Sermon Tone Analysis
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When God has had Enough!
Relationships are tricky to say the least.
One minute you are on your honeymoon and the next you are living in the dog house.
We do and say things subconsciously and inadvertently that hurts the very ones we love.
There are always some little quirks that each of us have that just drive the other person crazy.
We half-heartedly attempt to correct our flaws.
We fight and we make up.
But one day there may come a time when one or the other, or both, have had enough.
And whatever it takes to destroy that relationship it happens.
Lawyers are called, papers are signed, and lives are destroyed.
The list of causes that lead a couple to this breach of covenant are too numerous to list.
It’s like the guy on TV trying to plug a crack in the dam with a piece of gum.
Soon the floodgates are wide open and it is not going to be good.
I have learned that what will destroy one relationship will make another marriage stronger and vice versa.
Generally, you can rest assured that they did not get to the breaking point overnight.
Usually, it is a step by step, day by day, month by month, and year by year pattern of abuse, compliancy, and or neglect that destroys relationships.
One of my favorite songs that just came out is by Casting Crowns called Fade Away.
It begins with the children’s song be careful little eyes, little feet, & little ears what you see, do & hear, because families don’t fade away in a day.
There is no such thing as a sudden divorce.
Just like our physical and emotional relationships, we as humans have with each other, there is a spiritual relationship each of us has with our Creator and Redeemer.
Not to say they are identical, but they are similar.
God created mankind to have an intimate relationship with him.
Then sin entered the picture and that relationship was hindered.
God has continued his relentless pursuit of each and every one of us from that day until now.
But have you ever thought what it would take to destroy your relationship with God?
Not in the sense that he will cast you forever away from his presence, though that will happen one day to those who never accept him.
But, can we destroy our relationship with God in the sense that he no longer has any use or benefit of us?
We are causing more trouble and problems instead of advancing the kingdom.
We do not like to talk about a concept like this, but, I am afraid it is a fact of life.
And when we are no longer bearing fruit, he might as well take us out, either take us out behind the woodshed or take us out altogether, because we have lost our saltiness.
One time when this actually happened is found in the Book of Amos.
Amos was an 8th century prophet called by God from Judah, the Southern Kingdom, to go and preach to Israel, the Northern Kingdom.
The 8th century was a time of political intrigue and unrest.
Most of Israel’s and Judah’s enemies were weak or occupied with other peoples invading their own lands.
God’s people was pretty much left alone.
They began to expand their borders and reached a status not seen since the time of Solomon, some 200 years past.
While on the outside everything was promising, internally things were on the downhill slop of a roller coaster.
Corruption was commonplace and the rich kept getting richer and the poor taken advantage of at every turn.
The very courts where the poor and downtrodden sought justice, perverted justice to the highest bidder.
God continued to send his prophets to appeal to his covenant people to return to him.
But God’s appeals, for the most part, fell on deaf ears.
In his first two chapters, Amos uses a literary device or mnemonic saying to impress upon his listeners the severity of the sins of seven of Israel’s neighbors.
He proclaimed “For three sins and for four, God will punish….”
and Amos would name Israel’s neighbor that was to be punished.
He described their sin (i.e. the fourth one) as the straw that broke the camel’s back, as we might say today.
He doesn’t list the other sins of each nation, but only the one that caused God to say that he had had enough from that particular nation.
Amos list these seven nations and pronounces what God has in store for them.
Since seven is the number of completion (i.e.
seven days to create the heavens and the earth), the people of Israel felt happy that their enemies were finally going to get what they deserved.
Then when the audience thinks Amos is done, he announces that there is one more nation that needs God’s correction.
An eighth nation is heading for disaster, the number eight representing over-flowing or over-kill.
Like the other nations, this eighth nation is also overflowing with sin.
After a few minutes of uncertainty and making them sweat, he unloads on the people of Israel that they are the eighth nation that God is fed up with.
I can imagine the surprising looks on their faces.
“Us, you must be kidding,” I can hear them saying.
He then proceeds to enumerate Israel’s sins that will cause God to punish them in the next few chapters.
But beginning in chapter seven the style of his message changes, Amos records five visions that God revealed to him involving Israel.
You might say that these five visions are five signs that things aren’t going well!
A unique feature about these five dreams is that, taken together, they follow a progression of what it takes for God to get to the point where he has had enough.
The first vision is that of a locusts invasion.
The crops have just started coming in.
The monarch has received his portion of the crops when the locusts come and devour everything that is left.
They do not leave even a leaf; everything is stripped bare.
This is quite common in this area of the world.
Israel was no stranger to such events.
They were well aware of the destruction such a plague could cause, they could ask the Egyptians if they needed to.
There is also a pun of sorts in both this vision and in the second one.
Amos asks God “What is going to become of Jacob as a result of his punishment, because he, Jacob, is so small?”
One must remember his history, as previously summarized, for this pun to make sense.
Even though Israel may be small compared to some of the ancient civilizations like Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, Israel, during Amos’ time, was experiencing a prosperity that they had not seen since in the last 200 years.
Most of the mega-powers were weak and/or having to deal with enemies from without while both Israel and Judah were doing very well.
Politically and economically, they were booming.
Spiritually, they were on life support.
As a result of her spiritual health, or lack thereof, Israel went within a quarter of a century or so, from being at the pinnacle of economic boom to total annihilation.
That is a vertical bungee-card jump in the timeline of history, straight down!
Only they didn’t bounce back from this plunge.
They crashed into whatever they were plunging headlong into, which just happened to be God’s rod of correction—the Assyrians.
The second vision is very similar to the first.
Israel is described again as “small.”
The major difference is that instead of locusts being employed as the instrument of destruction, this time it is fire.
What the locusts left behind, the fire would surely destroy.
God wanted his people, and us today, to get the picture.
Israel would look like parts of Europe, Hiroshima and Nagasaki looked like after World War II when the Assyrians were through with them.
However, the prayers of the prophet are able, once again, to stay the hand of God’s wrath.
The interpret-tation of these first two prophecies is self-evident.
The Near-Eastern person knew that a locust plague and a fire destroyed everything.
They got the message.
There was no need for someone to explain it to them.
However, the third and fourth visions differ from the first two in that their interpretation is not self-evident.
Therefore, God provided the proper interpretation for Amos and for us.
In the third vision, God asks Amos to identify an object he is holding.
Amos replies it is a plumb-line, which was used in construction to test the craftsmanship and sturdiness of a building’s walls.
If the wall was acceptable then it could be used as part of the building’s structure.
If not, if it was found out of sync or unstable, it would be torn down and the builder would have to start over from scratch.
God had placed a plumb-line in the midst of Israel to see how she was measuring up.
Israel was found lacking, in more ways than one.
How would we measure up today I wonder?
Another unique feature about the 3rd and 4th visions, is that God does not give Amos an opportunity to intercede on behalf of Israel.
It is too late.
He has spared them for the last time.
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