A Study in the Minor Prophets - Amos

We're here to connect with God and connect with one another. And one of the primary ways we do that is through the word of God. So, we're going to turn to his word together. If you got your Bibles, you can get them ready. We're in the minor prophets series. And hopefully, you've learned by now that they are no less minor uh than any other book. They're really they're not minor at all. They're uh major and somewhere along the line someone tagged minor prophets on there.

They think originally were just called the book of the 12. They're not minor. They've got a lot to say, a lot of important things and I think someone gave them that title because of their shortness in length, but they're still very powerful and interesting nonetheless. That's especially the case with the book that we're going to look at tonight in Amos. Anyone ever studied the book of Amos before? Anybody? The book, not the cookie. Anybody? Anyone ever studied the cookie? I don't usually study it.

I just consume it, but you know. It doesn't get a whole lot of press, a whole lot of attention, but it's wonderful, powerful, and interesting book with and that in mind it needs an interesting title. That's the best I could come up with. Infamous Amos. Uh Sister Christie Scott helped me with this since 8th century BC. Uh I guess I don't know when Famous Amos was invented. Someone could maybe look that up, but Infamous Amos and hopefully you'll discover why the title.

Not as good as last week, but the garden what bugs Joel? I loved that one and I tried to get up to that level. I just couldn't make it, but this one will have to do and it's accurate because of the themes, the backdrop, the history of this book and it's namesake which we're going to dive into tonight. Before we take that leap, I'm going to give you the plan. Everyone say the plan. Here's the plan. We're going to use the historical grammatical approach.

We've talked about this. This is hermeneutics or hermoeutics, the art and interpretation of of studying the Bible. So, we're going to use this approach. We're going to lean more on the history side as we start tonight since it has a lot to do with this study and I may not have a ton of time to get too far in the weeds on the grammar side. I say that, but if there's a lot of awesome interesting stuff in there. So, we're going to dive in.

We're going to rightly divide the the word of truth. So, we're going to use this historical grammatical method. I plan to tell you the the backstory of the book, the historical context, talk about this man Amos himself, this God-ordained but infamous prophet to Israel. And then we're going to walk through this book as quickly as we can together before the tornadoes arrive. In Jesus' name they won't. If they do, just as a reminder that overflow there, that one there and the nursery and the restrooms, that's where you're headed carefully and calmly.

That's your tornado That's your 5-second tornado drill. All right. Amos has nine chapters, 146 verses in it, which would leave me about 14 seconds per verse if I started right now. So, instead of going verse by verse, we're going to look at a a slightly zoomed-out version of Amos and zero in where necessary. All right. With all that settled, everyone take a deep breath. All right, then we're diving in. Who was Amos? What's his backstory? Where did he come from before we see him show up at Bethel voicing the judgment of the Lord?

If you read the opening verses of the book, it tells us that he was a shepherd of all things. That's a significant motif and theme in scripture. A lot of shepherds involved in scripture. He was not a professional prophet, just as brother Carlton mentioned last week. Instead, he shared his profession with other notable Bible characters. He matched the agrarian setting of Tekoa, where he was from. He also mentions later that he was a fig tree farmer, which is also interesting because olive trees and other fruit fruit trees seem to thrive there in Tekoa in his native town.

So, it all matches up, obviously. He's a shepherd. He's a fig tree farmer. And we see that in Amos 7 when he has this really terse conversation with Amaziah. Amaziah is the chief priest of the shrine in Bethel. And Amaziah said to Amos, "Get out of here, seer. Go on, get." He says, "Flee to the land of Judah. There you should eat bread. There prophesy. Never again prophesy here at Bethel for it's the king's sanctuary. It's the royal residence." And Amos answers and says to Amaziah, "I was no prophet.

I wasn't even a son of a prophet. I was a sheep breeder. I was a tender of a sycamore fruit. Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock. And the Lord said to me, "Go, prophesy to my people Israel." Brother Carden mentioned this last week. You see the humanity of these prophets in these books. Sometimes if you just skimming through, you're like, "Oh, yeah, Amos. Everybody knows him. He's a professional prophet or he's he's of the famous lineage of No, he was just out tending to the sheep just like David and just like some others.

Just like I think of Elisha, you know, plowing a field and and something or someone comes along and says, "Hey, it's time to uproot your life and it's time to go minister to the people of Israel." And he goes to the northern kingdom. Not his home Judah. He's in the southern kingdom. The Lord says, "Go up north and share some things that are going to make you, as our title says, infamous Amos in that land." He stands in a long line of shepherds called to do the will of God in the Bible along with another minor prophet in Zechariah.

So, Amos describes it himself to Amaziah, again the chief priest of that shrine, that he was out tending sheep when the Lord speaks to him. The Lord calls him to cross the border into Israel, to go to Bethel. You can put that first slide up, brother Eric. It's really ominous and it just kind of shows I don't know who the giant is behind him. Apparently Amos is really short, but you know, this is the best that uh Google has to offer.

But, you see there the shrine. This is a very important place in Israel and that's the shrine that Jeroboam would have uh would have set up and built years earlier. And he is coming. He's not from that land. He's coming across the border and he is confronting all that's going on there. First verse of the book again points this uh paints this picture for us. One writer notes this and he says, "Concerning Israel in verse 1 captures the focus of Amos's mission and explains this controversial mission.

A citizen of Tekoa, a town in Judah about 10 km south of Bethlehem, 20 km south of Jerusalem, is confronting the problems of a kingdom not his own and he already just by being there is wearing out his welcome." If you recall again, Bethel is the very place that Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, sets up this calf shrine and altar. He's trying to keep the Israelites from traveling to the southern kingdom to worship. It and this other one in Dan, they're at the center of idolatry for the northern kingdom and they had been that way for a long, long time.

So, the Lord's done with it. Calls Amos, "Pack up, head into the heart of the matter, head straight to the sin, set up shop in this controversial spot and you can see why he gets a reputation very quickly." Again, not a professional prophet, not the son of a prophet, not a priest, not a Levite, a farmer, a shepherd, which may have struck people the most. He's minding his own business until the issues and the evil of this northern kingdom compel him and the Lord enough to do something about it.

I just picture Amos one day out. Maybe maybe it happened a couple different ways. Could have been that the Lord moved on him strongly and he didn't even know what was going on in the northern kingdom. Could have been that he just got so fed up with what he's hearing and he's like, "I'm going. I got to set some things right." He's also headed there during the reign of Jeroboam the second. It's around the year 760 to 750 and it would have been around the same time that King Uzziah reigned in Judah when Isaiah was also prophesying in Judah as well.

It's a pretty prosperous time in both regions. Uh relatively peace-ly uh peaceful in both lands and uh the difference was that Jeroboam the second continued in the sin of the first Jeroboam and he's listed in the Bible as doing evil in the sight of the Lord. This is what it says about him in 2 Kings in the 15th year of Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria and he reigned 41 years, a long time.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who had made Israel sin. He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of Arabah according to the word of the Lord God of Israel which he had spoken through his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher. So, we can see Jeroboam the second, he becomes wealthy, he restores a lot of glory to that northern kingdom, he adds a bunch of territory with the Lord's help.

But then he settles firmly into idolatry, apathy, injustice, neglect of his people, neglect of the poor. You would think a nation like that that when it starts to prosper that it would actually be easier for them to obey the law and for them to take care of the poor and for them to uh uh uh look after their brother and their sister. Instead, you see the opposite and you see that trend throughout history. And it's near the end of this 41-year reign that the Lord stirs up the shepherd and this farmer from the southern kingdom to go up to Bethel and announce the judgement of the Lord through a compilation of visions and sermons and a lot of literary devices.

Hopefully you brought your English hat tonight. If you didn't look for it somewhere. If you don't have one uh we'll we'll get through it together. Okay. So Amos, here he is. He just heads right into the teeth of this thing. Idol worship. He has a short but pronounced prophetic ministry. It's probably between 5 and 10 years that he's prophesying. He pronounces the Lord's message to the people, one that's later compiled in the book of Amos. Some believe that it wasn't just one continuous message, but someone came along and and put them all together.

And uh you see chapter nine chapters, but it's uh those were added later. It's not uh just a it's not exactly coherent. So to recap that before we get into the the text, okay? Amos from Tekoa, you'll have a quiz on this next week. I'm just making sure you're still awake. All right. From Tekoa. He's there while Jeroboam and Uzziah are reigning. Mostly peaceful, mostly prosperous time. Jeroboam the second is living it up in Israel. He's treating the people poorly and he's given to idolatry.

The Lord just seems to pluck Amos out of his peaceful life and sends him to set things right and pronounce judgement in Israel, not the easiest job. We're not really told why the Lord chose him, although you can see that he's a trustworthy and apparently a righteous guy. And uh the fact was that he's a shepherd and the Lord just seems to have an affinity towards shepherds, too. Especially shepherds after his own heart. So now we know the backstory. Okay, let's get into the book.

Everyone got your Bibles? If you don't, uh you can follow along on the screen. Tim Mackie and the Bible Project, a great resource for for these uh books and these overviews. If you want to check them out, this is how he outlines the book. Chapters 1 and 2 you can hold on that photo. Uh chapters 1 and 2 are a continuous message to the nations and to Israel, one that eventually lands on and centers on the people uh there at Bethel.

Chapters 3 through 6 are a message straight to Israel and its leaders. Warnings, rebukes, calls for repentance, and then chapters 7 through 9 are Amos's visions and dreams about the same, okay? Uh and if you dig a little deeper into the structure of those first two chapters, Mackie says this, "The book of Amos opens with a series of short poems that accuse all of Israel's neighbors of violence and injustice. And that kind of seems odd because uh the book's opening line says, "Israel, we're coming after you."

And then he makes a hard right turn, and he starts going after everybody else. Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah. And if you look at a map, which is on the screen, you can see he he's almost drawing a circle. He's addressing all the other nations, and then he gets to Judah, and then he lands right there with Israel in its crosshairs. And when he does get to Israel, he unleashes a poetic accusation that's three times longer and more intense than any of the others.

He accuses Israel's wealthy of ignoring the poor, allowing injustice. Uh he's allow- they're allowing them to be sold into debt slavery, and then denying them legal representation. This is a huge no-no. You could see that throughout scripture. Anytime they're selling their own people into debt, the Lord just I mean, he he he's fed up with them. And that's that's just a clear sign of their breaking of covenant. And then Amos asks this near the end, "Is this the same family that was denied justice and enslaved in Egypt?"

Who God graciously rescued from oppression. So, he's saying, "Wait a second. Didn't God save you? Why are you putting your own people in bondage?" And he sends Amos to basically say, "It's over. We're done with you. God's done putting up with it." Mac mentions three themes that we're going to see in this first section. One, wealthy ignoring their poor brothers and sisters. Two, wealthy selling the poor into debt slavery. Again, clear violation of the law. And lastly, poor denied any legal representation.

All of this is just a direct affront to the Lord and was happening during a time again when prosperity is at an all-time high. Those are the key themes. Okay, Amos 1, verse 1. The words of Amos, who was among the sheep breeders of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, 2 years before the earthquake. He just kind of throws in the earthquake.

Doesn't say much after that. And he said, and these are his first words, "The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem. The pastures of the shepherds mourn and the top of Mount Carmel withers." Just picture Amos strolling into Bethel, not known as far as we know in his opening lines. He just lifts his voice and says, "The Lord roars from Zion! And he utters his voice from Jerusalem. The pastures of the shepherds mourn. The top of Carmel withers."

One writer said the Lord's roar called for both judgment and repentance. And it's interesting you see in scripture where the Lord would speak or roar on behalf of his people. Now, he's turned against his people and he's roaring at them. Not a good place to be if you're the people of Israel. It's a stark change. It's announcing judgment. Amos invokes, you notice, Zion and Jerusalem. Those were the true places of worship. This was the true place of worship, the ones that Bethel under Jeroboam, sought to usurp.

They didn't want people going to Jerusalem in the southern territory, so he he brings that into the fray right off the bat uh and talks about Jerusalem and Zion. This place where he's at is a counterfeit house of worship with a counterfeit God, and that's apparent from the start. His second line announces continued judgment. Some say that the top of Mount Carmel, this is where the prophets of Baal would have been slaughtered. That would have drawn a picture in their minds immediately.

Okay, judgment. Also, they say it was a very fertile place. So, if the top of that mountain is withered and the top of that mountain is destroyed, then men, no one's making it. Everyone's withered. It's utter desolation. This is his opening line. It's hard to see why the title. He The Lord didn't even give him a soft introduction. He just walks in. He's like, "It's all over. Your time." You can't miss also the earthquake mentioned in the first verse. That happened later.

Was seen by people as a sign of God's judgment in and of itself. There's a lot going on here. All this is going on at at Bethel and in Israel, and Amos shows up and he pulls no punches. And we're not sure if he shares all of his messages in one moment. I sent kind of think that they're all compiled later, but he means to be the voice of the Lord, the reflection of that roar of that lion. As we hurry along, we jump into the meat of the chapter only to notice that Amos takes that hard right turning.

He goes after Israel, and then he starts going after the other nations first, and he seems to build. All this is building to Israel and saving her for last. As he does, you notice a rhythm, a pattern. It's almost like a a poetic-like cadence to what he's saying. So, take a look at the first stanza. This is verse 3, chapter 1. "Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Damascus and for four, I will not turn away its punishment because they threshed Gilead with implements of iron, but I'm going to send a fire to the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad.

And then he goes to verse six, "Thus says the Lord, for the three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment." So, you see this seven at least six times. Same pattern, same progression, he uses repetition. Why is he doing that? What scholars noted, those speeches follow a stereotyped literary pattern, and they use just a couple variations. You'll notice the formula. It starts with "Thus says the Lord, thus says Yahweh." And then it gives an accusation and announcement, "For three transgressions of this and for four, I'm going to do this."

He gives this accusation of sin introduced by the word because, "Because they did this, I will do this." And then he says this is what my judgment is. So, it starts with "Thus says the Lord," general accusation, announcement, accusation of sin, judgment, he elaborates on what that judgment will be, and then he closes it by saying, "The Lord said it." This is all loaded with meaning, and I don't have time to go into all the the literary devices, but they're in there, and you can see that the cadence throughout.

And then he uses this other literary device where you probably heard it and strikes you a little funny. "For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, that was an attention-grabber. Poetic way of communicating an important and profound message, one that I remind us it's from a shepherd, but inspired by God. Uh told you I'm not going to get too deep into the grammar, but I want to show you just how inspired, just in-depth what we're talking about is, okay? Scholars, I'm talking grammar, and I'm going to get into mathematics.

Hopefully, I don't lose anybody. This is just It's cool to me. Scholars have used mathematics to kind of outline this outline this saying and and what he's doing here. When Amos says, "You've done these three things." They they call that X. No, you've done that. And then one more. So, you've done X, but you've also done X + 1. In other words, you've done enough to make God mad. You've also done this on top of that. He's trying to prove a point.

You haven't just done these three things. You've done this one, too. This is enough. This is over. They would use these literary devices to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that judgment is coming. It's on its way. I think it's pretty cool, but also amazing to see the lengths that God would go to to get somebody to repent. He's not just sending a guy to say, "Hey, y'all, look." They did that with Jonah. Three days and you're destroyed. That's face value, okay.

But Amos is using poems almost. Not the kind of poems anyone wants to hear, but he's using these literary trying to get their attention, trying to get them turn. He does that for six nations: Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah. They all get thrown into the mix, and then most of the chapter two gets to the heart of the target, Israel. Thus says the Lord, "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, there it is. I will not turn away its punishment because they sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals.

They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor. They pervert the way of the humble. A man and his father go to the same girl to defile my holy name. They lie down by every altar on clothes taken in pledge. They They drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. They're They're idolatrous." The Lord says, "But if I was the one who destroyed the Amorites before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, who strong as the oaks.

I destroyed its fruit and its roots. And I was the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt 40 years through the wilderness. I raised up some of your sons as prophets." Verse 11, "Some of your young men as Nazarites. Is not so oh you children of Israel." Says the Lord. "You gave the Nazarites wine to drink and commanded the prophets saying, do not prophesy." You actually see that later. "Behold," he says, "I am weighed down by you as a cart full of sheaves is weighed down."

Can you imagine the Lord saying that to you? You are weighing me down. Therefore, fight shall perish from the swift the strong shall not strengthen his power and he he keeps going ends in verse 16, "The most courageous men of might shall flee naked in that day." Says the Lord. Already you hear the voice of the lion from verse one or verse two raging at them pronouncing judgment, but he also calls them back in repentance. Themes of idolatry, mistreatment of the poor already there.

Amos continues those themes in the chapters to come. But chapter two rounds out the end of that first collection. Okay, this is just the opening. And in chapter three gives a little more clarity. Zeros in for the reason of the judgment repentance. Verse one keep following in your Bibles. Hear this word that the Lord spoken against you oh children of Israel against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt saying this, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth."

In other words, you were special to me. I chose you. Pulled you out. I made a covenant with you. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. This really is the crux of the matter. The Lord chose them out of all the families of the earth, set them apart to follow his law, then they transgressed against it. Two of the key components of that law were to have no other gods before him and to take care of their neighbors and fellow countrymen.

You can sum up all the law and the prophets by these two, and they disregarded both of them. Scholar named Hubbard calls this Amos's chief theme, that the Lord chose Israel and blessed her, and now Israel is listed among God's enemies. The lion has turned against Israel. He's given her great privileges, great blessings, and don't we all have those? Thank God for those. But his turning away will result in great consequences. And what follows comes from their separation from that covenant.

They started to separate from the Lord and and be pulled away from covenant and then you see the consequences. He asks, "Can Can two walk together unless they're agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he's caught nothing? Will bird fall into a snare on the earth where there is no trap for it? Will snare spring up from the earth that if it's caught nothing at all?

If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid if if there's calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?" All these questions are pointing at the their judgment, the current situation. This is again literary devices. I would go through them if I had more time, but we'll let you study those, the meanings or implications. But you see prophetic poetic language being used in verse seven summarizes. Surely, the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets.

A lion has roared. There it is again. Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken. Who can but prophesy? See the language again, the lion is roaring. He's doing that through Amos and through the prophets. He's calling them for to repentance and and judgment alike because his covenant people have disobeyed him continually. The next seven verses only focus on a pronouncement of judgment as the Lord roars just like Amos said he would. Several themes stand out in those verses including their opulence, their riches, but also their oppression of the poor and their selfishness.

Again, that they're violating the law of the Lord in verse 10 helps to summarize. It says, "FOR THEY DO NOT KNOW to do right," says the Lord. Store up violence and robbery in their palaces. Chapter 4 includes even more calls for judgment, more for repentance. It starts with a stinging rebuke of a particular class of women in Samaria. When I read this to you, you will see a little more the reason for my title tonight. Chapter 4 verse 1, are you ready?

He pulls no punches. He says, "Hear this. Hear this word, you cows of Bashan. I didn't say it. He said it. Who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, "Bring wine and let us drink." And you may think, "That's in the Bible?" Yes, it is. Amos would have been canceled if he were here today. But he is offering the unfiltered voice of the Lord to his people. For the next five verses of chapter 4, he sets his sight on these affluent women who are oppressing the poor themselves.

And brother Mark Brown, I remember him saying one time, he said, "Carnality hates clarity." So, it's one thing to address the whole nation for judgment, but Amos zeros in on these particular sets of persons. And he pulls the cover off what they're doing. This is part of the chief role of the prophet. He has a little bit of sarcasm in verses 4 and 5, another literary device that some of us have perfected. And then he launches into another judgment speech in verse 6.

May have been a separate speech altogether. Just remember, okay, he's doing this over a few years span. So, it may not have been that he stood up one day and he said all this in in in one setting. And that may be account for the changes in literary tones. Verses 6 through 13 have a totally different cadence. One scholar calls them a five-part homily, and they rehearsed God's act of judgment intended to prompt repentance, but did not. There's a consistent accusation, you did not return to me.

And the Lord reminds of them of that repeatedly. Let me just pause here, I'll give your brain a break. Okay? Say This is This is part of the reason what we're going to get into in a moment why these Wednesday nights, these studies and your own personal time of study matter so much. If you would have just read Amos. How many of you have read Amos before? Anybody? You've read Amos. Okay. I've read Amos plenty. Never noticed some of these things.

If you just read over it, you'd have thought, oh, it's just all in one sitting and this happened in 30 minutes. This is a 30-minute sermon and uh and he just walked up, but and uh he's just taking everything at face value and and uh he's just getting up and he's calling people cows and and you know, and this is you know, this is just it's just all happened. You can kind of picture it in your mind, but I think it's so important to do what we're doing to see again the lengths that the Lord will go to.

When you get into those literary devices that we're talking about, it adds a lot of weight, a lot of When that prophet is just repeating himself again and again, you might think, man, I get it, but they didn't. They didn't. So, they'd repeat themselves over and over and over again. And when the Lord says, I I called you to repent, but you would not. I called you to repent, but you would not. I called And he says it again and again, that's a literary device.

That's them repeating something intentionally. And no words were wasted. So, it gives such such insight when we rightly divide. It teaches us tonight we're also teaching how we read scripture and how to read the words of this unprofessional but inspired prophet. And then lastly, it gives so much credibility to the authority of scripture when you see a fig tree farmer speaking such words of meaning and words inspired by the spirit. Now, that's not to say that a farmer and a shepherd could not be strategic.

He could have been highly educated. But when you couple a righteous man with the spirit of God, it produces this incredible result. And all of these words fit and they matter including the cows of Bashan. Yes. Chapter 4 introduces some of those literary devices, okay? I'll give you two as an example uh in this homily. This is verse 6. He says, "I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places. I judged you, yet you have not returned to me," says the Lord.

"I withheld rain from you when there were still 3 months in the harvest. I I made it rain on one city. I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon and where it did not rain, the part withered. So, two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but but they weren't satisfied. Even after all this, yet you have not returned to me." So, again, a pattern of repetition. The Lord mentions his judgment and their response. Lack of bread, you didn't return.

No rain, you didn't return. Locust, you didn't return. The end result is in verse 12. It's it's terrifying. Therefore, thus will I do to you, O Israel, because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God O Israel. Amos has got some strong words. I think that would cause to repentance right then and there. But unfortunately, it doesn't and we get into chapter 5 and he does call for repentance. This chapter is at the center of the book. It starts with another literary device, a lament.

But the heart of the book in the sermon start in verse four, okay? For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, seek me and live. Do not seek Bethel. Nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba. For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to nothing. This place where you're at, where you're worshipping the shrine, will come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it with no one to quench it in Bethel.

In other words, your God will not stop me in Bethel. I'm coming after you. These verses in this chapter present the heart of the matter. Even after all their idolatry and their oppression and their unrighteousness, decades over the Lord says, there's a way out. You can repent. He makes it very clear the response should be, seek me and live. Says the same thing later in the chapter, and most of this chapter follows what they follows what they call a chiasm. Uh it's a literary and rhetorical device where words, concepts, sentences are repeated in reverse order.

You can put that slide up, brother Eric, so they can see it. That's what it looks like, okay? So, you see that starts with lamentation announcement, admonition, accusation, him right in the middle, Yahweh his name, him, accusation, admonition, lament. In this I don't know, I don't think you have to be a grammar nerd to think that's really cool. There he's using these stances, he's using this literary device whether he knew it or not. Again, point is to get their attention. Right in the heart of it, this is what it says.

That he, the Lord, made the the Pleiades and Orion, and he turns the shadow of death into morning and makes the day dark as night. He calls for the waters of the sea, pours them out in the face of the earth. The Lord, or Yahweh, is his name. And then he bookends it with another admonition in verse 14. He says it again, seek good and not evil that you may live. So, the Lord God of hosts will be with you as you have spoken.

Hate evil, love good, establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Starts with a lament and admonition. Ends with the same. And just again, studying this chiasm this week, it just struck me what lengths the Lord will go to to get our attention. You know, he still inspires things like that today. Now, I'm no Amos. But, the Lord will still inspire a messenger to present a word in a very creative way or light just to get your attention in mind.

I'll share this is last year at some point. I've shared this with a couple of you. I had had a message in my notes for 16 months. It was very specific. And I thought, okay Lord, whenever you're ready, I'll preach this. Well, it was coming up on August and the Lord spoke to me and said, okay, it's time and you're going to go in your basement and you're going to get your stationary bike out and you're going to put it on the platform and you're going to preach from your stationary bike.

And I remember telling Mariah and she's like, what? What? And she was supportive, but was also like, what? What? So, we did. It was Sunday morning, got the stationary bike out of the basement, put in the back of the truck, brought it here, preached from that, had no idea that one of our newest family members was coming in wondering what in the world is going on at this place, but he's also a cycle trainer. And the moment he saw me on that stationary bike, he thought, okay Lord, I get it.

That spoke to him when maybe the message wouldn't have. I'm not that smart. I had had that 16 months before just at least the seed thought. And the fact that it was the very first day that he was here just shows again the lengths that the Lord will go to. It's amazing to me. Absolutely amazing. Again, I I really had no hand in that other than I just tried to listen to the voice of the Lord and thought I was a little crazy putting that up here.

But that's just how much God loves us. And he loves his people so much that he would send a man to speak and to use I mean at this point we've already seen poems, we've seen sarcasm, we've seen chiasms, we've seen He's trying to get their attention. Verse 24 is another crucial moment of chapter 5. He says, "Let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream." That's beautiful for one. If you recall though, simple definition of righteousness in scripture, sedeqah, doing right by God and doing right by others.

This reality uh uh really rather is is the entire call for repentance in Amos. It's at the center of their sins. They turn from the Lord through idolatry. They turn from their brothers and sisters through greed and oppression. So when Jesus says the entire law and prophets, just like Amos, could be summed up in these two commandments, love the Lord and love your neighbor, Amos is able to be summed up in those two. Whole reason that he packs his bags and heads for Bethel and he gets all his figs together is because they turn from the Lord and they turn from one another.

And you can see Matthew 22:37-40 being called for in this book. Seek me and live, he says, and let righteousness and justice flow for your fellow man. In short, return to the heart of the law, return to covenant. And then chapter 5 and chapter 6 end with warnings if they don't. Another nation's coming's going to overtake them. In the short term, an earthquake would come and ravage the land. Both happened just like the Lord said. This is the essence of the middle section of the book, and we're going to wrap up with the last one, 7 through 9.

Closes with more literary devices. Closes with visions and and dreams and experiences. And he references the coming day of the Lord, one of the earliest references to the day of the Lord in the Bible. He sees Israel devastated by a locust swarm, scorching fire, before being measured by the plumb line and swallowed up like overripe fruit. In the final vision, Amos sees God violently striking the pillars of Israel's great idol temple at Bethel, and the whole building comes crumbling down. It's an image of God's justice on the leaders and the gods of Israel.

Their their time their end has come. You can see uh the Bible Project depiction. This is kind of the the last uh three chapters, 7, 8, and 9, what he is seeing. Even more literary devices. Again, laments, hymns, repetition, sarcasm, shock and awe, poems, chiasms, literary patterns. Now, visions and dreams. Chapter 7 includes the visions of locust, fire, plumb line. Judgment's coming. Then we get this brief exchange between Amos and Amaziah, that chief priest. One of the only parts of narrative.

You can go and read it. It's an interesting conversation, and it ends with Amos saying, "You know what, Amaziah? This is what's going to happen to you, and this is what's going to happen to your entire family." And again, pulls no punches. Chapter 8 continues the vision of the summer fruit. The theme uh theme, rather, of how they're treating their neighbors. Verse 4 says, "Hear this, you who swallow up the needy and make the poor of the land fail." So, he's doing a play on words.

You swallow up the needy, and then he sees that this fruit is ruined, representing Israel. The remainder of the chapters is judgment on their works, and then chapter 9 continues the theme. And I'm obviously breezing through those for sake of time. Chapter 9 opens with the Lord standing by the altar. He says, "Strike the doorpost that the thresholds will shake. Break them on the heads of them all. I will slay the last of them with a sword. He who flees from them will not get away.

He who escapes from them will not be delivered." Of course, all of what the Lord said through Amos comes true. You can read about it. 722 BC, Assyrians come, execute judgment on Israel, take them into exile 35-40 years later after Amos prophesies it. And then about 100 years after that, we read of King Josiah visiting the same altar at Bethel, and he breaks that altar down. So, what Amos sees and prophesies happens about 140 years later, and every word of God proves true.

Ultimately, that gives us hope for multiple reasons, including the turn at the very end of the book, and this is where we'll come to a close. All this is happening. Amos is Amos is just letting them have it. But then he gets to the end, and we finally get to hope. Someone was hoping for some hope, and I got some hope for you, okay? He's just spent nine chapters, nearly five year five plus years pronouncing judgment, but now, using the same imagery of that shattered house at Bethel, the tone shifts to hope.

So, you have this shattered altar, and he says, "On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down. I will repair its damages. I will raise up its ruins. I will rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the Gentiles who are called by my name." There it is, Brother Card, and just like Joel said, "All the Gentiles who are called by my name," says the Lord who does That's a That's a big thing.

I wish I had time, but I don't. "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "when the plowman shall overtake the reaper." That's a good thing. "And the treader of grapes, him who sows seed, the mountains shall drip with sweet wine. All the hills will flow with it. I will bring back the captives of my people Israel. They shall build the the waste cities and inhabit them. They'll plant vineyards and drink wine from them. They'll make gardens and eat fruit from them.

I will plant them in their land and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I've given them, says the Lord your God. And just like that, the book and ministry of Amos end on a sweeter note after all the judgment and calamities promised and executed. Final paragraph. There's hope and it includes other nations, which is amazing. And it's pivotal to see the end result of hope. Through Amos's words, we can still hear the call to learn from Israel's mistakes.

The disastrous consequences of their sins. And it's a call, maybe maybe we can't relate to some of the things that were going on, but it's still a call to embrace true worship of God, one that leads to justice, righteousness, and loving our neighbor. This really what the book of Amos is about. And I would tend to agree that was Mackey's assessment from all the reasons, the main one being that we should see and we see the call to love the Lord and love our neighbor and ourselves consistently throughout the Bible.

Amos is another voice and reflection of that through this difficult but powerful compilation of prophecies and promises. It's a reminder of two things. One, well, maybe three, but One is that we see a call in Amos here in our very own mission at APC, connect with God and others. It's difficult for me not to see that. I see it and think about it all the time. But it's in there. The Lord himself makes it clear to be in covenant with him to seek me, love him first, love and treat our neighbors with the same love and honor.

We will never outgrow those commands. Those commands have been consistent from the beginning to the end. Second thing we see is it reminds us just how wonderful the Bible is. How much depth is on these pages? Amos says as tough as his assignment prophecies are to to read and process, it's such an enjoyable study along with the rest of the book of 12 or the minor prophets. These books, they're really they're not minor in any way and they offer us so much as we study them together.

And the main thing, if you take away anything, the main thing on this hangs all the law and the prophets. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself. If Israel would have done that, there might not even have been a book of Amos. But because they did, we get to study it tonight. Let's stand together. I think we ought to end in one of two ways both.

First of all, if we could just end by asking the Lord to help us to learn from these prophecies and learn from the book of Amos how to love the Lord and how to treat our neighbor. All right? Really just our mission. Would you help me pray that right now? Lord, I'm so thankful for the your word and the word of truth and thankful that we can learn even from the mistakes of others and we can learn from these powerful passages, these powerful books of scripture and tonight from Amos.

And I pray that you would help us, Lord, to learn how critical it is not just uh to connect with you and others, Lord, but to really love you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. I pray that you would help us to have that takeaway tonight among other things. And another takeaway, Lord, help us to realize the great lengths that you go to uh to love us and to help us and to call us to repentance.

And now, can we just thank the Lord for his word and for the word of truth and the power of that word? Lord, I thank you that you've given us this word, this great word, uh this eternal word that's forever settled in heaven. Thank you, Jesus, that we get to study it and know it in its fullness, oh God. We count ourselves so, so blessed. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, thankful for the word of God.

Thankful that we're walking through these together. Next week, we've got Obadiah and Jonah. So, study up. Be ready. Obadiah's one chapter. So, uh, you can study on that one pretty easily. And Jonah, we all probably know that story, but Jonah's got a lot of, uh, depth to it as well.