Why should we care about ancient instructions issued to the clans of Levi on how they were to function in a Tabernacle that no longer exists? A vow that can’t be completely fulfilled without the Temple? Judicial processes for jealous husbands that carry no legal weight today?
The Torah reading נָשֹׂא Naso (“carry, take” a census, Num. 4:21-7:89) teaches that part of the “wilderness” believer’s boot camp is to learn to be eager to step up for service.
Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) gave three answers to HaSatan (the devil) after His 40 days in the wilderness. What was Yeshua trying to say with, “Man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4)? In His refutations of HaSatan while being tempted, Yeshua quoted heavily from the Torah reading עקב Ekev/Eikev (“consequence,” Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25.
What did Yeshua want His disciples to learn from this account, recorded in Matthew 4:1–11? Anytime Yeshua cited scripture, He seemed to referred to the entire context of that verse, not merely the verse itself. Yeshua’s apostles taught in the same manner. They cited a reference, expecting their disciples to go to scripture and read it in context.
When Yeshua confronted HaSatan, He pulled from much of Ekev, not just the small snippets He quoted.
Our sins affect other people, including our children and grandchildren or as Scripture says, “to the third and fourth generation.” We aren’t punished for our parent’s sins, but we have been affected by them. We suffer when other people sin.
The ancient House of Israel were so far gone, so utterly unrepentant that God’s only recourse was to send 90% of them to the grave and the other 10% into exile. The exile will end only when Messiah Yeshua returns to the earth.
Have you ever wondered what the “Wormwood” mentioned in Rev. 8:11 is all about? There is an ongoing lesson in Scripture about the herb wormwood that helps explain what it has to do with God’s actions on the Day of the LORD.
The way we can correct our path and avoid judgement is to look at our history, our personal history and the history of our nation. God hasn’t changed His toolkit. He created the Heavens and Earth. Humans have no control over those tools. Amos details to Northern Israel the abuses of the elites in the government and monarchy upon the regular citizens.
The descendants of Israel, North and South, inherited the covenant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at Mt. Sinai hundreds of years before. Yet, instead of living in that covenant, the children of Israel preferred to imitate the practices of the nations around and actually surpassed the surrounding nations around in their iniquity. This is why God judges the entire family of Israel much more severely than He punishes the other nations. This is the prophet’s warning in Amos 3.
Amos is warning the people of Israel that although the nations around them have committed heinous sins but Israel’s sins are even worse. Israel could easily see the failures of the nations but they could not see their own failures. Amos is trying to take the veil off their eyes. He wants Israel to look inward at themselves.