The God of Justice and Mercy
Seek the LORD and Live • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewEven When God Punishes His People, He Always Restores Them
Notes
Transcript
Reading: Amos 9
1 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.
2 “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.
3 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.
4 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.”
5 The Lord God of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
6 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth— the Lord is his name.
7 “Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?” declares the Lord. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord.
9 “For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’
11 “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,
12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the Lord who does this.
13 “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.
14 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.
15 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.
Prayer
We have spent the last few sermons taking a close look at the prophecy of Amos. Amos was a shepherd from Tekoa, a town about 10 miles south of Jerusalem. God called Amos to deliver a message that, up to now has been exclusively judgment. Amos has not dared to say anything good about the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And for good reason: Israel was facing the impending judgment of God. God is a God of justice.
But God is also a God of mercy. This is difficult for us to balance properly. They don’t seem to fit very well together, and when we try on our own, we tend to err on one side or the other. Some people think that God is waiting for us to make some mistake so he can pounce on us and punish us. They view God like a cosmic Karen, constantly looking for a reason to be mad.
Others fall the other way, seeing God as only loving and kind, never being mad and always quiet and peaceful. If it were up to them, half the Bible wouldn’t be there because it’s just too “harsh.”
But God is a God of Justice and Mercy. He does both. And both are essential to God’s Perfect Will.
God’s Justice and Mercy Always Fulfill His Perfect Will
God’s Justice and Mercy Always Fulfill His Perfect Will
This is an incredible truth; in fact, it is almost unbelievable if you’ve never experienced it. It is easy to think of justice or mercy as being God’s will, but both, and at the same time? Yet, that is the testimony of the Scriptures. And perhaps one of the places this balance is so clear is Amos 9.
In this chapter, we see God exercising justice upon Israel. But then we see him acting in mercy toward them too. And both reveal God’s will for Israel. First, what happens
When God Enacts Justice upon His People
When God Enacts Justice upon His People
Right from the beginning of the chapter, we see justice serving God’s Will as:
He Demonstrates His Rule
He Demonstrates His Rule
1 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.
2 “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.
3 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.
4 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.”
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
4 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.”
He Illustrates His Might
He Illustrates His Might
5 The Lord God of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
6 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth— the Lord is his name.
He Upholds His Holiness
He Upholds His Holiness
7 “Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?” declares the Lord. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord.
9 “For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’
Yet, even amid the judgment of these verses, you see the mercy of God already at work. Look again:
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord.
9 “For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
Now it’s time to see what happens:
When God Shows Mercy to His People
When God Shows Mercy to His People
He Proves His Faithfulness
He Proves His Faithfulness
11 “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,
12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the Lord who does this.
He Provides His Blessings
He Provides His Blessings
13 “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.
14 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.
He Protects His Remnant
He Protects His Remnant
15 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.
God’s Justice and Mercy Always Fulfill His Perfect Will