The Roar of the Lion

Injustice

About a week and a half ago, videos started emerging of a police officer holding down an African American by placing his knee on his neck.

In the video you could clearly hear the man cry “I can’t breathe”.

The man become unresponsive. The police officer continued to hold him down for more than 2 minutes.

When eventually they did release him, the man was not able to be revived.

As the world watched these videos, we sat there stunned. How could this happen?

It didn’t make sense.

But we became further incensed when we were told that the police officer at the centre of this had 18 complaints on his official record.

For many, the conclusion is clear - there is a problem within the system.

You see, there is actually a long list of African Americans that have been killed at the hands of the police, where a big question mark has been placed over the need for the killing. Unarmed. Unprovoked.

And each time we ask: why?

It’s an injustice and our hearts break for the families that can no longer see there loved one.

Black Lives Matter

And so, in 2013, we saw a new movement begin - Black Lives Matter.

They were incensed at the unfairness of it all.

And so they marched and they protested.

But if you’ve turned on your television in the last week, you would have seen that these protests have turned ugly. Instead of marching and protesting against a great injustice, they were seen rioting and looting.

And again, we are incensed. Why would they do this?

Don’t they realise what they are doing is counter productive? Don’t they realise that they too are committing injustices.

They are damaging the livelihoods of people who (most likely) have nothing to do with it.

It just doesn’t make sense.

Aussie Journalist

But while we were shaking our heads at all of this crazy stuff coming out of America, I came across a video of an Australian reporter who had been given a live cross on one of Australia’s morning TV shows.

In this report, she was interviewing one of the protesters who explained some of the reasons why they were out trying to get their voices heard.

The Australian journalist then ended the interview by thanking the man, saying: “I really appreciate you giving your perspective mate, because people in Australia don’t have the understanding of the history of police killings and things here”.

Well, that line didn’t go unnoticed.

Some activists here in Australia piped in: well actually, our police aren’t exactly squeaky clean.

You know what? It’s true. While we like to point the finger at the USA because we can kind of feel disconnected to it, but the injustices we see there happen here too.

A God who hates injustice

This morning as we start a new series in the book of Amos, I’m going to start up front in saying: God hates injustice.

When any person, regardless of the colour of their skin is mistreated in a way they do not deserve, God is grieved.

When people act out of self interest and cause harm to others, God is hurt.

Now sometimes God is charged with not caring. His charged that way because people see these injustices which have actually continued right throughout history, and think - if God cared, why does it continue to happen?

Well, it’s not my intention to fully answer that question here this morning. There is a deep theological discussion we could enter into. But instead, I just want to suggest that actually God does do something.

While he doesn’t completely end acts of injustice, (or at least, not yet anyway), we do actually see God intervening when the time is right.

Dictators are brought down. Pedophiles are exposed. Those who do wrong are brought to justice.

God hears our prayers, and works in ways that are far beyond our understanding. Perhaps an insight to one person. Maybe a set of circumstances that sets people down the right path. Whatever it is, but God is orchestrating things to bring about change.

Unfortunately, we are sometimes too busy being outraged to actually see the change God has already made.

Amos

So this morning as we start a new series on the book of Amos, we’ll see that the very first words after the initial superscription are the words: “The Lord roars from Zion”.

The image it invokes is a Lion who lets out a roar so others know who is king. A roar which says: I’ve been angered and I don’t intend to let that anger dispel without doing something.

As we will see throughout this series, essentially this sets the scene well for the whole book.

God has put up with the injustice for too long and something is about to be done.

So, before we look at what he’s going to do - let get a bit of background to the whole book.

Verse 1

Well, the very first verse gives us a little bit of background so let’s start here.

A shepherd

The first thing we learn is that Amos is a shepherd from Tekoa.

Now, Tekoa is genrally thought to be a town only a relatively short distance from Jerusalem which is in the area known as the Southern Kingdom. That being said, as we’ll see throughout this prophecy, that the majority of the message is directed to the people in the Northern Kingdom - but I’ll get to that shortly.

So we know he is from Tekoa, and we know he is a shepherd.

Being a shepherd is actually somewhat surprising, although perhaps it shouldn’t be given God’s tendency to pick unlikely people.

But you’ll note that he doesn’t list any of his genealogy, which is quite surprising.

Timing

But this first verse also gives us a few clues about the timing of this letter.

We’re told that it comes two years before the earthquake when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam was king of Israel.

Now, the reality is, there is very little we actually know about this earthquake. But it was obviously well known at the time and served as a sort of assurance that what Amos was saying was from God.

But what we do know more about the two kings that were listed, and this helps us form the background to the letter.

So we can place ourselves somewhere around the year 760 BC.

This makes this prophecy the first of the written prophets that we have recorded in our bible.

There were of course prophets before him, like Elijah and Elisha, but they didn’t get their own book.

Prosperity

But there is something very interesting to note about this time

When Uzziah and Jeroboam were kings, Israel was actually doing really well.

So let’s just do a really quick recap of Israel’s history,

God formed the nation of Israel and gave them the land of Canaan. They dwelt in the land for many years without a king, but eventually they asked God for a king and after the first king went bad, King David took the reign and for a time things went well.

But not long after David’s reign, the nation split in two. Judah, (which we often call the southern kingdom) and Israel (which we often call the northern kingdom).

Unfortunately, there are a lot of sorry tales during these reigns, and many of the surrounding nations really caused them a lot of trouble. And as a consequence the size of their territory significantly shrunk as nations like Syria, Philistia and Phoenicia encroached on them.

But fast forward about two to three hundred years after David, and we arrive at the time of Amos.

And would you believe it? Most of those political loses have actually been regained.

And so we find ourselves in a very interesting position.

Things are actually going really well. The economy is good. And when the economy is good, then everything else seems to follow.

There’s a good feeling happening.

I think it’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that if everything is going so well, then they’re probably thinking - wow, God must be really pleased with us. We are a blessed people and we can just continue to bask in his blessing.

The Lion Roars

And so with this background, we hear the Lion roar.

The Lord, Yahweh, stands ready the avenge the injustices that have happened.

As Amos starts conveying his word from the Lord, I can imagine the people who first hear it starting to feel excited. They’re excited because they’ve seen so much injustice.

They’ve seen the other nations and what they are doing.

And as Amos begins his message, they are not disappointed.

Syria

He starts with their neighbours to the North. The Syrians.

In verse 3, you’ll see him calling out Damascus, the capital city of Syria.

In most recent times the Syrians have caused them perhaps the greatest trouble. Their army had been ruthless as they came on the Israelites.

God saw - and God is not going to let that injustice go unpunished.

And so the Israelites can breath a sigh of relief.

The Lord roars. God is going to teach this wicked nation a lesson.

Philistia

Amos then moves to one of the next big opponents. This time Philistia.

The capital of Philistia is Gaza.

The Philistines caused lots of angst for Israel, particularly in the early days of them being a nation.

But if you actually look, God is calling them out for people trafficking.

They have taken captives of whole communities and sold them to other nations.

This is a great injustice and God will not stand for it. The Lord roars. God will wipe them out.

Phoenicia

Phoenicia comes next with its capital Tyre.

Interestingly, if you saw these nations on a map, you’ll see that we’re effectively cris-crossing over the map to the different corners of their territory.

Phoenicia gets called out again for the trafficking of people - presumably it looks like there must have been some sort of people trade between Philistia, Phoenicia and Edom.

The lion roars and they will be defeated.

Edom, Ammon and Moab

The next three judgments start in verses 11, 13 and chapter 2 verse 1. These judgments are on Edom, Ammon and Moab.

Now, the interesting thing to note here is that these three nations actually have a relationship with Israel.

The nation of Edom coming from Esau, the brother of Jacob. And the nations of Ammon and Moab coming from the children of Lot, the nephew of Abraham.

And so while they are still nations that had considerable enmity with Israel, the feeling towards these nations is a little different.

Nevertheless, these nations have committed significant injustices. Edom will it’s unchecked rage that slaughtered the women. Ammon who horrifically ripped open pregnant women. And Moab who despicably dealt with Edom’s king.

They too will suffer the roar of the Lord. They will be defeated.

Justice matters

There’s a very clear message in this. God cares about justice.

To think that somehow God looks upon the wickedness of the world with some sort of indifference and that he couldn’t be bothered intervening is actually just plain wrong.

God does care and God does intervene.

This passage here, although talking into a very specific point in time, is a case in point. God will not let injustice go unpunished.

Judgment on Israel

Now, remember, I spoke before about how Israel is doing quite well politically up to this point.

And so, this judgement on these surrounding nations, would have sounded like music to their ears.

It’s a bit like us. When we hear that people acting injustly get caught and we sigh for relief, because we love justice.

But the problem is, God hasn’t finished giving his judgement.

He may have finished doing the sweep of nations surrounding Israel, but then he comes to Judah.

Judah

Now Judah was that southern kingdom I briefly mentioned before.

The northern and southern kingdoms have certainly had their fair share of disputes, but there was certainly something that held them together - like two fighting brothers.

Those listening to this were probably surprised, particularly given that Amos himself was from Judah.

But look what the judgement is for - rejecting the law of the Lord and being led astray by false gods.

Israel

But then, after the judgement on their own brother, the finger is about to be well and truly spun around to face them.

They’ve been so busy pointing the finger at others, that they’ve failed to see the log in their own eye.

So let’s look at what they are accused of.

In verse 6 (and I’m in chapter 2 now), they’re selling the innocent and needy for a pair of sandals.

In verse 7, they trample on the heads of the poor and deny justice to the oppressed.

And then there’s the sexual sins - father and son use the same girl.

They’re lying down beside altars and mishandling things that should belong to God.

Do you see what’s happening here? The nation is politically going great - but spiritually, it has become bankrupt.

They don’t care about the things God cares about.

Now I want you to pay attention to what is happening here.

You see, the judgements on the other nations were for really big injustices like selling whole communities, and war crimes. Israel probably thought - well I’m not doing that. I’m not that bad.

But they by turning a blind eye to the oppressed. And treating the needy like a commodity, while the sin might not seem so heinous, it can have a similar effect.

You see, what we’re seeing is actually one of the big problems with wealth and prosperity.

With money and possessions, our focus turns on ourselves. We may think that with money we should be in a better position to help others, but more often it’s the opposite.

The Israelites had been blessed with a prosperous time, but the blessing actually turned them sour.

Israel sin is worse

But there’s another element to this. I mentioned a moment ago that in some ways, Israel’s sin doesn’t seem as heinous, yet I’m going to suggest it is actually worse.

And the reason it is worse, is because of what God has done for them. Now this idea is drawn out even further in the next chapter, so I won’t spend too much time on it this week, but we see it here in chapter 2.

In verses 9 to 11, we see God reminding them of the things he’s done for them. He has set everything up for them.

Of all people, they should have known better.

But the good things God has done for them they have polluted.

And for this reason - just as the Lion roars at the other nations - the Lord’s roar has it’s sights on Israel.

Looking at Ourselves

When we look at these first two chapters, it’s hard not to see parallels with ourselves.

You see, we are living in a very prosperous society. We here in the church, have also known blessings far beyond what we deserve.

And we sit here and very eagerly point the finger at all the wrong doing of society and the world around us.

Those cops that abuse their power. Those groups that turn protests into riots.

We could make a long list of people who do wrong - but yet we are the ones that should know better. And how quickly can we turn a blind eye to wrong doing when it suits us.

Unfortunately this has happened in the church for a long time with many of the child abuse cases. The child abuse itself is horrendous, but the fact that so many in the church turned a blind eye is even worse.

The reality is, in our very community there are people who are hurting for all sorts of reasons. And while we say we care for them, the reality is, we do very little to actually do anything practical for them.

And so the message I want to give today is: God cares about justice, but rather than just seeing this as a problem out there, let’s look a bit closer to home.

Are we actually caring for the oppressed with our actions, or just making ourselves feel better with a little lip service?

Love Share and Serve

Here at Tanilba Bay Baptist, we’ve made a commitment to Love Share and Serve.

But our love cannot stay with just those in our direct community. We’re not just committing ourselve to share with each other. And we’re not about serving ourselves.

Love, Share and Serve must be about helping the most vulnerable. The oppressed. The struggling.

Because this is at the heart of who God is. He loves everyone, no matter the colour of their skin, the size of the bank balance or the social status in the community. Every person matters, and our actions need to reflect this.

Conclusion

The truth is, we are all guilt of at times turning a blind eye to injustice.

Thankfully, though we fail, God doesn’t. And thankfully, though we fail, God doesn’t abandon us.

But while we may be forgiven, God does want us to value justice.

He wants us to care for the oppressed. He want us to treat everyone with respect.

And he wants us to stay close to him.

As we start this series in Amos, I’m excited to think of the ways in which God can change our hearts to make them more like his.

Let me pray...