Amos chapter 5: Come back and LIVE!

Amos 5:1-27

As you all know I’ve been quite sick this week. And when you’re sick, really sick, you go through different stages. At one point I wanted to die – I had a deep longing for Heaven and the benefits of living in the new Creation, the new Earth untainted by sin, and its effects like sickness. Thankfully I did not die

But I also felt like packing everything in, packing the church in: it’s too much work, it’s not worth it! The next day I was quickly back to my senses! Of course it’s worth it. Look what we have! An International church filled with people from every land – here in Notodden. A church which preaches fearlessly from the BIBLE, holding out the gospel of grace. That’s remarkable. A family that is starting to grow, people who love each other and care for each other. That’s brilliant. We don’t just pack that in! That’s a remarkable picture of God’s grace in action.
And most of all we don’t pack it in because Jesus never packed it in before the cross. Oh it’s not worth it! He never said that. He went to the cross, took our sin upon his shoulders, and bore it to the depths of Hell and back again.
So, yes, this little church, this little reflection of the grace of God: it’s worth it. So when you’re struggling to get the kids ready for church or you’re tired after a hard day’s work before Bible study, or a church member needs help with something – remember it is worth it. We stand together for Jesus. We belong to Him.

Because the way that we live reflects what we believe. If we are “in Christ” then that will affect the way we live. We will be at church every Sunday. We will be at Bible study every Wednesday, hungry for more of God’s Word. We will be looking for ways to serve each other, praying for each other, taking each other meals and helping practically. We will be hard workers, knowing we work for the Lord and not ourselves, we will be honourable in our relationships, kind and compassionate. We will tell the truth no matter what the cost. If we belong to Jesus then we belong to him.

And that is the resounding theme of tonight’s passage: There is a match between belief and actions. The fruit identifies the tree. A tree producing apples is an apple tree. A tree producing pears is a pear tree. And a people producing injustice, oppression, and the rich stealing from the poor, is a people who have turned their back on God. Because their religion is a dead religion, because they have turned from God, their actions are evil, selfish, rotten. Their fruit shows what kind of tree they are. The fruit is rotten. The tree is dead.

1. Death

The first section of this passage (v1-17) starts and ends with a funeral lament: a song of sorrow for the dead. Listen, you people of Israel! Listen to this funeral song I am singing: 2 “The virgin Israel has fallen, never to rise again! She lies abandoned on the ground, with no one to help her up.”

Israel is fallen. So sure is her demise, her death, that she is a dead man walking – a convicted criminal walking to the electric chair. She is a zombie, the shambling remains of a human, an animated corpse, the appearance of life – but the truth is she is dead. She has the appearance of religion of dutiful devotion to the Sovereign Lord, but the religion is rotten, it stinks, their lives stink like rotten flesh – the shambling zombie remains of the people of God. Fallen, never to rise again, is Israel.

This section is written in what is called a chiastic structure (layers, like an onion). The outer layers are vv1-3 and vv16-17 and are about the funeral lament of Israel, mourning her death.

But is there any hope? We peel off a layer and see: vv4-6 and 14-15: 4 Now this is what the LORD says to the family of Israel: “Come back to me and live! And 14 Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! In New Testament language we would say repent and believe! Believe that Jesus accepts you as you are, has taken away your sins, and repent of living against him – turn away from your sins and start living for God. Come back to me and live, do what is good and run from evil.

But why is she dying? We peel off a layer and see: vv7 and 10-13

7 You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed. You treat the righteous like dirt.

10 How you hate honest judges! How you despise people who tell the truth! 11 You trample the poor, stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent. Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses, you will never live in them. Though you plant lush vineyards, you will never drink wine from them. 12 For I know the vast number of your sins and the depth of your rebellions. You oppress good people by taking bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. 13 So those who are smart keep their mouths shut, for it is an evil time.

Not a great place to live, was it, Israel in those day. Corrupt. Unjust. Where those with wealth and power just crush the poor and powerless. Like in Ethiopia, where children are being sold for the equivalent of kr70. The buyers promise the families, rural subsistence farmers, that the children will have a better life, opportunities, schooling. The reality is they work 16 hour days, get one meal a day of corn, and sleep on the floor under plastic bags. And those are the lucky ones, the ones not sold into prostitution. Israel then. Ethiopia now. And many other places in the world. It is an evil time.

And so we peel off the final layer and come to the heart of the “onion”, the chiastic structure of the verses. 8 It is the LORD who created the stars, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into morning and day into night. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The LORD is his name! 9 With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong, crushing all their defences.

Our heart, our centre, should be the Lord. The heart of our society should be the Lord. That is how he made the universe. Everything was made with Him at its centre. That is how we function best. He created the stars, he sends the rain, he controls the oceans, he of blinding speed and power. The True Superhero!

But Israel! Israel in their great wisdom have swapped out the Lord with… nothing! They have replaced the Creator God, the Father of lights, the Everlasting Father, Almighty God – with images made to look like animals or mortal man.

And because their centre is empty, brittle like a snapped twig, their society starts to crumble. Evil. Corruption. When we throw out the Creator we despise his creation, and start to abuse our environment, and worse, abuse other people.

I read recently about Planned Parenthood in America who have now issued a statement that babies who are born alive after an attempted abortion must not be killed. Because, you know, there was some confusion about that, and some of their doctors were killing the babies after they’d come through the birth canal.
Of course, the staggering irony of their statement did not escape me. The same baby who moments before had no right to life, was actively being KILLED by the doctors, now suddenly has a right to life and is recognised as a human being – because he or she moved about 18cm through the birth canal.

This is not about women’s rights, but the rights of young children, unborn or otherwise, to be recognised as worthy of life.

Do we need any more evidence that our core is rotten?

Why is our core rotten? Because we have turned our back on God and replaced Him with something else. Whether that is atheism, or New Age spiritualism, or ancestor worship, or Bhuddism, Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, or Christianity without Christ (churches which preach moralism, behave yourself, but never the riches of the grace found at the foot of the Cross.)

Israel thought they could worship God without God. God says 21 “I hate all your show and pretence— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. 22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. 23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.

God wants to see a flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. But that’s only possible if they come back to Him and LIVE. But they have rejected him and so the only outcome is death, and the fruit of death: evil, corruption, sin.

We too live in a world, in a society that shows the fruit of rejecting God. Come back and live. Otherwise Amos may well sing a funeral song over us.

You know, as we’ve been going through Amos some of you have asked “Why Amos?” Why are we reading Amos? It seems so gloomy, so much death and judgement, so fixated with the bad things in life. The answer because through Amos we see life as it really is. Pick up a newspaper – there’s very little good news in there. There are wars and corruption and unspeakable cruelty. And if we just pick the bits of the Bible that we like then we miss the fact that God is big enough to deal with a hurting world. In Amos we see that God is not a fool, singing nursery rhymes while the world burns.

We see a big BIG God who can deal with pain of the world. Amos shows us a real God for people in a real world. Many of you are refugees, fleeing from wars, desperate cruelty, child soldiers, evil men doing evil things. Many of you have experienced exactly what Amos has been describing here. And the message is that God SEES. And He roars out his judgement. Those evil acts will not go unpunished. They are not beyond the arm of the Lord. He is not sitting in Heaven, wringing his hands going “oh no, I wish they would stop being so mean”. He is in control. He is the King. He is the Lion who roars. He is the one who allows a limited amount of evil and then says “no more”.

But why? Why the wars in Sudan? The child slavery in Ethiopia? The unborn children being put to death because of a gap of 18cms? Why? This is God holding up a mirror to us!! See! This is HELL. Flee. Flee to Me and LIVE. This is our hearts, and they are dark and evil.

And when we have seen that - when we have seen ourselves for who we truly are. When we see what we are capable of. When we see the deep need we have for a Saviour, then, THEN we are ready to hear the good news: Come back to me and LIVE.

This is the great and awesome JOY of preaching Amos. Because it is a message to a world in trouble, it is a message from a real God for people in a real world. It is a message for refugees, for those who have seen terrible things. And it is a message of hope. Evil may be great, but God is greater still. Our hearts may be dark, but the blazing holiness of God can reach even our dark hearts and light them up, set them on fire with a blazing joy. We may be like Israel shambling zombies, but when Lazarus, dead for three days, heard Jesus’ voice calling to him – he was no zombie that came shambling out of the grave, but a man, whole and pure and restored, alive! Leaping and shouting and praising God. Come back to me and LIVE says God.

There may be death, but there is also

2. Life

4 Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel: “Come back to me and live! 5 Don’t worship at the pagan altars at Bethel; don’t go to the shrines at Gilgal or Beersheba. For the people of Gilgal will be dragged off into exile, and the people of Bethel will be reduced to nothing.” 6 Come back to the Lord and live! Otherwise, he will roar through Israel like a fire, devouring you completely. Your gods in Bethel won’t be able to quench the flames.

Seek me and live! Come back to the Lord. Repent and believe! Turn away from your false gods, your false worldview, the lies that you have told yourself, and turn TO the Living God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Source of Life and Goodness and Love, the Father of lights.

And show what you believe by LIVING it:

14 Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed. 15 Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people.

Is that not the heartbeat of the Christian message? Repent and believe, and live like the Forgiven People of God. Grace has been shown you, now live with grace towards others. 24 I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.

How can He offer this? How can he forgive such evil people? How can he deal with Ethiopian slave-traders, and Sudanese warlords and Norwegian sinners. Well, we’ve just seen it displayed over these past few weeks: The great message of Easter. Seek me and live, says the Lord, because he has taken our place in death. Seek me and LIVE, for I have conquered death- the tomb is empty, Jesus is RISEN! Hallelujah!

Our sins may be great, but his mercy is all the greater. So Amos cries out to these wretched, idol worshipping, God-mocking, corrupt, poor-stomping, evil people, entertaining themselves to death, fat cows shouting “bring us a drink” and says you, yes YOU can be forgiven, can be made clean, made holy, you can be transformed, given a new heart so that instead of unrighteousness your life becomes a flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.

Amos did not know how God would achieve that forgiveness, that turn-around but we do. Christ on the cross. The King who suffers and dies for his people. The great swap on the cross, where he takes our sins, all our sins past present and future – the sins we don’t even know we’re going to to commit. He takes them upon his shoulders, and says IT IS FINISHED. Our sins are gone! And we hear his voice like Lazarus calling us out of the grave “LIVE”.

We have a new heart, a new nature. So we now start to live righteously. It’s called regeneration. It’s not something that comes from outside “TRY HARDER, BE MORE MORAL!” but from the inside. We want to hear God’s Word, we want to forgive people, we want to love our wives, we want to teach our children about the Lord, we want to pray, we want to forgive our enemies, we want to work hard at work, we want to hold our tongue instead of gossiping. All these changes start to talk place in us – the Holy Spirit, he is at work in us, changing us.

We suddenly are more thankful. We suddenly can love those who we used to hate. Maybe in your home country you were taught to hate people of a different tribe or different religion or different colour. Now you can be like Jesus and love your enemies. Love those who previously persecuted you.
Maybe you are homesick, longing for your country, your family, your friends, familiar surroundings. Take that to the Cross, lay it at Jesus’ feet – those are right feelings, but ask him to turn them into blessings. Be thankful for your family here, start to praise God for this little town of Notodden, your new home, beautiful, safe, with kind people, and lovely nature to remind you of your creator God.

We are different people, we have a different heartbeat –the heartbeat of Christ. Let us obey him with joy, because we who were dead are now ALIVE!

Come back to the Lord and LIVE!