Know that God is going to judge sinners

Text Amos 3 Time 23 01 22 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church

We began to look last week at the Book of Amos. We said that Amos lived in the eighth century BC and was from Tekoa. He had no background in being a prophet but God suddenly called him to leave home and head north and prophesy to the Land of Israel.

We looked last week at Chapters 1 and 2 where Amos begins by prophesying to the various nations around about - Damascus, The Philistines, Tyre, etc but including first Judah and then, in some more detail, Israel itself.

Having made that dramatic beginning he comes in Chapters 3-5 to focus on Israel and her sins. We will just look at Chapter 3 this evening.

It is a little like being in a court of law. You can imagine a court, I'm sure. It's not difficult as they are like churches or chapels. Amos is the prosecutor and he has Israel before him and he lays out the charges against them. There are three main things to take in.

1. Hear this series of questions for those who profess to be God's chosen people

So chapter 3 begins Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the LORD has spoken against you - against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt: So here is a message. It is a message this time not for any other nation but for Israel - for the people that God brought up out of Egypt. He says (2) "You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth;" that was the situation. It is Israel that God chose, the descendants of Abraham, not anyone else. I don't know if those who heard that phrase felt a little proud when they heard it - yes, that is what we are - the people of God, the only people of God. If they did, then the next phrase would have come with something of a sting in the tail - "You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins." Privilege brings responsibility. These people needed to see that simply being God's people did not mean that they could do whatever they wished. No, it meant that they were liable to get God's attention in a way that others would not. "You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins."

This leads on then to a series of penetrating questions that are simply so many illustrations of the inescapable fact that actions have consequences. We do not live in a world that is totally random, where there is no connection between one thing and another. No, things happen for a reason. If you do this then that will happen.

So

1. (3) Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? Here are two friends walking along in the same direction. Why? Now it is possible that they both happen to be heading in the same direction but look, they are in step, they are talking to each other. No, they are walking together because they have agreed to walk together. That is the obvious explanation.

2. (4) Does a lion roar in the thicket when it has no prey? Does it growl in its den when it has caught nothing? Amos was a shepherd you recall. In his day there were still lions about and Amos had heard them roaring and growling from time to time when he worked as a shepherd.. He knew it meant something. If you heard a lion roaring in the thicket ... it was not that he just that he fancied growling. No, there was a reason for it. It was because the lion had caught something. Lions don't growl in their dens when they have caught nothing.

3. (5) Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground when no bait is there? Does a trap spring up from the ground if it has not caught anything? I don't know how much bird catching Amos had done but he knew that the reason bird traps work is because they use bait and the reason that they are triggered is because something has flown into them. Birds don't fly into traps without bait. Traps don't spring if nothing comes near them. No there is a reason why that bird has been trapped. it is not a fluke.

4. (6a) When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? Cities would have a warning system in those days - a watchman would be ready with a trumpet, with a ram's horn. If the city was about to be attacked the trumpet would be sounded by the watchman. It's like a siren going off to warn of an air raid or a fire alarm going off to warn of a fire. When you hear it, it makes you panic a little, it makes you fear. It could be a drill, of course, but may be not. How reasonable for people to tremble at the sound.

5. (6b) When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it? And so when some sort of trouble comes to a city, to a place, there must be a reason. And is it not because the LORD has caused it? It doesn't happen for no reason. It is not some random thing.

We too need to be alert in our own day. Things don't happen for no reason, They are not random. And so when God is at work, we ought to be awake to the fact. We ought to realise that he is active.

2. Hear this reminder of the way God announces his judgements to sinners

Next we come to verses 7 and 8. Amos wants to remind the people next that when trouble is about to come on a place God sends a warning. Like the roaring lion or the trumpet, God warns people what is about to happen. And so Amos says (7,8)

Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared - who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken - who can but prophesy?

It is the pattern with God that when he is about to bring disaster first he reveals his plan to his prophets. He reveals what is going to happen. He announces it in advance.

Well, as we might put it, The lion has roared - Amos has heard him and so everyone should fear. The Sovereign LORD has spoken - and Amos has no choice but to prophesy and tell the people what is going to happen.

It is part of God's grace that he warns people when his judgement is about to come. He does not simply say nothing and then suddenly strike.

Imagine a parent who would suddenly strike out at a child with no warning. You are sat there and then suddenly your mother or father comes up behind you and starts smacking you. That is not good parenting. A good parent will begin with a warning. There will no doubt be many steps before we get to corporal punishment, which will hopefully become unnecessary.

I remember when I trained as a school teacher they gave us this helpful list of disciplinary actions. It started with proximity control. So first you just walk up to the naughty pupil and hope your presence will stop them doing wrong. If that doesn't work, in those days, you put your hand on their shoulder, etc, etc.

God works with us in that thoughtful and measured way. Before he judges us he sends his messengers and they draw attention to the wrong that we are doing. Sometimes he will send more than one messenger as he did in the eighth century. If we listen to his messengers then there is hope for us. If we will not listen then what can we expect but his wrath and judgement.

3. Understand the actual judgement with which God's people are threatened because of sin

In the final verses of the chapter, in verses 9-15 Amos describes what the coming judgement is going to be like. He is thinking here of the overthrow of the country by the cruel Assyrians, which sadly did come to pass. There are temporal judgements such as that and there is also the ultimate judgement that such judgements point to. We must consider such things.

Remember the court room setting we have mentioned. In verse 9 it says Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod and to the fortresses of Egypt: "Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria; see the great unrest within her and the oppression among her people." So Philistines and Egyptians are called to be witnesses on the mountains of Samaria in the very heart of Israel, to the unrest and oppression that are going on there.

Verse 10 gives the charge against God's people "They do not know how to do right," declares the LORD, "who store up in their fortresses what they have plundered and looted." Plundering and looting have marked their way of life.

We too have sinned in different ways and so we can expect the same sort of thing that is spoken against them, which is in verse 11.

Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "An enemy will overrun your land, pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses." This is what was going to happen. The Assyrians were going to overrun their land, pull down their strongholds and plunder their fortresses.

We do not know what temporal judgements may come on us for our sins but we do know that if we go on in sin, we have to expect judgement at some point. We must take these warnings seriously.

In verse 12 Amos draws on his shepherd background. This is what the LORD says: "As a shepherd rescues from the lion's mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued, with only the head of a bed and a piece of fabric from a couch." The nation was going to be attacked and carried off and very few were going to survive. There would be some few that would survive, and it is there as an encouragement. But most would be overcome.

Again it is a warning not just for them but for us too.

Further (13, 14) "Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob," declares the Lord, the LORD God Almighty. "On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. When Israel split with Judah they lost easy access to the Temple in Jerusalem and so instead they set up altars at Dan and Bethel. Here we read how the most prominent of these altars, the one at Bethel, is going to have its horns cut off and fall to the ground. In other words, it was going to lose its power. It would no longer be the centre it had been.

Finally, in verse 15 Amos says I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished, declares the LORD. Israel had grown rich in the years of peace and prosperity that they had known. But all that was going to be lost when the Assyrians invaded and carried the people off into exile.

Think of a parent again. A good parent will warn first before punishing, Here are the warnings of God's judgement. Do you not see where it will lead if you refuse to repent? Repent today. This is the lesson then - to turn from sin and to find forgiveness in Jesus Christ before the great day of judgement arrives when God will judge this world in his wrath.

Back in 1980 there was a major eruption in America of a volcano called Mount St Helens. It wasn't a sudden event. For two months before the massive blast - the most deadly and destructive in American history - earthquakes and volcanic activity had been signalling that a major event was underway. Authorities had plenty of time to sound the alarm and warn those living nearby of the looming danger. Yet despite the seriousness of the threat, some people chose to disregard the warnings.

Probably the best known example is that of Harry Randall Truman. The eighty-three year old man was the owner and caretaker at the Mount St. Helens Lodge at Spirit Lake. He had survived the sinking of his troop ship by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland during World War I, and he was not about to leave just because scientists thought there was danger. He told reporters, “I don't have any idea whether it will blow. But I don't believe it to the point that I'm going to pack up.” On May 18, 1980, Truman and his lodge were buried beneath 150 feet of mud and debris from the volcanic eruption. His body was never found. There is a proverb (27:12) that says The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. Be prudent and run to Jesus before it is too late.