As had happened many times in the history of ancient Israel, modern day Israel “got (temporary) religion” during the 1930’s when her nations (the U.S. and Britain–the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh) were suffering through the Great Depression.  Having recently born the ravages of a World War and the flu epidemic, those nations who claimed Father-child status with God were now found themselves in financial trouble like never before.  Problems were coming fast and furious.  What was happening to those nations in which a Bible could be found in almost every home?  Churches were full, conversions were at an all-time high.  Traveling evangelists were in their hayday.  However, all of the religious revivals and “moves of the Spirit” were having no effect.  Why was tide of hardship, need and want persisting and dragging those God-blessed nations down to their lowest level ever?  Why was God not hearing the prayers of church people?  Hadn’t they taken religion to its absolute highest level?  To answer those questions one need only look back to days of old and read from the Holy Scriptures what the Lord God (Adonai/Jehovah who would later come to earth as Jesus of Nazareth) said to the Prophet Amos as recorded in chapter 8 of his book.  He was describing what He would do in the short-term to Israel and in the long term to their descendants (the U.S. and Britain) in the latter days of the world.

Here we find the Lord talking with Amos, telling him what He would do to Israel–the 8 tribes that had separated from the Judahites (Jews) over a tax issue.  Since separating from the two southern tribes (Judah and Benjamin called “Jews”), the northern tribes (called Israelites) had sunken into idolatrous heathenism.  Warning (curse–“pass by”) after warning had not brought the northern tribes back to God.  Let us join His conversation with Amos in chapter 8 beginning with verse 1.  Here we find the Lord showing Amos a basket of summer fruit which represented the 8 northern tribes, about whom He said: “The end has come upon My people Israel. I will not again pass by (warn) them ….” (vss 1,2).  He was telling Amos that He was about to destroy them.  Then fact that they were children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would mean nothing.  He would cause their religious observances to turn into mourning.  There would be so many dead Israelites that the living would not be shocked by seeing them lying in everywhere.  The Lord then lists Israel’s sins that would bring on the travesty to come: 1) failure to help the needy; 2) causing the poor to fail; 3) refusing to observe the holy days; 4) desecrating the Sabbath; 5) cheating by making measurements smaller that they should be; 6) using weighted scales; 7) selling bad wheat for good; 8) taking over property when a borrower could not pay what he owed.  All manner of cheating, lying and stealing would seal Israel’s fate.  The second sin was the desecration of His Sabbath–the 7th day of the week (Saturday) which the churches continue to commit to this day.  In verse 8 God promises to cover Israel with curses like the Nile River covers the river basin during the rainy season each each year.  He promised to cause the land to “tremble (fail to produce) because of these sins.”  In the midst of His curse the People would mourn and cry out to Him for help, but to no avail.

In verses 9 and 10 the Lord speaks about heavenly signs that would terrify the people.  In verse 10 He speaks of turning the people’s feasts into times of mourning, lamentations, agony and fear, and their songs into howling.  He would change the character of night and day.  Sadness would be as when one loses a child.  As is always the case when tragedy strikes, the people would become very religious.  Knowing their hearts, God would close His eyes to their problems and His ears to their cries.  Bear in mind that this time of unbelievable horror had a dual meaning.

In verse 11 the Lord tells Amos why He would curse His people Israel then and in the distant future as is depicted in the Book of Revelation.  The reason: DISOBEDIENCE OF HIS WORD.  Because they rejected His holy Word, He would use that Word to punish them: “Behold, the days come when I will send a famine across the land.  It will not be a famine of food and water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.”

In verse 12 the Lord explains to Amos that Israel, then and in the future, would wander from sea to sea, the people would run to and fro seeking His Word of God but would not find it.  In that day (time) young people would grow weary in their fruitless search (vs 13).  Verse 14 requires knowledge of the Old Testament in order to understand what God is saying to the prophet.  In that verse God names two cities, saying that the god of the Israelites at that time lived in the cities Dan, Samaria and Beersheba.  Not mentioned but equally important are the cities of Bethel and Gilgal.

The story behind these cities and the god that lived in them involves Jeroboam, the king of the 8 Israelite tribes living in that area collectively called Samaria.  Every Israelite was required to return to the Temple in Jerusalem one time each year to offer a sacrifice for the sins committed during the previous year.  King Jereboam feared that his subjects might decide to remain in Judea instead of returning to Samaria.  The city of Samaria was its capital.  Fearing that he might lose his kingdom, the king had statues of golden calves built in Bethel and Dan and directed the people to go to one of those cities where they could worship the calf gods he had positioned there as they had while in Egyptian captivity (1 Ki. 12:26-30).  The other cities mentioned by the Lord were also hotbeds of idolatry for the northern tribes of Israel.  God noted in verse 14 that at that time the gods (calves) worshiped in those cities would fall, along with the Israelites.  This happened a few years later when God raised up the Assyrians and sent them against Israel.  Israel went down in defeat following a terrible slaughter.  The survivors were taken to Assyria as slaves.  Later, the Babylonians attacked Assyria.  The Assyrians, along with their Israelite slaves, fled and were scattered throughout western Europe.  The Assyrians would later be known as Germans.  Their descendants are known by that name today.  The 8 tribes of Israel scattered by tribe and eventually settled among Gentile peoples and became part of those nations.  The European nations known today as “Christian nations” are populated to a large degree by the children of Israel.  Over time the Israelites took on the social characteristics of the Gentiles among whom they had settled.  After many generations they came to believe that they were Gentiles.  It was to the Israelites located in these nations that Jesus sent His apostles as recorded in Matthew 10:6.  As the Lord prophesied, He had scattered them throughout the civilized world (Jer. 9:16; 49:36).  They would eventually spread out across the entire globe where they would serve as God’s “light to the Gentiles” (Isa. 42:6; 49:6). L.J.