Amos Chapters 1-2

Our women have finished our second lesson in Amos, so I thought I’d share it here.

 

Amos Lesson 2

Chapters 1 and 2

Let me ask you this… have any of you ever studied Amos before? In other words, did you know that when Amos began pronouncing judgment on these other nations that he would ultimately turn to Israel? If you knew that, try to make yourself hear his words as if you don’t know what’s coming next. Like when we studied Esther – we can’t grasp the full impact of what’s happening unless, like the characters in the story, we don’t really know how it’s going to turn out. Like we’ve said all along – think – as you study. Put yourself into the story. Allow yourself to know what they know, and no more. Imagine how you would feel and how you would react.

Remember – things are going great in Israel. There is peace and there is prosperity. It seems to truly be a “golden age.” And then Amos appears on the scene. We don’t know how he is dressed, but likely in pretty menial clothes, or maybe even in the garb of a prophet – much like Elijah or as John the Baptist would later dress. But he comes somehow to a public place where many of the Israelites would hear him and the first thing he says is,

“The LORD roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem”… Okaaay… what’s this going to mean? The word “roars” is the very same word as when a lion roars, and as we’ll see in chapter 3, and a lion doesn’t roar unless he has a very good reason! Then Amos continues, “The pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers”. This indicates that there is a famine coming, and I imagine the Israelites becoming a little defensive because after all Mount Carmel is within the Israelite territory, but as Amos continues with his judgments from the Lord, they probably relax a little.

I want us to look at each of these judgments to understand just what it is that God is judging. I actually will be covering some of the same things that our writer will cover in the review, but I think it’s important that we understand this.

Like a heavenly prosecutor God lays out His indictments through Amos against each of these nations. Each one begins with “Thus says the LORD, for three transgressions of [whichever nation] and for four, I will not revoke its punishment.” As we said last week, this is an idiom or a saying that means “for innumerable transgressions”. It’d be like us saying “It’s raining cats and dogs” to mean it’s raining a whole lot!

The word “transgression” is pesha and it means to revolt. As it’s used in the Old Testament, it can be revolting nationally, morally, or religiously. In some shape or form, it is going against the authority. In this case the “Authority” is God. The phrase “its punishment” may be in italics in your Bible. That means it is not in the original manuscript, but is added to “make more sense” in the English. What the announcement literally says is, “Thus says the LORD, for three transgressions of [whichever nation] and for four, I will not turn back.” In other words, His judgment is coming.

As I kept reading over these indictments, one word kept jumping out at me – the word “because”… “Thus says the LORD, for three transgressions of Damascus and for four, I will not revoke its punishment, because…

“Thus says the LORD, for three transgressions of Gaza and for four, I will not revoke its punishment, because… 

“Thus says the LORD, for three transgressions of Tyre and for four, I will not revoke its punishment, because…

Because, because, because… there is always a “because”. God will not tolerate unrighteousness on the part of any nation! Evil in the world will be punished. All nations and peoples will be judged regardless of whether they “believe in” God or not. Yahweh is Lord over ALL the nations – not just His chosen people. (Remember – “chosen” means to be set aside for a purpose…) But no one will escape judgment. For a great example of that read Psalm 2.

Let’s look at these “becauses”…

“Because Damascus threshed Gilead with implements of sharp iron…” There is still a Damascus today, and it claims to be the oldest city in the world, but it is in a different place than this one. This one was burned with fire, and the people taken in to captivity by the Assyrians. Gilead is south of Syria in an area we know today as the “Golan Heights”. What the Syrians did (represented here by the city of Damascus) was worse than homicide – we would call it “war crimes”. It was the wholesale massacre of the Israelites in the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manesseh by running over them with the carts with iron spikes in the wheels that they used for threshing grain. Disregard for the value and dignity of human life will not go unpunished.

“Because Gaza sent whole villages into exile, selling them as slaves to Edom…” Gaza today you know as the “Gaza strip” in Israel. In Old Testament times it was the land of the Philistines, a perennial enemy of Israel. They engaged in the slave trade, making the Israelites slaves and selling them to Israel’s bitter enemy, Edom. The judgment of God came upon Gaza historically through King Hezekiah. The slave trade today is big business. It doesn’t happen as we line men and women up on platforms and auction them off – it happens in alley ways and hotel rooms at places such as the Super Bowl and other major gathering places – and more often than not today – it is women and children. And punishment will come upon these as well.

“Because Tyre broke their treaty of brotherhood with Israel, selling whole villages as slaves to Edom.” Tyre was located in what we know as Lebanon today. In Amos’ day they were the people called the Phoenicians. It might not have been a big surprise for the Philistines to sell the Israelites into slavery – but the Phoenicians? They had had a treaty of peace with King David and initially with Solomon – but they broke the treaty and betrayed their ally, by buying Israelite slaves and then reselling them. We have a modern example of this when Hitler broke every treaty he made and then turned and attacked Russia. Tyre would later be destroyed by Alexander the Great.

“Because Edom pursued his brother with a sword and slaughtered the women of the land, [and] because his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked…” (italics added). If you follow your map you see that Edom is south of Judah. Today it is in Jordan and here we change from what I would call “generic” enemies, to family ties. Just like the Israelites descended from the man Jacob whose name was changed to Israel, so Edom descended from Jacob’s twin brother Esau. Esau’s transgression was that he engaged in fratricide – he killed his brothers and sisters. And not only did he kill them, we are told, “his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked…” There’s a lot that could be said about these things, but if you dig deeper and deeper, and keep peeling away the layers, beneath all of this lies jealousy and revenge – both of which are very “21^st Century sins. When Babylon first came against Judah, the Edomites laughed and rejoiced, but they too were later ravaged by King Nebuchadnezzar.

“Because when Ammon attacked Gilead to extend their borders, they ripped open pregnant women with their swords.” The Ammonites were descended from Abraham’s nephew, Lot. They too, were “family”, which made what they did, even worse. Edom committed fratricide, and Ammon committed infanticide. They killed Israelite women and babies… In 1984, Ronald Reagan declared the third Sunday in January as “Sanctity of Life Day” to commemorate the many lives that have been lost to abortion, which could also be called infanticide. And why did Ammon do that? Greed. It was unusual cruelty and inhuman violence all in the pursuit of “more”… God would not allow it to go unpunished then, and He will not allow it to go unpunished today. The Ammonites too, were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. By the way, want to know where this area is today? Ever hear of Ammon, Jordan?

“Because Moab desecrated the bones of Edom’s king, burning them to ashes…” Moab, too was descended from Lot, and their crime? It was not enough to kill the king of Edom – they desecrated the corpse. The “final straw” of their sin came not against the living but against the dead. This act could have been committed out of revenge, or purely in an act of defilement. This too, has happened in modern history when whole cemeteries are desecrated in an act of hatred. Racism is nothing new…

And with this we have come full circle around Israel, and again Amos says, “Thus says the LORD, for three transgressions and for four…” and the people may be thinking, “Who’s left? These are all of our enemies…” And when Amos says “Judah” I imagine the crowd going wild. “Yes! Finally Judah will get what she deserves…

“Because Judah has rejected the Law of the LORD and not kept His statutes; their lies also have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked…” Judah had surely sinned in a lot of ways, and they too did some pretty atrocious things. In fact when we dig into the sins of Israel, if we look, we can see that Judah committed those very same types of sins against the poor and the innocent and the justice system – but Judah’s greatest sin was in rejecting the Law of the LORD. And it was for that, that they would be judged. Note – because the other nations did not have God’s Law, they were not judged according to God’s Law – but Judah was.

At this point we can imagine that the crowd is going wild. If Amos had been recruiting an army to go to battle, there would have been no shortage of volunteers. This is why it is important to put yourself in the story and not allow yourself to know any more than the people in the story know. Imagine the crowd’s reaction when Amos once again says, “Thus says the LORD, for three transgressions and for four…” and then he says “Israel… because Israel, has done this, and this, and this, I will not revoke its punishment…” 

Now there was likely no jeering or cheering – perhaps there was stunned silence. What was Israel’s crime? We will dig into these deeper as we go through this book, but here Amos presented several counts to the indictment. In verses 6-8; there was injustice against the innocent and taking advantage of the poor. There was a corrupt justice system and gross immorality, as well as usury or loan sharking and idolatry, and then in verses 9-12 there was the crime of ingratitude for all that God had done for them as a people, followed by the verdict that the heavenly judge would mete out, which we just don’t have time to get into.

But here’s the thing I want us to get from this. What makes God “roar” today? Because, because, because – God’s punishment is always brought on by a “because”. What if today Amos said, “For three transgressions of Betty, or your name, or three transgressions of Washington Pike or your church, and for four, I will not turn away your punishment”. Because you (fill in the blank) I will not relent…

But we’re under grace! Will there still be judgment? You bet there will. Remember the churches of Revelation? There is always a consequence to sin. Yes, our sins have been forgiven. Yes, we have been saved by grace – but we will be judged by our works – not condemned, but judged.

But there’s one more “because” I want to share. This one is found in John 3:18. We know John 3:16, and maybe even John 3:17, but John 3:18 says, “Whoever believes in him [that is Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (italics added.)

In world and Biblical history (remember – this is real) – at near the same time Amos was delivering God’s word to Israel, several hundred miles away, Jonah was reluctantly delivering a word from God to Nineveh. The Ninevites listened to a foreign prophet who didn’t love or care one bit for them but the Israelites did not listen to a foreign prophet who did care for them and was a burden bearer for the Lord on their behalf.

Last week we talked about being a burden bearer… this week and throughout the rest of the book we will be prodded to look at our own sin. Yes we are under grace, but God’s moral Law must be obeyed. One writer put it this way (Dave Black) “When grace is abused and the Law forgotten – a terrible price is to be paid.”