8/6/2023 - The Five Visions of Amos
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Amos 7-9
We are going to close this series on Amos out in the next two weeks.
Today I want to go through the last three chapters and see the five visions that Amos saw, and shared with Israel.
Next week we will close out the series by seeing the last part of chapter 7.
As we have gone through this book of Amos, we have seen how God in His mercy has sent again and again prophets, the men of God, to proclaim that judgement is coming!
God gave them every chance to repent!
Through multiple oracles, or speeches given through Amos, God warned them that their sins were going to bring judgment to their lives.
The children of Israel had invited idolatry into their temples that they built.
They tried to mix the worship of false gods with the One true God.
Many Christians today are trying to mix the world with the church.
This will never work, and will only invite the judgement of God on our churches and on our lives.
Today I want to take a closer look at the five visions that God gave to Amos just before He shuts the door and brings judgement.
Each one of these visions show us something that we need to hear today!
In the First Vision we read: Amos 7:1-3
1 Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.
2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: By whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
3 The Lord repented for this: It shall not be, saith the Lord.
This is Vision 1 - The Vision of the Locusts
These grasshoppers or locusts in Amos’ vision came just as the latter growth was shooting up.
They would eat the tender shoots of all their crop, and completely decimate the crop for that entire year.
This was a vision of the judgment of Starvation in the land, because they would not hear.
Amos’ reaction is to immediately pray that God would forgive Israel.
He says…By whom shall Jacob arise? - who would be available to help them get back up from such a devastation!
And God hears Amos’ prayer!
The Bible says he repented for this - He changed His plan - He changed His mind.
From here we can see our first Point!
I. We Must Intercede in Prayer
I. We Must Intercede in Prayer
If we only knew how much can change when we just go to the Lord in prayer!
19 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
Paul was in a struggle and a trial, some preachers in the cities where he worked preached against Him.
Yet Paul determined just preach Christ, and He here told the church in Philippi that he knew that if they would pray, he would be saved through their prayer from this trial.
And that the Holy Spirit would enable Him.
In Ephesians, after telling the church the necessity of putting on the whole armor of God, he tells them...
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
He continues to ask for prayer specifically for him that he would have boldness to preach the gospel.
We sometimes don’t even see the results of our answered prayer, sometimes we are never told that they were answered…but many times, if we keep our eyes open we do!
Now Amos’ prayed for His country - it looked bad, and in fact God was showing him in a vision of what he would do to them.
But Amos’ first reaction is to pray for God to forgive His country.
We need to do the same!
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
We need to humble ourselves and pray
We need to seek God’s face - that means His favor
We need to turn from our wicked ways
Then and only then will we see the results of our intercessory prayer!
Intercessory prayer works!!!
Keep praying!
In the second vision, we see a vision of fire.
4 Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
5 Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: By whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
6 The Lord repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord God.
God has declared that He will devour the land still, but this time by fire, and only a part of it…but that this fire will also devour the great deep.
We don’t know exactly what God’s plan was, but possibly even to affect the water supply in this area.
If this is the case - Where starvation would have been the result of the first vision, A deep thirst, even a dying of thirst would be the result of this second vision.
Amos once again, cries out to God.
He says, “I beseech thee (I beg you); By whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.”
How can Jacob get up from this?
How could he survive - Amos is interceding once again.
And the Bible says that, “the Lord repented for this; This also shall not be, saith the Lord God.”
This shows us that...
II. We Must Persist in Intercession!
II. We Must Persist in Intercession!
The Bible tells us to keep praying!
1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
We are to always pray…and never give up!
Again Eph 6.18 says,
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Praying Always
With All Prayer and Supplication
With All perseverance
And all Supplications
for All Saints
That’s a lot of All’s!
God tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5, just after dealing with unruly in the church, the feeble and weak, and those who do evil against us…He tells us to:
16 Rejoice evermore.
17 Pray without ceasing.
18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Pray without ceasing - we have to continue in prayer!
Many times God doesn’t answer our prayer the first time or even the first few times we pray.
Sometimes I wonder if maybe God wants to see just how important this is to us!
Amos continued in prayer - We can continue in prayer for our country - it may be looking bad…it was looking bad for Israel too!
Just keep praying!
I don’t know how much time was between these three visions, but it seems that just as God changes His mind about this judgment, He shows Amos a third vision.
This vision #3 - Is often called the Vision of The Plumb Line
7 Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.
8 And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:
9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, And the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
A plumbline was a device that was used to make sure that a wall that was being built was being built straight.
There was a string tied to a weight, the string was held against the wall and gravity would pull the weight straight down, so that the string would be perfectly perpendicular.
The wall could then be measured to see how straight it was being built.
In this vision, Amos saw the Lord standing upon a wall that was made by a plumbline - the wall is built straight, and the Lord had a plumbline in his hand.
The Lord told Amos that He was going to set a plumbline in the middle of the people of Israel.
It will show that they are not living straight.
And the result, God says, is that He will not pass by them any more.
In Micah 7:18 we are told...
18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, And passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, Because he delighteth in mercy.
God says, I will no longer be longsuffering, I will not retain my anger any longer!
He is going to tear down the high places of Isaac, the false worship locations.
He is going to lay to waste the sanctuaries the worship centers of Israel.
And He is going to rise against the house (literally place, or royal dwelling place) of Jeroboam with the sword.
This was an indictment, and a declaration of judgment against two key parts of Israel:
the false religious centers
the seat of government
What can we learn from this vision?
III. We Must Measure Your Life by the Plumbline of God’s Word
III. We Must Measure Your Life by the Plumbline of God’s Word
God’s Word is to be guide us in this life!
105 NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path.
We are to make our decisions according to His Word!
Our very life strength ought to come from God’s Word
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
God’s Word is to keep is in line!
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Doctrine - What is Right
Reproof - What is Wrong
Correction - How to make the Wrong Right
Instruction in Righteousness - How to keep the Right Right.
How does your life line up with the plumbline of God’s Word?
Is your life’s wall crooked?
Fix it today! Make the adjustments that need to be made!
In the next section of Chapter 7 we see a priest in Israel confronting Amos, we will look at these verses next week as we close out our study.
But let’s look at the fourth vision - The Basket of Ripe Fruit.
This is in Amos chapter 8 - we will quickly go through this:
1 Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
This being summer fruit the picture is that the fruit is ripe and ready to harvest.
2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
The judgment time is ripe.
The harvest is here.
God will not pass by their transgressions any longer.
From here we see the prophecy of what will happen.
3 And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: There shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
Quite a gruesome image here.
The temple songs of joy will be replaced by howlings.
The Word means wailing - a cry of deep mourning and distress.
And everywhere they look there will be dead bodies.
God then begins to once again describe just why this is happening to them:
4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, Even to make the poor of the land to fail,
They are designing their systems so that the poor and needy will fail, and be therefore taken as slaves.
5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? And the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat,
They don’t care about the feasts, or the sabbath’s, they just want it to be over so they can get on with their lives and business of making money.
They don’t care about real worship!
God is just simply one of their interests - not the preeminence of their lives!
One preacher said regarding these verses, “When God becomes simply one of our interests he will soon become irrelevant, diminished and boring because we have ceased to honour him and tremble at his Word.”
Making the ephah small, and the shekel great, And falsifying the balances by deceit?
making false weights and cheating people.
6 That we may buy the poor for silver, And the needy for a pair of shoes; Yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
They do all this so they can make money off of selling and buying the poor as slaves, or trading for a pair of shoes…even going as far as including the leftover parts, the chaff of the grain in to be measured so they get less actual grain for their money.
7 The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, And every one mourn that dwelleth therein? And it shall rise up wholly as a flood; And it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, That I will cause the sun to go down at noon, And I will darken the earth in the clear day:
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, And all your songs into lamentation; And I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, And baldness upon every head; And I will make it as the mourning of an only son, And the end thereof as a bitter day.
Hear this part now!
11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, That I will send a famine in the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord:
God will cause them to not even be able to hear the Words of the Lord any longer - He is saying It’s too late now for repentance!!
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, And say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; And, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; Even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
The culmination of God’s judgment is here, and it is complete.
They will not even be able to hear the truth any longer - it is too late!
They will be so blinded that they will persist in their idolatry - they will swear by the sin of Samaria, and say thy god O Dan liveth. And the manner of Beersheba liveth.
Pointing once again to their false houses of worship.
And it ends saying even they shall fall and never rise up again.
Utter destruction.
we can simply learn from this:
IV. We Must Seek God Before It’s Too Late!
IV. We Must Seek God Before It’s Too Late!
6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, Call ye upon him while he is near:
Repent now!
Don’t delay!
Seek the Lord, and you will find Him
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
But the arrogance and pride of these people showed their refusal to turn to the God of their fathers, and now it is too late!
Don’t wait!
You are not guaranteed tomorrow!
You do not know when judgment or chastisement will come!
Don’t wait for destruction to happen before you seek God!
Don’t wait for God to try to get a hold of your attention through sickness or disease, or loss!
Don’t wait for God to bring financial ruin before you give it all to Him and His control!
Don’t hold back from God - Make Him your priority today!
Here the voice of God through the Man of God that He has sent to you, Turn back to God!
You say, “Pastor, I’m here…sitting in church! Why are you saying this to me?”
Listen to me right now!
So were they!
The people of Isreal were worshipping God too…not in His way, but they were in the temple!
Not the right one, not with the right spirit, but they were at ease in their pew!
Turn to God before it is too late!
And then we see Amos’ last vision
After they have refused Him once again, Now Amos sees in Vision # 5 - God Standing by the Altar - Amos 9:
1 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar:
Judgment is now here…standing at the altar!
and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: And cut them in the head, all of them;
The temple is commanded to be smashed, and the posts cut off.
And I will slay the last of them with the sword: He that fleeth of them shall not flee away, And he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.
When the people run away from the judgment, the enemy will slay them with the sword as they run…they will not be delivered.
2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; Though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
They cannot go deep enough to hide, and they cannot go far enough into space to get away from this judgment.
3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, (the highest point of the nation) I will search and take them out thence; And though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, Thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:
they will not escape!
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, Thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: And I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
Many of those who are taken captive will still die by the sword.
5 And the Lord God of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, And all that dwell therein shall mourn: And it shall rise up wholly like a flood; And shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
6 It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, And hath founded his troop in the earth; He that calleth for the waters of the sea, And poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.
IT is total destruction accomplished by none other than the LORD - the covenant name of God - His covenant had blessings for obedience, but also chastisement for disobedience!
7 Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? And the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
I send all the kingdoms and nations where I want them to go…I am in control.
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; Saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.
He prophesies a shred of hope here!
Not all of the house of Jacob will be destroyed
I will hold out a remnant.
Here we see our fifth principle from these passages:
V. We Must Be Faithful in the Midst of Judgment
V. We Must Be Faithful in the Midst of Judgment
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, Like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, Which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
There are a few who will turn back to God, or who never left being faithful to Him…He will sieve them from those who will perish.
11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, And close up the breaches thereof; And I will raise up his ruins, And I will build it as in the days of old:
There is coming a day when all this will be rebuilt
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, Which are called by my name, Saith the Lord that doeth this.
13 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, That the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; And the mountains shall drop sweet wine, And all the hills shall melt.
A picture of complete restoration of the kingdom of David - a look into the future at the Reign of Christ.
God is using hyperbole to describe the prosperity of the farms.
They will just finish plowing and already be reaping.
It is an exaggeration describing the prosperity of the land.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, And they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; And they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; They shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, And they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, Saith the Lord thy God.
Even in the midst of all of this destruction, God ends His message to Israel with a message of hope.
A remnant will inherit the land again.
The kingdom of David’s seed will once again rule, and there will be prosperity and safety.
This has not been fulfilled yet.
But one day it will.
They will be planted in that land, and will never again be pulled out!
Conclusion
Conclusion
This is a message of great hope, here at the end.
But this message is only for a remnant.
A small number compared to those who suffered judgment.
There is hope for the future, but not everyone will be able to partake in this hope.
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Will you hear the truths from these visions?
Will you pray for our country and for those who are headed to destruction?
Will you continue in prayer, even when it seems hopeless?
Will you measure your life, not according to the established, and accepted church (or their false leaders) but according to the eternal plumbline of God’s Word!
Will you seek God before it is too late?
Will you remain faithful, even when you see the rest of the country suffering under the judgment of God?
It is coming!
Will you stay faithful, or will you abandon God and His church when things get difficult?
Stay true to God!
He will lead us through whatever may come!