Through the Bible - Amos

Lord, we do thank You for the blessing that it is to be able to study Your Word. We pray that we would be those who rightly divide Your Word of truth, that we would not be ashamed. As we take time tonight to look into this great book, I pray that You would speak to us and open our hearts and minds to understand what it is that You are saying to us in these last days. For, Lord, we know that You are speaking. You always speak. I pray that You would help us to have our ears open to what Your Spirit is saying. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

As we continue our journey through the entire Bible, a book a week, we are in the book of Amos tonight. Amos is another one of the minor prophets. How many of you read through the book of Amos this week? Oh, wow, look at that! Praise the Lord. We're increasing in the number of people who are reading through it.

When you meet Amos, you will not be ashamed. The prophet Amos lived during a time when his countrymen were pursuing excessive luxury and were given to self-indulgence. I'm sure that we can't identify with that at all in our nation. However, as you look at the people to whom God sent him, you see that this was truly how they were living at that point in their history.

In the very first verse of chapter 1, we read that these are the words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa. We don't know very much about him except for the fact that he was from this city called Tekoa, which was not very far from Jerusalem—just about 12 miles south of Jerusalem. This means he was from the southern tribe of Judah and Benjamin, in the southern part of the nation. We also read that it was during the days of Uzziah, the king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel.

Two years before the earthquake, we find ourselves in a specific time period and setting. This was after the nation of Israel had split in two. There was a northern kingdom called Ephraim, which was also identified by its capital city, Samaria. The southern kingdom was called Judah, with its capital city being Jerusalem. Amos was from the southern kingdom, but he was sent to the northern kingdom.

An interesting aspect of Amos is that he was not part of the school of the prophets. In Amos chapter 7, verse 14, we read that God called this man from his work; he was a shepherd and a farmer. God spoke to him and said, "I want you to go and speak to the northern kingdoms. I want you to go and speak to the king in the north because judgment is going to come upon these people."

At this point in time, the people of the nation of Ephraim in the northern part of Israel appeared to be a very successful nation. They had everything going for them financially. They were known for their wine and their vineyards, and they had strong cities. If you were to look at just the exterior of the northern ten tribes, you would think that God's blessing was upon them. Yet, God spoke to them and said, "I'm going to judge you. I'm going to pour out judgment upon you because of your wickedness."

Although blessings seemed to be upon them due to their external prosperity, internally they were a people given to idolatry, immorality, and slothfulness. They oppressed the needy and were a wicked and perverted people. As a result, God instructed Amos to go and speak to them. However, the people, living in affluence and surrounded by their possessions, dismissed Amos. They thought he was crazy, believing that everything was fine. The stock market was high, and life was cruising along smoothly.

The people looked at Amos and said, "You're nuts! Who do you think you are?" In fact, they told him to go speak to the people down in the south, to Judah, claiming they were the ones who were bent and crooked. This situation reflects a common human tendency: we often fail to see our own sin. It is so easy for us to point out the sins of others while struggling to recognize our own fallen state before God.

And these people that God sent Amos to wouldn't listen to what he had to say. Yet, about thirty years after he prophesied to them, their entire nation would be completely destroyed by the Assyrian army. Today, we still call the northern ten tribes the lost tribes of Israel because they were utterly destroyed when the Assyrian army came through and devastated their cities. Amos was sent to speak to these people. He was a contemporary of Isaiah. When we read the book of Isaiah, chapter 1, it says that Isaiah was the son of Amos and spoke during the time of four different kings. The first king mentioned was King Uzziah, but it is believed that Amos came before Isaiah.

We also saw recently, when we went through the book of Hosea a couple of weeks ago, that he was also a contemporary of Isaiah. Amos's name means a burden or a burden bearer. He was one who brought this great burden to the people, but they wouldn't listen to him. The reason he brings this burden to them is found in 1 Peter, chapter 4, a verse that many of you have probably read and maybe memorized. 1 Peter 4:17 says, "For the time has come that judgment must begin at the household of God." It is time that judgment must begin at the house of God. We see this very clearly presented as we start Amos, chapter 1.

Amos chapter 1 begins with eight judgments as God speaks judgments through the prophet upon the nations. Remember, this man Amos leaves his home in the southern part of the nation and goes up to the north. He is just an average Joe, a fig picker from Tekoa. He goes up to the north and begins to prophesy to them. Notice how he starts this. When he brings the word to the people in verse 3 of chapter 1, it says, "Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Damascus and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof." God says, "Because of your continual sin, because you just sin one after another after another." For three transgressions and for four, it's as if God is writing down their sin, taking a logbook out and saying, "Yes, there's another one, there's another one, there's another one." God says, "Because you have sinned, Damascus, I am not going to withhold my punishment."

In verse 4, God says, "But I will send fire upon you." Damascus was the capital city of Syria, and Syria had joined in an alliance with the nation of Ephraim at this point in time.

So this was an ally of the northern ten tribes. God says, "I am going to judge you because of your sin." In verse 6, we read, "Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions and for four, Gaza will receive punishment. I will not turn away punishment upon you." He goes on to say, "But I am going to bring fire upon you" as well in verse 7.

God first speaks to a kingdom that's north of Ephraim, and then he speaks to a kingdom that's southwest of Ephraim. Going on down to verse 9 of chapter 1, we read, "Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Tyre and for four, I will not turn away punishment thereof." God says, "Not only am I going to judge those that are to the north of you, not only am I going to judge those that are southwest of you, I'm going to judge those that are directly west of you, in Tyre and Sidon." He continues, "I'm going to bring fire upon them as well" in verse 10.

In verse 11, we read, "Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Edom and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof." Verse 12 says, "But I will send fire upon them, upon their capital cities." God states, "Not only am I going to judge the people in Damascus to the north, and those in Gaza, the Philistines down to the south, and also Tyre to the west, southeast of where the northern ten tribes are."

Then God speaks a judgment upon Ammon. In chapter 1, verse 13, we read, "Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of the children of Ammon and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof." But in verse 14, He says, "I will kindle a fire against their capital cities." Now God speaks of those that lived east of the nation of Ephraim.

The next one, in chapter 2, verse 1, states, "Thus saith the Lord the sixth time, for three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof." Verse 2 says, "But I will send fire upon Moab." Now, those that are directly east and a little bit to the north of Ephraim, God says, "I'm going to judge them."

For God's people, the northern ten tribes, when they would hear this, what do you think might begin to build up within them? All of their enemies, God says, "I'm going to judge your enemies." What do you think they were thinking? "Right on. Sounds good to us. Judge our enemies, Lord. Pour out fire upon all those enemies that oppress us. Get rid of the Syrians. Get rid of the Philistines. Get rid of those in Tyre and Sidon, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites. Just pour out your judgment upon them."

Well, notice what God goes on to say in Amos chapter 2, verse 4: "Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of who? Judah."

Uh-oh, it's getting closer to home. For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof. But I will send fire, verse 5, upon Judah, and it shall devour the places of Jerusalem. Now it's getting a little bit closer to home.

Then, in the next verse of chapter 2, verse 6, thus saith the Lord: for three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof. God begins to bring a list of why He is going to judge them. What is it that He is going to do to them and why? Notice what we read as we go on. I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes. They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the meek. A man and his father will go unto the same maid to profane My holy name. They lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge. By every altar, they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.

God says, I am going to pour out judgment upon them because of their wickedness. He surrounds them first with God's judgment pouring out on all the nations, all their enemies round about. Then He brings it a little bit closer to home and says, "Listen, your sister down to the south, Judah, I'm going to judge them, but I'm also going to judge you." Here’s the reason that I’m going to judge you. God always gives a reason for judgment. He doesn't just come in here, and you know, God’s not a hot-headed teenager just ready to beat somebody up. That’s not the way that God is, even though sometimes we perceive that He is.

God always clearly states His case. Here, He clearly states His case before His people, the nation of Israel. In verse 9, God tells how He destroyed and dispossessed their enemies so that they could be in this land. Notice what He says: "I gave your children to be consecrated unto Me, and you've defiled them." Not only have I given your children to be consecrated unto Me,

But I have given you men who would speak My word to you, and you said to the prophets, "Shut up," which is basically what they said. "We don't want to hear it. We don't want to hear what you have to say." That's exactly what we'll see when we get to Amos chapter 7. There is a little historic interlude in the middle of Amos where King Amaziah says, "We don't want to listen to you, Amos. Just go away. Keep your mouth shut."

God says, "I gave you your children to be consecrated unto Me, and I gave that they would speak My word unto you, but you have defiled them, and you have told them to be quiet. Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves." God says, "You have become a burden to Me, to His people." That's a heavy statement from God: "You've become a burden to Me."

We read in verse 14 that God says, "I am going to bring total and complete destruction, and you're not going to be able to get away from it. You're not going to be able to flee. He that is courageous among you, the mighty, shall flee away naked in that day," saith the Lord.

Remember, we looked last week, when we were going through the book of Joel, that "in that day," or the day of the Lord, is a time when God intervenes in human history, when God reaches down and mixes things up, as He is going to do in these last days. God says, "In this day, this day of judgment, when I come and bring judgment upon you, you're not going to be able to get away from it."

Hear this, chapter 3, verse 1: "Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, and against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 'You only have I known of all the families of the earth.'" God says, "I called you to be My people. You're the only nation that I have blessed in this way."

Paul asks that very important question in the book of Romans, as he talks about all men standing guiltless before God. He says, "Well, what's the purpose of being a Jew then? Is there any joy in being a Jew?" He answers, "Of course, unto them were committed the oracles of God." God gave them His word. God called them to be His people. No other nation has God blessed as He blessed the children of Israel in the Old Testament.

Therefore, God says, "Because of this, I'm going to punish you for all of your iniquities."

God chastens His children, as we saw in Hebrews chapter 12. We looked at that recently while going through one of the books, noting that the Lord chastens those whom He loves. He disciplines His children, and here He called these people to be His children. They rebelled against Him, and yet God says, "I'm going to have to judge you, and I will punish you for your iniquities."

He asks them a very important question in chapter 3, verse 3: "Can two walk together except they be agreed? Except they be in communion?" We have to have this kind of communion, this agreement, walking together. The idea here is the same concept that Jesus speaks of in Matthew chapter 11 when He says, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you." You can't have two oxen yoked together if they're going in different directions; it doesn't work.

So God asks, "Can two walk together unless they be agreed and yoked together in communion?" Then He brings forth great statements in verse 4 of chapter 3, presenting a kind of point-counterpoint. He asks, "Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he's taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth if there's no bait set for him? Shall one take up a snare from the earth and not take anything in it? Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord have not done it?"

Then check this out; this is the crux of everything. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing except He reveals His secret unto His servants, the prophets." A lion doesn't roar for nothing; it roars when it gets its prey. The young lion cries out from the den when it has something to eat. A bird doesn't just fall into the net and get captured in the snare without there being bait present. In the same way, God doesn't do anything without first revealing His secret to His servants, the prophets.

That's a pretty awesome truth, especially when you consider that many in our day know the Lord and are following Him, sensing that something is coming. God reveals His secret to His servants, the prophets. Here was a man who was yielded to God, submitted to God. He wasn't part of the school of the prophets; they actually had schools of the prophets in those days. These men were the sons of the prophets, and they would learn how to hear from the Lord.

But this man was uneducated; he was just a farmer, a shepherd. There he was out in his field when God came and spoke to him, saying, "I have a word that I want you to bring to those in the north, in Israel, in the northern ten tribes, because I'm going to bring judgment upon them."

But always before God brings judgment, He sends a prophet to call the people to repentance. If they repent, God will relent. As we've seen in these other prophetic books, when the people of God yield, when they repent and turn to God, then God relents from bringing His wrath and punishment upon them. However, these people were not going to relent.

The Lord will do nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants, the prophets. Notice this: I love this verse, verse 8. "The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord has spoken. Who can but prophesy?" He calls to the people here in chapter 3, verse 9, and tells Amos to publish in the places at Ashdod and in the land of Egypt. He says, "Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof."

For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. God gives the reason for why judgment was going to come upon them. First, He calls a witness in verse 9, the same thing that God did through Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 1. He calls heaven and earth to witness what is going on as the people have departed from the Lord.

In verse 10 of chapter 3, He gives the reason or the cause for why judgment was going to come upon the people: "For they know not to do right, saith the Lord." They are storing up violence and robbery in their palaces, meaning everything they are taking into their palace is by robbery and violence.

In verses 11 and 12, God speaks of the completeness of the judgment that is going to come. "Therefore, thus saith the Lord, an adversary shall be even round about the land, and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled." Thus says the Lord, "As a shepherd takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria, in the corner of a bed, and Damascus in a couch."

God says to these people that so complete will be His judgment upon them that there will be very little that remains. He uses a shepherd's view here. Remember, Amos was a shepherd. He says it is just like if a lion comes and steals away a lamb, and the shepherd tries to get the lamb out of the mouth, but all he ends up with is a couple of legs and an ear. It is very picturesque, but remember, this is a shepherd who is writing these things. He understood this sort of language.

And he says that's the kind of devastation that the Lord is going to bring upon the northern ten tribes. He goes on in verse 13 through 15 and describes the one who is coming, the coming judge.

"Hear ye and testify in the house of Jacob," saith the Lord God, the God of hosts, "that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground. I will smite the winter houses and the summer houses, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end," saith the Lord.

So who is the one who is going to come and judge them? Notice God Himself says, "I will, I shall." It is very interesting what He says there in verse 14: "I will also visit the altars of what? Bethel."

Now remember, Bethel in ancient times, prior to this, was a place where Israel would come to worship God in spirit and in truth. Bethel was the very first place that Abraham, the father of faith, came to and built an altar to God. Bethel means the house of God.

It was immediately after the nation of Israel split in two, after their civil war, that Jeroboam the king set up a golden calf in Bethel and another golden calf in the city of Dan. The people came to worship false gods in the very same place that they once had worshipped God.

And so God says, "I am going to come, and I will visit the altars of Bethel," because once upon a time they were altars built to God, but now, at this time, they were altars built to all kinds of different gods. God says, "I will come and completely judge you."

He speaks in chapter 4 about why they deserved this judgment. He mentions a couple of different things. We are not going to read through the whole chapter, but the two primary things he brings up are the ease of the women of that day and the wickedness in their worship. The people lived in ease, given to laziness and slothfulness, and they were evil in the way they worshipped God. They came and brought all their sacrifices to these false gods in their temples.

In chapter 4, verse 6, he talks about what kind of judgment is going to come upon them. He mentions five things that I think are very interesting. Chapter 4, starting in verse 6, describes the first way that God brings judgment upon these people.

Notice what He says: "I have given you cleanness of teeth." What does that mean? It means they haven't been eating anything. The first thing that God brings to them to cause them to turn to Him was famine.

The next thing that He speaks of is in Amos chapter 4, verse 7: "I also have withheld rain from you." So, the next thing that God brings upon the people is drought. In verses 7 and 8, at the end of verse 8, He says, "Yet have you not returned unto Me?" What was the purpose of God bringing first the famine to the people? It was to cause them to turn to Him. But they didn't turn to Him. So, the next thing that He brought unto them was drought. Again, they didn't turn to Him.

In verse 9, He says, "I have smitten you with the blasting of mildew in your gardens." He continues, "I have smitten you with the blasting of mildew when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased. And the palmer worm devoured them, yet you have not returned to Me." The next thing that God brings upon them is an economic recession. The first was a famine, the second was a drought, and the third was a recession. But they would not heed. They would not listen.

The fourth thing is mentioned in verse 10: "I have sent among you pestilence." Yet, at the end of the verse, He states, "You have not returned unto Me." So, the next thing that God brings to the people is a plague.

Then, the last thing—always the last thing that God brings—is mentioned in verse 11: "I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. And you are as a firebrand plucked out of the burning. Yet you have not returned unto Me, saith the Lord."

God brings famine, and the purpose of famine is to cause His people to turn to Him. But they don't listen. Secondly, He brings drought to them, but they didn't listen to that either. The third thing is recession, the fourth is plague, and the last thing is destruction. God comes with destruction, and yet, even at that, the people would not turn to Him.

So we read in verse 12: "Therefore, thus will I do unto the house of Israel, because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." That was pretty heavy, wasn't it? God says, "You have not listened to Me and the things that I've brought to you. I brought you famine, drought, recession, plague, and destruction, and yet you have not turned to Me. So prepare to meet your God. Prepare to meet your Maker."

That's heavy. For lo, He that forms the mountains and creates the wind and declares unto man what is His thought, that makes the morning darkness and treads upon the high places of the earth—the Lord, the God of hosts, is His name. He says, "Prepare to meet your God."

Because you've not heeded the things that He sent to you to correct you, all of these things were for correction. As we look at our own nation and consider the things that have been taking place in these days, we can think back to 1999 and what took place at Columbine, along with all the different school shootings we've seen in the last 15 years or so. We remember 9/11 and the destruction of the Twin Towers, as well as what we saw at the Pentagon. Then we consider the great hurricanes, tornadoes, and all the devastating fires that have come through our nation.

There was a point in our history when we would see these events and recognize God speaking to us. We would call out to Him and say, "Lord, we come before You and we ask You just to pour out a blessing upon us and not a curse." Now, I'm not saying that it is God who directly flies planes into buildings. No, the Lord removes His protection, and the enemy has his way. Remember what you read in the book of Job. The enemy, or Satan, came before God, and God gave him permission. He removed His protection from Job, although He did say, "You're not allowed to take his life."

So, who was it that brought the whirlwind and killed Job's children? Who was it that killed all of his servants and stole all of his goods? It was the enemy, but God allowed it by removing His protection. When we look at the nation of Israel, specifically the northern ten tribes, God tells Amos to go speak to them because He is removing His protection from them. His hand is not short that He cannot reach out to you, and His ear is not blocked up so that He cannot hear you. But your sin has separated you from God.

These people had sinned against the Lord, and as a result, the Lord had turned His face from them. The enemy comes in like a flood, and the Lord allows the enemy to come in. Notice the progression: things get worse and worse until God says, "Well, it's time to meet your maker." But the people would not listen. The judgment is described in chapter 4, verses 12 and 13.

In chapters 5 and 6, God comes and speaks to His people once again in a marvelous way. Here is the God of grace. Some people, when they read the Old Testament, think there is no grace and mercy there. However, they are not reading very carefully. The God of grace is always there, extending His hand to His people and calling out to them. In chapter 5, verse 1, it says, "Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. The virgin Israel is fallen."

She shall no more rise. She is forsaken upon the land, and there is none to raise her up. For thus saith the Lord God, the city that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred, and that which went forth by a hundred shall leave ten to the house of Israel. Just as He spoke to Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6, verse 13, there was a very small remnant. A tenth part was still alive after this judgment would come.

Here in verse 4, the Lord says unto the house of Israel, "Seek for me, and you shall live." How can we right the wrongs of this nation, Israel, or of our own nation here in America? God says to His people, "Seek me, and you shall live." But seek not Bethel, nor unto Gilgal. Remember, they had changed Bethel and Gilgal into places of worship for false gods. And pass not unto Beersheba, for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.

Seek the Lord, and you shall live, lest He break out like a fire in the house of Joseph and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. So God says, if you want to right the wrongs, if you want to see things corrected in your nation, if you want judgment to be stayed, then seek the Lord, and you shall live.

Now, the real question is, did these people heed the word? Well, history tells us that they didn't. They didn't heed the word of the Lord. Just about 30 years after Amos would come and speak these things, these people were completely consumed and taken into captivity. Their judgment was not something that God decided on a whim. After hundreds of years of calling to His people, sending them famine, drought, recession, and plague, and allowing His protection to be removed, the enemy would come in like a flood. Yet they would not heed; they would not listen to what the Lord was saying to them.

Ultimately, the Lord said, "I'm going to completely remove my hand from you, and the king of Assyria is going to come through and completely destroy you." The coming destruction is seen in chapter 5, verses 1 through 3, but there is also a call to return in chapter 5, verses 4 through 9. However, the people, of course, wouldn't listen, as the Lord goes on to say in verse 6 of chapter 5, "Seek ye the Lord, and you shall live, lest He break out like a fire against the house of Joseph and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel."

To wormwood and leave righteousness in the earth, seek Him who makes the stars and Orion, who turns the shadow of death into the morning and makes the day dark with night. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth. The Lord is His name, who strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. They hate Him who rebukes in the gate, and they abhor Him who speaks uprightly.

For as much, therefore, as your treading is upon the poor and you take from him burdens of wheat, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink the wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins. They afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor from their right at the gates.

Here, God declares why He is going to bring judgment upon them, and this is a very convicting offense. He lists all the things they have done, and as a result of their wickedness, He says, "Listen, you keep trying to build your bigger houses, but you're not going to live in them. You keep planting nicer vineyards, but you're not going to reap the fruit of them." As we saw in a previous portion of Amos, in verse 15 of chapter 3, He says to the people, "I will smite the winter house and the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish."

These people were living so large that they had multiple houses: their winter house, their summer house, and they were building bigger and nicer houses with ivory furniture and couches. The Lord says, "No, you're not even going to live in these things because you've departed from Me."

As this passage continues in chapter 5, God begins to declare a woe to them. The first one is given in chapter 5, verse 18: "Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light." These people were living in sin and complete wickedness. God is speaking to them through His prophet, and they are saying, "Oh, we can't wait for the day of the Lord." Amos responds, "You don't know what you're talking about. The day of the Lord is like darkness and not light."

He then gives an example, trying to explain in earthly terms what the day of the Lord is like. In verse 19, he says, "As if a man did flee from a lion and a bear killed him, or he went into his house to find rest and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him." There is no fleeing from, and there is no refuge in the day of the Lord. We read in the book of Revelation that men are going to hide in caves and they will call out, "What?"

Death would come to them, and death is going to flee. They want rocks to fall on them because they want to depart from and get away from the day of the Lord. But there's no refuge. You finally got away from the lion, but the bear comes and kills you. You finally get rest in your house, and a serpent comes and bites you.

He says to these pious hypocrites, "Don't look forward to the day of the Lord." The day of the Lord for them is going to be judgment. Then he speaks another woe to them in Amos chapter 6, verse 1: "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations to whom the house of Israel came."

The next thing he speaks to, first in chapter 5, verse 18, is woe, which means certain destruction. He says, "Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord." Those are the pious hypocrites. But then in chapter 6, verse 1, he says, "Woe to those who are slothful sinners." Those who just stayed in their ease and continued living in all their pomp and circumstance that they sought for.

God says to them, "Look around at the other nations that I've judged." He says, "Pass by Kalna in verse 2 and see, and from thence go to Hamath the great, and then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms on the border, greater than your border?"

He says to them, "Go look around at the other nations that I've judged. Go see the ruins of those cities. Do you think that you're greater than them because you're called my people? Just because I've called you to be my people, and yet you departed from me. You've rebelled against me, and so I'm going to judge you. You think that you're something special and look forward to the day of the Lord because you think everybody else is going to be judged."

That was the mindset of the Jews at that point in time. The Gentiles were just fuel for the fires of hell, and they figured they were just fine. They would eat, drink, and be merry. Everything was good; tomorrow they would die. In fact, in the book of Isaiah, we read that in Isaiah's day, they believed they had made a deal with death, thinking everything was going to be just fine.

God says to them, "No, it's not going to be fine. I'm going to pour out judgment upon you in the same way that I poured out judgment upon Calna, Hamath, and Gath." Why was He going to do that? Verse 3 says, "You put far away the evil day and caused the seed of violence to come near." They would say to themselves, "It's not going to happen to us," and yet they continued in their sin. Instead of recognizing what God was speaking to them through the famine, the drought, the recession, the pestilence, and the destruction, they ignored the signs around them.

At the nations that God had judged, they would just say, "No, judgment's never going to come near to us." They put far the evil day, and yet they continued in their violence. They continued to lie upon their beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches.

In verse 4, it says they ate lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall. They chanted to the sound of the vial and invented instruments of music like David. They drank wine in bowls and anointed themselves with chief ointments, but they were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. They were not grieved by the sin. They were not grieved by the fact that the poor in their nation were afflicted.

As a result of this, God says, "Now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretch themselves shall be removed." He declared that the first to go into captivity would be these people who lived at ease, those to whom He declares woe. The Lord God has sworn by Himself, saith the Lord God of hosts, "I abhor the excellency of Jacob; I hate his palaces. Therefore, I will deliver up the city with all that is therein."

It shall come to pass that if there remain ten men in one house, they shall die, just as He had spoken of the completeness of the wrath of God on the day of the Lord. Don't look forward to the day of the Lord. Why? Because it's like a man who fled from a lion, but a bear met him. He finally found refuge in his house, and a snake bit him. Here, these ten men think, "Okay, we're alright; we've made it into this household," and God says, "No, they too are going to die."

Now, in chapter 7, we begin the last section of the book of Amos, where Amos gives five different visions that the Lord brought to him. The first one is found in Amos chapter 7, verse 1, and there are some very important things I want you to notice here in these first two visions.

God gives Amos a vision; he sees what's coming. God says, "I'm going to bring a great famine upon them, and the locusts are going to come through and consume everything." Amos cries out to the Lord and says, "It's too great, Lord; this is too much." What does the Lord do? The Lord relented from this; it shall not be.

Sayeth the Lord. Do you see what happened there? He interceded on behalf of a wicked people, and all he said was, "Lord, let it not be." What did God say? "Okay."

The next verse, verse 4, states, "Thus saith the Lord God," or "Thus the Lord had shown unto me." Behold, the Lord called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep and consumed a part. Then I said, "O Lord, cease! I beseech thee, by whom shall Jacob arise? For he is small." The Lord relented from this and said, "Thus it shall not be," saith the Lord.

There is this one man among thousands. All these thousands of people were living in rebellion towards God, and God showed him and revealed to him, "I’m going to bring the locusts to completely consume everything, and this famine is going to be so great that there’s no food at all." He said, "That’s too great, Lord! That’s too much! They will not be able to arise." The Lord said, "Alright." Then he cried out to the Lord and said, "Lord, be it not so." The Lord responded, "Okay."

God would speak through the prophet Isaiah and say, "I sought for a man that would stand in the gap, that would intercede, but I found none." Fortunately for these people, He found one who would intercede. Yet those people would never know it; they would never realize they were about to be consumed, about to be completely taken out. Yet one stood in the gap.

In chapter 7, verses 7 through 9, he gives this vision of the plumb line. God holds up a plumb line to show the crookedness of His people. As I mentioned earlier, in chapter 7, verses 10 through 17, there is a historical interlude as God speaks, giving us a clue into what was going on during that day.

Let’s look at this for a moment. Then Amaziah, chapter 7, verse 10, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear his words. For thus Amos said, 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword and shall surely be led away captive out of his own land.'"

Amaziah also said unto Amos, "O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there. But prophesy not any more in Bethel, for it is the king's chapel and it is the king's court."

Notice what’s happening at this time. Amos is there prophesying to the people who are bowing down.

To these false gods, one of the priests overseeing this wicked worship in Bethel went to King Amaziah and said, "Listen, this guy keeps coming out here. He's prophesying about how we're going to go into captivity." King Amaziah responded, "Amos, go to Judah. Go talk to your own people down there in Tekoa. Get out of here! We don't want you around here. Don't prophesy to us, for this is the king's chapel."

Then, notice Amos' words in verse 14. I already read this earlier. Amos answered and said to Amaziah, "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son. I was a herdsman, and I gathered sycamore fruit. The Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go prophesy unto the people of Israel.'" He said to the king, "I'm going to do what the Lord has told me to do. I'm going to continue to speak these words even though you don't want to listen."

Now, therefore, he speaks to the king: "Hear the word of the Lord. You say, 'Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac.' Therefore, thus saith the Lord: 'Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword. Thy land shall be divided by line, and you shall die in a polluted land. Israel shall surely go into captivity forth out of his land.'"

Amos says to this king, "Because you won't listen to the words that I'm speaking, your wife is going to be ravished by the coming armies, your children are going to be killed, your nation is going to be destroyed, and your people are going to go into captivity."

If King Amaziah had received the prophetic word, if he had heeded what God was speaking to him, then this prophecy in verse 17 would not have come to pass. But he wouldn't listen. He continued on his way and said, "I don't want to listen to you. I don't want to hear what you have to say. Go speak to somebody else."

In considering this, I think it's important to note that every single day, you and I interact with people who close their ears and harden their hearts as we preach the word to them. It is a very serious matter when a person hardens their heart. Proverbs says that the person who stiffens their neck often will be broken in an instant and without repair.

Here was King Amaziah, who hardened his heart. He said, "I don't want to hear what this guy has to say," and rejected his words. But the word kept coming, and as a result of rejecting those words, the prophecy of verse 17 would come to pass. There are people who face similar consequences when they refuse to listen.

We speak to people every single day who harden their hearts, and we need to be very clear in telling them, just as Amos said, what their rejection of God means. Sometimes we fail to share this with people. We often want to tell them about the love of God, the grace of God, and the mercy of God, but we also need to make it very clear to them that if they reject God's gracious gift, there are consequences to their decisions.

Aren't there? Sometimes I think that when people recognize what the consequences are, they might turn to the Lord. It is important to give proper place to both the call and the caution. We need to caution people about what is coming. In chapter 8, verse 1, we see Amos's fourth vision. The Lord speaks to him through a basket of fruit. Hebrews chapter 1 says that God, in various ways and in past times, spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

Think about the many different ways that God spoke in the Old Testament. He spoke to Isaiah through visions, to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai through a great thundering cloud, and to Moses through a burning bush. Now, He speaks to Amos through a bowl of fruit. God reveals to him this basket of summer fruit and asks, "Amos, what do you see?" Amos replies, "I see a basket of summer fruit." Then the Lord says to him, "The end has come upon My people Israel, and I will not again pass by them anymore."

The summer fruit was the last harvest, the final bit of harvest, and God says, "This is it. This is their last harvest, and I'm not going to pass by them any longer." The Lord speaks one more vision in chapter 9, verses 1 through 10, which is the vision of the doorpost.

As we finish up here tonight, I want to note the last verses, verses 11 through 15. Whenever God speaks of His judgment, He reminds us that God's judgment is for purification, and God always has a remnant. Sometimes we forget that even some of the great prophets of old were prone to forgetting that God had a remnant.

Remember Elijah? After he battled with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, Jezebel threatened him, saying, "After you kill these prophets, I'm going to kill you if you're still alive by tomorrow." So he runs, fearful. It always makes me laugh because here is Elijah, running from Jezebel, who has threatened to kill him, and in the midst of his running, he prays.

That he prays to God is significant. Oh Lord, kill me now! If he really wanted to die, he should have just stayed for Jezebel to kill him. But he obviously didn't want to die; he was kind of in a depressed, self-focused state. We see that when he gets down to the cave in the southernmost part of the nation.

God comes and speaks to him, passing by in the whirlwind and the fire. However, God was not in the fire, nor was He in the whirlwind or the earthquake. Instead, God spoke to him in a still, small voice. When God spoke to Elijah, he said, "I'm the only one. Nobody else follows You. I'm the only prophet, and they want to kill me."

God responded, "You're not the only one. I've reserved for Myself 7,000 prophets who do not bow the knee to Baal." He reminds Elijah that there is always a remnant. Intertwined in the prophetic judgments of God are these hopes of the remnant.

In chapter 9, verse 11, notice what God says about the great restoration He is going to bring. It will be so abundant in fruit that the plowman will overtake the reaper. Here is the picture: the harvesters are out gathering the grain, and the plowmen are right on their heels, ready to start another crop because it is so fruitful and bountiful. The plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed.

We see just an abundance of fruit coming. God says, "I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them." I believe that this prophecy is partially fulfilled in our days.

In the beginning of verse 14, God says, "I will bring back the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste places and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them. I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them," saith the Lord thy God.

Now, I want you to take careful note of something here in this prophetic passage.

That God speaks is going to come to pass. This speaks of our day, and we can be certain that it speaks of our day because God tells us in chapter 9, verse 15, that they shall no more be plucked up. After they came back into the land following their exile, they were exiled once again in A.D. 70. We have seen them come back into the land, which we are celebrating this Wednesday night—the 60th anniversary of Israel becoming a nation again. They shall never be rooted up again, which means that all of this jihadist activity and all this crazy Islamic stuff, as well as Ezekiel 38 and 39 regarding Russia and all these nations coming against Israel, will never be effective in removing Israel from that land. We can be certain that this is going to come to pass.

We are seeing the beginnings of these things come to pass in our day, but there is yet a future fulfillment when all the heathen are gathered together, and the plowman shall overtake the reaper, the treader of grapes, and the one that sows seed. It is important to remember that always within God's prophetic judgments is a promise of a remnant and a restoration. I find that awesome. Every time I read it, it blows my mind because we deserve God's complete and total judgment. We deserve to be annihilated, just as the children of Israel did in their time. Yet God says, "I will bring about a remnant; I will restore once again."

Just as we saw last week in Joel, God promises, "I will restore the years that the locusts have eaten." What an awesome, gracious, and wonderful God we serve! He does not overlook sin, and yet He is slow to anger, not willing that any should perish, as we see in Peter's letter, 1 Peter 3:9. God is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance. Sometimes He uses cataclysmic events to bring us to the point of repenting.

We see this individually in people's lives. Some of you were saved because you got very sick, or you were in a car accident, or you found yourself in some crazy situation. A trial came upon you, and it was at that time that you turned to the Lord, saved out of the gutter. God was seeking to do the very same thing with the northern ten tribes in Israel. He had given them famine, drought, recession, plague, and destruction by their enemies. All these things came by the hand of God so that they would turn, but they wouldn't heed the word that God was speaking.

Now we are living in a day when God is speaking.

He still speaks, and the question is: Are we listening to what He's saying now? God primarily speaks to us by His Word, but He is also speaking to this world through all the events that are happening in our nation and in the world, which align with His prophetic outline. When we look at these things, we should recognize that God is on the move in our day, and He is doing great things.

However, we also need to ensure that we give both the call and the caution. We must take the Word into the world and be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within us, with meekness and fear. When someone rejects it—and people reject it constantly—we should be clear in sharing with them what that rejection means, just as Amos did with King Amaziah. He told him that he would die in a land that is wasted, that his wife would be ravished and taken into another land, that his children would die there, and that his whole nation would go into captivity. These are hard words to share, but they are very important. No one will stand guiltless before God; every mouth will be stopped.

At the same time, we as God's people should never look forward to the great and terrible day of the Lord when man will be judged. This world is heading very quickly toward judgment. It is appointed for all men to die once, and then comes judgment. Therefore, may we be even more serious and bold about sharing the Gospel. Amen.

Let's stand and pray. God, I do thank You for Your Word. I pray that You would help us to take heed to what You've spoken to us in this passage. Lord, give us boldness as we go from here, especially as we meet with family members tomorrow who do not know You. I pray that You would give us an opportunity to share the truth with them. Lord, grant us boldness, just as the church prayed nearly 2,000 years ago when those in leadership and in their nation were telling them to keep their mouths shut. They cried out to You and said, "Lord, give us all boldness." So, Lord, would You give us boldness to speak Your Word and to share Your truth, even if people...

We ask it in Jesus' name. Thank you.