STANDING FIRM FOR TRUTH
Why is it so difficult to face up to the truth when things aren’t going very well and to take action to make things right? We see this problem in every area of life. One particular outworking of this refusal to face up to the truth and to take proper action is in the area of the national debt, deficit spending, governmental programs, and taxes. This subject has been dominating the news of late and it seems that our law makers just can’t face the facts that we can’t go on spending what we don’t have. You can see this same thing with people who are hooked on alcohol. The worst part of trying to help such a person is getting them to face the fact that they really do have a problem. Usually what is needed in such situations is a confrontation to get the government (in the case of bad fiscal policy) or an individual (in the case of bad personal habits) to face up to the reality of what is happening and the consequences of continuing down the same road. Usually the person or group that initiates the confrontation is not very well received and will be subjected to a lot of ridicule and even abuse. Many will not confront others with problems for this very reason. Some who would dare will find themselves backing away and ignoring the problem after being rebuffed. Those who can really help are those that will stand firm for truth.
The nation of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) was heading down the road to ruin and God kept sending messengers to them to confront them with the truth of what was happening. One such messenger was Amos. Amos didn’t even live in the Northern Kingdom, he lived in Judah. He was just an ordinary person with an ordinary occupation from an ordinary village. He lived about the same time as the prophets Hosea and Isaiah. Amos left Judah and went to Israel to proclaim God’s message to them. Amos had been given a series of messages regarding all the neighbors of Israel as well as Judah and Israel. He started out proclaiming the sins and judgement of Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab. All those that heard his message agreed with him that those people deserved the punishment they were going to get. Amos did not stop there, he had merely set the stage for the rest of the story. He went on to point out that Israel had done the same things as the other nations and had just as much injustice being practiced.
7 Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. 8 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 spare them no longer. 9 “The high places of Isaac will be desolated And the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste. Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” Amos 7:7-9 (NASB95)
Amos began his prophetic messages about 40 years before the fall of the Northern Kingdom at the hand of the Assyrians. Things were going pretty well for the nation at that time and no imminent danger was sensed by the rulers or the people. If people are being threatened and things are going poorly, then people are more likely to heed a message such as Amos was bringing. By the time things get bad enough for people to listen it is usually too late. God sent Amos to Israel in plenty of time for them to repent and to avoid the judgement of God. In the vision that God gave to Amos, Amos saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been properly built and He had a plumb line in His hand. When God had established the nation of Israel, they had started out with good laws and fair practices -- as a wall that was plumb. Over the years they had gone away from what was right and proper and had substituted other practices that were not righteous. After so long a time, God was not going to put up with such practices any longer among His people. Judgement was coming and the basis for judgement was to be the plumb line of God or His righteousness.
The terms "high places" and "sanctuaries" refers to the religious centers of the nation. These would be destroyed and God would no longer overlook the wickedness and injustice of the people and their leaders. This was not the only area where God would deal with the people. The house of Jeroboam represented the civil government that was also rotten to the core and God would destroy both these institutions. You can imagine that Amos’ words were not what the people or their leaders wanted to hear.
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 thus Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’ ” Amos 7:10-11 (NASB95)
Amos was doing his prophesying at the entrance to the place of worship at Beth-el. The priest Amaziah had heard this message of gloom and doom and he decided to do something about it. He didn’t call the people and the government to repentance which would have been the right response. Instead he refused to face the truth and attempted to have the prophet silenced. His message to the king was that Amos was committing treason because he was saying that the king was going to be killed and the people would be captured and led away into captivity. Can you imagine someone standing outside the national cathedral in Washington, D.C. saying that the President was going to be gunned down and that most of the nation will be taken hostage by some insignificant nation. Would he be arrested? Maybe. Would anyone really pay attention to him? Not really.
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah and there eat bread and there do your prophesying! 13 “But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence.” Amos 7:12-13 (NASB95)
Amaziah tried to get Amos to be quiet and leave. "Won’t you go back to Judah and do your prophesying there. We don’t need you to come to the place where the king worships and where he governs. Who do think you are anyway?" Amaziah had assumed that Amos was like some of the itinerant preachers who lived off contribution of food from people who heard them. He had assumed that Amos was doing what he was doing just to make a living. If that were the case, then please go somewhere else.
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 “Now hear the word of the Lord: you are saying, ‘You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.’ 17 “Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘Your wife will become a harlot 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. Moreover, Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’ ” Amos 7:14-17 (NASB95)
Amos wanted to set the record straight. He was not prophesying for a living. He was not a prophet by trade or profession. The only reason he was there was that God sent him to give adequate warning to the people of Israel. Because Amaziah did not recognize the truth of Amos’ words and because he attempted to stop the message from God, then judgement would come upon Amaziah and his family. The judgement was pronounced there by Amos and he then repeated the judgement against Israel that they would be carried into captivity.
Amos encountered strong opposition and an unfriendly situation and yet he continued to be faithful to God in proclaiming the truth that God had given him to deliver. So many times when we go on a mission to talk to someone about their relationship to God, we will meet opposition and an unfriendly reception from those we are visiting. We often will use that opposition as an excuse to back away and not continue to visit the people who need to hear that God loves them and that unless they repent and turn to God to accept that love then they will end up spending eternity separated from God -- eternally lost.
