Amos 3:9-15

For our text tonight, Amos chapter 3, verses 9 to 15. Publish in the palaces at Ashdod and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, assemble yourselves under the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof. But they know not to do right, said the Lord. who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, an adversary there shall be even round about the land, and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled. Thus saith the Lord, as the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of year. Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed and in Damascus in a couch. Hear ye and testify in the house of Jacob, said the Lord God, the God of host, that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit the alders of Bethel, and the horns of the alders shall be cut off and fall to the ground. and I will smite the winter house with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end, said the Lord. God bless to us, your sacred and holy word this evening. When a person is tried in a court of law in our land, they have an opportunity to be judged by a group of their people, peers. One of the fundamental rights of the U.S. judicial system is judgment by jury, and that we have those who will hear and listen to the testimonies and the evidence, and then they will render a verdict. It’s a good system that promotes fairness and impartiality. God is about to harshly judge. judge Israel the northern kingdom for her sins. Samaria is the criminal that is about to be pronounced guilty. God, however, here wishes to provide a display of his fairness, and therefore he appeals to Israel’s neighbors to examine the evidence and give their verdict. Ashtod and Egypt are mentioned here in verse 9. They’re going to be the jury that are going to listen in on God’s trial of Israel. As we look at this text tonight in verses 9 and 10, we see that foreign observers are called upon to verify Israel’s guilt. We have, first of all, an announcement to assemble. It seems that Amos is portraying an imaginary scene where as if God sends heralds out to these two places, Egypt and Ashdod, to make a proclamation. The heralds are to invite the people of Ashdod and Egypt to the hills that surround Samaria, that they may look on the city. They may evaluate what is going on within the city. Those who took a lot of the city. a seat in this open-air theater will be part of God’s jury to observe the guilt of Israel. Now, Ashdod and Egypt here are subpoenaed, if you would. Ashdod, you recall, was one of the royal cities of the Philistines, one of the five major cities of the Philistines. So the two peoples here are the Philistines and the Egyptians that are being spoken about. God did not select these two he the nations at random. He deliberately chose them. There’s a sense in which he chose them to put Israel to shame. There was any conscience left in the Israelites. It must have hurt them that the Philistines and the Egyptians would be called upon to be the jury here. Egypt was a nation that oppressed Israel in the past. Israel lived under their bondage, and the brick kiln and the slave labor and the crack of the whip was not soon forgotten. Israel was humiliated, mistreated by the Egyptian tyrants. Their children were drowned, you recall, in the Nile River, and they had a callous disregard for the human life of the Israelites. Every Passover celebrated their release from this Egyptian bondage. Every year they celebrated this. To keep it before them. And so, to be judged by the Egyptians had to be somewhat galling since they had been slaves to them. Ashdod was also a name which would not be easily uttered by the Israelites either. Ashtod was not kind to the Israelites. The Philistines were always bitter enemies of the Israelites. All you have to do is read the account of Samuel and Saul and David and so forth and you see the enemies of the people of God. And even more recently, we have studied in chapter 1 in in verses 6 through 8, the Philistines were judged with four slavery of the Israelites. Were they not? As we read here, Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Gaza and for four, and will not turn away the punishment thereof because they carried away captive, the whole captivity to deliver them up to eat them. But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza and will devere the palaces thereof, and I will cut off the inhabitant of Ashdod and him that holdeth the scepter, from Ascalon and I will turn mine hand against Ekron and the remnant of the Philistine shall perish, saith the Lord. So what were they doing? They were enslaving the Israelites. So both of these two nations were guilty of enslavement. Why this jury selection? Although God had repeatedly reminded his people in his law, it’s particularly and specifically written. To remember how they were treated in Egypt, because they’re supposed to love their neighbor as themselves, and don’t treat people that way. Don’t treat people with such cruelty, you know, oppression, and bondage. Be kind and gentle. Love others as yourself. But instead, it seemed that they developed an appetite for oppression themselves. what slavery had taught them was not mercy, but cruelty. And so we find in chapter 2 in verses 6 in the first part of verse 7, these words, for thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes. That pant out. after the dust of the earth upon the head of the poor, turn aside the way of the meek, and a man and his father will go in under the same maid to profane my name, and they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar and so forth. But they mistreated the poor, and the people who certainly were not in a position of authority or power, could not use any bribery or any means by which to defend themselves. So they became just like the Egyptians. Apparently the Israelites were excellent students. And they certainly are going to follow now in the footsteps of what Egypt and Ashdod had done. They were worse than their heathen neighbors. Who better to judge oppression than those who are famous for it? And so we have Ashdod here in Egypt as those that were chosen by God. Now, what’s the evidence against Israel? He mentioned several things here. Verse 9, there were great tumults in the midst of her. These two moths, some type of chaos or disorder. I don’t know if there was some type of mobs in the street or riots or so forth. It’s more likely that it’s speaking of riotous living. living. More likely, you know, drunkenness, partying, merry-making, so forth. Decaying morals resulted in this pleasure-filled life and the disregard for God’s commandments. The poor, the widow, the fatherless, were oppressed. As we’ve already discovered, the poor were sorely being abused, enslaved just for the price of a pair of shoes. The rich took advantage of the poor. There was no compassion, no sympathy for those who were less fortunate. The upper class were hard-nosed, unmerciful. They treated others like they were worthless slaves, just mere property to be dealt with as they pleased. They do not know to do right, he says. in verse 10. They lost the practical knowledge of justice. We talked about this before, how that bribes were well received by the judges. They perverted the court system. It was a common practice. In an instant were found the scales of justice tipped against them because the rich would pay off the judges and then get the verdict they wanted. So you would be found guilty even if you were totally innocent of the charges. You remember this story of King Ahab wanting Nabos’ vineyard in the book of Kings. And we find that Naboth wouldn’t sell his vineyard to the king, so the king gets all upset. He has a his he fit. He’s laying in bed, moaning and groaning because he can’t get his property, the next door, that Naboth has with this beautiful vineyard in it. His wife says, don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. I’ll get it for you. So what does she write? She writes a letter to the hometown of Naboth there, the local city nobles. She says, I want you to get some sons of Belial as witnesses that will flat lie against Naboth. Invite him to the feast or this sacrifice. And then I want you to make charges against him that he blasphemed God and the king. And then he’s dragged out of the city and he’s stoned the death. And then the beautiful vineyard deceased, Jezebel says, here it is. I got it for you. That’s what we’re talking about. This is the kind of behavior that we’re talking about here. Where Naboth is totally innocent, but he is taking advantage. of in the court system. Of course there was injustice on the personal level where people engaged in unjust and wicked practices and an evil way of life and so forth. In their homes, we read they have ill-gotten goods that are stored up who store up according to the second part of verse 10, violence and robbery in their panels. Whatever they take by violence off of someone or by robbery for from someone, they store it up. They’re heaping up riches. The rich get richer. They rob it from other people. So these are the charges that God makes against Israel. Foreign observers are called upon to verify Israel’s guilt. We have the jury assembled. We have the evidence laid out. The second thing we see here is like a lion, God will devire Israel until there is but a rem that left. Versus 11 to 13. We see the completeness here of Israel’s destruction by God. Therefore, saith the Lord, verse 11, the Lord God, an adversary there shall be even round about thee, and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled. Thus saith the Lord, as a shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed and in Damascus in a couch. The coming destruction of Israel, and it’s going to be come by the hand of the Syrians in 722 BC would be virtually complete. The nation is going to be completely swallowed up here by this invasion. They’re all going to go into captivity. The rich and the powerful are not going to be able to escape the invaders. Disaster is going to overtake the rulers in the army, the strength, and the palaces, the religious shrines, and the priest, according to verse 14, and the wealthy, according to verse 15, are all going to fall, all going to be punished. The inhabitants of Samaria will become desolate refugees, the walls of their beautiful. ivory palaces will collapse. No one will be able to save their treasures, even if they fleeted Damascus, which is the chief city in Syria, it will not do them much help. While most of the Israelites will die a horrible death, those who manage to escape will only be able to escape with the bare necessities. All the pomp and all the glory of Samaria is going to dissolve into nothing. All of this is going to occur because, according to verse 14A, because of their transgressions, I’m going to visit their transgressions upon them, God says. Some will escape maybe with a few blankets or part of their bed or something of this nature, but that’s it. Now, he pictures this as if a shepherd has rescued only a couple of legs and maybe an ear from the mouth of a lion who has mulled a sheep. of his pasture. It is so it’s going to be with Israel. It’s going to be barely anything left. A remnant will remain. The lion has roared earlier. God says he’s roared in verse 8. The warning has come, and now here in verse 12, he devours. So we see the completeness of the enemy’s destruction of Israel. Now, it’s interesting here. It seems as if God is saying he has clean hands in this issue of the demise of Israel. I’ve got clean hands. And that’s why I think he speaks about the lion here and the pieces that are just left with a couple of legs maybe and ear and so forth. A shepherd, if he’s able to, if he’s able to try to spare the sheep, sometimes he can’t. And what he gets is what’s, you know, maybe a, little bit here or there that’s torn, everything’s torn and ripped the shreds and he just got a little bit left that’s maybe not all chewed up and eaten by the lion. Why is he making this? What is he making this comparison here? What is his point in doing this? I think he’s alluding to part of God’s law in the book of Exodus. If you turn there with me to chapter 22 in verses 10 to 13, we see what the law of God says about this. Exodus 22, beginning with verse 10. If a man deliver unto his neighbor an ass or an ox or sheep or any beast to keep and it die or be hurt or driven away, no man seeing it, then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both. That he hath not put his hand unto his neighbor’s goods and the owner of it shall accept thereof and he shall not make it good. And if it be stolen from him, he shall make restitution under the owner thereof. If it be torn in pieces, then let him bring it for witness and he shall not make good that which is torn. It’s that verse 13. Suppose a wild beast comes and tears up one of the sheep. Well, bring what’s left over. Bring whatever you can find, which left behind by the lion or this wild beast. And then you will not be held accountable. You won’t have to make restitution for it. So when a shepherd gathered together what was left of a slain animal on his charge, he wasn’t wasting his time. His honor was at stake, and he would, have to pay back or make restitution for the sheep that was lost if he couldn’t do this. But if he can substantiate the truth of his story, then he’s not going to be suspected of any foul play like he stole himself or something of his nature. Now, this law, in a way, I think, shed some light on the story of Joseph and his brothers. You remember the story of Joseph and his brothers in the book of Genesis? Even though the mosaic system was not yet put in the play, something similar must have been prevalent in that day. This is why Joseph’s brothers kill an animal, cover Joseph’s coat of many colors with the blood, and then shredded in some fashion, as if some wild beast has devoured him, because they wanted to present themselves as totally innocent of any wrongdoing in his disappearance and supposed death. After all, their hatred of Joseph was not something that was unknown. Their father Jacob knew about their hatred. So they were protecting themselves. They were covering their tracks. They were concealing their wrongdoing. Oh, some wild beast must have eaten them up. See this? How terrible this is. Now Israel’s shepherd was Jehovah. You’re a true shepherd. And just as a shepherd was responsible for his flocks of the Lord is responsible for his nation. Israel was bound to God by a covenant and preserving the covenant was a matter of honor with God. So Israel’s demise as a nation here must not be seen as negligence on God’s part as if he couldn’t protect his own nation. They brought this disaster on themselves. And so God will say, as he says in Joseo 1-9, you’re not my people, and I will not be your God. Many of the nation were not actually in the covenant. So when the wild beast of the Assyrians tore the nation apart, merely an ear and two legs of the great nation remained because God would have a remnant that he would spare. Except the Lord of Holst had left us a very small remnant. We should have been as Sodom. We should have been as under Gomorrah, Isaiah 1.9. So like a lion, God will devire Israel until only a remnant. He won’t have the whole nation destroyed. He’ll still spare some. He select people who are the true Israel of God. Now, let me draw two practical conclusions from this text of Scripture tonight. And the first is this. You can rest assured that the people of this world are watching you and I as professing Christians. They are sitting on the hills, so to speak, keeping an eye on us, watching how we live. Just as Ashdod in Egypt were observing Israel, so the world, is examining your life and my life. Because we claim to belong to God’s Holy Nation. You live in the world, and what you do is a matter of public record. Your life is indeed an epistle known and read of all men. The world, in many cases, closes its ears to the preaching of the Word of God, but it keeps its eyes open that it may watch the conduct of the people of God. See if these people have any reality to them or they’re just fake. The ungodly expect you to practice what you preach, to live differently than they do. Sort of a silent tribute to the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ that the world always expects you to do more than they do. So they’re watching to see if you’re maintaining a higher level of morality than the world is around you. Now if you just blend in with the world, if you live just like the world around you, they have good reason to call you out, to criticize you. So they’re asking themselves, where is this holy life the Christians claim to possess? A worldly may not pay a lot of attention to your witness as you speak to them the words of Christ, but you can bet they are watching every single little thing you’re doing. Sort of like Daniel was watched. You know, they were checking everything to make sure if they could find any little fault in him. They put you under the microscope. They look for any flaw, any inconsistency. Because they want to justify their own behavior. Now, the world is right to expect more of you as a believer. Faith without works, the Bible says it’s dead. It is just lifeless religion. It’s unimpressive. It’s useless. And the world is not interested in our pious words if we’re not going to live in such a way that we are different than they are. They notice difference. And that’s a great testimony in itself if you live differently than those around you. If you join in with the worldling and the swindling and deceit and recklessness and lust and selfishness and so forth, You’re hypocrite. You’re being artificial. Isn’t it interesting in the book of 1st Peter chapter 3 when Peter talks about wives. He talks about, you know, you being a citizen. He talks about, you know, the elders of the church, and then he gets down to the husbands and wives. When he talks about the wise, he talks about some who have unbelieving husbands in chapter 3 and verse 1. He says that without the word, being spoken, they can be won by the conversation, that’s the old English word, by the conduct of the godly wives. In other words, the godly wives present to them a reason to listen to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s a way of being a testament before them and it can win their hearts over. And that’s the sense of what we should be doing. we should be doing. I think the world has the right to ask in the words of our Lord, what do ye more than others? Do you realize that false Christians, those who are religious frauds, often are the very people who are key people from even seeking after Jesus Christ or showing any interest in spiritual matters because they write everybody off who’s a Christian in the same category as the person they think is a hypocrite. So they’re all a bunch of hypocrites. Why should Ashdod or Egypt seek Jehovah when the open transgressions of Samaria are such that is staring them in the face and they’re no different than us? End quote scripture. He talks religious, but he’s also a drunk. There’s something drastically wrong with that individual. Every sin the world can find that preferfeworthy. Christian allows them to devalue the gospel and Jesus Christ. Are your neighbors, are your friends, are your business associates, and so forth, seeing a real Christian, or are they merely seeing a professing one? What kind of verdict will the jury of the world give you? That’s something for every one of us to ponder as we go through this life. So that’s my first point. The world’s going to be watching us. Secondly, God always preserves a remnant. Now Israel was indeed destroyed, but there was this nucleus, a chosen group of people that he did preserve. They may just, you know, cease to exist as a nation, but individual believers as what’s left, you know, the legs and the ears, so to speak, still make up, as I said, God’s true. covenant people. They are the true Israel of God. God’s honor is such that he preserves a godly remnant in each generation as we go through time. He always does so. Even when there’s a great apostasy all around, there’s always a remnant according to the election of grace, so that the gates of hell cannot finally and fatally, prevail against the true church of Jesus Christ. Now, the people of God, down through history, have had times when they were just a dim, flickering light, it seems, in the world. But the candle was never totally snuffed up. God always kept a people that would be preserved. When Christ returns, he talks about, you know, finding if you’re finding a little flock, yes, but there’ll be a flock. That’s the key thing. The question then is not how large we are, even as a denomination, or as Reformed Baptist, or even as a church. But are we among the remnant of God? False churches and denominations abound, but they will be judged by God and fall under his rank. How do we have? this awful fate? What are the danger signs? Well, what are the characteristics of Israel? If we do those kinds of things, we’re going to be falling under God’s judgment. If beds and couches and great houses, both summer and winter, summarize our life habits, if all we’re concerned about is the material things of this world and pleasure-sinking lifestyle, if that’s all we’re really focused upon, sensuality, luxury, idleness, excessive bodily cares, sleep and ease, the carefree life, and so forth. If that’s your main focus in life, well, there’s going to be a problem. Of course, you know, they all had a smattering of religion, artificial religion. We read about, in our text here, they had altars at Bethel, the golden calves and so forth. They worship. They had their smattering of religion. But here’s the thing. There was no true prayer. There was no serious and practical Bible study, no self-mortification, no dying to sin, no putting on the armor of God, no discipline for holiness of life. Real personal spirituality often disappears in those who claim to be Christians. And that’s a sad thing. What we have to understand is those who live like the world are on the broad path with them on the way to destruction. is those who are walking contrary, that, of course, are on the narrow road that leads to life. God is indeed preserving a remnant in this generation. The question you need, we need to ask ourselves as this, are you and I among it? Are we part of it? Oh, may God bless to us His sacred word this evening. Let’s close.