Do you Fear the Lion's Roar? (Part 2)
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In his famous book- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- C.S. Lewis depicts Jesus as Aslan the mighty lion. One of the famous quotes from that book is from a conversation between Susan and Mr. Beaver when the children first learn about the mysterious King.
Mr. Beaver begins the subject: “Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Christians, I want you to think about this question: Should we really fear the Lion’s roar?
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
If you are not a Christian then you have much about God to fear. You have most vividly His wrath to deal with!
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
You need to be saved from your sin and from God’s wrath. And God has provided for you a way to be saved. One of the most important steps in coming to God and receiving his gift of salvation is understanding your own sinfulness and comprehending God as He really is. He is a mighty lion roaring in judgement over sin.
Friend, you need to see God clearly as He is.
We have all seen displays of unbelievers blaspheming God because they don’t believe in Him, and they don’t know Him as He truly is. If they really knew God they would tremble and cry out for His mercy.
Example: Satanic conference- tearing out pages of the Scripture and taking selfies for social media.
If they only knew what God is like they wouldn’t dare!
2 Peter 2:10–12 (ESV)
and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,
whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.
But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
This is reality. This is what will happen when unbelievers stand before God. What if those people really saw what God was like now? Do you think they would respond differently?
So why is it Christian, that you and I can sin and in a similar way, not fear the Lion’s roar?
Why don’t unbelievers? because they don’t know what God is really like! Why don’t we? Because we don't really know what God is really like!
“The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.” (Tozer)
Have we entertained unworthy thoughts about God for so long that we no longer fear when He roars in judgment over sin?
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” (A.W. Tozer)
Tozer laments the way the church of his day thought about God,
“The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men … The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.”
We don’t really fear God’s word, because we don’t vividly comprehend God as He is! We don’t see a mighty roaring lion!
Amos preached to the Northern Kingdom of Israel so that they might see clearly who God really was.
Friends, how can we fear God’s roar? We must see Him as He is!
What about God do we need to see clearly?
Amos proclaims for us five truths about God that we must understand if we are to see God as He really is. Only this will allow us to rightly fear the Lion’s roar.
I. When we sin we offend the ONE who elects with undeserved kindness (vv. 1-2)
I. When we sin we offend the ONE who elects with undeserved kindness (vv. 1-2)
The first characteristic of God that Amos highlights in his message to the nation of Israel is that of God’s grace.
Amos 3:1 (ESV)
Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
Keep your eyes open to this theme as we progress through chapter three. Amos is abundantly sure that his audience knows that these are the very words of the LORD. God is speaking. Amos also uses various names of God to reinforce who God is. He begins his discourse by using the Hebrew name Yahweh.
The most utilized name of God in the book of Amos is Yahweh (81 times). The theological significance of this name is meant to underline God’s covenant name and relationship with Israel.
So it is a very fitting name of God to use in his introduction.
Amos 3:1 (ESV)
Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
God is speaking a word of judgement against the people of Israel. The whole family that God gracious brought up out of the land of Egypt. These are the people that are in a special relationship with God. He chose them, he delivered them, he brought them out of the land of Egypt and into the land of Canaan. They are God’s people, the people of His own choice.
Amos 3:2 (ESV)
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
You only- is in the emphatic position in the original language, it is positioned ahead of the verb. The intended meaning here is “you alone, you and no one else.”
God chose them, going all the way back to Abraham, from all the other nations of the earth.
This is speaking of the biblical concept of election. The basic ideal of election is God choosing something or someone. Here God chooses Israel out of all of the other families of the earth. God, according to his own good pleasure and purpose bestowed on Israel a special love that he did not bestow on the other nations. And why did God choose Israel? Not because they merited it or deserved it. God choose them for his own good pleasure and by His grace.
MTP Class: Grace- God bestowing his favor upon those who don’t want it, can’t earn it, and can’t repay it.
This is who God is!
Exodus 34:6–7 (ESV)
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
This is where Amos starts in proclaiming who God is. God is the one who graciously elects. He is the one who chose you out of his unmerited kindness. What does that have to do with judgement?
Amos 3:2 (ESV)
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
God connects his gracious choice of Israel with His coming punishment for their sin.
I chose you of all the families of the earth, therefore!
Amos was reminding these Israelites that their special relationship with God carried with it special responsibilities and accountability.
What were those special responsibilities? Well, how did God choose Israel? What did He do to make known his choice of the nation? He made covenants with them.
What were the stipulations of the covenants? Specifically the Mosaic Covenant? If you obey me I will bless you, but if you disobey me I will curse you.
This is what Amos is reminding the people of. God chose you, you are in a special covenant relationship with Him. You are violating that covenant, therefore this is what Yahweh says to: “I will punish you”
I think each of those words are significant here. I WILL PUNISH YOU!
Illustration: How do we feel this? How do we feel this in the Lion’s roar? How does it make us fear God?
Do you remember one of the main points of the prophets? They function like a bucket of ice water. They preach a consistent message they just do it in ways that shocks people awake. One of the other minor prophets does this very vividly and brings home the point Amos is making here in chapter 3.
There was this one guy that God command and said, “Go and marry a wife of whoredom (adulteress / prostitute), and I want you to have children with her.” Who was that prophet? Hosea.
Why would God do that? That is a shocking thing to ask isn’t it? That is startling to read and think about even thousands of years later.
Why was this act so shocking? Because marriage is a covenant. It is a unique special relationship that pictures the relationship between God and His people.
Imagine having to marry someone who you know is going to be unfaithful. Imagine you graciously chose this one that didn’t deserve it, didn’t really want it, and couldn’t repay it. Then imagine that one betraying you by being unfaithful time after time after time.
And as shocking as it is to violate the marriage covenant, it is more shocking for God’s people to violate their covenant with God.
Do you want to fear the lion’s roar over sin? You must know God as the one who elects with undeserved kindness.
Refutation: That was God’s relationship with Israel, but my sin as a NT believer is different. It isn’t as significant.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Application: Friends, do you see God this way? Do you see God as one who chose you because of his unmerited kindness? You should!
Ephesians 1:4–6 (ESV)
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:11–12 (ESV)
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
Do you think of God this way? Do you think of your Savior, Jesus Christ is way? Can you hear in the Lion’s roar tones of betrayal and heart-brake?
Do you fear God’s roar?
And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord.
Friend, will you repent? Will you turn from you sin? Will you cry out to God in confession? If you do his grace awaits you!
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’
For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.
And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.
I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
This is your God, the one who elects with unmerited kindness. Do you fear His roar?
What else must we know about God to fear the Lion’s roar?
II. When we sin we offend the ONE that permits with unrivaled providence (vv. 3-6)
II. When we sin we offend the ONE that permits with unrivaled providence (vv. 3-6)
After God reminds the Israelites that He is gracious in his choice of them as His people, now God moves on to describing Himself as a god of unrivaled providence.
What is the idea of providence?
The essence of providence asks the question, “Who is in charge?”
The Biblical answer to that question is this, “God is in charge of everything!” And Amos is going to challenge our thinking on that word everything!
And in true prophet-like fashion, Amos doesn’t come right out and say, “God is in charge!” Instead, he lures us in so that we might feel the full weight of the truth that God permits with unrivaled providence.
How does Amos do that? With a series of questions:
“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?
Can two people walk together unless they have agreed to do so? This is not meant by the prophet to be a difficult question. Obviously people don’t walk side-by-side together unless they both have agreed to do so. The obvious answer is what? Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet? Obviously, NO.
Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing?
Do lions roar unless they have captured their prey? Why not? How do lions hunt? They are stealth hunters. They creep up on their prey and then they pounce, like a house cat pouncing on a mouse. Obviously, the lion is not going to roar before it has its prey. Again, the answer to this simple question is what? Obviously, NO!
Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing?
Do birds fall from the sky unless they have been snared? Does a trap spring unless it has been triggered? Obviously, NO!
Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?
Why would cities in Amos’ day blow trumpets? One of the reasons was to sound the alarm. The trumpet blast signaled the approach of an enemy. Enemies meant sieges, meant death, starvation, captivity, or worse. When the trumpet blasted its warning the people in the city trembled. Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Obviously, NO!
Up until this point Amos has asked 6 easy questions. And each question had the same answer, Obviously, NO!
They six questions had one purpose, to cause the people of Israel to feel the weight of the seventh question (Seven the number of completion).
What is Amos’ seventh and key question?
Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD (Yahweh) has done it? Like a master debater, Amos has been conditioning the people for the correct answer to this difficult question. The answer is even more difficult if we look at the KJV translation.
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?
EVIL in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? Wait a minute? Can the Lord DO EVIL? What is the answer that Amos clearly wants the people to come to? OBVIOUSLY NO!
So what is going on here? The same issue here in Amos is the same issue we are confronted with in Job.
But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
What does Job mean when he says we receive good and evil from God?
Does God even initiate sin or originate moral evil?
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
Job 2:10 (ESV)
But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
So what is going on in Job and in Amos?
The Hebrew word for “evil” is רָעָה. The noun form is used over 300 times in the OT. Just like in our English language, the Hebrew word most often translated as evil may denote something negative without the connotation of moral corruption.
Examples:
We might say something like, “That was a bad storm” or even “that was a wicked storm!”
If a tree blows over and falls on someone’s roof and damages it we might say “that was really bad (unfortunate).” And in that statement we do not imply that a tree falling is morally “sinful” or “evil.”
Similarly, the Hebrew word for “evil” — though it can refer to moral evil — often times refers to a “calamity” or a “catastrophe” or a “misfortune.”
Examples:
Jer 24 2
Jeremiah 24:2 (ESV)
One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.
These are not morally evil figs, they are just bad.
2 Kings 2:19 (ESV)
Now the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.”
Jonah 1:7 (ESV)
And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
The storm that came upon them was “evil.” Not is a moral sense. It was a calamity!
Deuteronomy 7:15 (ESV)
And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.
Ezekiel 14:21 (ESV)
“For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!
So we might paraphrase Job’s words this way.
Should we expect only good things to come from God all the time? Should we not also expect (what we consider) “bad” things (such as hardships or adversity, loss or illness) from time to time?
Layton Talbert
Who then, according to Job, is the author of the “good” we enjoy as well as the “bad” we must sometimes suffer? Whom does he say sends both? Was Job wrong?
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us! Do we think about God this way?
Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?
Does disaster/bad/calamity come upon a city unless the Lord has done it? Obviously NO!
It is one thing to think about this truth in the abstract. What if we put a name to that city?
Does disaster come to the Gaza strip, unless the Lord has done it? God is not the author of evil, but He does permit with unrivaled providence. He even permits calamity or disaster. Why does He do that? That is a topic for another sermon.
For today we must see God as a mighty lion who roars in judgement over sin. He is not a tame or a safe lion, thankfully He is also good!
He is the one who permits with unrivaled providence. He is the ONE unquestionably in charge.
God guides and governs all events, including the free acts of men and their external circumstances, and directs all thing to their appointed ends for His glory. —Layton Talbert
Including the disaster of a city. Do you fear the lions roar?
Friends, if you can sin and sin, and it doesn’t bother you then the answer to that question is NO or at least not enough. And the reason you don’t fear the lion’s roar is you don’t know God!
He is the one who graciously elects. He is the one who providentially permits...
III. When we sin we offend the ONE that prophesies with unerring certainty (vv. 7-8)
III. When we sin we offend the ONE that prophesies with unerring certainty (vv. 7-8)
God strongly invites the Israelites to think about the power of His roar, by following a pattern that only God can follow.
The Lord God, is one who declares first then acts. Declaring then doing is the pattern that God is boasting about here in these verse.
“For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.
The Lord God (Adonai Yahweh— the sovereign, covenant keeping God ) does nothing without first revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.
Why is this order, declaring and then doing, so significant?
Illustration: Joseph shooting an “interesting shot” in pool.
God is not content to act in silence. It would have been one thing for the Assyrian arm to take captive the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 30 or 40 years and then for God to claim responsibility. But, to first foretell and forewarn by means of the prophets, to reveal the future events before they happen, and then sovereignly permit disaster to come upon a city in judgement is another thing entirely.
Why does God choose to act this way? Why tell the people first and then act?
Moses gives us that answer in the book of Exodus in dealing with Pharoah.
Exodus 8:9–10 (ESV)
Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.”
And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.
Why did Moses invite Pharoah to name the day he wanted God to destroy the plague of frogs? Why did God choose to declare first and then act? So that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God!
Exodus 8:20–22 (ESV)
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.
But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.
Exodus 9:14 (ESV)
For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.
Exodus 10:2 (ESV)
and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”
Exodus 14:4 (ESV)
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.
The Lord is following the same pattern here in the book of Amos.
“For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.
Why? So that you might know that He is the Lord God (Adonai Yahweh— the sovereign, covenant keeping God), and that there is none like Him!
The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?”
If disaster is coming upon this city (and it is!), then God will declare it before hand by means of the prophets (and there is one preaching to you Israel). And if a prophet is prophesying, then it is the LORD GOD who has spoken. And if it is Adonai Yahweh speaking, the the people ought to be afraid!
Application: Do you fear the lion’s roar? How do you know? Do you ignore the promises that God has made to us today? Do you act like they will not happen? That is exactly what the Israelites did. Amos preached 30 or 40 years before the disaster came upon them. I am sure there were many Israelites who felt secure in their sin. They did not take Amos’ words seriously. They did not fear God. The did not fear the one who prophesies with unerring certainty.
How do we do this today?
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
What is the context of this verse? Scoffers in Peter’s day. What were they saying? Where is the promise of his coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.
What were they doing? Doubting God’s words! They didn’t know God as the one who prophesies with unerring certainty. They thought God was wrong.
So Peter tells us- don’t overlook this one fact!
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
God’s words will come to pass. We should heed them, we should fear them! Do we? Of course we do!
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
Do our lives give evidence of that fact? Do our lives show that we really do fear the lion’s roar? Is there an urgency about living holy and godly lives? Or do you shrug that off and think, “there is plenty of time, no big deal.”
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
These are the promises that we are waiting for. Again, God has declared his intentions before he acts. Do we fear His words?
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
What changes might you make in your life this week if you really took God’s words seriously?
The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?”
Do you fear the lion’s roar?
He is the one who graciously elects. He is the one who providentially permits. He is the one who unerringly prophesies...
IV. When we sin we offend the ONE that acts with incomprehensible justice (vv. 9-11)
IV. When we sin we offend the ONE that acts with incomprehensible justice (vv. 9-11)
Amos now turns to the judgement that Israel rightly deserves for their sin. But, before he pronounces judgment he highlights the incomprehensible justice of God. Israel had grown overconfident in her strength. She thought herself untouchable. Protected and secured in her fortresses.
Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see the great tumults within her, and the oppressed in her midst.”
The key word to this section is the word for “strongholds.” The term indicates a fortified palace or a strongly fortified defensive or military structure. This term is used 32 times in the OT. 14 of those occurences are found in the book of Amos. Amos uses this term 6 times in these three verse alone.
God begins calling attention to his justice by using irony. In v. 9 Amos calls upon the people of the Philistine and Egyptian strongholds. And what does Amos call them to do? He wants these foreign nations, the enemy nations to come and assemble themselves upon the mountains of Samaria. Why? To see the great tumults with Samaria and the oppressed in her midst. Now why is this so ironic?
The Philistines and the Egyptians were no slouches when it came to violence and oppression. They were especially remembered for their cruel brutality and oppression of Israel. The implication is that although these enemy nations were expects of violence and oppression, Israel could have given these experts a few lessons!
Israel was so bad, was so far gone that even her enemies would have recoiled at their actions. Even her enemies would have pronounced judgement. How much more a holy God?
Amos 3:10 (ESV)
“They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”
Friends, think on these words! Think on the danger of sin! Sin left unchecked will produce this kind of heart. God says of His covenant people, they have been sinning for so long that they no longer even know how to do right! How can that be?
“Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.”—John Owen
Now, it being our duty to mortify, to be killing of sin whilst it is in us, we must be at work. He that is appointed to kill an enemy, if he leave striking before the other ceases living, does but half his work.
If, then, sin will be always acting, if we be not always mortifying, we are lost creatures. He that stands still and suffers his enemies to double blows upon him without resistance, will undoubtedly be conquered in the issue. If sin be subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we be slothful, negligent, foolish, in proceeding to the ruin thereof, can we expect a comfortable event?
“There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be so whilst we live in this world.”
Sin will not only be striving, acting, rebelling, troubling, disquieting, but if let alone, if not continually mortified, it will bring forth great, cursed, scandalous, soul-destroying sins.
Sin aims always at the utmost; every time it rises up to tempt or entice, might it have its own course, it would go out to the utmost sin in that kind. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could; every covetous desire would be oppression, every thought of unbelief would be atheism, might it grow to its head.
Sin is “like the grave, that is never satisfied.”
Amos 3:10 (ESV)
“They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”
This is were sin will lead you if you do not daily kill it! If you are not daily killing sin, the sin will be killing you!
Hebrews 3:12–13 (ESV)
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Look at what the hardened hearts of the Israelites caused them to do:
Amos 3:10 (ESV)
“They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”
What does that mean? What do you typically put in your stronghold? Your safe? You put treasure, valuables, wealth. But God said that they were storing up violence and robbery! In what way? How did the wealthy obtain their riches? By means of plundering and violent oppression. Their wealth had become so important to them, they would do anything to store it up and keep it. They no longer knew how to do right.
So what is God going to do about it?
Amos 3:11 (ESV)
Therefore thus says the Lord God: “An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.”
Justly, God pronounces judgement upon the people. An adversary shall (future tense), surround the land.
Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?
This adversary will bring down your defences from you. No matter how secure you think you are, God is always in control. I am going to bring up a nation that will surround you, will bring down your walls, and your stronghold shall be plundered!
Do you see the irony? The ones who stored up plunder by means of violent oppression in their strongholds, would have those same strongholds plundered by a violent foreign enemy.
Do you fear the lion’s roar? He is the one who acts in incomprehensible justice. God shows no partiality. You cannot escape his judgement. You cannot build walls high enough or strong enough to escape. God knows what you have stored up for yourselves.
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
If you fear God’s roar, then turn from your sin. Repent, turn around, go in a different direction.
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
If you think yourself secure within your stronghold, and you think little of God’s justice, then you do not yet fear His roar.
How can we fear His roar? We must know God as He truly is:
He is the one who graciously elects. He is the one who providentially permits. He is the one who unerringly prophesies. He is the one who acts with incomprehensible justice...
V. When we sin we offend the ONE that punishes with inescapable judgement (vv. 12-15)
V. When we sin we offend the ONE that punishes with inescapable judgement (vv. 12-15)
Thus says the Lord: “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed.
Illustration: Grace leaving pieces of her dinner on the deck.
“Just as a shepherd retrieves “two legs or a piece of an ear” from a lamb mauled by a lion, so the remnant of Israel would be taken out in bits and pieces (v. 12).”
Fuhr; Yates. The Message of the Twelve (p. 124).
Amos 3:13 (ESV)
“Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord God, the God of hosts,
The identification of the Lord as “God of Hosts” is a significant theological message in Amos. Seven times Amos uses LORD (‘Yahweh’) in conjunction with “God of Hosts” (or “Armies”) (4:13; 5:14, 15, 16, 27; 6:8, 14). One time Amos uses the compound “The Lord God of hosts” (וַאדֹנָ֨י יְהוִ֜ה הַצְּבָא֗וֹת). The full form of this name occurs in 3:13, “the Lord God, the God of hosts” (אֲדֹנָ֥י יְהוִ֖ה אֱלֹהֵ֥י הַצְּבָאֽוֹת).
The meaning of the extended name of God as “God of Hosts” has been suggested to signify that the Lord is a great warrior-king where He leads his armies (human or heavenly) into battle against the rebellious nations. Amos pictures God as warrior-king descending in the storm clouds and stepping on the peaks of the mountains (4:13). His battle cry is that of a mighty lion (1:2; 3:8) and he brings darkness over the land (5:20; 8:9). His fierceness causes the world to shake with fear (8:8; 9:5). His weapons of destruction include fire (1:3-2:5; 7:4), famine (4:6), drought (4:7-8), pestilence (4:9; 7:1-2), disease (4:10) and the sword (4:10; 7:9; 9:4). R. B. Chisholm Jr., 242.
And what does the Lord God, the God of Armies testify against Israel?
“that on the day I punish Israel for his transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.
“Continuing the line of irony, Amos shifts attention to one of Israel’s centers of religious ritual, Bethel. The “horns of the altar” in Bethel were viewed as a place of refuge.”
And Adonijah feared Solomon. So he arose and went and took hold of the horns of the altar.
“but they would provide no such safety or refuge in the day of the Lord’s visitation (v. 14).In the course of destruction the very horns of the altar would be cut off, so that when reached, there would be nothing to grab!”
Fuhr; Yates. The Message of the Twelve (p. 124).
I will strike the winter house along with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end,” declares the Lord.
Amos is targeting Samara's wealthy rulers who were living in luxury. Where did that wealth come from? From violence and oppression! They had stacked upon in their strongholds ill-begotten wealth. Now God says there is coming a day when I will strike down the winter house as well as the summer house. The house of ivory and the great houses shall all come to an end.
Do you fear the lion’s roar? There is coming a day, for those who do not repent, where God will pour out his judgment for sin, and that judgment will be inescapable.
For now God might be forestalling that judgement. God is rich in patience and kindness and forbearance. But that patience is meant to lead you to what? Repentance. If you will not repent, then all you have to look forward to is inevitable judgement.
Can you feel the roar of God? Do you fear it?
He is the one who graciously elects. He is the one who providentially permits. He is the one who unerringly prophesies. He is the one who acts with incomprehensible justice. And He is the one who punishes with inescapable judgment.
Good News!
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God is roaring, how will you respond?