Solomon made a statement in
Ecclesiates 1:4-11
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
There is nothing in the world that has not already happened, been seen, or been created; things exist now as they always have..
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be among those who come after.
The Scriptures are filled with our Heavenly Fathers patterns and the more we read, the more they will become apparent to us. There are His patterns and Ways and those of humans too. We are all familiar with the quote attributed to George Santayana 1863-1952.
Many say that the Old Testament is not relevant today or even necessary for New Testament believers however there is so much we miss, ignore and dismiss as irrelevant. Sadly then these statements become a reality in our own generation when we ignore, deny and dismiss the signs and signals from the Lord.
We are reminded through Amos 3:7 surely the Lord will tell His prophets..
In both Amos 2:12 and Isaiah 5:1-7; He warns His children His people, Israel, yelling them that He does not act without speaking beforehand of His plans. This is our Fathers’ pattern,
the warning always precedes His actions.
As His plans unfold and when the warning to repent/turn around, falls on deaf ears and stubborn hearts and those committing spiritual adultery with foreign gods and idols then; events unfold according to His warning.
The people silenced the prophets and in Amos 2:12 rejected his message because they did not want to hear it or change their lifestyle. Yeshua/Jesus told those in His day that the sign of the prophet Jonah was all that wicked and adulterous generation would get! Jonahs sign was primarily to warn the people of Nineveh to repent which they did, however the same choice was given through both John the Baptist and Yeshua/Jesus and is still the same message and choice today… Is history repeating itself again in these days in which we are living?
Amos was a farmer, a shepherd and also looked after sycamore fig trees in Tekoa, which was situated a little south of Bethlehem in Judea. Amos was a contemporary of Isaiah, Micah and Hosea in 750B.C. approx.. 3 years before the Assyrians first invasion of Northern Israel.
The warning in Amos 3:7 was of the coming captivity which took the invading Assyrians 28 years to conquer the whole of Israel.
Before 740 Israel was at the height of its prosperity and had successfully reclaimed all the land previously lost going back to the days of David and Solomon. However the divide between rich and poor was wider than ever the landowners were rich and the workers poor. Many were producing crops for export rather than to feed their own families because much of what was grown was sold as export goods. Amos was well aware of the peoples sufferings and when God gave him a vision, he took the message to the rich and powerful landowners, warning them of the coming natural disasters and subsequent foreign invasion and conquest by other nations.
God gave Amos a vision of an earthquake and because it happened 2 years after his warning, it gave his words some credibility; this resulted in some people becoming his disciples who also spread his message. This sadly had little effect on the nation, as at that time, the Assyrians had retreated for a season and everything appeared fine because financial prosperity and the economy were booming. Only a few had ‘ears to hear’ and believed the message of the prophets; these people became ‘the remnant’, the ones to whom God gave a song which was recorded in Isaiah 5:1-7.
The message the prophets faithfully preached was a 3 fold one.
The 1st part was against the religious leaders of the day, who became richer at the expense of the poor who just became poorer.
The 2nd was concerning the lack of justice towards those who were doing the right thing by trying to help the innocent and poor, and those who were unable to help themselves. These people who were trying to help, were beaten, tortured and imprisoned because they were a threat to the rich and powerful.
The third part of the message pointed at the religious rituals and traditions that were only trying to win favor with God, trying to get something from Him for personal gain; instead of seeking the Fathers’ heart for Who He is.
The text in
2:13 is a reference to farming and agriculture.
13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
He was saying that the rejection of His message to both His obedient and dedicated servants and to Himself, was like a cart pressed down because it was full of sheaves.
A word for
sheaves
in hebrew is
‘amar
which has a double meaning.
It refers to:
the grain stalks tied together
and it is also used to describe:
those who are selfseeking or manipulative!
Strong’s Hebrew: 6014
עמר (amar) – merchandise, sheaves
to bind sheaves a. (Piel) to gather
2. to manipulate, deal tyrannically with a.
(Hithpael) to treat as a slave
amar: sheaves
Original Word: עָמַר
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: amar
Phonetic Spelling: (aw-mar’)
Definition: to bind sheaves
Strong’s Hebrew: 6014. עָמַר (amar) — sheaves
A primitive root; properly, apparently to heap;
figuratively, to chastise (as if piling blows);
specifically (as denominative from omer) to gather grain — bind sheaves, make merchandise of
In the Hebrew language one of the words for:
pressed
is ma’aq
מָעַךְ
4600 maak: to press, squeeze
Original Word: מָעַךְ
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: maak
Phonetic Spelling: maw-ak’
Definition: to press, squeeze, bruised, stuck, be pressed
A primitive root; to press, i.e.
To pierce, – bruised, stuck, be pressed.
Seems the word is spelled: maak, maaq and maac..
but all infer an action that hurts and is painful.
Ma’ac Meaning in Bible – Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon
Definition: to reject, despise, refuse
(Qal) to reject, refuse ; to despise
(Niphal) to be rejected (Niphal) to flow, run
this could suggest the idea of being burdened with pain. It would seem that God was saying that: having His prophets message rejected by those who were self seeking had burdened His heart down with pain. This may sound too human a trait and yet we read of Yeshua/Jesus weeping over Jerusalem/Yerushalayim. He wept because they were missing their day of visitation and rejecting His message; and in turn, rejecting both Him and His Father and He knew the suffering which was coming in their future.
Later we read of Messiah telling the women to weep for themselves and not for Him.
36 Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
Matthew 23:36,37 Luke 13:34
Aramaic Bible in Plain English Luke 23:28
And Yeshua turned to them, and he said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
Is not history repeating itself yet again???
There are many bringing the word of the Lord today with a message similar to Amos and the Old and New Testament prophets, calling us to return to the Lord/teshuvah; and forsake all the idols and things that we have put first place in our lives, other than our Heavenly Father. It is a serious message with eternal consequences and yet sometimes it lacks the one thing revealed in the word ma’aq.
Amos 2:13 reveals that he knew the heart of God and he was in fact preaching a message, that of our heavenly Father whose heart was broken by His childrens’ behavior; rather than the anger and wrath and inevitable doom. He was a little different from the other prophets as he spoke of behalf of those that were suffering, but also he knew of the true heart of his God, the heart of a loving Father towards His children.
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