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    539
    The Pretty Maidens
    and Strong Young Men

    Sabbath Day Sermon, Saturday 12 March 2005

      "In that day the pretty maidens and strong young men shall faint from thirst, those swearing by the guilt of Shomeron (Samaria), who say, 'As your mighty one (god) lives, O Dan!' And, 'As the way of Be'ersheba lives!' And they shall fall and never rise again" (Amos 8:13-14, ISRV).

    My message today is for the young people, the "pretty maidens and strong young men" whose cheerful and happy faces litter our magazines and TV commercials. Here's an example of what I mean - this is a Swedish health magazine and on the cover is a young, fresh and healthy looking young woman in her 20's. As we turn two pages on, we see a vigorous, strong young athletic man at the peak of health. On the next page, two more vigorous young women, and on the next page another one. Throughout this and thousands of similar magazines you will see the same basic images. It's a fact that 90% of advertising uses young people, mostly women. And when we look at them we are supposed to be filled with hope and confidence for the present and the future. Who can deny that such a picture as we find on this front page is refreshing? The truth is, we would all like to be young, fit and healthy.

    Now three thousand years ago they didn't have glossy magazines like this one, and yet you would be surprised to discover that the attitudes of people have remained much the same throughout all time. In our passage today from the book of Amos we read of "pretty young maidens and strong young men" who doubtless at one time radiated the same kind of confidence, hope and wellness that we see in this glossy health magazine. And yet we learn from this same passage that not all is well with these young people - they are fainting from thirst. What's interesting about this, however, is not so much what they are feeling but what they are saying: 'As your mighty one (god) lives, O Dan!' and 'As the way of Be'ersheba lives!' Now I don't blame you if these don't make much sense - these were expressions used commonly in those days. Today we have our own. In fact, their precise meaning is unimportant. What is important is that these young people were swearing. They were habitually swearing - using profane language. I'll not repeat what people say these days - you only have to go onto the street, or watch a modern movie, or go into an Internet chat room, and you will find people swearing as though there were no tomorrow. For them swearing has become a way of life, reflecting a deep-seated spiritual malady.

    When people swear it is either because they have grown careless or they have lost hope. And they have lost hope because they have forsaken Yahweh, the Most High God and Creator. Just think about that for a moment. I have heard devout Christians suddenly uttering words of profanity in moments of desperation and frustration - most of us, sadly, if we are honest, do it. But when we do, it is a sign to us to get refocused: for when believers start profaning and making unclean oaths, it means that - even for one moment - they have forsaken Yahweh. It means quite simply we have turned our gaze away from Him and onto the hopelessness of atheism or of pagan gods.

    The young people in our passage today were swearing by the gods or demons of Shomeron, the deities of Samaria of the northern Israelite tribes. But worse than that, they were swearing by the most apostate of these tribes, the tribe of Dan who had a reputation for heathenism and violence. These same tribes, who were taken into captivity by Assyria, later migrated into Europe and thence across the world into North America, South America, Southern Africa, Australasia and elsewhere. Indeed, brethren and sisters, here in Sweden we are dwelling in the midst of the same people Amos was talking to - or anywhere else in the Western world, into which the northern Israelite tribes migrated.

    I look, therefore, at this glossy magazine and into the faces of these beautiful young people and I wonder what they are thinking and what they are saying in ordinary life. If you're not sure, go into the street or into any place where young people socialise and you will hear the same things that that these Israelites were saying three thousand years ago albeit in a different language and with different expressions. Nothing has changed very much. Indeed, we learn, that the condition of the young people is a barometer of the spiritual condition of a nation. What the majority of the young think, feel, say and do tells us about the state of our nations.

    History repeats itself with regular monotony. Cultures, languages, habits and lifestyles change, but people do not. The world today has many social problems as we know but basically the standard of living isn't too bad. Most in the West aren't complaining. When Amos wrote these words from Yahweh, the northern Kingdom of Israel was politically secure and spiritually smug. They really believed, on balance, that everything was going well for them. Both Israel in the north and Judah in the south were materially prosperous and had reached new political and military heights. Today, as then, the West is the undisputed master of the world politically and militarily, even though things are starting to go seriously wrong. In spite of the huge problems that exist, our politicians are telling us that we are entering into a period of great prosperity. Only the terrorist threat, they say, is undermining that. About 40 years before Amos wrote his prophecy, Elisha has prophesied the resurgence of Israel's power (2 Ki.13:17-19) and more recently Jonah had prophesied her restoration to a glory not known since the days of Solomon (2 Ki.14:25). The nation felt secure and in Yahweh's good graces. Today you will find many believers singing the praises of the current American President and saying more or less similar things, and looking optimistically to a resurgence of right-wing Christianity in the political arena. It is, however, an illusion. Today, as then, prosperity increased Israel's religious and moral corruption and Yahweh's past punishments for unfaithfulness were forgotten, and His patience was at an end.

    The whole theme of Amos is social justice which Yahweh declares to be an expression of social piety. Therefore Yahweh said through this man of God that He was going to judge His unfaithful, disobedient, covenant-breaking people. And despite His choice of Israel and His kindness to her during the Exodus and Conquest of the Holy Land, and in the days of David and Solomon, His people continually failed to honour and obey Him. The shrines at Bethel and other places of worship were often paganised, just as the churches have become today. And even those who observed the outer form of the true religion tended only to have a wordly view of the Mosaic rituals. They thought that performance of outer rites was all that Yahweh required much as monarchs today pay lip service to the institutional church, attending its meetings on important occasions, whilst conducting themselves in a heathenish manner at other times. They believed that once they had performed the obligatory rituals that they could do whatever they wished, a notion wholly pagan. Today people consider themselves 'modern' in what they do but in reality they are merely doing what rebellious people have always done when they have turned away from Yahweh. There is nothing original in our hedonistic society. They may regard themselves as very liberal and innovative but in truth there is nothing new under the sun which hasn't been done before (Eccl.1:9). We are seeing today, in different garb, the same old ways of carnal man repeat themselves again and again.

    A year or two ago an American pagan was shocked when I did not agree with him on how liberated and socially advanced Sweden was. For him, as a Wiccan, Sweden represented the most progressive country on the face of the earth, and he could not understand why we had made our Church headquarters in this country. Indeed it's an interesting question: why are we here? The short answer is because Yahweh told us to come here. The long one is because Yahweh has important things to do here in connection with the prophecy of Amos.

    If we return to today's passage and backtrack a couple of verses, we read some verses that are perhaps better known to you and which 'set the scene', as it were, for the ones we are considering today. Let me read them to you:

      "'See, days are coming', declares the Master Yahweh, 'that I shall send a hunger in the land, not a hunger for bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the Words of Yahweh. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east - they shall diligently search, seeking the Word of Yahweh, but they shall not find it'" (Amos 8:11-12, ISRV).

    Then we read:

      "In that day the pretty maidens and strong young men shall faint from thirst, those swearing by the guilt of Shomeron (Samaria), who say, 'As your mighty one (god) lives, O Dan!' And, 'As the way of Be'ersheba lives!' And they shall fall and never rise again" (Amos 8:13-14, ISRV).

    There's a tremendous hunger for spiritual truth both here in Sweden and throughout the West. There are actually very few atheists in this land - most are searching for alternative forms of spirituality. They are rightly rejecting the dryness of the institutional church whose religion has become similar to the dead outer worship of the Israelites, and have turned elsewhere. There is a spiritual famine in the land and the people are desperately searching for something to fill in that God-shaped vacuum which is in every soul.

    For the last few days, preparatory to writing this sermon, I visited the Swedish chat rooms on Yahoo. I have never experienced such spiritual emptiness. The young people there are putting on a brave face, pretending to be 'cool'. Their topic of conversation is almost entirely sex and the profanity is suffocating. I felt, indeed, a place of immense inner suffering - a barren spiritual landscape - of people desperate to be loved but who have no idea what love is or how to obtain it.

    When Amos said that the youth would faint from thirst he was not, of course, speaking literally. He was speaking of the hopelessness that reigns in a soul without the reality of Yahweh's presence, a reality very, very different from the propaganda images we see on the covers of our magazines like this one. What you are seeing here is illusion - a lie. It's all theatrics. And as we know the camera easily lies. You see, when you turn away from the only source of true life and love, you must, of necessity, sink, like someone who has fallen into quicksand and is being swallowed up into the earth. And when this happens to the most buoyant, the freshest, the strongest, the boldest, the healthiest and the most dynamic segment of society - the youth of a nation - then you know society is about to implode. Nations can experience hardships and flourish, as the free nations did in the last world war, but when all hope is gone, then the powers of life which sustain hope, give way. "They shall faint from thirst" is Hebrew metaphor which means "they shall be covered over", as if a veil has covered their eyes and they can no longer see things as they really are.

    Now if anyone listening to me has ever experienced real physical thirst, you will know that it is an intense suffering far worse than hunger in the belly. Indeed, such as have experienced long-term deprivation of water are pretty well agreed that it is even worse than mental suffering. So consider this: Yahweh is using a powerful metaphor to describe the spiritual famine that throttles people's lives when they reject the truth which nothing but the Truth Himself, Yahweh-Elohim, can assuage. So if such desperation could then descend over the strongest and firmest members of society - our youth - what, then, of the rest? How dol they fare?

    Today's society is either run by youth or for youth. The whole of our media is geared toward their carnal appetites, with only a token reference to older people is made. In Yahweh's society, the theocratic government is run by the Elders, but in Satan's, it is to the youth, who lack the experience and wisdom, that to such is given. To be sure, there are some older, and very evil, people who run this society behind the scenes, but they are largely invisible to us, and are few. The raw energy of youth is harnessed by them to increase the anarchy which everywhere around us threatens to make society collapse in on itself.

    What, then, is the solution? Reforming the wider society as a whole is not now possible. I know that there are some people who refuse to belief that and who strive hard to reverse the tidal wave of spiritual destruction which is sweeping over our nations, but they are doomed to failure - not because they aren't well-meaning, but because certain spiritual laws must legally take force in the face of the open and habitual rebellion of the masses. Yahweh's judgement has to come, and when it comes, it is always swift.

    There is only one solution, and that is the end-time commandment which Yahweh has given to leave the Babylonian world system and to gather the faithful into small colonies around the world where they can, in semi-isolation, bring up a new generation in the righteousness and holiness of Yahweh, to succeed those who have failed and who are to be severely judged and ultimately displaced.

    There has never been a generation which has liked to hear the truth about its depraved condition and there has never been a true prophet of Yahweh who has not incited the rebellious masses to fury. Yahweh's loving chastisement - that which would lead them to what in their deepest souls they want - is only ever received by a small minority who, by listening and believing, are delivered from calamity. Part of the problem is that lying lips belonging to those who claim to be true believers have diluted and changed the message of Yahweh and so rendered the Gospel impotent. They always come with false words declaring an easy way out that requires little in the way of personal reformation or sacrifice, and when in the short term everything seems to go well and according to their false prophecies, they are all the more readily accepted and embraced. But then the end comes, suddenly and ferociously. Incidents like last year's giant tsunami in Asia remind us of how sudden Yahweh's judgement can be. Expect many more such judgements, and soon.

    When nations ripen in iniquity as the West and other nations are today, things happen quickly, and the wishy-washy liberal ideas are shown to be redundant and useless, for in truth they were always silly deceptions designed to take people away from God. So Amos continues in his no doubt unpopular prophecy, saying:

      "I saw Yahweh standing by the altar, and He said: 'Smile the column head, so that the thresholds shake, and break them off by the head, all of them. And the last of them I slay with the sword. Not one of them fleeing gets away, and not one fugitive escapes. If they dig into the grave, from there My hand does take them; and if they climb up to the heavens, from there I bring them down" (Amos 9:1-2, ISRV).

    Let me speak plainly to you - to those who continue in sin and rebellion against the Most High, for Yahweh has spoken plainly here too. He says, whether you like it or not, that if you continue to rebel against Him, there is no escape for you. So what are the conventional 'escapes' that people use? Well, you only have to look into the life of today's youth to see their 'escapes'. Yahweh says, "If they dig into the grave, from there My hand does take them." In other words, if they seek a way out of their sorrow by suicide, for example, then that will offer them no escape either, because Yahweh is there to literally 'grab' them out of the grave on the other side of the veil. He also says: "If they climb up to the heavens, from there I bring them down," meaning, that if they seek an escape through carnal stimulation like ungodly sex, or hallucinatory drugs, or occultic astral projection, or anything that is unlawful - after the initial 'high', He will bring them back down to the reality and to the awfulness of their lost condition. So let's do everyone a favour and stop pretending that there are escape routes for those who turn away from Yahweh - there aren't. Amos goes on with more examples, all of which lead to the same result.

    To run away from Yahweh is, in a word, insanity. To hide away from the truth is not to hide away at all, because He will find you eventually, whether in this life or the next, and bring you to account. It is madness to deny the truth. Worse, the truth really isn't all that bad - in fact, it's positively good! It's not as though God is trying to hound you into some concentration camp - He is pursuing you to bring you into true freedom and liberty of the soul. His motive is love, and only love, even if the short-term punishment for the rebellious might not seem too loving. Yet it is. For He is interested in the welfare of everyone, and not just for a select few here or there.

    The last eight verses of the Book of Amos end on a hopeful and joyous note. He promises an end to the spiritual captivity brought about by the foolishness of man. "I shall turn back the captivity of My people Yisrael. And they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them. And they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them, and shall make gardens and eat their fruit" (9:14). Whatever you may think has been lost to foolish choices can, and will, be reclaimed. That is the promise here. Whatever has been wasted in your life will be rebuilt and become fruitful in righteousness. "'And I shall plant them on their own soil, and not uproot them any more from their own soil I have given them,' says Yahweh your Elohim" (v.15).

    Once you have returned to Elohim, you will become established on your own soil - you will get your life back again! And once you have been planted in the eternal power of Yah'shua (Jesus), nothing will be able to uproot you, and no weapon formed against you will prosper. Are these not wonderful promises for young and old alike? Get your foundation in Yah'shua (Jesus) established and all will go well for you. Amen.

    This page was created on 5 June 2005
    Last updated on 5 June 2005

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