Amos 1-2
Amos • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 8 viewsWe are looking at the first 2 chapters of Amos
Notes
Transcript
Part 1 of Amos’s Sermon: God will Punish Social and Relational Unrighteousness among the Heathen (1:2 — 2:3)
Part 1 of Amos’s Sermon: God will Punish Social and Relational Unrighteousness among the Heathen (1:2 — 2:3)
Introduction:
Introduction:
-Here’s what we’re going to do
-Amos’s first sermon has two parts to it, so we’re going to simply work through both of these parts by this 3 step outline I’ve given
-We’re going to understand the Prophet in context, extract the biblical principles and truths, and then seek to apply it our own lives
Background and vs. 1
Background and vs. 1
-First of all, take note that Amos is described as one from Tekoa
-That means he is from the Southern Kingdom of Judah
-Also, take note that he is a sheep breeder
-This is going to become important later on in the book, but just remember that for now
-He is not your typical prophet, he comes from pretty normal work
-and this is during the reigns of Jeroboam the II and Uzziah, both who were pretty prosperous kings
-So we know this prophecy took place during a time of prosperity for both Kingdoms
In the first part of his sermon, Yahweh (through the mouth of Amos) takes aim at 6 pagan nations
-He calls each of them out separately for their cruelty against other human beings
I. Understand the Prophet and his Message in Context
I. Understand the Prophet and his Message in Context
The first place Yahweh starts with is Damascus, which was part of the Kingdom of Aram (1:2-5)
-The crime that Yahweh charges them with is threshing Gilead
-Now, Gilead was a region just east of the Jordan River, and probably at this time, it belonged to the Northern Kingdom
-Threshing was the act of driving metal sledges, kind of like ploughs, over the rough ground the get it ready for farming
-Understand this: God hates cruelty towards other human beings in our treatment of them
-Now, whether Damascus literally drove threshing instruments over the people in Gilead whom they attacked or not is unsure
-But either way, what God is saying, is that the Damascans were cruel in their conquering and killing of the inhabitants of Gilead, and they would be judged severely because of it
-Vs. 4-5 show that God would send judgment against the inhabitants of Damascus for their cruelty, and would cut them off and send them into captivity
2. The next nation that Yahweh brings His charge against is Gaza located in Philistia (1:6-8)
-According to verse 6, the Philistines had actually taken whole cities and towns captive and sold them into slavery to Edom
-We’re not told specifically what group of people the Philistines do this too, but
-This was probably done to turn a profit, or to deport entire groups of people to take their lands
-Understand this: God hates kidnapping and selling people
-And God promises that this kind of cruelty will not go unpunished (vs. 7-8)
-God sees the Social and Relational Unrighteousness against other image-bearers, and He will punish
3. The third nation that God levels a charge against is Tyre (1:9-10)
-Tyre is punished because they too sell people to Edom, but this charge is a little different
-Tyre does this by not honoring a treaty they made with a nation
-Now, once again, we’re not given something more specific than that, but understand this:
-God hates when people break their covenants, their treaties, and their promises
-And so in verse 10, God promises retribution against the kingdom of Tyre for selling people into slavery and breaking their covenant
4. Fourth, God levels a charge against Edom, who has now been mentioned twice already
-The crime against humanity that Edom has committed is that “he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity; his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever”
-Now, this “brother” could be referring to Israel, since Jacob and Esau (the father of the nation of Edom) were brothers
-Or this could refer to a treaty partner
-But regardless, Edom had turned on other people that he should have had compassion and pity on
-Instead, his compassion and pity was suppressed, and he tore into them with anger and cruelty
And understand this: God hates when human beings treat each other with cruelty and lack of compassion
-compassion and pity is what God expects in normal human relationships and dealings with other people
Because of this, God promises that He will judge Edom (vs. 12)
5. The fifth pagan nation that God brings His charge against is Ammon (vs. 13-15)
-The crime here against humanity that is charge to Ammon is that “they ripped open the women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their territory”
-Now, as awful as this sounds, and it truly is awful, this seemed to be a practice that was practiced in wartime in the ancient world
-There are other references in our OT in 2 Kings and in Hosea about this same thing
Why did Ammon participate in this sort of cruelty?
-so they could enlarge their own territory
-They wanted more land, and more resources
Understand this: God hates cruelty towards woman, towards children, towards the unborn, and towards the helpless of society
-And God hates when people are cruel towards others just to prosper themselves and their own people or nation
And so God promises punishment and captivity to the Kingdom of Ammon (1:14-15)
6. Lastly, God promises judgement on the pagan nation of Moab (2:1-3)
-The crime against humanity that Moab committed is that they “burned the bones of the King of Edom to lime”
-Now, the other crimes of Social and Relational Unrighteousness were all pretty easy to see why they were wrong
-This one might be a little harder for us to understand
-Plus, we’re not given a lot of detail about it
-But back in these ancient cultures (just as in many cultures now), the resting place of the body was a big deal
-And for Moab to dig up the remains of a king and burn the body out of spite and cruelty was wrong
-God wants us to understand this: God hates spiteful and vengeful acts done against other people and cultures
-And because of this wrong, God would cut off the Moabites and kill them
II. Grasp the Eternal Truths about God and His Ways
II. Grasp the Eternal Truths about God and His Ways
-So what truths can we take after understanding the prophet and his message in context?
We’ve come up with a few observations:
1. God hates cruelty towards other human beings in our treatment of them
2. God hates kidnapping and selling people
3. God hates when people break their covenants, their treaties, and their promises
4. God hates when human beings treat each other with cruelty and lack of compassion
5. God hates cruelty towards woman, towards children, towards the unborn, and towards the helpless of society
6. God hates spiteful and vengeful acts done against other people and cultures
So we can say this: God hates Social and Relational Unrighteousness, even amongst the pagans
-These nations are not in a Covenant with God
-They’ve also not been given much special revelation
-And yet, each of these nations has violated the Universal Law of God in their treatment of other people
-And God wants to let His people know that He has seen, and He will not let these pagan nations go unpunished for their Social and Relational Unrighteousness
The fact that these nations don’t have “the Bible in their own language” (so to speak) does not mean that they can act however they want
God will judge people for their cruelty and unrighteousness toward other human beings, regardless whether they’ve heard the about God or His Word or not
-And the people of Israel probably took great pleasure in this!
-To hear that God would judge the cruelty of the nations around them probably caused them great delight and rejoicing!
III. Apply the eternal truths to our own specific context, culture, and era of salvation history
III. Apply the eternal truths to our own specific context, culture, and era of salvation history
-So how does this apply to us today?
-Listen, there is a lot of cruelty going on in our world today
-Let’s just start with our own country and culture
-There are thousands of babies killed every year legally since Roe v. Wade back in 1973
-And even though that, praise the Lord, Roe v Wade has been overturned, there are still thousands of babies that are legally being killed today
-And guess what brothers and sisters? God sees that, and He will punish that kind of Social and Relational Unrighteousness
-He will not let that go!
-There are many other issues in our own country
-Corruption in government
-Child or sex trafficking
-Gang violence
-Murder
-Rape
-Racism
-The tearing down of the family unit
And all of these things will be punished
-Not just in America, but in the entire world
-The horrible invasion of Ukraine because and all the inhumane atrocities that have ensued
-The human rights violations that have happened in China
-the horrible regime in North Korea
-We just got back from Colombia yesterday, and Daniel spent time telling us about the violent history of Colombia
-About the wars between the wealthy landowners and the common people
-How both sides used drug trade to finance their armies
-He told us how a few decades ago, the military in Colombia was incentivized to go kill these guerilla groups in the country
-If you go kill enough of these guerilla soldiers, you’d get promoted
-But what the military would do is go to a small town or village, and kill the entire population, put uniforms on them, take pictures, and then go claim that they killed guerilla soldiers so they could be promoted
-And these kinds of horrible atrocities go on all over the world
-But guess what?
-They are seen by God
-And God will hold all these people accountable and punish them
-And that should be a comfort to the people of God!
-You see, Christ has died and rose again
-And as His people, we know He will return to judge the World
-He will set up his Kingdom in Righteousness!
-Because of Christ, we are waiting for a New Heaven and a New Earth where righteousness will dwell
-In a world that seems to have gone so horribly wrong, and where Social and Relational Unrighteousness seem to be the norm, it can often be discouraging
-We can often be tempted to think that people just get away with this
-But they don’t! God sees, and He will meet out perfect justice
Part 2 of Amos’s Sermon: God Holds His own People Accountable for Social and Relational Unrighteousness
Part 2 of Amos’s Sermon: God Holds His own People Accountable for Social and Relational Unrighteousness
But this is only half of Amos’s sermon
-Because he now moves from God’s judgment on pagans for their Social Unrighteousness to God’s chastening and judgment on His own people
I. Understand the Prophet and his Message in Context
I. Understand the Prophet and his Message in Context
He first turns to the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 2:4-5 and levels a charge against them:
-He charges them for their despising and disobeying the Law of God and being led astray by lies
-Now, the indictment here might seem a little out of place, since there are no specific instances of Social or Relational Unrighteousness mentioned
-But I think this serves a few different purposes:
It shows how serious the sin actually is
-At least with the other nations, it wasn’t like they were turning away from their covenant with God
-They never had a covenant with God!
-But Judah did! And they had turned away from it and disobeyed God’s Law
-They had turned their back on Him, making their sin even more atrocious
2. Second, turning away from God’s Law would have tons of social implications, since a great deal of the Mosaic Law dealt with the right and fair treatment of others
-And so the people of Israel also probably took pleasure in hearing of God’s judgment on their Southern neighbors as well
But Amos’s sermon here takes an unwelcome turn, as he now gets to the heart of the prophecy of this book and unloads the thundering voice of Yahweh on the Northern Kingdom
Look at vs. 6-8:
Vs. 6-7a
Here are the sins of Social and Relational Unrighteousness that the Israelites are guilty of:
-They take advantage of the righteous and the poor
-Whether selling them here means literal selling into slavery, or perhaps taking advantage of them through ousting them from their lands by corrupt courts, or a combination of both
-the message is clear: the Mosaic Law had many God-given measures to protect the poor and help those who had fallen on hard times
-But these Laws were ignored so that those in power could profit
Vs. 7a is probably better translated by the HCSB “they trample the heads of the poor on the dust of the ground and block the path of the needy”
-This continues the same thought
-The poor and needy were taken advantage of
-They were not protected or shown pity
Vs. 7b
-This back half of the verse shows the sexual perversion of the Israelites and how they took advantage of people
-This kind of sexual perversion was expressly forbidden in Leviticus 18:8
-There were laws in place to protect females from this kind of thing
-If someone were to have sex with an unmarried female, that person was so pay a fine and then marry her, being unable to divorce her
-But these Laws were being ignored and women were being taken advantage of, even by family members
Vs. 8
-This verse shows further how God’s Laws were being ignored in the Social realm
-It was forbidden in the Law of God to take someone’s garment as a pledge overnight, especially if he was poor
-To make matters more abominable, these garments taken are linked here with the house of God
-these people actually have the gall to bring these garments that they shouldn’t have taken to the house of God and use them to sleep on during religious festivals perhaps
They would even take the hefty fines that they enforced on the poor and drink fine wine with the money
Vs. 9-12
-Yahweh rebukes them, telling them that it was He that brought them up from Egypt and gave them their land
-He was the one who raised up Nazirites (godly people) and prophets among them to help guide them
-But vs. 12, they were telling those people who God had raised up, who were there to help them to stay faithful to God, to be quiet
“don’t confront me! mind your own business”
-They were causing the Nazirites to drink wine, which they were not allowed to do
Vs. 13-16
-And so God promises severe judgment on His people for their sins
-God would judge His people, and they would flee in shame and humiliation because of their Social and Relational Unrighteousness
II. Grasp the Eternal Truths about God and His Ways
II. Grasp the Eternal Truths about God and His Ways
-Here’s what we ought to grasp from this second half of Amos’s sermon
-As bad as it is for those who don’t know the Lord to treat each other poorly or even cruelly
-And it is bad! And God will judge them
-it’s even worse when those who know the Lord and have His revealed Word participate in Social and Relational Unrighteousness
You see, it can be easy, as the people of God, to look out in the world and be outraged at the injustices that we see, but miss the ways that we participate in Social and Relational Unrighteousness
-And as God’s people who have His Word, we have even less excuse than those who do not know the Lord
-I mean, we have been brought near by the blood of Christ
-We’ve been completely transformed by His sacrifice!
-And just as the people of Israel in Amos’s day needed to be confronted about their Social and Relational Unrighteousness, we too need to be confronted as well
III. Apply the eternal truths to our own specific context, culture, and era of salvation history
III. Apply the eternal truths to our own specific context, culture, and era of salvation history
-So, how do we go about applying this to ourselves today?
-Remember, we don’t live under a theocracy
-Not everyone around us is in a Covenant with God like we are
-We don’t live within a nation that is governed by specific Laws given by God that teach us how to live in every aspect of our society
So how do we apply this?
I’m going to suggest, as we close this evening, that there are three levels of application here, with each level getting more and more broad
-I think the closes point of application for us this evening is to first make application within our own church
-After all, Amos was written to a group of people who did life together who were in Covenant with God
-And while we’re not Israel, we as a church do life together in community to a certain extent and are in a Covenant with God
-Christ has brought us near together
-He has transformed us through His death and Resurrection and made us a Kingdom of Priests to our God
-So, first of all, do we live in right relationship with each other?
-Do we treat each other rightly?
-when a church member falls on hard times, do we respond with pity and compassion?
-Do we look out for that church member?
-Do we find ways to give to them, to make them meals, to help with things they may need done at their house?
-Or do we ignore them?
-Are we tempted to think “I’m not going to help them with my resources if they’re not very good at looking after their own”
-Maybe we wouldn’t ever say that out loud, but do we have that attitude at times?
-Do we have a spirit of compassion and forgiveness towards those in our church who fail?
-Are gracious towards those who are more needy or less mature spiritually?
-As we’re going to see very forcefully in this book, God is not pleased with our outward signs of worship when we don’t live in Social and Relational Righteousness towards other people, especially within the Covenant Community in our church
I think a second circle of application can be made to those within our family
-These are people that God has placed in our lives, whom God has given instructions on how to live within these relationships
-God teaches husbands and wives how to relate, as well as parents and children
-Are you living rightly with your family?
-Are you living in love towards your spouse?
-Husbands, do you love you wife?
-Wives, do you submit to your husbands?
-Teens, are you obeying and respecting your parents?
-Parents, are you being patient with your children and bringing them up in the Lord?
-There are many Christian people out there who come to church and read their Bible and say and do a lot of the right things
-but their awful at home
-They are unkind and disrespectful toward their spouse
-they’re angry and annoyed at their kids or their siblings
-And God is not pleased with outward signs of godliness but Relational Unrighteousness at home
And finally, I think there is a final circle of application for us as Christians in society with those around us, even if they are unsaved
-Do we show love and compassion to those around us?
-Do we take time to help the needy?
-Do we seek to be a blessing to our neighbors?
-Do we have compassion and pity on the poor?
-Are we ok with being dishonest in our dealings with people, or with big companies
**Amazon illustration**
You see brothers and sisters, there is a way that we ought to conduct ourselves in our relationship and society because of Christ
-When we fail to live rightly in these ways, we show that we have not properly valued Christ and been changed by Him like we ought
Brothers and sisters, let’s live in Social and Relational Righteousness as people who have been bought with the precious blood of Christ
-Let’s show how we love and treasure Christ by the way we live in relation to each other and to those who God has placed in our lives
-Let’s show how Christ has transformed us, and how that has transformed the way we live in peace with each other and those around us