Amos: An epilogue.

Eternity!

How we need to grasp this word, this concept! It changes how we view ourselves, how we view other people, how we view this world. Eternity.

Genesis 1:1, the beginning of the Bible says “In the beginning, God”. God is eternal. He was always there and will always be there. His name “Yahweh” (some translations say Jehovah) means I am who I am. When Moses says to God “Whom shall I say has sent me” God replies tell them “I am” sent you. God is eternal.

But we, too, are eternal. We were made in his image, the divine spark of eternal life placed within us. Each of us, from the smallest unborn child to the most wizened and wrinkled old person, is a god or goddess, a glorious creation, a song of praise to the Almighty God on the throne.

C.S. Lewis, in his sermon “The Weight of Glory” says this about us: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”

Eternity is the backdrop, the big theme, behind Amos’ message. The Lion roars from Zion at his people, his people who are going the wrong way: towards eternal darkness, instead of eternal Light.

Preaching is a strange business, because it is both immensely personal, and very public. You prepare a speech to be given publicly, but as you prepare it you are impacted by it personally. For it is the Living Word of God – and a preacher who is not listening to God himself has no right to get up on Sunday! I was deeply challenged by God’s word through Amos, I personally felt that we needed more time to absorb the lessons, the deep, challenging truths about God.

I wanted to draw out three lessons from Amos as follows:

1. People matter (people are valuable!)

2. The purpose of suffering is to turn us back to God (and away from eternal darkness)

3. Jesus our only Saviour

1. People matter

Amos’ prophecy opens with these thunderous words 1:2 “The Lord’s voice will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem! The lush pastures of the shepherds will dry up; the grass on Mount Carmel will wither and die.”

What is this blast of anger from the throne? Why does God roar? Why does he thunder?

We find out quickly that it’s because of people hurting people.

Injustice, abuse, war, slavery, oppression, theft, corruption – the terrible things that we do to each other. And the Lord sees. And the Lord will judge. People matter. We cannot do whatever we want to other people and not expect any consequences. The Lord sees.

It really hit home reading chapter 1 how highly God values people, all people. People matter to God! We matter because he made us. The anger, the fury which we see unleashed in chapter 1 “The people of xxx have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished!...  So I will send down fire on xxx, and the fortresses of xxx will be destroyed.” – it’s the kind of anger we see in the movies when the daughter gets kidnapped or killed and the father goes after the baddies in his righteous fury. It’s the kind of anger reserved for those who hurt the ones closest to us. And God has that kind of anger for all people. All of us matter. Isn’t that mind-blowing?

And it’s not just Christians whom he loves – it’s all people! We know how “his people” were behaving themselves – yet he is angry when they are mistreated. He is angered by Moab’s attitude towards Edom – two foreign nations. We are his creation, and he loves us. We are made in his image, and he loves us. We have an innate value, each of us.

You may have experienced something terrible in your life. Maybe you had to flee for your life from people doing evil things. Maybe those who were supposed to love betrayed you. Maybe you have been sexually abused, or imprisoned, or lied about, or cheated out of what was rightfully yours. You may feel like you have no value, that you are worthless.

Amos 1 says “no”. Indeed, Amos 2 says “NO!” when God confronts his people for their abuse of the poor, and the powerless, and their sexual immorality. No, says God, you are valuable to me, and I will punish those who have done evil against you. Like a father coming to rescue his daughter, so is God coming to judge the evildoers.

Let that penetrate. You have value. No matter what you’ve done or experienced. You have value.

But more than that: every person has value. Think now about those people or groups of people who you dismiss, ignore, don’t care about. It may be people far away – it may be people in your own family. Bring them to your mind now. And say “you have value”. God values them. Look them in the eye and say “you are valuable”.

We are all eternal beings, created in the image of God. People matter.

Because God loves us, because we are his, eternal, he will do whatever he must to call us to turn to him. To make us listen.
He will roar from Zion. He will send disaster on the city.

2. The purpose of suffering is to turn us to God

3:6 Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has planned it? 7 Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets. 8 The lion has roared— so who isn’t frightened? The Sovereign Lord has spoken— so who can refuse to proclaim his message?

This really challenged my thinking about God – and I ended up with a much bigger view of God, and a much smaller view of myself! If God’s Word keeps breaking the box you’ve put God in, get rid of the box! This is one of the truths of the Bible that really streeetch our understanding of God.

God loves us, and so he sends disaster on us. Huh? But that makes sense if the ones you love are heading for disaster! If your son is about to take drugs, who’s going to stop him? The drug dealer? He wants him to take drugs. The other addicts? They don’t care about him. But if you were there? Boom! You’d tackle him to the ground to stop him making a decision that could ruin his life. Why did you react and the others not? Because you LOVE him, they did not.

That’s why God allows suffering. It’s him tackling us to the ground, saying “think! Do you know what you’re doing to the rest of your life – eternal life”?

He does this in two ways: he allows sin, and he sends disaster. Those two can be quite strongly linked sometimes.

God allows sin so that we can see the depth of depravity (evil) in our own hearts. When we see men like Gosnell, the baby-killer, or Ariel Castro who kept three women captive for nearly 10 years, or the list of criminals, murders, corrupt officials, and dictators that just goes on and on. This is allowed in order to WAKE US UP to the fact that we have gone astray, that we need help, that we should repent of our sin and turn to God – or in the words of Amos 5 Seek the Lord and live!
Instead we use those stories to feel superior about ourselves “well, I’m fine because at least I’m not like them” and to use it to argue against believing in God “a loving God would never allow suffering”. Actually that’s exactly what a loving God would do. People matter to God, he loves people, and so he will punish, he will warn, he will do anything to turn them back to him.

Disasters like earthquakes, famine, landslides, floods, storms, accidents – all shout out to us that we are not God. That this foolish idea that “I am the captain of my destiny” is a lie. That we need to look up and acknowledge that God is God and we are not. It is God shaking us awake!

You know, our minds are predisposed to like the opinions we already hold. The pleasure centres of our brains actually light up when we hear something confirming what we already know to be “true”. Therefore Christianity is weird. Because we spend our time learning stuff which goes against what we believe or want to believe! That I’m good. That I am like God. Every time we come to the Bible we are shaken, and stretched, and told to believe things we don’t want to believe!

So why do we do it? Because it’s the truth.

Ps 50:22 (NLT) Repent, all of you who forget me, or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one will help you.

We are not free to disregard parts of the Bible we don’t like. Either God is God, or he is not. Either Jesus was raised from the dead, or he was not. If not, this is a sham, fake. If he was, and the evidence is overwhelming that he was, then all this is true, and the Bible is the very words of the Living God – and then we must bow our knees before him and say I don’t understand, but I accept.

I read Isaiah 42 last night (I’m reading through Isaiah with the kids) and at the end of the chapter it says: Is 42:23–25 (NLT) Who will hear these lessons from the past and see the ruin that awaits you in the future? 24 Who allowed Israel to be robbed and hurt? It was the LORD, against whom we sinned, for the people would not walk in his path, nor would they obey his law. 25 Therefore, he poured out his fury on them and destroyed them in battle. They were enveloped in flames, but they still refused to understand. They were consumed by fire, but they did not learn their lesson.

Suffering is for us to learn, to understand. To understand why, although we know we are loved, we don’t feel loved. Instead we feel alone, we feel guilty, we feel condemned. We were designed for intimacy with our God. Instead we have a broken relationship with God.

As Morpheus says to Neo in the Matrix “Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.”

Disaster strikes! Why? To wake us up to the eternal danger we face. Like being rugby-tackled by your friend just before you jumped off a bridge – the tackle may hurt for a moment, but he saved your life!

As Christians we understand. This world we live in is broken – and its brokenness drives us to Jesus. Pain in our own lives drives us to Jesus, to make us more like him.

Just one final point, in case the devil is in our heads saying “ha, you see, God doesn’t care, he’s evil – just like blasting you with his anger, watching you suffer”. Take the devil to the cross, and watch his argument vanish. God suffered everything we did, and more. He suffered and carried our suffering, so that we can live eternally free from suffering. We may struggle to understand suffering – but we cannot ever say that God is distant and unfeeling. He bore the marks on his body, a love that says “I am with you”.

Suffering drives us to the One who suffered for us. In eternity, his body will be the only one bearing scars, scars which brought us life.

Which leads me on to my final point, the final “WOW” moment I had from Amos that I would like to share with you:

3. Jesus, our only Saviour

Now that I’ve finished preaching through Amos I feel that I’m ready to preach it (ha!). Because now I understand the structure of Amos. After spending so much time with this book it’s opening before me like a brilliant treasure. And it is brilliant.
Chapters 1-6 paint a dark picture of Israel. It is ramming home the fact that they are just a sinful as the surrounding nations they look down upon. In fact they are as sinful as Egypt was in the days of the Exodus. So corrupt have they become. By the time you hit chapter 6, you should be despairing! That’s what gave Christian such a hard time preaching it: it is the low point of Amos. We should be helpless, hopeless, despairing at our sinfulness, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. Woe to us! There is no hope. Our comfortable lifestyle is built on a lie, and all will come crashing down. That’s Israel in 760BC – and indeed, us in Norway in 2013: rich, comfortable, ignoring God, trampling one another in order to get what we want. And so chapter 7 opens with utter destruction – Israel totally wiped out. Am 7:1–2 (NLT) The Sovereign LORD showed me a vision. I saw him preparing to send a vast swarm of locusts over the land…2 In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Am 7:4 (NLT) Then the Sovereign LORD showed me another vision. I saw him preparing to punish his people with a great fire. The fire had burned up the depths of the sea and was devouring the entire land.

Sackcloth. Ashes. Darkness. Hopelessness. Israel cannot rescue itself. Norway cannot rescue itself. We are ripe for the judgement of God, turning his rich gifts into praise for ourselves while ignoring him. The shadow of judgement lies heavily across our nation.

But wait! What is this? Verse 3, verse 5 Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.”There is a mediator, one who pleads for Israel! A glimmer of hope! And the Lord relents “I will not do it,” said the Sovereign LORD.

There is still time to come back to the Lord and live (chapter 5)! There is a remnant who will be saved!

And so we enter into the brilliant chapters 8 and 9 where our eternal destinies are contrasted. Either you will remain in your sin, and chapter 8 will be your destiny: utter destruction, cut off from the word of the Lord, a spiritual famine, an eternal spiritual death.

Or chapter 9, you can choose life, follow the King like David, the one who will restore the fortunes of Israel. Take shelter in the King and you will never be uprooted.

It parallels Moses’ final speech in Deut 30 , where he lays before Israel their future: choose death, or choose life.

Amos lays the same choice before Israel, and, indeed, before us: continue in your ways, live it up, ignore God – and you have chosen death, destruction. It will come. 9:10 But all the sinners will die by the sword— all those who say, ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’

Or take shelter in the King, cry out to the one who can gather his people from every nation, all those whom he has called to be his, and choose LIFE. You will never be uprooted. You will be eternally HOME. Am 9:11–12 (NLT, Greek text) “In that day I will restore the fallen house of David. I will repair its damaged walls. From the ruins I will rebuild it and restore its former glory, 12 so that the rest of humanity, including the Gentiles— all those I have called to be mine—might seek me. The LORD has spoken, and he will do these things.

The way is open, and the future is glorious! All our needs are met in abundance (the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested and the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel will drip with sweet wine!) and the King who calls the even the Gentiles will gather his people back from distant lands to live forever, secure, firmly planted, never uprooted: home! Dear fellow foreigners and wanderers from foreign lands – one day we will be in our true home, where we belong. Our restless hearts will be at peace. In Christ. Firmly planted, forever.

O Glorious future!

I will let Moses have the last word:

Dt 30:19 (NLT) “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

Choose life! Eternal life. Place your life in the hands of the King, Jesus, the Christ.

Amos 9:5-15 The King is unshakeable

Amos 9:5-15

6 The Lord’s home reaches up to the heavens, while its foundation is on the earth. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The Lord is his name!

The Lord! God of the whole Universe. Powerful, awesome, holy, perfect. This is the God who made us, and made us like him, in his image. We are made for him, for his good pleasure, to know him, deeply, intimately, perfectly. Each person, made in his good image. Each person, therefore, infinitely valuable.

For we are eternal beings, all of us. Luminous – not just this crude matter. We are built for the world to come. And finally, finally!, we see a glimmer of hope as Amos takes us up, up and onward to a world where 13 the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested. Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel will drip with sweet wine! A land where the exiles are brought home, when they can live in peace and security.
Imagine Sudan, at peace. Exiles like Ahmed, return home, plant their crops, live in peace.
But it’s more than that, greater than that. The exiles come from the whole world, the grain and grapes grow faster than possible, and the people will never be uprooted. It is a picture of Heaven, the life we were made to live. The life that is only possible through Jesus – he is the door, the key. He is the King of the fallen house of David, now restored (v11). He is our hope, because he is the one who has defeated sin, paid the price to rescue us, and who is seated on the throne, our mediator and our guarantee of safety. The Lord is his name!

Two points from the passage tonight:

1. We will be shaken

2. The King is unshakeable

1. We will be shaken

We pick up where we left off last week. Israel, shock and horror!, has become like Egypt under Pharaoh. Corrupt. Enslaving people. Sexually immoral. Caring nothing for the word of the Lord. Caring only for wealth and comfort. Fat cows saying “bring us a drink”.

Sounds like us? Well, maybe not yet. Our courts are generally fair, and people are generally honest. But for how long? How long will the legacy of Christian morals: treat others like you would want to be treated – how long will that last against the secular onslaught of look out for number 1. Love yourself.

We don’t have slavery – well, at least within the borders of the country. What about where the products we buy are made?

Our sexual morals are in a complete mess. “Families” are gone, replaced with way stations where the parental figures are swapped out every few years, and where the children commute back and forth between two or more homes. Fathers are nearly non-existent.

Why? As we see in Amos, because our centre did not hold. Our churches are rotten, filled with religion, the glorious gospel of grace replaced with a Mother Grundy wagging finger of “Behave! Or else the troll will get you. Troll, sorry I meant to say God”. Sin was reduced to naughtiness. Sin is no longer a relational thing – I am distant from God; but reduced to behavioural. As someone remarked to me the other day “people are sick of hearing about sin here in Norway”. If sin is just someone else’s’ idea of how you should behave, then yes. The key of course, is to preach MORE on sin, REAL sin – ignoring God, being estranged from Him. If someone has the counterfeit, the false, give them the truth!

Like Israel, much Christianity here in Norway has been and is simply empty religion. Much activity, but a stench in God’s nostrils, just like Israel in the time of Amos. If you don’t believe me, talk to non-Christians about their experience and view of the church. They feel condemned, they feel rejected, they feel inferior. They see the church as a holy huddle, a bunch of superior religious types looking down their noses at the “failures” the sinners and tax collectors…. Just like Pharisees.

Oh be warned! Being in church your whole life means absolutely nothing. Jesus’ terrifying words “get away from me, I do not know you!” (Matt 7:23). What we’ve seen so far in Amos is that religious activity counts nothing before God. Our righteous acts are dirty rags before him. Do we really think that you can get right with God by being good? Do we? Do we really think that being “a good person” is enough.
Fools! Do we not know who we are talking about? The great God, the Holy God, the perfect God, magnificent, pure, perfect, seated in unapproachable light on his throne high above the Heavens, a searing, blinding HOLINESS shining out from Him, his word goes forth and shakes kingdoms, brings down the mighty, h8mbles kings; his breath holds the world in check, he commands the sun to run its course, the rain to fall, the moon to rise. Our “goodness” is RIDICULOUS, laughable. A mockery of his Goodness and Justice.

Look at what he says to Israel 7 “Are you Israelites more important to me than the Ethiopians?” asks the Lord. “I brought Israel out of Egypt, but I also brought the Philistines from Crete and led the Arameans out of Kir.

They thought their bloodline mattered. I’m a Jew, so I’m safe from God. They thought their religion mattered. I serve God, so I’m safe. God owes me. They thought their goodness mattered. I’m a good person, so I’m safe.

God says: who do you think you are? Oh, I rescued you from Egypt – but I also rescued the Philistines and the Arameans.

What makes Israel special? Not Israel. Only God’s favour. It is his sovereign choice, his great mercy – and Israel instead of praising God for his mercy is betting on his grace in order that they may do evil!

This is grace: not what we do, but what God does.
Israel thought it was what they had done, and therefore thought that God owed them. You know, like they were somehow special, unique, superior, better than everyone else. How often this same thought is in our hearts. God loves me because I’m special, better than the others. Oh, we might not say it like that – but we feel it.

Oh, oh, how foolish we are! We are not special, we are not better. Israel is not more important than the Ethiopians, the Philistines, the Arameans. We are not more important than the drunkards, the New Age believers, the Muslims, the “råner”, the sexually promiscuous single mother next door, the grumpy old man up the street – whoever it is that we look down on, feel superior to. Thank goodness I’m not like “them”.

We think “God loves me” not because of his amazing grace poured out through the cross, his anguished cry “Father forgive them” covering our sins – no! We think he loves us because of us. I am nice, so God loves me. And we think we deserve his love instead of his wrath.

Oh, that is so dangerous! 8 “I, the Sovereign Lord, am watching this sinful nation of Israel. I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will never completely destroy the family of Israel,” says the Lord. 9 “For I will give the command and will shake Israel along with the other nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, yet not one true kernel will be lost.

One day God will shake the foundation of our lives. And if we have built on anything- ANYTHING other than Christ crucified… it will be a day of shame and terror as our whole life will crumble before our eyes and we will stand naked and alone before the God whom we have tried to manipulate and control and whose Word we have ignored and whose free gift of forgiveness we have rejected.
What a terrible Day that will be. 10 [A]ll the sinners will die by the sword— all those who say, ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’
Sin is not firstly what we do, but what we are. Who are the sinners? Those saying “Nothing bad will happen to us” – those ignoring God’s Word, pretending He doesn’t exist. That is sin. It is relational before it is behavioural. It is the root before the fruit.

So where is your root? Where is your life anchored?

Will you be standing on the Rock of Christ when the world around is shaken? Will you be standing when the spiritual breaks through into the physical – when Christ’s trumpet will sound and his mighty army of thousands of angels reveal themselves in splendour and we will see HIM, coming in the clouds, victorious, splendid, the KING.

Will you be grasping his hand of eternal life, will his Breath be in you as you take your last breath on your death bed and awake to New Eternal Life. Or will you gasp your last breath as you realise your life was built on you, and you are now dead, and you sink down to the utter darkness?

We must turn to Him, for he is unshakeable. Not one true kernel will be lost. Because our King is the King like David, the unshakable king, the King of the Restored kingdom.

We will be shaken, but...

2. The King is unshakeable

11 “In that day I will restore the fallen house of David. I will repair its damaged walls. From the ruins I will rebuild it and restore its former glory. 12 And Israel will possess what is left of Edom and all the nations I have called to be mine.” The Lord has spoken, and he will do these things.

As an Israelite you would have been delighted to hear these words. David was Israel’s greatest king, a great warrior who defeated Israel’s enemies and finally brought peace to the region. He was a good king, a man who loved God, and honoured his people. David!

After all the doom of judgement what a glorious message to hear. Those who had listened to Amos and believed him knew that they were going into exile for their wickedness. They knew the day was soon coming when armies would swoop down from the north and wipe out Israel. So this was a great hope –something to hold on to in those years of captivity. A day is coming when all will be restored.

And it was. 2 of the 12 tribes of Israel were restored, brought back from captivity after 70 years in Babylon. They did indeed rebuild their walls and plant vineyards. But the grapes did not grow faster than they were harvested, and they were not safe forever. This prophecy was not yet fulfilled – for it was looking forward to a greater restoration, a greater day, a greater King.

12 Israel (Hebrew: “they”) will possess. “they” literally – those who are in the house of David. It is “David” who will possess the nations. David the great King, who in 2 Sam 7 wanted to build a house for the Lord. The Lord said “who are you to build a house for me – I have no need for a house (duh! 6 The Lord’s home reaches up to the heavens, while its foundation is on the earth! The Lord is his name!) But I will build YOU a house. With an eternal King.
In 760BC the house of David lies in ruins. The land is corrupt, the king is evil, religion is corrupt, false, idolatrous. But there is coming a King, a King from the line of David, a King who will restore the house of David and gather all the nations in to it.

That King is JESUS of Nazareth. He is in the line of David (Matt 1:6. Luke 3:32).

Jesus is the great King who will restore Israel.

But wait, there’s more! Remember in the book of Acts when the gospel first moves out to the Gentiles (non-Jews), and the church is not quite sure about this – can non-Jews be Christians? So they call the first ever church Council, this held in Jerusalem. All the main guys are there, Peter, Paul, Barnabas. At the end James, the brother of Jesus, gets up to summarise the Council’s decision. And guess what he uses to back up his point that Gentiles like you and me can be included in the gospel? Amos 9:11-12! These are our verses!

Ac 15:13 When they had finished, James stood and said, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for himself. 15 And this conversion of Gentiles is exactly what the prophets predicted. As it is written: 16 ‘Afterward I will return and restore the fallen house of David. I will rebuild its ruins and restore it, 17 so that the rest of humanity might seek the Lord, including the Gentiles— all those I have called to be mine. The Lord has spoken— 18 he who made these things known so long ago.’ 19 “And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

The King who will restore David’s house is looking beyond just Israel! He will possess not just Edom , the great enemy of Israel, as far “outside” Israel as you can get – but indeed, ALL who are outside Israel can now be brought in! All the nations I have called to be mine.

This King is Jesus, the Christ. He of unlimited power, power to reign, power to rule. When he came into Jerusalem crowds lined the streets shouting Hosanna! Yet he rode in on a donkey, not a mighty horse of War. He used his power to heal, to preach, to reveal his identity. And he laid aside his majesty and died a sinners death on the cross for you and for me in order to restore the fallen house of David, in order to pay the price so that Israel could be washed clean and could be included in the house of David, and we who are outside (Gentiles) could be brought in, all who are called by his name.

Notice again that we are called by him. It is not our actions which save us, but his. It is his grace, not our effort. Praise him.

This should make us bold to share the gospel with our friends and neighbours. Yesterday my daughter said sadly “I’m the only Christian in my school”. What a privilege! She’s a missionary to an unreached people. And she can have confidence to share the gospel because it is GOD who works to call people to himself. Already His Spirit is at work awakening some in her class to life. Our confidence in witnessing is his grace, not our efforts. All the nations I have called to be mine.

Will you show that his call is upon your life by responding in joy and committing yourself to him, our Great King!

This is what we were made for! He is unshakeable, and will not lose one true kernel. Do you see the ruined cities rebuilt? The grain and grapes growing faster than they can be harvested. Do you see sweet wine running down the terraced vineyards? Do you want to be 15 firmly planted in your own land. You will never again be uprooted from the land I have given you,” says the Lord your God.

Is that not the cry of your heart. Home! A place to belong, to be at peace, to be a rest. A place where you are free, loved, accepted, cared for, looked after, free to be yourself, the true you without sin and anger and fear and worry and pain and suffering. Truly free. Christ the Kin had bought this future with his blood. Accept it. Accept it with joy and gratitude.

That is where we are going, friends, brothers and sisters. This is our future. And we know it is secure, because Jesus rose from the dead. He smashed death, and the evidence is utterly overwhelming.

The King has restored the kingdom. This is a foretaste here on earth – but the Reality. Oh my! The reality that is coming, perhaps today.

Let’s celebrate, let’s thank God, let’s tell other people! Hallelujah! Praise God. Hooray for King Jesus!

Amos 8:1-9:4 The Holy God speaks

Amos 8:1-9:4 (click the link to read the passage)

My daughter speaks: I will not do this. But her words have no power. Dad speaks, and my word has power. My will be done. I have authority. I am the Dad.

Here we see words of authority, terrifying words. 3 I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!. The LORD there is YHWH “I am who I am”. He is the God who is there. He is the God who has spoken. He is the one who spoke the Universe into existence: there was nothing, then he spoke, and there was…everything!

And today he speaks to us, through his word to Israel. Speaks words of power, words of warning, words of forgiveness, words of judgement. It would be foolish to ignore his words.

And his words raise some important questions.

Who will be judged? (Wicked people)

Those whose actions and life reveal that they reject God in their heart. So familiar, we’ve heard this again and again. 4 Listen to this, you who rob the poor and trample down the needy! 5 You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless. You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales. 6 And you mix the grain you sell with chaff swept from the floor. Then you enslave poor people for one piece of silver or a pair of sandals. 7 Now the Lord has sworn this oath by his own name, the Pride of Israel: “I will never forget the wicked things you have done!

Where is their heart? Their passion is in their business, instead of the Lord. In money, accumulating wealth, getting enough to protect the family, maintain our lifestyle - however we seek to define it.
Anywhere but the Lord!
Interestingly, the history books tell although there were religious festivals in the surrounding countries, only Israel was commanded to obey the Sabbath law and stop all work once a week. This restriction on trade caused friction and probably contributed to corrupt business practices as a way of “making up” the losses. Oh how that rings true. How often we justify something underhanded because we deserve it. I’ll leave this off the tax form because I’m owed it. I’ll lie about this because they cheated me out of that. How easy that sort of reasoning flows from my own heart.

How easy it is for we who are in business, or a trade, or working in local government to take the easy path. Dishonest measures – like increasing a quote because it’s a government contract or it’s for insurance. Or low-balling – coming with a quote lower than the actual price and then coming up with loads of extras and “this was not in the contract”. Or putting clauses in contracts that unfairly favour you at the expense of the other party. Or making the bid process for government contracts secrets and then accepting gifts from the various companies involved. And so on and on and on. You don’t have to be in the business world for very long to discover that v5 could describe us very well. Yes, even here in Norway. Our Christian heritage is being eroded, eaten away, by the secular ideals. Like Israel, we replace the true God at the centre of our life with something else at our peril. Israel replaced God with a small God, a tame God, a God they could control, a God they could pay lip service to on a Sunday and then ignore for the rest of the week while they went about the REAL business of life: making money.

“You fools!” Amos would say to us! The real business of life IS glorifying God. He is the be all and end all for all eternity. In the blink of an eye we will be old and frail, at the end of our life, facing the huge black mouth of eternity. Where will you spend it? Because if you despise God and his Word now, you will find God and his Word is absent, withheld from you, just like Israel: a famine in the land for the words of God.

Maybe business, making money, isn’t your thing. Maybe it’s power, influence, recognition? Serving the community so that everyone can see you and praise you? Or maybe it’s leisure – you live for the weekend, for the evenings. You want church to be over so you can get back to that computer game or that movie or that sport or hiking up the mountain, or chopping logs whatever it is. Or perhaps it’s your children, your family, your husband – that’s what gives you your identity, your purpose, rather than Christ. Or maybe even it’s the church. You love the church, but not Jesus, the head of the church. Be warned!

Anything that takes your passion instead of the Lord Jesus reveals a serious danger to your eternal soul. What does your passion reveal about your relationship to the Sovereign Lord?

Being on the wrong side of God is serious!

How will they be judged? (The Exodus reversed)

Remember the story of the Exodus – the great rescue of God’s people out of slavery in Egypt, lead by Moses. Well, now it seems that Israel now has become as bad as Egypt was then: oppressing people, slavery, cheating the poor and the needy and the weak and the foreigner. 2 the Lord said, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again. the underlying Hebrew phrase “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.” At the Exodus, God passed his judgment by the Israelites – but no longer. The Israelites have become the Egyptians. Their land will heave up and sink again like the Nile (v8). Darkness will cover the land (v9) and they will mourn like they have lost a son (v9) – the final two great plagues (judgements) against Egypt. Oh Israel, how you have fallen!

Can you imagine the shock as realisation dawns on people? We have become Egypt! We are corrupt like our great enemy. It’s like Norway realising we are corrupt like Syria, or Afghanistan, or any other country we like to look down upon and feel superior to. But actually, are we so much better than them? With all our wealth and our power and our abundance of good gifts, what are we doing? Prosperity (wealth) can be a curse – instead of thanking God we thank ourselves – as Christian said two weeks ago, we act like we made the oil ourselves, rather than luckily finding it! We are ignoring God, seeking pleasure and wealth, uninvolved in the church, uninvolved in family, uninvolved in anything that doesn’t benefit me directly. We are consumers! Like big fat cows munching our way through people, through time, through money, serving our appetites. To serve, to lead your family, to set aside your own pleasure for the needs of others – that is gone. Commitment, loyalty to the Lord Jesus. Naah.

I feel that pull in my own heart. The easy way. The selfish way. We are made for greater things my friends, than being fat cows! We are made to glorify God! We are made to lead our families, to lead our churches, to plant churches throughout Notodden and beyond which proclaim the greatness of our God. We are to be honest businessmen, just judges, fair bureaucrats, hard workers. Our lives should proclaim “glory to God, glory to God, glory to God”. That’s what we were made for, that’s our purpose. And then one day the veil will be ripped aside, and we will see our Lord face to face, and the world will be made new, and all the glories of this world will be taken into the next, all the wonders of the world preserved for eternity, and we will spend our time working and shaping the world to the glory of God forever. That’s our destiny, if we are in Christ.

Why would we settle for a less than ordinary life? When we feel we are made for greatness. And we are. We are made for greatness. We are made to be the people of the living God, the Sons of the Almighty Father. Why would we choose anything less?

What happens to people who ignore God?

I think that verse 11 is the most terrifying verse in this book. The final judgement: God gives them what they want. The neglected word becomes the absent word. God withdraws his favour.

11 “The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. 13 Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day, thirsting for the Lord’s word.

Do you remember back in school days the “silent treatment”? When you were cross with someone and pretend they didn’t exist. Oooh, it got so annoying. They were basically saying I wish you were dead.
My kids have tried that a few times with me – believe me it doesn’t last long! “Listen to me!”

It’s childish, but when people do it as adults it’s quite serious. “He’s dead to me”. Deep hurt, deep heartache, particularly in families. Many a convert to Christianity has been heartbroken as their family turns away from them and refuse to speak to them – or worse tries to kill them to restore their family honour! Many Jehovah’s Witnesses find themselves cut off when they embrace Christ and leave the Watchtower organisation. All their friends and family GONE. (By the way, that’s why it is essential that we recognise that WE now are family, and look after each other, particularly new Christians).

Can you imagine running up to your father with your arms outstretched saying “Dad I love you” and he looks through you as if you weren’t there, and then walks away without saying a word.

Well, that’s what we do to God. To God! This time it is the Father with the outstretched hand: “Come, come and experience the ocean of my love”. And we simply ignore him, don’t even acknowledge his presence. “I wish you were dead.”

So what happens when you continue to ignore God? The famine of His word – the day will come when you cannot find him, cannot know him. One day God will give you what you ask for: independence from Him. And that is terrifying, for He is the source of life. Without him, everything goes dark. It’s like the Earth trying to be independent of the Sun! Without the Sun, we die.

Can anything save us?

Can other religions, worldviews, safety nets save you from the Lord’s anger? The answer is: No. 14 And those who swear by the shameful idols of Samaria— who take oaths in the name of the god of Dan and make vows in the name of the god of Beersheba— they will all fall down, never to rise again.” 9:1 Then I saw a vision of the Lord standing beside the altar. He said, “Strike the tops of the Temple columns, so that the foundation will shake. Bring down the roof on the heads of the people below. I will kill with the sword those who survive. No one will escape!

Samaria is the land of Israel, Dan and Beersheba its farthest points. The whole land is corrupt, worshipping other gods, idols, instead of the one true God. Worse, as we’ve seen, on the surface their religion seemed to be directed to God – it looked like they honoured God. The problem was that they ignored His word on how they should worship him, and made up their own ways – like setting up a golden calf in Dan and saying “this is your God”.

And not even Christian religion can save you, if it is just a ritual. Going to church will not save you. Only trusting in Christ and living with him as Lord and Master of ALL of life – only He can save you. Religion cannot save: One day the Lord will stand by your altar and command the pillars to fall down on your head.

Playing the silent treatment game with God is foolish. Ignoring his word, doing things our own way – it is dangerous. His patience will run out, and he will move in righteous judgement. We have been warned!

Is there any escape from God’s judgement?

No. 2 “Even if they dig down to the place of the dead, I will reach down and pull them up. Even if they climb up into the heavens, I will bring them down. 3 Even if they hide at the very top of Mount Carmel, I will search them out and capture them. Even if they hide at the bottom of the ocean, I will send the sea serpent after them to bite them. 4 Even if their enemies drive them into exile, I will command the sword to kill them there. I am determined to bring disaster upon them and not to help them.

So what do we do?

There is only one place left to run. And that is to God himself. Have you not heard the roar of the Lion? He roars to shine the light on our wickedness, to help us see our own corruption. We don’t believe it. We don’t believe we are sinners. And why not? Just watch the news! Bombers in Boston, bombers in Iran, Syria has killed 70,000 of its own citizens, murders, theft, rape, abortions, people cheating and selling horse meat as beef (dishonest scales!) – why do we still blame everything else except ourselves. Oh it’s society – society is made by people! Oh, it’s religion. Religion is made by people. No, there’s something wrong with people, with US.

Boom, boom, goes the deep truths of the Bible, again and again. We are sinners. We need to repent. We must understand that we are darkness matched against unspeakable light. The bright sun of God’s holiness burns fierce against us, and will destroy us.

Why so many chapters on sin? Why so much on wickedness? So that we can repent. So that we cry out to God!

We have seen throughout the book of Amos that God has been calling his people back to him again and again. He is lovingly warning them of the danger they are in. “Come back to me and LIVE” he says.

You see, the way for them to be saved is already prepared. Their sin is already paid for. Their judgement taken. And ours. King Jesus on the cross, his blood paying for our sins, for theirs. King Jesus on the cross, restoring Israel to their glory – if they would just accept. And some do: Israel will be shaken like grain, we read in chapter 9, but not one true kernel will be lost. And for Israel, also for us. King Jesus, offering forgiveness, offering pardon, offering restoration. Come and take your place in the Kingdom of God, brother. Come and take your place at the family feast as a son of God. That is our destiny. That is our calling.

Will you take it?

There are three responses to this passage.

One is to ignore it. And that is your choice. But you have been warned. Israel was given 50 years to repent. They did not take it. They were completely destroyed. Learn from their folly.

Two is to accept it. Accept with joy and gladness the forgiveness of God! Confess you sin before him, your need for him. Thank him for his goodness to you, and accept him as King over all of life.

Three is for those who have accepted him as King. Don’t grow weary of living for the King. Don’t grow weary of hearing his word. You belong to him. Don’t forget your identity. In everything you do remember that you are a beloved son of God. At work, beloved son of God. With your wife, beloved son of God. With your children, beloved son of God. Watching TV, surfing the Internet, beloved son of God.

The Holy God speaks. O Lord, in your mercy, help us to listen!

Amos 7: the advocate

Amos 7:1-17

Christian did a fantastic job last week on chapter 6, a difficult passage, and clearly brought out the message of the text: Israel, the people of God, have sinned terribly, judgement is deserved and is looming, and they must repent. Chapter 7 carries on from chapter 6, showing the Heavenly courtroom, with the judge seated on the throne considering his judgement. Is all lost for Israel? Is there any hope? Well, tonight we see the answer is yes, there is hope for Israel, and there is hope for us. We have an advocate, a representative in the courts of Heaven: Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
3 points tonight:

1. The right judgement
2. The merciful advocate
3. Accept the advocate, or die

1. The right judgement

Picture the courtroom. Here we have the accused, Israel. The evidence has been presented of their failure to obey God – time and again we’ve seen over the past couple of months in Amos 2-6 how they have disobeyed him, rejected him, tried to make him in their own image (make a new God, a god more like us) – and then worship that God, the God of their imagination.
And the consequences have been devastating. Injustice, sexual immorality, slave trading, dishonest judges taking bribes, the rich exploiting the poor, entertaining themselves on their ivory beds, crying “bring us a drink!” while their land lies in moral ruins- and they don’t care.

We’ve seen that time and again God has warned them to repent. Time and again he has spoken, the Lion has roared from Zion. In chapter 4 we saw how He has used natural disasters to get their attention. But they were as hard-hearted as Egypt during the Exodus. He has allowed sin to run its course, allowed them to taste the fruit of their sin and see that it is bitter, poisonous. They have rejected God, and the fruit of that rejection is bitter. The fruit of their beliefs is the immorality of Israel. The tree is rotten, and so the fruit is poisonous.

How much does this ring true of us, of our own nation? How rich we are, in our “ivory beds” shouting “bring us another drink”, “entertain me!” And we care nothing of the ruin of our nation.

Think about our attitude to church. How important do we think it is, really? How desperate are we to hear the word of God? How do we think about time and money and relationships – as OUR time, OUR money, OUR relationships. I get angry when God challenges me to give more time to the church, more time to people, more time to prayer, more time to studying the Living Word. I get angry, my grubby little hands trying to hold on to MY TIME.

What a fool I am! I am not my own. I belong to God – twice. Once because I am made by Him, I am his creation – and then bought back by His blood on the Cross. What a fool I am when I say this is mine, this money is mine, these relationships are mine. I am like Israel in 760BC, showing the poisonous fruit of sin and selfishness.

If we are happy to disobey God what kind of God are we worshiping? Certainly not the God of the Bible!! Like in Israel, when “Christians” are happy to lower their moral standards, and ignore the Bible’s teaching on sexual immorality – all around us we have Christians moving in together, sleeping together. In the church! How can we introduce people to the Living Holy God if we are living filthy unholy lives. And that’s just our public sins! What about all that we do in private thinking that the Almighty does not see, does not know.

Like Israel, we have decided to worship God our way. We are under judgement because we are wicked adulterous rebels against the Almighty. We have decided to put ourselves on the throne and declare what is right and acceptable, and ignore his words.

What we deserve is utter destruction. 1 The Sovereign LORD showed me a vision. I saw him preparing to send a vast swarm of locusts over the land. This was after the king’s share had been harvested from the fields and as the main crop was coming up. 2 In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight.

And again in verse 4 Then the Sovereign LORD showed me another vision. I saw him preparing to punish his people with a great fire. The fire had burned up the depths of the sea and was devouring the entire land.

That is what we deserve. Utter, complete, judgement. That is justice. That is the sentence of a just God over an unjust people like Israel, like us.
Remember back in chapter 1 when we saw the sins of the surrounding nations? How they treated people like garbage, mowed them down with machines of war, sold them like cattle, like products to be disposed of, and pregnant women ripped open simply to gain a few more acres of ground. God warned them that justice was coming for them – and come it did. In 732BC, Damascus was wiped out. In 734BC Gaza was destroyed, followed by Ashdod in 711BC and Ekron in 701 BC. Tyre and Edom were swallowed up by Assyria; Moab and the Ammonites simply disappear from history. All the nations surrounding Israel – gone.

Utter, complete destruction. Like an evil stain being erased from the world.

Now you might be thinking at this moment: But we’re not like them. Norway is kind and considerate and we help people. We’re not like Israel: I am not unjust. I don’t cheat the poor. I give to charity. I am righteous in my own eyes.
And that’s exactly the problem. We don’t want to hear God’s thoughts on the matter, but our own. Aw, it’s not so bad, I’m not so bad. How often do you find yourself explaining away your own bad behaviour, your own lies, your own failures, and painting over them?

We must ask ourselves why Amos has 6 or 7 chapters out of 9 on judgement. Why Isaiah is about 40 chapters out of 60 of God saying “they have sinned. they are wicked. They will be judged. (if they don’t repent). Why has God written the Bible this way?

Why? Because we don’t think that we are wicked and in need of salvation. And we don’t think we are wicked because we don’t think God is Holy and Perfect, but just a little bit better than us.

Reading the prophets, reading the Old Testament is to hear the great bass notes of the Gospel. It’s the deep truths, the driving rhythm for the glorious news of a Holy God who loves his people. You see, if we don’t understand that we are wicked, we will not understand God’s judgement. And so we will change the great and frightening truths of the Bible, until we have a melody with no power, a church of weak knees and feeble arms, so thin and weak it cannot stand.

We must understand it, must feel it. Do you feel eternity?! Do you sit with the burden of our friends, our neighbours who in the words of 6:3 push away every thought of coming disaster, but [their] actions only bring the day of judgment closer.

That Day will not be a big party, but will be terrifying. Remember 5:18–21 That day will bring darkness, not light. 19 In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion— only to meet a bear. Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house— and he’s bitten by a snake. 20 Yes, the day of the LORD will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope.

A terrible Day is coming. Are you ready? Are you weeping on your knees for your loved ones, your neighbours, your friends, yourself? Are we before God pleading for Notodden? Please God, move in mercy, not in judgement. We are so small. Please don’t wipe us out.

What we deserve is utter destruction. But we have a merciful advocate.

2. The merciful advocate

The key to understanding this chapter is in verse 1. The Sovereign LORD showed me a vision. This time he did not say “and he said” “thus says the Lord” or “hear this word” There is no roaring from the Lion. This is not a message for Amos to speak, but a message for Amos to respond to, to plead on behalf of his people.

Amos takes the role of Israel’s advocate, standing in the gap. Like Abraham, like Moses, so Amos pleads for his people. This is not uncommon. Time and time again we are shown this pattern in the Old Testament: God has his chosen agent, the representative for the people.
Why? So when the Bible shows Jesus speaking to the Father in our defence we understand what that means. He is the mercy of God interceding for us against the judgement of God. 1 John 2:1-2 puts it like this My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

Now, finally, we can understand how God can relent, can change his mind and not send right judgement – which our wickedness and Israel’s wickedness deserves - but instead he can forgive, relent. It is powered by the blood of Jesus on the cross.

So remember that. Remember that when you sin, when you feel guilty and dirty and altogether unrighteous, that you have an Advocate in Heaven saying “covered, by the blood of Jesus. Paid for in full.” Isn’t that amazingly good news!!! Our sins are covered!

So when you feel condemned, when you have sinned, when guilt overtakes you, remember Amos 7, and verses 2 and 5
2 Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.” 3 So the LORD relented from this plan. “I will not do it,” he said.
5 Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.” 6 Then the LORD relented from this plan, too. “I will not do that either,” said the Sovereign LORD.

Daniel has sinned, said the Sovereign Lord, and he deserves judgement. His wickedness is a stench in my nostrils. Behold the vision of his punishment!
Father, please forgive him, says our Advocate Jesus. My body has been broken for him, for his punishment. My blood has covered his sin. And the voice from the throne says “Justified! Not guilty! I will not punish him. His cost is paid in full.”

And Daniel says Thank you God!

This also works when we are about to sin. Remember the cost to save you, remember the glorious grace given to you, remember that you are a beloved child of God, and don’t do it! Call sin sin and turn away from it, for it is evil and destructive!

We must not sin, but when we do sin, we have a merciful advocate, Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!

3. Accept the advocate – or die!

Did you notice as we read through chapter 7 that Amos does not intercede (speak on behalf of) for everyone? He only intercedes for the elect, for the people of faith, for the remnant. Because judgement no. 3 – the plumb-line, which will divide the people of Israel according to their “straightness” (faith in God), is not interceded against. In fact, Amos proclaims this judgement to come! 8 I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins. 9 The pagan shrines of your ancestors will be ruined, and the temples of Israel will be destroyed; I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to a sudden end.

This judgement is discriminating. It divides the country into the faithful and the wicked, those who are for God, and those against. And Amos does not intercede this time. This coming judgement is unavoidable for those who stubbornly remain opposed to God. For them there is no advocate, and they will meet God in fury at their wickedness and not in mercy.

And what a blessing and a relief that judgement will be for those who love God and weep at the ruin of the land, and risk their life to speak up against injustice, and mourn the corruption of the true religion of God. Did you see in verse 9: The evil will be purged from the land, the shrines destroyed, the temples gone, the rule of the evil king Jeroboam is over. Judgment using a plumb-line is discriminating, dividing or revealing the true people within a professing people, the remnant (true Israel) within Israel, the Church within the church. And their beliefs will be reflected in their actions.

Cue Amaziah, in verses 10-17.
Amaziah, the priest, the centre of Israel’s religious life. And we see again that being religious is no guarantee of salvation – if your religion rests on anything other than the free grace of Jesus Christ then you are in serious trouble. We read in the Bible study on wed night in Romans 10:2-4. And we see again the same message here in Amos 7. Religion will not save you. Only Christ can save you.

So Amaziah the religious man is offended when he hears God’s word condemning his idolatry and condemning the wickedness of Jeroboams reign. “How dare you…” he says – instead of falling to his knees in repentance. No, he raises his own feeble voice against the roar of God! 12 Then Amaziah sent orders to Amos: “Get out of here, you prophet! Go on back to the land of Judah, and earn your living by prophesying there! 13 Don’t bother us with your prophecies here in Bethel. This is the king’s sanctuary and the national place of worship!”

But Amos rightly responds by saying these aren’t MY prophecies, but the Lord’s: 15 But the LORD called me away from my flock and told me, ‘Go and prophesy to my people in Israel.’

So just like Korah in the time of Moses, like the Pharisees in the time of Jesus, and like many churches and pastors and preachers today, even here in Norway, Amaziah finds that he is raising his voice not against the voice of a man, but the voice of God.
Friends, never be afraid to proclaim the truth of God. You may be rejected, you may lose friends, you may be ridiculed or thought odd – but God is with you. Look up to Heaven like Stephen the first martyr and SEE Jesus by the throne of the Father, proclaiming the truth of your forgiveness. Don’t be afraid.

But if you, like Amaziah, are choosing the easy path, the popular path, the path of earthly power and prestige: well, listen to the devastating words of God.
There is massive irony here – humorous if it weren’t so terrible. v16 “You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel. Stop preaching against my people.’ 17 But this is what the LORD says: Your wife will become a prostitute in this city, and your sons and daughters will be killed. Your land will be divided up, and you yourself will die in a foreign land. And the people of Israel will certainly become captives in exile, far from their homeland .

Oh, how dangerous it is to set our feeble voices up against the roar of the lion. The church lies in ruins, our country lies in ruins when we ignore what God says. How dare we! How dare we only preach the “easy” passages. How dare we let days go by without studying his word. How dare we go to church and Bible study only when we feel like it. We must meet together, encourage each other, listen to his word, to spend time in prayer, to be with our Christian family. We need each other. What a blessing we have to have a day set aside for meeting as God’s people. Let’s use it! Let our lives show that we love God and obey him. Let the world see our fruit. Let us repent of our sin, and throw ourselves on the mercy of our advocate, Christ Jesus. Revival starts with us.

Let us not be fooled: the Word of God is inescapable, unchanging. Amaziah is religion without repentance before the word of God. May God grant us mercy that we do not fall into the same trap!

And let us like Amos intercede (pray) for our town, our country. Please, Lord, we are so small, please have mercy.

And let us proclaim the great and glorious news that though we are wicked and deserve God’s right judgement, we have an advocate, and he pleads for us with his nail-scarred hands and his pierced side. We deserve judgement, but through Christ we can receive mercy. Let us turn to Him and accept it. Thank you Lord. Thank you Heavenly Father for your mercy.

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!

Amos 4:1-15 Fat cows and empty religion

Amos 4:1-15

Amos, the shepherd (or sheep-owner) from Judah, called to prophesy to the Northern Kingdom of Israel (also called Samaria). Amos, faithfully warning the people of God’s judgement. In chapter 1 he focussed on the surrounding nations, warning that people, all people, are made in God’s image and valuable in His sight – and therefore how we treat other people has consequences. Repent! Was his message – which means stop doing what you are doing and turn to God.
Then in chapter 2 we saw him shift his focus from the sinful nations to the sinful people of God. Slavery, oppression, corruption, greed, materialism, sexual mayhem – the people of God are in a mess. They have abandoned the God who saved them, who brought them out of slavery in Egypt. Instead, they have become just like the nations around them – back in a new form of slavery, (and old form of slavery) a slavery to sin and false religion. Repent! Is again his message. Repent and turn back to your God! To know God personally, deeply intimately – why would you throw that away Israel?
And be warned – to scorn (mock) the love of God, to throw his intimacy back in his face and dance down the street like a prostitute being intimate with all sorts of other gods and worldviews- well, that has serious consequences.

Amos uses the picture of a LION to remind us of who we are dealing with: the Sovereign LORD God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

And in tonight’s passage the Lion roars out his warning on the evil women and on Israel’s false, empty religion – and ends the chapter on this frightening note: Prepare to meet your God in judgment, you people of Israel!

1. The evil women of Israel

v1 Listen to me, you fat cows living in Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, and who are always calling to your husbands, “Bring us another drink!”

It’s a brilliantly descriptive picture. Fat, selfish ladies, lying on their couches, belittling their servants, ordering their husbands to bring them a drink. Red in face, unhealthy, out of breath, adorned with jewellery, gossiping, consumed with climbing the social ladder, and they don’t care who they step on to get there. Oppressing the poor and crushing the needy. Evil women. Evil selfish women. Fat cows of Samaria (Northern Kingdom of Israel).

And because they are cows the judgement (in verse 2 and 3) is fitting: they will be treated like cows, lead away like animals with hooks in their noses. As they have treated the people around them like cattle, so will they be treated. In the end they will be thrown from their fortresses, 3:10 Their fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence.

Warning! The way of life you’re living is leading to disaster!

Fat cows. Indulgence and oppression are two sides of the same coin. These women indulged themselves – they lived for themselves. And so they used (oppressed) other people. If our main concerns are our own comfort and self-importance, then we will soon mistreat others. It becomes all about ME, about MY needs and MY feelings, about what *I* have done and why aren’t you doing as much as ME? Looking out for number ONE. MY job. Even MY church. (It’s Jesus’ church before it’s ours, let’s not forget that!). They lived for themselves and not for others - And when I describe it like that suddenly I see myself and my own attitudes reflected in these women, these fat cows of Samaria. Ouch!

It’s worth also taking a moment to see how these women had totally rejected what they were created to be. Instead of the loving helper Eve was designed to be for Adam, these women are abusing their husband, treating them like servants (bring us a drink) instead of looking for ways to serve them. They have neglected their responsibility in the home, not creating a place suitable to raise children in the instruction of the Lord, or a place which is open and hospitable to guests – but a place of oppression and selfishness.

Being a wife and mother is hard work – actually if you want to do it properly it’s impossible without the grace of the Holy Spirit. Because the heart of being a good mother and wife is the opposite of these fat cows; other-person-centeredness, service, love. And that does not come naturally to us. We need the grace of God.

As I was reading these verses I was reminded of a New Testament story, of someone who had built his life with wealth taken by theft, whose house was a fortress of ill-gotten gain, who lived like a fat cow – and Jesus looked up at him and said “Zacchaeus, come down”. Jesus said that he came not to condemn, but to save the lost. There is hope. And here, there is hope. There is as yet time to repent. Those who have ears to hear, listen!

The hope of the gospel is the hope for fat cows! When we turn to Jesus and cry for help, he comes to us, his Holy Spirit begins to change us from the inside out. We become regenerate. Like Zacchaeus (who you can read about in Luke 19), we start living a new life, with new desires, new actions. He stood up and said “I give back four times what I have stolen”. From his whole life being built on grabbing as much money as he could – to giving it away! His life had a new foundation: Jesus. And a new direction and purpose: self-sacrificial love, just like Jesus.

From a life built on ME to a life built on serving others because Jesus has loved and forgiven me. That’s repentance, that’s grace. That’s how the fat cows should have responded.

The evil women, the fat cows, have been warned.

And Amos’ warnings continue

2. Empty religion

4 “Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel. Keep on disobeying at Gilgal. Offer sacrifices each morning, and bring your tithes every three days. 5 Present your bread made with yeast as an offering of thanksgiving. Then give your extra voluntary offerings so you can brag about it everywhere! This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do,” says the Sovereign Lord.

Ah, Amos, our good friend, faithful proclaimer of the words of God. A man with courage! Can you imagine preaching these words? Warning people that their religion is empty, that their lives are a disaster? That they are rebelling against God even in their religion. Their religious devotion is empty because it is not done for God’s glory but their own. And Amos exposes it. How do you think people would have responded to his words?
The truth is sometimes very hard to swallow, and living a lie seems more attractive.

It is the same with the gospel. Jesus is hated, mocked, or ignored – but it’s not because people don’t like him – I mean, who can’t like a guy who goes around doing good, telling us to love each other, and then dying in our place in a HUGE act of love. So why do people hate Jesus? Sometimes it’s because of what we see in this passage – people claiming to follow him, very religious, good church-goers, generous – but full of themselves and their own glory, not God’s glory. They live for themselves – religion is just a way to exalt themselves, be important, save (justify) themselves. That’s what the Israelites were doing.

But the underlying cause is that we want to be God (certainly over our own life) and when Jesus claims to be God, and backs it up by his power and his resurrection – we get offended, we get angry. He’s rubbed our nose in the truth that we are not God and we don’t like it.

We don’t like it when he says “I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me”.
We don’t like it when he says “If anyone wants to follow me, he must pick up his cross daily and follow me.”
He is the master, we are the servants. – and we don’t like it.

So we hide behind our worldview (“I don’t believe in God”) or our issues with God (“I could never believe in a God who…”) or our empty religions (whether that’s the major world religions, or New Age spirituality, or unbiblical “Christianity” (churchism, like in tonight’s passage)). We go through the religious motions, 5 Offer[ing] sacrifices each morning, and bring[ing] tithes every three days. sometimes even beyond the religious requirements 5 Then give your extra voluntary offerings so you can brag about it everywhere!. Who are they doing that for? God? Or themselves? It’s so easy to slip into me-centered Christianity (Me-ianity!)

All too often we go along with Jesus as long as what he’s doing seems good to us – but when his words seem hard, or contradict the “wisdom” of the age…..

Things like our sinfulness (but we’re good), God’s sovereignty (I’m in charge of my life, nobody tells me what to do). Roles of men and women in marriage and the church (but that’s sexist!). Sex (but we’re liberated!) Whatever it is! When we refuse to believe God’s word are we not doing exactly what the Israelites were doing? Worshipping God our way instead of his way. Empty religion.

Are we not the fat cows of chapter 4, entertaining ourselves while ignoring the word of God?

If I am not willing to obey God WHEN HIS WORD CONTRADICTS my own feelings on the matter, then I need to question my standing before God. Am I a Christian if I refuse to repent and believe? Christianity is not just accepting Jesus as Saviour, but also Lord. We will always be challenged by the Bible – how do we respond?

The Israelites’ heard their empty religion being exposed by Amos. And now they hear how God has been judging them, warning them to repent.

3. Repent!

6 “I brought hunger to every city and famine to every town. 7 I kept the rain from falling when your crops needed it the most. I sent rain on one town but withheld it from another. 9 I struck your farms and vineyards with blight and mildew. 10 I sent plagues on you like the plagues I sent on Egypt long ago.

Some of you have been wondering over the past few weeks why I’ve said that Amos’ judgement is a warning (stop! Danger ahead!), and not simply a declaration of a sentence (this will happen). Why is Amos the policeman giving you a warning (don’t do it again!) and not the judge pronouncing a sentence. Well, here we see it. It is so important to read the Bible IN context – both before and after. That’s why much of my preparation is simply reading the book, again and again. Thinking about the passage, thinking about the book. It is so important, because I want to preach to you what GOD THINKS, not what I think! A good definition of preaching is “thinking God’s thoughts aloud”.

Here we see the reason behind disasters. The reason for the judgement. It’s a warning. It’s a mercy. Do you see it there in v6, v8, v9, v10, v11? But still you would not return to me.

The purpose of God’s judgement was (and is) to drive them to himself. Just like last week – 3:6 Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has planned it?

This is comforting: this world is not chaotic, out of control. Our Lord controls this world. Like a surgeon cutting into the body to expose a cancerous tumour, suffering in this world exposes the tumour of sin. Watch the news: wars, murders, theft, corruption, evil read the tabloids: gossip, back-biting, jealously, broken relationships, abuse. Sin exposed in all its ugliness.

We have not lived in a paradise. We see our sin leads to problems. We are without excuse. Yet we keep sinning.
We see the world is broken; we feel like we’re made for perfection – but we shrug off that feeling because we don’t give up the illusion that we are in control of our lives.
We have an empty space deep within us, but we ignore it.

The disasters around us, in our own lives, are shouting to us “Turn back! Repent and believe!”

What are we going to do? Will we be stubborn and cold-hearted? Will we be like Israel, like Egypt in the time of the Exodus? 10 I sent plagues on you like the plagues I sent on Egypt long ago.
Did you notice through this chapter how the judgements get worse and worse, like a voice shouting louder and louder. And still the Israelites stop their ears and refuse to repent. Stubborn people. Hard-hearted rebels.

But that’s them. What about us? Are we too not just like Israel, just like Egypt? Unrepentant? What will we do now that we hear the warning of God?

Repent and turn to him before it is too late! Prepare to meet your God in judgement, you people of Israel!

They did. 50 years after these words were spoken the Northern Kingdom of Israel was utterly destroyed.

What about you and me? Will we be prepared to meet our God in judgement?

4. Prepare to meet your God

This is no idle threat. GOD IS GREAT!

12 Prepare to meet your God in judgement, you people of Israel!” 13 For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind. He turns the light of dawn into darkness and treads on the heights of the earth. The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!

That is why our rebellion is so foolish. We are not God. We KNOW. We are without excuse. We know we are rebels. The state of our world tells us that.

But we also don’t know. That’s why need the Bible. We need God’s revelation. He v13 reveals his thoughts to mankind. Last week we read 3:7 the Sovereign LORD never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets.”

So that we can KNOW. SO we can repent. There is a way out. That’s why it is the GOOD NEWS of Jesus Christ. Otherwise this suffering world would just be an endless warning siren with no way out. We would know that something’s wrong, but where would we go to be rescued? Where would we go to satisfy that deep longing inside of us. Praise God that he is a God who speaks, who reveals his thoughts to mankind.

But more than that. He did not just reveal his thoughts, but he revealed himself. He stepped into our world, this sinful, messed-up, world under judgement. And then he took that judgement upon himself so that we could see what kind of God he truly is. He is the God who is intimate with us, the father who lays down his life for his family, the husband who gives his life to save his wife, even though she has been unfaithful to him. Love that stretches so much further than sin.

His love swallows up sin, swallows up his own, righteous judgement.

That’s what we celebrate this Easter – that this great God who treads on the heights of the earth, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies – he is the Saviour, the Man on the Cross, taking our judgement, making clear the path so that when we finally come to our senses and say “God I am sorry, I repent!” he can say “I forgive you”, and not “you are condemned” – which is what he should say!
Rom 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Isn’t that amazing?

If you are a Christian today you know your own hearts. I know that I am much more like a fat cow of Samaria than I am like Jesus. My Christianity too often devolves into Me-ianity. I disobey and argue with God’s Word and go along with my own “superior” wisdom so much.

So, if you’re anything like me, you will be rejoicing and singing this Easter. In Christ, we can say not Prepare to meet your God in judgment, you people of Israel! but Prepare to meet your God in salvation, you people of the Cross!”

Amos 3:1-15 God is personal

Amos 3:1-15

It’s always a challenge preaching from the Old Testament because it often seems so far removed from our view of God as gentle Jesus meek and mild. But we must allow the Bible to change us, not change the Bible by our preconceived ideas! One of the ways we do this is simply not reading parts of the Bible we don’t like! For example, in the Bible study we’ve been battling through Romans 9, allowing God’s Word to stretch our mind and unlock great truths like diamonds: that God is sovereign, that he is merciful, that his mercy is based on his mercy, not our goodness! That’s the gospel! Not that we are good or better than others or will show God in the future through our obedience that we are worthy of salvation. No, God saves for his own purposes, for his own glory. And that is a good thing – because otherwise salvation would be based on performance (being good enough for God) rather than grace (being forgiven even though we’re not good enough).

This also means that we can never be arrogant about being Christians, or look down on other people who are not Christians. We’re saved by grace, by God’s will, not our own will.

Why am I talking about Romans and not Amos? Well, firstly to encourage you to decide to set aside time for the midweek Bible study. You’ve got 2 weeks to get that right: we start again on 3 April! But secondly because Amos 3 and Romans 9 both challenge us with the same truth: God is sovereign, he is merciful, and his mercy is based on his mercy, not our performance (thankfully!).

In Amos we come face to face with a holy God, who has purposes which are not the same as ours, and ways of doing things that aren’t necessarily what we would do.

As I was reading through ch 3 I found three verses which really “rattled my cage” –challenged me with my understanding of God.

2 From among all the families on the earth, I have been intimate with you alone. That is why I must punish you for all your sins.

6 (the point of all the rhetorical questions in v3-6) Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has planned it?

12 This is what the Lord says: “A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion’s mouth will recover only two legs or a piece of an ear. So it will be for the Israelites in Samaria lying on luxurious beds, and for the people of Damascus reclining on couches.

These are troubling verses – but it‘s these verses that give us the outline for chapter 3 of Amos:

1. God is personal (v2)

2. God will punish sin (v2 and v6)

3. God is merciful (v6 and v12)

The first point is the longest, but also the most important.

1. God is personal

1 Listen to this message that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel and Judah—against the entire family I rescued from Egypt: 2 “From among all the families on the earth, I have been intimate with you alone. That is why I must punish you for all your sins.”

Listen to this message, says Amos. A message, not from Amos, but from the LORD. The Lord who roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem. “This is what the Lord says” is repeated 11 times in the first 2 chapters. Who is this Lord? Note the word there is in small capital letters – it is the letters YHWH, often pronounced Yahweh, which is the personal name of God, the God of Israel.

And he is the God who speaks. Speaking is how we get to know people well. Can you imagine a marriage without conversation – where the husband and wife never share with each other their deepest longings, their hidden secrets, the deep things of the heart?

Well, sadly, you probably can! In fact, it’s probably the norm here – people may be living together like husband and wife, but living two separate lives. My money, your money; my kids, you kids; my holiday, your holiday; my dreams, your dreams. No unity, no oneness, just a partnership that’s convenient as long as it works, and when it isn’t you just walk out the door.

But no, we’re designed to be in relationship, designed to be with another, deeply intimate. And that person is our Lord God Almighty. And when that relationship is in place, it sets you free to be intimate with others, especially your wife (or husband).

That’s why Debby and I always say that the secret to a great marriage is Jesus. It’s loving Him more than each other. Only He can satisfy the deepest longings of your soul – which stops you trying to get from your spouse (husband or wife) what you should get from God! This is a sin of idolatry: trying to get from your spouse what you should get from God: security, fulfilment, happiness. That will break your marriage. Your husband is not God! Your wife is not God (although she may look like a goddess, like mine :-) ). Jesus is your first spouse, your source of comfort and security and strength and fulfilment.

Sin, whether it’s idolatry, or simply selfishness: sin kills our intimacy. We are cut off from God, and so cut off from each other. Intimacy is risky – we reveal ourselves and we become vulnerable – we can be hurt. All of us have experienced being let down by others. We’ve revealed something of ourselves and been betrayed – the secret we told them in confidence is spread around, the weak spot only they know about is suddenly used against us. The one we thought we could trust suddenly speaks out against us – or doesn’t speak out, leaving us on our own. It hurts when people betray us. So we close ourselves off, try to protect ourselves.
In a world of selfish sinners it is a dangerous thing to expose yourself to another. As an aside that’s why you get married FIRST, THEN have sex is there – to protect us. Commitment before exposure. Promise before reward! And that’s why it hurts so deep when you “break up”. Sexually you are one, you’ve been intimate. Sexual intercourse is a huge expression of vulnerability – you are physically and emotionally naked with someone else. And now you are torn apart. It wounds you deeply. It must do!

And that is what we have done with God. The one who has been intimate with us, we have rejected. That’s what’s going on in verse 1&2 O people of Israel and Judah—against the entire family I rescued from Egypt: 2 “From among all the families on the earth, I have been intimate with you alone. That is why I must punish you for all your sins.

Israel is often described in the Bible like an unfaithful wife. Off she goes down the street, throwing herself at any man who happens to come by, prostituting herself – intimate with anyone else except her husband. And, as we saw over the last few weeks, that’s us too: like an unfaithful spouse, ignoring God, ignoring his words, loving evil and not Him. Doing what he has told us not to do. He is the faithful lover, we are the adulterer. God is intimate, vulnerable – and we have thrown it back in his face.

We are sinners, rebels against God, spreading a thin layer of spirituality over our sin and expecting God to be fooled! How often do we try to conceal our sins by smearing a small layer of religious devotion over it and think God will be pleased. Sometimes we hide our sin behind “grace” – but grace is not given so you can live your own life then pretend to serve God on Sundays. No, grace is given so you can stop pretending to be good enough, so you can come to church with your sins and confess them, not hide them.

When you marry someone, you marry all of them, not just a leg or an arm! When you are married you promise to live life, all of life, with them as your husband or wife. It is full 100% commitment. And that includes their sins. For better or worse! You promise. And God is like that good husband who sticks by his wife no matter what. He is personal and intimate with us – and therefore deserves and demands ALL of us. Not a little bit on a Sunday. All that we have, all that we are belongs to him.

He is the God who speaks. We must listen.
He is intimate with us, what a privilege. We cannot throw that back in his face. 2 From among all the families on the earth, I have been intimate with you alone.

God is personal.

2. God will punish sin

2 “From among all the families on the earth, I have been intimate with you alone. That is why I must punish you for all your sins.”

Sin is not primarily naughtiness – doing wrong things. The heart of sin is revealed in this verse: I have been intimate with you alone. That is why I must punish you for all your sins.

It is the broken relationship between us and God. That is the heart of sin: the upraised rebellious fist against our true King. The wife prostituting herself.

Now this kind of verse might be weird for those of us raised on a diet of gentle Jesus meek and mild, and “be good and Jesus will love you”. What a load of unbiblical rubbish. God reveals Himself in the Bible to be a HOLY GOD. And his goal for us is holiness. To be like Him. Not primarily happiness, not comfort, not an easy life – but holiness. Reflecting back to him his glory. Living for Him. Obedient to him. Living as his beloved children.

And our unholiness will be punished. It is against the laws of the universe. It doesn’t fit. It leads to deep unhappiness, to verse 10 “My people have forgotten how to do right,” says the Lord. “Their fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence.

The fruit of unholiness. The result of sin.
And because God loves us, because we are his, he will punish us. How? He will send disaster upon the city.

6 Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has planned it? 7 Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets. 8 The lion has roared— so who isn’t frightened? The Sovereign Lord has spoken— so who can refuse to proclaim his message?

Disaster strikes! Why? To wake us up to the eternal danger we face. We, like Israel, have forgotten to do what is right. The Lord is calling witnesses to observe the chaos and oppression in our lives, in our thoughts, in our relationships. That which we seek to keep hidden, to keep out of sight - that deep longing or knowledge that things are not as they should be.
As Morpheus says to Neo in the Matrix “Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.”

That feeling drives us to God. That knowledge that something is wrong with the world, something is broken, this is not the way things should be. We were designed for intimacy with our God. Instead we have a broken relationship with God.

So the lion is roars, loud enough for us to hear! Will we listen? Disaster strikes. Will we understand?

I remember once walking with my best friend Grant when I was a teenager. Suddenly he stepped into the road to cross – but what he didn’t see was a car that had just come speeding around the corner (he didn’t see it because he had turned to talk to me). I lurched forward and grabbed him quite roughly and flung him out of the way. I saw his facial expressions – pain, anger, and then shock as the car sped past where he had just been standing, and finally relief and gratitude. “You saved my life!” he said. Probably not – I think the car had seen him. But maybe not. The point of this little story is that the pain of me grabbing him and throwing him to the ground was so worth it compared to being smashed by a car!

CS Lewis says “Pain is God’s megaphone to a deaf generation.” Sometimes we need to be knocked on to our backs before we look up and see reality. And that case pain is a good thing.

As Christians, we can understand pain, we understand suffering. It has a meaning and a purpose. v6 Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has planned it?
50 years after Amos preached, Israel was carried off into exile. “Why?” they would have cried. Through Amos they could understand. They could understand that they had broken faith with God. They had been an unfaithful wife. They could understand the right judgment of God, and know what to do! Cry out to Him for mercy. Acknowledge their sins and seek mercy from God.

As Christians we understand. This world we live in is broken – and its brokenness drives us to Jesus. Pain in our own lives drives us to Jesus, to make us more like him.
In eternal terms, we will be like my friend Grant, blinking in shock and gratitude saying “you saved my life”

God will punish sins because

3. God is merciful

12 This is what the Lord says: “A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion’s mouth will recover only two legs or a piece of an ear. So it will be for the Israelites in Samaria lying on luxurious beds, and for the people of Damascus reclining on couches. 13 “Now listen to this, and announce it throughout all Israel,” says the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies. 14 “On the very day I punish Israel for its sins, I will destroy the pagan altars at Bethel (a city in Israel). The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. 15 And I will destroy the beautiful homes of the wealthy— their winter mansions and their summer houses, too— all their palaces filled with ivory,” says the Lord.

I really like these verses- because two things are going on at the same time. Firstly evil is destroyed: winter mansions and summer houses built on slavery and corruption (from chapter 2), the poor being sued by the rich so that they can fill their palaces with ivory. They are getting destroyed. Amos is saying, like General Maximus in Gladiator saying to the evil Emperor Commodus “The time for honouring yourself will soon be over.”

The beautiful houses of the wealthy will be destroyed. The pagan altars at Bethel will be cut off and fall to the ground. Their false religion will be exposed and will be no more. All the evil done throughout the centuries in the name of “God” – all this will be revealed and cut off, punished.

The second thing is, as in every pronouncement of judgement in the Bible, there is always hope. Always a remnant who will be saved 12 A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion’s mouth will recover only two legs or a piece of an ear. So it will be for the Israelites in Samaria lying on luxurious beds, and for the people of Damascus reclining on couches.

Oh, they don’t deserve saving, lying on their beds of luxury. But some will be saved. Not because they deserve it, but because it is the nature of God to show mercy to sinful people. He came personally, intimately, to pay the price for our sin on the Cross. Jesus’ blood covers us so that we can be part of the remnant rescued from the judgement to come. He knows we are evil, and yet reveals himself to us, is intimate with us, as a father and a husband to us, and ultimately dies for us, showing his love.

What are we to do? In the words of Amos chapter 5 (in two weeks time) “SEEK ME AND LIVE!” says the Lord God Almighty.

God is personal.
God will punish sin.
God is merciful.

Praise God!