Promises rooted in grace (Genesis 12:1-6)

 

In 1678 the Baptist preacher, John Bunyan, wrote the allegory ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’.  He wrote it while he was in prison, for preaching without a licence.  The Pilgrim’s Progress is in the form of a dream, in which the main character ‘Christian’ travels from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City.

At one stage in the story, ‘Christian’ and his companion, ‘Hopeful’, are captured by a giant named ‘Despair’.  The giant puts them into a dark dungeon inside ‘Doubting Castle’.  Christian becomes overwhelmed by dark thoughts.  Then on the Sunday morning, just as day is breaking, Christians remembers that he has a key called Promise on a chain around his neck.  The key unlocks the doors in Doubting Castle from Despair.

 

The story of Abram is about our promise-giving God.

 

God gives promises to an undeserving world

What has happened so far in the book of Genesis?  We have seen creation followed by humankind’s fall into sin.  We have seen human evil and violence become so bad that our brokenhearted God sends the flood in judgement.  We have seen arrogant humanity tying to make a name for themselves as they built the tower of Babel, and God responding by scattering them over the face of the earth.  Humankind has proved helplessly corrupt and rebellious.

Yet God insists on blessing sinful humanity.  The Lord is good to all, He shows compassion on all He has made (Psalm 145:9).  God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45).  But there is something more.  Through Abram God has a plan to bless all the families of the earth (12:3).

God gives promises to undeserving people

Abram means ‘exalted father’, which is a bit ironic given that he is seventy-five years old and has no children.  Abram comes from Ur of the Chaldeans, which is a city located in modern day Iraq.  Ur was known as a center of moon worship and the book of Joshua tells us that his people worshipped idols (Joshua 24:2).  While Abram is in Ur, God speaks to him (Acts 7:2).  While humankind tried to make a name for themselves at Babel, God is going to make a name for Abram.

Why Abram?  Why this man from an idol-worshipping people?  We are not given any explanation for God’s choice!  But then we are also given no explanation why God should set His favor on us.  Bible commentator, Dale Ralph Davis, explains that, if ‘you think you know why God has shown grace to you, then you don’t know yourself and you haven’t the foggiest idea what grace is.’  We have done nothing to earn God’s blessing.  We have done plenty to forfeit His favor.  God’s grace is rooted in his sovereign goodness, not in any goodness in us.

God’s promises bring a challenge

God’s favor comes to us freely, but it will cost us everything.  The only appropriate response to God’s kindness is wholehearted obedience.  The Lord said to Abram, ‘go!’  ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the place I will show you’ (12:1).  It was a journey that of over two thousand kilometers.  The book of Hebrews explains that, ‘by faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going’ (Heb. 11:8).  But there is something else about Abram’s journey.  His ultimate destination is the same as ours.  He was longing for a better country than Canaan—a heavenly one (Heb. 11:13).

Abram is the Bible’s first pilgrim.  The apostle Peter writes: ‘Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.  Live such good lives among the pagans, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (1 Peter 2:11-12). 

Deep in the land of Canaan, Abram build an alter at the great tree of Moreh.  That could be translated ‘the great tree of the teacher’.  This was a pagan sacred site.  There Abram plants his flag and declares ‘my God reigns.’  He then travels to the hills east of Bethel.  He pitches his tent and builds another alter—Abram knows that his salvation depends on the death of a substitute, these sacrifices look ahead to the greater sacrifice on the cross.  There he calls on the name of the Lord. 

God’s promises point to Christ

The promises that God makes to Abram are the backbone of the whole Old Testament.  As we read through the unfolding narrative we will see God gathering a people to Himself, placing them in the Promised Land, and seeking to bless them (P, P, B).  Indeed, God’s people are to be a blessing to all the peoples of the world as they point to Yahweh.

Yet, ‘no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.  And so, through him the “Amen” is spoken to God’ (2 Cor. 1:20).  In Jesus we are the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29).  Jesus is the place where we find rest (Matt. 11:28).  In Him we inherit every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3).  We are to be a blessing to all the families of the earth as we seek to shine like stars in the sky as we hold fast to the word of life (Phil. 2:14-15). 

Conclusion

The Monday before the one just past, I sat down to begin writing this sermon.  I felt very weary.  As you might know, Granny Jean has had a difficult summer and is not as strong as she was.  It is a tiring time in our family.

I am sure that many of you also feel weary.  You may be having troubles with housing and finances.  You might work with people who are not easy.  You might have issues in your marriage or with your children.  You might feel the strain of being a long way from home.  

As we work through the life of Abram we are going to think about how we learn to trust the promise-keeping God.  We too are pilgrims in this land.  We too are to be sustained by the promises of Yahweh.  Every command in the Bible implies the promise of strength to do as He directs.    So here are three promises to hold on to when life threatens to overwhelm you:

-          ‘Fear not, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you.  I will uphold you in my righteous right hand’ (Is. 41:10).

-          ‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up’ (Gal. 6:9).

-          ‘Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need’ (Heb. 4:16).

God’s promises are the key to enable us escape from the clutches giant Despair and free us from Doubting Castle. So now as we begin this journey with our father Abraham, may God enable us to follow His various callings on our lives so that we can live well for the glory of Jesus.  Amen.

How does Jesus feel about me when I sin?

 

How does God feel about me when I sin?

What does Jesus feel about me, when I sin?

That’s a really important question.  It will determine whether you run towards God or away from him with your feelings of guilt.

For me gluttony is a sin I struggle with.  It’s serious because I know that it displeases God.  So, when I have lost control, pigged-out and stuffed my face, knowing full well that what I am doing is wrong, how does Jesus feel with me at that moment?

How does Jesus feel about you when you have just looked at that screen and satisfied your lust?   How does Jesus feel about you when you have just lost your temper and the state of your heart was reflected in the language you’ve used?  How does Jesus feel about you when you have just assassinated the character of another person, a person made in the image of God?  The Puritan Thomas Goodwin says that ‘your sins move him to pity more than anger.’

Let me tell you a little more about Thomas Goodwin.

Goodwin was born in 1600, into a Christian family.  He went to Cambridge University to train to be an Anglican minister.  However, his faith was superficial and he was vain.  He wanted to become a famous preacher who impressed people with his wisdom and wit.  Then he was moved by a sermon he heard at a funeral.  This caused him to look inward to see if he could see evidenced that he really was born again.  During these years of introspection, he was preaching, but he was a preacher who berated his people and portrayed God in a hard light.  Then he had a meltdown!  He recovered as he began to see the kindness and grace of Jesus.  His preaching changed, as he sought to melt people’s hearts with the love of Christ.

Goodwin’s most famous book is called, ‘The Heart of Christ in Heaven towards Sinners on Earth’, or more simply, ‘The Heart of Christ.’  It’s about how Jesus feels about us now that he is in heaven.

Jesus is the same approachable person in heaven as he was on earth

Goodwin suggests that some people think that now that Jesus is in heaven, now that he is seen in all his holiness, now that he resides in glory and is worshipped by angels, he ‘is therefore of a severe and sour disposition against sinners, and not able to bear them.  No, says he; “I am meek”, gentleness is my nature and temper.’

Goodwin says, ‘Christ is love covered over with flesh, yea, our flesh’.  He points out that while some people seem naturally inclined to compassion than others, Jesus ‘is of a softer mould and temper than the kindness of all men’s hearts put into one.’  Think of the kindness person you have ever met, multiply that by infinity, and you have Christ.  But he is like that now that he is in heaven.

We know that Jesus was approachable when he was on earth.  Children felt safe with him.  The sick found compassion in him.  He was known as a friend of sinners and tax-collectors.  But is he as approachable now that he is in heaven, now that he is enthroned at the right hand of the Father and now that he is worshipped by angels and robed in majesty?  Goodwin says that, ‘the heart of Jesus Christ, now he is in heaven, is as graciously inclined to sinners as ever it was on earth.’

 

Jesus hates our sin as we hate sickness in our children

Goodwin points out that we go to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace in our time of need (Heb. 4:15).  We look to him for strength when we are tempted, but we also look to him for mercy when we fall.  Jesus is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and wayward (Heb. 5:2).  Wayward people are sinning people.  He is drawn to us even as we rebel against him.  He is gentle towards us even when we let him down.

You might have heard someone say, ‘God hates the sin and loves the sinner.’  That’s too much of a simplification.  Apart from Christ we were enemies of God.  But if you are born again then God’s anger has been turned away from you.  Sin is no longer your identity, you are a beloved child of God.  Indeed, your accuser, the devil, will point to your sin and say that this is who you are.  But sin is no longer the real you.  The real you is the you that you are in Jesus.  You are a child that is embraced in the father’s love.  You are a sinner who had your guilt washed away.  You are one who falls, but Jesus keeps on picking up.  Your sin is not the real you because ‘you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:3). 

To the Christian Goodwin can say that in your sin, ‘his pity is increased to you, even as the heart of a father is to the child that has some loathsome disease …’  It’s of the Christian that we see that God hates our sin but loves us.   When our children are sick, we hate that illness, but we do not hate them.  Our sin actually stirs up compassion in him towards us.  Goodwin states that ‘your very sins move him to pity more than anger’.  ‘If the holy God who has no sin reacts with pity to us, then how much more should we react with pity to others’ (Williams).

One good objection

Goodwin suggests that their remains one reasonable objection that arises to the idea that Jesus sympathises with us in our weaknesses: what about the fact that he never sinned?  He has not experienced the self-loathing and regret that we feel when we fall in the face of temptation.  Indeed, Hebrews links the sympathy of the high priest towards the ignorant and the wayward to the fact that he too was a man who had to offer sacrifices for his own sins (5:3).

I wonder if being tempted in every way left Jesus contemplating what it must feel like to fall into sin.  Surely, he can not have failed to imagine what we experience when we allow ourselves be overcome by temptation!  But there is something more: Jesus became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).  He took upon himself our moral filth.  He identified with our evil on the cross.  He experienced God’s holy anger for what we have done to displease God.  Indeed, when we feel guilt for what we have done, we are actually feeling the guilt for sins that have been forgiven.  On the cross Jesus felt the full weight of God’s displeasure so that these sins could be forgiven.

Conclusion:  The different deaths of two great men

Goodwin points out that Christ’s love is not a ‘forced love’ as if he only loves us because he must.  His disposition of love comes freely and naturally to him.  He is after all the son of the ‘father of mercies.’  He is not reluctant to love you, he delights to love you. 

The heart of Christ melted the heart of Thomas Goodwin.  His dying words were, ‘Christ cannot love me better than he doth.  I think I cannot love Christ better than I do; I am swallowed up in God … Now I shall be ever with the Lord.’

How you understand God’s heart to you when you fail Him will determine whether you run to Him or away from Him when you let Him down.

One of the greatest examples of falling to the fear of people was when the apostle Peter denied knowing Jesus.  Luke’s gospel records the moment highlighting that the Lord turned and looked at Peter (Luke 22:61).  One Christian writer points out that how you understand that look of Jesus is foundational to your perception of how He looks at you when you sin (Erik Raymond). 

We know that Jesus pursued Peter in mercy after the resurrection and restored him.  So, I think we can be safe to conclude that this was a look of love.  Spurgeon says, ‘I think that it was a heart-piercing look and a heart-healing look all in one—a look which revealed to Peter the blackness of his sin, and also the tenderness of his Master’s heart towards him.’  ‘Despite Peter’s sin, Christ would not abandon him.  In Peter’s darkest hour, the eyes of mercy peered out Caiaphas’s window and looked on him.  For Peter, and every other Christian, all God’s acts are mediated through him love.  His love was meant to pierce and heal the apostle (Erik Raymond).  

It is appropriate to be sad when we find ourselves letting God down.  But we must not stop at that godly sorrow.  Indeed, we must make sure we are not just nursing wounded pride.  The look in Jesus’ eyes said, ‘I still love you.  You have denied me, but I still look at you as mine.  I love you with an everlasting love, and even though you have deserted me, I am looking for you, and I am expecting to receive you back.  I have not turned my back of you’ (adapted from Surgeon).  

Don’t minimize your sin when you approach the throne of grace.  Don’t make excuses.  See it for all its horror.  But then remember that there is always more mercy in Jesus than there is sin in us (The Bruised Reed).  If you truly belong to Him you cannot sin yourself out of His love.  And if you are not sure you are not sure that you belong to Him, then listen to His promise, ‘I will never turn away anyone who comes to me’ (John 6:37).  Come sincerely and take Him at His word!  

Psalm 23:5-6 'Home'

  

I have a recurring dream.  It’s about home.  It’s actually about the home I associate with growing up.

I am in our house with mum.  I look at her and ask, ‘how come we are getting to use this house, we sold it?’  To which she replies, ‘they are away for the weekend.’  But I have an objection.  If that is the case how come my stuff is still in the cupboard?  At that stage the dream would end.

But then the dream developed.  Now my mum explained that the people who purchased the house never moved in.  They didn’t like it.  So, we still have use of it.  Sometimes I dream that I am outside of the house and not welcome to go in because the new owners are there.

We all have a longing for home.  Humanity has had that longing since we were expelled from Eden.  The final verses of Psalm 23 are about coming home.  But our deepest sense of home is found not in a place but a person.

Maybe Jesus is calling you home for the first time.  He has broad shoulders to carry.  All you need to do is admit that you are lost and helpless.

Maybe you have strayed from the path.  You are now sad and miss being close with Jesus and his people.  He comes looking for us no matter how far away we have gone.

Maybe you are passing through the valley of the shadow of darkness, and what you need to know is that there is a banqueting table just over the horizon.  He is travelling with you.

1.       The host prepares a feast

There is a debate whether these last verses continue the picture of shepherd and sheep or whether we are now dealing with a host and his guests.  I think the picture has switched to the host, but the shepherd and the sheep are still in the back of our minds.  Notice that the psalmist is still speaking to God not just about God—it is still ‘you’ not ‘my’.

In that culture the host would have commissioned the women of the house or the servants to prepare the banquet.  But notice that the host does it himself.  ‘You prepare a table before me.’  It reminds me of some amazing verses in Luke’s gospel where Jesus speaks of his return.  ‘It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.  Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, he will have them recline at the table and he will come and wait on them’ (Luke 12:37).  When Jesus returns he will wait upon his people. That’s astonishing.  It is interesting that just a few verses earlier in Luke Jesus addresses to his people saying, ‘do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom’ (verse 32).

Jesus’ people are his delight, and he loves to serve them.

2.      He serves us in the presence of our enemies

C. S. Lewis doesn’t like the idea that we are served in the presence of our enemies.  It sounds vindictive, as if we are taking pleasure in our enemies cowering before us as we are served.  But maybe the way to view this is to see how Jesus served his people in the presence of their enemies.

In Luke’s gospel (7:36-50), a woman who had lived a sinful life weeps and wets Jesus’ feet with her tears, pouring perfume on them.  Simon, the host, is a Pharisee, and he criticises Jesus for allowing such a woman do such a thing.  What does the friend of sinners do?  Jesus defends her.  ‘She loves much because she has been forgiven much’.  She is safe with Jesus from the accusations of her enemies.  When people try to shame you with your past, do not fear, you are washed, you are cleansed and you are justified.

3.      He anoints your head with oil and your cup overflows

The anointing referred to her is not the anointing of a king for service but the anointing of a guest in an act of generosity to make them feel relaxed and secure.  Home is where we are full known and totally loved.

Our cup overflows.  Spurgeon says, when Jesus is the host no guest goes empty at the table’.  The host comes to top up your glass.  In Romans we read that, ‘the Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts’ (Romans 5:5). 

4.      Your perspective changes

‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.’  There are two special Hebrew words used here. 

‘Goodness’ is a translation of the Hebrew ‘tov’.  Tov is used in Genesis 1, where God sees his creation and pronounces it good.  God restores our souls and makes good out of the chaos.

Mercy is a translation of the Hebrew ‘chesed’.  Chesed is God’s covenant love.  It is love based on a covenant and love that goes beyond what is expected.  I heard a description of chesed being live a man who marries a woman, and when she gets a chronic illness he gives up his job to care for her.  His actions are based on their covenant relationship but they go beyond what would be normally expected.

Apparently ‘follow’ is too soft a translation.  ‘Pursue’ would be better.  Goodness and mercy pursue us.  David Gibson suggests that something pursues us we see it as we look backwards over our shoulder.  As we look back on the valley and the chaos it is only the passing of time that enables us to look back and see that goodness and mercy were pursing us.  In the Lord of the Rings Sam asks Gandalf, ‘is everything sad going to be made untrue?’  Looking back with the eyes of God’s care helps us rethink our memories.

The was an old shepherd who used to preach.  He once said that he would like to name two sheepdogs ‘goodness and mercy.’  Every time we are straying it is God’s goodness and mercy which brings us back to the shepherd.  ‘It is the kindness of God that leads to repentance’ (Romans 2:4).

5.      Home now and forever more

I saw a brief chip on RTE where a man talked about doing up an old house.  He said that while his friends were partying and travelling the world he was working on the building.  He admitted, ‘I grew up with my mum moving from bedsit to bedsit.  This house fulfilled a deep need.’  But that need cannot be met with bricks and mortar, it can only be met in a person.  As Augustine said at the beginning of his spiritual autobiography, ‘you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.’

The banqueting table is not just a picture heaven.  Goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our life.  But we do look forward to a wedding feast.  Jesus delights to be with us now and he will be with us for ever.

I only got to one day of Kinfire.  In the meeting I attended a woman called Shirley was interviewed.  She said, I am eighty-six years old and I am looking forward to heaven.  That’s wonderful.  John Lennox was reflecting on being in his eighties and said, ‘I am looking forward to seeing Jesus.’  He explained, ‘heaven is not the goal, heaven is where Jesus is, being with him is the goal.’

Home is not a building, it is a person.  That person is Jesus.           

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.

‘Presence’ (Psalm 23:4)

 

A Bible scholar was in Palestine in the 1800s and he noticed that the shepherds were more rugged than we tend to think.  ‘They looked more like warriors marching to the battlefield—a long gun slung from the shoulder; a dagger and heavy pistols in the belt, a light battle-axe or iron-headed club in hand.  Such were the equipment; and their fierce flashing eyes and scowling countanences showed but too plainly that they were prepared to use their weapons at any moment’ (from The Treasury of David).

There is no one more compassionate than our good shepherd, Jesus.  He is the most kind and loving person that there ever has been.  But this lamb of God is also the lion of Judah.  He has broad shoulders to carry his lost sheep home.  He has defeated our foes of death and the devil.  No one can snatch us from his mighty hand.

The structure of this Psalm is x-shaped (Hebrew chi).  In such Hebrew poems the main point is made in the centre of the x.  If we include the title for this psalm then the central words are ‘you are with me.’  This is the Immanuel Psalm—God with us!

The valley is one of the right paths

Before we enter the valley (verse 4), we are told that the good shepherd leads us in the right paths.  Dark valleys are a part of Jesus’ plan for our lives.  We might not understand why Jesus leads us there, but he promises to be with us.  The Bible scholar, Don Carson, explains that suffering is inevitable in life, if you are not suffering now, cheer up it is only a matter of time.  Don’t think that it is a sign that God has let you down simply because your circumstances are hard.

J. I. Packer writes, ‘If you have been resigning yourself to the thought that God has left you high and dry, seek the grace to be ashamed of yourself.  Such unbelieving pessimism deeply dishonours our great God and Saviour’ (Knowing God).

The valley is hard

The valley of the shadow of death/darkness includes death, but I think it includes more than death. 

Dark valleys were everything that the sheep feared—bandits, unstable footing, flash floods, snakes and wild animals.

In the valley we fear evil.  But the Hebrew word for evil (ra) means more than just moral evil.  It is a word that can be translated ‘disaster’ or ‘chaos’.  I think we can use this of depression, family strife, grief, loneliness and doubt.  I think that Jesus can bring us into a valley where he lovingly shows us our sins and where we need to change.

God is not only with us in the valley, he is in control of all that takes place there.  In the book of Job, Job responds to his wife, asking, ‘shall we accept good from God and not evil (ra)?’ (Job 2:10).  Amos asks, ‘Does disaster (ra) come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?’ (3:6).

The fact that God is in charge even over the chaos we face in life may leave us with hard questions.  We may wonder what he is at.  But I would much rather to be in the hands of a strong God who has proven his love and faithfulness to be through the life and death of his Son than be the subject of mindless chaos.

The valley is not our destination

In the valley the psalmist talks about walking.  I don’t know about you, but when I am afraid I want to either run or I freeze.  But when we stay close to the shepherd we can walk.

We walk ‘through’ the valley.  The valley is not our destination.  I have talked to a number people about the topic of depression.  They assure me that the very hardest moments of depression do not last.  We can say to those in the darkest places that ‘this too will pass.’  Sometimes there are parts of the shadow that do not lift in this life, but we are heading to a place where God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

I was speaking at the funeral of a man who died by suicide.  I admitted that the shadow of his death would probably be somewhere in the background for his adult children all their lives.  But that they must let it be the defining feature of their lives.  They must keep walking.  The dark valley is not where we are to settle.  We walk as we seek the help of our Christian brothers and sisters.  We walk even as we seek professional help.  We walk as we pray.

Jesus is especially with us in the valley

Ray Ortland wrote a lovely book on a verse that tells us that God is with us in our brokenness.  The verse is Isaiah 57:15: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit’.  Ortland explains that the lowly in spirit are devastated people who have hit rock bottom.

The psalmist says that, ‘The LORD is near the broken-hearted and lifts up those who are crushed in spirit’ (34:18).

Notice that as the psalmist goes into the valley he stops talking about the shepherd and starts talking to the shepherd—from ‘my’ to ‘you’.  ‘The deeper the cloud the closer the Lord’ (Motyer).  One person looked back on a time of pain and admitted, ‘I miss how close I was to God then.’

Ask the good shepherd to keep you on track

When we are in pain we are faced with a fork in the road.  We can either lean in closer to our shepherd or we become bitter. 

Your rod and staff they comfort me. 

The rod was a two and a half mace with iron inserted into its head.  Anyone who threatened the sheep was likely to have the living daylights beaten out of them.  Our great enemy the devil has been defeated and death has lost its sting.

The staff was used to hook sheep out of the ditch, and also to give them a whack when they were going off path.  God disciplines those he loves, and no discipline is pleasant at the time (Hebrews 12).  A friend of mine pointed out that when she starts to ignore God, he gives her a ‘kick up the butt’.  It might be the gentle wounds of a friend, circumstances that make you realize your need of him or an increased inner restlessness.  Thank God that he will do what it takes to bring you back on path!

The valley is darkness and death

The valley isn’t just about death, but it does include death. 

In the last church I served there was a man who had a nagging fear of death.  That is not uncommon.  Jesus came to deal with that fear.  He came ‘to free those who were held in slavery all their lives to the fear of death’ (Hebrews 2:15).  Of course, we doubt and at times fear.  But Jesus wants us free from that fear.

I only got to Kinfire one day, but I heard the speaker, Glen Scrivener, give a good illustration.  He said that death is like a shroud and Jesus is like a needle.  We are the thread that Jesus bring through the death shroud.

Remember that ‘precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints’ (Psalm 116:15).

In his book, Fear No Evil, David Watson wrote about his terminal illness.  ‘The actual moment of dying is still surrounded by mystery, but as I keep my eyes on Jesus I am not afraid.  Jesus has already been through death, and he will be with us as we walk through ourselves.’

Conclusion

David Gibson says that the whole of the Bible is summed up in the words, ‘you are with me.’

When Jesus brings us into the valley with all its chaos, ‘you are with me’.

When we have every reason to fear, ‘you are with me’.

When our past comes to haunt us, our shepherd comes to our defence.  ‘You are with me.’

When the going is hard.  ‘You are with me.’

When it is hard to stand up for our faith.  ‘You are with me.’

When God’s time comes for us to leave this life, ‘you are with me.’