Moving Day (2)

It kind of changes the way we do things around the house. Doing laundry last week. Should I put the clothes away… or just pack em up. Should I clear out the clothes still in my closet, because they obviously didn’t get worn this month.

The fact that moving day is just around the corner changes the way we live. I’m getting ready. Kids are getting ready.

Amos Recap

Recall where we are in Amos.

The people were ready to here Judgment and Wrath on all the other nations surrounding… maybe less ready to hear judgment and wrath on them.

They think they are doing great, their Jesus Level is high… because they are doing all the “right things.”

But love is the measure of maturity for the Christian. Love of God. Love of others. Especially love for the lost, the broken, the poor, the hungry.

Important point of clarification. Does that mean you are a sinner if you aren’t doing ministry the way that I am, or a part of particular ministries of Next Step Church? Absolutely not!!! Thank God the Kingdom of God is bigger than the way Dusty does things, or this one church does things.

But are you loving others the way God is calling you to, and is your heart changing to reflect His heart.

The Israelites failure to love the poor revealed the hollowness of their worship. This was empty religion.

And this isn’t just an “oops.” This is a fundamental misunderstanding of who God is and how the world works.

It is a fatal misunderstanding of who God is and what the future holds.

Because of their prosperity and comfort and unfounded religious confidence, these are people who love the sound of “heaven” and assume that they are in. And they super aren’t.

There is a rich tradition in the prophets of… prophesying. In particular, amidst all this judgment and grief, Amos looks forward to the coming Day of the Lord.

It is clear that the “Day of the Lord” has become a common phrase among the people… but this is the very first time we see it written down. It is hinted at in Genesis, in the promise to Abraham, in the Messianic promises to David’s line… but the actual phrase “Day of the Lord” shows up here.

Amos is excited… we will see that later.

But he wonders aloud why the rest of Israel is excited. Because they super shouldn’t be.

The Day of the Lord

Is the Day of the Lord like this? Beautiful, scenic, a walk on the beach.

Or… more like this? (First image result when searching on google images). Terrifying.

The people of Israel were looking forward to the Day. Like God is going to come and make our life EVEN WAY BETTER!

It isn’t going to be like the people of Israel expect.

The very first reference to the “Day of the Lord:”

Amos 5:18–20 ESV

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?

What a picture! Flee from one danger, think you’re safe, BOOM Bear! Oh, inside, safe again, BOOM, snek!!! Looking at the wrong things and not seeing the true danger in their life.

And in Amos’ larger message, they are looking at their religious performance, feasts and festivals and worship and Jesus level… and completely missing their failure to love others. Their hearts aren’t looking like God’s hearts, which reveals their worship and sacrifice as empty and hollow religiosity.

Remember with Jonah “The End is Near!” Good news for those who are saved. VERY VERY BAD news for those who aren’t.

And there is a VERY long tradition of people thinking they are on the side of God who aren’t.

The Ninevites are wicked and they know it and they repent.

The Israelites think they are righteous, and they aren’t and they are going to get ATE!

Self-Righteous

I am righteous because I think I am!

I had a fun conversation with a friend in the park this Thursday.

He tells me “It isn’t a sin if you don’t know it’s a sin. So you can murder someone, and it doesn’t count unless you know murder is wrong.”

You’ve decided that, have you? Bring that argument on judgment day and see how it flies. Spoiler tag: it won’t.

The people of Israel think they are doing great. Amos brings the truth of God, to say they aren’t.

Talking your Way out of Judgment

Amos 7:1–6 ESV

This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, “O Lord God, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” The Lord relented concerning this: “It shall not be,” said the Lord. This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. Then I said, “O Lord God, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” The Lord relented concerning this: “This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.

Twice Amos “talks God” out of an act of judgment. Talks him out of certain forms of judgments on Israel.

This may be an aspect of the prophetic role. We see it Abraham, in Moses, and in Elijah. God changes his mind, he “relents” in response to the prayers of his people.

But God is going to judge… and there is an absolute standard.

Amos 7:7–9 ESV

This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

What is the plumb line? In the Ancient World and down to today, how do you know if that wall is straight? If that pillar is straight up and down or leaning to the side.

Having someone stand back and look isn’t good enough. But gravity has always worked. And many thousands of years ago, the Egyptians figured out they could tie a wait to a string and drop it and that would always be straight. The Hebrews learned this, probably while living in Egypt for 400 years.

Does it matter if the wall thinks it is upright? Not so much.

It matters only if gravity thinks the wall is straight up and down. Otherwise, it may take a minute, but it is coming down.

What do you do with a building that is falling over? For the safety of all, you have to condemn it, tear it down, and rebuild.

And the coming chapters are visions of that coming judgment.

In my Bible the title of chapter 8 is “The Coming Day of Bitter Mourning.”

With verses like

Amos 8:10 ESV

I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

Baldness! Oh no! He’s getting personal!

The title of chapter 9 is “The Destruction of Israel”. And that is going to happen. Captivity for Israel under Assyria, scattered, and they don’t make it back. What do we call the inhabitants of the modern nation of Israel? Jews or the Jewish people… because they are the descendants of Judah. The descendants of the rest of the tribes don’t really survive. Even the Samarians, of which there are a very small group of descendants who identify as that today, they aren’t “Israel” or the tribes as they were.

To that day, the tribes still look forward:

Amos 9:11–15 ESV

“In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the Lord who does this. “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

What is the best thing you can picture? To a rural people whose main stock is wine? Whose main value is ownership and security of land? What’s the best thing you can picture?

The prophet looks forward to the restoration, the ultimate restoration of Israel. He is right about the destruction of Israel which comes about in 20 years.

He looks just past that, to the promise of the “Day of the Lord...” it’s going to be a bit longer. At least 2800 years and counting.

Maranatha.

Where will you be on that day?

Are you headed for endless feasts, for wine, for harvest upon harvest, for “good times, good food, good friends, good God.”

Or are you headed for lion-bear-snake combo attacks? Death and destruction?

Where will you be on the Day of the Lord?

Many will say to me “Lord, Lord”

Matthew 7:21–23 ESV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

That’s terrifying. How do we know? How can we know if we are foolishly expecting admission or truly belonging to Jesus?

God isn’t fooled by our outward expressions of religion. He isn’t fooled by our philosophy. He isn’t fooled by our words, inside our head or with our mouths.

God knows our heart.

Romans 10:13 ESV

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Those who are “in”. The Israelites think they are in because they are doing the right things… and they have the right genetics. But their actions reveal the orientation of their hearts.

They draw this circle and think “I’m in the circle” so I’m good.

You aren’t “good” because you go to church.

You aren’t “good” because you call yourself a Christian.

You aren’t “good” because your Mom was, or is.

You aren’t “good” because everyone in your church thinks you are.

There is a plumb line. And you know what it says? No-one is good. Everybody is crooked. Our walls are all falling down. Jesus alone stands straight, righteous and true.

God doesn’t care where you draw the circle.

It only matters if your heart is truly His. If call on the name of the Lord, Jesus, truly. Not in a fake fool everybody else kind of way. In a “save me, Jesus” “My everything is yours” kind of way.

If your heart is directed to him, it doesn’t matter where you draw the circle. You are His.

The Voice of Amos

1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

What does it mean to be like Amos?

The function of the prophet.

To speak the truth of God. First receiving the judgment of God on us (the log in our eye).

… In order that we can hear and see clearly to bring God’s truth to God people (the speck in our brother’s eye).

… In order that we can bring truth and repentance to all the nations. Interceding with God on their behalf (twice Amos changes God’s mind in chapter 5 on the coming punishment)…

Because the days are coming.

That’s good news for those who turn their hearts towards Jesus.

… and really bad news for those whose hearts are turned away. Most especially for those who think that they are “in” the circle.

Romans 10:13–15 ESV

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Let’s give our hearts to Jesus, that we may look forward to the coming Day of the Lord. Maranatha!

And let us have “lovely feet”, declaring the good news of Jesus to those who desperately need to know… because Moving Day is Coming. Maranatha!

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