Amos
4
The task of an Old Testament. prophet was to address the present in the light of the future. Psalm 25 verse 14 says: “The Lord confides in those who fear Him; He makes His covenant known to them.” In Amos God found such a man – one who had been walking in fellowship with Him.
By and large we have forgotten a salient truth that Amos underscores. God can turn and become our enemy. Remember what happened after the Exodus – Isaiah 63 verses 9 and 10: “He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Yet they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy and He Himself fought against them.”
Sometimes people wonder why the church is so powerless. God’s not lost His power --- We have lost His power.
Isaiah 59 verses 1 and 2 says it all: “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”
In many ways Amos’s message must have seemed quite bizarre and ridiculous to a people who couldn’t see beyond what their natural eyes observed. It didn’t seem to fit or make sense. Outwardly both kingdoms, North and South, were doing very nicely thank you. They were enjoying an economic bounce greater than at any time since the golden days of David and Solomon.
Nation-wide there was a mood of optimism – the feel good factor. Such ‘security’ under King Jeroboam the second had blinded the people to their need of God. The whole nation was like a great Titanic heading for unseen icebergs. As Alec Motyer puts it in his commentary: “Israel’s Indian summer of prosperity and affluence was coming to an end.”
When we reach chapter 4 of Amos, the prophet couldn’t be more blunt or direct. It’s hardly polite to liken wealthy, sophisticated women of the day to cattle, but that’s exactly what he does. Chapter 4 verse 1: “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan – a place noted for its breed of cattle – you women who oppress the poor and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”
Verse 2: “The sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness: ‘The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fish-hooks.’” The mental picture is startling. Archaeologists have unearthed pictures engraved on stone depicting how the Assyrians dealt with their prisoners of war. They were led away with a rope fastened to a hook, which pierced their nose or lower lip.
Verses 4 and 5 are spoken in irony by Amos. The Living Bible catches the tone superbly: “Go ahead and sacrifice to idols at Bethel and Gilgal” – these places used to be associated with real God-encounters by Jacob and Joshua.
“Keep disobeying – your sins are mounting up. Sacrifice each morning and bring your tithes twice a week! Go though all your proper forms and give extra offerings. How you pride yourselves and crow about it everywhere!”
Here’s the problem in a nutshell. They loved the forms and rituals of religion – but where’s the substance, where’s the heart for God Himself? They manifestly didn’t love what God loves – goodness, mercy, and kindness. It’s a gross affront to a holy God to organise religion on the basis of what we like and not as He has ordained.
God uses all the weapons in His armoury to steer His wayward people back to His ways, but none of His disciplines does the trick. They’re listed in chapter 4 verses 6 to 11:
“I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up. People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord.
Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord.”
Have you got the picture? While the Israelites were busy making money by fair means or foul, God was busy sending famine, drought, blight, locusts, plague, war, earthquake – but they still didn’t get it.
Someone objects that doesn’t sound like God. Surely He’s not like that - He wouldn’t do that. Check it out – it’s in the Bible. Our modern concept of God is often unbiblical. If God isn’t nice enough to suit our emotions or small enough to fit within our logic, we often have a tendency to reform Him and make Him in our own image.
Amos suffers from no such delusion. Because he fears the Lord, God confides in him and anoints him to speak on His behalf.