Be Concerned - Amos - The Ignorant, The Indifferent, The Indulgent

Amos was a man who was not afraid to say, "Hear the word of the Lord." He's been expressing a threefold woe over the people of Israel, sort of a lament, a funeral dirge, in Amos 5:16-27. "Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord," Amos 5:18. And then in Amos 6:1-2, "Woe to you who are at ease in Zion," Amos 6:3. "Woe to you who put far off the day of doom."

Now he's addressing three kinds of people here, the ignorant, "Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord," and you don't even understand what the day of the Lord is. He's also speaking to the indifferent, "Woe to you who are at ease in Zion," complacent, secure, unconcerned.

Finally he pronounces a woe upon those who are indulgent, Amos 6:3-8. "You who are lying on beds of ivory and stretched out on your couches," the Hebrew word there is poured out, "you're poured out on your couches." You're just lounging all over the place and you don't realize that around the corner, judgment is coming and those couches are going to be smashed into pieces.

"Woe to the ignorant." Now he had pointed ahead in Amos 5:16-20. Pointed ahead to the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is that period of time when God is going to judge his enemies and he's going to establish his kingdom on earth. Now Israel thought of the day of the Lord only as kingdom glory for the Jews. They didn't realize it was going to involve judgment as well.

The day of the Lord was typified by what Assyria did to Israel and what Babylon did to Judah. The day of the Lord will be realized when God starts to judge this world. Today is not a day of judgment, it's a day of grace. God in his grace is saying, "Be reconciled to God." But there will come a day when the lamb will become the lion, and he will roar, even as Amos says, the lion has roared.

So he points ahead to the day of the Lord. And he says it's going to be a day of despair, mourning, it's going to be a day of darkness, and it's going to be a day of doom. You're going to try to run away. A man runs away from a lion and meets a bear. Then he runs away from the bear and goes into the house and pantingly leans against the wall and a serpent bites him. Death got him in the end and he couldn't run away from it. The inevitable is going to come. He points ahead.

Then he points around in Amos 5:21-24. People were saying, "Now just a minute, Amos, we are God's covenant people." We belong to the Lord. He called us out of Egypt. Well, Amos had already talked about that and reminded them that that calling brought responsibility.

Amos 3:1-2. "Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities." Your privileges bring you responsibilities. And the fact that you are the chosen of God means you're going to be the chastened of God because whom the Lord loves, he chastens.

Oh, but they say, "Now Amos, you are confused. Look around. Just look around and see that the chapels are filled. Go to Bethel, go to Gilgal, go to Beersheba and see how the big crowds are coming to the conferences. And notice the annual report, we have more members than ever before and we're building lovely houses and buildings and we have a bigger budget than ever before. Why look around, you are seeing religious revival."

And Amos said, "Your problem is you can't see. You don't see the way God sees. I see a famine of the word of God. Why? Because religion is popular." And whenever religion becomes popular, watch out. Campbell Morgan used to say that when the church was the most unlike the world, the church did the most for the world. And that's true. Read church history.

Notice what he says in Amos 5:21-24 as he points around at their religious gatherings. God says, "I hate, I despise your feast days." Now wait just a minute. It was God who established those feast days. Leviticus 23. Passover and first fruits and Pentecost and the feast of harvest. All of these were established by God. They were God's feasts. No, he says they are your feast days, not mine. You aren't using those days to glorify me and to become more of what I want you to be.

There is a reference here to Leviticus 26:31. When God promises judgment and he says, "I will lay your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas."

You see, when he looked down upon their assemblies, their special feast days and their assemblies, he did not smell fragrant aromas. He smelled the stench of hypocrisy. Now our worship to God ought to be unto him as a fragrant savor. Our worship to him, our gathering together ought to bring joy to him.

He says, "I hate it. I despise it. I will not delight in it. Though you offer me burnt offerings." That's about the most expensive thing you could do, bring that whole animal and give it to God. "And your grain offerings, peace offerings. I will not accept them." But we brought them. "I won't accept them. Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings."

Well, that's an interesting thing. Who established the feast days? God. Who established the sacrificial system? God. And God is rejecting his own sacrificial system? No, not the sacrificial system, the sacrifices. Because the sacrifice is only as good as the heart faith of the person bringing it.

Isaiah 1:10. "Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah." He didn't look down and see Jerusalem, the city of the great king, the holy city, Mount Zion. No, he saw Sodom and Gomorrah.

But Sodom and Gomorrah were two of the most filthy, wicked cities that ever existed. That's what God calls his own people. "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me," says the Lord? "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats."

You see, Isaiah was saying the same thing in Judah that Amos was saying up in Israel. "When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting."

God looks down upon us and he says, "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes." Sounds like Isaiah and Amos were studying the same scriptures. Their hypocritical worship was a burden to God.

Even their music. Notice their music. Amos 5:23. "Take away from me the noise of your songs. For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments." That's an interesting statement. He has a lot to say about music.

Over in Amos 8:2, where Amos saw the basket of summer fruit, and God says to them, "The end has come upon my people Israel. I will not pass by them anymore. And the songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day," says the Lord God. "Many dead bodies everywhere, they shall throw them out in silence." There go the songs, you see.

Over in Amos 8:10, "I will turn your feasts into mourning," in other words, your feasts are going to become funerals. "And all your songs, all your songs in the lamentation."We have a great deal of music today. I wonder how much of it glorifies the Lord. I wonder how much of it really says what God wants to say. I think a lot of it becomes entertainment.

That was the whole problem in Israel. They were enjoying when they should have been going through enriching. They were enjoying, they were being entertained, but their hearts were not in it. He says your songs are noise. Now, this is a serious thing. They not only were hypocritical in their worship, but they were unconcerned for other people.

Notice Amos 5:24 now. "But let justice run down like water, righteousness like a mighty stream." What water does for the body, justice does for the civic body. Justice ought to be clean, fresh water that cleanses and purifies and takes away the corruption and the dirt.

But instead they had turned that justice into wormwood. They'd turn medicine into poison. They'd turn clear water into wormwood. And as a consequence, there was not justice in the land. "Let your justice run down like water." Now justice is the water of society. It cleanses, it refreshes, it makes things grow.

What a tragedy it is when God's people stand idly by when people are being treated unjustly. When folks who don't have the money to be able to fight their own cause, innocent people, when these people are mistreated and abused. So often Amos talks about the fact that you and I should be helping people.

Amos 5:12. "For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins. You afflict the just and take bribes. You divert the poor from justice at the gate." The gate was the place where they tried their cases. Now what are you and I doing to help those who can't help themselves? Well, that's not the job of a Christian. Yes, it is. We're the salt of the earth. We're the light of the world.

We're the salt of the earth. We're the light of the world. Prophet Micah had something to say about this. When he talked about the fact that our sacrifices are not enough, we need to obey the Lord.

Micah 6:6. "With what shall I come before the Lord? And bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"

And here comes the answer. Micah 6:8. "He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God." That's the very thing that they were not doing. They're unconcerned for others.

Then he points back in Amos 5:25-27. He points back to the history of the people of Israel. "Did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness 40 years, O house of Israel?" They said, "Well, yes, of course we did." He said, "Now wait just a minute. In the land of Egypt, you were practicing idolatry.

Read Ezekiel 20. When God called the people out of Egypt, he knew that they were practicing idolatry." Ezekiel 20:5-7. "On that day I lifted my hand and an oath to them to bring them out of the land of Egypt. And I said to them, Each of you throw away the abominations which are before his eyes, do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."

So in Egypt they were worshipping idols. They were worshipping false gods in the wilderness. He mentions here lifting up the shrine of their king and the pedestal of their idols, the star of their gods. They picked up all the gods of the heathen roundabout them.

And they worshipped Jehovah, but in their hearts they were worshipping these false gods. They made gods for themselves and worshipped them. On more than one occasion, Moses had to intercede for them and spare their lives.

He points back and says, "It's no shock, it's no surprise that you're worshipping these false gods today because you've done this all of your history. You did it in Egypt, you did it in the wilderness, and you're doing it now. Therefore," says Amos 5:27, "Therefore, I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus."

That's what happened. Assyria took some of the people exile and mingled the others and completely destroyed Israel. "I will send you into captivity," says the Lord, "whose name is the God of hosts, the God of the armies." I wonder what God thinks when he looks upon our worship today. I wonder what he thinks when he notices that we don't really care about those who hurt.

A threefold woe, a woe upon the ignorant, and now Amos 6:1-2, he pronounces woe upon the indifferent, and then Amos 6:3-8, he pronounces woe upon the indulgent, those who are just enjoying life, living in luxury.

Amos 6:1. "Woe to you who are at ease in Zion." Now that would be Judah, he's talking here about the folks down in Jerusalem. "And trust in Mount Samaria." Now he's talking to Israel. In other words, both nations were at ease. Both nations were indifferent and complacent about what was going on. A false sense of security.

Now of course, the people of Judah were very proud of Mount Zion. Psalm 132:13-16. "For the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy."

Now it sounds as though God's going to take care of the people of Zion, doesn't it? Sounds like God has a very special hedge built around Zion. But Amos is saying the day's going to come when Zion and Samaria are going to feel the judgment of God. They had a false sense of security.

Now it's good to be secure in the Lord. It's good to know that God is your father and Jesus Christ is your savior and the Holy Spirit is your comforter. It's good to know that you are safe in the hands of the Father and the Son. It's good to know that you've trusted Christ as your savior, but do not let security become complacency.

Don't start playing with sin. Don't start saying, "Well, because I'm one of his elect, he's chosen me, he's saved me, I can go over here and I can sin and and he'll forgive me." That's not the way it works. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth," God said to the people. "Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities." Amos 3:2. "Woe to you who are at ease in Zion," a false security.

Why were they secure? Well, because of geography. There wasn't an army on earth that could come against Zion up there on the hill, or to come against Samaria up there on the mount. They were trusting geography. It didn't work though, because when the Assyrians finally came, they took Samaria. They wiped it out, they washed it clean. Wasn't much left when they were through.

And of course, they were trusting in their government, notable persons in the chief nation to whom the house of Israel comes. Now we must confess that Jeroboam the Second was a great king. He was a great leader. He had around him some wonderful men. They'd won some great battles and done some great things. And they were notable people. There was a great national pride.

Now there's nothing wrong with honest patriotism, but beware when patriotism becomes nationalism and you start developing a national religion around your great people. That's dangerous.

They were trusting their government, they were trusting their prosperity and their peace. Things were prosperous. My, oh my. But they were prosperous because the poor were being exploited. The people who should have been getting justice in the court were getting injustice. And bribery was rampant and the officials were corrupt. And that's why there was prosperity.

And they were rejoicing and feeling secure in their prosperity, but most of all, they were saying, "Isn't it wonderful that our religion is so prosperous? It's a popular thing to worship Jehovah God." And they'd go to Bethel and Gilgal and Beersheba. They'd go to their conferences and their concerts. My, they were having so many wonderful things going on. And they were feeling a sense of false security.

Now in Amos 6:2, I have a suspicion that the leaders of the nation are speaking here. And they're saying, "Go over to Calnah." That's north up at Syria probably, "and see. And from there go to Hamath the Great." That's also up in the north. "And then go down to Gath of the Philistines." That's down in the south. "Are you better than these kingdoms?" You meaning Calnah and Hamath and Gath. "Or is their territory greater than your territory?" Now these kingdoms in Amos 6:2 means the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

What are these notable people saying? "Don't tell us woe unto you who are at ease in Zion, woe unto you who trust in Mount Samaria. Don't talk like that, Amos. Go on over to Syria and look at Calnah, and then go to Hamath, that great city, then go down to Gath. Now look, are they better than Israel and Judah? Is their territory greater?"

And of course, the answer is, "Well, no, of course not." Therefore, don't say that we're heading for trouble because we are the greatest kingdoms on the face of the earth. Pride, pride.

Well, it's interesting that a few years later, these three places were destroyed after Israel was destroyed. They were comparing themselves with somebody else. You've forgotten, you don't measure the greatness of a nation by the quantity of its territory or the quantity of its gross national product. You measure the greatness of a nation by character. Character. What do we stand for? What do we live for? What are we willing to die for?

You don't measure a church by its buildings or its budgets. You measure a church by the character of the people, the conduct of the people, and what are they doing for other people in that community? Jesus went about doing good. We come to church and we want entertainment. And Amos said, "Woe unto you, you are indifferent. You are at ease in Zion." And in just a few years, judgment is going to come.