"AMOS: TRUE JUSTICE"

>>>Amos was a shepherd, called by God to prophesy to Israel during the reign of King Jeroboam.

>>>Chapter one is Amos’ prophecies against the neighbors of Israel/Judah.

>>>Chapter two begins with a judgment on Judah but the rest is the judgment of Israel.

AMOS 2:6-11 “Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?” declares the Lord.”

>>>The judgment of Israel was for the injustice the leaders and others committed among the people.

*(v.6) slavery

*(v.7) Ignoring the oppressed/helpless

*(v.7) Sexual Immorality

*(v.8) Benefiting from credits unfairly collected/false worship

*(v.9-10) The forgot God’s blessing on them.

*(v.11) God raised up Nazarites/prophets to call for repentance.

AMOS 2:12-16 ““But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’ “Behold, I will press you down in your place, as a cart full of sheaves presses down. Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not retain his strength, nor shall the mighty save his life; he who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his life; and he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,” declares the Lord.”

>>>(v.12) Israel rejected the prophets whom God sent to them.

>>>(v.13-16) God was going to bring their government down.

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AMOS 4:6-8 ““I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.”

AMOS 4:9-11 ““I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.”

>>>God had struck Israel with various problems, but they did not repent.

*5x “yet you did not return to me” is used.

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AMOS 5:4-7 “For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live; but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing.” Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel, O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth!”

>>>Amos calls on Israel to seek God.

*“Seek” is “try to encounter”

*Amos says for the people to turn back to God and seek His presence.

>>>Seeking God would spare the exile.

AMOS 5:14-15 “Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

>>>Amos then says to seek good.

*“Seek” is “to desire”

*“Good” is “morality”

*Amos is saying to desire morality.

>>>Trying to find God and desiring good go hand in hand. This is what will lead Israel to executing true justice.

>>>This is the central theme of the book of Amos.

DESIRING GOOD LEADS TO ENCOUNTERING GOD.

ENCOUNTERING GOD LEADS TO DESIRING GOOD.

THE ABANDONMENT OF EVIL LEADS TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF JUSTICE.

AMOS 5:21-24 ““I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

>>>God wants to see His people act justly and walking rightly-society being led in a way that is honoring to Him.

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>>>Amos was accused to be conspiring against King Jeroboam by Amaziah the pries in response to Amos’ prophecies.

>>>This forces Amos to respond.

AMOS 7:14-17 “Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. “You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ Therefore thus says the Lord: “ ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’ ””

>>>This is the turning point of the book. The prophecies of Amos were rejected. So Amos continued to prophesy-Israel will be sent to exile.

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AMOS 9:1-4 “I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said: “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away; not one of them shall escape. “If they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them; and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them. And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good.””

AMOS 9:11-15 ““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.”