Be Concerned - Amos - Visions and Affirmations

It is not polite to interrupt a message, especially when God's prophet is sharing what God has told him to preach. Amaziah had been preaching about the visions God gave him, Amos 7. The vision of the locust and of the fire and of the plumb line.

And the priest Amaziah could not take it any longer and he interrupted the message and said, "Why don't you go home, you visionary, flee to the land of Judah, go earn your money there. Don't stay up here in Israel. Get back to Judah. Don't prophesy here. This is the King's sanctuary. This is a very elite place. You're just a common ordinary farmer. What right do you have to come and invade the sanctuary of the King?"

Well, Amos told him what God had done for him, Amos 7:14-15. And he gave him the message of the Lord. He said, "The day is going to come when your wife is going to be a prostitute. Your children will be buried. They'll be dead. Your land will be taken over by the Gentiles. You will be exported, deported to a defiled land, and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land."

Now in Amos 8, God gives Amos the fourth vision. And this vision is the vision of the summer fruit. Verses 1, 2, and 3, he declares, "The end is come." Now in verses 4 through 6, Amos tells us why the end has come. Because they had broken the commandments of God, and they were disobeying the word of God.

“Hear this, you who swallow up the needy.” That means they trample on them. “And make the poor of the land fail,” saying, now the people speaking here are the merchants, “When will the new moon be passed that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may trade our wheat.” Making the ephah small and the shekel large, falsifying the balances by deceit, “that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, even sell the bad wheat.”

Now that's quite a statement, isn't it? Why is God bringing judgment? Because they did not love God and they did not love their neighbor. Now these are the two great commandments, aren't they?

Somebody asked the Lord Jesus one day, "What are the greatest commandments?" And he says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment. "And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matthew 22:37-40.

In other words, I can't begin to obey any other commandments if I don't obey these commandments: to love the Lord and to love my neighbor, to love others.

Well, they did not love the Lord. "When will the new moon be passed?" They didn't look upon that festival as a time to worship and praise God. "When will the Sabbath be over? When is this service going to end so we can get home and watch football on television? When will this early service be over so I can make it in time to the golf course? When is this meeting going to end so I can go off and go shopping and take advantage of that sale?"

The things of the Lord are an interruption in our lives. They are not the most important thing in our lives. And we call ourselves a Christian nation.

They did not love their neighbor. They were swallowing up, trampling upon the needy. They were making the poor of the land to fail instead of helping them. They are exploiting the poor. Amos 4:1. "Hear this word, you cows of Bashan." He's talking to the women, "who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, 'Bring wine, let us drink.'" In other words, "Go out and get some more slaves, make some more money so that we can have better furniture and better clothes and bigger parties."

Amos 5:11. "Therefore, because you tread down the poor and take grain taxes from him, though you have built houses of hewn stone," those are the most expensive kind, "yet you shall not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from them." They were practicing bribery and injustice. They did not love God and did not love their neighbor.

Now throughout the law, Moses makes it very clear that all of the standards for measurement are to be kept intact. You're not to have three different measurements for the shekel or three different measurements for the ephah.

Deuteronomy 25 talks about this, beginning in verse 13. "You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a perfect and a just weight, a perfect and a just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God is giving you."

Do we have two measurements today? We have many measurements. There's a law that hurts the poor and a law that helps the rich. There is administration that caters to the rich and ignores the poor, changing God's standards, adjusting the scales, not being honest in business. We have this today. In order to make money, we will sell anything as long as people pay for it.

The day's going to come when God is going to bring judgment upon these people who skimp the measure and boost the price, who change the standards. Truth in packaging is a marvelous thing, but it isn't always being obeyed, perhaps. They sell the sweepings with the wheat, poor quality merchandise. And the poor, of course, don't know the difference, and the poor don't have enough money to buy more expensive things, and so they end up wasting their money on that which is cheap. And that which will not last.

Why is the end coming? Because they don't love God. Why is the end coming? Because they don't love their neighbor. Why is the end coming? Because they are changing God's standards. Why is the end coming? Because they are exploiting the poor.

How is the end coming? Verses 7 through 14. Well, God's going to do it. God doesn't say, "Repent or else." No, no, he says, "It's coming. No matter what you do from now on, judgment is going to come." And it did come. The Assyrians swooped down upon Israel and that was the end of the nation. He gives us four pictures of the coming judgment.

In verse 8, the earthquake. "The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall the land not tremble for this?" There's a picture here of the land shuddering because of their sin. The people aren't shuddering, but the land is trembling because of sin. I wonder what the land is doing today when we murder all of these babies before they are born. I wonder what the land is doing today when that land is being stained by innocent blood.

“Shall the land not tremble for this, and every one mourn who dwells in it? All of it shall swell like the river,” that's the Nile River, “heave and subside like the river of Egypt.” Just as you see the water rise up and go down, that's what the land is going to do. An earthquake is coming.

An eclipse is coming. Verse 9. “It shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord God, that I will make the sun go down at noon. I will darken the earth in broad daylight.” There was an eclipse of the sun in 763 BC about the time of Amos. Darkness is coming. Joel talks about that in Joel 2. Isaiah talks about it in Isaiah 13. The darkness is coming.

Well, the earthquake is coming. “I'm going to shake things.” The darkness is coming. And the funeral is coming. “I will turn your feasts into mourning,” says Amos 8:10. “And all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth on every waist.” There go your beautiful fashions.

“And baldness on every head. I will make it like mourning for an only son.” There goes the family. “And its end like a bitter day. You'll never get over it.” “I'm turning everything into a funeral dirge.”

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” Now the word is being spoken, but people aren't hearing it. People are covering up their ears. There's a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

“They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east, they shall run to and fro seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it.” When it was there, they ignored it. Then when times got tough, they went looking for it. And God said, “You aren't going to find it because your hearts are not prepared. You can't hear the word of God.”

“In that day the fair virgins and strong young men shall faint from thirst. Those who swear by the sin of Samaria,” that's the idolatry of the land, “who say, 'As your God lives, O Dan, and as the way of Beersheba lives,' they shall fall and never rise again.” Their religion is not going to save them. Why? They don't have any spiritual nourishment.

Where does spiritual nourishment come from? The word of God. How do you take this nourishment into your heart? You hear it. Not just listen to it, you hear it. You heed it. You receive it within the way you receive food.

And today we have a famine of the word of God. A lot of religion, a lot of activity, a lot of popularity, but not much morality, not much honesty. We're not much of a difference in this world. We aren't salt, we aren't light. And God says, “The end is coming.”

Now in Amos 9, we have the fifth of these visions of judgment. “I saw the Lord standing by the altar. And he said, 'Strike the doorposts or the capitals of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake. And break them on the heads of them all. I will slay the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not get away, and he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.'”

Now in Amos 9, the Lord makes four affirmations to his people. I want you to notice these, we'll take them one by one.In verse 1, he says, “I will strike.” Verses 2, 3, and 4, “I will search.” Here are the people trying to run away, and God says, “I will search them out. I'll find them no matter where they try to hide.” Then in verses 5 through 10, “I will destroy.” Then in verses 11 through 15, “I will restore.”

“I will strike,” verse 1. “I will search,” verses 2, 3, and 4. “I will destroy,” verses 5 through 10. And “I will restore,” verses 11 through 15. It's encouraging that Amos closes his prophecy on a very positive note telling us of the future blessing God has for his people.

Affirmation number one, “I will strike.” Notice what he saw. He saw the Lord. He did not see locusts. He did not see fire devouring the harvest. He did not see a plumb line. He did not see a basket of summer fruit. He saw the Lord.

Amos had said in Amos 4:12, “Prepare to meet thy God.” Not prepare to meet locusts or prepare to meet drought, “Prepare to meet thy God.” “I saw the Lord.” Reminds us of Isaiah the prophet, doesn't it? “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, high and lifted up.” I wonder when the last time was through the word of God, we really saw the Lord.

Now we aren't likely to see the Lord the way Amos did or Isaiah or the great prophets and saints of the scriptures, but oh, we can see the Lord in the word. “Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord.” And he saw the Lord. What an awesome sight that must have been. Now where did he see him? He saw him in the temple at the altar.

Now the question we have to answer is, was this the temple at Bethel or was it the temple at Jerusalem? Now there were a number of altars around Israel. They were worshiping in various places. They should not have done this, of course. Amos 3:14 says that, “In the day I punish Israel for their transgressions, I will also visit destruction on the altars,” plural, “of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.”

So it may be that this vision appeared as Amos was at Bethel. He didn't run home. He was not afraid of Amaziah the priest. And it may be that this is the temple that he was writing about. But I have a suspicion, however, he was talking about the temple at Jerusalem.

Now the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed in 722 by the Assyrians. God did not begin the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians until 586, 606 to 586. But you see, if this is Jerusalem, God is saying to the people at Bethel, “If this is what I do to my true temple, the temple that I designed, the temple that I had built, the temple that I filled with my glory, if this is what I do with a true temple, what am I going to do with that false temple, the King's own sanctuary there in Bethel?” Well, it was the King's sanctuary, it certainly wasn't God's.

I don't think God would acknowledge the temples in Israel. I don't think he would address himself in that way. Actually, in Amos 9, God is addressing both Israel and Judah. He's talking about the whole nation. I think he's saying here that I am going to destroy the temple at Jerusalem. I'm going to destroy all that is there. Now if this is what I do in Judah at my temple, what will I do in Israel at a temple I had never built or designed?

Well, he saw him in the temple. Why? Because judgment begins at the house of the Lord. 1 Peter 4:17 makes that very clear. “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of the Lord. And if the righteous scarcely are saved, what is going to happen to those who are unbelieving, who have never obeyed the gospel of God?”

I believe that judgment is starting today. I believe God is shaking things. I believe that many ministries that have not been honoring him and seeking to carry out his will are going to topple and fall. “Strike the doorposts that the thresholds may shake.” Judgment begins at the house of the Lord.

He saw the Lord standing by the altar. I don't think God would acknowledge altars in Israel. Here's the altar at Jerusalem. Undoubtedly, this is the brazen altar where the sacrifices were brought. The sad thing is, at the place of sacrifice, the place of atonement, the Lord saw hypocrisy.

Amos 5:21. “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.”

Here he is at the altar, and through his prophet, he has said, “Your sacrifices don't please me.” Why? “Because your heart is not in them.” You'll notice in Amos 8 that the people were saying in verse 5, “When will the new moon be passed that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath that we may trade our wheat?” These people were more interested in making money than they were in serving the Lord.

They should have been saying, “Oh, I wish we had three Sabbaths a week so that we could just rest in the Lord and we could worship him. I wish we had more opportunities to sing his praises.” No, they were talking like congregations today. “Preacher preached too long, and we missed part of the football game on television, or we missed part of our favorite program. We can't stay that late for church tonight because we have this or that going on.”

You see, things spiritual become an interruption to the important things in our lives. That's why God was standing by the altar. I think today he stands by the communion table. He stands by the pulpit. When the ushers bring up the offering and put it there on the communion table, the Lord stands there, he looks at it, and he says, “I'm going to shake things. I'm going to tear this place down because this is not coming from a heart of love or devotion to me.”

Now what did he hear? He saw the Lord. He saw him in the temple at the altar, and he heard him say, “Strike the doorposts.” That word in the Hebrew means the tops of the columns. In other words, when you strike the tops of the columns, do you know what's going to happen? The roof is going to cave in. That's what's going to happen. “And break them on the heads of them all,” of all the people.

Now the people had said that “doom is far away.” Amos 6:3. “Woe to you who put far off the day of doom.” Well, it's not as far off as people think it is. Things are going well in Jerusalem. Things are going well in Bethel and up in Samaria. “My the temple is filled and people bring their sacrifices. They have their beautiful concerts.” And God says, “I'm going to bring the roof down on the whole crowd.”

Now some of them are going to run away. “Strike the tops of the columns, destroy the building. Let the roof come down on the heads of the worshipers. I'm going to slay them.” Not only will some of them be killed with the temple coming down, but I'm going to kill some with the sword. And some are going to run away, but they won't get away. “I will strike.”

Now the people of Israel thought that because they were the people of Israel, they would somehow get away with what they had done. Amos 3:1. “The prophet said, '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.'”

Now not just Samaria, that is Israel, the northern kingdom, but this includes Judah, the southern kingdom. “You only have I known or chosen, elected, of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” Now their theologians said, “We are the only nation God has chosen. Therefore we can get away with our iniquities.”

But Amos says just the opposite. Responsibility is involved here. Privilege always brings responsibility. To whom much is given, much shall be required. Judgment begins at the house of the Lord.