Ending the Saddest Song

Amos 5:1–17 NIV

1 Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you: 2 “Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land, with no one to lift her up.” 3 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel: “Your city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left; your town that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left.” 4 This is what the Lord says to Israel: “Seek me and live; 5 do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.” 6 Seek the Lord and live, or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it. 7 There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground. 8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land— the Lord is his name. 9 With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin. 10 There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth. 11 You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. 12 For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. 13 Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil. 14 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. 15 Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. 16 Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, says: “There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail. 17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord.

The power of songs to communicate sadness.

In this text God himself is singing the song of Lament about his people.

The Funeral We’re Attending

Amos 5:1-3

1 Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you: 2 “Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land, with no one to lift her up.” 3 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel: “Your city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left; your town that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left.”

Amos 5:16-17

16 Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, says: “There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail. 17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord.

Text Work

Sorrow over the fate of the people is expressed in song – lament

God’s people have fallen and been deserted (contrast with the glory they could have had)

God’s people will be utterly destroyed

Decimate – reduce by 1/10; here reduce to 1/10

The people themselves join in the mourning at the end

Connection

As a primarily Gentile congregation, we actually start off in worse shape than the original audience

Israel’s position as God’s chosen people brought them a greater obligation, but it also brought them a greater blessing

Paul makes this case in Romans 3.

We aren’t staring in a good position as part of the nations who presumptively face judgment

The Life We’re Offered

Amos 5:4-6

4 This is what the Lord says to Israel: “Seek me and live; 5 do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.” 6 Seek the Lord and live, or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it.

Amos 5:14-15

14 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. 15 Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

Text Work

The Deuteronomy shape of the Bible

God is interested in their hearts

Deuteronomy 4:15–32 NIV

15 You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. 19 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. 20 But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are. 21 The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance. 22 I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. 23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 25 After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, 26 I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. 27 The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. 28 There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. 29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath. 32 Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?

The Lord warns of some false places they might look for salvation

Three Locations

Bethel

Gilgal

Beersheba

These were places of important religious experience, but not the rightful places of worship

They were places where they could feel like they were worshiping God while also rejecting what he had actually commanded them to do

The result of seeking the Lord is life.

Connection

This same temptation exists for us today

Christian adjacent experiences that make us feel spiritual while we do not seek God himself

Works

Worship

Instead we must seek the Jesus and find life in him

John 14:6 NIV

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The Injustice That Tempts Us

Amos 5:7

7 There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground.

Amos 5:10-13

10 There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth. 11 You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. 12 For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. 13 Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil.

Text

Along with their false worship, Israel is repeatedly rebuked in Amos for their injustice

The Hebrew system was set up with an eye towards constructive poverty care

Jubilee

7 year debt limits

Leaving the corners of the fields

Tithes for widows and orphans

Restitution for wrongdoing

Israel in this period had relied on the oppression and mistreatment of the poor to enable the comfort of the wealthy

The injustice of the Israelites was an effort to get the blessings God would have given them if they were just faithful to him.

Connection

The Bible will often triangulate with the world

None of the social justice properties of the Law fit with a particular modern political viewpoint.

We are tempted to pragmatically seek happiness and willing to sin to get it

This is ultimately an act of faithlessness. We don’t believe that God truly gives us all good things

The Creator We Will Find

Amos 4:8-9 8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land— the Lord is his name. 9 With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin.

Text Work

This is the center of the passage

God is the powerful judge who ensure that Israel will experience the consequences of her actions

This passage is reminiscent of the end of Job

In Job, God’s greatness calls Job to trust when God’s plans are painful

In Amos, the same characteristics call Israel to trust him rather than false worship or their own wciked schemes

Israel must embrace their powerful Creator

This creator has embraced and loved them

This creator demands their loyalty

This creator will enforce that demand

God and his charcter is the center of both blessing and cursing.

When Israel obeys it is because they see him for who he is in all his loving goodness and righteous justice

When Israel disobeys it is because they don’t see him

Connection

Seek him. Dut 4:29

See him as the ultimate standard of righteousness

See him as the one who will exercise judgment

See him as the one who offers salvation