As you look at the book of Amos, it seems to divide fairly neatly into three distinct sections. The first section (Amos 1-2), as we saw last week, consists of a series of eight judgments of the Lord pronounced against eight different nations – culminating in the judgment against Israel. The second section (Amos 3-6), as we will see this week, consists of an expansion of the charges against Israel. The final section (Amos 7-9), which we will look at next week, consists of a series of visions which serve as the culmination to Amos’s message – reiterating the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel before speaking of a glorious day of restoration in the future. As a whole, the book is not very “nice.” The message of Amos as a whole is one primarily of condemnation and judgment.
As we move, this week to the second section of Amos (Amos 3-6), we see that the Lord does not tone down his message at all – if anything, the note of judgment is ratcheted up. Upon first glance, these chapters seem to lack any discernible structure, but – upon further examination – there does seem to be a very discernible chiasmic structure to the section. That is, the first part of the section seems to correspond with the final part of the section, the second part of the section seems to correspond with the second to last part of the section, etc. Using our text specifically, we can picture its structure this way:
3:1-15 – God promises judgment on Israel.
4:1-5 – God identifies the sin for which Israel will be judged.
4:6-13 – God makes clear that there has been opportunity for repentance.
5:1-24 – God makes clear that this message is an opportunity to repent.
6:1-7 – God identifies the sin for which Israel will be judged.
6:8-14 – God promises judgment on Israel.
Understanding this structure of the text, it becomes easier to see the central messages contained in these chapters. This section of Amos’s message begins and ends by reiterating the theme found in Amos 1-2 that God is going to judge the people of Israel. The section then identifies the specific reason why this judgment is coming upon Israel – identifying their particular sins. And resting right in the middle of these messages of judgment are two crucial ideas: 1) God has shown mercy to Israel in the past and granted opportunities for repentance that have not been seized and 2) this message of Amos is providing yet another opportunity for repentance and obedience. We will examine the text by looking at each of these realities in turn.
Last week, we looked at God’s declaration that he would not revoke the punishment from Israel (Amos 2:6). More specifically, we saw the Lord use the graphic image of a cart loaded with sheaves crushing the ground beneath it as an illustration of the way that He was going to judge Israel (2:13-16). As we come to the beginning of chapter 3, this idea of God’s judgment continues as God declares, “Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt: ‘You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities’” (3:1-2). Just like last week, God is making clear that Israel’s status as His people does not exempt them from judgment on their sin. Rather, their status actually heightens their guilt and ensures that their sin will be judged even more harshly. In a series of rhetorical questions that assume negative answers, the Lord makes clear that his judgment is sure (3:3-8) – Israel needs to look nowhere else for the source of this judgment but to God. In line with the structure of the text that we observed earlier, it is not surprising to see this same theme come up at the end of this section as God declares, “I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds, and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it” (6:8). So the first reality we see in this middle section of Amos is that God will judge, and we see various dimensions of this judgment explained and prophesied.
Having made clear that He will judge, God reiterates the heinousness of Israel’s sin by calling the pagan nations of Ashdod and Egypt to come and witness the spectacle (3:9-10). And then the Lord provides some more specific details regarding his judgment as he declares, “An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered” (3:11). So the judgment of the Lord is going to consist of another nation invading Israel and plundering them. Again this theme also appears in chapter 6: “’For behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,’ declares the Lord, the God of hosts; ‘and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of the Arabah’” (6:14). This judgment is going to come about in the form of an invading nation.
The final piece of this concept of God’s judgment – and probably the crucial piece for Israel – is that it will be terrible and total. God’s description in chapter 3 is sobering: “Thus says the Lord: ‘As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed” (3:12). This is an image of comprehensive destruction that is reinforced by God making clear that he will utterly destroy both the altars of Israel as well as all of their houses (3:13-15). This same idea is found at the end of this section with a terrifying story in which some of the last survivors of the judgment are terrified to even speak of the Lord lest He return and destroy them as well (6:9-10). And the Lord reiterates his promise to destroy even their houses – reducing them to “fragments” and “bits” – because of Israel’s injustice and pride (6:11-13). The Lord – through Amos’s message is providing Israel with a vivid picture of the judgment that awaits them.
Before we advance further, it would do us well to meditate on this picture of God that Amos provides. This is not a puny God who overlooks sin but a holy and mighty God who has had enough of this wickedness and is now declaring judgment upon His people for their sin. It is a picture of God that we must keep in mind if we want to worship the God of the Bible. As we will see in a moment, God is merciful and grants grace, but we must not allow those realities to erase the fact that God is not mocked and that the one who sows to the flesh (as Israel had done) will reap corruption – that is death (Gal. 6:7-8) because God will judge them. The judgment of God is real, and it is the only proper response to sin. This is the first part of Amos’s message in this section.
Having made clear His intention to judge Israel’s sin, God also makes clear exactly what Israel has done to merit such punishment. He begins by speaking directly to some of the women: “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’” (4:1). Here we see an attitude of utter selfishness and blatant disregard for the needy. These women seem to care only for their own desires at the expense of the needs of others. This same sin of storing up goods for themselves also seems to be hinted at in the Lord’s earlier declaration that he will “strike the winter house along with the summer house” (2:15). The issue seems to be the utter worldliness of Israel – they are seeking all the material goods they can get in this life at the expense of the needs of the poor around them. We see this same emphasis later in the passage as well: “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes!...Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!” (6:1, 4-6). Again, the issue seems to be that the people of Israel are storing up goods for themselves, living lavishly and sumptuously while the poor around them are neglected. They are focusing on themselves and their own desires to the neglect of their neighbors and their unmet needs. God is making clear that such worldliness and selfishness will not be tolerated. It is the very reason that judgment is coming (4:2-3; 6:7).
But there is also another facet of Israel’s sin that the Lord highlights as he declares, “’Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!’ declares the Lord God” (4:4-5). Here we see that the selfishness and pride of the people has led them into utter hypocrisy. They assume that they can still offer their sacrifices and tithes and offerings and be accepted by God! They presume that even in the midst of their unrepentant sin, they can come before the Lord and worship. In a sarcastic declaration, the Lord invites them to come, but he also makes clear that their offering of sacrifices and their bringing of tithes will simply “multiply transgressions.” That is, while continuing to live in their sin, all of their religious observances are really nothing more than sin – presumably, because they are not being done in faith but in ritual. The religious observances are treated as magic instead of obedience.
Having already observed the picture of God as a God who judges sin, it is important for us to notice exactly what is being judged, so that we might avoid a similar fate. And the message of Amos is clear – the problem among God’s people was their utter selfishness. Knowing that, we must examine ourselves. Can it be said of us like the women highlighted in Amos 4:1 that we oppress the poor and crush the needy? Even if we are not guilty of such oppression in overt action, are we guilty by neglect? Like the people described in 6:3-7, are we guilty of overindulging our own pleasures and comforts because of our pride? Do we enjoy our own fruits and blessings without a thought to the “ruin of Joseph” (6:6)? And do we continue to perform our religious actions assuming that God does not notice such things? If so, we should take heed from the message of Amos. God judged these sins in the nation of Israel, and he will judge them in us as well. James makes clear that this is still an issue: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and of you says to them, ‘God in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:14-17). Jesus himself told a story in which the final judgment is a judgment based on how those who claimed to follow Him treated those less fortunate than them – the ones who were hungry and sick and in prison (Matt. 25:31-46). This is as crucial for us as it was for them.
Interestingly, in the midst of the two convicting and somewhat frightening themes that we have examined already, the very center of the book of Amos contains astounding evidence of God’s mercy and grace. First, in a somewhat ironic section, God makes clear that He has tried again and again to bring Israel to repentance. In one instance, he made it so that they did not have enough bread (4:6), and in another instance, he sent a drought on them so that they had no water (4:7-8). At another time, he struck their gardens and vineyards so that they would have no produce (4:9), and still other times he decimated them with sickness and war (4:10-11). But the common refrain in all of these instances is that “you did not return to me.” Even though God made clear to Israel through these instances of disaster that they were under the judgment of God, they refused to see or listen. And they refused to turn from their wicked ways, and repent. And as a result, God declares, “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel! For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth – the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name” (4:12-13). God is emphatically declaring that because Israel has refused to heed His warnings, they will experience His fierce wrath.
This point, found in the very center of our text, is crucial for understanding these chapters of Amos. It is easy to read Amos’s message and assume that God is no more than an angry, vengeful Father who is eager to exact revenge on Israel. In reality, God is a good and loving God who has shown incredible grace and mercy in tolerating Israel’s sin this long. In fact, God has repeatedly attempted to draw Israel to repentance by way of natural disasters and suffering, but Israel has refused to turn. This is crucial for us to understand because it reveals to us a central part of God’s character as well as a critical insight into the way that He works. First of all, we see in this section of our text God’s incredible kindness. He truly desires to see the people of Israel repent. As Ezekiel makes clear, God does not delight in the death of the wicked (Ez. 18:23), so he has sent warnings to the people. And it is instructive to notice the nature of the warnings themselves, because they are things that might be easily ignored. God brought famines and droughts and sickness and suffering as a way of calling His people back to himself. While we may not be able to look at any particular event like this and pinpoint God’s exact purpose, we do need to recognize that such events are under the sovereign control of God, and He can (and, it seems from our text, does) use such events to call people to repentance. This is important for us to know so that we will listen. There will never be a person who stands in judgment before God that will be able to say that He did not call them to repentance. God desires all people to repent (1 Tim. 2:4), and our text makes that clear.
The final point made in our text fits nicely with the previous point. In the very center of these middle chapters of Amos is another incredible instance of the Lord’s grace and mercy to His people. As we have already seen, God has promised that He will punish Israel (2:6; 3:1-15; 6:8-14). And yet, as we look at chapter 5 (which is actually the midpoint of the entire book as well as our section), we see the Lord offering grace to His people one more time if they will repent and obey. First the Lord declares, “Seek me and live; but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel” (5:4b-6). Later on, the Lord says, “Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph” (5:14-15). And near the end of the chapter, the Lord makes clear, “…let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (5:24). These are clear exhortations to repentance and obedience.
As we look at these exhortations – and the rest of the chapter in which they are found – we see three realities that are crucial for us. First, the rest of the chapter makes clear that the people are radically undeserving of this opportunity to repent. God once again recounts the wickedness of His people: “For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins – you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate” (5:12; the whole sections of 5:10-13 and 5:18-23 make this point as well). God makes clear that the people are wicked and deserve judgment in order to highlight the incredible mercy being shown by the Lord himself.
The second thing we see is that God’s call to repentance actually includes a call to the people to change the way they are living and not just the way they are thinking. They are to actively turn from their wickedness and seek the Lord (5:4,6). They are to seek good, and not evil, and they are to hate evil, and love good. Moreover they are actually to establish justice so that God will redeem them (5:15). And God makes clear that they are to let justice roll down like waters. They are to walk in righteousness (5:24). In fact, in connection with the surrounding verses (5:23-27), God makes clear that he does not want the people to come before him with songs and sacrifices. Rather, He wants to see them obey. He wants to see their repentance not just in ceremony but in actuality.
Finally, God makes clear that if there is no repentance, there will indeed be judgment. The chapter is riddled with promises of judgment if God’s warning is not heeded (5:1-3; 5:16-17). God makes clear that He is both able to judge (5:8-9) and willing to judge (5:26-27) if His warnings are not heeded. This is crucial to understand because it makes clear that judgment is a reality and that it will come if there is no repentance.
Having seen the message as a whole, it is not difficult to apply the message. First, all of us need to realize that God requires obedience. He is not interested in followers who profess Him with their mouths while denying Him with their lives. He is interested in disciples who will seek to walk in obedience to His commands and diligently seek His Kingdom.
For those who are not followers of Jesus Christ, you need to recognize that your disobedience of God’s law makes you an enemy of God. Amos’s message is directed specifically to those who claim to be God’s people but do not live in accordance with that claim. However, that does not mean that you are exempt from responsibility merely by not claiming to be part of God’s people. It is in fashion these days to heap scorn on hypocrites as if they are the only people under God’s judgment. But the Scriptures are clear that everyone who does not follow Christ is under judgment – be they a hypocrite or an open and blatant pagan. One is no better than the other. God is holy, and He will judge sin. Just as He offered Israel a chance to turn and repent in Amos’s day, He offers the same chance to you today. There is a way to be saved – seek the Lord by trusting in Jesus Christ and submitting to Him as Lord and you will be forgiven. Follow him in obedience and let justice and righteousness roll down in your life.
For those of us who are followers of Christ, this stern message of Amos should remind us of a number of things. First, it should remind us – as we saw last week – that our lives truly matter. As we already said, God is not interested in mere knowledge but in action. God is not interested in just teaching us but in transforming us. If we profess Christ with our mouth and deny Him with our lives, then our faith is dead and cannot save us.
More specifically, this text should remind us that we bear particular responsibility to the poor and needy. As we saw earlier in James, our faith should cause us to seek to meet the need of the one who is hungry and thirsty. In fact, Jesus makes clear that we will be judged on whether we have done this or not! As Amos made clear, we need to seek justice in the lives of those around us. This is what drove the fight against slavery, and the later fight for Civil Rights. The Church is the group of people on this earth most radically charged with seeking justice and helping those in need – both around the world and in our very own city. How are we doing?
Finally, this text serves as a glorious reminder of the grace that we have been shown in Jesus Christ. Just like Israel, we deserve to be judged. We have no claim on grace. But God, just as He did to Israel in Amos’s day, has shown us mercy and granted us life. As a result, we should praise Him continually and exalt our Savior often by the Spirit that lives within us. Amen.