In Peter Allison's sermon 'Amos: God's Witness Against the Nations,' he explores the biblical text of Amos 1, emphasizing God's judgment against various nations for their transgressions. Allison draws parallels between Amos's time and modern contexts, highlighting the sins of nations like Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab. He explains Amos's strategy of pointing out external sins to establish rapport and credibility before addressing Israel's own sins. The sermon delves into the historical division between Israel and Judah and how the northern tribes, referred to as Israel, separated under Jeroboam. Allison discusses the significance of respecting the human body after death, drawing from Amos's indictment of Moab for desecrating the king of Edom's bones. The sermon also connects these ancient sins to contemporary issues in America, such as torture and exploitation, urging listeners to reflect on national and individual responsibilities while emphasizing God's mercy and the possibility of repentance.

Our scripture reading is Amos chapter 1, beginning at verse 3. And the Lord will give you the power of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four I will not turn away its punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with implements of iron. But I will send a fire into the house of Haziel, which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad. I will also break the gate-bar of Damascus and cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Avon.

And the one who holds the scepter from Beth-Eden, The people of Syria shall go captive to Kir." Says the Lord. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Gaza and for four I will not turn away its punishment because they took captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom. But I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, which shall devour its palaces. I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon. I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord.

Thus, says the Lord God, thus says the Lord, For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. But I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, which shall devour its palaces. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Edom and for four I will not turn away its punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity. His anger tore perpetually and he kept his wrath forever, but I will send a fire upon Timen, which shall devour the palaces of Basra. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of the people of Ammon and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they ripped open the women with children in Gilead, that they might enlarge their territory.

But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabah, and it shall devour its palaces amid shouting in the day of battle and a tempest in the day of the whirlwind. Their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, says the Lord. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Moab, and for four I will not turn away its punishment, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime, but I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kirioth. Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting and trumpet sound, and I will cut off the judge from its midst and slay all its princes with him, says the Lord." May the Lord uphold us according to His word that we may live and not be ashamed of our hope. Heavenly Father, as we continue to worship you this morning, We ask that you would open our eyes and our ears and the understanding of our mind.

We pray that this word that we have heard might be received with faith. And I pray that you would sanctify my lips and preserve me from error. In Jesus name, Amen. Well, when you go to a family reunion, particularly an extended family reunion, like all the family that is descended maybe from your great-grandfather on one side or the other. You'll meet people, at least I always have in these types of reunions, you'll meet people that you don't know, or that you don't know very well.

They might be second cousins. Those are the grandchildren of your grandfathers, brothers, and sisters. That's your second cousins. Or second cousins once or twice removed. Those are the children or the parents of your grandfather's siblings grandchildren So if you're going to this kind of a reunion You take along a copy of your family tree so that you can figure out who you're talking to and how you might be related to them.

I see some of you recognize what I'm talking about. You've probably done the same thing as I have. And So the relatives that you meet at a reunion like this are much like the nations that Amos addresses here in these opening two chapters. All these seven, eight nations. So before we look at his message to each of these nations let's take a minute to look at who these people are and how they are related to Israel and why they might be included in this message that Amos brings, this ministry Amos brings to Israel, the northern tribes.

Well these nations that Amos witnesses against, they run the gamut from heathen Canaanite nations that are only related through Noah, to nations that are distant relations to Israel. We'll call them the second cousin nations or the cousin nations to nations that are sibling nations So the nation of Israel and That's who amos is sent to he sent to the Israel This nation of Israel was comprised of the 12 tribes of Israel that descended from the 12 sons of Israel or Jacob as he is also called in the Scriptures. And they existed for over 500 years as a unified nation with one ruler, one administration. Early on it was typically a judge like Gideon or Samson or Samuel. And then in the last 120 years of that roughly 500 year period, they were ruled by three kings.

Saul, David, and Solomon, who each ruled forty years. And after the reign of Solomon, a disgruntled official of Solomon's reign, a former disgruntled official of Solomon's reign by the name of Jeroboam, rebelled against Rehoboam, Solomon's son. And he led the northern ten tribes in that rebellion against Solomon, the son, the king, Rehoboam. And so he formed a separate nation. And from that point forward until the end of those nations, until they both went into captivity at different times, They were two sister nations, two brother nations.

They were both descendants of Jacob. They were both part of the twelve tribes. They were both the people to whom God had come and given His covenant, the covenant of circumcision. They had the covenants, the giving of the law, the promises. They had the true worship of God given to them.

But they are now existing as two separate nations. And at times, they invaded each other's territory with their armies, and they killed each other in battle and other times they intermarried with each other and traded with each other much like families would. But from that point on from that rebellion after the days of Solomon's reign. They existed as two nations and Israel was used to refer to the northern ten tribes. And so in the book of Amos where you see Israel, You have to remember it's talking just about the northern ten tribes that rebelled with Jeroboam.

And the southern two tribes which are referred to as Judah. Judah was of course David's tribe and so they stayed loyal to David's line, to Rehoboam. And Benjamin was also there, but the land of Benjamin was just north of Judah, but much of Benjamin got assimilated into Judah. And so the southern kingdom of these two tribes was just called Judah. So when you see in Amos, Israel and Judah, Israel was referring to the northern 10 tribes whose government was established at Samaria eventually and there was a Jeroboam recognizing that if people continued to go down to Jerusalem to worship at the temple like they were to do that that he might lose the loyalty of the people and they might be more interest they might be interested in coming back together again and having a reunion and He would be removed as king and so he realized that in order to preserve himself as king he had to set up a worship up in on the northern tribes so the people wouldn't have to go down to the temple and so he set up an altar at Bethel and said that this is your this is the temple this is or this is the the God that delivered you out of Egypt, this is where you worship.

And so this is where Amos brought his ministry. He ministered in Bethel. So the second cousin nations were Edom, Moab, and Ammon. The Edomites were descendants of Esau. So they are descendants of Abraham, but they're not descendants of, they're descendants of Abraham and Isaac, but they're not descendants of Jacob as the Israelites were.

And they settled in Edom, the land of Edom. God gave them that land, which is south and east of Israel. And Job was most likely an Edomite, an Edomite king. So they did have godly people in that land, despite not being part of the twelve tribes. The Moabites and Ammonites were descended from Lot, which was Abraham's nephew, through an incestuous union with his daughters after Lot and his two daughters were rescued from Sodom before God destroyed it with fire and brimsoid.

So they're not descendant from Abraham, but they are related to Abraham being that they descend from his nephew. So they're descended from, they have a common, Abraham and Lot have a common common ancestor. So these nations are cousin nations and The first three nations that are mentioned are nations that were not descended from Abraham or Tira his father. They are referred to by their primary cities. So Damascus is the capital of Syria, and that's the first nation that Amos speaks about.

The Syrians were descendants of Shem, the same son of Noah from whom Abraham is descended, either through Aram or Sarag. And though David had subjugated Syria, afterwards they became the stronger nation and long troubled Israel, taking the land of Gilead from them, which Israel under this time had been able to get back. But Syria was a long thorn in Israel's side. God used them like he used the Philistines in the days of the judges. He used them to trouble Israelites and to send them warnings that they were not obedient, that they were turning away from following Him.

Gaza is a leading city of the Philistines. That's another nation that's descended from Ham through Misraim. So you have to go all the way back to Noah to find any connection with this nation. They were another nation that plagued Israel, they said, particularly during the period of the judges. Tyre, this is the third heathen nation that Amos speaks about, was a leading city of Phoenicia, outshining even their mother city of Sidon.

These cities are briefly mentioned in Jesus' day. And Jesus ministered to a Syrophoenician woman. Remember, he was the one who he told, I can't give the food to the dogs that's meant for the children. And instead of being insulted, this woman said, yes, But what? Lord, even the dogs get the crumbs.

This was a woman from this area. Jesus briefly ministered up there in his time on earth. And he said it would be more tolerable for Tyron Sidon in the day of judgment than it would be for apostate Israel because Tyron Sidon didn't have the great privileges and blessings that Israel had enjoyed. They didn't have the law, they didn't have God's word, they didn't have people who taught God's law with a few rare exceptions. Okay, so Tyre was also, or the Sidonians were also descendants from Ham through his son Canaan.

And so they would be cousin nations to the Canaanites That Israel was to drive out of the land of Canaan and so Amos begins his message his his ministry bringing a warning against these heathen nations and then he speaks about the cousin nations Moab, Ammon, and Edom And then he comes to the sibling nation, Judah, which is where he is from, the brother or sister nation. And then lastly, he gets in what we didn't read, he goes to Israel. So the question is, if Amos is supposed to preach to the northern tribes, the first verse, it opened Amos, says that These were the words of Amos which he saw concerning Israel. That's where God sent him, to be a prophet to the Israelites, to the northern tribes. Why is he talking then about all these other sins of these other nations?

Why would He bring up their sins to Israel? Why is He going to Israel and talking about these sins of these other nations? It might seem rather odd in one way. Well there is some wisdom in this approach. And I'd like to offer a few reasons why the Lord may have done this.

One, He opens with something that they will easily and readily agree with. By pointing out the sins of other nations, he's beginning his message and establishing some head nodding with them. Of course, right? We always can agree about the sins of other people Especially when they're against us, you know, it's one way to establish some rapport it you remember This is how Nathan approached David in his sin. He lived David was hardened in his sin for almost a year.

And then God sent Nathan. Remember how He did it? He started telling this story about a poor little farmer who had just one sheep that ate at his table. And he has David following right along. And then this wealthy, oppressive neighbor comes and takes that sheep from that poor man, steals it right out from his family, his children, and kills it for his need.

And David is angry. Nathan got David angry. Nathan got David on his side. David is now angry about that man. And as the king, he speaks without even thinking, well, that man needs to be judged.

And then all Nathan had to say was, but you're that man. And so Amos is doing something of this sort. He is opening with a message that they will agree with. That they will say yes, yes, preach it on, brother. Tell us all about how bad these people are.

Secondly, he demonstrates fairness. He includes Judah in this list. We didn't read that, but it's the next nation that he addresses. Judah's where he's from. So here's a man coming from Judah.

He's a mean in the sense of a lowly person. We said he's not a wealthy, high-ranking official. But here he's coming and he's willing to acknowledge to the northern tribes that his church, his family, has got some big sins too. And he does that before he gets to his message for Israel. So he's establishing that he's an honest messenger.

He's willing to point out the sins even in his own family, even in his own church, his own country. He's concerned about truth and justice, not just whitewashing his own sins and pointing out the sins of everybody else. And I think that's an important part of Amos's message to these people. In adapting his message to them. In doing everything that is possible to bring them to be willing to listen to some very serious charges that He brings against them.

Now, He does not spend a lot of time cataloging all the sins of these other nations. He only lists one, in each case, He only lists one significant sin. But He says that there are a number of other sins. This isn't the only sin. In every case, it's for three transgressions of Moab and for four.

That's an idiom, a Hebrew idiom. A way of saying for a number of transgressions that are ongoing, not just one thing one time, but this is a pattern. This is typical. This is instantiated in your culture. This is an ongoing systemic problem.

Many different sins. And here's one example. Here's one egregious example. I think it also establishes, God establishes Amos's credibility as a messenger. He's in a sense a nobody from another country.

And he shows up in Bethel, and yet he can speak to all these surrounding nations about what God is going to do in each case. It also strengthens his warning to Israel in this way. Like I said, we're quick to see our, we're quick to attribute our problems. The things that happen in our land, is just, well, that's just what happened. That's just hurricanes happen, nature happens.

But when it happens to others, well, we're much more willing to say, oh, that must be God's judgment happening there. And so when Israel were to see Amos bringing these indictments against these other nations, and they begin to see God's judgment happen just as Amos says it would happen. I think it serves as these seven other nations serve as seven reminders that the calamities that Amos says about them are God's judgment as well. Just like Amos prophesied. And also, it points out their greater culpability just like Jesus did.

If God doesn't spare these other nations who didn't have all of the blessings and the privileges and the promises and the covenants and so on. If God doesn't spare them, if they are responsible to obey God's law and they didn't get a law at Mount Sinai and they didn't get tablets written in the finger of God that they had. If God still holds them accountable for all of His commandments, then how much more would they not be liable to God's judgment since they had so much more light, so much more privilege, so many more opportunities. And so Amos opens his message with a judgment and a testimony against Damascus, the capital of Syria. And the sin that he mentions there is egregious and extreme cruelty and torture.

They threshed Gilead with implements of iron. This is the land that they took from the northern tribes and later on Jeroboam got it back, but they threshed Gilead with implements of iron. Now threshing is where with an iron flail, the grain is beaten out of the chaff. On a threshing floor sometimes you might drive a wheel over it, different ways to thresh out the grain. But Amos describes this as threshing people with instruments of iron.

That's just describing torture. When Elisha anointed Haseo, one of the kings of Syria who was involved in this kind of torture, he said he was weeping. And Hesio asked him, why are you weeping? And Elisha said, because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. The evil you will do.

You're going to dash their children. You're going to set their houses on fire. You're going to kill their young men with the sword. And he lists these tortures and cruelty that he knew he saw by God's revelation that Isirah would do. So the question is, is this something we're guilty of?

Is this true of our nation? Are we a people whom God could say, for three transgressions of America, for three transgressions of the United States, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because you have threshed people with instruments of iron because you have been instruments of torture Well, I grant that These kinds of things are not announced on our cable news networks. Or they are very rarely. But they absolutely are happening. Being sanctioned, being done by us.

Not us individually, I'm not saying anybody's doing this on their own, but as citizens of this country, our government, our representatives, are engaging in this kind of activity. It's got different names and different ways of happening. One example of it is what's called Extraordinary Rendition. And a former CIA official by the name of Bob Bear explained in disturbing detail, he said, quote, if you want serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria.

He must have read Amos? I don't know. If you want somebody to disappear, never to see them again, you send them to Egypt. He's not talking about something that happened 3000 years ago. He's talking about right now, today, what's happening in our nation.

If you want people to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want them to disappear you send them to Egypt take the case of mahar are a Canadian citizen born in Syria left at age 17 Transiting through JFK airport on his way home from a family vacation in Tunisia in 2002 he was arrested, detained, held incommunicado, secretly flown by the CIA in a private jet, a company, somewhere there was a company that owned this jet, private jet to Syria where he was brutally tortured for nearly a year. Our hands. Maher brought a federal lawsuit after he was released after nearly a year of high-level effort. He brought his lawsuit in an attempt to hold the U.S.

Government accountable. But the Justice Department lawyers successfully argued that this case should be dismissed because it concerned matters of national security. The national security was somehow more important than justice and holding people accountable for extreme cruelty, for threshing people with instruments of iron, in this case, Mr. Mahar Arer. And in 2010, the Supreme Court let that dismissal stand.

What happens in our courts is significant. Every nation will have sins. The question is what do you do with those sins? Are they overlooked? Or do the ministers of God do their duty?

But this is even worse. The very ministers themselves are engaging in this sin. And We could go on and on in the torture, physical torture of people. Just look at the prisoners that are detained right now in prisons in Washington, D.C. That they're being mistreated, and they won't even allow senators who have oversight, members of Congress who have oversight of that prison to visit the prison because of the conditions and the treatment of the people in there.

Yes, the United States is threshing people with instruments of iron. For three transgressions of Gaza and for four, I will not turn away its punishment." They took captive the whole captivity. They trafficked in humans for profit. They weren't just prisoners of war that they mistreated, that's what Syria was doing. This is saying that They just went out and kidnapped people.

This is what the Muslims did throughout Africa and still do. You know, there were a number of slaves that were taken over to America. And people have gone and tracked every ship that ever brought slaves in and have put together some interesting databases. And there are a lot of them over a long period of time, over a number of decades. Somebody actually put together a little mnemonic that had every slave vessel that ever came to the US in the Virgin Islands.

But it pales. It pales in number, in volume, and in duration to what the Muslims have done in Africa in capturing people and selling them into slavery. Well, this is, they're simply exploiting people. People become the product. They're being sold for slavery.

They're being sold for profit. It's just a profit. People are the commodity. Well, we don't have slaves in that sense anymore. But we have massive exploitation of people for profit.

The whole vaccine and pharmaceutical industry exploits people for profit and that's you can name names the Center for Disease Control the Gates Foundation, the National Institute of Health. These are the people that are to be monitoring the drugs that are produced and introduced on the market. They're the people that are to be determining whether vaccines are safe or not. And instead of doing that they are allowing a flood of drugs onto the market that make people sick for profit. They shred contrary evidence, they lie about studies, and all this is documented.

It's all, There are people that have produced the evidence, fraud, financial incentives. People in these institutions can have royalties on patents for drugs that they're supposed to be the gatekeeper in determining whether they're safe or not. The vaccine industry is a $55 billion industry. And There is now study after study after study in peer-reviewed journals that show just how devastating vaccines have been to people. All for profit.

There's one study, and I'll just cite one, if you want more information There's plenty of places to go, but just one study done by a pro-vaccine doctor and a bunch of Danish scientists recently did a study looking at vaccinated people in Guinea Bissau in Africa, And they took the babies, infants that were vaccinated and infants that weren't vaccinated. And these people, these pro-vaccine people in their peer-reviewed study found that vaccines, the Vaccinated infants had a 10 times higher infant mortality rate than the unvaccinated. And they had sorted it out for all the other backgrounds and other factors that could influence that. That's just one example, Just one little study. But this is an exploitation of people.

And there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people, of parents who now live with brain damaged children, who have grown up, they're men now, Six foot two, 200 pounds that they're not potty trained. They can't feed themselves. They can barely talk. They can't communicate. All for profit.

Tyre broke the covenant of brotherhood. The Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised him, 1 Kings 5 tells us. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together. Hiram supplied much of the wood for the temple. And yet they broke that covenant.

They were a merchant nation. They were the facilitators of the slave trade. They delivered the whole captivity to Edom. Just like the Philistines. They sold their slaves to Edom.

They captured them and sold them for profit. The Tyre was doing something similar. They were the facilitators of transportation of merchandise, including people, and they sold them to Edom. And they broke the covenant of brotherhood with Israel. For three transgressions of Edom and for four, God says, I will not turn away its punishment because he pursued his brother with the sword.

Edom was a descendant of Esau. And you remember Jacob had deceived Esau and stolen away the birthright by... He tricked him, tricked his father into blessing him instead of Esau. And they never forgot that. They nursed that hatred and desire for revenge.

He's pursued his brother with a sword. He cast off all pity. His anger tore perpetually. He kept his wrath forever. They never got over that.

And they became extremely bitter and vengeful. And such that Psalm 137 says, Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, who said, Raise it, raise it, to its very foundation. When Babylon came in to take and captured Israel, Edom was there saying, go on, go on, get them. They were cheering on The Babylonians in their cruelty to God's people. They also were the ones who were buying the slaves from Philistines and from Tyre.

So they were doing this out of their anger, their spite. They pursued their brother with the sword. Ammon. For three transgressions of the people of Ammon and for four I will not turn away its punishment, because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their territory. This was a common torture in biblical times.

It's not the only place that happened. In fact, all of these things that are mentioned against these nations are not unique to these nations. Other nations engaged in them as well. Syria did this as well. But this is what Ammon, he mentions about Ammon.

And it is something that has happened even in our, in the 20th century. There are examples of this happening among prison populations, among prisoners of war in World War II. And I know it happens in other places. It happens in Sudan. And in many times our own soldiers are involved in these engagements.

Some people have documented, that have studied these things, have documented 80 and 90 wars that have been fought since World War II by us in various countries around the world. And so even if we aren't actually engaging in these things, a lot of times we are funding these things. Who created the Taliban? It was America that funded the Taliban and that funded ISIS. And there are plenty of, in fact the legislator that funded the Taliban in the 80s is just up the road from Texas.

In fact, when he retired from the Senate, he was given, or not the Senate, the House, he was given a special day of memorial at the CIA because he had single-handedly funded them to the tune of billions and billions of dollars in creating the Taliban, who do do these things. Moab. Through three transgressions of Moab and for four, I will not turn away its punishment because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime. They desecrated a dead body. Now that may not sound like a lot, but the fact that it's listed here as the sin of a nation, that for three transgressions and for four God would not turn away its punishment, and this is what's listed, ought to maybe calibrate us as to how God looks at the human body.

That it is made in His image. And even a dead body is a body that's been made in God's image. And we are to have respect for it. And it's because of that that the Christian church has long understood that when somebody dies, their body should be buried. My father always used to say if we were never, if we expressed doubt about anything, doubt about something being safe, he might say, well, if you die, we'll give you a decent Christian burial.

That's more than some people get today. And I'll have to confess for many years I did not see and wasn't convinced biblically that that cremation was wrong. Because essentially that's what cremation is, right? It burns the bones of a body to lime. It's exactly what you do.

You put it in an oven and you heat it very, very hot until all the water is driven off. All the, basically, the elements in the body are reduced to ash. Burn the bone, so lime is calcium. Our bodies have a lot of calcium, so if you burn a body, you end up with a lot of calcium and other things. And I knew that, I was aware that God buries his friends and burns his enemies.

And that to be burned was a disgrace. Not saying that the martyrs, it was the martyrs who were burned, that wasn't something they had any control over. But I just, but I never, I wasn't willing to simply accept the practice of the Christian church. I wanted to be convinced from scripture and I just wasn't convinced that cremation was wrong. I, I, I was, so I was very, I probably wouldn't have done it but I couldn't speak against it.

I wasn't willing, I wasn't convicted that That's what scripture taught. Until I read this verse one time, a few years ago, and it hit me. This nation cremated a body and God was judging them for it. And that was enough to say, wow, okay, now I see why the Christian Church has historically condemned cremation. Where our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, there is to have a respect for them.

And we don't mistreat them. I had always thought, well, yes, the way the Hindus burn a body is disgusting. If you've ever seen it described, it's horrible. It's sickening. And yes, it's an indecent dignity, indecent treatment of a body.

But I always thought cremation was very clean and certainly no more indecent than embalming. So I read this. It's a very clear statement. To burn the body, the bones of a king to lime And you know, what do we see in our country more more and more cremation because it's expedient it's cheaper Why should we? They've made burial very very costly should be able to just bury your family in your backyard.

That's how things were. And now that's not legal. So that's a problem. It shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to die and be buried. It just requires a hole in the ground and a decent Christian burial.

And what do we do at a burial? We worship the Lord. We worship the Lord. We recognize that we are but dust and ashes, and that we return to dust and ashes because we've sinned. And it's an opportunity to acknowledge and to proclaim the Gospel.

Because hearts are willing to listen in that time, maybe more than other times. And Lord often uses death of His people to save family members. I know many examples and you probably do too. But how we treat a body, a dead body, is important. It matters to God.

It's made in His image. And there are many different ideas about what these people, what the king of Moab did with the lime, whether he put it in a mortar in a building or something, is I don't think really the point. The point is His treatment of the body. It's not any doubt about the resurrection. The worms eat the body in the ground, and the flesh is gone just as much as if you burn it.

But it's our respect for the body and our submission to the Lord and to His Word and to what He says. And so may the Lord give to us a willingness like Amos to look at our own nation and to be honest about the sins of our nation and to be grieved for the sins of our nation, to be willing to tremble at these warnings that God gives in His Word and not be insensitive to them and not think that well that's other people, that's far away, that's other nations, that's these nations to recognize that where it applies to us, these judgments also apply to us. But God is merciful. Nineveh was not mentioned here, but Nineveh is an example of one of these wicked nations like America that who repented at God's at God's message When he sent Jonah and God was merciful and he saved them and there were probably two generations there maybe some some 40 years Where Nineveh was a Christian city? So that's hope in God's mercy And let's pray and recognize our own part in these sins of our nation.

Let's pray. Almighty Father in heaven, we thank you that you are merciful and that you do not remember, retain your anger forever because you delight in mercy. Lord, we ask for your mercy upon us and upon our land. We ask that we as your people might speak with one voice against the sins of our land, but also Lord, may we look and examine our own lives where we have participated in these matters as well. And we ask Lord for your grace of repentance, for your grace of humility, That we might love mercy and do justly and walk humbly with you.

In Jesus' name, amen.