Amos Chapter Six
Read Amos 6:1-6 –
The Wantoness of
v.1 “Woe to them that
are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of
Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!”
Woe to them that are living in ease;
having no regard for their well-being because they already have too much. Woe to those who trust in their mountain,
their city walls or fortifications to protect them from their enemies. Woe to them who rest on their laurels because
they are the chosen people of God and think they have no duty, no
responsibility to work to maintain that honored status. They were indeed promised a special status in
the eyes of the Almighty:
Exodus 19:5-6 “Now therefore, if
ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6And
ye shall be unto me a
But God’s special
blessings were conditional. They were
“OBEY MY VOICE INDEED” they were to “KEEP MY COVENANT” and
That makes their
situation even worse.
Amos 3:2 “You only have I known of all the families of
the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
“THEREFORE I WILL
PUNISH YOU FOR ALL YOUR INIQUITIES.”
Because they were a special people, because they were chosen above all
others by God, because of the lavish care He had given them their punishment
for their rebellion would be worse. They
would be like those described by the Hebrew writer:
Hebrews 10:26-29 “For if we sin
wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27But a certain fearful
looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the
adversaries. 28He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under
two or three witnesses: 29Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and
hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”
v.2 “2Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the
great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border
greater than your border?”
Amos gives them three examples of
what was going to happen to their city of
II Kings
More recently in
the passage of time
II Kings
v.3-4 “Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause
the seat of violence to come near; 4That lie upon beds of ivory, and
stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and
the calves out of the midst of the stall;”
The children of
Woe unto you that lie on beds of
ease, beds of ivory and stretch yourselves on your couches. Woe to you who do nothing in the
v.5 “That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to
themselves instruments of music, like David; 6That drink wine in
bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved
for the affliction of Joseph.”
These people, in their quest to
satisfy their carnal desires were like those who want to live only to “let the
good times roll.” Where have we heard
that before? They chanted meaningless
words and songs to the sound of an instrument.
They worked at inventing themselves new ways to indulge these
wants. The condemnation by God through
the words of Amos are not directed at the use of instrumental music in worship
to God as some teach but rather is being used as a metaphor for wantonness,
fulfilling their desires of the flesh above all else.
They drank their wine from
bowls. It brings to mind the huge beer
steins of the German taverns. A glass isn’t
enough; a little wouldn’t do any more they needed great quantities to satisfy
their thirst like an alcoholic who can never satisfy their craving. They anointed themselves with fancy ointments
working only to bring pleasure to their bodies.
They could not grieve for the affliction that was being visited upon the
poor and downtrodden of Joseph. Their
kingdom was in distress, being invaded and insulted and they cared nothing for
it.
Read Amos 6:7-11 – The Consequences
v.7 “Therefore now shall
they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that
stretched themselves shall be removed.”
They were like the Babylonian king Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar:
Daniel 5:4-6 “4They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of
brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. 5In the same hour came forth
fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the
plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand
that wrote. 6Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his
thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his
knees smote one against another.”
They would be the first to be taken
captive. The plenty that they had
enjoyed would be taken from them. Even
their liberty would be taken from them, they would be
brought into servitude. Those who
trusted in the delights and pleasures of their land would be carried into a
strange and distant land. Their
banquets, their couches, their beds of ease and their desire to “let the good
times roll” would be taken away.
v.8 “The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the
LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces:
therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.”
In the book of Hebrews we’re told
that:
“For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no
greater, he sware by himself,” Hebrews
So here God has
sworn by or upon himself and confirmed it by an oath just as in:
Hebrews 6:17-18 “Wherein God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 18That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God
to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us:”
God abhors that which Jacob has
become. He hates the sight of their
decadence, their rich palaces, their great cities that
they have built with his blessings and wasted upon themselves.
Proverbs
He will deliver
them up as Ezekiel describes:
Ezekiel 24:21 “Speak unto the
house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary,
the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your
soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left shall fall by
the sword.”
v.9 “And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten
men in one house, that they shall die.”
The devastation of the land will be
so great that if there remains only ten men in a single house or family that
they will die.
v.10 “And a man’s uncle shall take him up, and he
that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto
him that is by the sides of the house, Is
there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy
tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD.”
Here God is giving
v.11 “For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches,
and the little house with clefts”
“THE LORD COMMANDETH”, in the
prophecy of Isaiah we find:
“So shall my word be that goeth
God’s word is sure; God’s
commandments in these situations will be carried out. When He determines to bless a people they
will be blessed. When he determines to
punish or destroy a people they will be punished or destroyed. It matters not how great or how small the
house might be. It matters not how rich
or how poor its inhabitants might be.
All will be destroyed. The great
houses will have breaches or holes torn in their walls, the small houses will
be weakened to the point of collapsing.
As Amos has already told them:
Amos
Read Amos 6:12-14 –
v.12 “Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of
righteousness into hemlock:”
In spite of everything that God has
done,
Hebrews
6:7-8 “7For the earth which drinketh in the rain that
cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is
dressed, receiveth blessing from God: 8But that which beareth thorns
and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose
end is to be burned.”
That which brings forth
good fruit is nurtured and blessed. That
which is hard and poor brings forth only that which is hated and destined to be
burned.
v.13 “Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which
say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?”
They rejoiced in their heritage as
the children of God but defied Him and made that relationship a curse rather
than a blessing. The fact that they were
part of the chosen people of God would no longer save them. They turned from God and relied upon their
own strength to sustain them.
v.14 “But, behold, I will raise up against you a
nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD
the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath
unto the river of the wilderness.”
God will raise up and bring a nation against the house of
Hamath
is today Hama, once an ancient city of the Hittites;
located on the Orontes River in the central part of
Syria and one of the northern markers of the land given to Israel (Numbers 34:8). When Solomon dedicated the temple in
I Kings 8:65 “And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all
Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the
river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.”
The “