The Lion Roars

If you were to ask a large cross-section of American Citizens what their view of God is, specifically what they think we need to hear about God the most the answer would probably be that He is love.

That is true, an that is vital to know.

If God is not love we have no hope, we have no future home, we have no message to give.

But God is not just love, He is a perfect balance between all of his attributes:

Mercy

Justice

Good

Holy

Eternal

Righteous

Never changing

When we focus heavily on only one aspect, or attribute, of God we become unbalanced in our view, and we become unbalanced in our focus.

God is love, but He is also just and powerful and He has a plan and a purpose for mankind.

It is this God that Amos presents at the beginning of his prophecy.

I would like to start off by introducing the book of Amos by seeing the overview of the whole book, and I think the best way is to show you a video by the BibleProject.com.

They have some great videos on the big picture of all 66 books of the Bible for free on their website.

They can be very useful, but like anything else, I can’t say that I agree 100% with everything that is said, but I haven’t seen anything majorly theological or dangerous.

So let’s watch this overview of Amos.

VIDEO

So we have introduced to us in verse number one, Amos…he says:

1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

This give us a little background about Amos, but very little is said in Scripture, the only thing told to us about this man, is here in chapter one and a little in chapter seven.

As we saw in the video, Amos was what is described as a herdman and a gatherer of sycomore fruit.

The point being he was not a professional prophet, he was not of the school of the prophets, he was just a man from Judah, who God called to go to the other of the divided kingdom, Israel, and proclaim God’s revelation to the people and the king there.

Amos prophesied during the time of Uzziah, king of Judah who reigned for fifty five years.

He was a good king, who sought the Lord.

Because of this Judah was very prosperous during this time.

It was a time of new inventions that helped defend the nation against attackers.

In Israel, King Jeroboam reigned for forty and one years.

Jeroboam did evil in the sight of the Lord, and continued in the sins of his fathers.

During this time there was prosperity in Israel, but this led to a upper class, mistreating the lower class in their society.

For this reason God sent Amos from Judah to Israel to give these prophesies that they would be judged for their wickedness.

Just because they were God’s people, it did not exempt them from judgment coming to them.

In these two verses I want to point out three crucial themes that we will see appear throughout the book of Amos.

Amos starts off his prophecy in verse 2 by saying, “the Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem;”

We see first of all the incredibly essential truth that:

I. God Speaks

“The Lord will roar from Zion, And utter his voice from Jerusalem;”

There is no more basic truth about God int he Bible that that He speaks!

Here the speaking of God is pictured as a roar of a lion.

The roar of a lion is not made when they are content and napping, it is made just as he pounces on his prey.

God is fed up!

Judgment is coming!

He has spoken through His prophets through the years, and in His Law and now He speaks.

In contrast to the Idols that the people turned to who could not speak and who could not act for or against them.

In Amos we see three ways in which God speaks:

A. Through His Messengers

Verse one says, “The words of Amos” this shows that this is not some supernatural disembodied communication, but God wanted His people to hear him, and he sent a real man to speak His message.

He still chooses to speak through His Messengers today.

We hold in our hands the Bible given to us by God through the use of faithful men.

2 Peter 1:21 KJV

21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

And yet many have rejected this Word from God through His men.

He spoke powerfully and perfectly through His Son.

John 1:14 KJV

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

And even though He was God on earth, a perfect revelation of who God was, and speaking what God wanted us to hear they did not hear:

John 1:11 KJV

11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

Today, God still speaks through His messengers, Pastors and preachers speak forth the Word of God, His revelation:

1 Corinthians 1:21 KJV

21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

You might say, you know if it were me I think I would make a sign in the sky that could not be ignored, or I would send angels to appear in their winged glory that could not be disregarded.

But God said he doesn’t work the way Man works, but it “...pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

Listen to the Preachers of God’s Word!

Secondly God speaks in the book of Amos,

B. Through Visions and Oracles

Verse one says, “The Words of Amos…which he saw...”

God chose to use a vision to give Amos what he was to tell the nation of Israel.

The prophet sees a vision of God and the world around him, and has the job to translate into words, words that have a transformative power for its hearers.

We will see some more of this as we dive further into this book.

I do believe that, now that we have the Word of God in our hands, God typically does not use visions and oracles as His main source of communication.

It is not needed, now that we have the complete revelation of God, that He wants to reveal to us.

Thirdly, God speaks

C. Directly through His Creation

We see how God speaks through His creation in verse one, when the timeline is given as two years before the earthquake.

This is a very significant earthquake that is mentioned in other books as well.

It seems to tie to the fact that this is a judgment sent to Israel by God because of their sin.

We will talk more about this in a moment.

The Second Essential truth that I want to see today, is that...

II. God Is Lord of History

There is not doubt that we can see the thread of God’s hand working through out all of history.

He is accomplishing His plan.

For the most part, he allows the natural law of nature take it’s course.

He allows the natural consequences of sin and a sinful world to fulfill its end.

But from time to time He maneuvers the plot of humankind to fulfill his predetermined plan.

Ultimately, He is in control!

We need to see this, as we study the book of Amos.

We see first of all, that God intervenes in history:

A. In Particular

He intervenes by particular intervention at particular times, because of particular circumstances.

Amos fixes the time of his message to “two years before the earthquake.”

This was part of the judgement Amos announces.

He involves himself in History in particular during the reign of these two kings, while they enjoyed their prosperity.

A threat was looming on the horizon, and the prophets of this day, Hosea and Amos warned them about them.

Assyria was begining to flex its muscles, and they were becoming a threatening presence in the background.

They needed to see that God would use this foreign power to get Israel’s attention.

They had mistreated their own people, and God was now roaring to get their attention.

The complacent rich were oppressing the poor, and God was through with it.

Secondly, we see that God intervenes in History

B. In General

This is part of the grand picture, the grand plan of all of History.

It is all leading to God’s ultimate Goal.

Amos mentions God roaring from Zion and his voice being uttered from Jerusalem.

This draws the readers mind to the grand picture of God’s plan for this world.

God is at work in the ongoing revelation of history to see the ultimate picture of Zion, and her Ultimate King ruling and reigning from there.

The third Essential Truth we see in Amos is the Theme:

III. God Is Lord of Creation

God is not just Lord of History and its grand sweep through the timeline, but the Lord of Amos, is the Lord of Creation as well.

Going back to the earthquake for a moment, because that is what is mentioned in these verses, we see that God uses His creation to bring judgment to His people.

Disaster and earthquakes, for all of history, have been used by God to get the attention of His people.

But we must be careful at the same time, not to believe that every disaster is a direct punishment from God.

Luke 13:1–5 KJV

1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Jesus told the people here that that those who went through these traumatic events were no more sinners than we are, we just need to focus on our own repentance.

However God is in control over all of his Creation.

The whole land is implied here when verse two talks about the habitations of the shepherds (the valleys and pastures where they would feed)and the top of Carmel.

In the Hebrew language these opposites imply the whole, like saying heaven and earth, or good and evil - everything in between the two is implied.

The theme is judgment, and God will use Nature, His creation, to bring the judgement - The habitations of the shepherds will morn, and the top of Carmel will wither.

Conclusion

As we preach through this book, we will find these three themes: the God who speaks, the Lord of History and the Lord of Creation at the heart of it all.

We will see that this book is not a book about Amos - very little is known about him.

We will see that this book is not a book about Israel.

This book is a book about God and how He relates to this world.

We are going to see how the God of Heaven judges man.

What is true for God’s chosen people back then, is true about God’s chosen people today - the Christians who have been chosen before the foundation of the World.

We too must be concerned about the social concerns of the world around us.

We seem to have two extremes in America today, so much concern about Social Justice that our rights, and our righteousness gets set to the side.

And then there is the flip side, our rights and righteousness gets so much focus, that the righteousness of social justice gets set aside.

Let’s make what is important to God, important to us — not get side tracked by any political agenda — but care about righteousness and the care of our neighbor as well!

We need to be stirred out of complacency and get busy for the Lord, always looking how we can help our fellow man, and in the process lead the to Christ!

These words that we will study are not Amos’ words - they are the revelation of God put forth by the Man of God.

And is our authority.

Never forget that God is in control!

He speaks - He is the Lord of History and He is the Lord of Creation.

Let’s hear what He has to say!

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