This promise of judgment against Israel began in chapter 2 verse 6 and shows no sign of letting up. Now the Lord will single out the complacent and the proud.

Amos 6

Woe To The Complacent

Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come! Go to Calneh and look at it; go from there to great Hamath, and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours?

You put off the evil day and bring near a reign of terror. You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.(Amos 6:1-7)

Our sin nature gives us a natural inclination toward evil (Romans 7:18). The moment we let down our guard it begins worming its way slowly into our lives. The only way to prevent this is to remain constantly on guard. Complacency is the best ally evil has. Complacency lets footholds become strongholds and pretty soon we’re tolerating things that would have shocked us just a short time earlier.

There’s an old saying that building blocks can become stumbling blocks. Two primary building blocks of any society are security and prosperity, and the Northern Kingdom had both. True to form, as the people became more secure and more prosperous they became more complacent, tolerating things they would have rejected earlier. In their case it was idolatry and the mistreatment of the less fortunate. The wealthy viewed their enviable lifestyles as a sign that they were OK with God. But their tolerance of evil had hastened the Day of Judgment, and that day had come.

In the US the Christian Church has enjoyed over 200 years of being the quasi-official religion of the nation, much of it during times of unparalleled security and prosperity. Some of us can still remember when the Lord’s name was invoked at the beginning of public meetings, in school assemblies, and even in our classrooms.

But then things began to change. Freedom of religion became freedom from religion. School prayer was banned. The murder of the pre-born was legalized. The church’s complacency in reacting to these things opened the door to more and more evil until what used to be called pornography is now called public entertainment, we’ve murdered over 50 million pre-born children, “alternative lifestyles” are promoted and celebrated, and the phrase “family values” is considered hate speech by many.

Our complacency has rendered us incapable of responding to these challenges as well, even though the US Census Bureau said 76% of adult Americans claimed to be Christian in 2012, and both our security and our prosperity are notably diminished.

The LORD Abhors The Pride Of Israel

The Sovereign LORD has sworn by himself—the LORD God Almighty declares: “I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”

If ten men are left in one house, they too will die. And if a relative who is to burn the bodies comes to carry them out of the house and asks anyone still hiding there, “Is anyone with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the LORD.”

For the LORD has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits. Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness- you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar and say, “Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?” For the LORD God Almighty declares, “I will stir up a nation against you, O house of Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.” (Amos 6:8-14)

It was too late for the Northern Kingdom. Samaria, it’s capital and the pride of Jacob, would be conquered and destroyed. Having desired to be free of the Lord, they would get their wish. The very mention of His name, once a source of comfort to them, would now bring down His wrath. All that the Northern Kingdom had gained by conquest would be lost until finally the entire nation would cease to exist, from Lebo Hamath in the North to the Arabah in the South.

In their own way, many American Christians of today are just as prideful as the ancient Israelites were.  They can’t distinguish our country from our church. They pray for God to “heal our land” as if America was the Church’s homeland, not realizing our citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3:20-21).  Only American Christians search the Scriptures for mention of our country, thinking a people as important as we are must surely be there.  They don’t realize that in the Bible American Christians are called “The Church” just like Christians of every other nation.

Amos 7

Locusts, Fire And A Plumb Line

This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the second crop was coming up. When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign LORD, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

So the LORD relented. “This will not happen,” the LORD said.

This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: The Sovereign LORD was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land.

Then I cried out, “Sovereign LORD, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

So the LORD relented. “This will not happen either,” the Sovereign LORD said.

This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A plumb line,” I replied.

Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.” (Amos 7:1-9)

The Lord showed Amos visions of two potential punishments for Israel. One was a plague of locusts that would strip away all the vegetation and the other was fire that would devour the land. Amos pleaded with the Lord against both these judgments, and the Lord discarded them.

The third vision, that of a plumb line, symbolized a builder surveying the accuracy of his work. Finding it to be out of plumb, he would tear it down and begin again. God’s plumb line was His righteousness. He measured the Northern Kingdom and found them out of plumb. His demolition agent was Assyria. Amos did not talk Him out of this one.

I don’t think it needs mentioning that America doesn’t measure up to God’s standards either. Once He has taken the Church, who are righteous by faith, He will set about demolishing what’s left of America as well.  For God knows how to rescue godly people from trials while holding the unrighteous for the day of judgment (2 Peter 2:9).

Amos And Amaziah

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. For this is what Amos is saying: ” ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’”

Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”

Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

Now then, hear the word of the LORD. You say, ” ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the house of Isaac.’

“Therefore this is what the LORD says: ” ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will certainly go into exile, away from their native land.’ “ (Amos 7:10-17)

The prophecies of Amos now turn from national to personal. The king himself would die by the sword.  Amaziah took exception to this pronouncement and to Amos’ encroachment upon his territory in general. He knew Amos was from the south so he told him to go back there, and earn his keep by prophesying about the south. But Amos hadn’t been hired by anyone to come north. He was doing what the Lord had commanded. And one thing the Lord commanded was to pronounce judgment on Amaziah and his family. The other was to confirm Israel’s demise.

But Wait, There’s More

There’s an interesting footnote to Amos 7, but you have to read Amos in the Septuagint (Greek) translation to see it. Instead of verse 1 reading like it does above, the Septuagint reads like this:Thus has the Lord God showed me; and behold, a swarm of locusts coming from the east; and behold, one caterpillar, king Gog.

This is one of three mentions of Gog in the Scripture spanning a time of nearly 3000 years, here in the 8th century BC, Ezekiel 38in the 21st Century AD and Revelation 20at the end of the Millennium.

Apparently the Septuagint translators understood that God had a supernatural force in mind for the potential judgment he had Amos preview in his vision. In their version ofAmos 7:1 Gog is identified as the king of the locusts. But Proverbs 30:27 states that ordinary locusts have no king, and observers of locust swarms agree that no obvious leader directs them, as a queen would direct a hive of bees.  Is Gog a supernatural figure from Satan’s camp that God uses as a leader of demonic forces to bring judgment upon His people? The wide span of time covered by his appearances would seem to support this view. And if that’s the case we can understand why Amos would prefer Assyria to a swarm of demonic locusts as God’s agency of judgment.

This lends insight to another appearance of locusts as well. I’m referring to Revelation 9:1-11, where a swarm of locusts comes out of the Abyss to afflict those on Earth who lack the seal of God on their foreheads. These locusts have a king named Abaddon in the Hebrew or Appolyon in the Greek. Here again,Proverbs 30:27 would indicate that this is not an ordinary swarm of locusts, but a demonic agency of judgment.  Only the 144,000 witnesses from the 12 Tribes named in Rev. 7:5-8  will be sealed in advance of this judgment, every other living being, believer or not, will be fair game for this agonizing attack.  The locusts will not have the power to kill them, only to make them wish they were dead (Rev. 9:5-6).

Time will tell if my opinion of Gog is true or not, but I can’t help thinking that perhaps Amos got a glimpse of one of the end times judgments coming upon the world. More next time as our study in Amos concludes.

Our study continues with chapters 4 and 5. The last time we saw that the Lord had worked up a fine head of steam in presenting His indictment of the Northern Kingdom. He’s far from finished.

Amos 4

Israel Has Not Returned to God

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”

The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness: “The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks. You will each go straight out through breaks in the wall, and you will be cast out toward Harmon,” declares the LORD(Amos 4:1-3).

The cows of Bashan were the premier breed of cattle in the land. With biting sarcasm the Lord compared the upper class women of the North to these pampered cattle. Contrasting His Holiness with their haughtiness, He warned them of the coming disaster. The Assyrians typically led their captives off with ropes attached to rings in their noses or lips. In the same way these highborn women would be brought low.

“Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings— boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,” declares the Sovereign LORD. (Amos 4:4-5)

Bethel and Gilgal were worship centers of the North, but not for giving thanks to God. The sacrifices and offerings brought there were given to the idols that had been set up in violation of the commandments. Leavened bread was only permitted at Pentecost, and bragging about the money and goods they gave was likewise prohibited. The Northern kingdom had become prosperous and powerful, and the One who had made them so had been abandoned in favor of powerless, man made gods.

“I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD. “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up. People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.

“Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.

“I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.

“I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD (Amos 4:5-11).

Before the Lord brought His people out of the desert and into the Promised Land, he had Moses give them a clear warning against forgetting Him.  He said if they didn’t remember it was He who had blessed them, and began attributing their prosperity to other gods, or to their own abilities, He would take it all away.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.  If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed  (Deut 8:10-11, 17-19).

I believe the Lord often calls us first with blessing, hoping that we’ll realize just who’s responsible for our well-being and give credit where credit is due. But if that doesn’t do the trick, He’ll begin withdrawing the very blessings He brought us. Where before we couldn’t fail, now it seems we can’t win. Where everything used to work in our favor, now it’s like we can’t get a decent break. His desire is that maybe, having been divested of everything including our pride, we’ll turn to Him.

But the Israelites had responded to neither, even though His withdrawal of blessing was obviously not mere chance. There was no option left but judgment.

“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.” He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth—the LORD God Almighty is his name (Amos 4:12-13).

Amos 5

A Lament and Call to Repentance

Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lament I take up concerning you: “Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land, with no one to lift her up.”

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “The city that marches out a thousand strong for Israel will have only a hundred left; the town that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left.”

This is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live; do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.” (Amos 5:1-5)

The Northern Kingdom received none of the reassurances that the Lord would later give the South. While Judah would return and rebuild after 70 years in captivity, Israel would disappear, never to rise again.  At the time of the division of the kingdom, all the Levites and the faithful of every other northern tribe relocated to the south, leaving only the apostates in the north (2 Chron. 11:14-16).  But even though they had rejected Him, He still pleaded with them to turn away from their pagan worship, warning that their refusal would result in 90% of them being lost.

Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire; it will devour, and Bethel will have no one to quench it. You who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground (he who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns blackness into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land— the LORD is his name- he flashes destruction on the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin), you hate the one who reproves in court and despise him who tells the truth. (Amos 5:6-10)

One of the reasons today’s unbelieving world is so adamantly opposed to the Judeo-Christian view is that deep down inside they know it’s the truth.  It’s just too obvious to be denied (Romans 1:18-20).  That’s why God thinks of unbelievers as being disobedient.  It’s not that they can’t believe, it’s that they won’t believe.  Every alternative to God that man has proposed over the centuries has been proven false, and they know it.  If they were really secure in their denial of the existence of God, their feelings toward believers wouldn’t be anger but pity, as for one who’s been deluded. They’re angry because while they desperately want to be right, at the sub-conscious level they know they aren’t.  And they hate us because they know we are.  Like the apostates of the Northern Kingdom they despise those who tell the truth.

You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.

Therefore the prudent man keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil. Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD God Almighty, says: “There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail. There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the LORD. (Amos 5:11-17)

The Lord had solid evidence against them, and advised them not to waste any time denying it, but instead to begin immediately acting in a manner pleasing to Him. Maybe that would ease His wrath against those who admitted their guilt and voluntarily changed their ways.  That was good advice for them.  For us the best advice is to make sure we’ve claimed the pardon the Lord purchased for each one of us.  Jesus said, “Everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to he who knocks the door will be opened”(Matt. 7:8). But this won’t last forever.  Hebrews 4:7 warns us, “Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts.”  If you haven’t already done so,  the time to ask is now.

Joseph was the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, whose combined territories made up a substantial portion of the Northern Kingdom. The remnant of Joseph is the term the Lord used for those few He would spare from defeat and captivity.

Speaking of this time, the Lord had earlier said to King Solomon,

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chron. 7:13-14)

But they had forgotten His admonition. Now nothing they did could completely deter the Lord’s judgment against them. Their rebellion had gone on for too long and their behavior could no longer be tolerated.  This promise, which God meant for them, could not deflect the judgment that was due them.  How can we believe it will deflect the judgment that’s due us, when the promise is not  even meant for us?

The Day of the LORD

Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.  Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light — pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? (Amos 5:18-20)

With the double vision common to prophets, Amos described both the terror the Israelites would soon feel at the hand of the Assyrian armies and that which would befall the people of Earth at the End of the Age. Relentlessly attacked, without a moment’s rest even in their own homes, why would anyone wish to be part of a time like this?

“I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. (Amos 5:21-23)

The audacity of some people! Sinning like there’s no tomorrow and then coming to Him like there’s no problem. Some were just going through the motions, others had themselves convinced they weren’t sinners. All were relying on their false gods and only paying lip service to the real One. They mistakenly thought that the works of their hands would mask the thoughts of their hearts.

Religion hasn’t changed much through the years has it? The only difference is that today He doesn’t bother telling us how much He detests it. He and His angels just don’t go to churches like that anymore.

But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the desert, O house of Israel? You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god—which you made for yourselves. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is God Almighty. (Amos 5:24-27)

While they experienced drought, God reminded them of a never failing stream, one of justice and righteousness. In the wilderness they had been faithful to Him and He provided for them, bringing forth a lake full of fresh water from a rock in the desert, quail to eat, and bread from heaven. He gave them victories over vastly superior enemies and built their nation into a world power. But in spite of all that, the vast majority eventually made gods of their own and worshiped them, so He was sending them away.

In Isaiah 29:13 the Lord said, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” He was talking about the Israelites in the 8th Century BC.  He might easily say the same thing about organized religion today. And if He judged their world then you may be certain He will judge ours now.