They are not my problem (Amos 7-9)

As we have studied the book of Amos I have realized that there are a few things that we just can’t say about people.  We can’t say, ‘they are not my problem’, because God has made us his problem.  We can’t say, ‘I just don’t care about them’, because God cares about undeserving us.  We can’t say, ‘it’s their own fault’ or ‘they just messed up’, because God does not treat us as we deserve but according to his loving kindness.

Background

God’s Old Testament kingdom had been divided in two.  The southern kingdom was Judah, and its capital was Jerusalem.  The northern kingdom was Israel, and its capital was Samaria.  During the division Jeroboam was king of the north.  He did not want his people travelling to the temple in Jerusalem, so he put golden calves in Bethel and Dan.  At Amos’s time, and hundred and thirty years later, another Jeroboam (no relation) is king in Israel.  Israel was experiencing a time of financial growth, but the people were opulent and their religion was hypocritical. 

Amos was minding his own business in the south as a shepherd and fig tree farmer.  God called him to go to the north in Bethel and tell the people, ‘your courts are corrupt’, ‘your religion is empty’ and ‘you are oppressing the poor’.  ‘If you don’t turn back to God there will be a ‘day of the Lord’ where God is going to judge you.  They did not turn back, and forty years later the Assyrians came and conquered their nation.

Caring for the vulnerable reflects the character of God

The most famous verse in the book of Amos reads, ‘but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ (5:24).  James, the half-brother of Jesus, writes something similar: ‘religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep yourself unstained from the world’ (James 1:27).

The Hebrew word for justice is ‘misphat’.  It is a broader word than our word.  It is used hundreds of times in the Old Testament for ‘treating other people’s problems as our own.’ 

The Hebrew word for righteousness is ‘tsedaqah’.  In older versions it is translated ‘charity’, but it is more than charity because it is not optional.  It is an obligation for those who follow the Lord.

These ideas are rooted in God’s character.  ‘Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne, love and faithfulness belong to you’ (Psalm 89:1).  Jesus says that we are to be merciful as our father in heaven is merciful’.

God cared for us when we were vulnerable

Amos gathered a crowd at Bethel by denouncing the surrounding nations.  Then he did something unexpected: he turned of Judah and Israel.  In fact, there are three times as many verses denouncing Israel as there are verses denouncing any of the other nations.  The logic for this is given in chapter 2: ‘It is I who brought you up out of Egypt and led you for forty years in the wilderness’ (2:10).  ‘You were victims of injustice.  You were enslaved in Egypt.  You cried out to me in pain.  I came to your rescue.  Now you don’t care for the vulnerable.  How can that be?’

Compassion towards the vulnerable shows that we understand the logic of the gospel.  ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing.  It is a gift of God.  Not by works, so that no one can boast’ (Ephesians 2:8-9).  We show mercy to the underserving because God has shown mercy to us.

God calls us to be a blessing to the vulnerable

Speaking to both he northern and the southern kingdom God says, ‘you only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for your iniquities’ (3:2).

Not all who were a part of Israel and Judah were truly God’s people.  Not all who walked with God’s people knew him.  Similarly, not all who belong to churches are born again.  One of the ways that we know that we belong to Jesus is that the Holy Spirit gives us compassion to his people.  ‘If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother or sister in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in that person?’ (1 John 3:17-18).

God called Israel and Judah to be a blessing to the nations.  He calls us to be a light to those around us.

Before we finish I want to show you a picture of the gospel beauty in this book.  

In chapter seven the people have turned their back to God.  God tells Amos that he is going to send locusts among them.  This would be a disaster for a society that centered around agriculture.  So, Amos prays, ‘O, Lord God, please forgive!  How can Jacob stand?  He is so small!’ (2-3).  The Lord listened to Amos and relented from sending disaster.  Then God says that he will judge by fire.  Again, Amos pray.  ‘O Lord God, please cease!  How can Jacob stand?  He is so small!’ (5-6).  Again, God relents.  We live is a society that is often cruel and unjust.  Do we love our neighbors and pray for them?  Do we ask God to forgive them and turn back his judgement?  Of course, Amos is also giving us a picture of Jesus, who has prayed for us so that God’s judgement would be turned away.

Israel did not repent.  The threatened day of the Lord came.  The Assyrians came from the north and conquered them.  But the book does not end without hope.  A day will come when ‘I will raise up the belt of David that is fallen’ (9:11).  There will be a future king.  At that time the ‘mountains will drip with wine’ (9:13).  Then in John’s gospel Jesus is at a wedding in Cana, and the water is turned to wine, and the wine flows. He brings justice and mercy.  He will bring us to a new Jerusalem where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13).

Conclusion

So, the logic of the gospel says that as God has cared for us, we must care for the vulnerable.   We can’t say, ‘they are not my problem’, because God has made us his problem.  We can’t say, ‘I just don’t care about them’, because God cares about undeserving us.  We can’t say, ‘it’s their own fault’ or ‘they just messed up’, because God does not treat us as we deserve but according to his loving kindness.

Amos 3-6 Integrity: What we believe must be shown in how we live

Paul Tripp counsels many people.  But guess who he thinks are the hardest to get through to?  Those with a high level of biblical knowledge!  You see he will confront them about a biblical command or principle and they will respond, 'I know that.'  But if you know what the Bible teaches and yet you do not put it into practice then you lack integrity.

Amos was not a prophet or son of a prophet.  He was a shepherd and a fig tree farmer.  He had been happily minding his own business when he was sent from the southern kingdom of Judah to confront the people of the northern kingdom of Israel.  The lion roars.  God thunders against exploitation and injustice.  

He reminds the people that they had received mercy when he rescued their forefathers from slavery in Egypt.  As people who have received mercy they must show mercy.

People who live for a pampered life will not pursue justice

In the last church I served in, the ladies did something I was not excited about.  Now I must point out that these were great and godly women.  But they had bought into the idea of the fact that they were 'daughters of the king', little princesses.  So one Saturday morning they had the men dress up in tuxedos, welcome to the church with flowers and serve them a wonderful breakfast.  Now I am not saying that there is anything wrong with the odd spa day, but I don't think that pampering is the great spiritual need of the church in our day.

'Hear the word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mount of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husband, "bring, that I may drink"' (4:1).  They lacked concern for justice.  their life centred of being pampered.  They did not know God.  In their indulgence they were actually fattening themselves for slaughter.

Think of the pampered view we can have of church.  'I didn't get much out of the service today.'  'I didn't like the music'.  'The sermon was a little boring.'  A hundred years ago our spiritual mothers and fathers didn't say such things because they weren't going to church to get a spiritual kick or to be entertained.  We are to meet together to sit under God's word, to sing his praises to each other and to serve and encourage one another.

Do you always demand to be affirmed, but respond badly to being challenged?  Do you avoid those who are awkward or lonely?  Are you 'nice', but not 'kind' enough to speak the truth in love to people?  Then maybe you are acting like a pampered Christian.

While they pursued the pampered life, God pursued them in love

God is not a negligent parent who never says 'no'.  God does not spoil the spiritually indulgent.  He calls us to return.  Five times in chapter 4 we read God saying, 'yet you did not return to me.'  God loves these arrogant and heartless people.  He wants to forgive them and show them life.  'I gave you cleanness of teeth' (4:6, ESV) is an idiom meaning that he let them starve.  But they would not return to him.  The difficult things that he send in our lives does not mean that he has stopped loving us, he is calling us home.  

'... brand plucked from burning ...' (4:14).  A brunt brand is dead and worthless.  It is a burnt old stick.  That was what we were before he rescued us!  The same term is used in Zechariah 3:2.

On 9th February, 1709, John Wesley was five years old and living at the church house in Epworth, England, where his father was the clergyman.  The house caught fire that evening, and young John Wesley was trapped in an upstairs bedroom.  The men of the village formed a human ladder to rescue him, and pulled him out of the house just moments before the roof caved in.  Wesley saw himself as a brand plucked from the burning.

God calls us to pursue justice

Perhaps the most famous verse in Amos is, 'let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream' (5:24).  In a world that is often cruel and unkind let God's people be like gushing water coming down over a dry riverbed.

Look at what it is like to come back to the Lord.  'Seek me and live' (5:4).  'Seek good and not evil, that you may live' (5:14).  While there are those who care about social justice and do not care about God, you cannot care about God and not care about social justice.  To seek God involves seeing good, and that is in the context of caring for righteousness and justice.

Conclusion

A friend of mine was working in America in the offices of a news corporation.  He saw one of the senior presenters talk horribly to a junior staff member.  He really took her apart.  But then when my friend had to go into that presenter's office he found him with Bible open having a quiet time.  That does not match.  Our love for the Lord must show itself in love for people.

Why should we care for the vulnerable?  Because 'while we were God's enemies we were reconciled through the death of his Son.' (Romans 5:10).  We are just brands plucked from the burning.  We have been shown infinite mercy.  And so we can not say that 'they are not my problem', 'why should I care?' or, 'sure, it's their own fault.'  The mercy we have been shown must flow into the lives of others.

‘Those who follow God must show mercy’ Amos 1-2

 

In the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susan is about to meet Aslan.  But she hadn’t realized that Aslan was a lion.  ‘Lion … Is he quite safe?  I feel nervous about meeting a lion!’  Mr. Beaver replies, ‘Who said anything about safe?  Course he is not safe.  But he is good!’

The first time I read Amos I was a bit shocked at the idea of God being pictured as a lion.  It didn’t fit my sentimental view of him.  The word translated ‘roar’ is that of a lion about to pounce.  The roar was meant to paralyze the victim.  Yet God’s warnings are always a call to repent.  He has not yet pounced, so there is time to let his word change you.

Amos teaches us that God loves justice and mercy and that those who follow him must be merciful.

We follow a merciful God

Amos was not a prophet or the son of a prophet.  He was a shepherd and fig tree farmer.  This meant that he was from the lower classes.  Here is a man speaking truth to power.

At the time Amos the kingdom of God’s people is divided in two—Amos is from Judah in the south, and he is called to speak to Israel in the north.  At this time the northern kingdom was going through a time of prosperity and yet also a time of corruption.

‘The Lord roars from Zion.’  That was from Jerusalem in the south, where the temple was. 

When the kingdom was divided Jeroboam the first, king of the north, didn’t want his people travelling down to Jerusalem to worship.  So, he set up shrines in Bethel and Dan.  There he put golden calves, to represent Yahweh, and over time further idols gathered at these places.  These shrines become the center for the worship of gods associated with sex, power and money.

God speaks from the temple.  Our temple is Christ.

‘For three transgressions of Damascus or four, I will not revoke my punishment.’  God repeats this for Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Amon, Moab, Judah and Israel.     

God could have brought judgement after the first transgression, but has given the nations time to repent.  Psalm 103:8, ‘The Lord merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love’

As those who have received mercy we must show mercy

Amos is called to go to Bethel and speak God’s words.   His words are a genius way of gathering a crowd.  He starts with the surrounding nations—their enemies of Gaza and Tyre.  It was pleasurable for them to hear their enemies denounced.  Then he moves to their cousin nations—Edom (from Esau), Ammon (from Lot), and Moab (from Lot).  These were nations who had turned their back on God.  Again, the people love hearing them being denounced.  After that Amos sites Judah—their sister nation and bitter rival.  They nod their head in agreement as he lists their evils.  But then, he points the finger at them.  ‘You are as bad as they are.’  He is greeted with silence!

What was it that God condemned with these people?

‘They sell the righteous for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals’ (2:6).  This was the practice of debt slavery.  A practice still common and behind some of the goods that we import.  Including in the chocolate, tea and coffee industries.

‘You take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts’ (5:12).  God cares about the vulnerable.  What is our attitude to those who come to our country looking for asylum?

‘You are in your winter and summer homes, and houses of ivory, while ignoring the poor’ (3:15).  Are we aware of the homeless in our towns and cities?

‘A father and son go into the same girl’ (2:7).  This probably refers to ritual prostitution.  Imagine the exploitation that must have taken place in that industry.  God’s design for sex and marriage is actual designed to protect against emotional scars and broken trust.

Mercy is rooted in the gospel

‘Are you the people I rescued from oppression and slavery in Egypt?’ (3:10).

When we forget the conditions of workers; when we react to migrants with harshness, when we are tempted to think that the homeless are simply getting what they deserve, when we see people simply as sexual object, then preach the gospel to ourselves.

You see we were salves, not in Egypt, but worse, to condemnation, guilt and death.  Yet God stepped in and rescued us.  He showed his mercy to the underserving.  He sent his Son into this wicked world to rescue us.  As people who have been shown mercy, we must show mercy.

Conclusion

The lion has roared!  He thunders against exploitation and injustice.  He is calling us to be people of mercy!

I want to finish with another illustration from Narnia.

Lucy hasn’t met Aslan for a long time.  He greets her.  ‘Welcome, child’. 

‘Aslan,’ she replies, ‘you’re bigger.’  ‘

That is because you are older little one.’ 

‘Not because you are?’

‘I am not.  But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.’

You don’t have to choose between social justice and the gospel.  The gospel motivates us with compassion towards the vulnerable.  Our God is big.  He is our personal Savior who calls all people to come to him.  He is the transforming savior who changes the hearts of those who love him.  He is the God who sees the nations.  He is the God who will bring judgement.  He is the God who calls us home.