STUDY THEME: AMOS: PROPHET TO THE NATIONS 4-7-02 - "WARNINGS OF DISASTER." AMOS 1:1-2, 3-5, 2:4-5, 6-8, 3:13-15.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO THE BOOK OF AMOS.
Some of you may be wondering why we would spend the month of April studying an Old Testament Prophet. What could a mid-eighth century BC shepherd from the hill country of Judea have to say that is relevant in the 21st century? In Acts 15:12-21 James quoted from the Book of Amos. He perceived that Amos’ message was relevant to the N.T. times and so we may agree that it is also relevant for our day. The name Amos means "burden" or "burden bearer."
Our four-session study of the Book of Amos is designed to help us understand God’s judgment of sin, God’s call for true religion, the courage inspired by loyalty to God, and God’s promise of restoration. The focus of today’s lesson is on peoples’ inhumanity to people. It challenges us to prepare to face God’s judgment. You may ask, "Does God still judge people and nations today? I believe it was Billy Graham who once said, "If God does not judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah," Yes, God does still judge people and nations and His standards have not changed since Amos’ day.
Vs. 1 introduces the words of Amos. He was the only prophet to give his occupation before disclosing his divine commission. He was not of priestly or noble descent, but worked as a "sheepherder" and "a tender of Sycamore fruit." He was an eighth century prophet who served as a foreigner missionary. His messages pronounced God’s judgment on six foreign nations. The theme of these judgment messages was God’s judgment on the nations according to their specific sins.
The messages of Amos were given in the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah and Jeraboam II of Israel. He describes himself as a herdsman of Tekoa, a town in the hill country of Judea, about 10 miles south of Jerusalem. He did his preaching in Israel, the Northern Kingdom. God called Amos to preach in Israel. God gave him the messages and the visions and enabled him to understand them. Amos believed his messages were God’s voice through him roaring and thundering judgment. God’s message was like the roar of a lion—threatening, forceful. God’s warning of judgment was also like the thunder of an approaching dangerous storm—startling and fearsome. The roar and the thunder announce the nearness of judgment.
Amos lived in times of material prosperity. The long reigns of Uzziah in Judah and Jeroboam II in Israel had brought stability and expansion to the two kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom, to whom Amos’ message was directed, was at the zenith of its power. Because of the control Israel had over the trade routes, wealth began to accumulate in her cities. The rich enjoyed an indolent, indulgent lifestyle, while the poor became targets for legal and economic exploitation. Slavery from debt was easily accepted. Standards of morality had sunk to a low ebb.
In this, his first sermon of the five found in Ch. 1, Amos got the attention of the Israelites by condemning the sins of six surrounding nations: Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab. Other prophets also had sections on the sins of other nations, but Amos began with these. Taken as a group, these oracles show that God holds all nations accountable for certain basic moral standards. These nations were not as accountable as were Judah and Israel, with whom God had made a special covenant; however, they were condemned for basic sins against humanity.
This testifies to the biblical view that God is sovereign over His entire universe. This sovereignty extends beyond Israel and Judah to all nations. They are His by right of creation, and He has revealed Himself at least partially to all people. After the flood, God made a covenant with all nations through Noah. Part of this covenant in Gen. 9:6 was the value of each human life. Sins against humanity thus are sins against the God who created all human beings in His own image.
The Bible emphasizes individual accountability for sin, but nations, families, churches, and other groups are accountable in their own way. People do things as part of a group that they might not do on their own, but are still responsible and have their part of the guilt. Many of the war criminals after World War II pleaded not guilty because they were only following orders. God sent Israel and Judah into exile for the sins of their nations. This does not mean that there were not people of true faith in these nations. The prophets spoke of the faithful remnant, but the sins of a nation can bring divine judgment on the entire nation.
Each of these six judgments is preceded by the words "Thus saith the Lord." Amos was clearly speaking here for God. Each judgment began with the formula "for three transgressions … and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof. This means "Three transgressions have I forgiven them, but the fourth I will visit in judgment." The formula for their transgressions seems to mean that their sins were overflowing in number. Sin carries with it the seeds of its own destruction. Galatians 6:7 says, "whatever a man sows, that he will also reap."
Each of the pagan nations was condemned for sins of inhumanity. The people of Syria, of which Damascus was the capital, were guilty of atrocities against the people of Gilead. This was an area on the East side of the Jordan where some Israelites had settled. The people of Damascus showed no mercy to age or sex, but swept over the land, cutting down all and, treating them all as grain under the flail…for this, they would receive judgment without mercy. Today our world, with all is so-called enlightenment, continues to have all kinds of atrocities against innocent people: torture of political prisoners, persecution of Christians, acts of genocide, terrorism, and so forth.
For this God would break the bar of Damascus which refers to the "gate bar" that kept the huge city gate barred against enemies. Cities in that day were protected by high, strong walls and heavy gates locked with iron bars. The strongest walls were no protection if the bar of the main gate was broken. Enemies could enter and defeat the people of any such city. Then the people of Syria shall go into captivity. This prediction literally became true when the revived Assyrian Empire overran Syria and captured Damascus in 732 BC, a decade before the fall of Israel to the same enemy forces.
PLEASE TURN TO AMOS 2.
Thus far the prophetic messages have been directed against the peoples surrounding the land of Israel. History is the witness of their fulfillment. Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab are now but names. Their glory has long since disappeared. Damascus still exists, but her people have gone into captivity and the Moslem dwell in her palaces. Thus have the predictions of the herdsman-prophet been proved to be the word of Jehovah.
But not only against the heathen did he lift up his voice. To Judah and Israel he also had to proclaim the coming of long-delayed judgment, because of their unholy ways. With the judgment against the nations finished, the prophet proceeded to address Judah moving ever closer to his ultimate target of Israel.
Amos was from Judah; therefore, he was familiar with the sins of the Southern Kingdom. He did not hold back from condemning his own people. Amos used the same formula from the six other nations in introducing the specific sins of Judah. Again he said, "Thus saith the Lord." He also used the same words about transgressions. However, he mentioned more than one sin, and he mentioned sins that grew out of Judah’s covenant relationship with God. The other nations were judged because they had sinned against the law of God, which was written in the heart and conscience as recorded in Romans 2:24-25. Judah and Israel would be judged because they sinned against God’s revealed written law.
Judah, privileged above all others, had despised the law of the Lord, and refused obedience to His commandments. The lies of their false teachers had caused them to err--the prophets whom they preferred to the heaven-sent messengers of the God of their fathers. Alas, the fathers had turned away from their Rock, and the children had walked in their ways. Because of this, Jerusalem’s palaces, like those of the nations must be burned with fire, and the place where Jehovah had set His name be given up to His enemies.
Judah’s standard was God’s law revealed to them, not a common moral consciousness by which the other six nations were judged. Judah rejected that standard and disobeyed its decrees, or specific instructions.
Instead of being led in their conduct by God’s laws, the people of Judah had allowed false Gods to lead them astray from the paths taught in the law. The term false gods is literally "their lies." These lies could have come from the idol worship or they could have come from the mouths of false prophets. God charged Judah with following the same lies their ancestors followed. Through the generations, God’s people had been guilty of disobedience and apostasy. As the inevitable consequences of rejecting the Lord and disobeying Him, God pronounced the certainty of judgment on Judah. He said, "I will send fire upon Judah that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem." No man-made defense would protect Judah against God’s judgment.
Very likely the people of Israel had approved of, perhaps even took delight in, the condemnation of the pagan nations who had been their enemies or rivals. They also felt smug when Amos condemned his own nation Judah.
Amos was led by God to use this strategy to draw a crowd and to get their attention. Then when they were saying "amen" to what he was saying, Amos suddenly turned his guns on them. Amos used the same introductory words he had used in the previous seven condemnations, except this time it was directed against Israel. Vs. 6-8 mention more kinds of sins than were mentioned in the previous seven condemnations. Vs. 10 uses "you," showing that these words were for them. Amos’ words must have stunned the people who heard him declare that God would not turn back His wrath from Israel. What were their sins?
First, they sold the righteous for silver. "Righteous" here refers to innocent people who were in the right. The word sold makes many Bible students think that the sin was selling into slavery people who owed debts they could not pay. The wealthy creditors callously sold these fellow Israelites into slavery for the money they received in payment from those who bought slaves. This practice transgressed the law about human treatment of slaves in Ex. 21:2-11. Parallel to this first line are the words, "and the poor for a pair of shoes." If this is only another way of saying the same thing, the point is that the righteous poor were sold for such a trifling amount as a pair of shoes. Another way to interpret these words is to apply them to the injustices in courts. The silver then represents bribes by the rich and powerful to get judgments against the poor and helpless members of society.
Several ways have been proposed to translate the words "They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground." One way to paraphrase the idea is to say that, "they treated the poor like dirt."
What happened when the exploited sought justice or help? "The powerful turn aside the way of the meek," or "they deny justice to the oppressed." The Old Testament clearly teaches certain things about the responsibility of God’s people toward the helpless, the poor, and the afflicted. First of all, no one is to mistreat others so that they become poor and afflicted. Second, they are not to exploit any other person or group. Third, they are to help and defend the poor and helpless. The Israelites of Amos’ day had failed on all three counts. Some callous people enslaved and impoverished others, taking advantage of their plight. Even the better members of society failed to care enough to stand up for the rights of others.
In addition to sins of injustice, exploitation, and indifference, the Israelites were guilty of sexual immorality. A man and his father will go in unto the same maid. To what did this refer? Three possibilities have been suggested. (1.) This may have been a father and his son who went to one of the Baal worship services and had sexual relations with the same temple prostitute. (2.) It may have been that a father and a son both took advantage of the same female slave in their household. (3.) It may have been that a father had sexual relations with his son’s wife or a son had sexual relations with his stepmother. Any one of these actions would break the clear biblical teachings about sex as the means for a husband and wife to express responsible, lasting love for each other in the one-flesh union of marriage. Such sins profane God’s holy name.
Vs. 8 brings together four sins in one: exploitation, idolatry, sexual immorality, and callous indulgence.
It was a sin of exploitation because the guilty parties kept clothes that were given by the debtor as a pledge of payment. The O.T. is careful to give the benefit of the doubt to the debtor. A creditor could ask for a pledge of payment but he could not keep a poor person’s garment overnight. Such a pledge overnight deprived the poor of what served as cover at night. Thus this was another example of exploitation.
It was an expression of idolatry since the sinners laid down by every alter…in the house of their god. Even if the last part of Vs.7 does not refer to temple prostitution, vs. 8 deals with worship at pagan altars
It was a sin of sexual immorality, for the best explanation of the word lay is sexual sin. "The lying down…seems to have involved sexual immorality fueled by drunkenness."
Wine of the condemned probably refers to "wine taken as fines". The wine was a fine for debt or payment of taxes. In either case, it was not intended to be used in the way described here.
PLEASE TURN TO AMOS 3.
In this chapter 3 the message of Amos declared that Israel would be punished because of her unique relationship with God. This is a divine principle we should never lose sight of. "Responsibility flows from relationship." Her judgment was inevitable because of her unparalleled oppression of people. The message was addressed initially in Vs. 1-2 to both Israel and Judah, but then it was primarily directed to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Israel’s dispersion is foretold; but that a remnant will be save is likewise made known.
God forewarned Israel of coming judgment. Amos said that the Sovereign Lord always reveals his plan to his servants the prophets. God revealed his plan for judgment to His servant, the prophet Amos. In Vs. 9 God summoned witnesses from Ashdod in Philistia and from Egypt to view Israel’s sins. In Vs. 13 God asked these witnesses to hear this and testify against the house of Jacob (Israel). Amos called God the Lord, the Lord God almighty. God wanted witnesses to hear His indictments and testify to their truthfulness.
The indictment of Israel is he lengthiest of all. The proud northern kingdom is charged with covetousness, licentiousness, idolatry, and yet with utter unconcern as to the mischief wrought. Calling God the Lord, the Lord God Almighty signified that God was ruler of all the armies in heaven and earth. As sovereign Lord, He rules over all.
The Lord said His judgment would be upon Israel’s religious and social institutions. He declared that the day He punished Israel, He would destroy the altars of Bethel. Bethel was Israel’s national religious site; the principal place of idol worship in Israel. The horns of the altar, was the place in the temple a fugitive could go and find refuge until he could get a fair trial. There would be no place of refuge to which the Israelites could flee when God dealt with them.
God’s judgment also would be against Israel’ social life. Vs. 15 focuses on the sins of the self indulgent rich. Only the wealthy could afford a "winter house" and a "summer house." These would be torn down. Also the mansions would be demolished. Thus both the religious and the social situation in Israel would be judged. Thus was the Holy One of Israel dishonored by those who boasted in His name.
NEXT WEEK FROM AMOS 5 WE WILL LOOK FOR "EVIDENCES OF GENUINE RELIGION" IN ISRAEL. A.V. DAUGHERTY 4-07-02