Amos Chapter Two
Read Amos 2:1-3 – God’s Charge Against Moab
v.1 “Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not
turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:”
The record of the sin
that God charges
II Kings
v.2-3 “But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it
shall devour the palaces of Kirioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with
shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet: 3And
I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes
thereof with him, saith the LORD.”
God’s justice is
true.
These prophecies by
Amos were against, not only
Read Amos 2:4-6 – God’s Charges
Against Judah
v.4 “Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not
turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law
of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to
err, after the which their fathers have walked:”
God brings three
charges against
Nehemiah 1:7 “We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and
have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor
the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.”
The second is that they
failed to keep his commandment. This
would appear to some as being a lesser charge that to despite God, but the Holy
Spirit gives it equal value. The prophet
Daniel described it this way:
Daniel 9:11 “Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law,
even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is
poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of
God, because we have sinned against him.”
The third is that they
turned to lies, in this case idolatry, false gods. The Apostle Paul warns us about lies, and in
so doing condemns one of the major problems of this world today as well:
Romans
v.5 “But
I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
“
Amos pronounces a very
short description of what God will bring against
Hosea
Read Amos 2:6-16 – God’s
Charges Against Israel
v.6 “Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not
turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for
silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;”
God now begins to
enumerate the sins of
They sold the poor for
a pair of shoes. Human life and human
freedom for those other than those of the selected elite of the country had no
value. In their dealings with other men
they lied, cheated, stole and if someone was poor and
downtrodden they pushed him down even further.
Their morality was such that the Isaiah describes them as those:
“That make a man an offender for
a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the
just for a thing of nought.” Isaiah
29:21
v.7 “That pant after the dust of the earth on the
head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father
will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:”
Isaiah 10:2 “To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to
take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey,
and that they may rob the fatherless!”
They had fallen into
the same immorality of the people around them.
The same kind of immorality that, unfortunately, we see much too much of
on our television news programs today.
The same perversion for which men are rounded up in our cities and
parishes today, sometimes in bunches, is the same kind of sin that God
condemned Israel for practicing and for which God condemned Judah through
Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 22:11 “And one hath committed abomination with his
neighbour’s wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and
another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.”
v.8 “And they
lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every
altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their
god.”
Under Mosaic Law if you
took someone’s cloak or coat as a pledge or pawn it was to be returned by
sundown.
Exodus 22:26 “If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment
to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down:”
I Corinthians 8:10 “For if any man see thee which hast knowledge
sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak
be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;”
v.9 “9Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the
oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.”
In these few verses
Amos reminds
Genesis
When His time was right, when
Deuteronomy
This is part of the land that was occupied by tribes of Manasseh and
Gad. Joshua confirms for us that
Joshua 24:8 “And I brought you into the land of the
Amorites, which dwelt on the other side
v.10 “Also I brought you up from the land of
Amos also reminds
Exodus 12:50-51 “Thus did all the children of
commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. 51And
it came to pass the selfsame day, that the
LORD did bring the children of
Deuteronomy 2:7 “For
the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy
walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with
thee; thou hast lacked nothing.”
v.11 “And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and
of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O
ye children of
God brought prophets to
teach and preach His will, His revelation to them. He caused young men to become Nazarites. What or
who was a Nazarite? We have the
following from a Bible Dictionary “The word is derived from the verb that
denotes to separate and signifies that one, male or female, is especially
consecrated to God. The Nazarite took a
vow by which his life, for a certain time, would be devoted to the Lord. The Nazarite law was one of the legislations
of Sinai by which he was forbidden to drink wine or strong drink, his hair must
remain uncut, it being the product of his body that is devoted to God, and he
had to keep himself ceremonially clean (Numbers
6:1-21), Deuteronomy 15:19).”
Samson was a Nazarite (Judges
13:5). But what did
v.12 “But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and
commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.”
Isaiah 30:10 “Which say to the seers, See not; and to the
prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things,
prophesy deceits:”
Do we have the same problem today?
Of course! Today there are
preachers of the gospel who get fired, their livelihood removed, because they
have the courage to stand in a pulpit and preach the Word of God to people who
don’t want to hear it.
Micah 2:6 “Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame.”
v.13 “Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.”
The American Standard
translation of this verse is quite different and much more like how we would
express these words today:
“Behold, I will press you in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves.” Amos 2:13
God is going to bring the full weight, the complete consequences of their sin to rest upon them and uses prophecy to compare that great weight to a cart full of sheaves of grain being brought in from the harvest.
v.14 “Therefore the flight shall perish from the
swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither
shall the mighty deliver himself:”
It will do no good to
try to flee. The strong will not be able
to withstand the punishment that God will bring. The mighty man of valor will not be able to
deliver himself from God’s wrath. God
will not be denied and it would be futile to try; just as the Psalmist records:
Psalms 33:16 “THERE IS NO KING
SAVED BY THE MULTITUDE OF AN HOST: A MIGHTY MAN IS NOT DELIVERED BY MUCH
STRENGTH.”
v.15-16 “Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow;
and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself. 16And
he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away
naked in that day, saith the LORD.”
The bow, probably the
ultimate weapon of war at this time, will not be able to protect even the most skilled
bowman from the wrath of God. The “SWIFT
OF FOOT” will not be able to run away from God.
Remember Jonah? Even a fast horse
will not be of any benefit and the man who was known for his valor in battle, a
mighty man, will flee away in nakedness.
This reminds us again that:
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews
10:31