Be Concerned - Amos - Continued Warnings

"Woe to you who put far off the day of doom. Who cause the seat of violence to come near. Who lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on your couches, eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who chant to the sound of stringed instruments and invent for yourselves musical instruments like David. Who drink wine from bowls and anoint yourselves with the best ointments, but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. He's talking here about people who live in luxury."

I have a hard time understanding how a true born-again Christian can live in luxury. Now, live comfortably, that's all right. Find out at what level of comfort God wants you to live and live there. And then take whatever else he gives you and share it with others.

I think it's important that we measure our lives by proportion, not just by portion. We say, well, we give our tithe to the Lord. That may not be enough. That's a good place to start, but that may not be enough. You see, in the eyes of the rest of the world, American Christians are wealthy.

Some of you have not had the privilege of traveling to other nations and seeing the way they live. They look upon us and they say, we are wealthy. They look at American television, which unfortunately is exported over there, and they say, my, those Christians over there, they are wealthy, living in luxury.

Let's notice what he says here. They were living for that hour. Woe to you who put far off the day of doom. Now, Amos has been talking about a coming day of judgment. The other prophets talked about it. But these people are saying, no, we're going to live for today. Don't think about tomorrow. Don't think about the budget next week or next year. Just go into debt if necessary, and just leave it to the future, but live for today.

They were living for the hour. They were getting up in the morning and saying, well, the day of judgment will not come today. Our Lord gave a parable about a man who said, my Lord delays his coming. And he began to eat and drink with the drunken, began to live like a worldly heathen, and then the Lord showed up and he was embarrassed. They were living for the hour. Calamity is not going to come too soon.

Look at Amos 9:10. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, the calamity shall not overtake us, nor confront us. It can't happen here. Oh, it could never happen to Christians who believe the fundamentals of the word of God. Oh, it can't happen to our nation. After all, we were founded by godly people. Well, he says, you are living for the day. You're living for the hour. You are not really conscious of the fact that the day of doom is coming.

Not only that, they were living by violence. Who caused the seat of violence to come near? I think we have two meanings to this phrase. One is, the seat of violence, the throne of violence, it means that there is violence enthroned in the land. What is the greatest power in the land? Not righteousness, violence.

How are these people getting all of their wealth? Through violence. They're violently diverting the poor from justice at the gate, Amos 5:12. They will not listen to rebuke at the gate, Amos 5:10. They are robbing the poor and keeping it. Throughout this entire prophecy, Amos says violence is leading to trouble, you're getting illegal profits, you are growing because you are grinding down the poor. You walk on their faces, you push them down into the dust.

I think that's one meaning of that phrase. They are causing violence to reign in the land. But secondly, they are bringing near by their sin a reign of terror. This is the way one translation presents it. You are bringing near a reign of terror. Go on, enjoy today, but you're just bringing near a reign of terror. You are just adding up more and more sin. And it's going to catch up with you. You're living by violence. You are not living for the Lord.

Woe to the ignorant. You think the day of the Lord is going to be a wonderful Sunday school picnic. Woe to the indifferent. You are living selfishly and at ease, and you're not concerned about what is coming. Woe to the indulgent. You're living for the hour. You're not thinking about the future.

Let's stop right now and think, Jesus is coming again. Now we don't know when. And we don't make that a test of fellowship. Good and godly people disagree on some of these things, but all of us agree on one thing, Jesus is coming again. Now, in the light of the fact that Jesus is coming again, how should we be spending our time? How should we be using our financial resources? What should our local churches be doing? What should our families be doing?

What's the best thing we can do with our lives today in view of the fact that Jesus is coming again? In view of the fact that a day of the Lord is coming in which everything's going to burn up. Are we living for the things that are going to burn up? Are we putting heart and soul and treasures into things that aren't going to last?

Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust will not corrupt and where thieves cannot break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

We're living in a world that is violent, violent. We have kidnappings, we have people held hostage, we have people shot in their homes, on the streets. We're living in a violent world. We are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world, but you'd never know it. Living for the hour, living by violence, and living for pleasure in Amos 6:4-6.

He describes the luxury of these people. Amos 6:4, "who lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on your couches." The word stretch out is a Hebrew word that means poured out. You're just poured out on your couches, you're just lounging there. The Assyrian army is getting ready to come down, but you're lounging on your couches.

Now, the peasants, the common people slept on the ground. They wrapped themselves up in their robe, their cloak, and they slept on the ground. Oh, but these wealthy people are lying on beds of ivory and they're stretching out on their couches. They're lounging in a day of crisis. They're sleeping through a revolution, and enjoying it, enjoying it.

By the way, it's rather interesting that archaeologists have done a good deal of digging down in Samaria. Some years ago they uncovered what they've called the Samaria ivories.

Chester C. McCown in his book, The Ladder of Progress in Palestine: "The recent expedition found hundreds of fragments scattered over almost the entire city. They were as a rule, smashed into tiny atoms, but many were fairly large. Evidently, they had been used as inlay on furniture and on wooden walls." And of course, Amos talks about the ivory furniture. He also talks about the expensive houses that are decorated with ivory.

Nothing wrong with nice furniture. Nothing wrong with having a decent house, but when you indulge in the pleasures of life and forget the one who makes that possible, it is idolatry and ingratitude and iniquity. 1 Timothy 6:17 tells us that God gives to us richly all things to enjoy. He wants us to enjoy life. He wants us to enjoy the good things that he has made for us.

But he wants these gifts to be windows through which we see the Lord, not mirrors in which we see ourselves. And they were enjoying leisure. Eating lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall. Expensive meat. The calves were not allowed to run around in the pasture. They didn't want grass-fed veal, they wanted corn-fed veal. They had to have the most expensive meat.

And of course, they had to have their entertainment. My, we live today in a world of entertainment. People don't know the difference between enjoyment, enrichment and entertainment. Enjoyment is a blessed thing. God gives us joy. In your presence is fullness of joy. Enrichment comes when you mix enjoyment with God. Oh, when you can enjoy the things of life and bring God into them, that's enrichment.

Entertainment is that shallow substitute that diverts you from your worries for an hour or two, and then you come back in worse shape than you started. It's good to have the enrichment of life. We can do all things to the glory of God. You can enjoy a vacation to the glory of God. You can go fishing to the glory of God. You can even watch a ball game to the glory of God, if God is there with you and you're doing it to please him.

But when you leave God out, then you don't have enrichment. You don't even really have lasting enjoyment. All you have is entertainment, it comes and goes, it's cheap, it's shallow. It stimulates you for a while and then it leaves you wanting something else.

When you leave God out, then you don't have enrichment. You don't even really have lasting enjoyment. All you have is entertainment, it comes and goes, it's cheap, it's shallow. It stimulates you for a while and then it leaves you wanting something else.

"Who chant to the sound of stringed instruments, and invent for yourselves musical instruments like David." David not only wrote songs, but he made instruments for the playing of these songs. The Hebrew word translated chant in Amos 6:5 is rather interesting. It means to speak rapidly without reflection. Thoughtless speech. Basically it means to rattle or to quaver.

In other words, their music was more sound than sense. Here we have the people of Samaria, the people of Israel, who have all these instruments and they're inventing new instruments, and they're writing new songs, they're improvising on their instruments, but it's more noise than it is music. That sounds rather contemporary, doesn't it?

Now add to this their drunkenness, who drink wine from bowls. Most people drank wine from cups, but they used bowls. And the word for bowls here is the word that's used for the basins that were used in the service of the temple. I hope they were not taking things from God and using them for their drunken parties.

"Who anoint yourselves with the best ointments." Now we've moved into cosmetics. I'm not criticizing the judicious use of beauty aids, but the word used here for best ointments is the same word in the Hebrew as is used in Exodus 30:23 for the holy anointing oil, and the holy spices used in the temple and the tabernacle. I trust they were not using God's recipe for their own personal use.

Woe to you who indulge yourselves. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. He adds in Amos 6:6, "but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." There's no concern. They're living for pleasure, they're living without concern. It doesn't concern them that the poor people are being exploited. It doesn't concern them that the courts are unjust. It doesn't concern them that the politicians are corrupt. It doesn't concern them even that judgment is coming. They think that they can get away with it.

But notice what Amos 6:7 says. "Therefore they shall now go captive as the first of the captives." Now tie that back to Amos 6:1. "Woe to you who are at ease in Zion and trust in Mount Samaria." Notable persons, same word. First persons, chief people in the nation. Notable persons in the chief nation. These first people will be the first captives. Those who recline at banquet shall be removed.

You see, it's going to be the end of the feasting and the lounging, and the beginning of captivity and hunger and sorrow and death. But while they're doing all this, they say, well, judgment's not going to come. Woe to you who put far off the day of doom. They were living arrogantly. He said, this is it. I'm going to deliver up the city and the city is going to be taken.

Now in Amos 6:9-14, we have a threefold judgment. We've just had a threefold woe, woe to the ignorant and woe to the indifferent and woe to the indulgent. Now he says, I'm going to give a threefold judgment. I'm going to deliver up the city. All right, what's going to happen, Amos? I'll tell you what's going to happen. Amos 6:9-10, death. Amos 6:11-13, destruction. Amos 6:13-14, disgrace and defeat.

Let's start with death. Then it shall come to pass that if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. Now where'd these ten men come from? Well, back in Amos 5:3, "The city that goes out by a thousand shall have a hundred left." "And that which goes out by a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel." So here are ten men left. Ninety of their companions died. Where do they go? They come running back to the house and they're hiding and they die. They die from what? A plague.

And when a kinsman of the dead with one who will burn the bodies, picks up the bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to one inside the house, "Are there any more with you?" And then someone will say, "None." And he will say, "Hold your tongue, for we dare not mention the name of the Lord."

Kind of a strange verse, isn't it? But let's see what it's talking about. The word kinsman means uncle. A plague has come and people are dying like flies. And that's why they want to burn the bodies. Here we have the horrors of a siege. There is hunger, there's pestilence, and the family dies, the people die. The only kinsman left is an uncle.

Now you would hope that when somebody died, a father, a mother, a son, a daughter could come, a brother or a sister could come to perform the last rights. No, all we have left is an uncle. And he comes with the one who's in charge of burning the bodies, and they come into this house and here are ten corpses, families gone. That's tragic, isn't it?

That's the consequence of sin. The wages of sin has always been death, it always will be death. And then he finds that hiding somewhere in the house is one live person. And he says, "Are there any more with you?" And he'll say, "None." And then perhaps he's going to start to say something else. Maybe, "None, praise the Lord, I'm alive!" Or, "None, thank the Lord that you came!" But when he starts to mention the name of the Lord, the man says, "Hush! Be quiet! We dare not mention the name of the Lord."

Why? Well, because they're afraid that God would judge them. Be careful. You see, the Jews were very cautious about mentioning God's name. They would not use the name Jehovah. They always substituted Adonai. So that mentioning the name of God was a very sacred thing. But here's a man who's alive.

Now we have some plagues going through the world today. I don't have to name them. And there are people who have escaped the plague and they're going to say, oh, I'm so glad. But the man is going to say, be careful, you may be the next one. Don't use the name of the Lord too lightly, too loosely. He may judge you.

Then destruction. Amos 6:11-12. "For behold, the Lord gives a command, he will break the great house into bits," that means atoms, "and the little house into pieces." It's an interesting statement that he makes here, and it certainly goes right along with what we read from our archaeologist friend, our report. It says they were as a rule, that is these pieces of ivory, they were as a rule smashed into tiny atoms.

That's the word he uses here. So here are the great houses that people paid for by gouging the poor, by robbing the poor, by being crooked in their business dealings. Here are the great houses. And what's God do to them? Breaks them down to atoms. You can't tell them from the dust. The little houses he breaks into pieces.

Now, why does he do this? In Amos 6:12, Amos uses some agricultural imagery. He's teaching us a lesson. Let's get it now. Do horses run on rocks? Now, the answer to that is no, because they'll slip and fall. Horses are very, very careful when they are on rocks because they can't get the kind of traction and hold that they need.

And so the answer is no, they don't. That would be a foolish thing to do. Common sense says you don't run your horse on the rock. Does one plow there with oxen? In other words, do you plow on the rocks? Of course you don't. The plow will be broken. You can't sow on the rocks. Common sense says you don't do this.

Now, common sense tells you, don't disobey God. When you disobey God, you're running on the rocks, you're plowing on the rocks, yet you have turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. What's he saying?

He's simply saying here that you think you can get away with it. You are foolish. You have a false confidence. You've taken the justice of God, which is the medicine of society to heal its diseases, its corruptions. You've taken the medicine and turned it into poison, into wormwood. And you are taking the fruit of righteousness that ought to produce more righteousness, and you're turning justice and righteousness into wormwood and gall. Now that doesn't make sense. It's just as foolish as a farmer plowing on the rocks. No good can come from it.

Finally, there's disgrace and defeat. Amos 6:13-14. "You who rejoice over Lo-debar." That was one of their victories in fighting Syria. Who say, "have we not taken Carnaim for ourselves, by our own strength?" Oh, they were reading the record and they had won so many battles. "Behold, I will raise up a nation against you, oh house of Israel," says the Lord God of hosts, "and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath," that's up in the north; "to the valley of the Arabah," that's down in the south.

The whole country is going to fall to the Assyrians. Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Death, destruction, disgrace, and defeat. And what was the cause of all of this? Foolishness and sin, rebelling against God, living in luxury, living for pleasure, living without concern for the needy of the land.