Minor Prophets pt4: Not So Famous Amos

The Not So Famous Amos

Amos 7:10

10 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. 11 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.’”

·      This prophecy comes true for Israel – The Northern Kingdom is soon destroyed by Assyria and the tribes led away, and then Babylon destroys Assyria, (sets the stage for the prophet Daniel)

12 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. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.” 14Amos 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. 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say, “Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the house of Isaac.’ 17“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 will die in a pagan country. And Israel will certainly go into exile, away from their native land.’”

 

For most of us, this is the famous Amos – before he started making chocolate chip cookies, he was a prophet.

• Name means “burden-bearer”– he definitely was burdened because of the sins of his people.
• Called a Sheep breeder(1:1) – Not just a shepherd, but a specific word which included breeding.
• And called a Fig Picker(7:14) – the sycamore was a species of fig of poor quality(fig-mulberry).
  • It seems that the trees called ‘sycamores’ produced a small fruit of little taste. It was the fruit of the poor.
  • To succeed in getting it even to that poor state, someone had to puncture the skin of the fruit while on the tree.
  • That’s what the ‘dresser’ did.

That’s what the truth does: it punctures us.

• Q: Who climbed this tree in the NT? {Zacchaeus} – Purity
  • Tender = “one who cuts or scrapes”.
  • Good illustration of what the Lord must do in our lives to make us sweet!

o   Example: Who climbed a tree and was pure but was cut, scraped, and pierced for us?  

Yet, “called by God”!(7:14,15)

• Layman(7:14) – No formal training.

• • Didn’t go to the school of the prophets. He was not a professional prophet.
  • He was only…“called by God!”

Awesome that God can, & desires to use, a “Fig Picking, Sheep breeding, Layman”!

• • No formal training is required…but training is!
  • It may simply be “on-the-job training”!

 

Proverbs 18:16 A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.

• God is in the business of using nobodies like us (think of the disciples) and doing significant things through insignificant people. Why?

Here we have a southern farm boy called to speak to his rich, prosperous, materialistic, upper-class northern neighbors.

• Illustration: Like God sending a redneck hunter to downtown Chicago – Michigan Ave. John Handcock builds to prophesy that God is not pleased with Chicago!

 

Under Jeroboam II, Israel was enjoying a time of peace & prosperity; its interest in religion was high, but revival was shallow, & had very little effect on everyday life!

• • When was he writing?
    • 755bc. – Hosea was a co-worker w/Amos, Isaiah, & Micah were just starting their ministries.
    • Uzziah, King of Judah
    • Jeroboam, King of Israel
  • Why was he writing?
    • “To confront their religion and their contempt for true worship.”

This pronouncement of judgment would have made him the “Not-So-Famous Amos!

There is a back-story that we need to understand:

Amos was a shepherd in the Southern kingdom and was asked to go to the Northern Kingdom and Prophesy.

1. The Southern Kingdom was Judah

2.    And the Northern Kingdom was Israel – 10 Northern tribes or ten lost tribes taken off in the Assyrian captivity

Remember that Israel, as a nation split under King Rehoboam.

·     There was Saul, then David, and then Solomon, and then Rehoboam taxed them heavily to build houses and the temple – 

·      He first heard the counsel from the older people to receive bad advice from his young buddies, considering working his subjects too hard, the people rebelled and split the nation.

Jeroboam took the 10 tribes and went north, we are not going to pay those taxes, and created his own worship centers and violated God’s command.

·      He did this because he was afraid that the nations would be united again.

God tells Amos you go north and prophesy: He tells the truth and is labeled a troublemaker because the truth exposes poor construction.

Ever see the show Holmes on Homes? HGTV?      

·      This home inspector/ professional contractor goes in and helps people out who have had terrible contractors come in and Jerry Rig things together.  

This is Amos – he is sent by God to go North and be a Holmes on Homes spiritual house inspection and runs smack dab into one of the contractor con man himself.

• Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, commanded Amos to go back home to his southern town and quit preaching in Northern Israel.
• We are in the truth business, not what feels good business. My goal is not for you to feel better but to be better. Getting better seldom feels good.

The truth is not popular – you don’t attract crowds by telling it, but people do mature, grow, and produce fruit, and in the end go to heaven!

When I go see the Doctor, I want the truth, not a drug to cover the symptoms, but a diagnosis that will cure me of the root cause.

• The Northern Kingdom under Jeroboam constructed their own temple to worship God in Samaria –
• Later, the Samaritan woman at the well said to Jesus You worship on this mountain – Jerusalem, we worship on this mountain.

·      Jesus responds to her that a time is coming, and now is when people will worship in Spirit and in truth. (John 4:13)

 

We all want to worship our own way – not in spirit and in truth!

·      We orchestrate and build worship and ministry around us and our needs, not in spirit and in truth.

·      Which leads to repentance, humility, and consecration to the Lord. 

Illustration: Imagine building a house without a survey of the land first,

·      Could you just show up and dig a hole for a foundation without blueprints?

·      Could you start cutting boards without a square?

·      What if you laid floor joists without a level?

·      Could you start raising a roof and walls without striking a chalk line or plumb line?

o   Imagine building an entire home by just what looks good.

o   Every decision, every cut, every nail, every shingle laid without snapping a chalk line or checking the blueprints, without making sure things are square

We can get busy doing a lot of things that look good but are not in spirit and in truth.

 

We all have a tremendous propensity for self-deception:

·      Ah …looks good to me!

·      The more that you keep building, and suddenly things don’t square, level, or plum at all.

 

Why is it so easy to deceive ourselves?

·      We don’t know what we don’t know.

·      Because we don’t know what we don’t know, we need someone to tell us the truth.

 

When the truth comes, it shows up in a measurement an evaluation by a standard that exposes:

·      What isn’t straight

·      What isn’t level

·      What isn’t plum

 

The problem is that we have put a ton of money, effort, time, and hard work into constructing our decision.

·      In fact, the more we put into building and constructing our lives, the greater resistance we have towards receiving the truth because in the end it means…

·      That we will have to deconstruct, let go of, and even tear down many things that, up until now, seemingly have worked.

Without a square, without a level, without a plumb line, we will never know.

·      We justify and lean towards self-deception

·      Build a decision on a  decision

·      Construct our lives on what feels right and looks right to us.

A pastor, teacher, mentor, friend, or spouse comes in and says that the decision is wrong according to the word, the truth.

·      “That’s for you, not true for me.”

What’s true is true absolutely: Absolute truth is not relative – it’s true for everybody.

Amos 7:1 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. 8 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.  9“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.”

The Northern tribes, Israel, had built and constructed an entire temple and system of worship that wasn’t square, wasn’t level, wasn’t plumb, but looked good.

·      They did this and began to prosper financially, and the nation was doing extremely well. This added to the self-deception.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death.

1.    Good intentions are not enough – I meant well.

2.    There aren’t a thousand shades of grey – you are making the right decision or the wrong decision – period

3.    The way it seems to you doesn’t matter – the end is death

Does the road you are taking actually lead to the right destination?

Would you drive more than 20 miles on a hunch?

·      Because the way seemed right – how would you know unless you checked a map?

·      My experience is that people refuse direction and correction – being lost is the norm!

God sends in Amos with a plumb line and says: God says what you have built and constructed is not true:

1.    It’s not square

2.    It’s not level

3.    It’s not plumb

What is the price of fudging some here and there?

·      Do we have to measure twice and cut once on every decision?

·      Can’t we wing it a little in life

If we asked God, his word, would we want to know it once we hear it?

That’s one way of identifying the truth:

·      I don’t want to hear it. But I need to hear it before I build too much and go too far.

Psalm 119:10  With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.¹¹ Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.¹² Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes.¹³ With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.¹⁴ I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.¹⁵ I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.¹⁶ I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.

¹⁰¹ I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. ¹⁰² I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.¹⁰³ How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!¹⁰⁴ Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. ¹⁰⁵ Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.