Amos 1:1

The book of Amos, chapter 1, and verse 1. The words of Amos was among the herdsmen of Toccoa, which he saw, concerning Israel, in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years, before the earthquake. And then, if you would, chapter 7 of the book of Amos, and verse 10, and reading through verse 15. Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent Jeroboam, King of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel, the land, is not able to bear all his words. For this Amoseth, Jeroboam shall die. For thus Amoseth, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. Also Amosiah said unto Amos, O thou seer go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there, but prophesied not again any more at Bethel, for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court. Then answered Amos, and said to Amosiah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son, but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord sent unto me, go, Prophesy unto my people, Israel. May God blessed to us His sacred and holy word this evening. I suppose that the minor prophets are one of the most neglected sections of Scripture. Sadly, it seems that, it seems that people don’t see this section as being relevant for the day and age in which we live. The book of Amos, though, is one of the most readable, straightforward sections of the Word of God. It’s full of spiritual nourishment for the people of God. It’s not dark and mysterious like Zachary. with the visions that are difficult to interpret. But sadly, for much of church history, this book has been given little or no attention. You rarely hear a sermon on it. When I was growing up, I don’t think I ever heard a sermon from any of the minor prophets. If I asked you, can you think you could quote a single verse from this book that you know by heart? And yet, I think the book has a lot to say to our own generation. It’s not an old book without any relevance to our day and age. Some people seem to think that it’s lost its usefulness as time has passed and we’re past that period in history and so forth. The secret to understanding a lot of these Old Testament minor prophets is to realize the parallel between our day and their day. God doesn’t change. The message is going to be the same. And therefore, we can benefit from it. At this time, we will see, as we’ll look in it tonight, that Israel enjoyed unparalleled degrees of prosperity. And yet, it was never further from God. who had given to them every good gift that they possessed. In a way, the United States of America is like Israel in this regard. There’s some great similarity. The parallel, I think, is certainly too obvious to ignore. We have on our coins that phrase in God we trust. In our Pledge of allegiance, we talk about one nation. under God, but nothing could be further from the truth because we are a faithless and godless nation, and we are not submitting to the authority of God. God has greatly prospered this country. We have more abundance than a lot of the world has, and yet it seems like we’re light years away from the Lord. And straying further, it seems, every year. Now, tonight I want to introduce the book of Amos, and I’d like to consider the prophet Amos and the times in which he prophesied. Let me begin by talking about the farmer who was called to be a prophet. Now, you’re given little information about Amos. Outside of this book, we know nothing of him. We do know that his name means a load or burden. You know, sometimes we read about a prophet and the burden of the Lord, you know, being upon him and so forth. Well, his name means burden, and that certainly indicates to us a reflection, certainly of the message that he’s going to bring. It’s not an easy message to bring one of judgment. No other person. and the Old Testament has this name. And so we have just this man and his information in this book. We’re told he’s from this little village Tocola, which is about 10 miles south of Jerusalem. It’s in the southern kingdom of Judah. This village today is known as Tekua. It’s a modern Arab town, but evidently still exist. What is interesting is that Amos lived in the southern kingdom of Judah, but God is going to send him to the northern kingdom of Israel to prophesied. We see the force then of Amaziah’s words in chapter 7. He is the priest of Bethel. and he’s saying, if I can put it in modern language today, Amos, go back to where you came from, go home, stay in your own country and prophesying. So you’re given very little information about Amos. You are told, however, that Amos’ original occupation was not that of being a full-time prophet. He is said to be a herdsman here in verse 1. Decoa was not too far from Bethleham, another town famous for shepherds. And here, the word that’s being used here in chapter 1, verse 1, is really he was a shepherd of some sort. Remember in the account of Christ’s birth that the shepherd were in the field tending to their flock and so this area was known for its flocks of sheep and so forth. This starts you thinking of Amos here as sort of an ordinary citizen. He has a task that he’s performing. He’s not one of the sons of the prophets. He didn’t work under any prophet like elisha. did under Elijah or anything of this nature. He’s someone from the working class. Someone knew what it was to work hard for a living. He knew about hot days in the sun and chilly nights when the sun went down in the field, tending the sheep. This word herdsman here actually implies that Amos was a sheep master. This word is used of Mesha, the king of Ahab and 2nd Kings 314, where the King James has a translated sheep master. Thus he wasn’t just a poor shepherd with just a small flock, but it seems that he was either an owner of sheep, sheep breeder maybe, that might be closer to the idea in the Hebrew. But he was in the sheep business. He owned the sheep or whether he managed them for someone else. He was taking care of large flocks of sheep. Now in chapter 7 in verse 14 of Amos, we also read here that he was a cattleman because the word herdman in this particular verse is different from the in chapter 1. Amos I accused Amos of trying to make a living by being a prophet at Bethel told him to go back to Judah. prophesied there. Amos here points out that he’s not really a member of the prophet’s guild. He starts out not the prophet Amos, not the prophet Amos, but he’s the herdsman of Tocowa, it starts out in chapter 1. In fact, he did indeed the prophesite to earn a living. He either owned a business or worked for a large owner of sheep to where he would probably be paid a fairly good wage. So he calls himself a herdman here in chapter 7, verse 14, but it’s another rare Hebrew word that’s distinct from the one in chapter 1. It means a cattleman of some sort probably had responsibility for large herds in addition to flocks. So we can’t just classify it someone as a small farmer or something of that nature. You must have managed large herds of cattle and locks of sheep. In addition, in chapter 7 in verse 14, we read here that he was a fruit farmer. Amos’ first business was a herdsman, but he immediately adds here that he did a secondary thing and that he was a gatherer of sycamore fruit. Evidently on this farm, he had some type of orchard where he, in which grew sycamores. Now, sycamores, this term that’s used here in this area of, of the world was really a species of fig, ficus, sycamores, that produced a cash crop. We shouldn’t confuse it with sycamore trees that we have in the United States, which don’t grow fruit. So don’t think of it in the same capacity. So Amos here was growing and harvesting this fruit. And from what I understand, it’s a rather bitter fruit that grew in the Dead Sea area. And so he also was involved in this. It was like from a fig mulberry tree type. It wasn’t like a large tree, but a smaller type of tree. They grew in the vicinity, I said, of the Dead Sea. So here he is. So in some ways, he’s a mixed farmer. He’s taken care of cattle. He’s taking care of sheep. And he’s even and growing this fruit. So here’s a man who is busy about the farm work and he is the one that the Spirit of God deals with and he’s called to be a prophet. Now, we see here that prophecy wasn’t his normal business. The point I want to make in all this is this is not something he did by occupation. it’s not like and he had done this for years. It seems like he was called while he was busy about his farm work to do this work of prophecy. And yet at this period in his life he’s called to go to a foreign country and prophesying. This is what Amos was conveying to Amosiah here. I’m just an ordinary person. I have a farm. I’m taking care of. It just so happened that God called me and sent me here. Perhaps he took frequent visits to the markets at Jerusalem and maybe Bethel and other places where he did the selling of sheep or cattle or something of this nature of the fruit. We don’t know. And maybe he’s familiar with Samari in Bethel and Maybe he was exposed to the wickedness and the sin. Maybe it had grieved him when he saw what was going on in these places. And then one day, the word of the Lord comes to him. And he set on a mission. And when people listen to Amos, they heard an ordinary man. He’s not a guy who’s been trained professionally, so to speak. But God, often calls men who are not skilled orders. This is not what they do for a living, but this is what God calls them to do. And he preaches. And he brings these stunning messages from God. So he was not originally a full-time prophet. Now as we look at this, I hope perhaps we can learn that God uses you as an ordinary citizen, ordinary common Christian, I should say, really, to carry his message. Not that we are prophets per se in its office sense. But you don’t have to be a full-time minister or a seminary graduate to carry God’s message, effectively. As far as we know he didn’t belong to the school, the prophets. You know, he wasn’t trained up in any way here. But what drove him to prophesy was the Spirit of the Lord upon him. And the revelation that God gave him. Now, we have the same Holy Spirit today, and we have a revelation that God has given us in his work. And we have a duty to fulfill regardless of what our normal occupation may be. And that is, while we don’t have the office of profit, we can still be a spokesman for the Lord. You know, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a businessman or a farmer or a factory worker or a coal miner or civil servant, a janitor, a bookkeeper, do computer work, or whatever. It really doesn’t matter. Thus, say, if the Lord is your business, is it not? John Dodd, a Puritan preacher, one of the said this, whatsoever our callings be, we serve the Lord Christ in them. They are the most worthy servants whatsoever their employment be that serve the Lord where He hath placed them. So no matter where you are, you’re the Lord’s representative. You have the message. I’m reminded that little Israel-like girl that was captured by the Syrians ended up in name in the lepers household, the army captain of Syria. And what does she do there? She testifies of the power of Jehovah God in how he could heal leprosy through his prophet Elisha. In a sense, that’s how we should be wherever God has placed us. You don’t have to be profound or eloquent to give out God’s message. You just have to know what it is and in your own normal language, speak the truth of God to others. How often have you used your daily occupation as sort of a springboard when you had an opportunity to speak out concerning the things of God? When God’s Spirit takes whole of our heart. Wherever we are, in whatever corner of the world we find ourselves, we become a spokesman for the Lord. At the same time, we may retain our original vocation. Continue working on the job that we are doing. You speak differently. You think differently than the world around you. You consider things from a unique light. You give a divine viewpoint of things. And you testify against evil. The wickedness around you that grieves your heart. And you have your own little mission field right there in the workplace. Or the neighborhood, or the park, or wherever you find yourself. So God uses the common ordinary Christian to carry his message. Here was a farmer who all of a sudden becomes a prophet and is used in that capacity. Secondly, we see the society in which he lived in chapter 1 in verse 1. The time period of the history, he dates his prophecy broadly here as being during the days of Uzziah, the king of Judah, and Jeroboam the second, actually, of the kingdom of Israel in the north. He has been also dates his writings here with regard to an earthquake that took place, a great earthquake. We don’t really know anything about this earthquake, so I can’t tell you much about it, but evidently the people that day were familiar with it or knew about it or would be familiar with it. You’ll recall that after the death of King Solomon, his kingdom was divided in two parts. the southern kingdom, Judah, the northern kingdom of Israel. And so Uzziah and Jeroboam are the two kings that are mentioned. Uzziah around 790 to 740 BC. Remember, you count down. When you’re dealing with BC, you’re counting down. And then Jeroboam the second from 793 to 753 BC. In the beginning, after the split, Israel was sort of hemmed in by Syria and some of the neighboring kingdoms. There were frequent border skirmishes and wars, and times were more difficult. But then As Syria came along and conquered Syria. Us Syria conquered Syria. And got rid of one of the powers that were hemming in the Israelites. in the north. And then Assyria sort of lost its mojo. It lost its power for a while time and did not continue with its position. It went into decline. And this gave opportunity for Jeroboam the second to expand his kingdom, really to almost the territory that Solomon had occupied, so that he had all the trade routes available to him, which allowed for prosperity. The merchants and the traders were making all kinds of money. And so the Northern Kingdom was thriving. So within control, these important trade routes, that was happening. And there was ease in Zion. The economy was booming. The lookout was bright for the real estate. rich and the politically connected. And so these were good times. And yeah, here comes this prophet from the Southern Kingdom with this message of doom. Throwing a damper on everything. The period of the prophecy. There was a rich, upper class society here. Affluence and exploitation. Making a Prophet were the most notable features of the society in which he ministered. The rich were sold in Chapter 3 and verse 15, where I had several houses. They had the summer house and the winter house. They had extensive furniture. If you look at Chapter 6 of the book of Amos, and verses 4 to 6, we see how much luxury they lived in, that lie upon best. of ivory, stretch themselves upon their couches and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall that chant to the sound of the vial or the harp and invent to themselves instruments of music like David that drink wine and bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, but they’re not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. So this is the kind of high society that people were living in. They had this luxury. They had abundance at this time. On the other hand, it seems the poor were still very poor. The poor were shamelessly exploited. If you look at chapter 2 in verse 6, for instance, the Lord, I thus saith the Lord for three transgressions, of Israel before and will not turn away the punishment thereof because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes. If you look at chapter 5 in verse 12, we see that the legal rights of the poor were denied them. They were violated. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins, they afflict the just, they take a bribe, they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. The gate was the place where the courts would meet, you know, that people would get justice from the judges and so forth. Well, you’re cheating them. You’re turning aside their legal rights and so forth. We also have the shady business dealings in chapter 8 and verses 4 through 6. Hear this, oh ye, ye that swallow up the needy even to make the poor of the land to fail, saying, when will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the F a small, we’re going to cheat on the size here, making the F a small and the shekel grate, falsifying the balances by deceit, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat, the chaff with the wheat. So here’s what they’re doing. They’re making money. Personal covetousness was the key factor of the day, and it was not love for their neighbor, as there should have been, or consideration for the less fortunate of society. Now, this was a traditionally religious society. The people to which Amos ministered were very religious. They had religious centers at Bethel and Gilgal, which apparently were thronged. If you read in chapter 4, in verse 4 we read about this worship that was going on, come to Bethel and transgress at Gilgall, multiply transgressions. Bring your sacrifices every morning and your ties. after three years. And we find here that chapter 5 and verses 21 to 23, God says, I hate, I despise your feast days. I will not smell in your solemn assemblies, though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings. I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beast. take away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy vials or harps here. In chapter 8 and verse 3, and the song of the temple shall be howlings in that day. They’re singing, verse 10, and I will turn your feast in the morning and all your songs is. and the lamentation and so forth. It wasn’t they didn’t offer sacrifices. It wasn’t that they didn’t engage in the musical side of worship as they were singing songs and so forth. But the problem was it was a man-made religion. It was not God’s appointed worship, which had been abandoned for something new. What was going on was the continued evil worship that was set up by Jeroboam I, who remember had made the golden calves, set them up at Gilgau and at Bethel. That’s why he says, come to these cities and sin or transgress, because what you’re doing is evil in the eyes of God. For 200 years, they’re still worshipping these golden calves. the shrines were still in operation, a viable alternative to worship at Jerusalem where the true worship of God was supposed to be taking place. And thus they had their own priests. Amaziah that we read about in Chapter 7 is one of them. But God was angry with this mockery. He was not going to continue to tolerate this sham worship. It didn’t please him in the least. But they were religious. It was a more religious. morally declining society. Standards had gone to pot. The authority and the rule of the law were despised, as we saw already. In Chapter 5, when mentioned how they cheated the poor at the gate and so forth. I took bribes. It was a sexually moral, immoral, uh, uh, uh, plays. Chapter 2, verse 7, we read about a father and son using the same woman. sexually, no doubt connected with worship, but at the same time, we see the immorality involved in this. Pleasure seeking was popular. Cheating your neighbor out of fair share was viewed as good business, as we saw in Chapter 8. There was eagerness as we saw in Chapter 8. Let’s get the church service over so we can get back to cheating people out of their money. Now, when we look at all this and we consider what we can glean from the book, let us see how much it parallels our own nation. Much of what passes for Christianity in the United States is not biblical religion. It’s devoid of a personal commitment that the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. It does not adhere to the doctrine of the Bible where the scriptural standard is followed with regard to worship, what we call it, regulatory principle of worship. It’s a man-raged religion. It’s dead. It’s ritualistic. It’s spiritually empty or sterile, if you would. There’s nothing to much of the worship that takes place today in our society that has anything to do with the Scriptures, what the Scriptures talk about. There was a form of outward piety in Amos’ day, just as there is in our own day. But it was all a stench in the nostrils of God. When he says he won’t smell it. You remember when Noah gave his sacrifices after the flood, did God smell this aroma? It pleased him. Well, he’s not, he accepted the sacrifice. He’s not going to, it’s a stench in my nostrils. What I’m smelling. because they’re not doing it God’s way. The moral standards of today? What are they? Are we not living in a society that is practically done away with all absolute standards? The Ten Commandments have been cast aside. There is no right or wrong, we’re told. Everything is relative. It’s up to society to determine the norms under which we should live. So if we want to slaughter babies because it’s inconvenient to have them, well, that’s fine. There’s a rising tide, really, of lawlessness and wickedness, which is heartbreaking to you and I, who are true believers who have to see this and live in such a wicked perverse society. Yet we are a prosperous society, are we not? Success and wealth. are what we see. Buy the stock market hit a new high just this week. People were making money. Now, you would think perhaps if we were prosperous, we would be thankful to God for giving us the ability to be prosperous and providing us with the prosperity that we have, but nothing can be further than truth. The more prosperous you are, the further we get from God. And we turn our noses up of anything. that smacks of true religion are not all the elements. I mean, this is day present in our own society. And thus, you see the relevance of this book. We come to this book, realizing it has something to say. It has something to say by our own society. Let me briefly say two things. We can learn in general. The first is this. that God is a righteous God. God is holy. He requires holiness in his people. 2.0.19 says, let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Now, it’s easy for us, perhaps, to impose God’s standards on others, point out the error in their ways or in our society around us, and the question we have to realize is that we should start with ourselves. Are we following God’s law? Are we doing? what God commands us to do. Are we righteous? Are we merely a reflection of the evil society in which we live? Or are we people who reflect Christ and what he has commanded us to do? How are you different from the society around you? in what way specifically? The second thing I suggest is this. that God is not going to be satisfied with formal religion. God hates religion that is used to justify the soothing of the conscience and that is not according to His word. He hates it. I hate your feast. Mere adherence to some religious form is not pleasing to God. It angers God. If worship is to be acceptable to God, it must be of the heart and it must be according to biblical principles. The simple as it can be made. We have a religious society in many ways. People, you know, they’re going to church and they’re having their activities and they’re busy about this and that or the other with their church and their social activities and maybe they do something for the poor, or they have soup kitchens or whatever the case may be. The question is, are we worshiping a couple? according to what God says. Is this word given priority? Are we singing the songs that God has given us to sing? Are we engaging in those things that God says we should engage in? Are we adding our own ideas and traditions and doing whatever we please? So that if we want to have a sort of a Christian rock band in the church service, why, that’s okay. It’s good for the young people. people. These are the kinds of things we see in our society around us. It’s not good enough for us just to speak about our religion. We have to live the faith that we claim to have. It’s the only way we’re going to have any impact on the society in which we live. May God give us the grace to do this. May he have mercy on us for Christ’s sake. And may we like Amon, wherever we find ourselves in our workplace or so forth neighborhood, let us bear the message of the Lord. We have a thus sayeth the Lord to give to our own society. I can’t be everywhere at once. I can’t preach to everyone. And it’s God’s purpose to use you as well. Not that you necessarily preach, but you can deliver the message. of God. You can speak about the things of God to people. Let that be a means of reaching others with regard to the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. Well, let us close with a word of