Amos - Complete notes

Complete notes on Amos are now available on Dundee Believer.

Amos 9:12-15 - I will plant them on their land

9:12

Israel herself will be restored, rebuilt, but then this will spread globally. She will start to have an impact on other nations. We need to be careful when we read phrases like “possess the remnant of Edom”. We can read this as possess in a worldly, dominant sense. Rather it means the spread of Israel’s true purpose, which is that all nations on earth will be blessed through her (Gen 12:3).

“All the nations who are called by my name”. God’s plan has always been universal.

“Declares the Lord who does this”. It is God who works salvation. We are utterly dependent upon Him. That most definitely does not make us automatons or passive partners, but active participants on God’s plan.

9:13-15

The picture here is one of abundance. The harvest would be so great that the workers would bump into each other, there was so much to harvest. There would also be an abundance of wine.

God will restore the fortunes of His people Israel. So we see His covenant faithfulness. We need to see the two sides of the prophecy of Amos together, and must not set them as being in opposition. Likewise, in our attitude towards Israel we must hold both sides. Israel always has been a sinful nation, just as the whole of the human race is a sinful race. Yet God has declared His promises to Israel, and the books of the Bible make it clear that He intends to keep those promises. Israel will be blessed. Indeed, if God is not capable of somehow overcoming the problem of a sinful nation receiving the promises of God, then neither can you or I receive the promises of God. But in Christ we do receive the promises, and in Christ Israel will receive the promises. In fact, there is a wonderful symmetry here. We Gentiles have learnt much from Israel and God’s workings with her, as described in the Old Testament, one day Israel as a whole will learn how we have received God’s blessing through Christ, and so they will eventually receive God’s blessings through Christ.

Notice after declaring the blessing, God then says “and they shall ...”. God’s salvation never leaves us helpless, but makes us fruitful and active participants in His plans.

And this blessing will be permanent. There is no hint in Amos of how God will manage to square the circle, only a very clear declaration that He will. There is no denying the sin of Israel, but equally there is no denying the blessings that will come Israel’s way.

Amos 9:9-11 - In that day

9:9,10

What would happen? Assyria would invade the nation and many of her people would be scattered around the surrounding nations. Moreover, Assyria would transplant people from other nations into the land of Israel. The “no pebble shall fall” bit means that the leaders would not escape. Those primarily responsible would pay for their sins. They may have felt safe and secure, and even boasted in this, but there would be no hiding place.

9:11

Your Bible probably has a section heading here, such as Restoration of Israel. This is not part of the Biblical text, the text jumps straight from all the judgement to “In that day I will raise up ..”  So what are we to make of all this? Well, there has been much talk of “the day of the Lord” (Amos 5:18), and so far this hasn’t looked so good for Israel! But this is all part of God’s plan of restoration. The same pattern applies to God’s complete plan of salvation. First there has to be a facing up to sin. First there has to be the death of the Son on the cross, only then can the resurrection come. There are those who want to preach a so-called gospel that simply says “God loves you”, but says nothing about sin. Such a message is not Biblical, and offers no real salvation. God’s plan is to truly restore us.

Amos 9:5-8 - The eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful kingdom

9:5,6

These two verses remind Israel who the Lord is. He is infinitely greater than all of us, for He is the One who created all things, who is in charge of all things. The earth is completely subject to Him. Israel had looked to her own strength, and was doing relatively well at the time Amos was prophesying to her. But there was rampant injustice in the land, and she was most definitely not in charge of her destiny. If she had any sense at all she would listen to the Lord.

9:7,8

These verses are crucial for understanding Israel, and God’s purposes for Israel, and indeed for Israel’s understanding of herself. God here reminds Israel that she was not the only nation created by God. Was (indeed, is) Israel special? Yes, but we need to understand that specialness. Israel took it as privilege, favouritism. They should have taken it as responsibility. If they had done this they would indeed have discovered the true extent of God’s love. And the same applies to us today as Christians. Israel enjoyed hearing and seeing God’s judgements on these other nations like the Philistines, but she herself was now a sinful nation. So she would experience the judgement of God. The apostle Peter well understood this matter, see 1 Peter 1:17 and 4:17.

Amos 9:1-4 - I will fix my eyes on them for evil and not for good

9:1

“I saw the Lord standing beside the altar.” Which altar is this? Is it the altar at the Jerusalem temple, or is it an altar at Bethel? The latter would seem to be the more likely. In which case the sense of the vision would be that Israel had set up this altar with the intention that it would be a place of worship, but instead it would be the source of judgement on the nation. Now we need to look at this. Israel may have set this altar at Bethel up with good intentions, but it was done out of the flesh, out of human nature, not based on what God commanded. And what had flowed from this altar? All the sins that have been recounted in the earlier parts of this book. The injustice, the oppression of the poor. When we do things in a way that is contrary to God’s ways it will not work, and it will have evil consequences.

So judgement would come, and no one would escape.

9:2-4

KJV and NKJV have “hell” where ESV has “Sheol”. This is the world of the dead. So even going into the world of the dead would provide no escape from God’s judgement. Many maybe think that death is the end, that death provides an escape. But there is no escape from meeting God, the only “escape” is Jesus. There is nowhere they could go to get away from God. Contrast this with Psalm 139 where David expresses similar thoughts about not being able to get away from God, but there is one enormous difference. David is ultimately glad he cannot get away from God, for he knows that God is his creator, the one who truly loves him. When men are in rebellion against God the wish to get away is to avoid judgement.

Amos 8:7-14 - A famine of hearing the words of the Lord

8:7,8

Later on (Is 43:5; Jer 31:34) God speaks of remembering their sins no more. However, in Isaiah 43:27 God says “I consigned Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn”, possibly a reference to the judgement that Amos is speaking of. So what are we to make of this? The key fact is that sin has to be faced up to. The world seems to take the view that either sin isn’t really sin, or it is not so bad, or that God will just overlook it. There is no Biblical support for such views. Sin must be faced up to. Either we can ignore it and then receive God’s just judgement, or we can repent and receive forgiveness. This is also why the punishment aspect of the cross is so important. On the cross God did not overlook our sin, but faced up to it fully, and the full punishment was laid upon Jesus. So through the cross justice has been fulfilled.

The reference to the Nile and the river of Egypt is to the rising and falling of the Nile, which was vital for crop growth in the region.

8:9-12

Verse 9 is possibly a reference to an eclipse. Eclipses were thought to be signs of the displeasure of the “gods”. So this “day” would be one of God’s displeasure with the nation. It would be a terrible day for the people. And if we find such thoughts abhorrent, we should remember that these events did actually happen. Israel was defeated by Assyria.

There would also be a famine, but a famine of the word of God. There was a gap of about four hundred years between Malachi and the birth of Christ. The Northern kingdom was without prophets for an even longer spell, with Samaria being pretty much a pariah as far as Jerusalem was concerned. One might have thought that such an apostate nation would not be overly concerned about not hearing the word of God, just as one would not expect our nation to be too concerned about such an event. However, people do not realise just how much good in society is dependent upon God’s goodness. We are not self-sufficient, and we do actually need someone beyond ourselves.

8:13,14

Even the young, both women and men, would faint because of thirst. And remember that this is a thirst for God’s word. People may imagine that they can manage without God, but eventually they are faced with reality that we cannot manage on our own. That is why the church must continue to offer out the word of God, even during times when it seems that few want to hear.

Dan was associated with idol worship, which is why this tribe is singled out here. Holding on to the worship of idols, a determination to live without God, is a sure road to destruction.

Amos 8:1-6 - The time is ripe for judgement

8:1-3

The Lord now gives Amos a vision. The vision is of a basket of ripe fruit. One might think that this is good news, but one would be sadly mistaken. The message is that Israel is ripe for judgement! It is a feature of the Bible that judgement never comes quickly. God is slow to anger and rich in love (eg Ex 34:6), and judgement only comes after numerous warnings. People often object to the concept of hell, asking how a God of love could send people to hell. The truth is that if a God of love sends someone to hell, then that person must be truly deserving of it, for God will have done everything possible to avoid that outcome. The reason Israel would receive judgement is because she repeatedly failed to heed the warnings. And the judgement would be terrible.

8:4-6

Verse 4 reminds us of the sins of Israel. They trampled the needy and sought to do away with the poor of the land. Oh, we should be careful how we react to the poor. It can be so easy for us to look down on them, but we need to remember that God looks down on us.

Next the Sabbath is mentioned. We can identify with “crime” of verse 4, but if we are honest may well consider this one to be rather trivial. There are two things to note. First, the Sabbath signified trusting in God. It was a recognition that all that we have comes from God, and that we are utterly dependent upon Him. Now notice what this verse says. It implies that they were actually formally observing the Sabbath, but their hearts were not. They just wanted it to be over so they could get on with their trade. Secondly, their trade was fundamentally dishonest, involving cheating people, and taking advantage of the poor. When we trust God we will behave better, if we stop trusting God and trust in ourselves instead it will inevitably lead to immoral behaviour.

Amos 7:10-13 - Get out, you seer!

Apologies! This one and last Friday's Amos post should have been the other way around.

7:10,11

We now get the reaction of the state. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, accused Amos before the king, Jeroboam. Amos was accused of being against the state. This is similar in some ways to the accusations made against Jesus. It was Amos’ prophecies against Bethel and in Bethel that produced this strong reaction. We need to to know that when the heart of a regime is attacked, it will often not respond with repentance, but instead react with anger and even violence. The accusation “Jeroboam shall die by the sword”, is not exactly the same as 7:9, where Amos said “the house of Jeroboam with the sword”. However, there was a close identity between the king and the country, so this is probably not significant, especially when Amos has said Israel will go into exile.

7:12,13

So Amaziah tells Amos to leave the country, to go back to Judah where he belongs. People often do not want to hear the word of God. we would rather continue in our own ways, even if those ways are leading to death. We need to understand too that it is not just a matter that “our ways” will have bad consequences, but that they will receive the active judgement of God. The word translated “O seer” may well be a term that was used specifically to refer to “morality prophets” in Judah. Amos definitely was a “morality prophet”, the heart of his message being to highlight the sins of Israel. He is told to go and work and earn his living back where he belongs, and not to trouble the nation of Israel with his messages again, but to leave them in peace. People, especially the powerful, do not want to hear the truth.

Amos 7:14-17 - Neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet

7:14,15

“I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet.” Amos had effectively been told to go and ply his trade elsewhere, as though prophesying was just a job for him, but Amos was not a professional prophet. Rather he was a farmer, with sheep and fig trees. The only reason he was prophesying in Israel was because the Lord had told Him to. So the leaders of Israel were not rejecting Amos, but God.

There is also something to note here about “professional clergy” or pastors. It is good that some people study the Biblical languages, and receive formal theological training, but we do need to recognise that there is nothing in the Bible to indicate that such training is necessary for all, nor that it guarantees success. And experience backs this up. Faith in God and obedience to God are the necessary qualifications. So if you are theologically trained you should not despise someone whom God may use in preaching or evangelism who does not have formal theological training (one would expect them to know the Bible!). Likewise, if you are used by God, but do not have formal training, do not despise those who do have formal qualifications. God will use whoever He will use.

7:16,17

Having dispensed with the silly objections, Amos prophesies again. Their protestations would not end well, for they only invite more judgement from God. So Amos tells them that their wives will become prostitutes (a sign of the land being utterly overrun by the enemy), their children would be killed. The priests themselves would be taken off into exile, as would much of the nation.

“How can a God of love do such a thing?” is a common question. It is not a very helpful question, nor a very sensible one. It is quite clear from numerous parts of the Bible, Old and New Testament, that God is quite prepared to do such a thing. We would be far wiser responding by considering our own ways and repenting. It we who are on trial, not God! It is we who need to change, not God!

For when we say “How can a God of love do such a thing?” what we are in effect doing is saying: God would not do such a thing, therefore what is said is wrong, therefore we can ignore the warnings, therefore we can carry on sinning.

The far more sensible question is “what are we going to do about our sin?”.

Amos 7:7-9 - I am setting a plumbline

7:7-9

Now we get a third vision. This time Amos does not call on God to stop, and this time there is no relenting. The vision this time was of a plumbline (though the Hebrew here is uncertain, so this is a best guess of the correct translation).The plumbline represents God measuring the people, measuring their behaviour against God’s standards. They would be found wanting, to have fallen way short. Therefore the judgement would come, the high places (ie where idol worship occurred) would be destroyed. The house of Jeroboam, which had led the nation in this godless direction, would be killed by the sword.

So what has been going on? Why the three visions? Amos was appalled at the first two and called God to stop, but he was apparently content with the third. We find the idea of judgement (think of hell) appalling, we react against it. Why? Because we are reacting against the horror of the judgement. This is what happened in the first two visions. Then God shows Amos the horror of what is being judged, and Amos sees that the judgement is just. People often say how can a God of love send people to hell. The only reason we ask that question is because we do not appreciate the true nature of sin. On the last day all of God’s judgements will be seen to be perfectly just and right.

We also see the relationship between God and Amos, and we need to appreciate that it is a relationship. We are meant to interact with God.

Amos 7:1-6 - How can Jacob survive?

7:1-3

In this chapter we get some interesting insights. First there is the relationship between Amos and the Lord. Throughout the Bible there is no one way that people receive prophecies, but one common thread is that the prophet is definitely not an automaton! There is personal interaction between the Lord and the prophet. Then in the second half of this chapter we get Israel’s reaction.

The first two sections are very similar, in these verses God shows Amos a vision of what He was planning. In this case He is preparing a swarm of locusts. Locusts are notorious for devastating harvests. “After the king’s share had been harvested”. This would have happened at the worst time for the ordinary people, but the king would have been OK, for he would have harvested his stuff.

Amos is appalled, out of his concern for the people, and calls on God to relent, and the Lord does so.

7:4-6

This section follows a similar pattern. God shows Amos a vision, this time of judgement by fire, a devastating fire. Again Amos is appalled, and call on God to stop, and God does so.

Amos 6:11-14 - Does one plough the sea with oxen?

6:11

The Israelites are to be in no doubt that God will execute His judgement, unless they repent. The people then were reluctant to believe that God would do this to them. Things are no different today, just consider how people react to the concept of God’s judgement and hell. “God would never do such a thing!”. Or “if God would do that then He is not a good God” are typical of the reactions we have. But we do not take seriously the issue of sin, nor do we appreciate the true awfulness of sin and its effects. Instead of arguing we would do far better to take God’s warnings seriously, consider our ways, and repent.

6:12-14

Justice is meant to be life giving to a society, righteousness is meant to be sweet, but Israel had turned justice into poison, and righteousness into bitterness. Things were not as they should be. Just as one would not consider running a horse over rocky crags, or ploughing the see with oxen, just as these things are absolutely crazy, so it should be equally crazy that justice brings poison, and righteousness had become bitterness. Yet that is what had happened in Israel.

“Lo Debar” is a place that had various spellings, the one used here means “nothing”. And Karnaim means strength. Israel boasted that she had conquered these place by her own strength. Israel was proud of herself, but God would send a nation against her that would utterly defeat her. She had been warned!

Amos 6:8-10 - Hush, we must not mention the name of the Lord

6:8

This verse is given a very strong introduction, “The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts”. This is stressing the seriousness and the certainty of what is about to be said. The nation needed to come to its senses.

Jacob is used here to refer to the northern kingdom of Israel. God abhors her pride. All of us need to be careful that we do not fall into the trap of Jacob. As a nation we are very rich, while much of the world is very poor. We can become very proud in ourselves. We need to keep an eye on our hearts. The things that Jacob but his trust in would come to nothing, for God would deliver the city and all that was in it to an enemy.

We need to truly fear the Lord.

6:9,10

These two verses describe the aftermath of destruction. You can imagine this as a scene from a horror film, but why does God use such vivid language? There is only so much that can be communicated by prose, graphic language, picture language, can sometimes convey the point much more forcibly. So what is the point that God is seeking to convey? It is that judgement, horrific judgement, is coming upon the house of Israel. It is vital that Israel heeds the warnings that Amos is giving, otherwise severe consequences would follow. We should treat the language of Jesus in the New Testament in the same way. Fools spend their time babbling on about eternal conscious torment, or conditional immortality, and the like. We would do far better to focus on the purpose of Jesus’ words. We are sinning against God, judgement is coming, terrible judgement, and if we have any sense we will repent while there is still time. Finally, we should note that judgement did come upon Israel, very real judgement. Likewise, hell is for real.

Amos 6:1-7 - You put off the day of disaster

6:1

“Woe to those who are at ease ..”. This reminds us of Jesus’ words about woe to those who are happy now (Luke 6:24-26). Does this mean it is wrong to be happy, well fed or at ease? No, but it is wrong to be at ease when society is in a mess, and your wealth is the result of injustice and oppression. We need to be concerned about the poor and about injustice. Amos seems to be drawing a parallel between Samaria and Zion. The northern kingdom of Israel seems to have more or less set up a parallel of Jerusalem. It was fake! When men reject God, as our society is doing, they will set up some alternative system. Communist countries have veneration of leaders, Nazi Germany had virtually turned Hitler worship into a religion, our society is making “sexual freedom” into a religion.

6:2,3

It isn’t exactly clear why Amos is mentioning these places. They are places which had suffered defeat, and perhaps the most likely explanation is that Amos is drawing attention to them, saying to Israel that these places could not stand, why do you think that you will do any better? They considered the “day of doom” to be far off, but in doing so were only bringing the day of disaster nearer.

6:4-7

The use if ivory was a sign of living in luxury. At the time there were still elephants in the region of Syria, so the devastating effects of the ivory trade are sadly nothing new. Eating meat was a rarity for the common people, saved from special occasions and feasts. So the latter part of verse 4 is a further description of the opulence of the rich people.

Verse 5 is not a condemnation of music in general, one only needs to look at the psalms to see that, but the reference here is to music in revelry, and the prophet is painting a picture.

Drinking wine in bowls means drinking wine in large quantities.The whole picture is one of the rich and powerful, the elite, enjoying a party life while the nation (Joseph) was suffering. They had no concern for the poor. The outcome of all this would be that those who rejoiced now would be among the first to go into exile.

Amos 5:21-27 - Away with the noise of your songs

5:21-24

God then tells them precisely what He thinks of their religious worship, for they were indeed a very religious society. God hated it! They were a stench to Him. God would reject all their offerings. We need to remember who worship is for! It is for God, not for us. He sets the rules. Religion so easily becomes man-centered, not God-focused. Their songs and music meant nothing to God. This latter part shows that the words of this section are as relevant to us today, as they were in Amos’s day. If our lives and hearts are not pleasing to God, then our “worship” is not pleasing to God.

Then we have the words famously quoted by Martin Luther King, “let justice roll down like a river”. There is no pretence with God, no favouritism. He looks for our lives to be truly just, that then leads to true worship.

5:25-27

Now the sacrifices were an integral part of Israel’s worship, as specified in the Law, especially Leviticus. So what was God playing at? God then points out that he did not require sacrifices during the time Israel was in the desert. Israel was missing the point. So what was the point? The sacrifices were ineffective in themselves in absolving people of guilt, as the book of Hebrews stresses. Instead, they pointed the way forward to Christ. Israel (the northern kingdom) had created many idols and was essentially indulging in idol worship, with a veneer of godly worship. There was no true worship, so God would send them into exile “beyond Damascus”. Assyria would, before too long, be the dominant nation, and many people of Israel would be scattered to various parts of the region.

Amos 5:15-20 - Hate evil, love good

5:15

Now they are told some specific aspects of what God requires of them. They are to hate evil and love good. Hating evil is an oft repeated virtue in the Bible. This means hating all sorts of evil, So we are to hate sexual immorality of all kinds, we are to hate all forms of injustice, and are to hate all oppression of the poor. Our legal systems need to maintain justice.

“Perhaps the Lord ...” This is not saying that there is only a possibility that the Lord will have mercy, rather Amos is pleading with the people to change their ways.

5:16,17

Although God has issued this call to the people (v14,15), it seems that it was hopeless, the people would not mend their ways. So the judgement would come, and it would be terrible. The Lord would pass through their midst. Some might have thought this would be a good thing, but because the Lord would come in judgement it would be anything but good.

5:18-20

“The day of the Lord”. The people of Israel looked forward to the day of the Lord, they thought it would be a good thing for them, but they would be in for a rude awakening. The “day of the Lord” is not necessarily a single day, nor is it just referring to The day of the Lord. It refers to a time when God intervenes directly to set things right, a time when things are done according to His ways. Now Israel was living in abject disobedience, so when God intervened to set things right it would not be good news for them. Amos then uses a couple of graphic illustrations, essentially saying it would be like getting out of the frying pan only to find oneself in the fire. If we are not walking in step with the Lord, then the day of the Lord is bad news, not good.

Amos 5:11-14 - the times are evil

5:11

The rich had made many plans, mostly at the expense of the poor. It is a feature of all societies, whether they are capitalist, socialist or social democratic, that the poor suffer. Look at the last financial crisis. It was not the rich bankers who really paid a price, but ordinary people. When taxes are raised it is rarely the rich who end up paying more, they find ways around the taxes. But the plans of the rich will come to nothing.

5:12,13

These judgements are not arbitrary, but are based on justice. The Lord knows the sins that the powerful had committed. This in fact is a great difference between the Biblical writings and other writings of the time. They give a clear condemnation of sin on the basis of justice. It was the righteous who were afflicted, and courts took bribes. So anyone with any sense kept silent, for to object was to court trouble. Today we see a similar situation with LGBT stuff. Most people know that trans ideology is nonsense, even dangerous nonsense, but few will say anything because they know they invite a torrent of abuse, possible even the loss of their job. “For it is an evil time”.

5:14

When God issues judgements the purpose is that people change their ways. There comes a point where people become so hard hearted that they will not hear and will not change, and at that point they are “given over” to their sin (see Romans 1:18-32). However, we need to recognise the initial purpose. The warnings and the judgements may sound very severe, and indeed they are, but the purpose is to bring people to their senses. So here Israel has received harsh words from the Lord, but now we get the call to “Seek good, not evil, that you may live”. God does not delight in people perishing (Ezek 18:23). The Israelites thought that God was “with them”, but He wasn’t, because of their evil behaviour. But if they turned to God in repentance, He would indeed be with them. If God is against us then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Amos 5:7-10 - There are those who turn justice into bitterness

5:7

Courts are meant to administer justice, but legal systems can become dysfunctional. Perhaps the most common way this happen is by outright corruption. Either the state or rich individuals directly corrupt the system, so it gives them the decisions they want, rather than just decisions. This is the sort of thing that happened in Israel in Amos' day, and which happened in Nazi Germany and Communist Russia, among many other places. Alternatively, it can happen through creeping dysfunction, and this is happening in the West. Special interest groups corrupt the system, or creeping bureaucracy gradually make the system unworkable. The system becomes so expensive and complicated that ordinary people cannot get justice. Or technicalities start to rule the day, rather than justice.

5:8,9

Pleiades and Orion were star constellations. Many civilisations looked to the stars and believed that certain arrangements of constellations indicated or caused disasters to occur. Israel was being corrupted by the surrounding culture. God reminds them that it is He who created the stars, it is He who brings forth the day and the night. Humanity is so prone to worship the created rather than the creator.

5:10

I think it was George Orwell who said “in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”. In all dictatorships telling the truth is a dangerous thing to so. But it is also dangerous in our own society. To say that abortion involves killing babies is increasingly to put yourself beyond the pale of “decent society”, as is to say that trans ideology is dangerous nonsense, or that homosexual acts are not good, or that marriage is the best place for bringing up children. And society is increasingly trying to silence those that say these things, resorting to the law if necessary.

Amos 5:1-6 - Seek me and live

5:1-3

God makes what seem to be severe judgements, and indeed they are severe, for Israel’s sins are severe. And the same applies to all of us. In fact, people don’t like it when we preach about God’s judgements, all sorts of objections are raised. However, God gives these prophecies with the hope that we will come to our senses and repent. Israel would be fallen forever if she continued on this road of disobedience. Moreover, part of the problem at this time was that Israel was feeling rather pleased with herself. Economically and militarily she was quite strong, but if a nation is defying the Lord, all her strength is worth nothing when judgement comes. If she trusted in her armies to protect her she would be sorely disappointed.

5:4-6

These verses reveal a vital principle in reading the Bible. Never take a verse out of context (even the nice ones!). If we read verse 1-3 in isolation then the only conclusion is that Israel has had it, she had fallen beyond hope. But we need to read them together with the following verses. God’s intention is that Israel stops trusting in Bethel and Gilgal, and instead turns to the Lord Himself. It seems that we will do anything to avoid turning to the Lord. We will set up idols of all sorts, and would rather trust in these worthless things than trust in the living God. Bethel and Gilgal would come to nothing. If they continued to make these their object of trust then disaster would come. We need to beware of making the same mistake. Bethel and Gilgal had religious significance, there were associated with things that God id, but Israel then made an idol out of them, making them, instead of God, the object of trust. We can make structures, even doctrines the object of trust. Doctrine is important, even vital, but it is the one behind the doctrine that we must trust in. We can put trust in religious practices, instead of the One whom the practices are celebrating. And this is a serious matter, if we do not trust in the living God Himself, then we are done for.

Amos 4:9-13 - I sent plagues

4:9-11

We find these sorts of verses hard to take. Often the line we take, consciously or subconsciously, is to say our understanding of God has advanced since these days, and to try and explain them away. But this is God’s word, so that actually isn’t an option if we truly believe this is the word of God. So let’s accept God’s word as it presents itself. God quite clearly claims responsibility for these things (this does not mean that no one else was responsible, when men commit evil men are guilty). Let’s imagine for a moment that man had never sinned, would any of these things have ever happened? No. Let’s imagine that Israel had been completely faithful to God, would any of these things have happened to her? No. Part of the explanation of these things is that they are a judgement upon Israel. Israel’s response should have been to realise something was wrong, repent and go to God for guidance.

4:12,13

But Israel refused to turn to God, so they would indeed meet with Him. Everyone will one day see God, either as saviour or as judge. The Lord is God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, the One with all power and authority. A truly wise man listens to Him.