos 9:8-10)

" Behold, the eyes of the LORD God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; except that I will not utterly destroy the House of Jacob, says the LORD. For I will command, and I will sift the House of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All the sinners of My People shall die by the sword, which say, `Evil shall not overtake nor prevent us'. "

The `Church' is surely being sifted and shaken as surely as is Israel, but in verse 11 we see the sure and certain knowledge that out of that sifting God will `raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen . . . and build it as in the days of old'. This is surely the heart-cry of the love of God in the midst of the `woes' that are being seen in the events of today, and it will also be the heart-cry of those who know His will!

" Behold, the days come,' says the LORD, `that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows the seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, (a captivity to Himself) and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them in their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them,' says the LORD. " Amos 9:13-15

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