THE TIGHTENING NOOSE Amos 1-3 Lesson for January 12-13, 2013 Scott Susong INTRODUCTION/BIBLICAL/HISTORICAL CONTEXT We have just finished a study of Hosea and today we begin the Book of Amos. Before we get into the details let s get a bird s eye view of what is going on in Israel and the role of the prophet at this time in Israel s history. Israel had been chosen by God to be His missionaries to the world. Through the Jews would come the word of God and the Son of God, Jesus Christ. But, instead of being a shining light to the nations Israel had allowed spiritual darkness to creep in as evidenced by 4 things: (1) false religion which included idolatry (2) materialism/greed (3) immorality and (4) legal injustice corrupt officials taking bribes, etc. Sound familiar?! God s remedy was the prophets. The prophets were sent by God as missionaries to the missionaries. The word prophet comes from the root word which means to speak on behalf of. The prophets were literally spokesmen for the Lord God. Their main function was to call the nation to repent of their sins and return to the Lord or face judgment. Interwoven in their ethical preaching are numerous predictions of future events concerning Israel, the Gentiles and the Messiah. The prophet Amos was one of God s choice servants. He prophesied circa 760 B.C. This lesson will include an introduction to the man himself. I. THE COUNTRY PREACHER WHO CAME TO THE CITY, Amos 1:1 A. Who is the man? The name Amos is related to a verb which means to bear a load or burden. The message of a prophet of God many times was called a burden in the sense that it weighed heavily on the prophet and he needed to unload the message. Amos was from the little village of Tekoa which was about 12 miles SE of Jerusalem. His occupation: he was a herdsman of sheep, a country boy! If he was alive today he would drive a pick-up truck with tools and muddy boots in the back. In 7:14 Amos described himself as someone who was not trained in the schools of the prophets but a simple sheep herder and a grower of sycamore figs. However, he was called by God to prophesy concerning Israel and Judah and that is what he would do. B. When did he prophesy? Verse 1 tells us that it was during the reigns of Uzziah and Jereboam. Uzziah was king of Judah from 767 to 739 B.C. Jereboam was king of Israel from 782 to 753 B.C. Verse 1 also says that it was 2 years before the earthquake but that date is unknown. C. Why did he prophesy? Under these 2 kings both Israel and Judah enjoyed comfort & safety from enemies, wealth and prosperity. This resulted in: pride, luxurious living, self-indulgence, greed and moral decay. Thus the need for a call to repentance from the Lord thru Amos.
I love Chuck Swindoll s description of Amos a rough, raw-boned shepherd who was about as subtle as a Mack truck on the Los Angeles-Santa Ana freeway. He was tactless, unsophisticated, loud, uneducated, and uncooperative. His name was Amos. That was no problem. He was a preacher. That was a problem. He didn t fit the image but he refused to let that bother him. [from Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life by Chuck Swindoll, Multnomah Press, 1983, page 109] II. HERE COMES THE JUDGE!, 1:2 This verse is the theme of the book of Amos. Amos does not pull any punches or beat around the bush he brings it! The Lord roars from Zion and from Jerusalem He utters His voice. Zion is another term for Jerusalem. Even though His judgment included the Gentile nations, judgment always originates at the house of the Lord and includes God s people. The prophet Joel had used this exact phrase in Joel 3:16. His purpose is to alarm the sinners in Israel and Judah; to awaken them from the foolish idea that they were secure, that God would only judge the heathen nations. Not so! The Lord roars from Zion as a lion roars before it devours its prey. In Amos 3:4 he says Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? The obvious answer is no. In 3:8 he says A lion has roared! Who will not fear? This is not a feel good message! This is not their best life now! God wanted to get their attention thus He roared but as so often is the case people were not listening. The second half of verse 2 And the shepherds pasture grounds mourn, and the summit of Carmel dries up. As a result of the Lord roaring in judgment, all the land would mourn, from the shepherds pastures in the lowlands to the top of Mt. Carmel in the north. Carmel was rich in pastures, oliveyards and vineyards. If Carmel withers, then destruction will be great to the rest of the land, too. III. JUDGMENTS ON THE NATIONS, 1:3 2:3 These are judgments on the nations surrounding Israel and Judah. Each section starts with the formula, For three transgressions of (name of nation) and for four I will not revoke its punishment. Amos then lists the specific sins of that nation. By name he mentions in order: Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab. We will not look at the details but with each nation Amos followed this outline i. He declares that judgment is coming. ii. He defends the judgment by explaining the reason for it. iii. He describes the coming judgment. Now, here s a really interesting thing about the judgments on those nations and the order in which they are listed. If you look on a map, taking the order as listed, it looks like an ever tightening noose drawing closer and closer around Israel.
One writer described it in this way: The prophet began with the distant city of Damascus and, like a hawk circling its prey, moved in ever-tightening circles, from one country to another, till at last he pounced on Israel. [T.E. McComiskey as quoted by Tom Constable in his Notes on Amos, page 7] We need not look at the detailed sins of the other nations. They were judged and punished for physical atrocities and sins against humanity, nature and conscience. No doubt Israel was applauding the fact that the nations were being judged until the Lord tightened the noose around them! Judah and Israel were judged for something much more serious than the Gentile nations: they sinned against the revealed will of God. IV. JUDGMENT ON JUDAH, 2:4-5 Both Judah and Israel thought they were secure and exempt from God s judgment how wrong they were! Verse 4 notice the very first offense mentioned: they had rejected the law of the Lord and had not kept or obeyed His statutes. Laws and statutes consisted of the ceremonial and moral commands of the Lord. These were all of the instructions and commandments God had given them as the rule of life. Notice: they were and are commands NOT suggestions! APPLICATION: There are many commands in scripture both in the OT and NT. Jesus gives us as believers many commands love one another, be His witnesses, make disciples, etc. Again, these are not suggestions or guidelines - they are commands which He expects us to obey! We cannot cherry pick which to obey and which to let slide! He has not given us that option. The next offense, also in verse 4, is that their lies have led them astray. This word for lies could also mean false gods. They were walking in or living the lie of idolatry instead of the one true God. Walking after is the standing expression for idolatry. Idols are called lies because they are nonentities there is no reality in them and therefore they are totally unable to perform whatever is expected of them. The fathers to whom Amos refers were the forefathers of Israel who practiced idolatry going all the way back to the desert/wilderness wanderings. An element of idolatry seemed always present even under the godliest of leaders: Joshua, Samuel, David and part of Solomon s reign.[some of this paragraph is based on the Commentary on the Old Testament by Keil & Delitzsch, volume 10, page 251-252] APPLICATION: You may be thinking, I don t have a carved image on my mantel at home that I light candles and pray to therefore, I am not involved in idolatry I am much too sophisticated for that! If you look to anything other than the Lord for peace, security or happiness then that thing can become an idol for you. Verse 5 Amos announces the consequences of their sin God will send fire on Judah. The Babylonian army would one day burn Jerusalem to the ground and take thousands of captives to Babylon for a period of 70 years. This happened in 586 B.C., almost 200 yrs after Amos wrote this
prophecy. However, this was not the end for the Jews God in His mercy allowed a remnant to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the nation and the temple. V. JUDGMENT ON ISRAEL, 2:6-8 Amos lists 4 specific crimes i. Bribery Verse 6: they sell the righteous for money and the needy for a pair of sandals. This is specifically the bribery of judges in cases of the innocent and the poor. ii. The oppression of the poor verse 7a. They would long to see the head of the poor covered with dust because of their misery. People in this culture would put dust or ashes on their head as a sign of mourning and/or misery. iii. Profaning the Name of God because of shameless sexual immorality verse 7b. This was the despicable practice of fathers and sons visiting the same cult prostitute. This was the double sin of immorality and idolatry not to mention the fact that fathers were being such poor examples to their sons! iv. Open idolatry verse 8. This involved wealthy men taking debtors garments as pledges, not returning them as the law required, then visiting pagan altars, stretching out on those garments and getting drunk on wine purchased with money they extracted from the poor! In 2:9-12 Amos reminds them of their glorious past in which the Lord blessed them over & over again. But, instead of being humbled the people rebelled against the Lord In 2:13-16 Amos closes this message by announcing their terrible future: judgment! VI. THE CALL OF AMOS, 3:6-8 No doubt at this point in Amos ministry those who heard him were saying, Who is this country bumpkin who tries to teach & preach to us? How dare he who does he think he is? Where does he get his authority? By the way, the religious leaders said the same things to and about Jesus. Amos answer was simple: God had called him. He argued from effect to cause thru a series of questions in verses 3-6. For instance, in verse 3 the effect: 2 men walk together; the cause: they made an appointment. Verse 4 the effect: a lion roars; the cause: he has prey, and so forth thru verse 6. Verse 7 The Lord does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. The prophets spoke what God told them to speak nothing more, nothing less. Amos is saying that God speaks thru the prophets and true prophets of the Lord do not create the message, they do not edit the message, they do not make it more seeker friendly - they relay exactly what the Lord has given them. Verse 8b God has spoken; what else do you do but prophesy!
Amos point: if God uses an untrained country boy it is because God has called him! In 7:14-15 Amos says that this was not a vocation he would have chosen for himself I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet. But, he goes on to say, God told him to prophesy so that is what he must do. CONCLUSION/LIFE APPLICATION The Lord was going to judge the Gentile nations but in so doing, He tightened the noose around His own people: Judah and Israel. They felt that because they were enjoying peace and prosperity they were exempt from God s judgment, that all was OK. Not so! In the summer of 2011 I was sitting in a seminar here at our church conducted by a speaker from out of town. At the close of the last session he asked us what we would want to pray for our church. Immediately a woman on the front row jumped up and blurted out, we need revival! Now, please forgive me for being a skeptic but when people say such things I am skeptical. It s not that I disagree with her but I wonder if she has a clue of what she is talking about. Anyway, I will never forget the leader s response. He looked at her and said Madam, that s great. Draw a circle, stand in the middle of it and ask the Lord to bring revival to the person in the circle. I wanted to shout and laugh out loud at the same time! Do you see what he was saying? When we say things like our church needs revival or our country needs revival we really mean that other people need to be revived. That is what Israel thought, too those pagan nations need revival or for God to judge them. No spiritual revival always begins with God s people, with you & me! Draw that circle, get in it and pray for the Lord to revive you and he will!