“The Noose Tightens.”

Series: “God Speaks”

Text: Amos 2:1-16

Introduction: (What?)

Israel (Northern Kingdom) still feels pretty smug as Amos declares disaster after disaster on the Gentile countries around them. However, things are about to change drastically. Here in America, we also are somewhat “at ease in Zion” as we see country after country facing issues that we never expect to see here. Of course we never expected the attack on 9/1/01 either. Amos has a message for us. It brings to mind the saying, “If God doesn’t judge America, He will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Explanation: (Why?)

1. Put Moab in its place. (vv1-3)

The inhabitants of Moab were the descendants of Lot and his elder daughter. It was a nation with a shameful beginning, and was about to face an ignominious ending. When they defeated the Edomites and killed their king, they weren’t finished with their wrath. They burned the bones of the king into lime which was then used to plaster the palace walls of the king of Moab. “The LORD says: ‘I will not relent from punishing Moab for three crimes, even four, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime.’” There is no other mention in scripture of this crime nor of what the King of Moab did with the lime. It is surmised that he used it to plaster the walls of his palace because that was often done by Assyrian kings. The crime here was extreme vengeance. Remember, God had said in Deut. 32:35 “Vengeance is belongs to Me; I will repay.”

The punishment of Moab was destruction by fire. “Therefore, I will send fire against Moab and it will consume the citadels of Kerioth (a major city of Moab and perhaps a center of pagan worship). Moab will die with a tumult, with shouting and the sound of the ram’s horn. I will cut off the judge (king)from the land and kill all its officials with him. The LORD has spoken.”

J. Vernon McGee said, “Moab will go out with a bang, and the nation will be ended.” That happened at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in 582 BC and as McGee put it, “You haven’t seen a Moabite since.” The shouting and the sound of the ram’s horn indicate warfare as the Babylonians conquered Moab.

However, something good did come from Moab before it was destroyed. Ruth was a Moabitess. Not only does the book that bears her name point to the grace of God, but she is also in the genealogy of Jesus.

2. Oops! This is getting close (vv 4-5)

Up to this point Amos has been declaring judgment against Gentile nations. The Holman, Concise Bible Commentary notes that the last four nations were all related to Israel. Edom, Ammon, and Moab were “cousins,” then Judah even closer as “brother”. “The LORD says: ‘I will not relent from punishing Judah for three crimes, even four, because they have rejected (or despised) the instruction of the LORD and have not kept His statutes. The lies (idolatry) that their ancestors followed have led them astray. Therefore I will send fire against Judah and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem.’” (vv 4-5) The nations (excluding Judah) did not have God’s Word no the prophets, and yet were guilty before God for their crimes of barbarity, slave trading, promise-breaking, persistent hatred, and atrocities against the helpless.

How much more would the judgment of God fall on Judah and later on Israel because they did have God’s Word…and rejected it. A number of years ago I heard something in a message that sent chills up my spine. The statement was, “You are responsible before God for every truth of His Word to which you have been exposed.” If you hear it or read it, you are bound by God to obey it. Should you choose to either ignore it or deliberately disobey it, God will hold you accountable. God will also hold the nation that violates His Word accountable. That is why, unless America repents, judgment is sure! We have violated His laws regarding marriage, regarding sexual purity, regarding the killing of the innocents (abortion) and regarding worshipping idols such as wealth, possessions, positions and fame.

Once again the judgment calls for destruction by fire. Both Judah, the country and Jerusalem, the city were destroyed by fire. Again God used Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to accomplish this (2 Kings 24-25).

3. You can’t be serious! (vv 6-16)

Finally we get to Israel, the Northern kingdom to whom Amos had been sent. They had remained smug while Amos was pronouncing judgment on the Gentile nations. They got a bit fidgety when Judah was included in the judgment because these were their people even though they were in a separate kingdom.

Amos was speaking in Beth-el of the Northern Kingdom in the king’s chapel. He probably got some amens as he pronounced judgments on the surrounding territories. However, beginning with v 6 everything began to change. While Judah had been judged for one specific, sin; despising the covenant, now Israel, the remaining 10 tribes would be judged for 7 sins. Remember that 7 is the Hebrew number for completion or fulfillment. The 3+4 sins or crimes Amos mentioned in each oracle adds up to 7 which means that the number of sins had been completed. God would stand for no more.

“The LORD says: ‘I will not relent from punishing Israel for three crimes, even four; because they sell a righteous person for silver and a needy person for a pair of sandals.’”

This was the first sin of Israel; slave trade.

“They trample the heads of the poor on the dust of the ground and obstruct the path of the needy.”

This was injustice perpetrated against the poor and needy. They changed the interpretation of laws so that they poor and needy could not get justice. In our day the rich are more likely to get a fair trial than the poor. This was the second sin of Israel.

“A man and his father have sexual relations with the same girl, profaning My holy name.”

Even back in this day Israel was practicing a “new morality”. Both a man and his father were being intimate with the same woman, likely a temple prostitute which means they were practicing idolatry. One commentator mentions two other possibilities. One, a man bought a slave girl and made her his concubine and gave his son sexual rights to her, and two, a man married a girl and his father seduced her and they became lovers. In either case, this was the THIRD sin for which Israel was being judged.

“They stretch out beside every altar on garments taken as collateral, and in the house of their God they drink wine obtained through fines.”

When a person’s cloak (coat) has been taken as collateral for a loan, according to scripture it is to be returned by sundown so that it may serve as a covering against the cold. This is found both in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Israel had violated this Mosaic Law as a matter of common practice. They also purchased wine with the fines they charged the poor and drank it in the house of their God. Thus the FOURTH sin of Israel is usery. It also involved idolatry, depending on the meaning of “their God”. Therefore the FIFTH sin was idolatry.

“Yet I destroyed the Amorite as Israel advanced; his height was like the cedars, and he was as sturdy as the oaks, I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. And I brought you from the land of Egypt and led you forth years in the wilderness in order to possess the land of the Amorite. I raised up some of your son as prophets and some of your young men as Nazarites. Is this not the case, Israelites? This is the LORD’s declaration. But you made the Nazarites drink wine and commanded the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy.’”

The Amorites were likely the giants that intimidated 8 of the 10 spies that Moses sent into the promised land and resulted in the 40 years of wandering in the desert. When they did go in God gave them victory over these very giants. The SIXTH sin was that the Israelites did not believe God.

Then, once they were in the Promised Land and God raised up Nazarites (those who swore to drink no wine either for life or during a specified time to fulfill a vow) but the Israelites intimidated them into breaking their vows. God also raised up prophets but the Israelites commanded them not to prophesy because they were uncomfortable when their sins were pointed out. The SEVENTH sin was causing God-called servants to be intimidated or to disrespect them, and in the case of some prophets, to kill them.

God then pronounces judgment on Israel. “Look, I am about to crush you in your place as a wagon crushes when full of grain. Escape will fail the swift, the strong one will not maintain his strength, and the warrior will not give his life. The archer will not stand his ground, the one who is swift of foot will not save himself, and the one riding a horse will not save his life. Even the most courageous of the warriors will flee naked on that day---this is the LORD’s declaration.”

When we look at what Paul wrote in Romans 1: 18-24 we find some of the same sins that Amos mentioned. And if we pay attention, those same sins are prominent today. (read Ro. 1:18-24) Once Paul had called attention to these sins, he then pronounced God’s judgment upon the unrepentant sinners. beginning in v 26 until the end of the chapter. (read)

Application: (How does this impact my life today?)

We must wake up! The problem is not with THEM, the problem is US. In the comic strip POGO years ago there appeared a frame where POGO speaks and say, “We have met the enemy…and he is US.”

Although I must say as Amos does later in this book, I am not a prophet (in the OT sense) nor the son of a prophet. However I believe that America’s judgment will come from within. America will not be overrun by Russia or Iraq or Iran or China. America will, like the Roman Empire, implode from the weight of her sins. At the rate we’re going, it will not be long. Just like pouring water into tea will eventually weaken the tea until it has no distinctive flavor, the steady influx of other cultures into America will dilute what America has been in the past. Unlike the immigrants of years past, many of those coming today are not interested in becoming Americans, they are rather interested in changing America to suit themselves.

The bending over backwards to keep from offending sinners by renaming their sin to make it more acceptable will result in a nation with no clear moral code. The embracing of alternative lifestyles (read that as those that violate the clear teaching of scripture) and even applauding their position, will lead to everyone doing whatever they want regardless of who is hurt in the process. That is anarchy. Look around you. It is here. The window of repentance is closing rapidly. America will either repent or die. And I can’t find America in prophecy, so guess what that means? While we (the church of the Living God) can’t stop the inevitable, we can perhaps slow it down by doing what God told Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14.