Amos 3-6: The Party's Over

We read Amos 3–6 and face the link between worship and justice, comfort and blindness, warning and mercy. God’s call is urgent yet hopeful: seek Him and live, and let justice flow like water.

• covenant closeness increases accountability
• cause and effect as a spiritual wake-up
• ignored warnings and the mercy within disruption
• seek God first, then seek justice at the gate
• critique of luxury, apathy, and performative religion
• the day of the Lord as exposure, not a pass
• justice as a river, righteousness as a steady stream
• choosing return over resentment in hard times

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage For Amos
• 0:59 Themes: Cause, Effect, And Awe
• 2:33 Amos 3: Justice And Accountability
• 4:56 Amos 4: Warnings Ignored
• 7:36 Amos 5: Seek God, Seek Justice
• 10:27 Amos 6: Luxury And Blindness
• 13:36 Modern Parallels And Hard Questions
• 16:11 Invitation To Return To God

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike. Well, last time we cracked open the Bible together, we started in the book of Amos. And Amos, we pointed out, is kind of like a blue-collar prophet. He's he was not raised in a religious upbringing. He was not the apprentice of some prophet. He was, you know, not a temple guy. He was eh, he was like a farmer. He kept livestock. He just shared God's heart for what was going on around him. And he was willing and available to be used by God to speak what was on God's heart. Well, today we will see that God has his eyes on his people all the time and he sees what they do. And he's giving them time through the prophets to be able to turn from their sin and repent. And uh God is just saying the party's over at this point. There's still time to repent by virtue of the fact that there's a prophet saying these things instead of God just wiping them out. So there is time, but time is almost up. So here are some themes to listen for here as we read the a few chapters of Amos today. Listen for this idea of cause and effect, where God is really trying to encourage his people to look at where they are, look at what they're experiencing and going through. And they think they're happy and having a good time, but if they were really honest with themselves, they'd realize it's not going well already. And to think of, if that's the effect, what's the cause? It's really easy to just be have a victim mentality and to just feel like, oh, things are happening to me, and not stop to consider, is there anything I'm doing that could be the cause of that? We got to see things the way that God sees them. That's that's wisdom. That's the fear of the Lord. That's getting to know him, which is the whole purpose of our being here. And also listen for God flexing a little bit. Apparently, if you forget who God is, he is willing to remind you, and we see that happen in a number of different ways today. So let's check out Amos. We're going to be reading chapters three through six in the New English Translation. Listen you Israelites to this message that the Lord is proclaiming against you. This message is for the entire clan I brought up from the land of Egypt. I've chosen you alone from all the clans of the earth, and therefore I will punish you for all your sins. Do two walk together without having met? Does a lion roar in the woods if he's not cornered his prey? Does a young lion bellow from his den if he's not caught something? Does a bird swoop down into a trap on the ground if there's no bait? Does a trap spring up from the ground unless it surely caught something? If an alarm sounds in the city, do people not fear? If disaster overtakes a city, is the Lord not responsible? Certainly the sovereign lord does nothing without first revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. A lion has roared, who's not afraid? The sovereign lord has spoken, who can refuse to prophesy? Make this announcement in the fortresses of Ashdod and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt. Say this, gather on the hills around Samaria. Observe the many acts of violence taking place within the city. Remember, Samaria is the northern kingdom capital of Israel. They don't know how to do what's right, the Lord says. They store up the spoils of destructive violence in their fortresses, and therefore, says the Sovereign Lord, an enemy will encircle the land. He'll take away your power. Your fortresses will be looted. This is what the sovereign Lord says, just as a shepherd salvages from the lion's mouth a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear, so the Israelites who live in Samaria will be salved. They'll be left with just a corner of a bed and a part of a couch. Listen and warn the family of Jacob. The sovereign Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking. Certainly when I punish Israel for their covenant transgressions, I will destroy Bethel's altars. The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. I'll destroy both the winter and summer houses. The houses filled with ivory will be ruined, the great houses will be swept away. The Lord is speaking. Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan, who live on Mount Samaria. You oppress the poor. You crush the needy, and you say to your husbands, brief more drink. The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character. Certainly the time is approaching when you will be carried away in baskets. Every last one of you in a fisherman's pot. Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls and you'll be thrown out toward Harmon. The Lord is speaking. So go to Gilgal and rebel. At Gilgal rebel some more. Bring your sacrifices in the morning, bring your tithes on the third day, burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast. Make a public display of your voluntary offerings, for you love to do this, you Israelites. The sovereign Lord is speaking. But surely I gave you no food to eat in all your cities. You lacked food everywhere you lived. Still you didn't come back to me. The Lord is speaking. I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. I gave rain to one city but not to another. One field would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up. People from two or three cities staggered into one city to get water, but remained thirsty, and still you didn't come back to me. The Lord is speaking. I destroyed your crops with blight and disease. Locusts kept devouring your orchards, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees, and still you didn't come back to me. The Lord is speaking. I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. I killed your young men with a sword, along with the horses you had captured. I made the stench from the corpses rise up into your nostrils, and still you did not come back to me. The Lord is speaking. I overthrew some of you the way God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the flames, but still you didn't come back to me. The Lord is speaking. And therefore this is what I'll do to you, Israel. Because I'll do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel, for here he is. He formed the mountains and created the wind. He reveals his plans to men. He turns the dawn into darkness and marches on the heights of the earth. The Lord God of Heaven's armies is his name. Listen to this funeral song I'm ready to sing about you, family of Israel. The Virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again. She's abandoned on her own land, with no one to help her get up. The Sovereign Lord says this, the city that marches out with a thousand soldiers will have only a hundred left. The town that marches out with a hundred soldiers will have only ten left for the family of Israel. The Lord says this to the family of Israel, seek me so you can live. Don't seek Bethel, don't visit Gilgal, don't journey down to Beersheba. For the people of Gilgal will certainly be carried into exile, and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds. Seek the Lord so you can live. Otherwise he'll break out like fire against Joseph's family. The fire will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. The Israelites turn justice into bitterness. They throw what's fair and right to the ground, but there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion. He can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth's surface. The Lord is his name. He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that the destruction overwhelms the fortified places. The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate, they despise anyone who speaks honestly. Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops and exact a grain tax from them, you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone, nor will you drink the wine from the fine vineyards you planted. Certainly I am aware of your many rebellious acts and your numerous sins. You torment the innocent, you take bribes, and you deny justice to the needy at the city gate, and for this reason, whoever is smart keeps quiet in such a time, for it's an evil time. Seek good and not evil so you can live. Then the Lord God of Heaven's armies just might be with you, as you claim he is. Hate what's wrong, love what's right. Promote justice at the city gate. Maybe the Lord God of Heaven's armies will have mercy on those who are left from Joseph. Because of Israel's sins, this is what the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven's armies, says, In all the squares, there will be wailing. In all the streets they will mourn the dead. They'll tell the field workers to lament and the professional mourners to wail. In all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through your midst, says the Lord. Woe to those who wish for the day of the Lord. Why do you want the Lord's day of judgment to come? It'll bring darkness, not light. Disaster will be inescapable as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear, and then escaped into a house, leaned his hand against the wall, and it was bitten by a poisonous snake. Don't you realize the Lord's Day of Judgment will bring darkness, not light? Gloomy blackness, not bright light? I absolutely despise your festivals. I get no pleasure from your religious assemblies. Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, I will not be satisfied. I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves. Take away from me your noisy songs. I don't want to hear the music of your stringed instruments. Justice must flow like torrents of water, righteous actions like a stream that never dries up. You didn't bring me sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness family of Israel. I'll pick up your images of Sikath, your king, and Kiyun, your star god which you made for yourselves, and I'll drive you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord. He is called the God of Heaven's armies. Woe to those who live in ease in Zion, to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria. They think of themselves as the elite class of the best nation. The family of Israel looks up to them for leadership, and they say to the people, Oh, journey over to Kalnah and look at it, and then go from there to Hamath Rabbah, and then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they superior to our two kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours? You refuse to believe a day of disaster will come, but you establish a reign of violence. They lie around on beds decorated with ivory and sprawl out on their couches. They eat lambs from the flock and calves from the middle of the pen. They sing to the tune of stringed instruments, like David, they invent musical instruments. They drink wine from sacrificial bowls, and pour the very best oils on themselves, yet they are not concerned over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore they will now be the first to go into exile, and the religious banquets where they sprawl on couches will end. The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. The Lord God of Heaven's armies is speaking. I despise Jacob's arrogance. I hate their fortresses, and I'll hand over to their enemies, the city of Samaria and everything in it. If ten men are left in one house, they too will die. When their close relatives, the ones who will burn the corpses, pick up their bodies to remove the bones from the house, they'll say to anyone who is in the inner rooms of the house, Is anyone else with you? He will respond, No one, and then he'll say, Hush, don't invoke the Lord's name. Indeed, look, the Lord is giving the command. He will smash the large house to bits, and the small house into little pieces. Can horses run on rocky cliffs? Can one plough the sea with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into a poisonous plant, and the fruit of righteous actions into a better plant. You're happy because you conquered Lodabar. You say, Did we not conquer Karnaim by our own power? Look, I am about to bring a nation against you, family of Israel, the Lord the God who commands armies, is speaking. They will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the stream of the Rift Valley. Well, one thing is clear when we read this book and when we read the Old Testament in general, is that God doesn't issue disaster, he doesn't bring judgment without also first offering a way out. And it's never without warning. But it's the warnings that we often don't like. In chapter four, God lists a bunch of things that he takes credit for doing, things like famine, things like destroying crops with blights and disease, things like locusts, things like plagues. He says, I killed your young men with a sword. He admits. He admits that he did all these things. It reminds me of the disasters that we hear about in modern days. It's it's the same mentality of like, why is this happening? If if God is good, why does he allow these things to happen? It seems very clear from God's discussion here in Amos that one reason for the sovereign Lord, which of course, by the way, means Lord can do anything he wants without your permission, but one major reason he lets these things happen, or he may even do these things himself, is to get your attention. Each of those times, it it was kind of sad to read. Was it sad to hear? In that chapter four, he'd list all these things that he did and the conditions that the people were facing, and it said, Still you didn't come back to me. And that's why he sent these things, so that his people could come back to him. But they don't listen, they get mad at God, they they they come up with other reasons why these things are happening and why they feel like they don't deserve them, and ignore the very call and invitation of God to come back to him. What is what is he supposed to do? He they were already rich. This was the richest iteration of the nation of Israel here under the reign of King Jeroboam II. That didn't get their attention and bring them back to God, frankly, that usually does the opposite, and that was part of the problem. So if if that doesn't bring people back to God, then what about disaster when those things leave and when we experience hard times? Will that bring people back to God? I don't know. I think that choice is up to us. What is the hardest thing you've experienced? What is the worst time of your life? Maybe you're in it right now. God is not mad at you, he is mad about you, and he desperately wants you to come back to him. I'm not saying every bad thing we experience is the result of our sin and rebellion, but I am saying what I believe God is saying here in Amos take a look at yourself, take a look at your situation, and see if something in your heart needs to change to become more aligned with God's heart. That's the thinking out loud thought for the day.