Amos - Judgment is Coming

The prophet Amos is letting people know that judgment is coming in chapters one and two of his prophecy. He looks around and he pronounces eight judgments. Six of these are against Gentile nations, then against Judah and then against Israel. The Lord is roaring like a lion. The storm is about to come, the earthquake is about to occur, as he tells us in verses one and two of chapter one.

Now he has already given the judgment on Syria, chapter one and verses three through five, and he says that there's a fire going to come and Damascus will be no more. Well, within twenty years, Damascus fell to Assyria and the prophecy of Amos came true. He judged Syria because of their cruelty to other people. They threshed Gilead with implements of iron. In other words, in some kind of invasion or some sort of war, they were cruel to the people. And God judges them.

Remember, he's not quoting the Ten Commandments to these Gentile nations. He's simply saying, why don't you act like human beings? Well, he went from the north, Damascus, down to the southwest to the country of the Philistines. And he talks about Gaza, and Ashdod, and Ashkelon, the key cities there on the coast. And the Philistines were always enemies of the people of Israel and the people of Judah. And in chapter one verses six, seven and eight, he tells the Philistines that God's going to judge them because they were buying and selling slaves. They were treating people like pieces of furniture instead of like human beings made in the image of God.

Then he moves up the coast to Tyre in chapter one of Amos, verses nine and ten. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Tyre and for four, I will not turn away its punishment. I will not cause it, that is the punishment coming, to return. It's not going to come back to me. Because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. But I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, which shall devour its palaces. Tyre was a key city up in Phoenicia, a very proud city, and it thought itself to be a very secure city. They liked to deal in slavery. They delivered up a whole captivity. They took one community after another captive, just swooped down upon them, and then sold these slaves to the Edomites.

Now that's an awful thing to do this to people, to treat people as though they were cattle or sheep. And yet this is going on today. Sometimes it's very subtle the way people are trapped and manipulated and sold into slavery. Sometimes it's spiritual slavery, sometimes it's mental slavery, sometimes it's economic slavery. People just can't help themselves because they don't have any resources at all. Be that as it may. God said to Tyre, you are going to be dealt with. I'm going to judge you because you have violated, you didn't remember, you violated the covenant of brotherhood.

Now what's he talking about? Well, David had a very good relationship with the people up in Tyre. In 2 Samuel, for example, we're told in chapter 5 verse 11, that Hiram, the king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees and carpenters and masons, and they built David a house. There was always a good relationship between King David and the people up in Tyre, the king up in Tyre. You find a similar statement with Solomon in 1 Kings chapter 5 and verse 1. Now, Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servants to Solomon because he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram had always loved David. And so Solomon told Hiram, send me the material needed. I want to build a temple to the Lord. And chapter five of 1 Kings, verse 12. So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together.

Now, there is your treaty, a treaty of brotherhood. Even though the people at Tyre were Gentiles and and David and Solomon and their people were Jews, there was a treaty of brotherhood there, a covenant. Well, what did the people up in Tyre do? They broke the covenant. Now it's bad enough that they broke the covenant, but the way they did it was terrible. It was a covenant of brotherhood. There is such a thing as all of us being made from one dust. And we do belong to each other. We're all made in the image of God. And even though someone may not be a believer in Jesus Christ, we are human beings and we need to love each other and help each other. If I'm driving down the highway, and I see somebody who has skidded off the highway and and gone into the snowbank in the ditch. I don't stop and give him an an examination in the catechism, find out what church he goes to. Here's a man who has a need. So we get out and help to push him out.

I recall one time my wife and I were driving up to Wisconsin to visit her family. And it was a snowy day and we skidded right off into a ditch full of snow. I thought, how are we going to get out of here? And just then a car stopped and three big husky men got out. They didn't ask me if I was a Baptist or a Presbyterian, or a Republican or a Democrat. They saw I had a need and they pushed the car out and I thanked them for it and away they went. There is a covenant of brotherhood. We do help people when there's a storm, an earthquake, when there's a need. We help people, when people are hungry, we help them. We do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, and to break that covenant of brotherhood is a serious thing.

They were selling whole communities into slavery and they weren't treating them as brothers and as sisters. And God dealt with them. You know, the city of Tyre thought it was impregnable. Nobody could ever, ever attack the city of Tyre. Well, Alexander the Great did it in the year 332. He scraped everything clean. That was the end right there. He just scraped it clean. Ezekiel chapter 26 promised that this was going to happen and it happened. God used Alexander just to wipe out the city of Tyre. Be sure your sin will find you out. Well, Syria was indicted for cruelty, Philistia for selling slaves, Tyre for taking captives and selling slaves.

Now we come to Edom. Amos chapter one and verses eleven and twelve. You see, we're moving now across country from Tyre down to Edom, all the way down to the southland. About as far down as you can go, you're almost off the map when you get down to Edom. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment. Because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity. His anger tore perpetually.

The Hebrew word for tore is the picture of a wild beast just tearing away at the prey. Perhaps you've seen that in a travel log. Here's an animal that just lands upon that innocent prey and just begins to tear it apart. They cast off all pity. His anger tore perpetually and he kept his wrath forever. But I will send a fire upon Teman which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah. And that's exactly what happened. You go down to Edom and all you find is Petra. These cities are no longer functioning. You don't find anybody down there. The Edomites have passed off the scene because God fulfilled his judgment.

Now Edom, you will recall, came from Esau. Esau founded the Edomite dynasty, the Edomite nation. And Esau and Jacob did not get along with each other. We have here a spirit of revenge that went on for years. Esau did not like Jacob. Oh, they had a sort of making up at one point. But it never really lasted. In fact, when the Jewish people were leaving Egypt and on their wilderness journey, the Edomites would not cooperate with them. Numbers chapter 20. Now Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the King of Edom. Thus says your brother Israel. Get that. You know all the hardship that has befallen us. And he tells about how they were in Egypt.

Now verse 17, please, let us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from the wells. We will go along the king's highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory. Here is a brother asking a brother. Here's a relative asking a relative, can we just simply walk through your country? Edom said to him, you shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you with the sword. And Moses tried again, we will not take anything from you. If we drink your water, we'll pay for it. If we eat any of your food, we'll pay for it. And they said, you shall not pass. So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory. So Israel turned away from him. As much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. You don't have to see two nations that are related. Just look at two families that are related. It's sad the way people will not help a brother, a cousin, an aunt, an uncle, a brother, a sister. The animosity, the anger, the perpetual spirit of revenge that seems to exist in some families.

Now let's not be critical of the Edomites. Let's just talk about our families, our churches. There are people who are carrying grudges against pastors who pastored in the church twenty years ago. They'll never forgive them. They've cast off all pity. They act like wild beasts. They go around perpetually filled with wrath. In fact, when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, the Edomites and the others who were associated with them, just were so happy. They were applauding. In the book of Obadiah, he condemns the Edomites for their violence against Jacob. They stood on the other side during the captivity and and they were rejoicing. Obadiah verse 12, but you should not have gazed on the day of your brother. That means gloated over it in the day of his captivity, nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction.

Are you happy when people in your family that you don't like, go through difficulty or do you go and help them? Are you like the Edomites, you can't go through my land, you can't walk on my territory? Well, we don't know what this particular thing was. There was some kind of pursuing and killing. The Edomites must have done some raiding in the land, killing the Jews. What finally happened to the Edomites? God wiped them out. They destroyed themselves really. All that's left there now is that rose-red city of Petra. And you can go down there and see it, but you will not find the Edomites because they are gone. They cast off all pity. Do you pity people who have needs? Do you want to help them? The Edomites should have said to the Jews, hey, we pity you, you've been through so much. Sure, come through. If you need water, we'll give it to you. You need food, we'll be glad to sell it to you. Come on through. No. They said you're not coming through our territory. When we close our boundaries to others, we are only destroying ourselves. And throughout the history of Edom, you find anger, you find no pity, you find wrath, and you'll find ultimate judgment.

Now at the end of Amos chapter one, he delivers his final indictment against the Ammonites. He'll get to the Moabites in chapter two. Both of these came from Lot. Genesis chapter 19. When Lot in his carnality was up there in the cave with his two unmarried daughters and they thought the whole world had been destroyed when they saw Sodom and Gomorrah go up in smoke. And so they made their father drunk and they committed incest with him and two baby boys were born and one became the father of the Ammonites, the other became the father of the Moabites. And God says in his law that an Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord until the tenth generation. In other words, I don't want them. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of the people of Ammon and for four, I will not turn away its punishment because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead that they may enlarge their territory. They killed innocent women and unborn children in order to get more property.

Now remember, property in that day meant money. They didn't care how they got the money. They killed people. The people who peddle dope, they don't care how they get their money. It doesn't make any difference to them that these teenagers are are killing themselves. All they want is money. By the way, before we condemn soldiers for killing the unborn, let's stop to think of what we're doing in abortion in our world today. How many millions of unborn babies are being killed just because somebody wants to get more territory? Somebody wants to make more money. Somebody doesn't want to be bothered. It's a sad thing, isn't it? We read this and say, how could they do that? Go into Gilead, find these innocent women and just rip them open and kill the women and the babies. It sounds horrible. It is horrible, but it's going on regularly today as we abort innocent babies.

But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, it shall devour its palaces amid shouting in the day of battle and a tempest in the day of the whirlwind. He said a storm of judgment is coming. He talked about that storm in chapter one verse two, didn't he? A whirlwind is coming, a tempest is coming. Their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together. And that's what happened. The Assyrians came down upon the Ammonites and that was the end of the Ammonites. You'll notice chapter two verse one. He's gone from Edom to Ammon and then to Moab. And remember the Ammonites and the Moabites were the descendants of Lot, Genesis chapter 19, born out of his incestuous relationship with his two daughters.

Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Moab and for four, I will not turn away its punishment. God did not have much good to say about Moab. You remember he said in the Psalms, Moab is my washpot. That's where I throw out my garbage. He did not look very highly upon the Moabites. Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime.

Let's stop right there. The Edomites were not very special people either. They had their sins. But here was a people who had no respect for the dead and no respect for a king. Apparently what happened is there'd been some kind of invasion and the Moabites invaded the Edomites and they probably got a hold of where the king was buried. They dug him up and publicly disgraced the government, disgraced the king. And desecrated a grave by burning the body to lime.

Now remember, he's speaking here to Gentiles. He's not talking to Jewish people. There were laws in the Jewish economy to take care of this kind of thing, but Amos does not cite any law because God had not given these laws to the Moabites and the Ammonites and so forth. He gave them to his own people. Here was a spirit of revenge. They had no respect for the dead, and they had no respect for authority. This corpse was that of a king. And they had no respect for previous generations.

Oh, we see a lot of that today. I do a good deal of reading and studying, and I've noticed that regularly somebody writes a book debunking some hero. We thought that Abraham Lincoln was a great hero or we may have thought that a certain king or prime minister was a great hero. Then along comes somebody writing a book. They dig up the corpse and they burn it to lime. No respect for previous generations. No respect for the dead. No respect for authority. It was a terrible thing back in those days to desecrate a grave. If you really wanted to get somebody angry, you'd go into their cemetery and desecrate the graves. But they did this. People of Moab did this to the Edomites. I will send fire upon Moab, it shall devour the palaces of Kirioth.

By the way, there are some people who think that maybe Judas came from down there. That the name Iscariot, Judas Iscariot is really a combination of the Hebrew word ish, which means man, and Kirioth, a man of Kirioth. We can't prove that, but it's interesting to think about. Moab shall die with tumult. Moab shall go out with a bang. No, Moab shall go out with a big noise, with shouting and trumpet sound. And I will cut off the judge from its midst and slay all its princes with him, says the Lord.

Notice the connection here. The Moabites moved in on Edom and they were blowing the trumpets and making a big noise and shouting and they dug up the king, got him out of his tomb and they burned his body and said, we are the victors. We have no respect for this man's authority. Well, he said, the day's going to come when your judges will have no authority, when your princes will be dead. You see, we get what we give. If you want people to criticize you, criticize them. If you want them to love you, love them. This is not politics. This is not how to win friends and influence people. No, no. It simply says what you give is what you get. Give and it shall be given to you. If you give out meanness, you'll get meanness back. It'll ultimately come. They desecrated the grave. They had no respect for the king. And God says, all right, the day's going to come to you, Moab, when your princes will not be respected and when you will not be shouting and triumphing and blowing your trumpets. Now you'll be hearing the trumpet blow. You'll be hearing the shouting of the enemy as they come in. And this actually happened because the Babylonians swooped down upon the Moabites and wiped them out. You'd have a hard time finding a Moabite today. I don't care how hard you may look. They were cultivating a spirit of revenge and they showed it in the most despicable manner.

Beware of revenge. If you're going to have an enemy, pick a good one because fighting a battle against an enemy is a very costly thing. You don't want to waste your money, waste your time, waste your energy. Pick a real good enemy. Because it's going to destroy you in the end. It's interesting to note that God reached into Moab and found a little girl named Ruth. She was a a girl from Moab. And she became a convert to the true God of Israel. You read about it in the book of Ruth. And Ruth was an ancestress of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it beautiful the way God does that? The people of Moab had sinned against the Lord and God judged them. But centuries before, God had chosen a little girl named Ruth and said, I want you to be one of the ancestresses of my son when he comes into this world.