Amos 7
Amos • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewWe will be looking at the response of God to different groups of people
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Intro:
**Stitches illustration**
You can tell a lot about people by their responses to things
-And in this chapter this evening, we see how God responds to different situations, and it will reveal to us some of His glorious character
Background:
Background:
The book of Amos is the written record of some of the sermons of Amos during the prosperous reign of Jeroboam II in the Northern Kingdom of Israel
And while outwardly, the nation seemed to be doing fine, inwardly, they were living in relational and society wickedness
-the poor were being taken advantage of
-the righteous were being oppressed
-And Amos was to deliver the message that God was not pleased with their outward religiosity when they were treating people so horribly
1. The Mercy of God in Response to Intercession
1. The Mercy of God in Response to Intercession
Starting at this point in the book, God gives Amos five different visions
-We get 3 in this chapter
-1 in chapter 8
-And 1 in chapter 9
And all of them have to do with God’s judgment on the wicked nation of Israel
Now, the first two of these visions, found here at the beginning of chapter 7, are almost identical
-Both begin with “thus the Lord God showed me”
-God then shows Amos a coming destruction
-Amos cries out to the Lord to forgive, pleading with God for his weak people
-Then God relents, saying that He will not follow through with this judgment
Look first at vs. 1-3 and we’ll see what the first vision is about
In the first vision, God forms a locust swarm that eats up the vegetation of the land
-The details of the text (the late crop; after the king’s mowings) would put this locust invasion around March/April, right near the end of the rainy season
-This would essentially be a very last-second, unexpected locust invasion at the worst possible time, which would be devastating
-If all the vegetation was eaten near the end of the rainy season, there would be no more growth until the next rainy season, which would be a long time
-Not only would this wipe out the crops for the people of Israel to eat, but there would be no grass and hay for the animals to eat
-So not only would the people of Israel be starving, but so would their animals that they relied upon
-They wouldn’t be able to plow without their animals
-They wouldn’t be able to load up their goods to take to the markets to sell very easily without their animals
-They wouldn’t be able to have any wool from their sheep
It would be a completely devastating blow for these people
-Imagine if there was a complete shortage of gas in America for an extended period of time
-People can’t drive around, so they can’t go to work
-Airplanes aren’t flying
-Trucks aren’t transporting goods
-Boats aren’t shipping goods
-Farm equipment isn’t running
-Imagine how devastating that would be for our economy
Second, notice what the second plague is in verses 4-6
Amos sees a conflict by fire that consumes the great deep and devours the territory
-This probably is a reference to an intense heat wave and drought
-This would make sense given the details that Amos gives
-The great deep being consumed is a reference to the underground springs of the land which gave supply to the wells in the land
-A severe heat wave and drought would dry up wells and devour the crops in the land, possibly even causing wild fires to break out and burn up vegetation
-In a dry arid climate, water was obviously an invaluable commodity, this kind of judgment by the Lord would be absolutely devastating, affecting the crops, the livestock, and the people of the land
Notice though, the response of Amos:
-In verses 2 and 5, he cries out for the Lord to forgive and to stop!
-He knows that in light of the incredible power of God, Jacob is too small and weak to withstand God’s plagues of judgment
-So he does the only thing he can do . . . he casts himself on the mercy of God in intercessory prayer
-There’s no defense from Amos for the people concerning their conduct
-He doesn’t say, “You know God, these people haven’t been all that bad . . . they don’t really deserve all of this.”
-He doesn’t appeal to them turning over a new leaf, “You know God, I think they’ll get better and clean up their act soon if you’ll give them a little more time.”
-He doesn’t appeal to their motives, “You know God, these people really do have a good heart underneath all of this social injustice and relational wickedness. I think they really do mean well.”
-No, Amos simply casts himself on the undeserved mercy of God
-And guess what? God responds in mercy and relents from disaster
Why?
-Because this is who God is, a God who desires to show mercy and grace to people who don’t deserve it
This is what happened in Jonah, when the wicked city of Ninevah was confronted with their sin, they cried out to God to show them mercy, and God did
Jonah said this when God turned back his judgment on them:
So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.
This is what Christ did when the Syro-Pheonician came seeking the healing of her daughter
-Jesus told her that his ministry was primarily to the Jews, not to the Gentiles
-She in essence told him, “I know that I don’t deserve this mercy . . . but would you give it to me anyway?”
-And Christ commended her for this and healed her daughter
Brothers and sisters, do you realize that these 6 verses are here simply to show us the incredible character of God, that He is someone who responds in mercy to intercessory prayer?
-That’s really the only purpose these verses serve
-Why have in this book two visions that never actually take place?
-It’s to show that God responds to intercessory prayer because of His mercy
-Brothers and sisters, we can take heart this evening as we go to prayer for church members, loved ones, unreached people groups, and the unsaved that God will hear our prayers and desires to show mercy to undeserving people.
But this is not the end of the account. This needs to be balanced out with what Amos records next
2. The judgment of God in response to crookedness
2. The judgment of God in response to crookedness
God gives a third vision next that is different than the first two
In verse 7, Amos sees the Lord standing on a wall with a plumb line in hand
-now, this plumb line is very important
-Notice how in these two verses, “plumb line” is explicitly referenced 4 times
-So this is what Amos is draw drawing our attention to
The Lord is standing on a wall that has been made with a plumb line, indicating a straight, well built wall
-And he’s holding this plumb line in his hand
-Now, I’m no carpenter or handy-man, as many of you know, so I googled a plumb line just to make sure that I had the correct image in my head
-A plumb line is a long string that is attached to a metal or lead weight of some sort
-And the point of this is that when you hang it, that line is going to be straight as an arrow because of the weight at the bottom of it, and you can use that line to determine whether what you’re building is straight or not
-the God asks Amos, “what do you see?”
-And Amos answers, “a plumb line”
-God answers back “I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore.”
-and then he goes on in verse 9 to give the judgment
-So God never explicitly explains the significance of the plumb line to His prophet
-But, I think we get the message, and apparently Amos did too
-As God measures His people by the righteous standards of His covenant with them, they are shown to be crooked
-They do not live in obedience to the commands that God has given them
-And they certainly do not reflect His righteous character in their lives
-And so when they are tested by a perfectly righteous God, they are shown to be perverted and crooked
-The people of Israel were engaged in all sorts of relational and societal wickedness
-They did not defend the poor and needy, the widow and the orphan like God had commanded
-They did not reward righteousness and punish wickedness
-And God would not allow them to continue in their sin any longer
And so in verse 9, God reveals to Amos what would happen:
-God specifically mentions their religious sites as objects of his wrath
-He would desolate their sanctuaries and high places
-God would show them once and for all that He is not impressed with their outward religiousness while they were so wicked in their relationships and their society
-God would also punish the king and his house
-Why the king specifically?
-Because as the leader of God’s people, the king had not been faithful to punish the societal wickedness going on
-Whether the king was actively perpetrating the injustice, or simply standing by and allowing it to happen didn’t really matter
-By not taking a stand for God’s word, the king was responsible for what was happening, and he would be punished
Now, how do we reconcile and balance these first two sections of this chapter?
-We have God’s merciful character and His gracious response to intercession in vs. 1-6
-And then we have in vs. 7-9 God’s severe judgment on His people and Him saying that He will not pass by them anymore
How do we reconcile this?
I think we see a good picture of this in 2 Peter 3, where Peter is discussing God’s coming judgment. In the midst of this, Peter says in verse 9,
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
God is gracious, and patient, and longsuffering, and desires men to repent
-But God will not turn a blind eye to sin
-God is not like the corrupt judges and officials in Israel at this time who would not punish evildoers
-Eventually, God’s grace and mercy run out for those who refuse to repent of their sin
-The only sure refuge to flee from God’s punishment is to Jesus Christ, who bore God’s punishment and wrath on our behalf
-When someone runs to Christ for their protection, God shows mercy and grace and forgiveness
-But for those who continually refuse to repent and come to Christ, God’s longsuffering and graciousness will eventually cease, and they will be justly punished for their sins
-Brothers and sisters, we need to understand that our friends and loved ones who do not know Christ are under God’s condemnation. Right now, they may be shown patience, but that will soon end.
-We must warn them to flee to Christ to find in Him a refuge from the coming punishment of God.
This leads us right into our last section of this chapter:
3. The word of God in response to the rebellious
3. The word of God in response to the rebellious
In that last line of verse 9, Amos prophesies violence and judgment against the house of Jeroboam, and this does not sit will with some of the officials of Israel, specifically, the priest Amaziah
-When Rehoboam became king of the Northern tribes of Israel, he did not want his people going to Jerusalem for the great feast days and worshipping there in the Southern Kingdom
-So he set up a two golden calves, one in Dan way up in the North, and one in Bethel, closer to the Southern border of Israel
Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
Amaziah, at the time of Amos giving this message, is the priest in Bethel of this calf-cult, and he does not take too kindly to Amos’s words against the household of Jeroboam
Vs. 10-11
-So he reports Amos’s words of destruction to Jeroboam, letting him know that Amos is prophesying violence to the king and captivity to the people of Israel
And so here’s what he says to Amos:
Then Amaziah said to Amos:
“Go, you seer!
Flee to the land of Judah.
There eat bread,
And there prophesy.
But never again prophesy at Bethel,
For it is the king’s sanctuary,
And it is the royal residence.”
He essentially tells him: “Go back to where you’re from and make your money there! We don’t want you or your prophesies down here! Go back to Judah and sell your prophecies there for a living.”
-The officials in Israel didn’t want to hear God’s Word
-They didn’t want to hear about the coming judgment
-They didn’t want to repent
-Not much unlike today, the people of Israel had no palette for harsh confrontation over sin and politically incorrect messages
-Amaziah implies (in verse 12) that Amos is merely prophesying for money
-Amaziah tells him to go back to Judah and make money off his prophecies there
-Because down here at our religious site and in the king’s house, we don’t want to hear it
How does the prophet of God respond?
Vs. 14-15
-Amos makes it clear: “I’m not in this for money! I’m not a prophet for hire.”
-Amos makes it clear that prophesying isn’t the family business
-He wasn’t a prophet by trade, didn’t come from a family of prophets or wasn’t part of one of the prophetic schools in Israel that arose during the times of Elijah and Elisha
-He actually seems to have been a relatively successful man of the land, being both a sheepbreeder and a tender of sycamore fruit
This man was one of the most unlikely candidates for delivering Yahweh’s message of judgment!
-He’s a sheepbreeder and sycamore tender from the Southern Kingdom of Judah
-but God called this man, and commanded him to go proclaim the word of the Lord to a people who didn’t want to hear it
-Amos is very clear here: “I’m not in this for money or prestige. I’m a prophet because God has sent me with His word.”
Two men named Peter and John found themselves in a similar situation almost 800 years later when they were commanded to be silent about their witness to the Resurrected Christ. They answered:
But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
And Amos has similar words for Amaziah:
Now therefore, hear the word of the Lord:
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
And do not spout against the house of Isaac.’
“Therefore thus says the Lord:
‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city;
Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword;
Your land shall be divided by survey line;
You shall die in a defiled land;
And Israel shall surely be led away captive
From his own land.’ ”
Far from backing down from Amaziah, Amos delivers a specific prophecy to Amaziah that because of his hard-hearted rejection of God’s prophet and God’s message, God Himself promises that Amaziah’s wife would become a prostitute in the city, that Amaziah’s children would die in the Assyrian invasion, that his land would be given to others, that he himself would die in a foreign land, and that the Israelites would be led away captive
Why does God give this judgment to Amaziah?
-Because God will not stand for his Words being belittle or ignored
-To ignore or silence the words of God is to disobey and disrespect God Himself
-God does not take kindly to a person, or a culture, or a nation rejecting His Word
Brothers and sisters, let us be instructed by this last section of the chapter:
-We should not be surprised when the people around us and our culture at large does not want to hear God’s words
-Those who are unsaved are actively rejecting the message of Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we should not be the least bit surprised when they react in hostility towards us or our message
-But neither should we back down from lovingly proclaiming the Word of God, even the hard parts
Like Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:17
For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.
But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.
But notice especially the response of God towards the rejection of His words
-God takes the way we or anyone else responds to His words very seriously
God wants people to tremble before His Word (Is. 66:2)
Brothers and sisters, we must be careful to give heed to the words of God
-How do we respond to the preached word?
-How do we respond to the Word of God that we ought to be reading daily?
After the parable of the soils in Luke 8, Jesus says this,
Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”
We must also realize the dire need of unsaved people to hear and respond to God’s word, because as we learned earlier, God’s patient endurance of people’s rejection of Christ will run out
-I had a friend, of mine who lived behind us as a kid, his name was Seth
-He was a couple of years older than me, and was from a very troubled home
-It wasn’t unusual for the police to get called to their household to break something up
-I can remember sharing the Gospel with him and telling him of his need for salvation and to repent
-He listened and even at one point when talking to him, he seemed moved by the Gospel and seemed to be really thinking it over
-When I was a junior in college, I got the news that he had overdosed on drugs and died
-He was only about 23 years old
-And I’m sure many of you have stories of people you know who knew the Gospel and didn’t respond, and now it’s too late
-As we close this evening, let’s put all of this together in a way that will encourage and motivate our time in prayer this evening
-We know that God will judge those who are perverse and crooked
-He will judge those who harm others
-God will bring punishment on those who reject His word and ignore Him
-But God is also merciful and longsuffering towards sinners, and He responds to the intercessory prayers of His people
-When we pray, God listens and desires to show mercy
-Brothers and sisters, let’s go to prayer this evening with urgency, knowing that salvation has been provided in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross
-Let us go to prayer, knowing that people need to be saved and find salvation in Christ, and our prayers can be effective to that end