The Country Prophet- Amos Pt III
Notes
Transcript
Handout
The country prophet revisited
The country prophet revisited
This will be our final stop in the book of Amos. Today the focus will be on the visions of Amos. But first a reminder of where we were.
The Oracles (Amo1-2)
Against sin, judgment of eight countries including Judah and Israel
The Sermons (Amo3-6)
Concerning the sin and judgment against Israel
Today the visions (Amo7-9)
Vision of Locusts (7:1-3)
Vision of fire (7:4-6)
Vision of plumb line (7:7-9)
The interlude (7:10-17)
Vision of summer fruit (8:1-14)
Vision of the Lord (9:1-10)
Glimpse of a bright future (9:11-15)
whew, that is a lot so let’s now survey together.
The Visions
The Visions
We know the visions stretch the entire three chapters (except for the interlude) but too big a section to do as a whole so we will break them down by each vision
Vision of Locusts (7:1-3)
1 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king’s mowings.
2 And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said: “O Lord God, forgive, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, For he is small!”
3 So the Lord relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” said the Lord.
The Lords vision of locusts revealed (v.1)
Amos plea, his prayer (v.2)
God’s response, God relents (v.3)
When Amos cries out (v.2) in the name of Jacob, that is on behalf of Israel. Just so you know.
Literal or figurative in the vision, consuming locusts or a consuming army it is judgment. The judgment is halted, God relents at the prayer, the plea of the prophet. This is like what we saw when we looked at Joel (2:1-24)
I will hold off on other thoughts til we get to the end and summarize in lessons from Amos, so let’s move on.
Vision of the fire (7:4-6)
4 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, the Lord God called for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the territory.
5 Then I said: “O Lord God, cease, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, For he is small!” 6 So the Lord relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
God’s revealed judgment by fire (v.4)
The prophets plea and prayer again (v.5)
God’s response, again He relents (v.6)
Again you can see in this vision of the coming judgment that is averted because of the prayer of the prophet.
What we can see in these visions thus far is God’s love, God’s longsuffering due to the prayers of the righteous. Does that make you think of
The longsuffering of the Lord (2Pt3:15 or 2Pt3:9)?
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
(Transition) Now moving on to our next vision
The vision of the plumb line (7:7-9)
7 Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand.
8 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will spare them no longer.
9 “The high places of Isaac will be desolated And the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste. Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
What does a plumb line do?
In this vision the Lord is standing with a plumb line in His hand, in the midst of His people (Israel). It is going to bring judgment on the
high places (v.9) this is the places of idolatrous worship
In the house of Jeroboam (the leadership of Israel) (v.9; 1:1)
The plumb line is used to measure the correctness of any construction. God has measured Israel and found it defective and will not overlook it anymore. This judgment is both religious (Israel the people) and political (Jeroboam; leader)
(Transition) suddenly things change and Amos stops to defend his prophetic mission to Amaziah and Israel
The Interlude (vv10-17)
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. 11 “For thus Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’ ”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah and there eat bread and there do your prophesying! 13 “But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence.”
14 Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs. 15 “But the Lord took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.’
16 “Now hear the word of the Lord: you are saying, ‘You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.’
17 “Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘Your wife will become a harlot in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line and you yourself will die upon unclean soil. Moreover, Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’ ”
Be sure to ask yourself as you look at this.
What do you see, what do you notice, what sticks out to you?
The accusation by Amaziah proclaimed to Jeroboam (v.10)
Amaziah was the priest of Bethel the place of idol worship. speaks to Jeroboam the king of Israel (northern kingdom)
Amos response (v.11) and a demand from Amaziah (v.12-13)
Jeroboam is gonna die by the sword
Israel is going into captivity
In normal speak Amaziah tells Amos shut up and go speak in Judah where you came from.
Amos defends his prophetic ministry (vv.14-15)
God called him, placed him, not from heritage but from the field (following flock) to speaking for God to unlikely people in unlikely place
Amos then gives prophesy against Amaziah and Israel (vv.16-17)
Amos restates the accusation against him, and goes form accusation to a promise of what was going to happen.
Your wife will a harlot
Sons, daughters will die
Land will be sold off
And, well you, you will die in a foreign land
As for Israel, it is going into captivity
(Transition) now time to go back to the last two visions and a glimpse of a better, brighter future.
Vision of Summer Fruit (8:1-14)
1 This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.
3 The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” declares the Lord God. “So many dead bodies!” “They are thrown everywhere!” “Silence!” 4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances,
6 that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?” 7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
9 “And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.
13 “In that day the lovely virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst. 14 Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’ and, ‘As the Way of Beersheba lives,’ they shall fall, and never rise again.”
It can be broken down as such:
The vision and the Lord’s explanation given (vv.1-3)
summer fruit is shown and it is ripe for the picking and the time of judgment is upon Israel
Israels sin nature described (vv.4-6)
Oppression of poor and needy
disdain for observing religious practices because it impacts their bottom line dollar
Their economic practices further abuse the poor and the needy
(Transition) And because of these things then:
The judgment coming on Israel (vv.7-14)
A day of mourning
A day of famine
The judgment will impact those who trust in idolatry and will fall never to rise again.
(Transition) now our last vision
Vision of the Lord (9:1-10)
This is a vision of the Lord by the altar, lets read this together
1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said: “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away; not one of them shall escape.
2 “If they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down.
3 If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them; and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
4 And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good.”
5 The Lord God of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
6 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth— the Lord is his name.
7 “Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?” declares the Lord. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord.
9 “For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’
What do you see, what do you notice, what sticks out to you?
This is an inescapable judgment (vv.1-4)
The instrument of judgment is described (vv.5-6)
Israel compared to heathen nations (v.7)
The nature of the Lord’s judgment (vv.8-10)
Kingdom will be destroyed
The house of “Jacob” will not
There will be a remnant spared, but the sinners will not escape
(Transition) Pretty bleak, depressing or maybe you see it as invigorating “go sick-um God.” But the words to Amos do give some hope too.
A glimpse of a brighter future (vv.11-15)
11 “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, 12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the Lord who does this.
13 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.
14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.
In an effort to stay within time constraints this morning let me outline this, then will draw some lessons after and close out.
Prophesy of the new temple and the reclaimed and new people (all nations) is foretold (vv.11-12)
Prophesy of the blessings, the abundance that is to follow (vv.13-15)
while we see the blessings for them then, the true fulfillment was proclaimed by James in the words of Luke in act15:13-17
13 After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, “Brethren, listen to me. 14 “Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name.
15 “With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, 16 ‘After these things I will return, And I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, And I will rebuild its ruins, And I will restore it,
17 So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,’
So, what we have seen in these visions tonight is God’s longsuffering, God’s judgment on Israel, God’s promise not just for Israel but for all nations.
Drawing some quick lessons from Amos
God rules the nations and holds them accountable
Israel while they were the people of God forgot to worship God and God alone and suffered the consequences of it
God always protects a remnant, the remnant would be a blessing to all the nations (fulfilling the prophesy to Abraham)
In closing
You can worship but not really offer acceptable worship by going through the motions and not obeying the word
Being a part of God’s people does not guarantee exemption from judgment, suffering
Not all judgment is to penalize and hurt, some is to restore man back to God.
Do not be mal-nourished on the word, do not allow there to be a famine of the word.
11 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the Lord. 12 “People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it.
(Pray) (exit)