We are continuing the book of Amos that I had started in December. Last post covered about the first half of Amos, up to about half way through verse 4. I will get you up to speed.
Amos was a sheep herder who had a command from God to send a message to the northern Jewish kingdom, Israel. The two “Jewish” kingdoms were divided with Israel on the north and Judah to the south. Early in the book of Amos, we learn his prophesy is one of doom and destruction. He condemns kingdom after kingdom in the region. Six different Bad kingdoms and nations first, and then 7th, he condemns Judah, which were Israel’s close relatives and neighbors. The way narrative stories were told at that time in history, the Climax of the story should have been the condemnation of Judah. But unexpectedly, Amos condemns an eighth nation, Israel. Amos goes into vivid detail about all the various sins that the nation of Israel was guilty of. God reminds them of all the ways he revealed himself to them through history . He reminds them of their covenant and their agreement. They were supposed to be His people and He was supposed to be their God. But that’s not what the Israelites wanted. The Israelites by and large were motivated by greed and comfort. They took advantage of each other and especially took advantage of the poor. God had a plan for some of their salvation, but not all of them. What we learned was that anyone who was an Israelite by blood was not necessarily who God considered to be Israel. God would send a shepherd to rescue only a remnant, like a piece of a body part from the mouth of a lion. Then God reasserts his sovereignty. He wants to let everyone know that the terrible things that had happened were to try and get them to return to Him. He gave floods and famine, war and disease to some. But His people would not come back to Him. He gave prosperity to others, but they would not return to him either. Here’s where we are in Amos. It’s Amos 4:12. And because the Israelites would not return to God, he tells them through Amos:
12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.”
13 He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth— the Lord God Almighty is his name.
This is scary stuff. Prepare to meet your God, O Israel. In this day in age, we don’t have a direct warning like this. Jesus tells us that God is coming, but He will arrive like a thief in the night. We won’t expect it, but we should be ready. Now Amos, on the other hand. He’s saying, “This is about to go down.” Be ready. From what we’ve read so far, the people are not ready. They are relaxing on couches and beds. They are drinking wine and playing music. They are living like their actions have no consequences. They are living like there’s no God. Sure they go to religious meetings and assemblies, but they are using those rituals as an excuse to continue sinning. They take advantage of the poor, and profit from the wars that are occurring in the region. The next chapter of Amos, Chapter 5, God keeps reminding the Israelites. “Seek me and Live” God is saying, I am the bringer of this destruction, but I am also the salvation. But when He says “prepare to meet your God” it’s a warning from the creator of it all. Now the self righteous hypocrites might start thinking the wrong thing. They think, “I’m good. Bring it on, God.” But this is wrong thinking. God doesn’t want people who are ready to justify themselves. God wants people that He can call his own. God knows all of our sins. Amos 5:12 says, “For I know how many are your offenses and how great are your sins.” God sees every sin and every offense. Knowing that God can see everything, we need to remember that anything bad that happens to us as humans does not, and can not, take away God’s goodness. Bad things can happen to us and God is still good. One of the major questions people have asked throughout history is this. “Why do bad things happen to good people?” the Bible tells us that we are all sinners and have fallen short of God’s requirement. The question is framed wrong. The question assumes there are good people. Sadly, there aren’t. So the real question facing us is “why do good things happen to bad people.” and the answer to that is God’s Grace and Mercy. In our eyes, there are people who are less deserving of the bad things that happen to them. But we must remember, as humans, we are in a fallen race living in a fallen world. A world where bad things happen. Things that are out of our control, like sickness and disease. God’s never promised to end all the bad things on this side of heaven. Eternally, we have that promise in Heaven, but here on Earth, we are a people who will struggle at times.
But what we have here in israel is that God is calling for a disaster. He says, Prepare to meet your God. And by and large, the people who hear the message still don’t get it. They are looking forward to the coming of the Lord, as if they will be vindicated.
It’s amazing how things don’t change after 2750 years. We still have people who are calling for the end of the world. We still have people who eagerly await an apocalypse. People who are excited for a rapture and tribulation and end times and wars. People want Judgement Day. They think that their sins are somehow better than everyone else’s, and their righteous acts will save them. What does God have to say about this? Amos 5:18
18 Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light.
19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.
20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?
God’s presence is described in the Bible as something Holy. Something separate from what we are. God is described as a consuming fire. We are unworthy of God’s presence. When faced with the idea of seeing God face to face, we must immediately feel unworthy. We must feel a certain Awe and Fear. If we don’t, then we don’t comprehend who it is that we are meeting. The idea of the coming of the Lord should make us uneasy. Now, there is a huge difference between us and the Israelites we are reading about here, though. We have been made Righteous before God. Not by our works, but by a Faith that God has given to us. When we meet our maker, we have a great high priest that lives to intercede for us. We have a worthy sacrifice to wash away our sins. We have the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ clothing our unworthy naked bodies. On the day that we meet our God, we have something that gives us confidence in our standing before God. Someone who paid the price that we owed. But it’s nothing that we can boast about. It isn’t from us. When we have Christ, we are ready for everything and anything that can happen. But even with everything that Christ has done for us, and God has given us. Is the day of the Lord something we should look forward to? I don’t.
Like Amos says, the day of the Lord will be darkness. Let’s read Romans 2:1-4
1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
Paul was writing to a similar group of people in Romans 2:1-4. There were judgmental people who thought they were right, and the coming of the Lord was a welcome thing. In this day and age, I have seen pastors who preach about the fires of Hell and God’s judgment. Now, there’s nothing wrong with preaching about God’s judgment, but the sad thing is some of them seem almost excited to see God’s wrath and judgment being poured out on “other people”. This is not something we should get excited about. Romans 2:2 says that God’s judgment is true and fair. God is not wrong to judge, and His judgements are fair. But Romans 2:4 says that the richness of God’s kindness and Patience is what gives us the opportunity to repent. You get it? For someone who doesn’t believe in Christ, Time is the only thing keeping them from God’s wrath. And while we have the chance to repent, that means God is still demonstrating his patience. God’s patience is why I am now an adopted son of God, instead of a sinner who stands condemned. And what is God being patient for? He’s patiently waiting for us to see his forgiveness and kindness, to repent of our sins, and to accept His love. He is being patient so we can return to him. He is sovereign, so He knows that his patience will yield fruit. The fruit is Sons and daughters to join his family. In His sovereignty, He knows how it will all turn out, and he designed Time and History to give that opportunity to us. He numbered each of our days so we have enough to return to him, and enough to have no excuse if we don’t. God’s patience is what we experience every day of our lives. In His patience, he gives us a chance to experience his Love.
The love of God is what allows us to come to church as brothers and sisters of the Kingdom. We should be more excited about the idea of God extending his Mercy to another unworthy sinner than God giving someone what they deserve. Why? Because when we judge and condemn others to God’s judgment we condemn ourselves. When we hope and pray for forgiveness, we magnify the Holy Spirit of Christ, who said, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” As Christians we can become like the religious people of Israel. We can be more judgmental towards people that don’t measure up to our standards. We can be people who would rather see God making things right, instead of God giving people righteousness. Those people who do wrong and are unrepentant are quite simply lost. We were there at one point ourselves. It’s a terrible place to be. Listen to the next verses of Amos 5:21-24:
21 “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies 22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Just imagine what it would be like if God said this to you. You go to church, and God says he despises it. You bring an offering, and God doesn’t want anything to do with it. There’s nothing you can do to get through to God. Why not? Your sin can’t be forgiven – God won’t accept that offering. You have no fellowship with God at all – no offering can bring you to God or restore that fellowship. You sing worship songs, and God calls it noise. This is what it means to be forsaken and abandoned by God. This situation is hopeless. And it’s what every sinner deserves. On the cross, Jesus was forsaken by God. Not only was he punched and slapped by chief priests and Sanhedrin, then flogged and punished by Pilate’s soldiers, and finally nailed to the cross. All these physical pains he endured for us. But then at around noon, while Jesus was hanging on the cross, darkness falls across the land. It lasts for about three hours, and at the end Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He looks up to heaven but does not see His Father. He sees nothing. Darkness. He was abandoned spiritually. He was forsaken by God instead of us. It can be easier for us to identify with and understand the physical pains that Christ went through. But this spiritual dimension to his work on the cross is even more severe and significant. Since the beginning of time, Christ enjoyed fellowship with the Father. The Word was with God and the Word was God. Just coming to this Earth disrupted some of this fellowship. But at some point during his life on Earth, Jesus took our sins upon Himself. And he took the eternal consequences of those sins upon Himself. And when that happened, God needed to uphold His goodness and His holiness. And in doing that, God needed to forsake his Son. And what Amos just described is what it’s like for people who don’t have Christ. Nothing they do can be right enough. No religious service, no offering, no tithe can make them right. We need to look to the lost, to people that don’t know Christ, and have a heart for them. We need to pray for God to continue to show his patience and kindness, so that hearts are turned towards repentance. We need to be wary of people looking forward to end times, Judgement Days, the coming of the Lord, raptures, tribulations, Battles of Armageddon. These things all signify the end of God’s patience.
As Christians, we also need to be watchful of emotions that can take away our heart for the lost. Sometimes, since we have the assurance that our sins are covered, we can become less concerned about judgment reserved for other people and more concerned about our own temporary comfort. Some people in Israel were guilty of this too. Amos 6:1-2
Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come! 2 Go to Kalneh and look at it; go from there to great Hamath, and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours?
Amos begins by warning them against a complacent or comfortable attitude. This can happen to Christians in America and other Western nations. We can feel secure. Lots of modern America suffers from exactly what the Israelites were dealing with. We think “My salvation is covered. I can do whatever because I am free and forgiven and live in the greatest nation on Earth.” This is how Israel felt. This pride was rampant in Israel. It’s rampant today also. Just look at political debates. People argue whether America is the best nation on Earth throughout history, or whether it’s the just best nation on Earth today. Politicians pull our emotional strings talking about how we are the freest and most prosperous nation. A beacon to the world. They hate us for our freedoms. They are threatening our way of life. George W. Bush loved to talk like that. And people loved to hear it. People say we are a Christian nation. But what does that mean? Our country never had an experience where it was “born again of the Spirit.” The whole concept of taking a personal belief and applying it to the land within a set of borders doesn’t make sense. There are 313 million people in this country. We aren’t all Christian. We don’t all follow Biblical law. I am not anti-American. I don’t recommend treason. I like this country. But the idea of believing we are a nation favored by God seems a bit far fetched. We enjoy many freedoms here, and they are a blessing. But we don’t want to put our security and our trust in the country we live in. We want our assurance and our faith to be in the God we serve. Amos 6:3-7
3 You put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of terror. 4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. 5 You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. 6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. 7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.
In verse 3 Amos tells them that their comfort actually testifies against them. You think you are putting off the day of disaster. You think you can change God’s plan. Verse 4. You lay around on luxurious couches and beds. You eat choice pieces of lamb and beef. Verse 5. You strum on your harps and improvise on musical instruments. Verse 6. You drink wine by the bowlful and use fine lotions. These things show that they are comfortable. Are these things sin? Is it bad to have a nice bed? Is it bad to like a nice dinner of lamb or beef? Is it bad to play harp or improvise on musical instruments? I am guilty of all of this. I sleep in a warm comfortable bed. On occasion, I will eat a steak dinner and maybe have a glass of wine. Or two? I play jazz music. And all of my solos are improvised. If these things are sin, then I am guilty. But for me, they have been paid for by the blood of Christ. My heart belongs to HIM, not to any of this stuff. I can do these things with thanksgiving. And with gratitude for what He did for me. The end of verse 6 explains the big problem here. The Isrealites did all these things, “But you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph”. The Isrealites did these things without any regard to those who were suffering. They did these things with the expectation that they were an exceptional people who were an exception to God’s judgement and rules, and nothing was required from them. We are called to grieve over the lost. We are called to minister to those who are suffering. We are called to be wise with the things that God has entrusted us with. We are called to love and serve and encourage each other. We are called to pray for each other, and help each other. If God blesses me with a love for music, I will improvise solos for his worship. If I love to cook, I will share that love with my brothers and sisters at church. The idea is that we’re in this together. And when we see someone who doesn’t have that fellowship with God that we do, we grieve for them and try and share God’s love with those who might be perishing. We can do that by talking to them, praying for them, telling them about the Gospel, or about how our lives were changed by God’s love. We include them in our friendships and hopefully, with the work of God’s Holy Spirit, we can play a part in God’s plan of their redemption and their return to God. This is our passion.