Amos

Amos 1:1–10 “The following is a record of what Amos prophesied. He was one of the herdsmen from Tekoa. These prophecies about Israel were revealed to him during the time of King Uzziah of Judah and King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake. Amos said: “The Lord comes roaring out of Zion; from Jerusalem he comes bellowing! The shepherds’ pastures wilt; the summit of Carmel withers.” This is what the Lord says: “Because Damascus has committed three crimes— make that four!—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They ripped through Gilead like threshing sledges with iron teeth. So I will set Hazael’s house on fire; fire will consume Ben Hadad’s fortresses. I will break the bar on the gate of Damascus. I will remove the ruler from Wicked Valley, the one who holds the royal scepter from Beth Eden. The people of Aram will be deported to Kir.” The Lord has spoken! This is what the Lord says: “Because Gaza has committed three crimes— make that four—I will not revoke my decree o…”

BIG IDEA: How do we respond when we are confronted with our sin.

New Series, looking at the Minor Prophets, calling it (Not So) Minor.

Because the final twelve books of the old testament are called the Minor prophets. But not because what they had to say was less important. Rather it’s simply because they are “short” But what they had to say is anything but minor.

Originally I had wanted to do Jeremiah. But as I got into it I realized that Jeremiah is the kind of book that we need to spend an entire year on. There’s just no way to do it justice in a short amount of time.

And so decided we would spend 12 weeks going through all 12. And then I found out that I’m going to Fort Jackson this summer. And looking at the calendar lo and behold I don’t have enough weeks to do that.

This project of looking at the prophets has been a bit of a moving target. What you’re going to get in this series is an overview of about 5 or 6 minor prophets.

So let’s kind of dive in and talk generally about the minor prophets, and then we’ll get into Amos, which is going to be the prophet that kicks off our series.

The prophets are hard to read.

They all run together

Content itself is difficult. From Hosea to Malachi, the whole thing is just packed with hell-fire and brimstone. Most people don’t typically like to read or hear about God’s Judgement. It makes us uncomfortable.

But it’s God’s word and we need to face it head-on regardless of how uncomfortable it makes us.

We misunderstand the nature of “Prophets”

We mistakenly hear the word “prophet” and we think “fortune teller”

We can make the mistake of approaching the prophets searching for the “secret hidden meaning” and trying to figure out “what is this prophet predicting, how can we connect the dots on this prophesy”

That’s simply not how prophecy in the Bible works.

In reality the things that the prophets “predicted” really should have been common sense.

Israel, if you break God’s covenant promise, things will be bad. If you return to God’s covenant promise things will be good.

This isn’t some amazing secret revelation, this is Old testament covenant 101. Obey Good. Disobey Bad.

The prophets were basically telling israel

If you keep trying to stick that fork in that light socket, you’re going to get electrocuted.

False prophets were the ones saying: It’s fine. I’m pretty sure the breaker is turned off. You should be good, just go ahead and stick it in there. Nothing bad’s going to happen.

TEXT

Amos 1:1 NET 2nd ed.

The following is a record of what Amos prophesied. He was one of the herdsmen from Tekoa. These prophecies about Israel were revealed to him during the time of King Uzziah of Judah and King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

I try not to get too caught up in history and dates, because it can be difficult to keep up with. There are three major dates, or years that you absolutely need to commit to memory not just for reading the prophets, but it will make reading the bible so much easier.

722 BC Assyrian empire took the northern 10 tribes captive. And basically wiped out 10 out of the 12 tribes of israel.

612 BC (Remember BC goes backwards) 110 years later, Assyria is conquered by Babylon. And between 612 and 608 Babylon systematically takes the southern kingdom into exile. They finished that up in 608.

538 (exactly 70 years later) Persia conquers babylon and sends the exiles back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.,

Amos is preaching in around 750 BC, And so all you need to know is that Amos is about 30 years before the Assyrians show up.

And at this time you have Israel in the north, it’s capital city is Samaria

And you have Judah in the south, it’s capital city is Jerusalem. And at this point in history, they are not friends. There have been wars back and forth, they’ve attacked each other. For all intents and purposes, these are two enemy nations.

And the fact that these two kingdoms are split in two plays into our big picture question: How do we respond when we’re confronted with our sin.

In 1st kings 11, solomon has fallen away, and has taken up worshiping foriegn Gods. and so God says

1 Kings 11:11 NET 2nd ed.

So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you insist on doing these things and have not kept the covenantal rules I gave you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.

God sends a prophet to a guy named Jeraboam, and the prophet tears his garment into 12 pieces and says

1 Kings 11:31 NET 2nd ed.

Then he told Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces, for this is what the Lord God of Israel has said: ‘Look, I am about to tear the kingdom from Solomon’s hand and I will give ten tribes to you.

In other words, the kingdom split, because God was punishing Solomon for his disobedience.

How did the southern tribes respond? well it wasn’t perfect. But there were times during the southern kingdom where they were making an attempt to return to God. They messed up a lot, but there were moments in the southern tribes where they almost got it right. They were trying.

What about the northern tribes?

1 Kings 12:26–28 NET 2nd ed.

Jeroboam then thought to himself: “Now the Davidic dynasty could regain the kingdom. If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, their loyalty could shift to their former master, King Rehoboam of Judah. They might kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.” After the king had consulted with his advisers, he made two golden calves. Then he said to the people, “It is too much trouble for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”

So what you have in Amos is several generations of kings who are exactly like Jeraboam. They’re politically motivated. They’re good at doing politics, amassing wealth, growing the economy, fighting wars. But they’re really really really bad at being faithful to God, and living by the standards god has set out.

Amos 1:2 NET 2nd ed.

Amos said: “The Lord comes roaring out of Zion; from Jerusalem he comes bellowing! The shepherds’ pastures wilt; the summit of Carmel withers.”

God is described as “roaring” bellowing out of his throne. He’s mad. He has something to say. He’s mad.

Amos 1:3 NET 2nd ed.

This is what the Lord says: “Because Damascus has committed three crimes— make that four!—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They ripped through Gilead like threshing sledges with iron teeth.

Amos 1:4 NET 2nd ed.

So I will set Hazael’s house on fire; fire will consume Ben Hadad’s fortresses.

These people, Hazael and Ben Hadad were kings of Damascus.

The formula is very simple. For three Crimes (or transgressions) you know what, actually, make that four crimes, I will punish this nation. And then He describes what the nation did, and proclaims judgement against them

Amos 1:6 NET 2nd ed.

This is what the Lord says: “Because Gaza has committed three crimes— make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They deported a whole community and sold them to Edom.

Amos does this, this same formula, all throughout Chapter 1.

Tyre, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, Even Judah, the southern kingdom.

Remember this is being preached to the Northern kingdom of Israel. So as far as they were concerned, Judah was just another enemy nation at this point.

And if you put all of these nations on a map, you see that they are the nations are the countries that border israel.

Seven of them, good jewish number.

Here’s the thing about Prophets in Amos’ day. Amos is one of the earlier prophets. And all of the Prophets who spoke up until the time of Amos, spent their time proclaiming Judgement on Other nations. A good number of False prophets existed, who were prophets for hire, preached what the people wanted to hear.

And a good number of True prophets who came before Amos, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah…all preached not against israel, but against israel’s enemies.

And so you have to imagine these israelites hearing Amos speak at this point, and the amount of Smugness that is welling up in them.

They’re wealthy, they’re well off.

Oh yeah, Moab, they’re going to get it. The ammonites, hate those guys. Those guys are the worst, am I right?

And it’s not til you get to Chapter 2 vs 6 that you realize that this whole thing has been a big Giant setup.

Amos 2:6 NET 2nd ed.

This is what the Lord says: “Because Israel has committed three covenant transgressions— make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They sold the innocent for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals.

Israel was frankly not expecting judgement to be proclaimed back at them

Israel was perfectly happy with their own sin, so long as the sins of the other nations was way worse.

When we are Confronted with our Sin, do we fall back on Comparison?

Look, I understand that we all fall short. I understand that none of us is as faithful as we ought to be.

This is not about whether or not we sin. It’s about how we respond when we are confronted with our sin.

Do we rely on comparison? Yeah sure I sin, but at least I’m not as bad as those guys.

Matthew 7:4 NET 2nd ed.

Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own?

Matthew 7:5 NET 2nd ed.

You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

When we have that mindset, that leads to complacency.

And this is exactly the trap that Amos is laying for them. He’s listing off the sins that everyone else does. So as to get them to let their guard down, and then he hits them with the one two punch.

It’s the same thing that Nathan does to david. After David commits adultery, and has uriah killed in battle, the prophet nathan comes to David and says (paraphrase)

Sir there’s someone in your kingdom who is rich and wealthy. And he took the one lowly little lamb that someone had. And david is like “how dare he.” What kind of a monster would do this? he should be punished at once.

And then nathan hits him with the “You are that man” line.

And the point that God is getting across here, by comparing them to these other nations is two-fold.

Shock effect.

To show the point, that Israel should know better. Because they are God’s peopl

When we as christians spend all of our time criticizing the sins of the world, and none of our time looking at ourselves, do ourselves a disservice.

We should know better. That’s the whole point of being a Christian, we have God’s word, we know what Jesus Taught, we know what God wants for our lives. We have a whole book about it.

Likewise, here in Amos the prophet declares to them, basically, you knew better.

Amos 2:9 NET 2nd ed.

For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. They were as tall as cedars and as strong as oaks, but I destroyed the fruit on their branches and their roots in the ground.

Amos 2:10 NET 2nd ed.

I brought you up from the land of Egypt; I led you through the wilderness for forty years so you could take the Amorites’ land as your own.

In other words, God is describing all of the good things he’s done for israel.

In the Good cop Bad cop motif, God tried the good cop method. They didn’t respond to that.

Amos 3:3–8 NET 2nd ed.

Do two walk together without having met? Does a lion roar in the woods if he has not cornered his prey? Does a young lion bellow from his den if he has not caught something? Does a bird swoop down into a trap on the ground if there is no bait? Does a trap spring up from the ground unless it has surely caught something? If an alarm sounds in a city, do people not fear? If disaster overtakes a city, is the Lord not responsible? Certainly the Sovereign Lord does nothing without first revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who is not afraid? The Sovereign Lord has spoken. Who can refuse to prophesy?

God is not just acting angry because he got up on the wrong side of the bed. God is sending them a prophet, letting them know exactly what he wants from them, and exactly what he’s going to do if they don’t repent.

When we are confronted with our sin do we fall back on ignorance?

This kind of goes right along with the idea that we know better. No we don’t get to claim ignorance.

God tells the people of israel “You’re going to know what I expect out of my people”

And the point that Amost gets across in chapters 3 and 4 is that their reliance on their own prosperity has made them complacent. They are feigning ignorance. We had no idea God was so mad. We’re so wealthy and successful. How were we supposed to know.

Amos 4:1 NET 2nd ed.

Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan who live on Mount Samaria! You oppress the poor; you crush the needy. You say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink!”

These were the elite women of Samaria he’s talking about.

And god says, look while you all were living fat and happy, I’ve been trying to get you to realize what you’ve been doing wrong this entire time and you haven’t been listening.

Amos 4:6–11 NET 2nd ed.

“But surely I gave you no food to eat in all of your cities; you lacked food everywhere you lived. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. I gave rain to one city, but not to another. One field would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up. People from two or three cities staggered into one city to get water, but remained thirsty. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking “I destroyed your crops with blight and disease. Locusts kept devouring your orchards, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. I killed your young men with the sword, along with the horses you had captured. I made the stench from the corpses rise up into your nostrils. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking “I overthrew some of you the way God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the flames. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking

So in chapter 2 God said “I tried the good cop routine, I brought you up out of egypt I destroyed your enemies, and you didn’t listen.

Here in chapter 4 he says “I tried the bad cop routine” I took away your food, I destroyed your cities, I sent plagues, and you didn’t listen to that either.

So don’t feign ignorance.

And all God wants is for them to seek Him.

And the high point of all of this, in the book of Amos, all of this judgement, all of this proclamation that their wealth isn’t going to save them, relying on being “better” than their enemies, relying on “ignorance” isn’t going to work, the high point of the whole book comes in chapter 7

Amos 7:1–6 NET 2nd ed.

The Sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw him making locusts just as the crops planted late were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest.) When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said, “Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! How can Jacob survive? He is too weak!” The Lord decided not to do this. “It will not happen,” the Lord said. The Sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw the Sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields. “Sovereign Lord, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is too weak!” The Lord decided not to do this. The Sovereign Lord said, “This will not happen either.”

Here comes the high point in Amos. The central passage.

I want to read it to you first in the NET Bible, which is what I’m preaching from,

And then I’m going to read it from the NIV, because there’s some language differences we need to work out here.

So don’t be alarmed

Amos 7:7 NET 2nd ed.

He showed me this: I saw the Lord standing by a tin wall holding tin in his hand.

"plumbline” here. this is a tricky word, to translate. and I want to talk about it, here in a second, but let’s read through verses 7 and 8

We know it means some kind of metal. But we actually don’t know what kind of metal it is. But they have it narrowed down to either tin or lead. I want to talk about the two different ways we can understand it depending on what kind of metal he’s talking about.

Amos 7:8–9 NET 2nd ed.

The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “Tin.” The Lord then said, “Look, I am about to place tin among my people Israel. I will no longer overlook their sin. Isaac’s centers of worship will become desolate; Israel’s holy places will be in ruins. I will attack Jeroboam’s dynasty with the sword.”

Amos 7:7–9 NIV

This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A plumb line,” I replied. Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”

And in my NIV i have a footnote that says “the meaning of this phrase is uncertain”

The text in verse 7 quite literally reads The Lord was standing beside a wall of “Anak” with “Anak” in his hand.

And the word “Anak” means some kind of metal. We know that much. It’s only used in the entire bible right here, one time.

But we’ve found other ancient writings where ANAK was mixed with other metals to create bronze and swords and shield and things like that.

And they’ve narrowed the two types of metal that ANAK could be down to either Lead or Tin.

so either God is standing by Lead wall, holding lead in his hand, or he’s standing by a tin wall with Tin in his hand.

The good news for us is that what we’re supposed to take away from the passage is the same either way.

If it’s lead that he’s holding in his hand. then we have a description of a plumb line. A piece of metal tied to a string to tell is something is straight.

And the message is, God is telling amos, I’m going to test israel with a plumb line. I’m going to give them a chance.

If the metal is tin, then what we have is a pun, a play on words. The word anak, if you say it fast enough in hebrew sounds like the word mourning. Grief. God says I’m going to place grief in israel.

In other words I’m going to judge them. And the presumption is, if they turn back to me, the grief will be over.

either way, God is saying “Here’s your last chance.

Amos 7:10–17 NET 2nd ed.

Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent this message to King Jeroboam of Israel: “Amos is conspiring against you in the very heart of the kingdom of Israel! The land cannot endure all his prophecies. As a matter of fact, Amos is saying this: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly be carried into exile away from its land.’ ” Amaziah then said to Amos, “Leave, you visionary! Run away to the land of Judah. Earn your living and prophesy there! Don’t prophesy at Bethel any longer, for a royal temple and palace are here.” Amos replied to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet by profession. No, I was a herdsman who also took care of sycamore fig trees. Then the Lord took me from tending flocks and gave me this commission, ‘Go! Prophesy to my people Israel.’ So now listen to the Lord’s message! You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel! Don’t preach against the family of Isaac!’ “Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets and your sons and daughters will die violently. Your land will be given to others and you will die in a foreign land. Israel will certainly be carried into exile away from its land.’ ”

How do we respond when we’re confronted with our sin?

Comparison, that’s not good. Feigning ignorance, not good.

But worse than both of those, When we are confronted with our own sin, is to simply say “I don’t even want to hear it.”

I could not care less what you have to say, I know what I’m doing is wrong, I don’t care what I’m doing is wrong,and I’m not even willing to put in the effort to even make an excuse for my sing.

And what’s amazing is Amos’ response.

They accuse him of being a prophet for pay. Tey tell him go back to Judah, make money preaching somewhere else.

Amos says look dude, basically this is my paraphrase.

I don’t even really want to be here right now. I don’t know if you know this or not but I’m a sheep herder. I’ve got a nice little orchard of fig trees. I would much rather be at home with my sheep and my figs, but god called me to warn you of what’s about to come if you don’t straighten up.

But have it your way.

Amos gets another vision much like the one with the lead or tin wall. Only this time it’s summer fruit.

And there’s another play on words, because the word for “Fruit” and the word for “End” in chapter 8 verse 1 he says the “end has come for my people”

He predicts the judgement that’s coming for israel.

And in chapter 9, Amso sees the lord standing by the altar and he says

Amos 9:1 NET 2nd ed.

I saw the Lord standing by the altar and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, so the thresholds shake! Knock them down on the heads of all the people, and I will kill the survivors with the sword. No one will be able to run away; no one will be able to escape.

This isn’t about whether or not israel sins.

All have sinned, and all have fallen short of the glory of God. God is not just waiting to zap us with lightning bolts every time we mess up.

The point is how we respond when we’re confronted with our sin.

When we look at it in the face, what do we do with it.

If you had a cancer diagnosis. And the doctor said “I’m sorry to tell you but you have tumor”

What good would ignoring it do? What good would comparing it to the tumors of other people do? What good would it do if you said “ Doc I can’t believe you would tell me I have a tumor. How dare you. You have no place to judge my cancer?

Guess what the tumors still there

When we are confronted with our sin, it’s God’s way of saying there is something cancerous within you, I think you should get taht checked out. I think you should get that looked at.

When we repent of our sin, when we give it over to god, and we say, God I recognize I have this sin cancer, I recognize that I’m not a qualified professional, Only your son can remove it.

Then and only then can we be free.

God is a god of second chances. He’s a God who isn’t afraid to point out your sin, and confront you with it. But at the same time he’s willing to take it all away if you just let him.

Amos 9:11–15 NET 2nd ed.

“In that day I will rebuild the collapsing hut of David. I will seal its gaps, repair its ruins, and restore it to what it was like in days gone by. As a result they will conquer those left in Edom and all the nations subject to my rule.” The Lord, who is about to do this, is speaking! “Be sure of this, the time is coming,” says the Lord, “when the plowman will catch up to the reaper and the one who stomps the grapes will overtake the planter. Juice will run down the slopes; it will flow down all the hillsides. I will bring back my people, Israel; they will rebuild the cities lying in rubble and settle down. They will plant vineyards and drink the wine they produce; they will grow orchards and eat the fruit they produce. I will plant them on their land, and they will never again be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

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