Amos 7-8

Amos 7-8

God of Justice

I.                    We must trust fully in God’s grace because He will judge all justly, so we must be faithful to prayerfully intercede on behalf of His will for us all (7:1-7:6)

a.        God sent messages through Amos to warn Israel, urge them to evaluate their lives, their relationship with God, repent of their sinful disobedience, and return to Him. But the leaders of the northern kingdom remained unmoved, unresponsive, and continued along their disobedient path towards judgment. Now Amos shares a series of visions from God which describe His faithful and just nature, further warn Israel, and ultimately describe God’s judgment of the nation. The first vision Amos shares with the people is that of a potential locust swarm which God is preparing to send between the first harvest dedicated to the king’s needs, and the second greater harvest which provided winter sustenance for the nation, devouring the people’s food, and bringing certain famine. Heartbroken over the vision, Amos pleads with God in intercession to give the people more time to respond because they were too weak to survive such a judgment. God honored Amos’ interceding prayer and change course on His conditional judgment, while staying faithful to His just nature. Next God shows Amos a vision of all consuming fire which represents a severe drought which dries up the land and the ground water table, killing everything. Again, Amos intercedes on behalf of the people, and again God changes His course of action. God had been patient with them, holding off the judgment they rightly deserved, and giving them warning upon warning, but they had only grown more arrogant, complacent, comfortable, and hadn’t acknowledged God. How many natural disasters, manmade catastrophes, and extreme difficulties must we experience before we repent, humble ourselves, and seek God’s grace to heal us and our land? As times grow darker and things get worse, God is warning us all, and moving closer to executing His judgment. What should we do? We must first prayerfully evaluate our own lives for what God is showing us individually. Then we must follow the example which God provides throughout Scripture and faithfully intercede in prayer on behalf of our families, friends, enemies, and nation. (7:1-6; Gen. 18:20-33; Exod. 32:9-14; Numb. 14:1-20; Deut. 28:15, 38; 1 Sam. 8:11-22; 12:18-25; 1 Kgs. 18:36-37; 2 Chron. 7:13-14; Est. 4:14; Jer. 26:17-19; Matt. 5:44-45; John 11:40-45; 17:1-26; Rom. 8:26-28; 9:1-6; Eph. 6:18-19; Col. 4:12; 1 Thess. 5:16-25; 1 Tim. 2:1-4)

II.                 We must trust fully in God’s grace because He will judge all justly, so we must faithfully measure ourselves against His perfect Standard and act on His Word (7:7-8:14)

a.       Now Amos receives a vision of God standing next to a wall with plumb line in His hand to check the wall for its uprightness. The wall represents Israel, and the plumb line is God’s law. God is gracious and longsuffering, but the time of His forbearance of Israel’s sin was over. He measured Israel up against His righteousness finding them woefully out of plumb, and declaring His certain judgment on their wicked, idolatrous, and empty religion, and corrupt royalty. But Israel still had no interest in living according to God’s will and truth, only a desire to hear what they wanted to, and serve themselves. This prompts God’s fourth vision of a basket of ripe fruit, which represents Israel’s ripeness for judgment. Israel’s leadership had rejected God, His righteousness, and His justice, and the wealthy and affluent had followed along with them. They extorted the poor, practiced empty and vain religion, and cheated others through deceptive and dishonest business practices. So now God would flood them with judgment, turning their songs into silence, the light into darkness, and their festivals into funerals. Because the people had so utterly and continually rejected God despite His continued grace and warnings, they would now suffer a famine of God’s word, their vitality and future would be destroyed, their idols would fail them, and those who had rejected God would be judged permanently. We live in a time when God’s Word and teaching according to His word are more available and accessible than ever before, but we also live in a time when much of the political and religious leadership in our nation and world have rejected God’s Word, and invite humanity to measure themselves according to their own plumb line in order to selfishly serve themselves. The result is irrefutably disastrous, divisive, and tragic. When human beings seek justice in their own righteousness and strength, the only possible result is self-righteousness and a judgmental heart resulting in only conflict, disorder, chaos, envy, and hate. But when we humble ourselves, compare ourselves to The Plumb Line who is Jesus, we’re convicted in in our unrighteousness not to seek justice, but to seek mercy for ourselves and others in His righteousness, to seek His Word, and act according to His will for His glory! (7:7-8:14; Deut. 8:3; 1 Kgs. 11:38; 2 Kgs. 14:24; Prov. 21:2; Isa. 28:17; 55:6-11; Dan. 5:25-28; Matt. 4:4; 5:3-16; 6:31-33; 7:1-5, 24-27; 15:8; Luke 12:32-59; John 3:16-21, 36; Acts 4:19-20; Rom. 2:1-16; 1 Cor. 3:9-15; 4:3-5, 20; 2 Cor. 5:17, 21; 10:12-18; Jas. 1:16-27)