False Security
Amos 6:1-14
Security. Everyone naturally wants to be safe and secure. We want to be protected from home invaders, hunger, financial loss, spiraling medical costs, fraudsters and suspect businesses etc.
According to a recent poll of 997 adults (for Britain’s Woolwich building society), 34 per cent of women think an investment in bricks and mortar is the best measure of a secure long-term relationship. Only 13 per cent still believed in the merits of an engagement ring.
We want to be secure and we look for it in many different ways. And we want to be secure because we want to be free from anxiety, doubt and fear. We want to be able to go about living without having to worry too much about the things that might harm us or those close to us. And that’s fair enough.
But security can lead to feelings of overconfidence and even carelessness. Sometimes situations change, but people maintain their old attitudes of security – and sometimes hang on to a false perception of the real risks.
The question I want to raise is, “Why do we feel secure?” “Where do we get our sense of safety and security from?” “In what do we trust and rest?”
People do many things in order to be free from anxiety. But most of these are just “security screens.” By that I mean some of the things we do to feel secure actually screen us from real safety, and keep us from experiencing true security.
By revealing some of these security screens, we will discover where true security can be found.
1. Making comparisons (6:1-2)
Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computers, once explained how hard it was in the early days to sell his concept of a personal computer. He said …
"… we went to Atari and said, ’Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ’No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ’Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’"
Atari and HP had a false sense of security. They compared Jobs outrageous idea of a PC with the products they already had and concluded, “We don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.”
Sometimes people seek security by making comparisons.
In this case big businesses were saying, “We’re ok thanks mate, what you’re offering doesn’t compare with what we’ve already got.”
And people have been comparing themselves to others for centuries in order to build up a sense of security.
In 750BC an ancient prophet called Amos observed this tendency in the nation of Israel. He wrote this ..
AM 6:1 Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!
AM 6:2 Go to Calneh and look at it; go from there to great Hamath, and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours?
The people of Amos’s day were boasting of their national security and power. They gained a certain level of confidence when they compared themselves to the nations surrounding them.
Now, almost everyone can find someone smaller, or not as powerful as they are. At work or around our circle of friends there are people who have less expensive cars, smaller houses in less expensive suburbs, lower paying jobs, or less education. And once we’ve worked that out, it doesn’t take too much to begin thinking we are better than others.
So making comparisons either upwards or downwards doesn’t make us secure, it simply reveals a level of insecurity in us. Yet people still lull themselves into a false sense of security by comparing themselves to others.
The danger for us in making comparisons is that it can make us complacent. We may start to think that we are better off than we really are. And it may even lead us to become stuck up and unconcerned or complacent about the difficulties other people face.
On the other hand we might become discouraged or resentful if we don’t have what others have. And we find ourselves saying, “Don’t worry, she’ll be right mate.” So comparing ourselves to others not only makes us complacent about the difficulties others face, and it can even make us complacent about the difficulties we face.
So comparisons don’t make us secure, they just hinder us with unhelpful attitudes.
But there’s something worse than that. When people think they’ve “made it” Amos, the ancient prophet, warns us to watch out, because our downfall may not be far away. He writes …
AM 6:3 You put off the evil day and bring near a reign of terror.
We may “put off the evil day” by comparing ourselves to others and concluding we are better – but that’s just a security screen. Amos warns that when we do that we “bring near a reign of terror.” His wisdom adds weight to the saying “pride comes before a fall.”
So it would seem that making comparisons offers little security.
2. Riches and wealth (6:3-7)
So where can we find safety and security?
Irving Fisher was once the Professor of Economics at Yale University. In 1929 he made this unfortunate observation, "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
The following year came the Great Depression when millions was wiped off the Stock market and masses of people around the world were left unemployed and homeless.
Many people still look to money and wealth to find security, but it would seem that it’s not found here either.
And though they may not admit it, many people are subtly addicted to getting rich. And all we need to do is to scratch a little beneath the surface and ask some searching questions.
For instance, for some people, life centers on both spouses working. Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with mum and dad both working, but what’s our motivation for it? Do we genuinely need to? Or are we actually just striving to keep up with the Joneses? “If we could just afford such and such I would be happier and life would be easier.”
For others it’s a quest to strike it rich with lotto.
Money can be a security screen. Sure it helps pay the way, but money screens us from real and lasting security.
In 1997 Gianni Versacci was gunned down outside his home when he stepped out for a walk – he had plenty. Just this week we’ve heard how Perth model Delta Goodram has been diagnosed with cancer at just 18 years of age – I’m sure she’s got a few bob. Even all the money of royalty couldn’t save the Princess of Wales or her wealthy boyfriend Dodi Al Fied.
Money offers no security and it never has. The ancient prophet Amos saw this as he surveyed the wealthy people of his day …
AM 6:4 You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves.
AM 6:5 You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments.
AM 6:6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions …..
Amos saw how wealth caused people to spend their time in selfish pursuits; how it caused them to seek fulfillment in opulent living – and to seek security in the best money could buy. The people of Amos’s day were guilty of trying to impress others with their buying power; “I can have what I want whenever I want it.”
There’s an artificial sense of control in that kind of attitude. And far from bringing us reassurance, it’s a security screen. Experience alone shows us that money offers us no security and it never has.
So does that mean that Believers should live like paupers? Does it mean that when your daughter gets married you only serve crackers? Does it mean that you shouldn’t buy an expensive ring for your wife to celebrate your 40th wedding anniversary?
Well that depends on our attitude towards the money entrusted to us. There’s nothing wrong with money – but there may be something wrong with our attitude towards it.
You can check your attitude with a simple question – “How would I feel if I lost it all?”
An attitude of complacency plays a key role here too. If we are uncritical of our attitudes towards money and careless in the way we use it God will be against us.
Amos shows us this; he adds this ironic warning to those who are tempted to seek security in money.
AM 6:7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.
i.e. get the right attitude to your money or you may be among the first to lose it.
3. The home/place in which we live/possessions (6:8-11)
So making comparisons offers no security, and we can’t find any shelter in money and wealth; So where can we be safe?
Let me introduce our next security screen with a test. Take this test quietly in your head.
When you purchased your home, what criteria did you use to purchase it?
Suburb?
Size?
Price?
Proximity to facilities (work, school, shops)?
Potential for increase in value?
Did proximity to your church come into the equation? “Where do I need to be living to be the most effective minister God would have me be?” Did that question come into the equation?
Now if you don’t believe, then I expect that it didn’t, but for Believers, shouldn’t this be the first question we ask?
In the prophecy of Amos, God reserves a particular dislike for the security people gain from their homes.
AM 6:8 The Sovereign LORD has sworn by himself--the LORD God Almighty declares: "I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything in it." …
Then to v11 …
AM 6:11 ….. For the LORD has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits.
God’s opposition is not towards owning a home or to having a security system installed in our house to protect our home. More often than not it’s good financial stewardship to buy a house. And God wants us to provide a safe place for our families to live in.
However, what God is opposed to is inappropriate meaning and value that people sometimes give to their homes. God’s not so interested in the size of our home – our fortress – our walls - but he is interested in how we use them.
If we use our homes to bolster our pride, God will be against it. If we use our homes to shelter ourselves from the needs of others, God will be against it.
God hates this kind of security screen so much he chose to swear by himself that he would be against it.
The Sovereign LORD has sworn by himself--the LORD God Almighty declares: "I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything in it." (Amos 6:8)
Here the word "fortress" can also be a reference to big houses. Their big homes were symbols of their affluence gained at the expense of others. (cf. 3:10, 15).
Does all this mean that Christians can’t own a million-dollar property? Many people, both in and outside the church, would have a big problem with that – but the point is, God isn’t concerned with what the house is worth – he’s concerned about our attitude towards it, why we are there and how we use it. After all, if God has called us to live and minister in the central city or an affluent suburb, then an expensive home may well be the only kind of home available.
Again, complacency is the key. If we have become complacent to the part God plays in the things we own, including our homes, he will be against us.
God will be against any pride or security we gain from owning a large and expensive home. If it keeps us from trusting him, and if it keeps us from ministering to the needs of others, God will be against it.
4. Military achievement (6:12-14)
Well our list of security screens is mounting. Real security is not found in comparing ourselves to others, it’s not found in wealth, and it’s not found in owning an expensive home in an exclusive suburb.
In this last security screen there’s a glimmer of hope.
Last Wednesday the world celebrated a milestone. On July 16, 1945 the first atomic bomb was exploded in New Mexico. In August 1945 two of these bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
That action effectively ended the war in the Pacific. So peace and security were restored.
A-haa! A real security can be found I military might.
But wait. Also last week we heard reports that if Australia joins moves to forcefully end Korea’s accumulation of weapons of mass destruction – we will become a nuclear target. With that, a certain level of security evaporated.
It would seem then that military might and alliances with powerful nations are no guarantee of security either.
It isn’t now, and it never has been.
Amos the prophet closes with a reflection on Israel’s dependence upon their past military achievements.
AM 6:12 Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness--
AM 6:13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar n and say, "Did we not take Karnaim n by our own strength?"
AM 6:14 For the LORD God Almighty declares, "I will stir up a nation against you, O house of Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo n Hamath to the valley of the Arabah."
Israel had become complacent because of their past military successes. In their mind they didn’t need God – they had become a vast military force.
What they had forgotten was that inferior powers often win over larger armies – because God will decide who wins each war. Israel had experienced this even in their own history. At one time the nation of Israel were kept as slaves by the Egyptians. But they escaped the massive Egyptian army after God intervened on their behalf and sent an awesome leader in Moses.
Gideon defeated the larger Midianite forces with only 300 men (Judges 7); David defeated Goliath with a stone (1 Samuel 17); and the angel of God wiped out 185, 000 Assyrians who had laid siege on Jerusalem (Isaiah 36-37).
So military might is no source of true security.
In recent days our government has attempted to keep the nation calm by spending on upgrading security in airports. We were sent a book in the mail to help us identify terrorists (I thought I saw one in the shops yesterday – but I realized I looking at myself in a mirror). And government spending on the military is growing. All this to make us feel secure – and to attempt to actually provide some real security.
And we do need to defend the innocent and the helpless. But in doing that we must never lose sight of the fact that the size of our army; our alliances with powerful nations; pride in past victories; and the size of our defense budget do not win wars. They might just make us proud and complacent if we’re not careful. God determines who will win each war.
CONCLUSION
Security Screens are deadly. Even in the natural world we see that a false sense of security can lead to a good feed for opportunistic predators (Like a lion pouncing on an unsuspecting animal).
So security screens can see us with one foot in the spiritual grave. Watch out for the symptoms: complacency towards the needs of others, an overconfident view of our standing before God and being uncritical of our attitudes.
The Israelites of Amos’ day had been lulled into a false sense of security. They were comfortable on thie ivory beds. Everything seemed well with their world, but everything was wrong with it.
Within a generation their capital city had been looted and destroyed, their leaders murdered and the whole nation taken into exile – because they had sat twiddling their thumbs.
Today, our punishment for complacently tolerating these security screens may well be a spiritual exile. Just as Israel was removed from their comfortable riches, so the riches of God’s blessing may be removed from us.
It’s easy to adopt our society’s methods of security. 1) Making comparisons 2) Money and wealth 3) the home and possessions 4) Military might. It’s much harder to acknowledge God’s role in providing freedom from anxiety and fear. But that’s exactly where true security is found. That’s why the Apostle Paul could say,
If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)
So Amos warns us to watch out for security screens. They’re dangerous. They can become a source of pride – and they can also blind us to the real needs of others. And pride and a lack of compassion are an outrage to God.
