Theme: No one can serve 2 masters.
Intro – Serving Self & Money (6:4-6, 12; also 8:4-6)
Amos 6:4-6 (NASB)
4 Those who lie on beds of ivory,
And lounge around on their couches,
And eat lambs from the flock,
And calves from the midst of the fattened cattle,
5 Who improvise to the sound of the harp,
And like David have composed songs for themselves,
6 Who drink wine from sacred bowls
While they anoint themselves with the finest of oils—
Yet they have not grieved over the collapse of Joseph.
Amos 6:12 (NASB)
12 Do horses run on rocks?
Or does one plow them with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into poison,
And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.
Amos 8:4-6 (NASB)
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, to put an end to the humble of the land, 5 saying, “When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain;
And the Sabbath, so that we may open the wheat market,
To make the ephah smaller and the shekel bigger,
And to cheat with dishonest scales,
6 So as to buy the helpless for money,
And the needy for a pair of sandals,
And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”
God’s Attributes in Judgment:
1. Mercy (7:1-3)
Amos 7:1-3 (NASB)
1 This is what the Lord God showed me, and behold, He was forming a swarm of locusts when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing. 2 And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, “Lord God, please pardon! How can Jacob stand? For he is small.”
3 The Lord relented of this. “It shall not be,” said the Lord.
2. Patience (7:4-6)
Amos 7:4-6 (NASB)
4 So the Lord God showed me, and behold, the Lord God was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farmland. 5 Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! How can Jacob stand? For he is small.”
6 The Lord relented of this. “This too shall not be,” said the Lord God.
3. Righteousness (7:7-17)
Amos 7:7-17 (NASB)
7 So He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will not spare them any longer.
9 The high places of Isaac will become deserted, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be in ruins.Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. 11 For this is what Amos says: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’” 12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go, you seer, flee to the land of Judah; and eat bread there and do your prophesying there! 13 But do not prophesy at Bethel any longer, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence.”
14 Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.’ 16 So now hear the word of the Lord: you are saying, ‘You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you prophesy against the house of Isaac.’ 17 Therefore, this is what the Lord says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line, and you yourself will die upon unclean soil. Furthermore Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’”
4. Justice (8:1-14)
Amos 8 (NASB)
8 This is what the Lord God showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. 2 And He said, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel. I will not spare them any longer. 3 The songs of the palace will turn to wailing on that day,” declares the Lord God. “The corpses will be many; in every place they will throw them out. Hush!”
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, to put an end to the humble of the land,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain; And the Sabbath, so that we may open the wheat market, To make the ephah smaller and the shekel bigger, and to cheat with dishonest scales,
6 So as to buy the helpless for money, And the needy for a pair of sandals,
And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds. 8 Because of this will the land not quake, and everyone who lives in it mourn? Indeed, all of it will rise up like the Nile, and it will be tossed about and subside like the Nile of Egypt.
9 And it will come about on that day,” declares the Lord God,
“That I will make the sun go down at noon, And make the earth dark in broad daylight.
10 Then I will turn your festivals into mourning,
And all your songs into songs of mourning;
And I will put sackcloth around everyone’s waist,
And baldness on every head.
And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son,
And the end of it will be like a bitter day.
11 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
“When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
But rather for hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
They will roam about to seek the word of the Lord,
But they will not find it.
13 On that day the beautiful virgins
And the young men will faint from thirst.
14 As for those who swear by the guilt of Samaria,
And say, ‘As your god lives, Dan,’
And, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives,’
They will fall and not rise again.”
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