Voices from the Wilderness: Lessons from Amos

Bible Passage: Amos 7:1-8:3

Summary: In Amos 7:1-8:3, the prophet Amos reveals God's impending judgment on Israel through vivid imagery, showcasing the nation's moral decay and the consequences of ignoring God's warnings. The passage emphasizes God's patience while highlighting the urgency for repentance.

Application: This sermon can help Christians and others recognize the importance of listening to God's warnings before judgment falls. It calls for introspection about personal and communal lives, encouraging believers to seek repentance and align their actions with God's will.

Teaching: The teaching of this sermon centers around the idea that God communicates with His people about their behavior and the importance of responding to His messages with seriousness. It emphasizes that neglecting divine warnings has consequences not just for individuals but for communities as well.

How this passage could point to Christ: In the context of the Bible as a whole, Christ is the ultimate prophet who calls humanity to repentance, exemplifying God's grace in warning us about sin and offering a path to redemption. Through His life and sacrifice, believers can find hope and restoration.

Big Idea: God's warnings call us to urgent repentance, for ignoring His voice invites judgment but turning to Him brings hope and restoration.

Recommended Study: As you prepare this sermon, consider using your Logos library to explore the historical context of Amos' preaching within Israel's monarchy, focusing on the social injustices that prompted his messages. Investigating the literary structure of Amos 7 and 8 can also provide insights into how the imagery impacts the listener. Additionally, look into the significance of repentance in the minor prophets, which will enrich your application points.

1. Pleading for Divine Mercy

Amos 7:1-6

You could explore how Amos' intercession for Israel highlights God's patience and mercy towards the nation despite their failings. The vivid imagery of locusts and fire underline the severity of impending judgment. This passage serves as a reminder that God listens and responds to sincere prayers for mercy. You might suggest that individuals and communities should earnestly seek God’s forgiveness, recognizing the power of intercessory prayer as a means of pleading for divine intervention and grace.

2. Measured by God's Standard

Amos 7:7-9

Perhaps you could delve into the image of the plumb line, a metaphor for God's standard of righteousness and justice. Here, Amos conveys God's intention to measure Israel's alignment with His will. As a sermon point, this passage can inspire Christians to assess their lives and ensure they are upright in God's eyes. This may include encouraging congregants to reflect on their actions and make necessary adjustments to live according to God's righteous standards to avoid the consequences of failing to measure up.

3. Warning Ignored, Judgment Assured

Amos 7:10-8:3

Maybe you could discuss the confrontation between Amos and Amaziah, where resistance to God's message is evident. This passage shows the inevitability of God's judgment despite opposition. It serves as a cautionary tale about ignoring prophetic warnings. By using this story, you can inspire congregants to take God's warnings seriously, encouraging them to respond with humility and a willingness to change. Emphasize that God’s announcements are meant to lead us toward restoration rather than destruction.

Amos 7–9

“Then the Lord said, ’Look, I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel: I will spare them no longer’ " (Amos 7:8).

Amos looked ahead, and he foresaw the certain judgment of a people who had refused for decades to heed God’s call to repent.

Overview

Three visions of certain judgment (7:1–9) are interrupted by an account of Israel’s reaction to Amos’ preaching (vv. 10–17). The sinful kingdom, ripe for judgment (8:1–14) would surely be destroyed (9:1–10), yet one day Israel’s prosperity will be restored (vv. 11–15).

Understanding the Text

“I will spare them no longer” Amos 7:1–9. In a vision Amos saw destructive judgments God was preparing to unleash on Israel. He successfully diverted the first two. But finally God refused to delay any longer.

The plumb line is a tool used by carpenters. It is simply a weight attached to a line, that is held against a wall or other construction to measure uprightness. Old Testament prophets frequently used the plumb line metaphorically as a tool used by God to measure the moral uprightness of a generation.

God’s plumb line indicated that the judgment of Israel could no longer be delayed.

The New Testament helps us understand the principle of delayed judgment. It is an expression of God’s kindness, tolerance, and patience. Yet the person or nation that persists in showing contempt for God’s forebearance stores up wrath against “the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom. 2:4–6). Israel was not “getting away with” the wickedness entrenched in her society. Each failure to seize a new opportunity God gave His people to repent simply made the coming judgment more certain.

“The priest of Bethel” Amos 7:10–17. The attitude of the people of Israel toward Amos is illustrated in the reaction of Amaziah, who apparently functioned as high priest at the Bethel worship center. Amos was clearly challenging the social order. So the priest informed the king that Amos was “raising a conspiracy against you.”

Amaziah then expelled Amos, commanding him not to prophesy because, “This is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom” (v. 13). What a revealing statement! The sanctuary did not belong to God, but the king, for religion in Israel was dedicated to maintaining the social status quo, not to challenging social evils!

Biblical faith is never a truly comfortable faith, for it calls us to constantly examine our lives and our society. Biblical faith is radical, in that it is never to be identified with a political theory, political party, or national ideology. Scripture calls us to stand outside our culture, and to judge it when it is wrong.

This the high priest of Israel’s religion was unwilling to do. He willingly subordinated religion to politics, and when Amos stood up and announced God’s judgment on Israel’s sinful society, the high priest angrily demanded he leave town!

But it was not the radical Amos who was judged by this priest. The priest judged himself by his actions. And God announced that he would live to see the consequences of conformity (vv. 16–17).

As for unrepentant Israel, the people “will certainly go into exile, away from their native land.”

“The time is ripe for My people Israel” Amos 8:1–14. My wife watches bananas set out on the kitchen counter carefully. She wants them just right—not too green, not too soft.

God through Amos announced that Israel had the “just right” stage: just right for judgment (see DEVOTIONAL). Israel had rejected justice. God will “never forget anything they have done” (v. 7). All will mourn in bitterness, and even if they should seek the world over for a word from God, “They will not find it” (v. 12).

“I saw the Lord standing by the altar” Amos 9:1–10. The altar and coals from the altar symbolize judgment in the Old Testament. A priest might take his stand at the altar to appease God by offering a sacrifice. But in this vision Amos saw God Himself at the altar. He stood there not to receive a sacrifice but to execute judgment.

The text makes this abundantly clear. God would kill the wicked with the sword. “Not one will get away, none will escape” (v. 1). God was committed to “hunt them down and seize them,” for the Lord has fixed “His eyes upon them for evil and not for good” (v. 4).

This awesome picture of a God committed to execute judgment is an appropriate corrective to an overemphasis on the love of God. Yes, God is love. God eagerly desires to extend the benefits of salvation to all. But those who refuse to respond to a God of love must and will face Scripture’s God of judgment and justice.

Those who live in a sinful kingdom may be completely sure that God “will destroy it” and that “all the sinners among My people will die by the sword” (v. 10).

“In that day I will restore” Amos 9:11–15. In a few brief verses Amos, as the other Old Testament prophets, added a word of hope. This unjust generation of God’s people must fall. But God will restore the chosen race.

Amos specifically links that restoration to the appearance of a Ruler to come from David’s family line. This is the meaning of “I will restore David’s fallen tent” (v. 11). When He appears, the Jews will be regathered to their land, and know an age of unparalleled prosperity. And how graphically Amos portrayed that time: “The reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes” as “new wine” drips “from the mountains.”

Israel rejected God, but God had not abandoned them. Calling Himself “the LORD your God,” God promised, “I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them” (v. 15).

DEVOTIONAL

Ripe for Judgment

(Amos 8)

One of the best marketing gimmicks I’ve heard about was thought up by the fellow whose crop of Yellow Delicious apples was ruined by hail. Every place a hailstone struck, a brown mark developed, making the apples almost worthless.

But the clever orchard owner found a way to turn his disaster around. He launched an advertising campaign warning customers to buy only apples with those brown spots that show they were tree-ripened!

Israel too bore distinctive spots. But there was no way the nature of those spots could be disguised. Such spots on any society mark it off as truly ripe, but ripe for judgment.

There is trampling on the poor.

There is indifference to true religion.

There is dishonesty in business.

There is exploitation of the weak and socially powerless.

Perhaps these marks are not yet visible on the surface of our society. But should you observe them, don’t let yourself be fooled. They’re not evidence of “tree-ripened” quality.

They are signs that our society too has become ripe for judgment.

Personal Application

Spots appearing in any society tell Christians it’s time to repent, and pray.

Quotable

“Making an open stand against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness which overspreads our land as a flood is one of the noblest ways of confessing Christ in the face of His enemies.”—John Wesley

The Variety Reading Plan continues with JONAH

Obadiah

INTRODUCTION

Obadiah is a prophecy of destruction, directed against Edom, a land across the Jordan River from Judah that was populated by descendants of Jacob’s brother, Esau (Gen. 25). Obadiah said the Edomites collaborated with foreign invaders of Judah and mistreated Jerusalem’s survivors; a charge which fits six different occasions in Judah’s history! It is most likely that Obadiah predicted Edom’s overthrow just after the Babylonian invasion of Judah in 586 B.C. Edom disappeared as an independent kingdom the latter half of the sixth century B.C., and its ruin is referred to in Malachi 1:3–4.

The Holy Bible: King James Version Chapter 7

1 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppersa in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. 2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. 3 The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD. 4 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part. 5 Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. 6 The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD. 7 Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. 8 And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: 9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. 12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: 13 But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapelb, and it is the king’s court. 14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: 15 And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. 16 Now therefore hear thou the word of the LORD: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. 17 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.