Rev. Don Campbell

Amos 1-5

THOUGHT FOR TODAY, July 11, 2019

“THE ROAR OF THE LION”

When Amos began prophesying, both Judah and Israel were enjoying prosperity and security. Religion was popular, but, as is often the case, the religion was shallow at best and in most cases a mockery of godliness. His opening words were “The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem” (Amos 1:2). It is made clear that he is comparing God to a roaring lion: “The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord has spoken; who can but prophesy” (Amos 3:8).

As Amos prophesies against the nations surrounding Israel and Judah, one can almost hear his brothers saying, “Preach on c! Tell it like it is.”

Damascus was guilty of sadistic cruelty, having threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron (Amos 1:3). Gaza traded in slaves. It was common for a victorious county to take slaves of their captivities. However, Damascus had carried a whole people into exile to be sold to Edom (Amos 1:8). Tyre also delivered Israelites into slavery to Edom, but the sin was worse because it was a betrayal of a treaty or covenant with Israel (Amos 1:9). The sin of Edom was tribalism. The Edomites sprang from Esau whom Jacob had cheated out of his birthright. The bitter rivalry lived on in their descendants, as seen in the expression “his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever” (Amos 1:11). The Ammonites were guilty of genocide, as they “ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border” (Amos 1:13). Moab was guilty of barbarianism: “He burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom” (Amos 2:1). We don’t know when this happened or who the king was whose bones were dug up and burned. This would be like someone digging up the bones of one of our Presidents and burning them as an affront to the nation.

The expression “for three transgressions and four” was a saying indicating that God had withheld judgment for their many transgressions, but that time had run out. “I will send fire” or “I will kindle a fire” did not mean that fire would be the literal method of destruction, but that God’s judgment would be certain and complete.

“Preach it, Amos! Preach it!” Tomorrow we will follow Amos as he quits preaching to “them their heathens” and begins meddling in the sins of Judah and Israel, God’s people.

CONNECTIONS

1. Following the example of many of the renowned preachers of my early years, I often preached on the sins of the denominations and sectarians down the street. I quit for two reasons: First, there weren’t any of those people sitting at my feet. Second, I discovered that many of those to whom I was preaching were more sectarian than the sectarians. Would you rather hear your preacher denounce the sins of others or speak the truth in love to you about your sins?

2. When God commissioned Jeremiah he said, “See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10). What does this say about the need for balance in preaching?