Study Helps - Lesson 7

Lesson 7 *November 10 - 16

“At Ease In Zion”

Memory Text: (Rev 3:19 KJV) As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Sabbath Afternoon

Sunday November 11

The Good Life

(Amos 6:1 NKJV) Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, And trust in Mount Samaria, Notable persons in the chief nation, To whom the house of Israel comes!

(Amos 6:4-6 NKJV) Who lie on beds of ivory, Stretch out on your couches, Eat lambs from the flock And calves from the midst of the stall; {5} Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David; {6} Who drink wine from bowls, And anoint yourselves with the best ointments, But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

(Ezek 16:49 NKJV) "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

(Mat 19:24 NKJV) "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Monday November 12

At Ease In Laodicea

(Rev 3:17 NKJV) "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'; and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;

(Amos 6:1-6 NKJV) Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, And trust in Mount Samaria, Notable persons in the chief nation, To whom the house of Israel comes! {2} Go over to Calneh and see; And from there go to Hamath the great; Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory? {3} Woe to you who put far off the day of doom, Who cause the seat of violence to come near; {4} Who lie on beds of ivory, Stretch out on your couches, Eat lambs from the flock And calves from the midst of the stall; {5} Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David; {6} Who drink wine from bowls, And anoint yourselves with the best ointments, But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

(Rev 3:19 NKJV) "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

(1 Pet 1:18-19 NKJV) knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, {19} but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

Tuesday November 13

When God “Hates”

(Amos 6:8 NKJV) The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself, The LORD God of hosts says: "I abhor the pride of Jacob, And hate his palaces; Therefore I will deliver up the city And all that is in it."

(Deu 12:31 NKJV) "You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

(Deu 16:22 NKJV) "You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.

(Psa 10:3 NKJV) For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire; He blesses the greedy and renounces the LORD.

(Psa 11:5 NKJV) The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.

(Psa 78:59 NKJV) When God heard this, He was furious, And greatly abhorred Israel,

(Mal 2:16 NKJV) "For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one's garment with violence," Says the LORD of hosts. "Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously."

(Amos 6:8 NKJV) The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself, The LORD God of hosts says: "I abhor the pride of Jacob, And hate his palaces; Therefore I will deliver up the city And all that is in it."

Wednesday November 14

The Name Of The Lord

(Amos 6:9-10 NKJV) Then it shall come to pass, that if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. {10} And when a relative of the dead, with one who will burn the bodies, picks up the bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to one inside the house, "Are there any more with you?" Then someone will say, "None." And he will say, "Hold your tongue! For we dare not mention the name of the LORD."

(Exo 33:19 NKJV) Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."

(Deu 31:3 NKJV) "The LORD your God Himself crosses over before you; He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua himself crosses over before you, just as the LORD has said.

(Psa 7:17 NKJV) I will praise the LORD according to His righteousness, And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.

(Psa 20:7 NKJV) Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

(Psa 116:4 NKJV) Then I called upon the name of the LORD: "O LORD, I implore You, deliver my soul!"

(Psa 116:13 NKJV) I will take up the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the LORD.

(Acts 2:21 NKJV) And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.'

(Amos 6:10 NKJV) And when a relative of the dead, with one who will burn the bodies, picks up the bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to one inside the house, "Are there any more with you?" Then someone will say, "None." And he will say, "Hold your tongue! For we dare not mention the name of the LORD."

Thursday November 15

No Escape From The Assyrian Captivity

(Amos 6:14 NKJV) "But, behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel," Says the LORD God of hosts; "And they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath To the Valley of the Arabah."

(Amos 6:11-13 NKJV) For behold, the LORD gives a command: He will break the great house into bits, And the little house into pieces. {12} Do horses run on rocks? Does one plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into gall, And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood, {13} You who rejoice over Lo Debar, Who say, "Have we not taken Karnaim for ourselves By our own strength?"

(2 Ki 18:9-10 NKJV) Now it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. {10} And at the end of three years they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

Prophets and Kings, pp. 291 - 292

"From city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun," the couriers sent out by Hezekiah carried the message. Israel should have recognized in this invitation an appeal to repent and turn to God. But the remnant of the ten tribes still dwelling within the territory of the once-flourishing northern kingdom treated the royal messengers from Judah with indifference and even with contempt. "They laughed them to scorn, and mocked them." There were a few, however, who gladly responded. "Divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem, . . . to keep the feast of unleavened bread." Verses 10-13. {PK 291.1}

About two years later, Samaria was invested by the hosts of Assyria under Shalmaneser; and in the siege that followed, multitudes perished miserably of hunger and disease as well as by the sword.

The city and nation fell, and the broken remnant of the ten tribes were carried away captive and scattered in the provinces of the Assyrian realm. {PK 291.2}

The destruction that befell the northern kingdom was a direct judgment from Heaven. The Assyrians were merely the instruments that God used to carry out His purpose. Through Isaiah, who began to prophesy shortly before the fall of Samaria, the Lord referred to the Assyrian hosts as "the rod of Mine anger." "The staff in their hand," He said, "is Mine indignation." Isaiah 10:5. {PK 291.3}

Grievously had the children of Israel "sinned against the Lord their God, . . . and wrought wicked things." "They would not hear, but . . . rejected His statutes, and His covenant that He made with their fathers, and His

(p. 292) testimonies which He testified against them." It was because they had "left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal," and refused steadfastly to repent, that the Lord "afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight," in harmony with the plain warnings He had sent them "by all His servants the prophets." {PK 291.4}

"So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria," "because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded." 2 Kings 17:7, 11, 14-16, 20, 23; 18:12. {PK 292.1}

In the terrible judgments brought upon the ten tribes the Lord had a wise and merciful purpose. That which He could no longer do through them in the land of their fathers He would seek to accomplish by scattering them among the heathen. His plan for the salvation of all who should choose to avail themselves of pardon through the Saviour of the human race must yet be fulfilled; and in the afflictions brought upon Israel, He was preparing the way for His glory to be revealed to the nations of earth. Not all who were carried captive were impenitent. Among them were some who had remained true to God, and others who had humbled themselves before Him. Through these, "the sons of the living God" (Hosea 1:10), He would bring multitudes in the Assyrian realm to a knowledge of the attributes of His character and the beneficence of His law. {PK 292.2}

(Amos 6:12 NKJV) Do horses run on rocks? Does one plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into gall, And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,

Friday November 16

Prophets and Kings, p. 292 (see above)

(1 Cor 10:11 NKJV) Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

(Amos 6:3 NKJV) Woe to you who put far off the day of doom, Who cause the seat of violence to come near;