Amos Chapter Five
Read Amos 5:1-6 –
v.1 “Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O
house of Israel.”
Hear O,
Revelation
Just as God wanted the seven churches to hear the encouragement and
admonition of Jesus on that occasion, here God wants
Jeremiah
v.2 “The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no
more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to
raise her up.”
Jeremiah 3:8-9 “And I saw, when for all the causes whereby
backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill
of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played
the harlot also. 9And it came to pass through the lightness of her
whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and
with stocks.”
Many years later the
Apostle Peter will rightly testify:
“Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. 69And
we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”
John 6:68-69
But
v.3 “For thus
saith the Lord GOD; The city that
went out by a thousand shall leave an
hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of
Israel.”
Since there are so few,
if any, left in
v.4 “For thus saith the LORD unto the house of
Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:”
“SEEK YE ME, AND YE
SHALL LIVE…” Oh, that we could preach
the same words in this
II Chronicles
15:1-2 “And the Spirit of God came upon
Azariah the son of Oded: 2And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto
him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found
of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.”
v.5 “But seek not
Amos writes, don’t go
to
28Whereupon the king
took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them,
It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 29And he set the one in
Gilgal was where
v.6 “Seek the LORD,
and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and
devour it, and there be none to
quench it in Bethel.”
“SEEK THE LORD”, turn to God, repent of your
sin, allow God to remove that sin and you shall
live.
II Chronicles
By doing so they escaped the wrath of God for a time. The reference to the house of Joseph in this
verse is specifically directed to the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, two of
the largest in the ten tribe kingdom.
Read Amos 5:7-12 –
Exhortation to
v.7 “Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave
off righteousness in the earth,”
What is
“WORMWOOD”? It is a woody herb that is
native to western
v.8 “Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of
death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for
the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:”
Amos urges them; turn
back to God. Seek the one who made the
“SEVEN STARS” and Orion. The seven stars
refers to what is called the Pleiades, or seven sisters, a cluster of seven
stars in the constellation Taurus, and Orion, of course, is the constellation
known as The Hunter that is pictured as fighting Taurus. Job makes a similar reference to God:
Job 9:9 “Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the
south.”
v.9-10 “That strengtheneth the spoiled against the
strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and
they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.”
Another translation says
that God is one who “BRINGETH SUDDEN DESTRUCTION UPON THE STRONG, SO THAT
DESTRUCTION COMETH UPON THE FORTRESS.”
God will hear the cries of the persecuted and downtrodden and the strong
who are abusing them will eventually be overcome. This is the theme of much of the book of
Revelation
Those that have turned
against God hate those who would rebuke or reprove them. This is the reason for the words of the king of
I Kings 22:8 “And the king of
This is also the reason that Jesus was crucified as he knew:
John
v.11 “Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built
houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant
vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.”
Their wealth had come
from the labor of the backs of the poor.
They had used, abused and taken advantage of
men. Their bread came from the wheat
raised by farmers who were little better than slaves. They built great houses of hewn stone and had
planted pleasant vineyards, vineyards that would provide a good yield. Their forefathers had been warned by the
voice of God:
Deuteronomy 28:15 “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not
hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his
commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these
curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:”
And part of those curses were:
Deuteronomy 28:30 “Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man
shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell
therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof. v.38
“Thou shalt carry much seed out into the
field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.”
v.12 “For I know your manifold transgressions and
your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside
the poor in the gate from
their right.
Now God enumerates some
more of their sins. They afflicted the
just, they took bribes and they turned aside the poor from what was their
right. Back at the beginning of his message
to Israel Amos had been given for
Amos 2:6-8 “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; 7That 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: 8And 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.”
Read Amos 5:13-17 – Words To The Prudent
v.13-14 “Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in
that time; for it is an evil time. 14Seek good, and not
evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD,
the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.”
Evil times are
coming. During these times the prudent
endure and hold their tongues, drawing as little attention to themselves as
possible. There is no place of refuge
among men. Their situation is described
by Micah:
Micah 3:11 “The heads thereof judge for reward, and the
priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet
will they lean upon the LORD, and
say, Is not the LORD
among us? none evil can come upon us.”
It isn’t much different
today is it? This reminds me of the two
judges that were convicted just a few weeks ago of malfeasance in office,
taking bribes for lighter sentences. It
reminds me of the preachers who preach for hire, who tickle the ears of their
congregations, accept sin within their midst in order to maintain their status
rather than teaching and preaching the Word of God.
Amos urges the prudent
to hate this evil, love all that is good so that the Lord their God would
continue to be with them.
v.15 “Hate
the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in
the gate: it may be that the LORD
God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.”
Amos tells
“YE THAT LOVE THE LORD, HATE EVIL: HE PRESEVETH THE SOULS OF HIS SAINTS;
HE DELIVERETH THEM OUT OF THE HAND OF THE WICKED.” Psalms
97:10
v.16-17 “Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the
Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall
be in all streets; and they
shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman
to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. 17And
in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I
The wailing and
lamentations will be the result of God bringing judgment upon
Jeremiah 9:10 “For the mountains will I take up a weeping and
wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they
are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the
beast are fled; they are gone.”
Jeremiah 48:33 “And joy and gladness is taken from the
plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from
the winepresses: none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.”
Read Amos 5:18-27 – Woe False
Children Who Seek God
v.18 “Woe unto you that
desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not
light.”
In seems that in
defiance of the words of Amos, whose words were the words of God, that
John 8:38-39 “I speak that which I have seen with my
Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39They
answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye
were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.”
We find the same mindset in our country today. Our people declare that “we are a Christian
nation, favored by God”. “We will always
stand!” But will we? Or will God exhaust his patience with the
v.19 “As if a man did flee from a lion,
and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall,
and a serpent bit him.”
There will be no place
to hide from God. They will be as a man
who flees from a lion only to encounter a bear.
Or one who gains the shelter of his house only be
to bitten by a serpent. They will suffer
the same kind of misfortune as described by Zophar to Job:
Job
If by some means they escape one of God’s judgments, then another will
overtake them.
v.20 “Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?”
In their condition the “DAY
OF THE LORD” would be a dark day indeed.
It would not be a day of rejoicing, a day of joy but rather a day when
they would be like
I Samuel 13:6 “When the men of Israel saw that they were in a
strait, (for the people were distressed,) then the people did hide themselves
in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits.”
But there will be no place to hide from God, just as the Apostle John
records for us:
Revelation 6:15-16 “And the kings of the earth, and the great men,
and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every
bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
mountains; 16And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and
hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
the Lamb: 17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be
able to stand?”
v.21 “I hate, I despise
your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.”
God hates the worship
of the unrepentant sinner!!! The ASV
translates “I WILL NOT SMELL” as “I WILL TAKE NO DELIGHT” in your solemn
assemblies. The prophet Isaiah describes
it this way:
Isaiah 66:3 “He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their
soul delighteth in their abominations.”
When those who defy God
offer him worship; their sacrifices; their homage to Him; are an
abomination.
v.22 “Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your
meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of
your fat beasts.”
Their worship will not
be accepted. How many denominations are
meeting this day, or even those who once among the churches of Christ that are
gathering to bring worship to Almighty God who will not be heard, who will be
heaping God’s scorn upon themselves because in their rebellion against the
commandments and precepts of God they are an abomination to him. It makes the words of Jesus very mild indeed
when he said:
“But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew
15:9
v.23 “Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs;
for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.”
Proverbs 15:8 “THE SACRIFICE OF
THE WICKED is AN ABOMINATION TO THE LORD: BUT THE PRAYER OF THE UPRIGHT is
HIS DELIGHT.”
God says don’t sing
praises to me with unclean lips, defiant hearts thinking I will accept whatever
worship is presented. Worship from those
kinds of people is but a annoying, irritating noise
that has no purpose, has no meaning.
v.24 “But let judgment run down as waters, and
righteousness as a mighty stream”
For their worship to be
acceptable they needed to let their judgments run down as pure water, not let
it be diverted, restricted or withheld from any
man. They had to end the oppression of
the poor, the ridicule of the righteous, the corruption of government and
judgment, and let righteousness reign once again among God’s people. Ezekiel had much the same message:
Ezekiel 45:9 “Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O
princes of
v.25 “Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and
offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?”
Amos asks this question
to remind
Acts
And Stephen is quoting directly from this prophecy of Amos.
v.26 “But ye have borne
the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god,
which ye made to yourselves.”
They bore the
tabernacle of Moloch. Instead of carrying
the tabernacle of God as they had been commanded, using the tabernacle
symbolically as the house of God, they carried the house or shrine of the
heathen god instead. Moloch is just
another name for Baal or Chemosh. This was a god of the Canaanites and of the
descendants of Esau and
This is the only verse
in the Bible were we find the god Chi-un mentioned. In the Septuagint it is translated Rhephan, spelled Remphan in the
discourse of Stephen in Acts
v.27 “Therefore will I cause you to go into
captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.”
So Amos tells