The Justice and Mercy of God (Amos 7–9)

Mercy and justice sound like opposites, but Amos refuses to let us split God into the parts we prefer. We follow the final chapters of the Book of Amos as God gives the prophet five vivid visions, each one pressing the same hard question: what happens when a nation keeps leaning into idolatry and still expects peace? Along the way, we see something many people miss about the judgment of God, it is never random, never careless, and never disconnected from his patience. 

Two early visions land with force because they touch everyday survival: locusts devouring the later crop and fire portraying drought that drains the land dry. Amos does what faithful leaders do, he prays, he pleads, and he asks how God’s people can stand. God relents, showing real mercy without pretending sin is harmless. Then the tone shifts as the plumb line appears, a simple tool that exposes a crooked wall. Israel’s spiritual collapse is measurable, and the confrontation at Bethel shows how quickly religious power tries to silence a voice that will not negotiate truth. 

The final images grow even more sobering: a basket of summer fruit signaling the end, a famine of hearing God’s words, and a temple collapse that shows no idolater can outrun accountability. And yet, the closing note is not bleak. God preserves a remnant, promises restoration, and points hope down the corridor of history toward Messiah, Jesus the Redeemer. If you’ve wrestled with repentance, justice, mercy, or what it means to hear God clearly, this conversation will meet you there. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Get instant, biblically faithful answers to your Bible questions. https://www.wisdomonline.org/ask

Learn more at https://www.wisdomonline.org/

Transcript

Mercy And Justice Together

SPEAKER_00 0:55

We tend to think of mercy and justice as sort of mutually exclusive. You either get justice or you get mercy, but you're certainly not going to get both of them at the same time. The truth is justice and mercy are attributes of God, and they are never in conflict in Him. God always acts justly, but He's also merciful. Well, how does that work? Well, we're given the answer here in the final three chapters in the book of Amos, and we're given these divine qualities of God, and they're shown in perfect balance. Now, if you've been with me on this wisdom journey through the prophecy of Amos, you know that Amos is focused on coming judgment, especially of the northern kingdom of Israel. Well, this theme is going to continue now in these final chapters, where God's revelation is given to his prophet, and through his prophet now in five different visions. Here's verse one of chapter seven. This is what the Lord God showed me. Behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout after the king's mowings. Now this first vision describes God sending a plague of locusts upon Israel. The latter growth that was just beginning to sprout, well, that's a reference to the second crop that came in in late summer. The king's mowings refers to the fact that the king has already taken his first cutting. Well, that's taxes to support the government. That means the loss of this later crop, one commentator explains, is going to leave the people without any food until the next harvest. Well, this second crop here is the one Amos sees destroyed by locusts sent by God, and he knows how serious this is going to be. As a result, he prays here in verse 2, O Lord God, please forgive. How can Jacob stand? In other words, how are we going to survive? He's wondering. Well, in response to his prayer, God withholds this particular judgment. One author said it this way that prayer made it possible for God justly to spare Israel in mercy. Now, in the second vision, here in verse 4, Amos sees God calling for a judgment by fire. Now, this is going to be a drought that exhausts the water supplies, it's going to leave the land barren, unable to produce any crops. And again, Amos prays, and once again, God withdraws this judgment. Now, not only do these first two visions reveal the heart of the prophet, who sees these forms of judgment as really too much for Israel to bear, but they also show us the mercy of God, don't they? Who's willing to allow a little more time for people to repent. Well, now with that we come to the third vision here in verse 7. Here the Lord is holding a plumb line against a wall. Now a plumb line was a piece of string with a weight at the bottom. It'd be held up to a wall to determine whether or not that wall was perfectly upright. Sometimes you can tell by looking at a fence post or a wall that it's crooked. You really don't need to use a plumb line. But the Lord says here in verse eight, Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will never again pass by them. Well, the Lord already knows this nation is crooked. It's not standing upright, as it were, like a crooked wall or a fence post. It's leaning, it's rebelling. God simply has to just, you know, he's going to pull it down and start over. The Lord says here in verse 9 that, well, he's going to pull down the house of Jeroboam, Israel's king. He's going to pull down the corrupt places of worship. Well, with this, there's no prayer. Amos isn't going to pray this time. He knows that God's judgment against the king and the nation is inevitable. Now the rest of chapter 7 sort of breaks away from the visions and it records an encounter Amos has at Bethel, which is one of the centers of Israel's false worship. Amaziah is the priest in charge over there, and he's heard these prophecies of Amos. Problem is this priest is crooked too. And he reports to the king that Amos is a traitor conspiring against the king. So when Amos shows up here at Bethel, Amaziah tells him here in verse 12 to move on to Judah and eat bread there. In other words, you need to leave here and go take your prophesying to Judah, and you need to leave us alone here in Israel. He even warns Amos here in verse 13, never again prophesy at Bethel. Well, that's because the king worships there. So this is really a threat on the life of Amos. Well, I got to tell you, Amos is no pushover. He answers that he's not a professional prophet. He's not even the son of a prophet. Verse 14 he says, I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. In other words, you're dealing with a man who was just a farmer, just a fig picker. But now notice verse 15. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go prophesy to my people, Israel. Amos is saying, I'm not some fancy prophet for hire. I didn't come from a long line of prophets. God called me to deliver his word. And frankly, beloved, that's what we need today. We need fewer professionals in the pulpits and more God called prophets who will deliver his word faithfully, no matter what. Well, now in chapter eight, we have the fourth vision. The Lord shows Amos a basket of summer fruit, and he gives him the meaning of it here in verse two. The end has come upon my people, Israel. See, the gathering of the summer fruit marked the end of the harvest. So Israel's end is fast approaching. And God gives Amos now four pictures that describe what's coming for Israel. Here in verse eight, it's an earthquake. Verse nine, it's darkness. Verse ten, here it's a it's a funeral. And then verses eleven to fourteen, it's a a tragic famine. By the way, this isn't a famine of bread and water, it's a tragic famine of the words of the Lord. In other words, God isn't going to speak to them anymore. Now the fifth and final vision is given here in the ninth chapter of Amos. Now here in verse 1, the Lord is standing beside the altar, that is the altar here in Bethel, this false altar. And then God speaks against the entire temple. He strikes the tops of the columns, the temple collapses, and all those who are involved in this idolatrous worship here are, many of them are killed. Those who survive this building collapse are then killed by the sword. In other words, none of these idolaters are going to escape the judgment of God. Now those who are carried into exile in Assyria die there by these Assyrian soldiers. Why? Why is this happening? Well, the Lord tells us here in verse 4, I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good. Beloved, this is the justice of God. Unrepentant sinners who choose other gods, even if they are among God's chosen people of Israel, well, they're going to be held accountable. But even here in the scene of justice, there again, there's this glimpse of mercy from God. In verse eight we read, Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, declares the Lord. The nation is either destroyed or sent into exile, but those who follow after God are going to be preserved, and they're going to be called a remnant. And then after all these words of condemnation and warning and judgment which were necessary, Amos, well, he shifts back in verse eleven to the promise of Israel's future restoration for these remnant, these who followed God. And here we see the glory of God's grace, we see his mercy, and now we see them working, in fact, hand in hand. We also see his faithfulness in keeping his promise to Abraham so that a repentant people will indeed one day become a great nation and enjoy the blessing of God in the land of promise. Well, these last few verses here in chapter nine look all the way down the corridor of history to the time when Israel's Messiah, Jesus the Redeemer, returns and reigns on earth. Yes, God has been just. Maybe he's waiting for you to repent. He's giving you one more day, one more opportunity to turn from your idols, your selfish desires, and ask him for forgiveness. Ask him for his mercy and grace. Do that today. Don't wait any longer. And I can tell you this you will never need to fear the justice of God. Well, until our next session together, beloved, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.