The Judgment on the Corrupt

1Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, “Bring us drinks!” 2The Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness that behold, “The days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks. 3You will go out at the breaks in the wall, everyone straight before her; and you will cast yourselves into Harmon,” says Yahweh. 4“Go to Bethel, and sin; to Gilgal, and sin more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days, 5offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim free will offerings and brag about them: for this pleases you, you children of Israel,” says the Lord Yahweh. 6“I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. 7“I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn’t rain withered. 8So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. 9“I struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens and your vineyards; and your fig trees and your olive trees have the swarming locust devoured: yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. 10“I sent plagues among you like I did Egypt. I have slain your young men with the sword, and have carried away your horses; and I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. 11“I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. 12“Therefore thus will I do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel. 13For, behold, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought; who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth: Yahweh, the God of Armies, is his name.”

The constitution sets out four basic duties—education, work, taxes, and national defense—so every citizen is responsible for keeping them. Beyond these there are many ordinary laws we are expected to observe, and those laws are really made to narrow the room in which criminals can operate. People with a basic conscience live decently even without laws; it is because of criminals that the laws keep getting stricter. Ordinary people do not feel glad or happy simply because they have not broken the law. Since they live with little thought of the law, their attention turns to themselves, and they feel happy and safe only when they have something that can fill them.

Sadly, what the world has chosen to fill its emptiness is wealth, power, and pleasure. When a tycoon who lacks nothing, or the president of a nation who holds every power, leaves this world, it is because they have come to see that everything they relied on—everything they thought had proved their judgment right and built them up perfectly—is vanity of vanities. Someone who knows from the start that anything can happen while we live, and that the world is as fleeting and empty as a mist, does not live for the world.

Some people think that living to realize an ideology, a conviction, or a cause of justice is the highest life a human being can have. Of course, ideology, conviction, and justice form one axis on which the world turns, so they may be necessary to human history. But however precious these things are to people, how many years do you suppose an ideology, a conviction, or a sense of justice settled by human judgment will last? Suppose someone has lived for these all their life and then sees clearly that they were wrong, or suddenly meets the last moment of life. Utterly unprepared for what comes after death, that person would feel an enormous emptiness.

What we ought to care about is where we will go after death, once the life given to us is over. Someone who has chased hard after this finite world and now stands at the threshold of death will find the years behind them hollow, and the dark future beyond the grave will frighten them so much that they cannot possibly face it with composure. Only when we know Jesus Christ with certainty do we stop fearing our eternal future after death, and only then can our ideals and convictions be rightly set.

Even among believers, whoever chases only after money will stray from God’s will because of it, and whoever follows their convictions rather than God will trust only their own opinions until they drift away from him. Only by knowing Jesus Christ, the King of kings, with certainty and living accordingly can we live without regret; and only with a firm faith in the life after death can we meet every problem in this world with calm and live a life of real breadth.

Seen from within God, life shows that wealth, power, and conviction add nothing to a person’s worth. Without meeting the good God, people always put themselves first, and shut up inside a self that has never risen above the world, they are bound to sin. When people become famous or gain wealth and power, they behave proudly, as if even their sins had been written off, but unless they receive God’s mercy, they will face judgment.

Sin is like a small stone that has worked its way into your shoe. Just as you must take the shoe off and shake the stone out before you can walk a long road, you cannot walk the good road while you go on sinning. Nobody else knows or feels the stone in my shoe, but I know exactly how much that little stone hurts. In the same way, sin becomes a stumbling block in everything we do as we go through life.

Not believing in God the Creator is sin. Because sin begins here, a person may hold worldly power and still be always empty, anxious, and unsure. Even if they achieve success in the world, their heart is so full of darkness and unease that the smallest problem leaves them helpless and discouraged. Only when we believe in God and live by his law can we receive the grace of the God who leads us to a safe place in this harsh world.

Sadder still, believers think that because God is a God of love, he will forgive them whatever sin they commit. And because they keep God’s law in their own hands and strike whatever compromise suits them, they live as they please and still believe they have been saved. Salvation received through faith is, of course, God’s gift; yet we must live by the word and hold to a steadfast faith if we are to be saved.

Amos 3:3-5

3Do two walk together, unless they have agreed? 4Will a lion roar in the thicket, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing? 5Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth, where no snare is set for him? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when there is nothing to catch?

God said that when his wrath reached its peak and judgment began, the people of Israel would suffer as if dragged away with hooks and fish hooks. This prophecy was fulfilled when they were carried off in misery. God had held Israel in his arms and protected them to the last, yet when they refused to repent, he resolved to judge them.

A lion roars loudly when it is satisfied with what it has seized. In the same way, God’s angry voice means that he has no intention of withdrawing judgment for Israel’s sin, and Israel can only suffer like helpless prey.

A bird has no reason to be caught unless a snare has been set. However hard a trapped bird struggles, it is already too late; likewise, once Israel had come under God’s judgment, regret came too late, and the chance had already passed. All these images tell us that Israel’s judgment was unavoidable. God had warned that war would come and that through it their base and wicked lives would collapse, but Israel, sure it could never really happen, took the disaster far too lightly. God always made his plans known to the prophets first. He said that he does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants, and Scripture shows us that the prophecies the prophets delivered were all fulfilled years or even decades later.

Amos 4:4

4“Go to Bethel, and sin; to Gilgal, and sin more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days,

The law of Moses told the people of Israel to bring a tithe every three years, but they brought tithes every three days and were so zealous that they went to Bethel every morning to offer sacrifices. In breaking the law this way they showed a twisted faith, one that used God to get ahead in life. That is why God rebuked them: however often they sacrificed and however eagerly they tithed, it was a wicked act that only heaped up sin.

Bethel, where Jacob set up a stone pillar in faith, and Gilgal, where the people kept circumcision and the Passover, had both become centers of idolatry. The people made a show of zeal through religion that was all outward form, but God takes no pleasure in such sacrifices. Following the prescribed forms, they burned leavened bread as a sacrifice of thanksgiving and brought peace offerings to God as free will offerings; outwardly, their faith looked flawless.

A sacrifice of thanksgiving is offered out of gratitude for grace, and it is one kind of peace offering. Because their sacrifices seemed to be offered properly, by the book, onlookers would have thought they were devoting themselves to God with all their hearts. Yet however lawful Israel’s sacrifices appeared, what they did was religious hypocrisy. A sacrifice without a contrite spirit and true faith is detestable, and it deserved a severe rebuke.

Suppose two children each give their parents a gift. One brings a present carefully prepared with a grateful heart; the other gives one as a formality, to be seen by others. On the outside both have given a gift, but the parents know well that their children’s hearts are not the same. So God said that the formal sacrifices offered at Bethel, the holy ground where Jacob had built an altar, only added to their sin.

A sacrifice offered out of religious zeal rather than the fear of God serves our own satisfaction more than God, and so he does not accept it.

In Isaiah 1, God rebuked the people of Judah in these words.

“What good to me are the countless sacrifices you bring me? I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals, and I do not delight in the blood of the animals you offer,” he said.

“When you come to appear before me, who has required this of you, this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; so are the new moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies. I cannot bear evil together with the solemn meeting,” he said in his anger.

God does not want religion that goes through the motions without true faith. He accepted the widow’s two small coins, given in faith, and from this we see that what he wants is sacrifice and worship offered with honest faith, and genuine love. Everything in this world already belongs to God, so worship, offerings, and devotion given as though tossing alms to a beggar are not faith he will commend. Worship, offerings, and service are the most basic practices of our faith; if we treat even these basics as a formality, we cannot stand in a right relationship with God. Do not pretend to believe in God so that you can live in comfort in this world. If you truly fear God, the Creator of all things will protect your life, your health, and your children.

Amos 4:1

1Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, “Bring us drinks!”

Bashan is fertile land east of the Jordan, lying between Mount Hermon and the hill country of Gilead. Ideal for raising livestock, it is pastureland that produces fat cattle and sheep. God likened Israel to the healthy cows of Bashan that bore many calves there, and he loved and cherished Israel deeply. To show how wicked it was for such a people to betray him, he gave an example: it was as wicked as a wife, who ought to serve her husband, ordering him to bring her drink because she wants it.

Even for a husband who serves God, ordering drink to be brought is wicked. But for a wife to make the head of her household fetch her strong drink, which numbs the mind and keeps people from fearing God, is the worst of sins against God’s law.

God said that because Israel, like this woman, had lost its right mind, it was abusing the poor and giving itself over to luxury and self-indulgence. Though Israel had received many blessings, it was not satisfied; it exploited and mistreated the poor, wanting to live in still greater luxury. As a cow bears calves, their evil gave birth to evil and sin was added to sin, until they reached a point where God could not forgive them.

Once greed takes hold like this, we fall into the sin of tormenting and oppressing the poor in order to possess more. The people who should have feared God thought they had done their duty by offering sacrifices and tithes, and with a hollow, outward religion they were defiling the altar.

God could no longer bear to watch his children fall apart spiritually, so he did not stop Assyria from attacking Israel. As he watched Assyria abuse Israel as if dragging it off with hooks, he longed for Israel to repent through that suffering. Under God’s wrath Israel suffered drought until there was no water to drink and no bread to eat, and in the end they could not even bring in a harvest. When Israel still did not repent after being put through the fire like this, God sent blight that withered the grain, and mildew, and the swarming locust [a kind of caterpillar] that devoured all the fruit of the gardens, until he had left people nothing at all to eat.

When God the Creator judges, no one can escape. Yet far from repenting, they grew even more stubborn. When people suffer and then find things just a little more bearable, they foolishly dig in their heels against God to the last. But our life and our whole course belong to God, so we must obey his will, repent, and turn back. Then the God who abounds in love will help us along our way.

Friends, when you are rebuked, stop at least once to consider that you might be wrong, and hold your own ideas up to the light of God’s word. Only then will you realize how empty life is and how foolish you are. However full of faith a believer may once have been, if they fall to Satan’s temptation, they will say and do wicked things they should never say or do and feel no shame at all. Because they have no idea how sinful such behavior is before God, their life can only be dark.

The one who is quick to see their wrongs spiritually is the believer who truly has wisdom. To gain such wisdom, we must learn the word and the faith rightly, and only by striving to live by the word can we be born again in Jesus Christ.

Friends, once your spiritual eyes are opened, you can easily discern how base and senseless the behavior of those under Satan’s rule is. Those gripped by darkness live wickedly, like the people of Israel who added sin to sin, and never realize it is wrong; so even as they drift away from God, they feel no fear. To expose the sins of Israel in its corruption, God said he would judge them as he did Sodom and Gomorrah, and he destroyed everything Israel held dear.

What is heartbreaking is that Israel, once so loved, had become like a half-burned stick plucked out of the fire—dirty, useless wood—and still would not let go of its hardened heart. Because they imagined they were still the people God had chosen, they held the foolish idea that God would not judge Israel, and that even if he rebuked them, he would soon restore them. But God could no longer give ease and plenty to an Israel too corrupt to bear witness to the gospel.

They turned to ashes all the grace God had poured out to establish them as his people. They made his zeal for their salvation come to nothing. All his patient labor to build Israel into a whole nation was wasted, and the love with which he had so longed to embrace them as his children was cast aside.

Amos 4:12

12“Therefore thus will I do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel.

Amos warned Israel to prepare to meet God, who was coming as Judge. Simply living in a world ruled by Satan is already suffering for God’s people; if judgment were added to that suffering, no one could endure the pain.

God gave Israel chance after chance and told them to turn back. Why, then, did they have to go all the way to final judgment? Had they abandoned their empty religion and repented sincerely when Amos lifted his voice to proclaim judgment, they would not have suffered. Since causing pain is not the purpose of his judgment, God has no reason to judge if his people hear the word and turn.

In the troubles the world brings, we can find help from people and circumstances, but God’s judgment cannot be escaped; we must therefore repent while we have the chance. If they had listened when judgment was proclaimed, God would have withdrawn his wrath, and Israel would have become a people who receive his love and grace.

God does not judge us out of hand. He always warns first, waits, and makes it possible for us to look back on our sin. It is God who holds us back from the path of sin through all kinds of circumstances and through brothers and sisters in the faith.

As you look at Israel’s sin, I hope you will come to understand the heart of God. If you hear the words the prophet Amos spoke to Israel as words spoken to you, and turn back, you can become people God blesses. We still have many chances to turn. God is making his will known to you through your circumstances, through your fellow saints, and through sermons. May you put away empty religion and hold a true faith.

Amos told them in advance to prepare to meet the God who would bring judgment, and that alone shows how severe the discipline would be. God gave a warning like a final ultimatum and told them to prepare for suffering. How much better it would have been if Israel had quickly understood his will and repented!

God urged Israel to repent by declaring to them the greatness of the Creator: he is the Creator who formed the mountains and the wind, the God of love who shows humankind what he intends. The sovereign one who makes the morning darkness and treads on the high places of the earth—his name is Yahweh, the God of Armies. Before such a God, the judgment awaiting Israel, which had lived a filthy and shameful life, and its powerful men, who had exploited the poor and the weak, was unavoidable.

Unless God withdraws his fearful judgment, Israel will pay the price for the sins it has committed. Friends, God hates sin more than anything, so before we say or do whatever our human judgment urges, we need to stop and consider God’s will once more. The reason is simple: God’s will and human reasoning are utterly different.

Rather than letting slip the good opportunity God gives, as Israel did, and living with regret, may you become wise believers who search out God’s will and walk the way Jesus Christ walked.