Sermon Tone Analysis

Amos

* *

*THEME:  *The Lion Has Roared:  Divine judgment upon prosperous Israel for its social and religious sins

*DATE:  *760-755

 

*I.

**Eight burdens against the nations (1-2)*

 

/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)*[1]**

* *

/A.       //Chastisement Certain for the Chosen (ch.

3)./

/ /

1.       Divine privilege as the basis of divine judgment (3:1-2)

 

2.

Amos prophesies because “the Lion has roared” (3:3-8)

 

3.

Proclamation of judgment (3:9-15)

 

/B.

//Impenitent Still (ch.

4)/

1.       Luxury-loving, poor-oppressing women (4:1-3)

 

2.

Religious, but not right with God (4:4-5)

 

3.

Unrepentant, despite repeated chastenings (4:6-11)

 

 

4.

Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel (4:12-13)

 

/C.

//“A Funeral Dirge for the Living”//*[2]*// (chs.

5-6)/

 

1.

Woe to the pseudo-religious (5:18-27)

 

2.

Woe to the wealthy, proud, and complacent (6:1-14)

 

*III.

**Five visions of Judgment against Israel (7-9)*

* *

/A.       //Vision of locusts (7:1-3)//*[3]*/

/B.       //Vision of fire (7:4-6)/

/C.      /Vision of the plumb line (7:7-9)

/D.      //Vision of the summer fruit (8:1-14)/

/E.

Vision of the Lord beside the altar (9:1-7)//*[4]*/

 

 

*IV.

**The preservation of a remnant and the restoration of the Booth of David (9:8-15)*

* *

*The Theological Message of Amos*

 

*THEME:  *The Lion has Roared:  Divine judgment upon prosperous Israel for its social and religious sins

 

! I.       God pronounces judgment upon a prosperous and secure people

 

/A.

//It was a time of unparalleled prosperity/

/ /

1.       God sent Amos during the latter years of the reign of Jeroboam II.

 

2.

Amos provides descriptions of Israel’s prosperity (3:15; 4:1; 5:11; 6:4-6)

 

/B.

//It was a time of unprecedented national security and military strength (2:14-16; 6:1-2, 13)/

 

! II.

Sins of social injustice and religious hypocrisy are the causes of Israel’s impending judgment.*[5]*

/A.

//Israel// is primarily condemned for its social sins./

1.

The nations are singled out for their sins of violence and social injustice (1:2-2:3).

2.

Israel is also singled out for its sins of social injustice in 2:6-16.

3.

Repeatedly, God condemns Israel for her social injustice (4:1; 5:7, 10-13, 24; 6:12; 8:4-6).

/B.

//Israel//’s social sins invalidated their religious performances./

/C.

//Israel// is also condemned for their rejection of true religion (2:11-12; 5:5, 26; 7:10-17; 8:14)./

This includes the idolatrous worship established at Dan and Bethel by Jeroboam I (I Ki. 12:28-33).

! III.

Israel’s impending judgment is certain and comprehensive

* *

!! A.       Neither the mighty, the prosperous, nor the “religious” would find escape in that day.

1.

The mighty (2:14-16)

2.       The prosperous (3:15; 4:1-3; 5:11; 6:1-7)

3.       The “religious” (4:4; 5:5, 18-27)

 

!! B.       Their judgment would include the tearing down of both the religious and political structures.

1.

The religious worship at Bethel and Dan (3:14; 5:5; 7:9a, 17a; 8:10, 14; 9:1)

2.       The “mighty” house of Jeroboam (7:9b)

/C.      //Their judgment would include exile in a foreign country (5:27; 7:17)./

/D.      //Their judgment would correspond to their prosperity (6:14)./

/E.       //Their judgment would include a “spiritual famine” (8:11-14)./

! IV.

Yahweh is the source of Israel’s impending judgment

 

/A.

//The sovereign Yahweh,//*[6]*// God of Hosts, has roared against Israel./

/B.

//The ministry of Amos was proof in itself that God had pronounced their doom (3:3-8; 7:14-15)./

/ /

!! C.      Their relationship to God did not bring immunity; it brought responsibility.

/D.

//God was the source behind previous calamities they had experienced (3:6b; 4:6-11)./

! V.    God’s purposes in judgment also encompass future restoration

 

/A.

//God pleads for repentance even in the midst of declarations of judgment (5:4-6, 14-15)./

/B.       //One of God’s purposes in judgment is to purify and to reveal a righteous remnant (9:9)./

/C.      //God must destroy the sinners before He can bring in the promised blessing (9:8, 10)./

/D.      //God’s promises of future hope are centered in the revival of the Davidic Covenant and the millennial blessings that will accompany this “resurrection” of the dynasty of David (9:11-15)./

/ /

/ /

 

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[1] The identification of these three sermons is based on the repetition of the phrase “Hear this word” (3:1; 4:1; 5:1).

[2] This is the designation that Thurman Wisdom gives to Amos 5:1-9.

/Biblical Viewpoint:  Focus on Amos/, 17.

[3] Amos 7:1 mentions the latter growth “after the king’s mowings.”

The “king’s mowings” probably refers to some kind of income tax, where the king received a portion of the harvest.

The setting of this vision is the /spring harvest/.

If the locusts destroyed this spring crop (“latter growth,” KJV)—the last harvest before the hot summer—the nation would starve.

[4] Most commentators extend this vision through v. 10.

However, Amos’ preference to begin a new section of thought with an introductory formula suggests that verse 8, which begins with “Behold,” introduces the final section of his book.

Bell, 49.

[5] “The causes for such judgment were patent:  wealth and luxury, frivolity and corruption, opulence and oppression, summer and winter palaces, ivory couches, songs of revelry and wine…there were specific crimes still more culpable and worthy of censure:  namely, victimizing the poor, confiscating their garments for debt, unbridled licentiousness even under the cloak of religion, hypocritical tithing, and hollow Sabbath-observance, even pilgrimages to far distant shrines.”

Robinson, 52.