Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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Amos
* *
*THEME:  *The Lion Has Roared:  Divine judgment upon prosperous Israel for its social and religious sins
*DATE:  *760-755
*HISTORICAL SETTING:  *The historical setting is the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the final years of the prosperous, peaceful reign of Jeroboam II (793-753 BC).
One prophet during his reign had prophesied his prosperity (II Ki. 14:25).
But when the goodness of God becomes a license to sin instead of an opportunity to repent, God raises up Amos—a “southerner”[1]—to prophesy Israel’s doom.[2]
*I.
**Eight burdens against the nations (1-2)*
 
The sins singled out by the Lord in every nation, except Judah, are the sins of social injustice and inhumanity.[3]
The message for Israel was clear:  if God does not overlook the sins of injustice and violence committed by the heathen nations, He will definitely not overlook such sins when they are committed by His chosen people.
Amos introduces each burden with the expression “for three transgressions and for four,” evidently an idiomatic expression for “crossing over the limit” (see other uses of this phrase in Proverbs 30:15, 18, 21, 29).[4] 
/A.
//Damascus (1:3-5)/
/B.       //Gaza (1:6-8)/
/C.      //Tyre (1:9-10)/
/D.      //Edom (1:11-12)/
/E.       //Ammon (1:13-15)/
/F.       //Moab (2:1-3)/
/G.      //Judah (2:4-5)/
/H.      //Israel (2:6-16)/
/ /
*II.
**Three Sermons of Judgment against Israel (3-6)*[5]**
* *
/A.       //Chastisement Certain for the Chosen (ch.
3)./
/ /
1.       Divine privilege as the basis of divine judgment (3:1-2)
In 3:2, Amos uses the word “know” in that sense of an intimate relationship—of one who has been “singled out.”[6]
God knows all families of the earth, but in a special sense he has singled out Israel.
 
2.
Amos prophesies because “the Lion has roared” (3:3-8)
The point of these verses is that nothing is accidental.
Behind everything that happens, there is a cause.
Two men walk together because they have made a previous agreement to do so.[7]
A lion roars because it has prey.
A trap springs shut, because something touched it.
Calamity occurs in a city because the Lord willed it.[8]
Amos pronounces judgment, because God has spoken.
3.
Proclamation of judgment (3:9-15)
 
/B.
//Impenitent Still (ch.
4)/
1.       Luxury-loving, poor-oppressing women (4:1-3)
 
“Kine of Bashan” is Amos’ unflattering description of the women of Samaria.
These women were like the well-fed cows in the lush pastures of verdant Bashan.
They had every luxury.
But unsatisfied still, they harshly oppressed the poor and greedily pressured their husbands for more.
2.
Religious, but not right with God (4:4-5)
 
These same luxury-loving Israelites that thoughtlessly oppressed and abused the poor were also religion-lovers—they /loved//*[9]*/ to bring sacrifices “to the Lord” (v.
5).[10]
Their religious performances at Bethel and Gilgal were in reality transgressions because of the sins of social injustice against their fellow man in which they indulged.
God hated the religious acts they loved (see 5:21-22).
The “most elaborate worship, if insincere, is but an insult to God.”[11]  Sin against man prevents communion with and acceptance by God.
Christ taught the same truth when he taught that differences between brethren must be settled before gifts may be offered to God (Matt.
5:23-24).
3.
Unrepentant, despite repeated chastenings (4:6-11)
 
Ignorant of the sinful character of their religious worship, Israel was also ignorant that God was chastening them.
Repeated chastisements—sent deliberately by God Himself[12]—did not bring forth the intended fruit of repentance.
Five times in this section God says:  “yet you did not return unto Me, saith the Lord” (4:6, 8-11).
Perhaps, in part, they failed to repent because they failed to see the hand of God behind the calamities they experienced.
Too often, man is blind to God’s gentle chastisements.
These verses present every-day calamity and “natural disasters” as what they really are:  /Divinely sent messengers preaching  repentance/.[13]
4.
Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel (4:12-13)
 
When one ignores the messengers (i.e., disaster and calamity), one must face the Master.
Those who stubbornly refuse present opportunities of repentance only store up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Rom.
2:5).
/C.
//“A Funeral Dirge for the Living”//*[14]*// (chs.
5-6)/
 
Amos calls this sermon a “lamentation” or “dirge” against the house of Israel.
Used in mourning for the dead, a /lamentation/ “constituted the chief funeral ceremony” (/TWOT/).
Strikingly, this lament for the dead is uttered for a still-existing nation.
It suggests the certainty of Israel’s impending doom.
Nevertheless, it is in the midst of this /dirge for the living/ that we find the only /explicit/ pleas for repentance (5:4-6; 14-15) in Amos.
The /dead bones/ of Israel might have /lived/ if they had repented.
Israel is instructed, first of all, to seek God (and not Bethel, Gilgal, or Beersheba).[15]
Amos here focuses on the /religious/ sins of Israel.
Bethel, the center of the calf worship established by Jeroboam I, was not a dwellingplace of the true God.
Thus, to /go to Bethel/ or to /go to Gilgal/ (evidently another center of religious worship) was not equivalent to /seeking God/ (5:4-5).
But in addition to seeking God, these people needed to /seek good/ (5:14-15; essentially what Christ called the /Second Commandment/), which for them meant the abandonment of their callous treatment of their fellow man and their shallow regard for justice and righteousness.
1.
Woe to the pseudo-religious (5:18-27)
 
Amos pronounces this woe against those who are desiring the day of the Lord—as if the day of the Lord would bring blessing for them.
Later verses (5:21-26) indicate that these are the pseudo-religious that Amos has mentioned before (see 4:1-5).
Evidently, they felt that their faithful performance of religious feasts and required offerings had purchased for them an “indulgence” from the terrors of judgment in the Day of the Lord.
Amos informs these religious hypocrites that God hates their festivals and rejects their sacrifices (5:21-22).
The reason for His rejection is given in verse 24.
There must first be justice (“judgment,” KJV) and righteousness—another allusion to the sins of social injustice—before there can be true communion with God.
Verses 25-26 are among the most difficult in the book.[16]
Is the expected answer to the question in Amos 5:25 yes or no?  Whatever the intended answer to the question,[17] context (Amos is addressing prolific sacrificers), Israel’s history (they apparently did offer sacrifices, even during the forty years), and Stephen’s use of this passage in Acts 7:39-43 make the /meaning/ of these verses clear.
Amos’ point (and Stephen’s point) is that Israel’s sacrifices to God were invalidated because of their idolatrous practices.
Their sacrifices were really offered to /other gods/.
Thus, these Israelites, who were so secure in the day of the Lord because of their sacrifices to this Lord, found themselves in the unenviable position, according to Amos, of not offering sacrifices to Him at all!
 
2.
Woe to the wealthy, proud, and complacent (6:1-14)
 
Chapter six is a “woe” against the wealthy, complacent citizens in Jerusalem and in Samaria, who felt secure because of their economic and national prosperity.
This chapter gives a good portrait of the economic prosperity and pride of the Northern Kingdom in those days.
However, their prosperity—the beds of ivory, the finest of oils, their gluttonous eating—would be no security for them in the day of the Lord’s judgment.
A quick look at the fate of cities (e.g., Calneh, Hamath, and Gath; v. 2) bigger and stronger than the cities of Israel should have been ample proof of this.
The Lord detested their “arrogance” (“excellency,” KJV) and had sworn to bring about the destruction of Samaria.
Verse 14 brings these sermons on judgment to a close with the prophecy of the Assyrian invasion.
Their affliction would extend from the entrance of Hamath until the river[18] of the Arabah—the same extent to which they had prospered, according to the word of the Lord through Jonah (II Ki. 14:25).
*III.
**Five visions of Judgment against Israel (7-9)*
* *
/A.       //Vision of locusts (7:1-3)//*[19]*/
/B.       //Vision of fire (7:4-6)/
/C.      //Vision of the plumb line (7:7-9)/
The Lord relented of His first two forms of judgment, but His hand of chastisement could no longer be stayed.
In this vision, His punishment takes the form of a plumb line.
A plumb line “was a cord with a lead weight used by builders to make sure that walls were constructed straight up and down.
A plumb line was also used to test existing walls to see whether they had settled and tilted, needing to be torn down” (/Bible Knowledge Commentary/, 1:1445).
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