This is sobering content.

(And yes, I have made an adjustment to the schedule. I will cover Amos 7-9 tomorrow.)

For all the people that think of the God of the Bible as some cosmic Santa who winks at sin and is basically a kind, old, grandfatherly figure in the sky, Amos smacks that image down. Hard.

This section begins with God calling the entitled, wine-swigging, feminist Karens of Samaria “fat cows.”

😏 Does that mean I can call entitled, wine-swigging, feminist Karens “fat cows” now?

Are you God?

😐 No.

Then probably not.

🫤 Oh.

The major themes in this section are:

• Israel & Judah’s failure to examine themselves and repent when faced with calamity.
• Yahweh’s rejection of His people’s “worship.”
• The arrogant, self-delusion of the people.

In chapter 4, the LORD lists all the judgments He has brought against them:

• Hunger/famine
• Drought
• Blight on crops
• Locusts
• Plagues
• Death in battle
• Cities destroyed by fire

“…But still you would not return to me,” says the Lord.” Amos‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

At the end of this list there is a revelatory statement about Yahweh:

“For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind. He turns the light of dawn into darkness and treads on the heights of the earth. The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!”
‭‭Amos‬ ‭4‬:‭13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Then in chapter 5 the LORD appeals over and over for His people to forsake their other gods and return to Him. He warns what will happen if they don’t.

Then we get another revelatory statement:

“It is the Lord who created the stars, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into morning and day into night. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The Lord is his name!”
‭‭Amos‬ ‭5‬:‭8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The LORD is setting the record straight on WHO controls nature. And it isn’t Baal.

And we get another list but it’s a list of what the people have done (or failed to do):

• Twist justice
• Treat the righteous like dirt
• Hate honest judges
• Despise people who tell the truth
• Trample the poor through taxes and unfair rent
• Oppress good people by taking bribes
• Deprive the poor of justice in court

This is followed by more appeals to turn from this path and warnings of what will come if they don’t.

Apparently by this time, the concept of “the Day of the LORD” was getting around and some people flippantly were wishing it would just hurry up and happen so they could get it over with. It’s not unlike people today who joke about the Apocalypse.

The LORD corrects this attitude.

“What sorrow awaits you who say, “If only the day of the Lord were here!” You have no idea what you are wishing for. That day will bring darkness, not light. In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion— only to meet a bear. Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house— and he’s bitten by a snake. Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope.”
‭‭Amos‬ ‭5‬:‭18‬-‭20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I’ve added “dark, hopeless, no escape” to my Day of the Lord profile.

It is in this context that we get a strong rebuke of their worship. As a worship leader, this section really grabs my attention. It tells me that the actions of worship are not pleasing to the Lord by default. The heart of the worshiper HAS to be right with God – honest, humble, obedient. A right heart will lead to a truly righteous life. It always has to begin with the heart.

Compare:

“Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.”
‭‭Amos‬ ‭5‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We might read all this and wonder how Israel could fail this bad. But recall that while Amos is delivering these prophetic warnings, life is still pretty good. Jeroboam II has recaptured most of the territory from the days of Solomon. The northern kingdom is strong and wealthy. Uzziah is prospering in Judah. They are strong too.

Israel and Judah look at themselves and this is what they see in the mirror:

• Material blessings = God’s favor.
• We worship Yahweh. We bring offerings and tithes and we have a priesthood and we observe the festivals and bring sacrifices… We’re doing the THINGS.
• Yeah, bad things happen- yes, we’ve had other nations attack us, yes, we’ve had drought and plagues and stuff, but that happens to everyone. We live in a fallen world. It doesn’t mean God is angry with us. How could He be? Look how He is blessing us!

My voice teacher, Elizabeth Goodine, wrote this caution for singers in the spotlight:

“Don’t mistake the spotlight for God’s light of approval in every area of your life.”

Israel is mistaking the spotlight of prosperity for the light of God’s approval.

Yahweh has been trying to get their attention through plague and drought and military defeat. Where the Egyptians recognized the hand of God in the plagues, God’s own people brush it off because it doesn’t fit the paradigm they have developed of what it means to be the people of God. They are worshiping Yahweh on their terms, not His. But they never ever question whether their approach is what He wants. As far as they are concerned, they are doing the things to make God happy so the droughts and plagues etc couldn’t possibly be judgment.

“For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

If your paradigm of what it means to be a child of God does not include discipline and punishment, it’s time to add them.

Israel dismissed God’s corrective measures and didn’t examine themselves and repent because the “warning shots” (plague, drought, famine, etc) didn’t fit their framework for how God would deal with them.

When bad things happen we all have a framework of beliefs (a paradigm) through which we process the events. This paradigm needs to be scripturally informed. And that takes time.

Some people immediately assume that if a bad thing happens, it’s the Devil.

And it’s true that the forces of Evil can attack too. And it may be difficult to tell which is which on the surface.

But…

• God will destroy the things in our lives that we depend on in His place.
• Satan wants to destroy us.

Big difference.

• God’s purpose: truth and life
• Satan’s purpose: confusion and death

---

Amos is delivering God’s messages; warning the people. God hates their pride. He’s disgusted with their insincere worship and their willful blindness.

In the remaining 3 chapters Amos is going to have a series of visions which will be like heavenly object lessons or visual aids about the coming judgement. But- the final message will be a promise of restoration.