Amos
3
Chapter 3 in the minor prophet Amos begins with a major message to the northern kingdom of Israel. “Hear this word the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel ... you only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”
You will recall that God’s gracious call to Israel – to be His chosen people – was exclusive and unique. The privileges were immense – so were the responsibilities of being His alone.
For too long divine warnings had been disregarded; the nation assumed it was God’s favourite and impervious to judgement. Israel had charged heedlessly through all the red lights and an imminent crash was inevitable. They were running out of time. Only about 40 years remained before the nation would be no more – swallowed up by Assyrian invaders by 722 BC.
There’s a sobering verse in Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse 11 “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.”
God has called Amos – a rustic farmer, a feisty and focused preacher – and he asks some rhetorical questions, all suggesting that something’s up. Each example, drawn from daily life, is of cause and effect.
Amos 3 verses 3-6 “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? Does a lion roar in the thicket when he has no prey? Does he growl in the den when he has caught nothing? Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground where no snare has been set? Does a trap spring up from the earth when there is nothing to catch? When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city has not the Lord caused it?”
The implications are clear. God never makes idle threats, nor is He mocked. Calamity never falls without the directive hand of God. We so easily forget that God is sovereign and judgement is not uninvited. The Providence that controls world history is holy and just and the Lord has let Amos in on His secret counsel so he might be God’s spokesman to His wayward people.
Verse 7: “Surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.” God has been inspecting the lives of His people in the kingdom of Israel and what His scrutiny revealed was not good.
The book began in verse 2 with the words “The Lord roars from Zion” – now in chapter 3 verse 8 we read, “The lion has roared – who will not fear? The sovereign Lord has spoken – who can but prophesy?”
Amos calls two of Israel’s pagan neighbours, the Egyptians and the Philistines, to bear witness to the great unrest within that kingdom and the oppression among her people. Israel may very well feel shown up for life as those with no special claim on God are invited to rise up and judge the waywardness of His chosen people.
God declares (in verse 10), “They do not know how to do right.” God’s had enough. An enemy will overrun the land and the Sovereign Lord will use this enemy – the nation of Assyria – as the rod of His judgement. God – who is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy – is now poised to act in judgement. Verse 14 “On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel.”
God had tolerated the break away northern kingdom for two centuries. Now this counterfeit cult set up by Jeroboam at Bethel as an alternative to worship in Jerusalem was about to be demolished. A man-made religious system was due to be annihilated. Heresy was judged by God’s truth and lost hands down.
Hear God’s verdict on their luxurious and indulgent life style verse 15: “I will tear down the winter house, along with the summer house; the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished.”
How we need an Amos today. Nowadays we are in the interim of grace between the lion’s roar and the onset of well-deserved judgement. Religious declension is all around and the prophetic voice is urgently needed to ring out in our lands to call us back to God. Fear of judgement may not be the highest motive for obeying God, but the Lord will accept it.
The shepherd, Amos, declares in the most graphic terms that just a small part of Israel will be saved from the roaring lion. It’s in verse 12: “As a shepherd saves from the lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites be saved ... “
As the NIV Study Bible puts it: “Only a mutilated remnant would survive. The nation as such would be more than wounded – it would be destroyed.” How we need an army of men like Amos to address our nations and teach us the fear of the Lord.