Amos: A Message Of Doom And Restoration

And the message Amos preached didn’t exactly endear him to the people of Israel. All throughout the book of Amos it is a message of doom. What I am going to do this morning is look at Amos 9. Look at God’s pronouncement of judgment here.

I. God would destroy their sense of security in order to bring them to Himself.

Amos 9

1Then I saw a vision of the Lord standing beside the altar. He said, "Strike the tops of the Temple columns so hard that the foundation will shake. Smash the columns so the roof will crash down on the people below. Then those who survive will be slaughtered in battle. No one will escape!

As I mentioned before the people Israel had created their own religion. In fact they had created a religion that was politically correct. It is a very dangerous thing whenever you make religion politically correct. This is why I am concerned whenever I hear of efforts to make Christianity politically correct.

Some people want to throw out whole sections of the Bible or discredit parts of the Bible in order to harmonize them with their beliefs. This is one of the dangers in the church today. Whenever we choose to compromise our beliefs and align them with the culture of this world, we make our faith irrelevant to God and the lost around us. God calls us to come to Him on His terms. We are called upon to have our lives transformed by God’s Word and His Spirit. It is us and not God’s Truth that needs to change.

Jeroboam I had wanted to make religion politically correct because he didn’t want to lose any people, but I say to you today it is far better for the church to be spiritually correct and lose some people, than to be politically correct and lose the presence of God.

The people of Israel had placed their security in their false religion, so what God was going to do was to tear down that source of security.

II. They Could Run, But they Couldn’t Hide

Amos 9

2"Even if they dig down to the place of the dead, I will reach down and pull them up. Even if they climb up into the heavens, I will bring them down. 3Even if they hide at the very top of Mount Carmel, I will search them out and capture them. Even if they hide at the bottom of the ocean, I will send the great sea serpent after them to bite and destroy them.

4Even if they are driven into exile, I will command the sword to kill them there. I am determined to bring disaster upon them and not to help them."

(New Living Translation)

When the day of judgment came, the people would try to hide, but wouldn’t be able to. Within forty years Israel would be taken over by the kingdom of Assyria. In was in 721 B.C. that Sargon would finish off Israel. The Assyrians were known for their ruthlessness. How bad were the Assyrians? Remember the Disney film, A Bug’s Life? Remember how mean the grasshoppers were with the ants? Well, the Assyrians were worse. Here is a description of how bad they actually were:

“They skinned their prisoners alive, and cut off various body parts to inspire terror in their enemies. There are records of Assyrian officials pulling out tongues and displaying mounds of human skulls all to bring about stark horror and wealthy tribute from surrounding nations. Nowhere are the pages of history bloodier than in the records of their wars.” http://www.bible-history.com/Samaritans/SAMARITANSThe_Assyrians.htm