1. Destruction is coming (5:1-3; 16-17)
2. Hope is waiting (5:4-6; 14-15)
3. Evil is abounding (5:7; 10-13)
4. God is reigning (5:8-9)
AMOS 5:1-17
I know it’s July, but it’s never too soon to start thinking of Christmas. How many of you remember the old Charles Dickens play, A Christmas Carol? You remember, it’s the one with Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley and Bob Cratchet and Tiny Tim. Ebenezer Scrooge was a wicked, wicked man and his business partner Jacob Marley had died a few years before. Well, on Christmas Eve, Scrooge went home and Marley’s ghost came and visited him. And the story goes that Scrooge was visited by three ghosts that night—the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present and the ghost of Christmas future. During their visits, he saw his wickedness for what it was. He saw the love and kindness of those he mistreated. And he saw his own death. After seeing those things, he woke up on Christmas morning a changed man. He had seen the bleak future of his wicked life and changed his ways. When Charles Dickens wrote that play, he used a theme that has been around forever. What would happen if we saw our own death before it actually happened? How would we respond? In our passage tonight, God reveals Israel’s death to them. In essence, He inspires Amos to preach their funeral to them while they’re still alive. He preaches a funeral for the living dead. This passage is an example of what’s called a lament. A lament is a poem of mourning that was usually connected to the death or funeral of a loved one. A lament wasn’t known for celebrating the life of a loved one like many Christian funerals are. Instead, it was known for its words of grief, regret, sorrow and pain. The most obvious example of this kind of poem in the Bible is the book of Lamentations. It was written by Jeremiah as he lamented the destruction of Jerusalem when they were carried off into captivity. The thing about a lament is that it is always given after the fact—kind of like a funeral. That makes sense—you can’t lament someone who hasn’t died yet. That was always the case, except here in our passage tonight. Here in our passage, God lamented Israel even before they were dead. I want you to picture the scene. Here’s Amos prophesying in this tremendously prosperous land. The economy was booming. The military was strong. Everything was great in Israel. And here comes this poor, low-class outsider lamenting their death. I imagine they reacted like old Scrooge reacted to Marley the first time. I imagine they completely rejected him. As a matter of fact, we know they did because of their failure to repent and turn back to God. Tonight, as we look at this funeral lament for Israel, I want us to heed the warning that they ignored. The warning that God is on His throne and it is only if we seek Him that we will live. In order to do that we’re going to look at God’s four point funeral for the living dead. His first point is that destruction is coming.
Before we get into our first point, I want to tell you a little bit about the structure of this passage. This lament is an example of Hebrew poetry. I never did do well in English class in school when it was time to look at poetry. I didn’t get it. I thought it was silly and made easy things hard to understand. But the Jews loved poetry and apparently God does too, because Scripture is full of it. This particular poem was written with a very common Hebrew structure called a chiastic structure. But instead of making things more difficult to understand, it makes it easier. Don’t get hung up on the technicality. Just take your pen and put an A next to verses 1-3. Then put another A next to verses 16-17. Put a B next to verses 5-6. Put another B next to verses 14-15. Put a C next to verse 7. Put another C next to verses 10-13. Finally put a D next to verses 8-9. That is how a chiasm is structured. The two outside parts are parallel. The next two are parallel, etc. The beauty of a chiasm is that it was written that way to put all the focus of the poem on the middle section. In other words, the whole Oreo cookie points to the most important crème filling in the middle. Our four points tonight are those three parallel sections and the middle section. I didn’t want to get too technical, I just wanted you to know why we’re looking at it this way. Now that we know about the poetic structure of our text, let’s look at the first point of God’s four point funeral for the living dead. Look with me in verses 1-3 and then skip down to verses 16-17:
AMOS 5:1-3; 16-17
The first point of God’s funeral for the living dead is that destruction is coming. Look how God pictures Israel here. He pictures her as a young virgin. There are very few things more tragic than the funeral of a young person. A person who was taken in the prime of life. That’s how Amos describes Israel. A young virgin taken in the prime of her life. Full of potential. The dreams and possibilities of youth. Her whole future ahead of her. Ask just about any mother and they will tell you the most fulfilling part of their life has been the raising of children. The young virgin described by Amos hadn’t yet experienced that. Her greatest purpose in life was unfulfilled. Unfulfilled because of her destruction. Remember that Amos was giving this prophesy to Israel. They were in the height of their glory and prosperity. But in all their prosperity, they had forgotten God. Well, they hadn’t really forgotten Him, they just tried to remake Him in their image. They wanted Him to be at their beck and call. They wanted Him for blessings. They wanted Him to make their lives easy. They didn’t want His justice. They didn’t want His righteousness. They wanted God to obey them instead of them obeying God. And because of that, their destruction was imminent. So much so that Amos reported it as if it had already happened. He said that despite of all her untapped potential, she is fallen and wouldn’t get back up. The word that’s translated “forsaken” in verse 2 literally means abandoned, cast away, rejected. It’s the same word that’s used to describe a field that lays fallow. Unused, deserted, abandoned with none to raise her up. She would never be fulfilled. Her primary purpose would never be accomplished. God’s wording of the destruction in verse three is interesting. He moves to a picture of the nation in combat. When Israel would send out 1000 men to fight, only 100 would return. And when they sent out those 100, only 10 would return. See, in all of Israel’s prosperity, what was one thing they forgot? They didn’t credit God with their prosperity, so they didn’t respond to Him with the proper tithes. Yes, they gave legalistic tithes out of obligation. But they didn’t give to God according to their thankfulness for what He had given them. And because they didn’t give out of a right heart, God took a reverse tithe in judgment. And when He does, the wailing will come. But what are they crying for in verse 16-17? It reminds me of when kids get in trouble and start crying. Are you crying because you’re sorry for what you did? Or are you crying because you got caught? Israel was crying because they got caught. They were crying for the things they had lost. The vineyards, the farms, the stuff. The prosperity. They weren’t weeping over their sin. Even in the midst of all the destruction, they still wouldn’t mourn in repentance. They were more worried about their comfort and their stuff than they were with their God. And because of that, God said He would pass through them. Those words immediately brought their minds back to a time when that same God delivered that same nation from her oppressors. Over 1000 years earlier, God’s death angel passed over Israel as He struck down all the first born in Egypt. Now, instead of passing over, He was going to pass through. Because of the way Israel had responded to God, destruction was coming. The first point of God’s funeral for the living dead is that destruction is coming. The second point is that hope is waiting. Look with me to verses 4-6 and 14-15:
AMOS 5:4-6; 14-15
The second point of God’s funeral for the living dead is that hope is waiting. Just as God is righteous and just and will not tolerate sin and rebellion, He is gracious. His grace is just as much a part of Him as is His holiness and perfection. Even as He laid out the curse in Genesis 3, He made a promise of grace. God always preserves a remnant. Even in the darkest times of human history, God will not leave Himself without a witness. Look at Noah. Look at Elijah. Look at Jeremiah. Look at the two witnesses in Revelation. Look at the house churches in China, in Indonesia, in Iran, in Saudi Arabia, in the Sudan. God is never without a witness. Even in the midst of destruction and chaos, His call remains the same—seek Me and live. The testimony of history in Scripture tells us that when a Jewish remnant sought God, they lived. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Ezra, Esther, Nehemiah. They sought God and survived as a remnant. Even in the darkest times of church history, when a remnant sought God, they lived. Despite the awful persecution from the Roman Empire during the first 2 centuries, the early church sought God and survived as a remnant. Throughout the dark ages of Catholic Church oppression and repression of the Bible, our Anabaptist forefathers sought God and survived as a remnant. I don’t want to sound doom and gloom, but America will not last forever. We can point to our prosperity and military strength as reasons we will continue on like we are forever. But so could Israel. And they didn’t last another 30 years from the time of this prophesy. I don’t know how long God’s grace will allow America to survive. But it could be in this generation. Or my children’s generation. If so, we can know that even though destruction is coming, hope is waiting. Hope is waiting for those who seek God. In Jeremiah 29:11-13, God promised His hope to Israel when He said, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Jesus showed that that hope is ours as well in Matthew 7:7-8 when He said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” But how do we seek God? Well, we don’t seek Him in Bethel and Gilgal. Remember, those are the places where they tried to combine God worship with other worship. We can’t seek God by mixing Him up with the gods of our age. Gods like entertainment, self-fulfillment, self-esteem, personal peace and prosperity. God will not mix. He stands alone and will be worshipped alone, in His holiness. We’ve talked about Bethel and Gilgal before, but what about Beersheba? Beersheba was just over Israel’s border in Judah. It was a place of great tradition and rich history. For Israelites, Beersheba was “the old time religion.” Things never changed with the times in Beersheba. The problem was, when the Israelites went to Beersheba, they sought God in the tradition. They sought Him in the good old days. They forgot to seek God for Who He is. Instead they sought God for how He used to make them feel. And God won’t put up with that. He hates that as much as He hated what was going on at Bethel and Gilgal. Just as much as He hates what goes on in many of our churches today. He hates when we try to seek Him in gods of the age like entertainment. And He hates it when we try to seek Him in tradition for tradition’s sake. But instead, He wants us to seek Him like it says in verses 14-15. He wants us to seek Him by doing His will. Doing the things that our lips speak. Don’t just give lip service to the Gospel—live it. Earnestly seek good, godly behavior. Earnestly love God. Earnestly love His people. Work hard to do the right thing according to God’s Word. God’s grace is a gift. A gift that is followed with the good works He has created us for. Work for the hope that is waiting. The second point of God’s funeral for the living dead is that hope is waiting. The third point is that evil is abounding. Look at verses 7 and 10-13:
AMOS 5:7; 10-13
The third point of God’s funeral for the living dead is that evil is abounding. You don’t have to look any further than our newspaper to see that evil is abounding today. We have an Episcopalian priest in Seattle who claims to be a Christian Muslim. The internet is filled with child pornography. You can’t drive down the street without having to explain to your children or grandchildren what Southern Exposure is or what gambling is. This past weekend, Atlanta held one of the nation’s largest “Gay Pride” rallies with over 300,000 in attendance. I haven’t seen the news from this year’s event, but last year, the only people arrested were Christians. They were arrested because they “were not carrying a message that is congruent with Atlanta Pride.” Meanwhile, none of the topless lesbians were arrested for public indecency. This Thursday, the US Senate will be opened with a Hindu prayer for the first time in history. You cannot get away from the fact that evil is abounding in America today. Just like it was in Israel. Justice was twisted. Righteousness was forgotten about. The only ones who weren’t tolerated were those who spoke the truth. They had so much wealth, they built houses they didn’t even live in. They had so much extra produce, they just wasted it. They just let their extra grapes hang on the vine and rot. Meanwhile, they didn’t even consider the poor. Except to steal from them. Sound familiar? Our fast food places waste enough food to feed all of America’s hungry. That doesn’t even consider what we waste in our own homes. We might not do everything we can to feed the poor, but surely we don’t steal from them. Well we sure do exploit them. Look at the lottery. Who buys most of the lottery tickets? How many lottery tickets do you think Bill Gates buys? But every time I go in the gas station, I end up behind somebody who can’t afford to pay attention, buying a stack of tickets. If that isn’t exploitation of the poor, I don’t know what is. And what do the good people do? Just like the Israelites did in verse 13. They keep their mouth shut. They’re not bothering me, so I don’t bother them. As long as they leave me alone, I leave them alone. The prudent keep silent for it is an evil time. The third point of God’s funeral for the living dead is that evil is abounding. The final point is that God is reigning. Look at verses 8-9:
AMOS 5:8-9
The final point of God’s funeral for the living dead is that God is reigning. Remember how I told you that this kind of Hebrew poetry works? It works like an Oreo cookie. All the stuff on the outside points to the most important stuff in the middle. Well, this is the crème filling. Everything up to this point points us to the living God. Who He is. His nature. His character. He is the One who created the heavens and the earth. His power is shown in the fact that He created things that we can’t even see, much less understand. All of our so-called scientific advancement. All of our computers and telescopes and microscopes. All of our genetic research and microbiology. All of that and we can’t even figure out how to make a cold go away. We have the power to create great skyscrapers and build huge bridges. We can create bombs that will utterly destroy everything within miles. But we can’t kill one microscopic virus. We can create nuclear power plants that can generate enough electricity to power entire states. But we can’t harness the emotional power of a single tear. But God can. He is the only One who is powerful enough to pour out the waters on the earth in judgment. How do I know? He did it. He did it when He flooded the earth in judgment for man’s complete wickedness. But He saved a remnant. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And He gave us a promise. A promise that He wouldn’t destroy the earth with a flood again. And He sealed His promise with a rainbow. Oh, but He didn’t stop there. Because God is the only One with the power to turn something as tragic as death into something as beautiful as the sunrise. How do I know? He did it. On that first Good Friday over 2000 years ago, God poured out His wrath on His only begotten Son. His Son who willingly endured the pain and death of a Roman crucifixion. He endured that kind of cruel death so you wouldn’t have to. And the day was made dark as the night. But three days later, God turned that shadow of death into morning as Jesus rose from that grave. That’s how powerful God is. He is powerful enough that even though evil is abounding, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can have hope. He is powerful enough that even though destruction is coming, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can have hope. Because God is reigning, you can know that even when things look bad, when you seek Him, you can have hope. Seek Him and the salvation that He gives by the blood of Jesus Christ. Seek Him and the righteousness He gives by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Seek Him and the holiness He gives by the indwelling, living presence of Jesus Christ. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Seek God and live.
