Amos 6

Amos 6

Call to Action

I.                    God’s people must be people of action in Him, because false self-confidence produces a complacent life (Vv. 1-6)

a.       God’s message to the northern kingdom of Israel through the prophet Amos, has admonished the people to see that who God is must affect their whole lives, to continually seek to see things God’s way, to value what God values, and to continually seek God if they wish to find life. God has sent Amos to warn the people, so they see that they haven’t been doing these things. Now Amos reveals the results of failing to do these things through his pronouncement of woe which concludes his sermon series to the people. As the people of Israel continued to enjoy a season of geographical peace, economic prosperity, and religious fervor, they grew to rely more self-sufficient, more self-confident, self-secure, their pride swelled to greater and greater degrees, and their complacency grew along with it. Judah believes that they’re untouchable simply because Jerusalem is Judah, and the Israelites believe that they’re untouchable because of their military strength and the topologically fortified capital of Samaria. In their prideful overconfidence, Israel’s elite have anointed themselves as noble and distinguished above all others, and designated themselves as the number one nation. They continually worked to heap more praise and pile up more possessions for themselves at the expense of the poor and needy. They laid around enjoying their extravagance, completely consumed, and distracted by frivolous things while the rest of the nation went without, and danger sat at their doorstep. God called them to look at the once prominent cities around them who used to be just as confident and powerful as they, but who fell into ruin and slavery, nonetheless. But the people’s great pride made them self-righteous, overconfident, self-entitled, overprivileged, complacent, insensitive, irresponsible, and unteachable, believing it couldn’t possibly happen to them. Our fiercely prideful and self-sufficient culture closely mirrors Israel today. The needy look to these leaders, and no one looks to God. And the church in our culture is equally self-sufficient, and largely complacent. (Vv. 1-6; Jer. 9:23-26; Ezek. 12:21-28; Zeph. 1:12; Zech. 4:6; Matt. 24:1-51; Luke 12:13-21; Acts 24:24-25; 1 Cor. 1:26-31; Eph. 2:8-9; 2 Tim. 3:1-7; 4:1-4; Rev. 3:14-17)

II.                 God’s people must be people of action in Him, because He’ll faithfully judge those who pridefully live for themselves in their own strength (Vv. 7-14)

a.   The Israelite elite desired to be foremost among their people, they were self-confident, self-certain, and comfortable in the security of their own strength, and weren’t concerned with threats from the outside or the plight of the needy in their own nation who looked to them. So God swears by the highest power and certainty, Himself, to give these people what they think they’re entitled to. They’ll be the first, to be led away into exile and captivity! God loathes Israel’s pridefulness, that they trust in their fortresses and not Him, and declares that He’ll take away their comfort, and everything in which they trust through their own strength. The desolation of the Israel in judgment will be so severe that they’ll be afraid to mention God’s name for fear of Him discovering that someone remains. God called them to live for Him that their lives would bear the fruits of His justice, and righteousness, but they were no more capable of doing this in their own strength than horse can run effectively or an ox plow effectively on large loose rocks. Instead of bearing His fruit, they turned His justice to poison and His righteousness bitter. They pridefully lived for themselves in their own strength, but their accomplishments amounted to nothing. While they were trusting pridefully in their own strength, and living for themselves, God promised to raise up a nation against them, ultimately the Assyrians, that would conquer them from one end of Israel to the other. Israel had grown so confident in their own strength and accomplishments, that they no longer saw their need for God, stopped truly seeking Him, and thus regressed in every area of their existence. Like Israel, trusting in our won strength and sufficiency leads to false comfort, false security, and false hope because it’s built on something which always moves towards disorder, degeneration, and failure. Only trusting in Christ’s unchanging strength and sufficiency will sustain us. And only acting obediently to continually to seek Him and grow in Him will allow us to enjoy true comfort, peace, strength, understanding, fulfillment, and purpose in life as individuals and as the body of Christ. (Vv. 7-14; Ps. 1:1-6; Prov. 3:1-12; Jer. 17:5-10; 29:4-15; Hos. 10:12-13; Matt. 7:12, 21-27; 11:27-30; 20:25-28; 22:36-40; 28:18-20;  Luke 9:23-25; 18:9-14; John 13:34-35; 14:21-27; 15:1-14; Acts 1:8; Phil. 2:5-11; Heb. 13:5b-8; Jas. 4:1-10; 1 Pet. 5:5b-7; Rev. 3:18-22)