Last week as we began to listen to Amos’ message,
he gave us a summary of what he was going to say,
and it was something along the lines of this…
Have a look this…
Simpsons clip – Itchy and Scratchy the movie (chapter
4 – “oh, how convenient!”)
‘God is angry at people’s sin (and so) judgement is
coming.’
We then heard God announce that he was not going
to hold back his right anger at sin of the nations (for
three sins of____ or even for four I will not turn back
my wrath).
This week, as we start ch3, we find that the message
of judgement hasn’t changed!
Read Amos 3v1-2 “Hear this word the LORD has
spoken against you, O people of Israel – against the
whole family I brought out of Egypt. You only have I
chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will
punish you for all your sins.”
But come on… is God really going to punish people
for sin?
Is God’s threat of judgement really real?
Or is he just making BIG but empty threats.
Perhaps God won’t follow through with the promised
punishment. After all, we see that happen often
enough in life.
We are pretty used to empty threats aren’t we?
From our parents we hear things like “If you don’t
hurry up I’m going to leave you behind!”
Or how about “If you don’t look after your toys I’m
going to give them to another child who will look after
them!”
Big threats – but totally empty.
We’re used to our parents threatening punishments
that they will never follow through on.
We’re also pretty used to simple promises of
punishment not being kept.
So our teachers will often say things like “the next
person to make a sound is going to be sent out”. Now
usually that makes the class quieten down for a while,
but slowly the volume raises yet again. But instead of
sending the initial noise maker out, the teacher belts
out the same thing… “I’m warning you, the next
person to make a noise will be sent out!”
As a result of these experiences in life we get used to
promised punishment never actually arriving. We
come to assume that most announcements of
judgement will be empty and are there simply as a
deterrent.
And so as we come to hear the words of God’s
judgement through his prophet Amos we naturally
doubt the reality of what is threatened.
Perhaps chapters 1+2 were just BIG talk to scare
people.
God won’t really judge us – he’s just angry at sin, he
won’t really do anything about it!
And so we can often think that God’s bark is worse
than his bite!
That certainly seems to be what the people of Israel
are thinking as they receive these words from Amos.
And so Amos sets about in chapters 3+4 to leave the
people in no doubt – God is angry at sin and he will
punish it! There are no empty threats here!
v4b Does he (the lion) growl in his den when he has
caught nothing?
Answer? No!
v5 Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground where no
snare has been set?
Does a trap spring up from the earth when there is
nothing to catch?
Answers? No and no!
These mini test questions are simply there to help us
answer the bigger, final exam question.
Does God get angry at sin but then do nothing about
it?
Answer? NO!
God is angry at sin and he will punish it!
When a lion roars he roars at the prey he is about to
devour!
God isn’t all mouth and no action – his bark is only the
start of things – the bite will follow!
And to prove it Amos starts with some simple
questions (which even the thickest of Israelites and
Leylanders can’t fail to answer correctly).
We may well be faced with all sorts broken promises
of punishments in this life – but God will not break his.
v4a Does a lion roar in the thicket when he has no
prey?
Answer? No!
God isn’t making empty threats when he talks about
judgement.
God is angry at sin – he will punish it.
And so in v11 we have a little more of the punishment
spelt out to Israel.
Read v11 ‘Therefore (because they don’t know how to
do right v10) this is what the sovereign LORD says: “
An enemy will overrun the land; he will pull down your
strongholds and plunder your fortresses.” ‘
Israel’s materialistic and self centred ways will be
destroyed
Read v15 “I will tear down the winter house long with
the summer house; the houses adorned with ivory will
be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished”
declares the LORD.
The promised judgement is real and pretty
devastating!
Read 4v1-3 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on
mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor
and crush the needy and say to your husbands,
“Bring us some drinks!”
The sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness: “The
time will surely come when you will be taken away
with hooks, the last of you with fish hooks. You will
each go straight through the breaks in the wall and
you will be cast out toward Harmon,” declares the
Lord.
Read v12 ‘As a shepherd saves from the lions mouth
only two leg bones or a piece of ear, so will the
Israelites be saved”
There will be only mangled remains after this
judgement, and the remains only go to prove the
judgement. (apparently shepherds who looked after
their master’s sheep and lost one to a lion or other
predator, would have to prove that the sheep had
been killed rather than nicked by themselves! The
proof would be in showing the owner some remains –
a leg bone / piece of ear)
Israel’s idolatry will be wiped away
Read v14 “On the day I punish Israel for her sins I will
destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will
be cut off and fall to the ground.”
Clear and disastrous judgement on sin is promised by
God - and of course, with the advantage of hindsight
today, we know that an enemy does overrun Israel
and leaves behind nothing but mangled remains of a
nation.
God is angry at sin and will punish it. No empty
threats from God.
In fact if Israel needed more proof that God wasn’t
bluffing Amos goes on to show God’s punishment
track record, the times in the past when God has
disciplined Israel to try and direct them back to him.
snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to
me," declares the LORD.
Read 6 "I gave you empty stomachs in every city and
lack of bread in every town, yet you have not
returned to me," declares the LORD.
God’s people have no excuse to think that God is
bluffing about this coming judgement. He’s not like the
people we know who threaten judgement but never
follow through.
7 "I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was
still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but
withheld it from another. One field had rain; another
had none and dried up.
8 People staggered from town to town for water but
did not get enough to drink, yet you have not
returned to me," declares the LORD.
God has judged his people in the past hoping that
when he took away food or water or life or armies,
they would turn to him.
And yet time and again they continued to reject him.
They refused to return to God. They resisted coming
to him.
And that can be just like us.
9 "Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I
struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured
your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned
to me," declares the LORD.
10 "I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I
killed your young men with the sword, along with your
captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench
of your camps, yet you have not returned to me,"
declares the LORD.
11 "I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom
and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick
Bad things happen, tough times come.
Money problems, family problems, even
bereavement. God uses these things as a reminder to
come to him. Whether for the first time ever, or for the
hundredth.
God’s discipline is there to provoke people to turn to
him, to return, to come to the only one who is
powerful enough to save.
It’s a strange thing to get your head round at first – a
God of love using discipline to call people to himself.
But discipline is exactly what a good loving parent
exercises. To keep children in line, to keep them safe,
parents have to discipline them.
And so in the face of tough things in life, hard things,
we should always look to God for help.
This is one date in the diary that you can’t get out of.
We will all meet our maker, we cannot avoid or
escape the judgement of the almighty God (as we
saw in ch2 – the swift won’t escape, the warrior won’t
save his life etc).
God is angry at sin and he will judge.
3v6b When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord
caused it?
But the people still have not returned, and so now
God is angry at their persistent sin and will judge it.
They will come to God whether they like it or not, but
now instead of returning to him as Father, they will be
summoned to him as the judge.
Amos is at pains to get that message across – God
isn’t bluffing, he isn’t making empty threats! He sees
the sin that you and I do and he will not hold back his
right anger!
Have you thought about what you’re going to say
when you’re in the dock?
“Oh, I thought you were just bluffing”
12 "Therefore (because you ignored my discipline and
didn’t return to me) this is what I will do to you, Israel,
and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet
your God, O Israel."
Please listen when I say that it’s a risky business
living your life presuming that the warnings of God’s
judgement (like you’ve heard tonight) are empty
threats.
The God…
13 …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.
God sees the things that you do or don’t do, the
things you think, the things you say, and he knows
when people are all show and no substance.
That was the problem in 4v5
Don’t hear the words of these judgements and fail to
turn to God.
Don’t face the hard times in life and fail to turn to God.
One day there will be no more time to turn.
Prepare to meet your God!
Ho do we do that? Turn to him!
Because of what Jesus did on the cross it is possible
to heed the warnings of judgement, take them
seriously and do something about them.
Jesus took God’s anger at our sin so that we could
come to God.
The lion has roared – do you fear enough to do
something about it?