Amos 4 - Sign Sign Everywhere a Sign

by Lance Ponder⁽⁹⁰⁾
http://fkiprofessor.xanga.com

God’s Will Shall Be Done

Amos 4:1-3 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’ The Lord God has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks. And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into Harmon,” declares the Lord. It is not at all unusual in ancient Hebrew to mix metaphors. Cows represent lazy grazing creatures who grow fat in whatever pasture seems greenest. The reference to “cows…who say to your husbands” suggests this passage is directed toward elite women. They have gained through oppression of the poor and encouraged their husbands to do likewise. The mountain of Samaria represents the kingdom of Israel. The reference to the mountain of Samaria suggests politics and religion. A wicked combination of legal strategies and idolatry kept divided the rich from the poor. Amos predicts that a time is soon coming when those who make such gains will be plucked up like fish on hooks and taken away. This is a graphic yet apt description of the Assyrian exile soon to come. Broad lessons for the church today are to avoid division based on status, avoid gossip, and avoid taking advantage of the poor and weak. God is love and love is generous and kind, not oppressive.

I Dare You

Amos 4:4-5 “Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!” declares the Lord God. In the previous passage Amos expresses God’s intent to exile the oppressors within Israel. In this passage Amos goes a step further to reveal their hypocrisy. In modern terms it is like calling out those who go to church on Sunday and pretend to be good but use the other six days of the week to do evil. The good they do is for show. They give their tithes and offerings for public acclaim rather than out of love and obedience. They labor under the illusion that they please God when they please each other, but God sees through their hypocrisy. The same can be said of those who think they are saved by saying a prayer like an incantation yet live unchanged lives. Jesus never said name it and claim it. Jesus said repent and be born again. Like God’s message given through Amos, Jesus also used a great deal of sarcasm when dealing with the religious elite. He too would call them out for their hypocrisy.

Ignoring the Sign of Hunger

Amos 4:6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. This is the first of five “declares the Lord” phrases. Each case indicates progressively worse forms of punishment intended to make the people wake up. In each case the people are oblivious to chastisement. If anything, they blame God for their problems instead of turning to God for rescue. God still loves His people, but He also chastens those He loves. This first form of chastening is hunger.

Ignoring the Sign of Drought

Amos 4:7-8 “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. God controls the weather. The bible does not suggest that God manipulates all of the weather all of the time like a great stick and carrot, although in the case of Israel Amos is saying God’s hand is at work in an effort to goad Israel into repentance. In this case it appears the purpose is to make the people interdependent (love one another) as well as dependent on God. Again, the people remain stubbornly ignorant of God’s intent.

Ignoring the Sign of Decay

Amos 4:9 “I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. It was not enough that the crops were not producing enough. God then caused what crops they did have to be damaged by blight, mildew, and bugs. The more punishments God sends, the more the people ignore Him. Holy frustration and anger were manifest in the destructive wrath poured out on the wayward children of God.

Ignoring the Sign of Death

Amos 4:10 “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. The fourth sign of God’s chastisement raises the stakes. Previous punishments removed bounty, then sustenance, but here God moves from indirect punishment via agriculture to direct punishment at the hand of the Assyrian enemy. For decades before the fall of Samaria the Assyrians raided Israelite villages. They killed, burned, and stole. In the face of these tragic events the people still remained unrepentant.

Ignoring the Sign of Destruction

Amos 4:11 “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. The fifth and final statement of God’s active warning and Israel’s stubborn refusal to listen indicates Israel has already suffered extensively at the hands of Assyria. It may seems as if God is vengeful and mean in His methods, but such worldly thinking ignores both the motive and the multiple opportunities to reverse the trend. God’s motive is love. Because of God’s love, He seeks to restore the relationship with His people. His methods may seem harsh, but the reality is that most people will not be drawn to their knees – they need to be pushed. In each case the punishments are in response to Israel’s failure to love. James (4:8) paraphrases David (1 Chr 28:9) when he writes, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” David’s original quote also includes a stark warning: “if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.” The wonder is not how God could appear so mean toward His people, but that He did not carry His wrath more quickly. God is slow to anger and He is eager to turn from wrath, but His justice is a sure as His righteousness (Nu 14:18).

God Is Not to be Ignored

Amos 4:12-13 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name! The offense was failure to head the second greatest commandment, to love one another. Five increasingly unpleasant warnings were given. Still, the people continued offering lip service to God yet in all other ways they served themselves. It is critical to remember that God acts for His own reasons and for His own sake. That may sound a bit selfish, but consider the difference from human behavior. God is righteous and good. He is not capricious nor a liar. When God acts for the glory of His own name, He does what is good. We must put aside the way we think of human self-righteousness when we try to comprehend God acting for the sake of the glory of His own name. God created the universe, the earth, and all life therein. We are not our own and when we are humanly selfish we are the opposite of love. God is love because God gives what is His to we who do not deserve. Selfishness forsakes love. This is why the elite of Israel were forsaking God’s love. They took selfishly from the poor and what they did offer God was offered for selfish reasons. The lesson remains the same today as it did in the time of Amos.

Majoring in the Minors

Amos Chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9

Article submitted Friday, August 27, 2010 & read 150 times.

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