Amos
9
One of the lessons biblical history surely teaches us is that when nations become pleasure-mad, it’s a sign that the end is near.
Belshazzar and his nobles were carousing in the palace in Babylon when the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall. The message to the godless revellers was that God had numbered the days of that kingdom and it was being terminated that very night. Babylon the great fell to the Medes and Persians.
In Imperial Rome the populace hankered after ‘bread and circuses’. The Empire was decaying morally and eventually fell to the invading hordes. One of the clear prophetic signs that we are in the last days is spelled out in 2 Timothy chapter 3, “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money ----- lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
In Amos’s day the warning prophet declared (Amos chapter 6 verses 12 and 14) “You have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness – The Lord God Almighty declares, “I will stir up a nation against you, O house of Israel” and that nation is the rising dominant power of Assyria.
In chapter 7 it is clearer than ever that time is running out for all complacent sinners. An unavoidable, destructive calamity is heading their way. One wonders, will any one be spared? Is there any hope whatsoever for Israel?
Amos has had two visions – one of locusts, the other of fire. We read in The Living Bible verses 1 to 3: “This is what the Lord God showed me in a vision: He was preparing a vast swarm of locusts to destroy all the main crop that sprang up after the first mowing, which went as taxes to the king. They ate everything in sight. Then I said, “O Lord God, please forgive your people! Don’t send them this plague! If you turn against Israel, what hope is there? For Israel is so small!” So the Lord relented and did not fulfil the vision “I won’t do it”, He told me.”
Amos was an intercessor standing in the gap before God for His ancient people. No natural calamity such as a locust invasion can destroy God’s people.
The second vision is of divine fire – but no supernatural means, the holy fire of God’s holiness, will be able to exterminate the people of God. Verses 4 to 6 record, “Then the Lord God showed me a great fire He had prepared to punish them; it had burned up the waters and was devouring the entire land. Then I said, “O Lord God, please don’t do it. If you turn against them, what hope is there? For Israel is so small!”
Then the Lord turned from this plan too, and said, “I won’t do that either.” Again the Lord shares His secrets with His servant, the prophet. Again the intercession of Amos prevails.
But now a time is dawning when even intercession will be useless. There comes a time when God’s judgements are in the land, when the Lord speaks as in Jeremiah chapter 11 verse 14: “Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to Me in the time of their distress.”
1 John 5 verse 16 says, “There is a sin that leads to death, I am not saying that he should pray about that.”
There can come a time when sin has reached its climax when intercession won’t make any difference, when the prophet cannot renew the people to repentance and when one need not recommend any more prayer.
Such a situation has been reached in Amos chapter 7 verse 7, with the third vision - the plumb line test. “This is what He showed me: the Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb-line in His hand. And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A plumb line”, I replied. Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.”
In verse 8, for the first time in Amos, God calls Israel ‘my people’. They were called to be holy, trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. Like a wall built to certain specifications, true to plumb, they were now being measured to see if they were still upright and true. It’s obvious that when the divine plumb line was dropped into the midst of His people they were all over the place. The all seeing God was carrying out a very precise and accurate spot check taking note of what met the requirements and what didn’t.
How would we fare, my brother, my sister, if the sovereign Lord were to drop His plumb-line down into the midst of our daily lives? Would we be valiant for truth or shown to be way off course, deviating sharply from the original design specification? Would we emerge from such a close scrutiny faithful and true, or unfaithful and false, having drifted away from God’s holy purpose for our lives?