Amos (B)

A child arguing with his dad

(S1) Timeline Review

Amos 1:1 (NIV) How do we know where we are at in the timeline?

1 The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa—the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

(S2) Amos Background

Amos was a shepherd who lived just south of the border between Judah and Israel. God calls him to travel north into Israel and charge them with injustice.

This is another collection of “sermons” but their thread is a bit more unified.

A child arguing with his dad.

(S3) God’s Judgement on the nations

(S4)

Amos 1:3 (NIV) Overflow of sin leading to destruction.

3 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not relent. Because she threshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth,

Gaza, because they sold whole communities into slavery.

Edom, for violence.

Ammon, for killing pregnant women.

Moab, for attacking Edom and killing their king.

Judah, for rejecting the law of the LORD and serving false gods.

Israel, selling the poor as slaves. Serving false gods and worshiping at any altar.

(S5) And YOU!

Amos 2:8–13 (NIV) Garments taken on pledge; give back

8 They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines. 9 “Yet I destroyed the Amorites before them, though they were tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks. I destroyed their fruit above and their roots below.

(S6)

I set things apart as holy and you tried to corrupt them

10 I brought you up out of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness to give you the land of the Amorites. 11 “I also raised up prophets from among your children and Nazirites from among your youths. Is this not true, people of Israel?” declares the Lord. 12 “But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy. 13 “Now then, I will crush you as a cart crushes when loaded with grain.

(S7) But dad! (God)

Amos 4:4–5 (NIV) Understand, they didn’t stop following the rituals

4 “Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. 5 Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings— boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,” declares the Sovereign Lord.

(S8)

Amos 5:21–25 (NIV) God hated their religion

21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. 22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! 25 “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?

Amos 6:12–14 (NIV) they turned the good law into sin

12 Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness— 13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar and say, “Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?” 14 For the Lord God Almighty declares, “I will stir up a nation against you, Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”

(S9) Sometimes God allows us to suffer the consequences and sometimes He IS the consequences

Amos 4:7–10 (NIV) God withheld rain so the crops would die

7 “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up. 8 People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord. 9 “Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, destroying them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord. 10 “I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord.

(S10)

Amos 7:1–9 (NIV) He prepared locusts to eat their food

1 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. 2 When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!” 3 So the Lord relented. “This will not happen,” the Lord said. 4 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!” 6 So the Lord relented. “This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.

(S11) plumb line

7 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. 8 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. 9 “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.”

The Plumb Line

Amos 8:9–12 (NIV) Use a famine to kill off the religious hypocrisy

9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day. 11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.

The day of the Lord

Amos 5:10–15 (NIV) they hate justice, so God’s visitation is going to be judgement

10 There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth. 11 You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. 12 For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. 13 Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil. 14 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. 15 Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

Amos 5:18–20 (NIV) fear the day of the Lord

18 Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. 19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. 20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

(S12) Israel’s response

Amos 7:10–13 (NIV) They don’t want to hear it

10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos is saying: “ ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’ ”

(S13)

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”

Amos 7:14–17 (NIV)

14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say, “ ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’ 17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says: “ ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’ ”

(S14) The end of the story

Amos 9:13–15 (NIV) I’m going to leave some and rebuild

13 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, 14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

The point

God is going to judge not only Israel but the surrounding nations for injustice.

Israel was supposed to be a blessing to this region and now they have become a curse. “net” Hosea.

God is going to destroy Israel for injustice but he’s going to keep a people for Himself and He will rebuild from that corrected portion.

(S15) How it applies

Israel was given the word of God and judged according to that which they have been given. Israel was supposed to be a beacon of God’s glory to the nations around them and instead they became a snare of injustice. So yes, God would judge all the nations for their injustice but ESPECIALLY Israel because they had been given God’s wisdom.

The church has been given the word of God and we will be judged accordingly.

1 Peter 4:6–19 (NIV)

6 For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. 7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. 12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

The church was created to be the salt and light of the world, to be the hands and feet of Christ. “To live according to the will of God. To be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. To love, forgive, offer hospitality, faithfully stewarding God’s grace to everyone who crosses our path. To speak the very words of God. According to that the house of God will be judged and there’s no amount of programs, field trips, and hymns that’s going to replace what he’s demanded.

Lent and Ashe Wednesday.

The special dispensation to eat meat on St. Patrick's day.

Leadership pleasing people and people seeking their own gain.

When the day of the Lord comes if the church doesn’t start focusing on the Gospel after God’s done judging the nations he’s going to come to our door step and say, AND YOU.

Where were you?