Amos
12
Recently I read that the Bible has been translated into the aboriginal language of Kriol spoken across Northern Australia. The task has taken almost thirty years. The linguists found it difficult to translate the phrase “to love God with all one’s heart” into the Kriol tongue. There was no exact equivalent so they lighted upon an idiom familiar to the Aborigines. In their Bible it now reads, “to want God with all your insides”. Unfortunately, that was not the situation in northern Israel, when the people were ripe for punishment. They didn’t want God at all.
In Amos chapter 8 verse 11 Moffat’s translation says, “The time is coming says the Lord Eternal, when I will send a famine on the land, no famine of bread, no drought of water, but of hearing the word of the Eternal, till men go wandering from sea to sea, and run from north to east, in quest of the Eternals word – and all in vain.”
If we don’t treasure the truth, we lose the truth. Here’s a gracious warning. Blessings that have been despised will be withdrawn. Heaven will be silent.
‘A famine of hearing the words of the Lord’ will result in men wandering in search of God’s Word. The word ‘wander’ is the same word used in Isaiah chapter 28 verse 7 to describe ‘the rolling gait of drunkards’. It’s the word Isaiah uses in chapter 7 verse 2 for the ’swaying of trees in the wind’ and it’s also used in 1 Samuel chapter 1 verse 13 of Hannah with ‘lips quivering in agitation’.
If there’s an embargo on God’s Word people will hardly know what they’re doing. They’ll be flapping in panic or agitation. The young ones will be the most vulnerable and will suffer when the famine of truth hits the land. “In that day the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst” (verse 13). They will be fair game for the religious quacks and isms of the day.
When the Word of God is driven out, man-made religion rushes in. The cults arise to fill the vacuum. It is vital, in our own day, that the truth and worship of God is guarded against the importation of false religions and cults. Religion is the most dangerous thing in the world. It can only lead to eternal loss.
Amos knew that when the Word of God is lost, the upcoming generation would know no better than to turn to the popular gods of the day, only to be drawn into superstition instead of into the life of godliness.
Chapter 9 begins with his fifth vision. A veil is drawn away from the future and the prophet sees the coming destruction that God has warned about. The day of pretence was over. God is no longer acting as if everything is just fine. “I saw the Lord standing by the altar” (verse 1).
About 200 years earlier in 931/930 BC, King Jeroboam the first set up the shrines when the breakaway Northern Kingdom of ten tribes separated from the south. He invented his own religion. He built shrines on high places and appointed priests, even though they were not Levites. He offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel.
We know from I Kings chapter 13 verse 1 that a man of God came from Judah to Bethel at that time ‘as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering’. He cried out against the altar. Now, nearly 200 years later, another man of God from Judah, the prophet Amos, is declaring the same message, But look who’s standing by the altar this time: -
“I saw the Lord standing by the altar and He said: ‘Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Bring them down on the heads of all the people; those who are left I will kill with the sword. Not one will get away, none will escape.”
Samson had pulled down the temple of Dagon on the heads of the uncircumcised Philistines. Now the temple of the counterfeit religion is crashing down, God says, “I will bring them down.” There will be no hiding place. No runaways will make it.
The Living Bible, verses 2 to 4, is quite dramatic. “Though they dig down to Sheol, I will reach down and pull them up; though they climb into the heavens, I will bring them down. Though they hide among the rocks at the top of Carmel, I will search them out and capture them. Though they hide at the bottom of the ocean, I will send the sea serpent after them to bite and destroy them. Though they volunteer for exile, I will command the sword to kill them there. I will see to it that they receive evil and not good.”
This is surely the end of the line. The nation that walked all over the poor and weak has been found out on a large scale. Those who have been living in a spiritual dream world, forgetful of holiness, are waking up to the realisation that this is God’s world. He is the Lord and He reigns on high. No one can throw a cloak of religion over selfish, self-serving lives and get away with it.
The Lord God of heaven’s armies touches the land and it melts, and all its people mourn.
God is on the scene.