Prophecies against Israel: Lament and Call to Repentance (5:1-17)

Introduction:

When we left Amos last week, we learned that the Ten Northern Tribes of Israel were about to meet God in judgment. This meeting was the outcome of the carefully detailed covenant lawsuit in which God reminds Israel of how they took little notice of him and his reproofs, desiring only to live in luxury, and worship whomever and in whatever way they chose.

Yet, as we have seen over and over again, God is longsuffering and gracious, bringing judgment only when he must. Amos this morning, continues in his prophecies against Israel, and raises a lament, or funeral song over Israel, and continues to give them one last call to repentance from Amos 5:1-17.

Text: Amos 5:1-17

Amos 5:1–17 ESV

1 Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel: 2 “Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.” 3 For thus says the Lord God: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.” 4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live; 5 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.” 6 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, 7 O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth! 8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name; 9 who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress. 10 They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth. 11 Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. 12 For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. 13 Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. 14 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. 15 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. 16 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: “In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation, 17 and in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord.

Main Idea: Because our God is the originator of life, we his people must seek him in order to truly live.

Background:

This third sermon on the prophesies against Israel, is called an Oracle of Entreaty. A special feature of this oracle is God’s pleading for his people to return to him. Although they face imminent destruction, it is still not too late to seek God and his goodness (4–6, 14). Neither the prophet nor God takes delight in these pronouncements of doom. Like mourners at a funeral, they grieve at what lies ahead for the unrepentant people. We see this same reaction on the part of Jesus in Luke 19:41–44:

Luke 19:41–44 ESV

41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

I. The Lamentation for Israel (1-3)

(1) Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel: (2) “Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.”

Amos speaks to the nation of Israel a lamentation (a funeral dirge), a lamentation in which he considers the fall of Israel a past event. It is as if Amos sees Israel as a young woman raped and left lying upon the ground with no one to help her.

People lament and mourn at a funeral because of the loss they feel at the passing of one whose time with them had a profound effect on their lives. This loss has a past, present, and future element to it. They must now live out the rest of their lives with their past remembrance of their life with them, as it hits them presently with the reality of their loss, and causes them to think towards the future with uncertainty of life without them.

This was what this lament was all about for Amos…the glorious past of the people of God being lead and loved by him…the present reality that judgment was real and their former glory is now lost…but also the future of what happens next looms on the horizon as hopelessness comes upon him like a flood.

However, in Israel’s case, this mourning is not just the death as it were of Israel, but it is also the reality that sin has caused this to happen, and that the true mourning should be over that sin and not just the results of that sin and their loss as a nation. The prophet will call them once again to repentance as we will see shortly, but mourning over sin is the beginning of that repentance. James tells us this in James 4:

James 4:7–10 ESV

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

(3) For thus says the Lord God: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.” - this means that only one tenth of her soldiers will survive the attack of the enemy forces.

Amos again takes time to rehearse the reason behind this judgment, it is…

II. The Sins of Israel (4-12)

Amos comes at this from another direction, for he equates their disobedience as…

A. The Sin of Not Seeking Life (4-6)

(4) For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live; - the appeal is that Israel has sought life from every other direction but from the one and only giver of life.

(5) 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.”

They practiced adulterated worship at Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba. This syncretized worship mixed calf-worship and Jehovah-worship.

Beersheba - was in Judah, an ancient holy place (Gen. 21:31–33; 26:23–25; 46:1–5) located 50 miles south-southwest of Jerusalem. People from the north evidently went there on a pilgrimage (8:14), perhaps they felt that there was a special power available there, kind of like a good luck charm.

It is far better to seek the Lord apart from religious centers and religious observances than to seek Him through false religious centers and perverted religious observances.

(6) 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,

Again an appeal to seek life where life is, not the lifeless sensual worship of Baal, or the running after all the pleasures of the world surrounding them, thus distracting their focus from the source of life.

So, the reality of the sin of not seeking life, is really…

B. The Sin of Not seeking the Life Giver (7-9)

(7) O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth! - As a result of not seeking life, two things happen, the one leading into the other…

turn justice to wormwood is a plant native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, with a bitter-tasting and poisonous extract (also 6:12). True worshipers of God will manifest justice and righteousness, while those who are not promote poisonous justice, seeking to destroy what is right and true.

cast down righteousness to the earth - instead of doing what is right in the sight of God, especially with regard to conduct toward others, they push it down and walk on it like dirt.

Amos then reminds them that this activity does not go unnoticed…

(8) He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name; (9) who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

This is another piece of lyrical poetry used to contrast the limitless glory of the Creator with the inferior things worshiped in the confines of Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba.

He who made the Pleiades and Orion. It is God who created these Constellations of stars. In ancient Near Eastern religions, the stars were often thought to be gods. See also Isa. 40:26.

turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night - God controls the rotation of the earth and its journey around the sun.

To say that God calls for the waters of the sea and then pours them out on the surface of the earth is to remind Israel that he alone oversees the hydrologic cycle and governs the rainfall, which he can and will use to discipline his people.

who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress - God brings down the high and mighty who think they are indestructible.

The sin of not seeking the life giver ultimately shows itself in the horizontal relationships of…

C. The Sin Against Truth and the Oppressed (10-12)

(10) They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth.

They hate ... they abhor. They oppose with great energy, he…

who reproves ... who speaks the truth. A reference to those who reprove falsehood in court and bear true witness there. Israel has come to hate such men, presumably because they threaten practices of corruption and dishonest gain.

in the gate. Much of a city’s legal business in this era is transacted in its gate, a large passageway with adjoining rooms where the elders of the city sat and deliberated (cf. Ruth 4:1, 2).

(11) Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.

you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him - you take advantage of the poor in order to have…

houses of hewn stone. These are costly to build, in contrast to the mud brick houses in which many people live (cf. Is. 9:10).

you shall not dwell ... you shall not drink. The curse of futility (failure to enjoy the fruit of one’s labor) fell on the Canaanites as Israel dispossessed them from their cities (Deut. 6:10, 11). Now Israel will suffer the same fate, according to the words of Deut. 28:30.

(12) For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.

For I know. Israel needs to realize that the Lord knows what they seem to imagine that He does not know (cf. Ps. 73:11; Job 22:13, 14).

your transgressions and how great are your sins

afflict the righteous, - distorted morality

take a bribe, - distorted justice

turn aside the needy in the gate - distorted compassion

With all that said, Amos proclaims once again…

III. The Calls to Repentance (13-17)

A. The Call to the Prudent (13-15)

(13) Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.

keep silent. The reference is probably to the legal proceedings taking place in the gatehouse (see note on v. 10). If someone were to speak out against the manifest injustice taking place, his own life might be in danger (v. 10), while his objections would do no good because they could not stop the ongoing, entrenched evil.

In other words, the prudent are silent because the times will be so bad that the truth will not be tolerated.

(14) 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.

Seek good, and not evil. This is the number one element of effective repentance, turning from evil and embracing that which is good (which is God himself), see Is. 1:16, 17

Isaiah 1:17 ESV

17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

This seeking is not difficult as one who is seeking to unravel a mystery, but Jeremiah the prophet gives us the assurance that God can and will be found…

Jeremiah 29:13–14 ESV

13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

that you may live. Obedience to the Lord will bring them security and prosperity (Deut. 28:1–14); but the verse points to a deeper truth, that to know God is life itself, as Jesus said in John 17:3, in his high priestly prayer…

John 17:3 ESV

3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

God ... with you. This is the deepest need of God’s people, expressed prophetically in the name Immanuel (“God is with us,” Is. 7:14; cf. Matt. 1:23).

as you have said. Israel complacently claims that the Lord is with them, despite their rebelliousness, simply because He has made a covenant with them, this is what the Pharisees were doing when Jesus confronts them in Matt. 3:9,

Matthew 3:9 ESV

9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

(15) 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.

Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate - the call to the godly, prudent, remnant to continue to do what is right, to Hate evil, and love good, even when it is not popular and cost them persecution, doing whatever it takes to establish justice in the gate

remnant of Joseph. The northern kingdom of Israel is dominated by the tribe of Ephraim, descendants of one of Joseph’s sons (Deut. 33:17 note). Though Israel is relatively prosperous and strong, the phrase anticipates the future, after God’s judgment, when He will graciously restore a remnant of the people.

B. The Call to the Mourners (16-17)

We’ve re-circled back to the beginning lamentation but have extended its mourner to others, beyond the prophet Amos…

(16) Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: “In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,

Although Israel could have returned to God, the fact is that they would not. As a result, Amos announces that a great funeral cry of wailing … mourning … lamentation (see v. 1) will go up all over the land from the streets of the cities to the vineyards in the countryside. This mourning however, is not for their sin, but the consequences of this sin.

(17) and in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord.

I will pass through your midst. - this is in reference back to 4:12,

Amos 4:12 ESV

12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

So What?

Do we mourn over our sin, or just the consequences that result from our sin?

Mourning over our sin is to see our sin as God sees it and not making excuses for it.

Do we seek God through Jesus Christ as our source of life and contentment, or have we bought into the lies of the world system?

The world system promises life and contentment as it strings you along and dangles its delicacies before you eyes, and then laughs as you are hooked and your life is wasted.

Do you realize that to truly hate your sin and to seek and know God involves repentance?

There is always hope…where there is life, there is hope.

Repentance means to turn around 180 degrees, away from sin and embrace Jesus Christ, placing our complete trust in him alone, believing that he paid the sin debt that we owed, and now desiring to be owned and directed by him for our life both here on earth from this day forward, and for all eternity.