Amos 1:3-8

Amos chapter 1, verses 3 through 8 for our text and study this evening. Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron. But I will send a fire into the house of Hesiel, which shall devire the places of Benheda, or the palaces of Benhadan. I will break also the bar of Damascus, cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Avon, him that holdeth the scepter from the house of Eden, and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kerr, said the Lord. Thus said the Lord, for three transgressions of Gaza, and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they carried away captive the whole captivity to deliver them up to Edom. But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devire the palaces thereof, and I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashtod, in him that holdeth the scepter from Ascalon, and I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God. May God bless to his sacred and holy word this evening. Years ago, there was a woman that attended what they, so-called evangelistic meetings in those days, was delighted to hear that the preacher was going to speak about men’s vices and sins. And so when he preached against strong, drink, he cried out, preach it, brother. And when he denounced tobacco, she shouted amen. But when the minister began to speak about gossip, she leaned over to her neighbor and whispered, now he’s not preaching, he’s meddling. Perhaps this is the way those who first heard Amos might have reacted to the message that he presents here in chapter one in the second part of chapter two. As Amos began to pronounce God’s curses on the nations surrounding Judah and Israel, their neighbors, the audience certainly was sure to be pleased with that. The six surrounding nations were condemned for various sins. You can imagine that Amos would probably get applauded for such a message against them. Preach it, brother. His northern audience probably would have been very happy also when he condemned the southern kingdom of Judah for their sins. Amen, brother. But at last Amos gets down to exposing the sins of Israel. And the people probably said, this man is no longer preaching. He’s meddling in our affairs. Eight nations are condemned here by Amos the Prophet. Syria, represented here by Damascus, the capital. Felistia, represented by Gaza, one of the chief trade cities. Phoenicia, represented by Tar. And then there is Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah, and finally, Israel. Now this is not a random collection. Each of these foreign powers formed a circle, if you would, around Israel and Judah. It was as though Amos here were preaching in a way that would sort of bring the judgment closer each time he mentioned another particular country or capital. of a country, closer to Israel, closer to Judah. Now, if Amos were preaching to us, and he started out his sermon by condemning atheistic Russia and China, we could appreciate that. And then perhaps he talks about the violence of Iran and the Palestinians and their terrorist activities, we could appreciate that. And if you talked about the false, really, we could appreciate that. of Saudi Arabia and Jordan and Egypt, we could appreciate that. And then maybe the mistreatment of human life that we see in South America in places like Colombia, Nicaragua, and so forth, Venezuela. And then the corruption of the Mexican government being in with the drug cartels, we could understand that too. We could bear all that with ease, but step by step, he’s getting close. to our own country. What would our reaction be when he began to talk about the ungodliness, the violence, the discrimination, and so forth, the United States, maybe not just New York and Chicago and Los Angeles, but maybe Pittsburgh? How would we react to that? We have here an inquiry into different relationships in these verses before us, and particularly tonight. first Amos will pronounce judgments against the heathen nations, the Gentiles, who are without light, the light of God’s word. And it’s just during your note, the focus here is not so much upon their relationship with God as it is with their relationship man to man. Or is it haphazardly put together, but we see that they’re grouped in sections of two, in couplets, if you would. The first pair, has to do with gross cruelty. The second pair has to do with brother relationships, brotherly relationships that are violated. Notice the word brother is mentioned in verse 9 and 11. And the third pair is the mistreating of the helpless. Tonight we want to look at Syria and Felistia. Syria is condemned here for the heartless waste of human life. and we read about Damascus here in verses 3 to 5. Now, Damascus was the capital city of Syria, the traditional enemy of Israel. Damascus stands for Syria just as Moscow stands for Russia and Washington stands for the United States. The house of Hesiel and the palaces of Ben-Haddad bring the mind to us. what is recorded in 2nd Kings when Elisha was dealing with Haseel and Ben-Hadad. The house of Hesiel is the line of kings proceeding from Hesiel, whom the prophet Elisha an anointed to be the new king of Syria in 2nd Kings, Chapter 8. The palaces of Ben-Hadadad, or the royal residences. of the kings of Syria. And we must say that Ben-Hadad was the name of Haysiel’s son, but it may have been just a title for the people who were rulers, just like Pharaoh in Egypt, Ben-Hadad, perhaps, in Syria. And his son is mentioned in 2nd Kings 13, verses 3 and 7. The plain of Avon, is a region northwest of Damascus. The House of Eden is a tiny state on the banks of the Euphrates. Both of these were closely associated with Damascus and Syria. So the Syrians under various kings, if we read through our historical books in the Old Testament, invaded Israel on several occasions. Sometimes they sent raids. Sometimes they had a massive invasion of the land of Israel. Surprisingly, the Syrians were treated rather mildly by the Israelites. If you recall that Elisha healed Naaman, who was the captain of the army of Syria because he had leprosy. Elisha, after capturing the entire invading, army of Syria at one morning and marching it off to Samaria, had the king feed the army, and then send it back, recall to their own land. He struck them with blindness so that they couldn’t see where they were going, and then took it away when he got them inside the city of Samaria. And Elisha, as I said, even anointed Haseel to be king over Syria in Damascus. So these Syrians represented by Damascus had received favors from the hand here of the servant of God. And of course, this made them all the more guilty when they mistreated the people of God, the Israelites. The word Kerr that’s mentioned in verse 5 as the place of where they’ll be dragged off from in captivity was the original home of the Syrians. according to chapter 9 and verse 7 of this book. But it seems that there’s no clear identification of where Kurt is. It has been suggested it’s a location in southeastern Mesopotania, east of the Tigris, toward the top of the Persian Gulf area. So we see the identity here is the Syrians that we’re talking about when we talk about Damascus. Now the crime that they committed. There are many crimes that the Syrians committed. He’s counting them up here. After three or four transgressions, he’s not going to turn away the judgment. But Amos singles out one in particular. It’s interesting that Haseo is mentioned by name here. He is a particularly barbaric man, specifically mentioned in the Word of God. You recall that Elisha wept when he foresaw the evil that was going to be done. by Haseel. Destroying their cities, ripping up their children, are they, are wiser with their children, still in their bellies, and so forth. So this general prophecy and found its fulfillment, I think, in Second Kings, chapter 10. If you look at Second Kings with me in chapter 10, verses 32 and 33, we read here, in those days the Lord began to cut Israel short. And Haseel says, smote them in all the coast of Israel. From Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, the Rubinites, the Manassites, from Aurora, which is the river, by the river Arnon, even Gilead, and Bashan. And then chapter 13. And verse 3, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel when he delivered them into the hand of the hand of Haseyad, king of Syria, and in the hand of Benhedaad, the son of Haysiel, all their days. Verse 7. Neither did he leave the people to Jehojahaz, but leave of the people to Jehojahaz, who was the king of Israel, but 50 horsemen and 10 chariots, and 10,000 footmen, but the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing, which is mentioned here in this chapter in Amos, chapter 1, this threshing with an iron sled and so forth. Amos formed you of this special cruelty. Thresh Gilead with threshing instruments of iron, verse 3. In ancient times, some of the threshing work that was, was done with regard to their fields. It was done by a wooden sled that had iron runners on it underneath, and they were rather sharp. And these sleds were heavy, the iron bands were sharp, and the sled would crush the grain fields, and the sharp runners then would separate the kernels of wheat from the chaff. And then this mixture would be winnowed, by hand and the wind would blow away the chaff. Now the details aren’t given. It’s possible here that Haseel slaughtered the people of Gilead in a horrible manner. We just not told the details here. Maybe forced them to lie on the ground, dragged wood and sleds over them in a literal sense. I don’t know. Perhaps this is what the psalmist alludes to in Psalm 129.3. The plowers plowed upon my back. They may long their furrows. That means that he used it in a figurative way in their judgment. So let us suppose tonight that Haseel’s conduct described as threshing, Gilead here, does not actually mean that he used wooden sleds to mutilate them, but we’ll take it figuratively, that he beat them down, oppressed them, crushed them as grain on the threshing floor. Still, threshing, threshing, is something you do to a thing. You don’t do it to human beings. You do it to a grain crop in order to make a profit, not the human beings. And yet this is what Haseel did to Gilead. He treated the people as things in a very heartless and cruel manner. The punishment. Well, this judgment doesn’t leave much to the imagination. Syria is going to go into that. exile by a foreign power. We read here about the breaking of the bar, and that refers to the main gates of the city of Damascus being broken through. Here we have the idea that God will break the fortified places, open the doors, if you were, the gates for the enemy to come in, and they will take the sortified places, open the doors, if you would, the gates for the enemy to come in, and they will take the city. When the city falls, the kingdom of Syria will fall with it. This judgment applies to both the ruler and the nation, the king, and all the people. The entire population is going to be carried off into captivity. Some years later, after Amos’ ministry, the Assyrian emperor, Tiglaf, Policer, the Third, recorded in his annals, I destroyed 500 and 92 towns of the 16 districts of the country of Damascus, rendering them like hills over which the flood had passed. The passage of time turned Amos’ words into reality. And God took note of the sin and punished it accordingly. Now the lesson here, of course, is this. We look at the war effort of Hazio. and his Syrians, they had one motto, really, win in any cost. Doesn’t matter how you do it. Anything goes, no rules. If Haseyel had been interviewed, you might say, well, there’s only one way to make war, ruthlessly destroy the enemy, not just the soldiers, but the people as well. If anyone protested about the torture of captives, maybe he would say, don’t you know there’s a war going on? And that’s how he felt about it. But Hasey had no right to treat people as if they were things. The human life is sacred, and this was very cruel in taking on the citizens and just wiping them out. As he did, nothing has changed that conclusion. God still condemns inhumane acts of cruelty, even times of war. Nazi Germany is a good example of this. We see the death camps that they had where they gassed people, the Jews. They’re experimental operations on human beings, where they would operate without any anesthetic, just to see what could be accomplished. And we see it with the Japanese in the Batan Death March, where they march the captives off from Bhutan when they captured the Philippines. And they just marched them until they marched them. dropped and then killed them. They fell down. They fell down. They got shot or killed. The Russian made toys, which blew the fingers off the children of Afghanistan. China, murdering citizens, running them over with tanks, and now we see the Hong Kong situation before our eyes. But we should realize that God takes into account the ruthlessness of people. You don’t thresh people. There must be regard for human life. So Syria is condemned for the heartless waste here of human life. Secondly, we see the flesh trading of Felistia is condemned with regard to Gaza in verses 6 through 8. Thus set the Lord for three transgressions of Gaza and for four, I will not turn to God. away the punishment thereof because they carried away captive the whole captivity to deliver them up to Edom. But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devire the palaces thereof, and I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashtod and him that holdeth the scepter from Ascalon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord. When we look at the identity here of Gaza is a reference to the small Philistine state. It’s one of the key cities, chief cities of that state. There was like a ring of five cities that was called like the belt, if you would, in this area. And that included Ashdod, Ashgolan, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza, all those cities that are mentioned here. that was sort of the hub of their empire and their leadership was there. Gaza, of course, is in the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean area, situated between Israel and Egypt. If you hear news about the Middle East, you’ll notice that sometimes they talk about the Gaza Strip. So it still goes by that name, even today. That strip. there, when there’s war between, let’s say, Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza Strip area. That’s what they’re talking about. As you know, the Philistines were the constant enemies of Israel. Since the days of King Saul. Edom, you know, was the descendants of Esau. They hated the Israelites. And so what they were guilty of here is, capturing the Israelites, enslaving them, and then selling them to their most bitter enemies, the Edomites. So they would be treated as cruelly as possible. The bans of robbers and kidnappers from ballista then would make raids into the neighboring land of Judah. And they would attack defenseless villages, drag away women and children and men, and wherever they could find there. And men were put in heavy chains and taken away. Weaklings and old men were driven along with whips by their captives, captors. And in this way, the whole pitiful process traveled to Gaza, where there was a major trading center, and they would sell off the Israelites. The Israelites were forced into slavery. No doubt. were inspected by the slave owners and put a value on them. Wives separated from their husbands and the families broken apart, children taken away from them and everything else. They were transported to all kinds of faraway lands. Those separated from their loved ones would never be reunited again. The slave traders would be thinking, about the money that they could make. And so this was a profitable enterprise for them to just invade Judah, take defenseless people from their various towns and just wipe them clean and then sell them off, many to their worst enemies. So they carried the whole people into exile in this manner. But God took notice, as he always does. when things are valued more highly than people. After all, had not God himself already decreed the death penalty for those who steal in his law, you steal and sell a single human being, Exodus 2116. He that stealeth the man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. What an immense crime then, and when we’re talking about entire populations. here of towns made into human livestock. The punishment, because of their active participation and their cruel and heartless trading of human slaves, God’s judgment would come upon the Philistines. Only a few years later, Gaza would be overrun by the Assyrians in 732 BC. It would be rebuilt, destroyed again in 720 BC. In fact, this would be rebuilt. This is a familiar pattern. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians, and even Alexander, the great of Greece, destroyed Gaza in its neighboring cities. In fact, it can safely be said today that the Philistines are no more. They have perished, as our text indicates to us. Now, the lesson here is we think about this issue of cruelty and slavery. even though slavery is outlawed today virtually in the entire world, we still have it. Noble intentions of, you know, the United Nations, perhaps, and others, it’s still there. Trade and practices may be less obvious, but they’re still happening. There are still various forms of slavery. People oppress other human beings to increase their wealth and for personal gratification. There are still foreign sweat. sweats shops, you know, where they’re making shoes and clothing and they’re virtually slaves in these shops. There are the sex slaves that people, you know, go and they take young women and force them into this position of being sex slaves. And that is a common thing that we hear a lot about today. And we see child abductions. also for the, and the selling of babies for sexual abuse purposes and so forth. God’s not pleased when people are treated inhumanely in this manner. He’s taking note of it. You’re not the unlawfully profit at the expense of other people and you’ve cruelly abused. So the flesh trading of the Philistia is condemned here. Now, one of the practical lessons we can learn from this, this sex. of scripture. Well, the first is this, is God is the sovereign judge of all the earth. You know, every one of these foreign countries had their own gods that they worship. You know, the Philistines, Day Gone and so forth. They all have their own gods. But you’ll notice the scripture makes it clear to us that they are accountable to the Lord God here in our text for their sinful actions. they may not have God’s written law, but scripture tells us they do have the work of the law written upon their hearts. In the book of Romans chapter one, or chapter two in verse five, where God has, in a sense, stamped his law on every human being that he’s created. There’s a sense in which people know with regard to the law of God right and wrong in many cases. Every human being created by God is without excuse for their evil doings. The eyes of the Lord were told run to and fro throughout all the earth, beholding the evil and the good. Not just in Israel, not just in Judah, throughout all the earth, among all the nations. So you never should think that the nations who are ignorant of the gospel of Jesus Christ somehow are they going to get a pass when they do wrong things? For the scripture tells us otherwise. God is taking account of what they’re doing and they shall be punished for it. Thus the need for missionaries and the preaching of the gospel in all lands. The wicked shall be turned into hell in all nations that will be. forget God according to Psalm 917. So God is the sovereign judge of all the earth and you can’t escape that fact. This text makes clear to us. The second thing is this. You become ripe for God’s judgment as your sins mount up. For three or four transgressions, I will not turn away the punishment. That phrase is used repeatedly. throughout chapter one and into chapter two. God’s judgment is sure to fall when our transgressions multiply. When a nation’s transgressions multiply, when individuals’ transgressions multiply, God’s judgment is also sure to fall. When you are particularly cruel to others, they thresh Gilead, they carried away captive the whole captivity to deliver. deliver them up to eat them. God’s judgment is sure to fall when your transgressions are specifically aimed at God’s people. Gilead. And of course, Israel or Judah here when they evaded the whole area and captured cities and towns and took all the people. Nor is there any human way to escape God’s divine blow that’s sure to come. I will not turn to you. away the punishment. They’re all. Verse 3 and 6, that phrase is used. When God is determined to send judgment, there is no stopping him. It will take place. The ruling class, the will to do in their fortified cities, perhaps in their palaces, their luxurious living areas and so forth, are not going to escape, as God tells us here. God is going to strip away their defenses, and the burning fire of the wrath of his judgment will catch up with them and destroy them. Your only hope is to repent, find forgiveness of sins in Christ. That’s the only hope when your sins have mounted up like this. My third thought is this, whatever you are guilty of doing to others, God often does to you. Gaza carried away the whole captivity, verse 6, attempting to depopulate the land of Israel. God turns the tables on the Philistines, and so we find that the Philistines here shall perish, said the Lord God. You want to depopulate Israel? I will depopulate you. Retribution and kind often comes from God. Many times you read in the Psalms or in proverbs about those who dig a ditch and God causes them to fall into it. And that’s what we see. And we see it today as well. Your cruelty to others will boomerang against you. You will be treated cruelly in return. Now here are some ways we can run roughshot over people. Thresh them if you would. And let me mention a couple of things here. The first is this. There’s a lot of mistreatment of human beings in the workplace. Disregard for safety regulations, the health of the work in order to save a few dollars. The worker maybe contracts cancer or some other disease because the company doesn’t care. Finding a way to pay below a fair wage, refusing workers to pay them the work that was done, stealing ideas and innovations. from the workers. Well, God doesn’t overlook the mistreatment of people. He is fully recognizing what takes place. People are not machines to be cast aside when they get old and people think, well, I can, you know, just plug somebody else in here. Proper wages are commanded. Colossians 4.1. Masters give under your servants that which is just an equal, only you have a master in heaven. proper treatment is demanded. Ephesians 6.9. Masters for bare threatening. Not to violently threaten or use of abuse of language against the workers and so forth. There’s still some threshing going on in the workplace, but God takes note of it. A second area we might talk about is husbands mistreating their wives. It’s interesting. The Roman Emperor Nero first treated his wife Pompeia as a slave, murdered her, and then after her death, he decided to make her into a goddess. Perhaps a lot of people are still playing that kind of game. It may not be obvious, but it’s just as real. Haven’t you known a wife who never succeeded in touching a responsive cord and her husband of love? Sometimes it seems like she’s just a slave to his power. passions and the drudge of keeping the house, doing all his bidding. She did the work and put up with the abuse, whether it be verbal, whether it be physical, whether it be emotional. And after her death, the deeply bereaved husband says, oh, she was the best wife ever. Maybe he meant she was the best slave like a cat. Can’t find anybody like that anymore. Husbands, we should always show appreciation for our wives and all the good things that they do for us. They’re not slaves, but truly they labor on our behalf many times, and we are complete with them, so we shouldn’t abuse them. Perhaps, you know, so much is expected from them, and our treatment of them should dispel that notion that we are going to treat them just like slaves or slave labor. They are wise. We should show them sacrificial love, love them as Christ, love the church, show some appreciation for our wife. Our wife should be our best friend. So let us keep that in mind and not mistreat our wives and think that they’re just there for purposes of serving us, and that’s it. And then we could talk about lastly here bullying somebody. We see a lot of this today. Another way to thrash people. Some people gang up upon another person, bully them without any mercy whatsoever. You see it online. A lot of people on the, you know, friends and Facebook and things like that, people get attacked. And a unmerciful way they are ganged up upon. It’s a lot in high school, sometimes in college also. This happens. And even resorting to outlaw line. to malign the person. Some people, you know, young people are committing suicide because of the way they’re abused online, the treatment that they’ve received. Social leader treat as outcast, refusing even to speak to them as an individual. Sometimes even physical abuse occurs with the bullying, as we know. These are things that we look at, this is the way people get thrown. even today. Well, let us close with a word of prayer tonight as we think about this passage and what it can mean for us.