When God Hates

Introduction

What does God hate?

Amos 5:18–6:14 NIV

18 Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. 19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. 20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? 21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. 22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! 25 “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? 26 You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god— which you made for yourselves. 27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty. 1 Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come! 2 Go to Kalneh and look at it; go from there to great Hamath, and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours? 3 You put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of terror. 4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. 5 You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. 6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. 7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end. 8 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by himself—the Lord God Almighty declares: “I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything in it.” 9 If ten people are left in one house, they too will die. 10 And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.” 11 For the Lord has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits. 12 Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness— 13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar and say, “Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?” 14 For the Lord God Almighty declares, “I will stir up a nation against you, Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”

In the last section of Amos we saw a call to seek God and find life. In this section we look at the alternative.

Two woes are pronounced – Both of these woes are rebukes of seemingly good things

Woe on worship

Woe on comfort

God Hates False Worship

The Dark Day of the Lord

Amos 5:18–6:14 NIV

18 Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. 19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. 20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

This passage is directed at the spiritually minded

The audience thinks the day of the Lord is a good thing for them, but they’re wrong it will be a dark day.

In the Garden of Eden, the mechanism of temptation was knowing “good and evil” a seemingly religious and noble desire.

This passage was written 2,750 years ago – it was a problem then

Jesus dealt with the Pharisees 2,000 years ago – it was a problem then

Do we think that religious hypocrisy wouldn’t be a problem now?

Where would it be most likely to be a problem?

God tells us how this looks – empty religious observation.

The Inadequacy of Religious Ceremony

Amos 5:18–6:14 NIV

21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. 22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! 25 “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? 26 You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god— which you made for yourselves. 27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.

We might think that their religious observances don’t work because of their unrighteousness

It’s more than that

God hates their religion

He wants them to do justice instead (v. 24)

He illustrates this with a note from Israel’s history

These three verses are difficult to translate and interpret

We are helped by a NT reference though

Acts 7:39–43 NIV

39 “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’ 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. 42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: “ ‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? 43 You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.

From their time in the wilderness Israel has mixed worship of God with false worship – they’re trying to make their own enhanced worship.

This just leads to further corruption because worshiping God in any other way that what he demands is idolatry

God Hates Comfortable Pride

Comfort Is Temporary

Amos 5:18–6:14 NIV

1 Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come! 2 Go to Kalneh and look at it; go from there to great Hamath, and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours? 3 You put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of terror. 4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. 5 You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. 6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. 7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.

The nation is visibly prosperous but still endangered

The prosperity is puffed up with pride though

V. 2 – Other greater nations have fallen

Israel will be also conquered (v. 3)

They live lives of ease and comfort

The prosperous will be the first to face judgment

Pride Is Abhorrent

Amos 5:18–6:14 NIV

8 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by himself—the Lord God Almighty declares: “I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything in it.” 9 If ten people are left in one house, they too will die. 10 And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.” 11 For the Lord has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits. 12 Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness— 13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar and say, “Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?” 14 For the Lord God Almighty declares, “I will stir up a nation against you, Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”

This pride is abhorred by God

All they have is a gift from him and should lead them to worship

Instead, they turn their back on his law (injustice and false worship)

Pride is robbery from God

As a result they will face judgment

Their mighty cities will be destroyed

Even those who hide will die (plague?)

They will not even be able to follow normal burial practices

Burning was unusual

They can’t have a funeral (mention the name of the Lord)

The insanity of their sin is emphasized

Two things you shouldn’t do

Run a horse on rocks

Plow the sea with oxen

Two more things you shouldn’t do

Turn justice into poison

Turn the fruit of righteousness into bitterness

Therefore judgment is coming

Conclusion

God will deal with the wickedness of the world

We must deal with our personal sin

The Gospel deals with our sin; it does not excuse it.

The Gospel removes our sin, it does not embrace it.

 Yes; men entertain thoughts in private, and say words in private, and do acts in private, which they would be ashamed and blush to have exposed before the world. The sound of a footstep coming has stopped many a deed of wickedness. A knock at the door has caused many an evil work to be hastily suspended, and hurriedly laid aside. But oh, what miserable folly is all this! There is an all-seeing Witness with us wherever we go. Lock the door, pull down the blind, turn out the light; it doesn't matter, it makes no difference; God is everywhere, you cannot shut Him out, or prevent His seeing. "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account" (Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men)

We must deal with sin within the church

We should be much more concerned about the wickedness of the church

A Christ honoring church will boldly call out sin within its own walls

1 Corinthians 5 NIV

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3 For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. 6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Speaking clearly about sin supports Christ’s testimony (v. 1)

Speaking clearly about sin builds church unity (v. 6)

Speaking clearly about sin supports victims (Mt 18)