Amos Week 2
We’re in the book of Amos. And last week we learned that the only thing better than a timeline is a map! The map highlights how God spoke out against the other nations in a way that Israel probably expected. He makes the circle around Israel on the map but then zeroes in and surprises them by saying, my major complaint is actually against you.
In the next major portion of Amos, we have three words. This section is from 3:1 - 5:17.
3:1 - Put a box around “Hear this word”
4:1 - Put a box around “Hear this word”
5:1 - Put a box around “Hear this word”
So if we were making an outline of Amos, we’d say:
Amos 1-2 : Bullseye map
Amos 3-5 : Three words
Kind of like I did last week, I’m just going to walk through these verses and make comments along the way.
Let’s check out our first word in chapter 3.
As a reminder of context! Israel has been prospering greatly despite their wickedness. They are rich. Their boundaries are large. The kingdom has stabilized under their longest reigning king Jeroboam II. Their enemies are quite weak at the moment. They are convinced that it is because of their status as God’s chosen people that they get a free pass through God’s judgment. They can live however they want and they’re fine. To make this relevant to us, it’s a little bit how America often views itself as God’s chosen country. We give lip service to God, but our actual devotion is rather minimal. When other countries face judgment we think to ourselves, that makes sense. They deserve it. But I’m sure we will get a free pass.
3:1-2
He opens the first “word” by sharing that he does in fact have a special relationship with Israel. He specifically brought them up out of Egypt. They’re the ones he saved. And in 2a he says they are the only ones he’s known in all the earth.
The word “know” throughout the Bible often carries the weight of having a strong and intimate relationship with, not merely knowledge of someone. (i.e. Adam knew Eve and she conceived and bore a son)
And you see the word family used twice here “the family that I brought up” and “of all the families of the earth”. God is suggesting that he has a very unique familial relationship with Israel.
Then verse 2b, because I have that relationship. I will punish you. Which sounds surprising, but it’s exactly how a dad acts towards his own children! There are about a dozen boys that live on my street, but only 4 of them are mine. Which ones do I punish when they act out? The ones I’m closest with, the ones I hold to the highest standard, the ones I have high expectations for.
Israel likely had this idea that when disasters happened to others it was punishment from God “because of course they deserve it”, but when disaster happened to them it was just bad luck or coincidence. The next set of verses will dispel that notion
3:4-8
Amos hits with a series of 7 rhetorical questions meant to drive home a point. The first 6 help us understand the seventh one.
Vs 3 - Do you have an appointment without agreeing to meet? Write No
Next 5 questions, write No
These “no’s” are all setting up the final one. Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it? The answer should be a resounding “NO!”
He’s highlighting that these events are not coincidences or inconsequential. They have meaning because they are from God.
Now I’m glad he includes verse 7, because when we hear that every single event has a meaning we immediately start to make up meanings. For instance if you spilled your coffee on your pants this morning, now you might be thinking “Oh this is clearly a punishment because I skipped my quiet time today or because I was short with my kids last night” or perhaps more seriously, if you received a terrible diagnosis or a close family member died you may be punishing yourself thinking of all the reasons it’s actually your fault. We tend to make up reasons.
But verse 7 says, the Lord God reveals his secrets to his prophets. So if you want to know the reason why God acts the way he does, you have to listen to his spokesperson. Amos is telling Israel, I’m here sent by God to tell you why these things are happening. But for everyone else, they should read God’s Word written by his apostles and prophets to understand why God acts the way he does. If you want to interpret why you spilled coffee on yourself or why your loved one died, you need to understand what God has told us about himself and his actions in his word.
Verse 8 continues with the lion imagery that he started in verse 4. Underline lion and roar in 4 and in 8 so you see the connection. We’ve seen roar imagery before. Where was it? Amos 1:2. Put an arrow pointing backwards and write 1:2. God is the lion. He is roaring. They should fear because he’s about to take his prey.
3:9-11
Notice the repeated word here? Strongholds. Circle the 4 strongholds.
Do you remember last week, there were lots of repeated phrases and one of the repeated phrases was “I will send a fire upon such and such and I will destroy the strongholds of such and such” Amos declares the destruction of the strongholds in 7 different places, but then when he declares his judgment for Israel he never mentions it.
Now we see him calling the foreign strongholds to look at Israel’s (Samaria’s) stronghold. And in verse 10 he’s essentially saying anyone who commits violence and robbery will be punished (even if [especially if] it’s his chosen people). What are violence and robbery? Write CRUEL TO PEOPLE next to it. Reminding us that Israel is as guilty as everyone else.
Then in verse 11 we see the punishment that was missing from last week. The stronghold will be destroyed.
3:12
He continues the lion and shepherd imagery that he began in 1:2. When a lion roars, the shepherds and the sheep mourn because it means trouble. Well the lion’s roaring.
When a hired hand is watching the sheep of someone else and a sheep is eaten by a lion, how does he prove that he didn’t steal it? The policy was that the hired hand could find a piece of the sheep that hadn’t been entirely devoured and show the owner to prove it was in fact eaten. Here God wants us to see any of the pieces of Samaria that remain are proof that it has in fact been devoured by God the lion.
3:13-15
Amos highlights the specific sins of idolatry and of decadence.
Bethel has significance throughout all of the northern kingdom of Israel’s history. Jeroboam I (not Jeroboam II who reigns now) was the first Israelite king and he established two altars specifically to keep people away from worship in Jerusalem’s temple: one in Bethel and one in Dan. We’ll learn later that Bethel is where Amos is prophesying.
Basically their time of idolatry and decadence will end. He won’t allow it to continue indefinitely
OUTLINE:
So if we’re making an outline of the book of Amos - we’re at the first of the 3 words - you could write above 3:1 - “The Lord will devour Israel like a lion”
4:1-3
Their decadence is pointed out again and their punishment reestablished.
Cows of Bashan - northeast of Galilee was a region known as Bashan that was famous for lush green fields that allowed for the grazing of big fat cows. And Amos very politely refers to the women in Samaria as big fat cows because of their lavishness in the face of oppressing the poor.
He mentions that they will be taken away with hooks. This is likely a direct reference to the Assyrians who will ultimately destroy Israel. They had a practice of lining up their captives single file, placing fish hooks in their noses, and stringing them together, very much like a fisherman would do with all the fish that he caught.
4:4-5
Amos calls them to come offer their offerings in Bethel and in Gilgal. Bethel was obviously the location of wicked idol worship, but Gilgal was potentially a site where they could worship Yahweh. Yet, even worshipping there would be sin, because they would be doing it without honoring God in their hearts and with their lives.
This is an incredibly convicting verse, because Amos has pointed out that the outward expressions of their religion have continued. They are doing the things that the law of Moses called them to do, but it’s just a sham. It’s maybe cultural or it’s just a tradition for them, but God hates it, is unimpressed, and views it as transgression or sin. I think you can see the very obvious parallels. There are many in our day who maintain the outward appearance of religious expressions, but the attitudes of our heart do not line up with worshipping God
4:6-13
Here we see an extremely important phrase “yet you did not return to me”. It shows up 5 times (vs 6, 8, 9, 10, 11) Underline each of those.
God sent various plagues on them, he sent drought and famine, he sent enemies and fire on their cities but they never recognized them for what they were. They were warnings. They were a call to come back to God. I read one preacher who said these were obstructions God sent to prevent them from going down the path to destruction. It’s as if they were walking down a path to destroy themselves and God dropped a big boulder in their way. Instead of turning back they found a way around it, then God had an enormous tree fall across the path and they just cut it up and kept going. God keeps dropping obstructions, but they never turn around.
The disasters that he sent to them were meant for their good, to cause them to turn. But they never do. The disasters are clearly meant to lead them to repentance.
Now here is something that I find fascinating. Romans 2:4 says this, “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance”. So God sends disasters, why? So we’ll repent and turn to him. God is kind and sends us blessings, why? So we’ll repent and turn to him. It would appear that God’s every action in the life of the unrepentant is meant towards causing them to repent.
You’ve felt this before if you’ve ever been carrying a heavy load of guilt. You know that you’ve done something wrong and you know you have to come clean. When a bad thing happens you say, “God is plaguing me until I repent”. But then when someone does something uncharacteristically kind towards you you think, “Oh this exposes how much I don’t deserve this kindness and how I must repent.”
Keep in mind, God’s actions towards Israel his punishments are not meant out of mere spite and hatred for them. They are his family. He is pursuing them like a father pursues his son. He’s doing everything he can to get them to turn back to him. So don’t read this thinking, “Gosh, God is such an angry and bitter guy”. All of the things he’s doing in this book, the punishments, the plagues, the destruction, it’s meant to wake them up from their stupor and bring them back to him.
Vs 12-13, Finally in one last effort he says, I’m doing all this to you. There is one final complete and utter destruction that is coming. Please, “Prepare to meet your God”.
CIRCLE PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD
Now we often say this phrase as an idiom for “you’re toast” as in “prepare to meet your maker”. But I think Amos’ call is genuine. He wants them to prepare their hearts. God will arrive in the judgment. Will he find them repentant? Or still unrepentant?
And this is another instance where Amos has such a similar theme to Joel. Joel said, “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster” (Joel 2:13). And Amos says the same thing. Your destruction is coming, but I’m pleading with you to return to me before it happens.
The final verse reminds the reader that God is bigger than the petty gods of their idols.
PUT BRACKETS AROUND IT AND WRITE “GOD IS BIGGER THAN IDOLS”
OUTLINE:
So if we’re making an outline of the book of Amos - we’re at the second of the 3 words - you could write above 4:1 - “The Lord desires Israel to return to him”
5:1-3
This third Word is interesting in that it’s what scholars call “proleptic”. Basically what that means is he’s speaking about a future event as if it has already happened
Verse 1 he takes up a lamentation. Lamentations are songs that you sing after a destruction or death has happened. In fact, the book of the Bible lamentations is a book written about the destruction of Jerusalem. The parts of this chapter which are God’s lament you can see marked off by quotations. They’re here in verses 1-3 then you see them show up again in the final 2 verses 16-17.
Verse 2 - 3 talk about how Israel has fallen and will not rise again. It talks about how 90 out of a hundred are gone - either dead or exiled.
5:4-7
But remember the destruction hasn’t actually happened yet it won’t happen for maybe 40 years and so he still calls them to turn to him
Circle the words “Seek me and live” in verse 4
This is contrasted with their idol worship in Bethel and their fake soulless worship at Gilgal. Interestingly it mentions not crossing over to Beersheba (because it’s in Judah). I don’t know the significance of that city
Then we see his call again to “seek the Lord and live” circle that in verse 6
The rest of verse 6 is an interesting call back to our first chapter. Do you remember one of those repeated phrases? “I send a fire in… and it will devour the strongholds of…” In chapter 3 we saw the strongholds resurface again and now we see the fire resurfacing. It’s coming for Israel.
5:8-9
This is another one of those interesting asides that describe God as being bigger than petty idols. PUT BRACKETS AROUND THIS ONE AND WRITE “GOD IS BIGGER THAN IDOLS”
5:10-13
Few more quick things, Amos revisits the sins they are committing - they trample the poor, we’ve seen that before.
He mentions how many are their transgressions, I believe that’s a reference to our opening verses where he counts their transgressions “For three transgressions and for four”
5:14-15
There’s God’s call again in verse 14 “Seek good and not evil that you may live” CIRCLE THAT
In verse 15 we see that phrase common among the prophets, maybe the Lord will be gracious. We saw it in Jonah 3:9 and we saw it in Joel 2:14. I would write those references next to this verse.
The reason I want to highlight this so much is because I want you to see what God’s purpose through the minor prophets is. So often people think of the prophets as doomsday guys who just pronounce bad news all the time. But the reason for the bad news is always the same - Repent. Turn so that you may live. It may be that the Lord will be gracious to us. In certain places we read in the Bible God’s kindness and the reason he sends it is so that we will repent. In the prophets we see more often God’s punishment, but he sends it so that people will repent.
AND YET we respond in the opposite way too often. Because on the one hand people say, God has allowed awful things to happen in the world, I could never worship him. And on the other hand people who have not experienced tragedy and who have had a relatively cushy life say, “My life is going well, I don’t need God.” So in both tragedy and in abundance people refuse to turn to God and yet it’s through both tragedy and abundance that God wants to lead people to repentance. If you don’t repent, what else can he do? What else can he send to cause you to repent if in both good things and bad things you turn away from him?
5:16-17
The last few verses return to the lament as a warning that judgment is coming but it can still be averted