Amos 1:9-12

Amos chapter 1, verses 9 through 12. Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they delivered up the whole captivity to eat them, and remembered not the brotherly covenant. But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devire the palaces thereof. Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever. But I will send a fire upon Teaman, which shall devire the palaces of Basra. May God bless to us, His sacred and holy word this evening. The conscience is a God-given faculty, an alarm to convict you when you do wrong. Even those without the written word of God are sensitive to sin in their lies. As Paul, indicates to us in the book of Romans, even the Gentiles or the even, have the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness in Romans 2, verses 14, and 15. There is no human being, therefore, that can escape the obligation of acting properly toward other human beings, of loving their neighbor, as themselves. In the passage that we’re looking at tonight, we have a roll call of the nations that are surrounding Israel and Judah, heathen nations. None of them ever received any special revelation from God. They have spent their years in ignorance and darkness of God’s truth. And Yen Amos presents them as, nations under God’s judgment, that God is going to hold them accountable for their behavior toward others. Even though they’re without special revelation, they are not without moral responsibility. This is not a collection of haphazard charges here. The nations seem to be grouped in pairs. You’ll notice in our last study, we looked at the first pair that had to do with gross cruelty. And we read about Damascus, which really refers to Syria. It’s the capital of Syria, and they were brought under judgment. And we also looked at Gaza, which is really associated with the leadership role, and Philistia, and how God’s judgment fell upon them. The second. The second pair relates to brother relationships being violated. Here we have Tyre, which is Phoenicia, and Edom. And then the third pair that we will look at is the mistreating of the helpless with Amon and Moab. We’re going to look at the second pair of this evening. The condemnation of Tyre and Edom sort of in the same category as Damascus and Gaza that we looked at earlier, but it’s more intensified. The word that is common to both of these nations is the word brother. You’ll notice it in verse 9, brotherly, and brother in verse 11. So here we’re dealing with some type of close brotherly relationship that is being violated. And although the judgment of the first two, nations was for general cruelty. In this case, it’s cruelty to those with a close bond to you. I’ll begin by looking at Phoenicia condemned here for covenant breaking in verses 9 and 10. Now, Tyrus, as it’s mentioned here, was a great coastal port on the Mediterranean Sea. It was historically, certainly famous. It was a Phoenician city state, northwest of Israel. Very wealthy, very powerful city, major trade center. The city itself was divided into two parts. There was a main part on the peninsula or the mainland there of Palestine. And there was one part on a small rocky island just offshore. The ability of this city to resist military threat gave it great self-confidence against the nations of the world. It was felt very secure. If you read Ezekiel chapters 26 through 28, it talks about how secure they felt themselves to be. Tire was a well-known. known trade center and slavery was big business with that. Now, the crime is it was an element here of violating a covenant or a bond of friendship. The accusation against Tyre is is similar to that against Gaza except for this aspect, except for this aspect of the bond of friendship. Both were identically involved with the traffic of human flesh. Both were large commercial centers with ties to eat them. But in the case of Tyre, we have this additional factor included. Tire’s third transgression may have been great carelessness concerning human suffering and getting involved in the slave trade. But the fourth transgression, the one that is focused upon here in our text, the one that God will not overlook, is a breach here of a treaty organization that’s associated with a bond of friendship. Tar, in its slave trading, had violated its pledged word. The word had been given, and the word had been broken. And as we shall see, this covenant was made. with Israel or Judah, both actually the people have gone. How can there be a brotherly covenant between Israel and a heathen nation? It sounds strange, doesn’t it? The covenant spoken of here was certainly related to Tars’ involvement in the building of the temple. and it really goes back to Solomon’s day when he made a covenant with Hiram, who was the king of Tar. If you look at First Kings chapter 5 with me tonight, you see the relationship that Solomon had with Tyre. Chapter 5, I want to read the first six verses, and I’ll jump to verse 12. And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servants unto Solomon, for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father, for Hiram was ever a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, thou knowest how that David, my father, could not build a house under the name of the Lord his God, for wars which were about him on every side, until the Lord put them under the souls of his feet. But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrence. And behold, I purpose to build a house under the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake unto David my father, saying, thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build a house unto my name. Now therefore command thou that they, you me cedar trees out of Lebanon, and my servant shall be with thy servants, and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants, according to all that thou shalt appoint. For thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to you timber like under the sidonians. Then verse 12, and the Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he promised him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they two made a league together. They made a treaty, or in this case, or in this case, it was a bond of friendship upon which this treaty was built. So this agreement between Solomon Hiram included a number of provisions. Not only would they be involved in the help with the construction of the temple, but we see that Hiram’s own words in verse 7, for instance, here in 1st Kings 5, Blessed be the Lord this day, which hath given unto David a wise son over this great people that he even invokes the name of the Lord God and pronounces a blessing upon the Lord God as he seems to be familiar with the Lord God through his relationship with David. As he was a lover of David, we were found. We find in chapter 9 in verses 26 through 28 of 1st Kings, we find that Hiram and Solomon had ships that went out. and they work together in gathering various goods from different places and bringing them back. Now, apparently, one of the provisions of the slave of dealing with this covenant relationship was that there would be no slave trade here. In other words, they would never sell or buy slaves from one another other. that they would never get involved in that. So this covenant between Israel and Tyre constituted such a relationship that Hiram was even called by Solomon, his brother, and 1st Kings 913. That was that type of relationship. This is the courteous gesture in an expression of that close bond that they had. Now it appears that this bond is still in effect with the agreements that were made even in Amos’ day. It had never been terminated. And one day, Tyre, however, began to deal in Israelite slaves violating the provisions that were made almost 200 years earlier. This solemn covenant was reduced to a mere scrap of paper of dusty aging paper at that. And thus the Lord here roars like a lion against tired. And a promise was broken, a promised word that was pledged. You might say, well, would God really remember, you know, 200 years later, a covenant relationship between Tyre and Israel? Do you remember the account we have of King Saul and how he was slaughtering the Ghionites, trying to remove all the foreigners from the land? And then all of a sudden, in David’s reign, right after Solomon, they have this famine in the land. And when David seeks from the Lord, why are we having this famine? And he says it’s because of what Saul did in violating the covenant with the Gibianites that was made by Joshua 400 years earlier, that they would live in peace. And so, yes, God is going to hold them accountable for this pledge that they’ve had one with another. Now, the punishment is he’s going to destroy the city of Tyre. Her walls would lie in ruin. Now, Tyre is able to survive for a while after the church. time of Amos. Despite numerous setbacks and attacks, she managed to maintain a portion of her independence. The city’s mainland section fell both to the Assyrians under Salmaneser and the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar. The city’s mainland section fell to them. But she was able to recover from the sieges because they went out to the island fortress. and stayed at the second part of the city, and no one seemed to be able to conquer that. But it did finally fall in the time of Alexander de Great, in the fourth century BC. Alexander the Great attacked the city. The people fled to the island’s stronghold, closed their gates, and this had been the successful defensive ploy for years, but not this time. For not only did Alexander the Great level the city and scraped it bare, but he took all the debris from the city and threw it into the Mediterranean Sea and made a causeway out to the island fortress. And then he went out and conquered it. The tire was broken and destroyed. Ezekiel tells us in relating this prophecy about what Alexander the Great would do in in Ezekiel chapter 26, that that area where he used to be this great, great city of Tyre on the mainland, the fishermen will be laying out their nets for drying. Perhaps ironically, after Alexander the Great captured the city in 332 BC, 30,000 of Tyres inhabitants were sold as slaves in judgment by God. So the lesson here is God takes a dim view of nations which break bonds of friendship and agreements with one another. He’s going to hold people accountable. In our own day and age, we should realize that even with the arms treaties and all the things, the covenants that are being made, God is watching. He’s keeping track of what is taking place. So Phoenicia is condemned for covenant breaking. Secondly, we see that Eidem is condemned for burning hatred toward Israel in verses 11 and 12. Now, Edom lay east. and south of the Dead Sea right across from the land of Judah. The country is also called Seer or Mount Seer. The Edomites, you’ll recall, were descendants of Esau, which was the brother of Jacob, the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. It was Jacob’s twin brother. It’s remarkable that Edom already was implicated twice in the abomination of of slave trading, verse 6 and verse 9, but it’s now charged with an entirely different crime. In Edom’s case, the fourth transgression was concealed in the heart. They had this long history of antagonism toward the people of God. It goes all the way back to Esau when he tried to kill his brother Jacob for stealing the birthright. And their burning hatred would culminate in their devilish joy over Jerusalem. downfall years later. Psalm 137, verse 7 says, remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, raise it, raise it, even to the foundation thereof. So Amos here discerns a burning hatred, which tore perpetually at Edom, a wrath that was carefully fed so that would never die out. This hidden hatred is what is displayed in their acts of aggression. and spitefulness toward God’s nation. Amos accused Tyre with breach of a covenant bond violating an agreement, but Edom’s offense was a violation of blood ties. The literal physical brotherhood is related here. Edom was Jacob’s brother in the flesh, and they had been together in the womb. and a degree of tenderness and perhaps, you know, kindness should be marked in Edom’s behavior then as the offspring of Esau toward Jacob and his offspring, but such was not the case. So Edom took advantage of Israel’s plight when they were conquered by other enemies. They joined in with Israel’s enemies and stab them in the back. They had no pity on the U.S. Israelites. If you want to look just one book over from the book of Amos to the book of Obadiah in chapter 10, let me read verses 11 through 14. Here is a judgment that is pronounced against Edom here. That the day thou stoodest on the other side and the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger. Neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Thou shouldst not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway to cut off those of his that did escape. Neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress. God took note of all this, and now he’s going to punish it. The fire of judgment would overwhelm the great cities of Edom, which are mentioned here, namely Teeman and Basra. After the prophet’s time, Edom would be conquered by the Assyrians, would pay a tribute to Tigglath Policer III. Still later, the Edomites were totally conquered and evicted from their traditional homeland by the Nebatans who came out of the desert. or an Arabian tribe, and they can conquer, eat them, and it never recovered. Never recovered. We learn a lesson here that the nations should not take advantage of one another’s misfortunes. Remember in World War II, where Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany, and that wasn’t bad enough, hoping that, of course, that Russia would honor their packers, of peace with them. They found out they didn’t. So Russia invaded from the rear, while Germany invaded from the front. And so they were betrayed in their bond of friendship there. So what do we learn from this? What application can we make for ourselves from this text of scripture tonight? What do we gain from this? As we read this Old Testament scriptures, is this just dusty history or has God provided this for us? You know, as Paul says in the New Testament, these things are written, the Old Testament scriptures, for our benefit, an example for us to learn from. And one thing I think we should learn from this, and this bond of friendship, this covenant relationship we read here about, is that your word should be your bond. God’s word deals with all areas of life. And not just those in the next, national level, but also on the individual level. You may agree here with the prophet when he pronounces judgment against Edom and say, yeah, they shouldn’t have done that. They shouldn’t have broken that relationship, that bond of friendship all the way back to Solomon and Hiram that they had. But are we really that enthusiastic when we apply that same principle to you and I? You know, Jesus tells us a New Testament by your words, you’re going to be judged. And those words that we make, those pledges, those promises that we make to others in private and ordinary matters, as well as national situations, are going to make us accountable. For every Christian, what they say should be what they mean. Jesus said, let your yes be yes and your no be no. It should be weighty as a covenant to us. us. Are we honest in our business dealings? Do we keep our promises? Are we double tongue that we’ll say one thing to one person and something else to another? Do we pay off our loan agreements and the contracts that we have stipulated that we would pay? I think every Christian needs to consider more carefully this whole area of exactly what he or she says. Now, to make this even more personal tonight, let me pick one particular area that perhaps you and I may not think about as a covenant relationship. But it is stated in Scripture as such, and I would direct your attention here to the issue of the marriage covenant. Look with me at the book of Malachi, the last book of the minor prophets here right before the New Testament. Chapter 2 and verse 14. You know, Israel is, you know, weeping and mourning over the fact that God has been judging in them. And we read here in verse 14, yet you say, wherefore? Why are you bringing this judgment upon us? Because the Lord hath been witnessed between thee and the wife of thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. Do you see what God is saying here about the marriage relationship? It is a covenant relationship. It is a bond of friendship. A lot of people don’t understand this. But the scripture calls it such. And when we marry a brother or a sister in Christ, which we should do if we’re saved. It is a brotherly covenant as well. Marriage without commitment violates the whole teaching of what marriage is all about. Remember, marriage is supposed to portray Christ in the church, according to Ephesians 5. It is a teaching matter with regard to us as we see marriage reflecting. It’s opposed to Christ in the church. But, it doesn’t stand a chance for success without a commitment to one another. When things go wrong, there’s little hope of saving a marriage and resolving the problem unless you have a view of marriage as a solemn covenant commitment to one another. A covenant is a bond of friendship. In the case of this marriage, it is a bond of companionship, as he mentions. here in verse 14. You’re pledging before God and man to meet all your spouse’s needs for companionship, sexually, socially, and spiritually for the rest of your life. And you’ve given your word. So you are bound to one another. By this covenant you have entered and divorce is not an option except in extreme cases. of adultery and desertion, as I believe Jesus and Paul talk about in the New Testament. God hates divorce. He tells us a few verses later here in Malachi 216. And he states that he is a witness between you and the wife of your youth here in this text. I’m going to hold you accountable. You’ve made a promise, a vow. If you break your marriage oath, he will punish you accordingly. You will be in the same place. twice is tire in a sense. So let’s take that to heart. When we think about our word, because as people who have married and married in the Lord, take it seriously. It’s a pledge we’ve made to one another. The second thing that stands out here is this issue of this perpetual anger toward a brother that Edom should. The Eidem shows. in these verses that we looked at tonight. Now I want you to look with me at 1. John chapter 3 verses 11 to 15, if you would. 1 John chapter 3 verses 11 to 15. Here’s what the New Testament has to tell us here about brother relationship, brotherly relationships. But this is the message that you’ve heard from the beginning that we should love one another. Not as Cain was of that wicked one and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him, because his own works for evil and his brother’s righteous. Marvel, not my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death under life because we love the brother. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateeth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer or hath he life abiding in him. Now it’s easy for us perhaps to talk about Edom and condemn Edom for this hatred toward a brother or the relatives of theirs. Sadly, bitter anger often resides in the heart of one believer toward another. And look how John addresses this matter. It’s no marvel. It’s no marvel that the world hates you. As brothers in Christ, we should be hating one another. This is not a sign of one who’s been born again by the grace and given the grace of God, saved by God’s grace. It’s shameful that Christians keep their wrath forever. It would be shameful that we would be like Edom in this regard. It’s a perpetual anger which is kept alive by us. Nourishish. by us toward one another. John says that’s not the way you should treat your brother in Christ. And since sinful anger is a violation of the commandment, thou shalt not kill according to Jesus teaching in the New Testament in the sermon of the Mount, Matthew 7, verse is 21 and 22. Imagine how God views perpetual wrath against a brother or sister in Christ. Since you are commanded let not the sun go down on your wrath, shouldn’t we make every effort to try, to seek, to reconcile with our brother in Christ as the scriptures would have us do. Just as God held Edom accountable for its perpetual anger toward his brother, Israel, so God will hold us accountable. How are you different than Edom? In this regard. Think about that. So lest we think that these verses have nothing to say to us, as much to say to us, if we look at it in the proper light and see what the scripture teaches in this regard. Well, let us close tonight with a word of it.