Amos 5:1-17. This final “sermon” or message (though not the end of what Amos has to share with the Israelites) is longer than the first two (the first sermon or message was Chapter 3 and the second was chapter 4) and so we are going to divide it up over three days.  Also this message covers both the actions of the Northern Kingdom at the time of Amos and looks at the bigger picture of the end of history and into eternity.  If you read through Joel you might remember “the Day of the LORD”; that subject will come up here in Amos.  That gives us more and different things to think about with this message, so it’s good to take it in steps.  It is interesting that most of us think of a prophet as someone who tells the future but most of what a prophet is concerned about is here and now (see “What Profit?”).  Prophets in the Old Testament did foretell the future with amazing accuracy (100% so far) but most of the talk about the future was to help the people in their day (and us too) think about eternity and their eternal relationship with God.

Amos starts this message out by saying he is in mourning, Israel is dying and he is sad.  Obviously at the time Amos wrote Israel wasn’t “dead”, in fact they were living in a time of peace and wealth.  But the cancer of their sin was alive and eating away at them, they looked health on the outside but they were sick on the inside and would soon be destroyed (by the Assyrians in 722 BC).  After describing the decline of Israel in verses 1-3 we again see God calling the people to come back to him.  In both verses 4 and 6 God calls them to “seek him and live”.  God is always concerned with our well-being.  But we need to come to God in his terms; in His way.  They were told not to try to come to him by going to Gilgal and Bethel, their two places of false manmade worship.  He also mentions Beersheba which was a place in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  In their ancient history Jacob (Israel) made an offering there while on his way to Egypt (Genesis 46:1) and it appears from Amos that it was still used as a place to make offerings but it was not God’s approved place and no mater how close it was to Jerusalem it would still not do.  In verse 6 when God asks them to look to him he mentions the “house of Joseph”.  Joseph was one of Jacob’s (Israel’s) twelve sons.  When the land was divided however his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh were each given a portion.  This was because of a blessing that Jacob (Israel) had given these two grandsons before he died in Egypt.  Ephraim and Manasseh were two of the ten Northern tribes.  The “House of Joseph” is a way of referring to the Northern Kingdom.  The fire is a symbol of God judging the Northern Kingdom and verse 6 tells us it is because of “Bethel”.  God is very serious about true worship.  Honoring God must be done according to his rules.  Not to long ago I had a guy who was a Mormon ask me what kind of church I went to, when I told him it was an independent Christian church he said that he was Mormon and then said, “Same god, different place.”  Wrong!  Change much and you change the god you are honoring, this even went so far as the place of honoring God.  Now, though, the place isn’t as much of a problem but who you are honoring is.  A Samaritan woman asked Jesus about honoring God and mentioned this who idea of where.  Jesus answered that now, because of who he is (God in Human form) the important thing was to honor God in fact (truth)  (John 4:7-24).  You need to be careful that you are living for the one true God. Verses 8-9 make it clear that we are dealing with the creator God of the universe; the one described in Genesis 1.  Any substitute is an invitation for disaster.

Verses 6-7 also make it clear that part of true worship of God involves real justice (treating others with care, mercy, and respect) and living in a way that God would approve of (righteousness).  This reminds me of Jesus answer to the lawyer who wanted to know which of the commandments that God originally gave to Moses was the greatest.  Instead of one Jesus answered with two; love God and love your neighbor.  You cannot love God without caring for those God cares about, and that is everyone.

Verses 10-13 continue the idea of not treating people well and the problem of selfishness.  Amos also deals with how hard it is to stand up to these selfish rich people.  In verse 10 he talks about how these selfish hate those who point out their selfish lifestyle.  In verse 13 point out how people wind up keeping silent so they will not suffer at the hand of these powerful and selfish people.  Acording to Amos it is an evil time.  What a change from wht life was like when the creator God finished his work on day 6 of the creation week and declared that it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

In verses 14-15 Amos encourages the people to turn away from their evil if they do God will return to them and be forgiving.  In verses 16-17 God says that because of their continuing evil there is suffering in their land.  God is in the land and because of their evil and his holiness there is trouble.

God is holy and if life is not lived his way there is trouble and there is going to be even more trouble in the future.  That is because God is involved and cares.  There is hope though, if we turn back to God and honor him properly he will forgive.  But we must honor him in spirit (not just in a pretend way) and in truth (we cannot make up a pretend god according to our own plans).

God I am glad that you are open and honest with us.  I am glad that you have made who you are and what you like clear.  I am sad that I have not always honored you with my life.  I am glad that you know that and have made a way for things to be right, Jesus.  Because of Jesus all my failure is forgiven.  Because I am forgiven your Spirit, the Holy Spirit, can now lie in my life alongside my spirit guiding me.  Thank you for the help.  Let me clearly know what pleases you and give me the courage to follow your Spirit.  Let me turn to you in all I do and thank you for your patience and forgiveness when I fail.

Amos 4:1-13. Chapter four is the next message to the people of the Northern Kingdom.  In the last message Amos confronted and warned the Israelites by comparing them to some of their harsh and evil neighbors.  This next sermon is not any more gentle.

Bashan is a fertile plain east of the Sea of Galilee.  This area was part of the territory given to the family or tribe of Manasseh, one of the ten tribes in the Northern Kingdom.  It would have been an area very suitable for grazing cattle.  Cookie and I have a running joke when ever we drive somewhere; if we are passing by cows in a field I always mention how they are always just standing around eating.  I tell her that the ranchers must come out and move them every once in a while because they never walk.  Over the years she has tried to point out examples of cows walking but I conveniently seem to be looking the other way.  At any time in any language I think it’s not much of a compliment to call someone a cow.  Cows seem to be kind of fat and laid back.  Amos is evidently directing this particular comment at rich women of the Northern Kingdom and he clearly is not complimenting them.  Sure enough they are all about their own easy life; they oppress the poor, crush the need (like cows trampling down the field as they stampeed maybe(can’t admit they walk)), and they nag their husbands for more (the verb in this last part is in a form called an imperative, that means they are being insistent or nagging).  God has noticed this selfishness and the result is that these women will suffer the fate of most cows or cattle, they will be carried away with meat hooks.  A few might escape but they will no longer be standing around grazing in a nice pasture.  Scholars don’t really know of a place called Harmon.  The Hebrew language has “root” words that have suffixes.  This word seems to be related to a root that means “piled up”.  The actual word is used only here in the Bible.  In many other cases the root is translated as mountain or hill.  Isaiah uses a form of the root in Isaiah 25:10 when he declares that a certain “mountain” will be treated like a pile of manure.  Some scholars think that Amos might be saying something similar; that these selfish women will trade their lush pasture for a muddy manure filled field all trampled down like the people they had walked on (Oh! I mean stampeded on, no walking).

It is interesting that about 40 years later the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom and ended it’s existence.  They led many of the leading people away and brought foreigners in to live among and intermarry with the Israelites.  The Assyrians wanted to destroy any identity and tribal loyalty.  These intermarried people came to be known as Samaritans.  In 2 Chronicles 33:11 we find a story of a later king of the Southern Kingdom being captured by the Assyrian army.  In that verse we are told that he was bound with chains and led away with hooks.  The Assyrians would put hooks into the lips of their captives and lead them around that way.  So it is quite possible that some of the leading women in the time of Amos were literally led away with hooks at the time of the Assyrian captivity about 40 years later.  Just because Amos is using the women as an example here it does not mean tht men are off the hook.  In verse 2 the first “you” is in a masculine form meaning that the prediction does not just apply to women.

Verses 4-5 give us more information about just how bad these selfish people were.  These verses paint a picture of people who are very religious; every morning they make sacrifices and every three days they give 10% of their money.  But where are they doing this?  In Gilgal and Bethel, their “alternate” worship centers.  In verse 4 God calls this offensive.  Don’t get confused by verse 5 either when it looks like God is telling them to do even more; the statement is sort of sarcastic like, “Sure just keep on spitting in my face!”  We see from verse 5 that they love their religion but that doesn’t change that face that they are truly worshipping false gods and falsely trying to honor the true God.  We need to honor God where and how he tells us to other wise we are only trying to impress ourselves and others.

Verses 6-11 we see God dealing with the rebellion and disobedience (sins) of the Israelites.  We see hunger,  drought,  too much rain or rain at the wrong time (causing mildew on their crops), wind that dried their crops up, a caterpillar invasion (different from the mentioned earlier), plagues, war, and some other sort of destruction like “Sodom and Gomorrah” (Genesis 19).  In verses 6, 8, 9, 10, 11) we see a phrase repeated that tells us two things.  First, although Amos started off this book by calling it “the words of Amos” we see that it is really ll from God.  In all four of these verse it is Yahweh ( the LORD) who is talking.  Second we see that God is disappointed that the people have not turned back to him.  God will sometimes bring trouble into our lives to get our attention, to help us realize that rejecting His ways can hurt us now and will hurt us in eternity if we do not turn back to Him.  Of course turning back doesn’t take away our guilt for past disobedience and the consequence for that is separation from God (that is what the word “death” means).  Paul tells us in Romans 3:23 that we all sin and in Romans 6:23 that by sinning we earn “death” or separation from God, forever.  Thankfully the same love and desire for a relationship with those early Israelites (and us) that made God so disappointed at their failure to turn their lives back to Him (and our failure too), also motivate God to do something about it all beyond the “time outs” and “spankings” he gave them (and us).  The same verse in which Paul tells us that by “sinning” we have earned eternal separation from God (death) he tells us of God’s loving solution; God will freely give us eternal life (a restored relationship with him forever) through Jesus.  Jesus took our punishment on that cross.  Jesus’ follower John tells us in 1 John 2:2 that Jesus death was enough for every man and woman who ever lived or ever will but he also told us in John 1:12 that it will only apply to those people who take the gift by believing in and trusting in Jesus as the only way to have a fixed relationship with God.  Verses 12 encourages the people to respond once more by telling them to prepare to meet God.  The way verse 13  describes God not only indicates that we are dealing with the “real deal” but I think echoes back to the beginning of this message when Amos describes God as “holy”.  Holy has the idea of purity and a pure and holy God must deal with our evil but he also loving reaches out to us (notice in v. 13 where he “declares his thoughts to us”).  The question now is, “How will you respond?”  Will all of the troubles that living in a fallen and sinful world remind you of the holiness and love of God and turn you back to him or will you continue to ignore the truth and be led to eternal destruction by our selfish desire for pleasure now?

God thank you for being loving and patient.  Thank you for being clear.  Thank you for wanting us back even though we have been unfaithful.  Help me respond each day to your love for me by honoring you in your way and by treating others with love and respect.  You are the creator God and your way is the only real and good way.