Written by: Gill Trumble
Amos 3 v 1-2
Listen to this word that the LORD has spoken against you, people of
Israel, against the whole family he brought out of Egypt.
“I have chosen only you out of all the families of the earth, so I will
punish you for all your sins.”
Notes
You are special, there is no escaping it, you are special. As chosen people,
part of the family, you are chosen for special privileges, special responsibilities,
special holiness, special revelation, special scrutiny, special love and
special grace.
When human families work well, that’s how you feel, special, belonging. With belonging come particular rights – love, security, shelter, protection, nourishment. Belonging also carries responsibilities – loving in return, loyalty, following the rules, caring for each other. When communities work well, again, that’s how you should feel, special and belonging, with a role and a purpose, with rights and responsibilities.
How is your family, your community? Are you enjoying the rights, are you facing up to your responsibilities? How are you in God’s family? Are you enjoying the rights - the security of his love and grace, the fellowship of the family of God? Are you facing up to the responsibilities? The family of God is particularly special. To walk with God is not a soft option and the church of God cannot escape the consequences of not facing up to its particular responsibilities.
So what is required, what are the responsibilities? “Listen to me” says God, “What I require of you is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbour as yourself.”
Prayer
Father, thank you that I am chosen, that I am special, that I belong, that
you have a plan and a purpose for my life. Help me to walk humbly in your
truth, ready to listen and ready to obey, to follow your leading and guiding.
Amen
Amos 3 v 3-8
Two people will not walk together unless they have agreed to do so.
A lion in the forest does not roar unless it has caught an animal; it does
not growl in its den when it has caught nothing.
A bird will not fall into a trap where there is no bait; the trap will not
spring shut if there is nothing to catch.
When a trumpet blows a warning in a city, the people tremble.
When trouble comes to a city, the LORD has caused it.
Before the Lord GOD does anything, he tells his plans to his servants the prophets.
The lion has roared!
Who wouldn’t be afraid?
The Lord GOD has spoken.
Who will not prophesy?
Notes
Have you noticed there is always a before and an after to just about everything
in life? There is a time of opportunity, a time of choice and then that time
is gone. When we are forming attitudes and habits there is a period of time
when by an act of will we can make a complete change. There is also a point
of no return and we get stuck in a particular attitude or habit. Then we
need divine intervention to bring us freedom! Obviously some habits are good
but let’s be aware that each day there are fading opportunities to
break bad ways.
It is at this crucial time of opportunity and choice that Amos gives us this warning. Things don’t happen without cause and they are usually as a result of our actions. When one thing happens, the other will surely follow. There is the opportunity for repentance for reconciliation, for freedom. The choice is ours.
Think for a moment of the believers in Amos’ day. They had forgotten the true ways of God and were corrupt. They were proud, complacent and self-satisfied; they set themselves on a pedestal and looked down on others. Ring any bells? They didn’t have any knowledge or understanding of the forgiveness available through the love and death of Jesus. We do. What is our excuse? Who dares to be an Amos and speak out God’s challenges in the 21st century?
Prayer
Father, forgive my pride, complacency and self-satisfaction. Help me to make
the right choices in every area of my life and to take the opportunities
you give me to speak of you and your love for all people. Amen.
Amos 3 v 9-11
Announce this to the strong buildings of Ashdod and to the strong buildings
of Egypt:
“Come to the mountains of Samaria, where you will see great confusion and
people hurting others.”
“The people don’t know how to do what is right,” says the LORD.
“Their strong buildings are filled with treasures they took by force from
others.”
So this is what the Lord GOD says:
“An enemy will take over the land and pull down your strongholds; he will
take the treasures out of your strong buildings.”
Notes
The church is powerless today. What good is prayer in the face of powerful
nations and politicians? What protection does faith give us in a world of
greed and corruption? Has God lost his power? Familiar comments heard in
today’s world.
In this passage we are given a clear picture of situations that could have been taken straight out of our current news reports. We are used to reading in our newspapers and seeing on our TV screens, accounts and pictures of confusion and people hurting each other. The media presents us with a society sadly lacking in values and clearly showing that people don’t have a clue about what is right and what is wrong. Scoring points off of one another is a social skill found in all areas of life including our church fellowships. All that matters is that we gain something for ourselves. Getting and storing is a national hobby. It is a way of life that is admired and aspired to, not even seen as a sin.
Amos is talking about attitudes and behaviour completely at odds with the teaching of Jesus and what Paul writes in Philippians, “When you do things, do not let selfishness or pride be your guide. Instead, be humble and give more honour to others than to yourselves.” (Chapter 2 v 3)
There is a strange boomerang effect in the last bit of this passage. What goes around comes around. The treasures will be stripped away and we will be shown for what we really are.
Do we live in a world where God has lost his power, or have the church and individual believers lost his power? How will we look when the religious front we put on is stripped away?
Prayer
Father, I pray for your values to be upheld in all areas of society. I pray
for those who have authority, for those who lead and govern; for those who
have responsibility for all aspects of the media. I pray for the church and
for your values to be taught and lived out and that your power be seen in
individual lives and in your world today. Amen
Amos 3 v 12-15
This is what the LORD says:
“A shepherd might save from a lion’s mouth only two leg bones or
a scrap of an ear of his sheep.
In the same way only a few Israelites in Samaria will be saved - people who
now sit on their beds and on their couches.”
“Listen and be witnesses against the family of Jacob,” says the Lord
GOD, the God All-Powerful.
“When I punish Israel for their sins, I will also destroy the altars at
Bethel.
The corners of the altar will be cut off, and they will fall to the ground.
I will tear down the winter house, together with the summer house.
The houses decorated with ivory will be destroyed, and the great houses will
come to an end,” says the LORD.
Notes
It’s fascinating to look at old pictures and newsreels to see how things
were, a pattern of life long since gone. Amos used this same idea of surviving
proof to show what once was. Remember those heroes of old, the descendants
of Jacob. They knew a thing or two about faith and doing things God’s
way, his chosen people showing the rest how to live. Where had it all gone
wrong? All that remained of the people of God are identified by beds and couches,
sensuality and idleness, luxury and bodily care. They had become just like
everybody else.
How are God’s people identified today? Do others look at us and see a people concerned with social justice and care of others? People whose lives show by their speech and actions that they are living God’s way? How easy is it to cut short our personal time with God because we are too busy with other things, the way we look or our fitness regime? Yes, we are sensual beings and bodily care is important, he made us that way, but don’t let us become so totally focussed on those things that we look like the rest of the world. We need to be spiritually fit so we can offer the world something greater. Don’t adapt, distort or trim until your faith matches what the world wants. False religion produces false society and a religion that is based on outward displays, produces a materialistic people and ends in a collapse of both church and society.
Prayer
Father, keep me sensitive to the needs of those around me and enable me to
show your love to a needy world. Keep me close to you and your ways that
my faith is based on your truth and not how I would make it to be. Amen
Amos 4 v 1-3
Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan on the Mountain of Samaria.
You take things from the poor and crush people who are in need.
Then you command your husbands,
“Bring us something to drink!”
The Lord GOD has promised this:
“Just as surely as I am a holy God, the time will come when you will be
taken away by hooks, and what is left of you with fishhooks.
You will go straight out of the city through holes in the walls, and you will
be thrown on the garbage dump,” says the LORD.
Notes
We read here that God is holy. How do we understand that? Divine holiness is
a complex theological issue but I think we can say here that it has a lot
to do with perfection of goodness, purity and moral laws. Before Adam knew
sin he had no fear of God and there was a closeness of relationship. All
that changed, and moral sin drove a wedge between God and humanity. In this
passage the wedge has become a gaping void. Amos states that God swears not
by his name but by his holiness. It is a violent oath that he makes. What
is it that brings out such passion? The language is very graphic! We see
a society and a religion that is based on nothing but pleasure and self-pleasing.
The lives of typical women show a way of life content with an animal existence
and devoid of any personal spirituality. It is body and not soul that occupies
their time. The poor and needy are fleeced in order to maintain their luxuries.
Pause and think. How far have our values strayed from that which is current in heaven? When we discover that our thoughts are not his, nor our ways his ways, we realise our need for a severe overhaul and reappraisal of what the priorities are in our lives, in our fellowships and churches. How important are our luxuries when we look at the needs of the poor, the hungry and the homeless, at the inequalities of world trade?
Prayer
Father, help me with my overhaul and reappraisal. Open my eyes, heart and mind
to the needs of others and enable me to walk close to you, that I may be
in step with the values of heaven. Amen
Amos 4 v 4-5
“Come to the city of Bethel and sin; come to Gilgal and sin
even more.
Offer your sacrifices every morning, and bring one-tenth of your crops every
three days.
Offer bread made with yeast as a sacrifice to show your thanks, and brag about
the special offerings you bring, because this is what you love to do, Israelites,” says
the Lord GOD.
Notes
What do you get enthusiastic about in your Christian life? In this passage,
the mocking tone of Amos suggests that the Israelites’ preoccupation
with self-indulgence and self-pleasing related to their worship as well as
their private life. The pilgrimage to Bethel and Gilgal is not undertaken
as an act of obedience but as an outward sign of religiosity, piling up points
and favour. Offerings are made to impress rather than as a love gift to God.
The regulations concerning tithing and bread offerings had been altered with
the hope of gaining even more blessing and privilege. The use of yeast in
bread offered as a sacrifice had strictly been forbidden in the Law of Moses
but here we see it as part of their self-invented ritual. It is all for self.
What do you get enthusiastic about? We have beautiful buildings and places of pilgrimage; sacraments and services of praise and thanksgiving; religious devotion in prayer and meditation; religious duty in tithing and giving. But it is all pointless, and positively harmful, as the cause of more sin, if it is all just another way of self-pleasing. Has enthusiasm for the ritual and the rules replaced the love relationship that God seeks with each one of us? It’s an easy trap to fall into.
Prayer
Father, forgive me for falling in love with myself and being concerned with
chasing after the things that bring me happiness rather than putting you
at the centre of all I do. Amen
Amos 4 v 6-11
“I did not give you any food in your cities, and there was not enough to
eat in any of your towns, but you did not come back to me,” says the LORD.
“I held back the rain from you three months before harvest time.
Then I let it rain on one city but not on another.
Rain fell on one field, but another field got none and dried up.
People weak from thirst went from town to town for water, but they could not
get enough to drink.
Still you did not come back to me,” says the LORD.
“I made your crops die from disease and mildew.
When your gardens and your vineyards got larger, locusts ate your fig and olive
trees.
But still you did not come back to me,” says the LORD.
“I sent disasters against you, as I did to Egypt.
I killed your young men with swords, and your horses were taken from you.
I made you smell the stink from all the dead bodies, but still you did not
come back to me,” says the LORD.
“I destroyed some of you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick pulled from a fire, but still you did not come
back to me,” says the LORD.
Notes
When we look at the troubles and suffering in the world, our minds look for
logical explanations and reasoning. Moral evil, wrong choices, selfish actions,
abuse of power etc. are often the cause. But how do we reason the suffering
that is beyond our logic and appears to happen by chance? Thousands killed
in floods and earthquakes, the death of an innocent child… In this
passage the troubles of life are spelt out and, right at the centre, are
the most worrying, troubles apparently caused by chance.
This is difficult and our minds rebel to think of a God who would do such things. But unless we want to trim him down to the limits of our emotions and small enough to fit within our logic, we need to see the God who is sovereign Lord over history and human experience. Amos writes of all kinds of disasters and suffering, and through it all God is longing to see his people turn to him in repentance.
A God who is not sovereign and is absent from life’s troubles, a God too busy when most needed, too preoccupied to take note of human suffering when it happens, in countless forms, is no God for our world today. But we worship a God who is Lord and is at the very heart of suffering and who suffered himself for each one of us. He looks for repentance in us, not because he wants us to live in the mess and pain of sin and suffering, but because repentance is the way back to renewal and recreation.
Prayer
Father, these things are not easy. Give me wisdom and understanding and your
compassion when I see suffering in this world. Help me to see my own sin
and my own need for repentance, so that I may serve you in newness of life.
Amen
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word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes