Hopewell ARP Church is a Biblical, Reformed, Presbyterian church, serving the Lord in Culleoka, TN, since 1820. Lord's Day Morning, set your gps to arrive by 11a.m. at 3886 Hopewell Road, Culleoka, TN 38451
Read Amos 5:1-17
Questions from the Scripture text: For the third chapter in a row, with what command does Amos 5:1 begin? Concerning whom? What sort of word is it this time? What has happened to her (Amos 5:2)? Who has determined this (Amos 5:3)? What has He said? What does He command them to do (Amos 5:4)? But where/how have they been doing this, that He now rebukes (Amos 5:5a–c)? What is He doing to this manmade worship (verse 5d–e)? By comparison, what does He say about divinely instituted worship (Amos 5:6a)? What might He do to their manmade worship (verse 6b–d, cf. Leviticus 10:1–2)? What had God offered them, and what did they do to it (Amos 5:7)? But what has God done (Amos 5:8-9)? Who is He (Amos 5:8f)? But how do Israel respond to the righteous (Amos 5:10, Amos 5:12c, Amos 5:13)? And to the poor (Amos 5:11a–b, Amos 5:12d)? What will God do to them (Amos 5:11c–f)? For what (Amos 5:12a–b)? What does the prophet urge them to do (Amos 5:14-15)? And what will God do? Who is speaking in Amos 5:16-17? Who will be lamenting, to what extent? Why (Amos 5:17b–c)?
Why does the prophet lament? Amos 5:1–17 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these seventeen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the prophet laments over sin to teach sinners to lament over that sin, and to turn back to seeking the Lord and His good.
Amos 5:1, Amos 5:16-17 bookend the passage with lament. The prophet calls for them to listen to his own lamentation (Amos 5:1); it’s a preview of lamentation that is going to come, because YHWH is going to judge them (Amos 5:16-17). He is literally going to decimate them (cut them down to a tenth, Amos 5:2-3).
Why? They have sinned profoundly against the Lord (Amos 5:4-9) and against His people (Amos 5:10-13). They thought they were seeking the Lord by the manmade worship that they set up in Bethel and Gilgal (Amos 5:5), but the Lord’s command that they seek Him (Amos 5:4, Amos 5:6) makes it plain that He did not approve of or receive that worship. He threatens their worship with the same response as the manmade worship of Nadab and Abihu (Amos 5:6, cf. Leviticus 10:1–2). How can man come up with how to worship? It is YHWH Who created even the heavens (Amos 5:8a), Who rules in all providence (verse 8b–c), Who brought even the flood (verse 8d–e).
But they have also sinned against His people—against the righteous, whom they rejected into silence (Amos 5:10, Amos 5:12c, Amos 5:13) and against the poor, whom they trampled for wealth (Amos 5:11a–b, Amos 5:12d). Just as God has commanded a repentance in which they truly seek Him, so also God has commanded a repentance in which they hate the evil that they have been seeking , and love good and seek it instead (Amos 5:14-15). Loving neighbor goes hand-in-hand with loving God and belonging to Him.
The Lord announces this lament, with an offer of astounding grace to Israel: “So YHWH God of hosts will be with you […] YHWH God of hosts will be gracious.” Behold the grace of God to sinners! When we realize that manmade worship is evil, we must hate it. When we realize that refusing the correction of the just, or trampling upon the poor, is evil, we must hate it. Behold the God Who is gracious to sinners, and seek Him and His good!
When have you lamented sin? What sin are you weakly resisting that you should be hating? What does God offer?
Sample prayer: Lord, forgive us for all manmade worship, for all rejecting of righteous correction, and for all manipulating and taking advantage of others. Make us to hate it like You hate it, and make us to love You and what is good, in Christ, AMEN!
Suggested Songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH440 “Come , Ye Sinners, Poor and Wretched”
Read Psalm 121
Questions from the Scripture text: What sort of Psalm is this (superscript)? Where is the psalmist looking (Psalm 121:1)? What does he ask? What is the answer (Psalm 121:2a)? What has this One done (verse 2b)? What will He not allow (Psalm 121:3a)? What will He not do (verse 3b, Psalm 121:4b)? What does He tirelessly do (verse 4a)? To whom? What two things is He to His people (Psalm 121:5)? What cannot harm them (Psalm 121:6)? From how much evil will YHWH keep them (Psalm 121:7a)? What will be done to them (verse 7b)? How much of their life will He keep (Psalm 121:8a)? For how long?
Who is our help? Psalm 121 looks forward to the opening portion of morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the almighty God, Himself, is our help.
As Israelites ascended toward Jerusalem, the heights displayed power, reminding them that their God is on high. But those same hills hid marauders, reminding them of their need for help. Both provoke the question (“From where does my help come?” Psalm 121:1) and provide the answer (“My help comes from the Lord,” Psalm 121:2a). What a blessing, on the way to the holy gathering: providence, and a Psalm to match, that gives an apt summary of all of Scripture: our help is in the name of YHWH, Who made heaven and earth (cf. Psalm 124:8; Hebrews 2:16, Hebrews 11:6).
And what is it to have YHWH as our help? The Lord’s care for His people is superlative! The rest of the Psalm emphasizes these superlatives.
Why and how is this care so superlative? Because His care is personal! He Himself is our keeping and our shade (Psalm 121:5)! Praise be to God. May He and His care be your comfort and confidence as you go to your slumber each night, and again as you rise each morning and throughout each day. And may imposing hills, and other providential grandeur or danger, lift your heart to Him.
What dangers do you face? What impressive things do you encounter? What is your help? Who is He?
Sample prayer: Lord, You have made the heavens and the earth, and You work all things according to the counsel of Your will. You accomplish all of Your purposes. Your faithfulness is constant. Your power, unstoppable. How great it is to have Your help! And how great that You Yourself are that help! Be glorified by the good that You do us, and receive the worship of our hearts and lips, now, we pray, through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested Songs: ARP121 “I Lift My Eyes and See the Hills” or TPH121A “I Lift My Eyes Up to the Hills”
Read Proverbs 5:15–23
Questions from the Scripture text: Who does Proverbs 5:15 say should drink from your cistern/well? What does Proverbs 5:16 ask about other possible drinkers? What answer does Proverbs 5:17 give, regarding these potential drinkers? When will the fountain of a man’s life (Proverbs 5:18a) receive a blessing from God (verse 18b)? What does Proverbs 5:19a say about the beauty that such a man finds in his wife? What does verse 19b say about the nourishment/comfort that such a man would find from his wife? What does verse 19c say about the protective/diverting effect of such a man’s enjoyment of his wife’s love? Where should he not be looking for any of these (Proverbs 5:20, n.b. that NKJ’s ‘immoral’ and ‘seductress’ are translating the same words as ‘alien’ and ‘foreigner’ from Proverbs 5:10)? What factor should determine one’s choices in this area of our lives (Proverbs 5:21)? What do iniquities and sins in this area of life do (Proverbs 5:22)? With what ultimate result (Proverbs 5:23a)? As a consequence of having done what, in what way (verse 23b)?
What keeps a man from being diverted to unauthorized women? Proverbs 5:15–23 looks forward to the sermon in this week’s midweek meeting. In these nine verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that a man is kept from being diverted to unauthorized women by the promise and treasuring of his own wife, but especially by regarding his God.
“Drink from your own cistern/well” (Proverbs 5:15) pivots from the fifth (submitting to teaching) and seventh (illicit romance) commandments to the eighth. The main idea here is that it is ultimately God, in His providence, Who assigns to us our wife and our offspring, just as much as He assigns to us our property. And what a blessing a wife is—like a cistern, or even a well that continually has running water! And just as she is exclusively for her husband (verse 15), her husband is exclusively for her (Proverbs 5:16). God has not assigned “strangers” (same word as NKJ’s “immoral” in Proverbs 5:3 and “alien” in Proverbs 5:10) to benefit from you as husband and father (Proverbs 5:17).
The illustration of cistern (Proverbs 5:15a)/well (verse 15b)/spring (Proverbs 5:16a)/stream (verse 16b) continues with a fifth synonym, which NKJ also translates “fountain” in Proverbs 5:18. A man is designed by God to be a source of life and provision for his wife and his children. And when he sticks to God’s own design, rejoicing in the wife of his youth (verse 18b) he finds himself “blessed” (verse 18a). There is a value placed upon marrying young, here. A youth should not let himself be diverted to pseudo-marital sweetness and comfort; rather, he should be aiming to marry, and to rejoice with that divinely-assigned woman all his days. And, in this rejoicing with her, he will find himself blessed as an instrument of God’s provision to her as well.
Of course, this blessing goes two ways. The loving deer and graceful doe of Proverbs 5:19a is a metaphor of pure and elegant beauty: beauty the way God created it, beauty that enjoys the goodness of the Creator and compels worshiping Him. The image in verse 19b is one of nourishment; just as the wife’s body is uniquely designed to nourish their children, so there is nourishment and comfort and help that God has designed her to be unto her husband. Finally, the word “enraptured” (lit. “diverted”) in verse 19c is the same as that in Proverbs 5:20a and in Proverbs 5:23 (where NKJ has “astray”).
Either the promise of one’s own wife, and then the enjoyment of that wife, will divert a man from the unauthorized woman, or the unauthorized woman will divert him from his wife. Again, our English version’s “immoral” and “seductress” in Proverbs 5:20 is painting a more evidently sinister picture, when the evil and danger are often more subtle. They are the same words as “alien” and “foreigner,” respectively from Proverbs 5:10—referring to any woman who is not the wife that God has assigned to the man. One’s own wife is a blessing in herself, and also as one by whom God diverts him from the unauthorized woman.
Ultimately, however, it is not merely a man’s future (or present) wife that he must regard. First and foremost, his regard must be for the Lord (Proverbs 5:21). Sin is not just something that might lead you into a trap; sin itself is that trap, and you are already ensnared when you commit it (Proverbs 5:22). How dreadful to reject this instruction (Proverbs 5:23a) and be diverted not only later by the unauthorized woman, but initially by one’s own great folly (verse 23b)!
How are you treating sin as a trap? How are you treating each marriage as divinely assigned to that man and woman?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for what Your providence has assigned to each of us. And make us to enjoy that which You have given us as a way of diverting us from that which You haven’t, we ask through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP45B “Daughter, Incline Your Ear” or TPH128B “Blest the Man That Fears Jehovah”