Amos

Lessons from the Book of Amos, Part I

by

For Three Times and Four

Amos was a very interesting prophet. He was simple. He was direct. He was willing to do God’s will when he was called to prophetic ministry. At the time Amos was called to ministry, the nation of Israel had been in existence for approximately 700 years. By this time in history, the nation had been up and down so many times on the scale of apostasy that it almost seemed second nature to them. Their spiritual ride had been like that of a roller coaster, which achieves great heights and then, all of a sudden, plunges down into its lowest depths.

The nation of Israel had split under the rulership of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. The ten Northern tribes had left, falling under the leadership of Jeroboam. Nearly 200 years had passed from this split to the time of Amos.

Apostasy had deepened once again; conditions in both the Northern and the Southern kingdoms were poor. Apostasy seemed to be in the very air the children of Israel were breathing, and as far as God was concerned, it was almost as though His people had become incorrigible.

In this study, we are going to learn some things about the care that God takes over the earth. There is no question that God loves His people, but God also loves the world. Both comprise His creation. He watches the birds. The Bible tells us that not even a sparrow falls without God’s notice. Each hair on our head has been numbered. (Matthew 10:29, 30.) God takes care of His creation. Whether we are classed in Israel or classed in the world, God knows everything about us.

God is willing to go a long way for His people. This is why we are told, in John 3:16, that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son . . . .” God is willing to go the second, the third, and the fourth mile many, many times—even when we are not worthy of His doing so. We find, as we read the history of the Old Testament and the writings of the New Testament, that God was willing to do more than His children could even imagine.

Introduction to Amos

Amos 1:1 says, “The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.” Here is the introduction to the Book of Amos.

Bible names had meanings, and often, when a prophet’s name was given to him or her, it described the work that God had called the prophet to do.

The name Amos means bearer, or burden, or heavy. His given name was prophetically significant to the work that he was called to do. He was to bring a heavy message. It was weighty, and the burden of the words was weightier still.

In looking at the life of Ellen White, at times the burden of delivering some messages given to her became so heavy that she expressed a desire to die rather than deliver them. (See Selected Messages, Book 3, 36, 37.) She, however, had committed herself to be faithful and obedient to God. This perhaps gives us a little insight as to where Amos found himself—a messenger with a weighty message.

Heavy Message

Of course, that is nothing new. God has always laid heavy messages upon His messengers. Jonah, you may remember, ran away from his burden because of the weight of the words that God had given him to deliver. He took a “submarine ride,” crash-landed on the shore, and still had to deliver the message! His attempt to avoid delivering this given message from God did not change the message. (See Jonah 1, 2.)

Amos had a heavy message. It was not an easy message, but Amos did not run away from delivering it. Dealing with apostasy is never an easy matter. There is probably nothing more difficult than dealing with issues where one is unsure what the reactions will be of the individuals receiving the message.

Amos, it tells us in verse one, was a sheepherder. He lived in a small town called Tekoa, which was about 12 miles south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was located in the Southern kingdom of Judah, but the message that Amos was given was directed, for the most part, to the Northern kingdom. Two possible reasons for this could have been that God could not have found a prophet in the Northern kingdom, or that the Bible principle that a prophet is not without honor except in his own country applied here. (See John 4:44.) God called Amos from the south and sent him to the north, hoping that somehow His children might listen to a stranger, a prophet of God who had a message for them.

At this time, Israel, that having been the ten Northern tribes where Amos had been called to minister the Word, was still intact. Israel was at its highest splendor; they had reached a peak of national prosperity. The reality of the matter was that they were rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing. (Revelation 3:17.) That is a very desperate position in which to be! The simplicity, which had characterized the national life, was completely gone. The problem is that prosperity so often brings a whole host of evil in its wake. Many have been the stories of people who have said, “You know, when I was poor and down and out, I was closer to the Lord than when I became prosperous.”

A class of nobles, in defiance of the Mosaic Law, had arisen in the nation of Israel. This class possessed large estates into which was swept the smaller holdings of the lower classes. To make matters worse, they began to oppress the masses that had sunken into a condition of poverty, and in some cases, they actually participated in slavery of their fellow brethren. They had adopted the social and political conditions of the world, and this they had incorporated into their way of life and into their thinking.

Show of Worship

While all of these terrible social conditions, oppressions, and cruelties were transpiring, there was still a show of worship taking place.

When considering the ten Northern tribes, we often perceive that, upon splitting from the other tribes, they apostatized and began to worship idols, but that was not really the case. They still kept up a position of worship in spite of their inclusion in all of the pressing things of the world. The Israelites would make their way to places of worship on Sabbath; they would bring their tithes and their offerings. The flow of social life, on the surface, was going on just as it had for centuries. The flow of their religious life was going on just as it had for centuries. It seemed that all was well on the outside, but man does not see as God sees. God sees into the heart. What God saw there was of such an alarm that it called for Him to get Amos to go north and deliver a message.

“And he said, The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.” Amos 1:2. We need to realize that the place of residence for God was Jerusalem. It was not some city in the north such as Bethel or Dan. The house of worship was at Jerusalem. At Bethel and Dan, Jeroboam had built golden calves so that the people could worship there and not have to go to Jerusalem. (See 1 Kings 12:27–30.)

A Certain Theme

You may notice, as you read the first two chapters of Amos, that a theme is repeated over and over again. The end of this theme directs the attention toward the punishment that is to come. One of the things we need to understand is that God is very tolerant, to a point. When that point is reached, there is no more toleration.

The theme that is used in the first two chapters of Amos is not new to the writings of the Hebrews. One thing of interest, as you read through the scriptures, is that each author seemed to use a theme device to get his point across, and sometimes the theme was borrowed from another writer. Amos perhaps borrowed his theme from the Canaanites. The Canaanites used theme devices in their writings, as we may discover, going back into antiquity. The theme device that Amos used was a popular way of describing the level of tolerance that would be reached. The saying that the Canaanites used, and it seemed to be almost a universal saying, was “for two transgressions and for three.”

Amos takes this same theme and stretches it a little bit. He tries to describe that God has given them every chance, every opportunity He possibly can for them to repent and come back to Him. So the theme of Amos is showing the longsuffering nature of God. But even with God, the limit can be reached. The prophet wanted us to understand that we cannot go on sinning and sinning without expecting to have some measure of punishment meted out to us, so he said, “for three transgressions and four.” (Amos 1:3.) This is the way God is trying to say, “I want to save you for the kingdom.”

In Amos 1 and 2, six nations are mentioned, and God had tried to work with each of them at some point in time. He had tried to save them for His kingdom. One thing we can see in all of this is that God will only allow things to go so far, and then the line is drawn. God cannot be pushed and pushed and pushed to extend the time of probation. He draws a line and says, “If the line is crossed, it is all over.”

Damascus

What was it that filled up the cup of Damascus, the first nation that is listed? (See Revelation 18:5, 6.) They had been very cruel to God’s people. In one translation of Amos 1:3, it says that this judgment came upon Damascus because they sawed, with iron saws, women with child. You would think that this kind of crime would call for immediate retribution of some kind, but it took nearly 100 years for this crime to catch up with them. Here we are told that this is the reason their cup was full. God said, “Okay, it is all over.”

In 11 Kings 8:7–12, this event is also mentioned. If you read this passage, you will find that what they did to God’s people was the very punishment that would at some future time come back upon them. It became a fulfillment of the old adage—and we use that same adage today—that says, “What goes around comes around.” God had a way of using that same adage in Old Testament times. He warned that if this is what you have done to His people, mark it down, for it will come back around, and it will happen to you.

If you think there are times you are getting away with something and that God does not notice, you need to think twice. It may not come back upon you right away, but if you continue to persist in that sin, God will use that very sin to punish you, in an effort to encourage you to change your ways.

Psalm 19:9 says, “The judgments of the Lord [are] true [and] righteous altogether.”

Broken Bars

The prophecy in the first chapter of Amos predicted that the bar of Damascus would be broken. (Amos 1:5.) This means that the great bars placed across the city gates to protect the people from their enemies would be broken. The gates would be opened, exposing them to the ravaging nations around them, and the horrendous acts that were committed against God’s people would be repaid by removing all the defenses and allowing the cruelty of their heathen neighbors to seek them out.

It is interesting to consider the simple things God used for correction. All that was needed was for God to snap the bars of the gates, and their punishment could take place. An army did not need to be sent in; He needed only to open the gates and expose the city to the elements.

The foundation of morality is in knowing the true God of heaven. Remove that and the vacuum is filled with hatred. That is a principle of scripture. While the love of God is in place, God provides protection, but when hatred fills the vacuum where love has been, there is no good that can come. It only leaves the animal nature of man to run its course, and the animal nature is very selfish; it is very vicious. It does not regard any life other than its own.

Invariably, the evil things that we hear about daily in the news take place because there is a vacuum—the love of God has been expelled, and the vacuum has been filled with hate. For the least provocation, killing and other atrocities take place. The Lord says there will be a repaying that will come to pass, and it will be kind for kind.

Gaza and Tyre

Gaza was in Philistia, and the Philistines were a perpetual enemy of God’s people. Gaza is mentioned in Amos 1:6–8 as a representative of the nation of Philistia, but their chief cities are also mentioned. It could be that the sin for which Gaza was guilty became the sin of the other cities at a later date, which is why they were included here.

What was Gaza’s sin? The specific crime cited was the capture, enslavement, and sale of some of the people of Israel. Such action could have easily taken place along a border area. Raiders from Gaza could run over the border, capture some Israelites, and sell them—men, women, and children—as slaves. Sometimes they would take whole families.

The Law of Moses required the death penalty for this kind of crime. Kidnapping involving the selling into slavery was recognized as an international cruelty. No matter how often it was practiced in Bible times, it was still a very grievous wrong to steal families or members of families and sell them into a life of slavery. These slaves who were sold to foreigners were still human beings, created in God’s image.

It is unforgivable to use and abuse people for the profit of the mighty or the wealthy. This is why their crime loomed so great in the minds of Joseph’s brothers; it plagued them for many years. They knew their actions had been wrong. Even though the Law of Moses had not yet been given, those laws had been indelibly written in their minds as to how God required people to be treated. So when they took Joseph and sold him into slavery, they knew it was a grievous wrong, not only against their brother, but also against God, and their action haunted them. It would have been a lesser crime, in their minds, to have left him in the pit to die rather than to have sold him as a slave to be used and abused. (See Genesis 37:23–36; Patriarchs and Prophets, 212, 239.)

Amos 1:7 says, “I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof”—the places where luxury and sin abounded. This is where many times God strikes first in His judgment, because those who have reached these positions are usually the worst abusers.

The next nation was Tyre (verses 9, 10), which apparently was guilty of the same sin as Gaza and would suffer the same fate.

Edom

Here is a lesson that God would have us all learn, and learn well. We may not be related by blood the way Israel and Edom were, but nevertheless, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and the bond is, or should be, closer than blood relatives. Edom was involved in the slave-trading process along with all the other nations that were mentioned.

Edom received slaves and merchandised them as if they were animals, but they were blood rela-tives, and that is what made their actions even more grievous in God’s eyes. The relationship of a brother belongs in the realm of loving our neighbors as ourselves. (See Leviticus 19:18.) If this brotherhood is breached and if the great law of love is not protected, this then makes us accountable to God. It is bad enough to hate an enemy; it is worse to hate a friend, but it is worse still to hate a brother. It is a sin against nature.

The Bible says that no man hated his own flesh (Ephesians 5:29), yet because of the depth of sin into which Edom had fallen, the vacuum left from their lack of love was turned into hatred. This hatred caused them to receive as merchandise that human commodity that would be treated with the cruelty and abuse to which no human being should be subjected, especially a brother.

This is why, regardless of where we may find ourselves in our station of life, the brotherhood should be protected above all else. If we are protecting that level of brotherhood, we are fulfilling the second table of God’s Law, and He will honor us for that.

Amos said that Edom pursued with a sword. (Amos 1:11.) They were murderous in their pursuit and cast off all pity. This is what we are going to face in the last days. Think about this for a moment. But for the interposition of God on our part, during the time of trouble of the last days, there will be no one to have any pity of any kind on us. All natural feelings of humanity will go out the window.

This was apparently the condition in the days of Amos. This is why we can learn invaluable lessons as we study the scriptures and why I have always maintained, and will maintain until I am shown differently, that every book of the Bible is a book of last-day events. In every book we can find instruction concerning how we are to relate to issues in the last days. In Amos, we find some very clear instruction regarding these things and the events concerning our future involvement with people who are standing in the breach.

Ammon and Moab

The next ones to feel the thunderbolts hurled down in denunciation were Ammon and Moab. As we work our way through the nations, beholding woe after woe, it seems nothing can get any worse, and yet it does.

Ammon and Moab were children of unnatural and shameful sin. In Genesis 19:30–38, the story is told of how the mothers of these two children, wanting to be like the world and not wanting to stand out as being different, got their father, Lot, drunk, lay with him, and became pregnant. They gave birth to Ammon and to Moab. But as you look at this story, you will see that the main reason for this sin, which became a thorn in the flesh of Israel for centuries, was that they wanted to be like the world. They did not want the experience of being different. Their children, conceived in drunkenness and lewdness, set the stage for the rest of their lives, and we are able to trace the results of this sin down through the ages. We find also, as we begin to trace this family tree, that the sensuousness was passed on to the many generations that followed. It was strengthened, and it was confirmed. It was not faithfully dealt with, so it was perpetuated. According to the Bible, many of the Ammonite women became members of King Solomon’s harem. (See 1 Kings 11:1.) You see what God had to deal with!

There are two kinds of sin: inherited sin and cultivated sin. Our forefathers’ besetting sins are likely to be passed on to us. Now, I am not saying that sins are passed on from father to son. There are, however, inherited characteristics which, at times, seem overpowering to us and which we have great difficulty overcoming. These are most likely the sins that have been passed on to us from our forefathers. The scriptures we have been studying tell us that we need to struggle against such characteristics, with the help of the Holy Spirit, or they are likely to manifest themselves in our children who follow after us.

Ruth, the Moabitess, is a testimony that an inherited sin can be successfully dealt with. She responded to and was trained in a godly, Hebrew family. She allowed the Spirit of God to enter in and to work in her life. As a result, she became an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. (See Ruth 1:1–4:17.) This gives us a testimony of the power of overcoming sin.

Judah and Israel

As Amos finishes showering the nations around Israel with woes and judgments, he turns to God’s people, and using the pattern that he had already established, he starts in on them. He uses his theme device—“for three transgressions and for four”—this is the judgment that is going to come. When he finally comes to Judah and to Israel, it is almost as if he screams out, “Are you listening to me? Sit up and take notice, because for three transgressions and for four, you are going to feel the stroke of God.” He wanted to get their attention, because they were next on God’s list.

Here is the real reason for this testimony to the church. Because the Israelites had rejected far greater spiritual light than had the nations around them, they were under far greater condemnation. This is why Amos’ message became so hard, so heavy, and so weighty. It is much easier to condemn someone you do not know than to have to deal with an issue with someone that you do know.

But even though it came closer to home for Amos—to Judah and to Israel—the punishment was just as severe, because “to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17. God was going to deal with those people in a different way.

Judah had come under this condemnation because they had violated the Law of God and had refused to keep His commandments. They had knowledge of God, and because of that, their condemnation would be greater. But through it all, God said, “I want you to change.” He wanted them to see Him for who He really was. If they had only been willing to see God for who He really was, a love relationship would have developed, and they would have changed. But they had violated the covenant to such an extent that punishment was inevitable.

Amos 2:9–11 says, “Yet 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. Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. 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 Israel? saith the Lord.” God is asking, “Is not this the way that I treated you? Did not I treat you right? I want you to respond.” They were going to pay a price for their unfaithfulness. God was telling them that they would be sorry they had not remained faithful.

A Lesson for Us

This again is a lesson for those of us who are going to go through the last days. Only the faithful will make it through the last days, but God is not willing that any should perish. (11 Peter 3:9.) However, God cannot stand by and witness multiplied injustices taking place to the detriment of His work. He will not just stand by and watch that happen.

When people consider what is going on in the remnant church, there is a tendency to feel that God does not care or that He has abandoned His people. But all that is needed is to read the accounting process we see revealed in Amos 1 and 2, and we begin to see that God is still very much interested and still very active. Sometimes it takes a long time for the cup to become full. None of us know how fast our cup is filling, or when it is going to fill. It fills differently for different people. But when the cup is full, mark it down; the Lord is going to roar out of Jerusalem.

The lesson we find portrayed in the first two chapters of Amos is that in these last days, it is only going to be the faithful who are going to make it through. We can be among the faithful. We can allow our cups to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

God cares, and He is working. His will is going to be done in all areas. He is preparing a people who are going to come through the trials of the last days without spot, without wrinkle, or without any such thing. (Ephesians 5:27.)

In all areas of scripture, the lesson is basically the same: turn from your sins and be saved all you people of the Lord. (See 11 Chronicles 7:14.) This is what He wants more than anything else, and that is how He wants us to be found—pure and clean and ready to meet Jesus when He comes.

To be continued . . .

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life Ministry. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mikebaugher@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Lessons From the Book of Amos, Part II

by

The Book of Amos is a book of declarations by God stating that He is going to deal with the situations that have built up over a long period of time. When reading Scripture, one thing we know, as we see how God has dealt with people’s faults, is that He does not deal with them instantly. It usually takes a long time for God to bring judgment and punishment. God understands our frailties, and He is longsuffering. He allows our cup to fill and fill and fill, but once that cup is finally full, a roar is heard from out of Zion. (See Amos 1:2; Joel 3:16.) This is the situation of which Amos is writing.

Chapter 3 of Amos begins, “Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” Verses 1, 2. As you read the Bible, you see very clearly that the plan of God is centered in a covenant—the covenant He established with Abraham and that has been handed down to successive generations. God did not consider Abraham his wife; He did not consider Jacob His wife. It was the offspring of Jacob, the twelve tribes of Jacob, that became the wife of God.

Wife of God

The nation of Israel was the wife of the God of Heaven. Their relationship with God came about as a result of the exodus. When Jacob went down into Egypt, 70 souls journeyed from the land of Canaan into Egypt, but it was a nation of one to two million people that came out of Egypt. (See Exodus 1:1–5; 12:37, 38.) This relationship was sealed at Mount Sinai by the response of the children of Israel when they said, “All that the Lord has said, we will do.” Exodus 19:8; 24:3, 7.

These were the only people that God had known in this special sense, as He emphasizes in Amos 3:2. This was a unique and special relationship; it was a marriage relationship, and God said to them, “You are the only one whom I have known in this way.” Did God not know the other families of the earth? Yes, He knew all the families of the earth, but He did not consider them in any special relationship as He did the children of Israel. Israel was, as it were, the sweet, blushing bride of God, but as we read the history of Israel, there was, almost from the time of the honeymoon, unfaithfulness.

Most of us are either married, have been married, or intend to be married. We have certain expectations and requirements regarding marriage. One of these requirements is that of faithfulness on the part of each spouse to the other. We do not get this idea from society at large; we get it from the Bible. But let us suppose that when we married, understanding that faithfulness was part of the marriage covenant, we decided the grass was greener on the other side of the fence, and we got caught sampling the greener grass. What kind of response could we expect to receive for this kind of unfaithfulness?

Most of us, upon arriving home—at least in Western society—would expect to find our bags packed and sitting out on the porch or, even worse, thrown out onto the street. There is something about the act of adultery that seems equal to the unpardonable sin in the human mind. A trust factor has been broken. Feelings of disgust well up in the heart of the one who has been betrayed. From where do our understanding and reaction originate? It comes from our understanding of faithfulness in the Bible. Love and faithfulness go together, and God is the Author.

We have gotten the idea that God does not experience these kinds of feelings in His marriage relationship with His people. One thing we need to remember is that the book of Amos was written in the language of the time in which Amos lived. It was not written in the language of today’s America. In the time of Amos, a woman was in a different relationship to a man than what we find today; she was not only his wife, but she was considered to be his property. This was the way things were done in Israel’s society. God communicated to Israel on this level.

Israel was God’s property, just as we are His property. We have been bought with a price, so we belong to God; we are His property not only from the standpoint of ownership but, also, from the standpoint of relationships. We are considered to be His bride.

The children of Israel were not in a slave relationship, but they were in a marriage relationship, of which God reminded them when He said, “I brought you up out of Egypt; you are the only one that I have known—the only one.”

God knew Israel intimately; there was no one else of whom this could be said. Because this was true, it would call for the greatest punishment for the practice of unfaithfulness on Israel’s part.

One – One = One

I do not want to belabor the point, but we all know the story of just how longsuffering God had been with Israel. As I mentioned, almost from the wedding night, Israel had climbed into bed with anybody and everybody that caught her fancy. God would forbear a long time with her, but the events that would follow would be crushing to Israel.

God warned, in Amos 3:2, “I will punish you for all your iniquities”—not just some, not just the most recent, but for all your iniquities. Did God have the right to do this? Yes, He did, because this was His wife; she was His property. Jesus alluded to this when he told the parable of the fig tree. (See Matthew 21:19–22.) Jesus came to a fig tree that was beautiful to look upon, but there was no fruit on it. There was no fruit of faithfulness on the part of the fig tree that represented His bride, so He cursed the tree so that it withered, dried up, and died. This is what happened to the Northern tribes. We find no trace of the Northern tribes today. I have heard people try to give some kind of an explanation as to what has happened to the Northern tribes. They try to trace them through secular history, but the Scripture reveals that those tribes withered and died and never came back on the scene again.

Although God was going to deal with the unfaithful children of Israel, He worked a miracle with mathematics that went something like this: One minus one left one—Judah. God wanted all of the tribes of Israel to be His bride, but the remaining two, Israel and Judah, had to be separated so that one could survive.

“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3. The answer to that is no; they cannot walk together if there is disagreement. There have been occasions when I have been asked to counsel couples who are experiencing problems in their marriages. One of the things I have learned is that usually these couples have not been getting along for a long period of time. By the time they call the pastor for counseling, the situation has been building and festering. Blessed is the couple who, when they get into difficulty, seek help immediately, because the best opportunity to deal with the healing of a marriage is when the problems first begin. If things are allowed to go on, alienation takes hold. This is what had happened as far as the children of Israel were concerned.

God was always available to deal with and resolve the problem, but they always wanted to be off “doing their own thing,” not paying any attention to Him. They could not walk with God and with other gods. This was an unworkable arrangement. Men who try to do this, without exception, are failures in their religious life. God knows that, and He does not want it to happen. That is why the first commandment says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3. No other gods should be allowed to come in and take over a relationship where God should be. The person who fails in their love relationship with God will be a godless person. Alienation leads to apostasy, and the apostate is an outlaw, as far as God is concerned. The question we must ask ourselves is: “Are our affections given to Christ in self-surrender and in happy trust to Him as our God?”

The Lion Roars

As Amos unfolds the story, he is trying to gain the attention of these tribes, and he says, “Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin [is] for him? shall [one] take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done [it]? Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:4–7.

God is telling the tribes, I am going to punish you, and I want you to understand that it is coming. I am warning you. “Will a lion roar?” The nature of a lion when seeking prey is to roar when he has it in sight. He does this because usually the prey will freeze when it hears the roar, making it easier to catch. God uses this illustration, calling upon the prophet to convey these words by saying, “Listen, it is coming; I am not going to roar unless I have a prey, unless there is something in My sight that is going to suffer destruction.”

Can a bird fall in a snare where there is no snare set? The thought here is that the coming punishment is deserved. A bird is not caught in a trap unless a trap is set for it, and who is it that sets the trap? You have set your own trap. You have heard the idiom, give someone enough rope and he will get tangled up in it. In other words, allow him enough freedom and he will eventually hurt himself or be caught. That is basically what God is saying here. Sin sets the trap, and when the trap springs, the sinner is not going to escape. It is just that simple. We think we can parlay with sin, that we can dabble a little bit in it, and it will not catch us, but sooner or later, it will catch up with us. Praise the Lord! He is longsuffering! He will allow us to get into circumstances in hopes that we will turn away from those circumstances. This is what He was hoping for Israel, but Israel continued to become entangled. When God comes out of His place, you can mark it down—action is going to follow.

My father was not an angry or passionate man. Many parents today seem to beat and bang on their kids all the time, but that was not the case with my dad. We got what punishment we had coming, but I do not ever remember getting a licking that I did not deserve. My father never punished us on a supposition. I can remember, though, that if we acted up, he would warn us. If we did not stop, once he got up, it was all over; we knew what was coming. We could plead and plead and plead all we wanted, but the punishment still came. That is basically what God is dealing with here.

God was not the type of parent, as we find in many circumstances today, that would just scream and scream at the kids and do nothing. When I was in my early years of ministry, I went to visit a home that had an empty oil drum right outside the living room window. This family had a number of children, and when I came to visit, they all went outside to play. One of the boys, Mark, grabbed a big stick and began to beat on the oil drum. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. His mother yelled out, “Mark, you stop that.” Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. “Mark, I’m coming out there. You stop that.” Boom, boom, boom, boom. “I’m coming out there, Mark.” She never went out, and Mark never stopped.

God is not that way. He says, “If I get up, it is all over; I am coming out, and you are going to get thrashed.” That is the way it was with Israel. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets.” God does not get onto someone without giving him or her warning. We, as Seventh-day Adventists, have memorized this text!

Warnings Conveyed

God used the office of prophet to convey not just His will but to convey warnings. “I am telling you, this is the way it is going to happen. If you do not change, this is going to happen. If you do not turn around, this is going to happen.” And after a while, it happened.

“The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” Verse 8. The prophets could not withhold the warnings given to them by God. We know this from Ellen White’s life. She said that she could not withhold the warnings that God had given; she must convey them. (See The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, vol. 3, 1,296.) This is what verse 8 is saying. If God has spoken, who can but prophesy?

Spectators Invited

Continuing in Amos 3, we read: “Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof. For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; An adversary [there shall be] even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.” Verses 9–11.

God is calling upon the heathen to witness the whipping of those who are going to receive His punishment. He is saying that He wants them to come and watch what He is going to do to His wife. Now that is almost an inconceivable thought.

Egyptian bondage and the Philistine oppression were not forgotten history. These things were rehearsed over and over again to Israel. Because they never learned the lessons of deliverance and translated them into their lives, they began to repeat their former history, and they became oppressors of their own. While Egypt and Philistia went out from their own land and oppressed others, Israel began to turn upon their own and oppress them. They were different from Egypt and Philistia in that they looted their own fortresses rather than going out into enemy territory. So Ashdod and Egypt were told to come in to witness the punishment that God was going to render.

It is one thing to get a spanking. It is another thing to get a spanking in front of people. I always wanted to have my spanking by myself. I especially did not want to have my brothers see me getting a spanking. Inviting people to witness the spanking makes it even worse. This is the scenario that God was planning, as far as His bride was concerned. He was inviting all of their enemies to watch what He was going to do. He even told them to go up on the mountain where they could get a better look.

Why would God do such a thing? Never forget that God had a plan that through this bride the Redeemer would come. He was committed to the redeeming of those who accepted Him—not only of old but also the present and future generations who by faith would look to Him. God had a commitment; the Messiah would come. That Messiah would have to come through the bride that He had known, but sadly, Israel had lost all sense of sin; there was no shame.

No Sense of Shame

The shame was gone. Israel enjoyed living in the highest of luxury, indulging in all kinds of perverse habits. Yet, they would still prepare the bulletin for Sabbath School and church and plan other activities, believing that all was well.

It is no different today. When men lose their sense of sin, God appeals to their sense of shame. It seems strange that the sense of shame should survive the sense of sin. Many times people can be brought to repentance through a sense of shame rather than an understanding of sin. If they are shamed, they know they are caught, and they will say, “I am sorry; I am sorry.” That is the way it is. Sometimes we are more afraid of what people think of us than of what God thinks of us. There is a lot going on which, if revealed, would cause a sense of shame, but we continue on in sin. How do I know? Because we are still in this world! We have not gotten it right yet. That is why Jesus waits; that is why Jesus delays His coming. He wants us to have a sense of sin, not just a sense of shame.

The nations round about Israel were going to know that God’s protection had been removed. As a result, while they were in the height of prosperity, they would be served a calling card showing that God had removed Himself, and Israel would not stand a chance of escape. The punishment would come; it would come as a lion on its prey.

No Safe Place

This is one of the dangers that we face in America today. We have not been a righteous nation, contrary to what some would have us believe. As a result, God is removing His protection. We see that happening more and more, and as a result, the inevitable will come. Liberties are being removed—one of God’s ways of dealing with us. We know that with the Sunday laws our freedoms are going to be completely taken away.

The answer as to how to avert these problems is the same today as it was in the days of Amos. Repent and turn from your sins; turn to God for help. That is one of the things that the tribes of Judah and Israel would not see.

“Thus saith the Lord; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus [in] a couch. Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord God, the God of hosts, That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord.” Verses 12–15.

Amos finishes this message by giving an illustration of what happens when a shepherd retrieves the remains of an animal from the mouth of a lion. This reflects back to the Law of Moses, which required a shepherd to produce the remains of the animal that was killed while it was in his care as proof that he did not steal it. Amos was a shepherd, so he used the language of a shepherd to try to convey to the people the point that God wanted them to understand. He was telling them that as the remaining parts of the slaughtered animal tell the tale of its destruction, so the broken remains of the wealth of Israel would be a pathetic witness to the complete destruction of that kingdom.

According to the Law of Moses, if a fugitive got into trouble, he could run to the sanctuary, grab hold of the horns of the altar, and that would be a place of safety for him, a place of refuge—but that was a last refuge. It was not the first refuge. Even this last refuge would not be available to Israel. They could not run to the sanctuary and claim refuge by grabbing hold of the altar. The dye was cast, and now it would be just a matter of time until the blow fell.

A Lesson for Us

What is the lesson for us who are living in this twenty-first century? Mrs. White wrote: “We are all amenable to God. When we take into consideration our accountability to Him for every action, when we remember that we are ‘a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men,’ we will desire to be purged from our fretfulness and harshness, our lack of sympathy and tenderness for one another. These evils are as tares amid the wheat, and must be destroyed.” Notebook Leaflets from the Elmshaven Library, vol. 1, 79.

That is really what God wants to have happen in our lives. He wants to come into such a close relationship with us that everything that is offensive will be removed, and His work can go forward so Jesus can come.

I mentioned earlier that Israel had not learned the lessons of deliverance, and I have often wondered how well the church of today has learned its lessons. Are they of such dynamic significance to us that the deliverance has the power and strength to motivate us the rest of our lives or until Jesus comes? I have met people in Sunday-keeping churches who are exuberant that the love of God has delivered them from their sins. They just bubble and sparkle and are willing, at the drop of a hat, to tell you what God has done for them. You have met those kinds of people; I know you have. They are out there, but there are very few Seventh-day Adventists who have had that kind of experience.

Perhaps you have heard Adventists referred to as Sadventists. I realize that we do not have to get into a celebration mode, but somewhere along the line I would hope that we could become a little happier about what God has done for us and have a willingness to share that happiness with others. These lessons of deliverance, if we really reflect on what God has done for us, will change our whole lives. If we could somehow convey that to others, what a blessing we would receive! I have always in my life desired to continue the experience of a relationship that manifested itself in not only doing what was right but treating others in the right way as well, because that is basically the message that Amos is trying to get across.

God, I know, was doing everything possible to save Israel, but it did not happen. Although God had chosen Israel as His bride, they were unfaithful. Even though He warned them and tried to get them to change their ways, they ignored Him. Finally, God had to take measures of punishment.

“Those who might become co-laborers with Christ, and do good service in advancing the interests of His kingdom, but who use their talents and influence to tear down instead of to build up, are like noted rebels; their prominence, the value of the talent they use in the service of Satan, increases their guilt and makes their punishment sure. These will feel the wrath of God.” The Signs of the Times, October 24, 1906.

I do not want to be found in that category. I want to be found doing what is right and good so that the longsuffering of God is working to draw me into a more perfect relationship with Him, rather than a forbearance on His part until the axe has to fall. Is this your desire?

To be continued . . .

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life Ministry. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mikebaugher@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Lessons from the Book of Amos – Part III

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When we began this study of the Book of Amos, we reviewed Amos’ ministry. We noted how he was a citizen of the Southern kingdom but that his work involved delivering messages out of his home area into the Northern kingdom. It had been over 200 years since Elijah had stood on Mount Carmel and had called for a decision on the part of God’s people, saying, “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him.” 1 Kings 18:21. That was a powerful call, and the people’s response to that call indicated that things would turn around, in that they would come back to God and carry out His will. (See verse 39.) But, as is often the case, revival and reformation did not last long.

In reality, this is one of the reasons why we have a congregation and a minister. It is so the minister can proclaim the Word and a continual revival and reformation can grow in the hearts of the congregation. This is why we should not go off in a hermit-like setting by ourselves. The Bible says that we should not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is” and even more so as we see that day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25.) Why is that? Because there is a certain dynamic that takes place within preaching. Paul calls it “the foolishness of preaching” (1 Corinthians 1:21), but there is a power involved in preaching that works on the hearts of the people to draw them to Christ so that a change can take place in their lives.

That took place in Elijah’s day, but it did not continue. It seems that when a torch is passed from one generation to another, the flame grows dimmer and dimmer. Truth did not prevail, as it should have. It did not continue to burn in the hearts of those who were called God’s people. Truth must be held in righteousness. It has to grow in intensity and in strength. It has to lodge in the hearts of those who hear.

This is one of the problems we are facing in Adventism today. Truth, as it has been studied and handed down from one generation to another, has not been appreciated, as it should. Truth has become watered down; it has undergone attack, and instead of each succeeding generation possessing and preserving the truth, it has become weaker and weaker, until open apostasy has broken out with little or no protest.

Responsibility to Generations

Apostasy was taking place in the days of Amos. From the time of Elijah’s powerful call to the time of Amos, spirituality was deteriorating. The Lord called upon Amos to point out to His people just how precarious their position was. We will see, as we go through chapter 4, that God, upon reaching a point, deals with people in a decisive way.

“Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that [are] in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. And ye shall go out at the breaches, every [cow at that which is] before her; and ye shall cast [them] into the palace, saith the Lord.” Amos 4:1–3.

“Hear this word, ye kine . . .” Now, this is anything but a flattering statement. You would never find a pastor today addressing the ladies of his congregation this way. Kine, of course, are cows. This statement was directed to the women of Israel, because they were, for the most part, responsible for the heritage of their children who were to grow up to be worshipers of God and leaders in Israel. Were they living up to the call that God had given them as mothers of Israel? No, they were not. They had a love of luxury and fashion. This statement that Amos made to them was a statement of contempt as to their condition. It was a biting and caustic statement, which was intended to arouse their attention that they might be able to see their spiritual condition.

Attention Getter

What could we use in today’s vernacular as an equivalent statement? I remember when I was a child, and not a Christian, that when I saw a lady I did not like, I would call her an “old bag.” An even more derogatory phrase would be “old pig.” That approximates what Amos meant when he addressed these women. He was calling them a bunch of old bags or old pigs, trying to get their attention.

God does that at times. He uses His prophets to get our attention, to arrest us in the direction in which we are going so that He might then be able to convey a message to us. God knows that unless He can gain our attention, our lifestyles will not change. He has got to stop us in our tracks.

When I was in conference work, one of my colleagues, a seasoned and skilled minister, was often sent by the conference leaders to churches that had multiple problems and difficulties. The people in these churches were frequently scrapping and fighting and at odds with each other.

One day, at a workers’ meeting, we were sitting at the lunch table, talking shop, and he told me about a church to which he had been sent. It was a church with a membership of between 600 and 700 people. The members were experiencing numerous difficulties and problems. His opening statement of his first Sabbath sermon was, “You know, when I walked into this church building, the first thing that came to my notice was how filthy a condition it is in. There is dirt in the corners; there are cobwebs; the carpet is not clean . . . .” His comments went downhill from there. He said, “Certainly the condition of this building represents the characters of the people who worship here.”

“I will tell you something,” he told me, “if looks could kill, I would be a dead man.” He continued to tell me that as soon as the benediction was given, people spun gravel getting out of the driveway so they could get home and call the conference president, demanding that he get this man out of there church! “We will not have him as our pastor,” they cried. “We cannot stand him. Why did you send him here?” The president listened. He knew why he had sent this pastor to their church.

The interesting thing was that after his initial sermon, he began a program of visitation striving to pour healing oil where it was needed, but not necessarily in wounds that he had opened. He pastored that church for about eight years. When it came time for him to leave, the congregation collected thousands and thousands of dollars to send him and his wife on a trip to the Middle East and Europe. The people wept as they heard the news that he was going to be leaving, because he knew how to minister to their needs after opening their wounds.

Betrayed Trust

God does that, too, at times. God sometimes must open a wound in order for it to heal. There is one thing about the prophets that God called to ministry. They said it like it was. The sword of truth had two edges, and as they swung, it cut in both directions. But God never cuts unless He intends to heal.

These women of Samaria were asleep. They were well-fed creatures who, for the satisfaction of appetite, pleasure, and fashion, made continual demands upon their husbands, which, in reality, caused the oppression of the poor. It was for this reason that much brutal oppression was taking place within Israel.

There are some important lessons to be learned from Amos’ account found in the first three verses of Amos 4. Women have a special calling. They have a special responsibility before God and before the world. Women have been entrusted with a major role in creating and conserving the precious ties of human life. Because of this, God has, for the most part, endowed women with special gifts of pity, generosity, and morality. They become the custodians of the generation that has already been born and are responsible for the generations that are yet to come. God holds women accountable for how they affect human life in terms of integrity and righteousness.

That is not to say that men do not have a role to play in this also, because they do. But it is the special responsibility of women to communicate and pass on values to the offspring of mankind. This is why, I believe, God was very careful in selecting the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a tendency to recoil from the overemphasis of Mary in Catholicism, as she was never to be exalted. But the Bible tells us that Mary was indeed a very special mother. “Blessed art thou among women.” (Luke 1:28, 42.) Mary had been given a tremendous responsibility in giving birth to the Saviour and raising Him to love His Father.

The women of Samaria had betrayed the special trust to which God had called them. As a result of this betrayal, Amos came down on them like a ton of bricks. They had it coming. It is no wonder the prophets were so persecuted! You do not call women a bunch of old bags and get away with it! They will recoil, unless it gets their attention, and they take the words that follow to heart.

Fishhooks

Evidently an indictment that was all-inclusive was needed in this situation, as we read in Amos 4:2: “The Lord God hath sworn by His holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.”

I do not know that we living in America can really begin to understand the wholesale evil that was transpiring in the nation of Israel. There are instances here and there that we hear of awful things, such as the news story where a seven-year-old child, weighing only 36 pounds, was discovered locked in a closet. We hear about these terrible kinds of things, and we wonder where the pity and feelings of a mother could be.

As a whole, we do not have those kinds of problems as a nation. But what we see taking place in the Book of Amos caused the prophet of God to deal with these things in a very forthright way. We could probably expound endlessly on the degradation and the depth to which the nation had fallen, but it was evil on the part of these women to press upon their husbands their life of luxury and ease at the expense of the poor and the unfortunate.

God, by His very nature, will not allow such conduct as this to go unpunished. He is the Holy One of Israel, and the very fact that Israel covenanted with Him as His holy people is what made it an issue. God had not dealt with other people whom He had not covenanted with like this. Do you know why? Because that is the way unconverted people naturally act. They are not regenerated. They do not have new hearts. They have not come to God. That is the way they are. But not God’s people! God’s people are not to act that way. And when you enter into a covenant with God, pledging that you are not going to act the way unbelievers act, that you are going to keep His Law, and then you go contrary to that, God says, No, this is not going to wash.

Two things come to light in reference to this verse. First, hooks give the mental conception of pain. When God removes you with hooks, it is not a pleasant experience. Some of you may have done some fishing in your lifetime. I used to fish when I was a child, and there were times when the hooks hooked into my skin. It was not a pleasant experience! Hooks bring to mind the thought of pain, and these were not just the tiny little fishhook like I used to catch trout. These were probably more like a gaffing hook used for a larger type of fish, where you hook onto it and drag it into a boat. This verse is referring to that type of a hook—one with barbs that will not allow the hook to release easily, that is big enough so an adult cannot pull away. So, second, a hook gives the idea that there is not an escape.

If you are hooked and you follow the leading of that hook, you are going to go wherever that hook pulls you. That is the idea in this verse—your experience will be a punishment for your sin, and you are not going to escape from it. I will not go into this aspect of it, but as you search out other references relating to hooks in the Bible, you will find these expressions are usually used when the devil is involved. The devil has his hooks that he will place in you, and he will lead you at his will.

People who live lives of luxury are prone to believe that they can do just about anything they want and never have to pay the price for their wrong doings. They think they are above punishment because of who they are or what they have. It may take years for the consequences of their actions to finally catch up to them. The wheel of punishment may turn very slowly, but it will eventually come around. God has put into practice the adage, “What goes around comes around.” It took years for the events recorded in Amos to finally catch up with the children of Israel, but they finally did.

Form with no Power

“Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, [and] your tithes after three years.” Amos 4:4.

You see, since the time of the building of the temple, Jerusalem had been the place of worship. It was here that the Ark of the Covenant was located in the sanctuary. This is where God met with His people. Any worship that took place anywhere else, on any other scale, was a worship that did not originate with the direction of God. It was worship that was instigated by the will of men, and it was void of the blessing of heaven. It could be a formal worship, but in reality, it was a ritual worship with no heart worship at all.

These people, even in Jerusalem, were going through a ritualistic kind of worship. They were very zealous in what they were doing. Sacrifices were offered every morning; they brought their tithes and offerings. They brought the second tithes and offerings every three years. But when you look at what was being done, following it back to its origin, you find it was nothing more, from a spiritual standpoint, than a Canaanite-type worship, because it had form without power. Although the people seemed very sincere in their worship, it had no merit or value with God.

God has a sanctuary where worship is to be directed. It is where the ark is contained. Where do we actually direct our worship today—to the sanctuary of our local church, to the church building? Or do we direct our worship to where the ark is located today? Any worship that does not direct its worship to where the ark is located is valueless, as far as God is concerned. Such worship is nothing but form and ritual.

That is how the children of Israel were worshipping. They were directing their worship to Gilgal and Bethel where there was no ark. God said, Go ahead and do it, but it does not have any value. It was worship that was instigated by the will of men, and it was void of the blessing of heaven.

Rebuke and Chasten

And so again, here is a lesson for us. There are forms of worship that are not acceptable to God. God has described the type of worship that is acceptable. We have abundant material in the writings of Ellen White and the Bible on the subject. But many have left the simplicity of worship and have gone over to Babylon. They have found something there they feel is more meaningful, and they have brought it back into our churches and have called it worship. It is not.

It is interesting to see how God has responded to past situations that are brought back for our consideration today. This is one reason we need to study the Bible more than we have before. We need to know where we stand with God. When we depart from God, even in small ways, it may appear that we are getting away with something, but the hand of God is at work. The message to the church of Laodicea is a prime example of how God has worked in the past and how He is still working today. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The message to the church of Laodicea says, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” Revelation 3:19. God has worked that way all through the course of history.

The word chasten is a particularly interesting word. It is a word that God uses to describe what He is going to do to His people. Webster gives the definition of this word as: punishment, suffering, to discipline, to purify. When God chastens, He does it for these reasons—to punish, to cause us to suffer, to discipline, and to purify. All these things are designed to get our attention. Punishment and suffering are intended to get our attention, so we will listen to what He has to say. God does this, but He does it in love.

Chastisements Increase

Amos goes on to record how God dealt with His people over time. In verse six of Amos 4 we read: “And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities . . . .” God is not giving them tubes of toothpaste. He is giving them famine. They do not have food on their teeth. This verse means they are licking them clean; they are suffering famine. “I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And also I have withholden the rain from you, when [there were] yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.” Verses 6, 7. The Bible says that God causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45), but not in the realm of chastening. When God chastens, He pours out the rain over here, but He causes another area to dry up over there.

Verse eight continues: “So two [or] three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.” Chastening number two!

“I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured [them]: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have overthrown [some] of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.” Verses 9–11.

As we read, we find that the intensity of the chastisements increases with every one. Yet God says that none of these things have changed the Israelites at all. Their hearts are still going in the same direction. There has been no turning around on their part. There was no reversal on their part in returning to Him.

Principle of Apostasy

Counsel was given by Ellen White that refers to the principle of events we find in Amos 4—apostasy.

“The Israelites had been guilty of treason, and that against a King who had loaded them with benefits, and whose authority they had voluntarily pledged themselves to obey. That the divine government might be maintained, justice must be visited upon the traitors. Yet even here God’s mercy was displayed.” Review and Herald, February 11, 1909. With all the chastisements that we have read about, God has mingled mercy. If the chastisements were not mingled with mercy, He would have just wiped the Israelites out completely. “While he maintained his law, he granted freedom of choice and opportunity for repentance for all. Only those were cut off who persisted in rebellion.

“Love no less than justice demanded that for this sin judgment should be inflicted. God is the guardian as well as the sovereign of his people. He cuts off those who are determined upon rebellion, that they may not lead others to ruin.” Ibid. Why do we weed our gardens? So the strength can go to the plants we want to grow. Weeds will sap the moisture and nutrients from the soil, and sometimes we have to pull them out so the good things will not be lost. “In sparing the life of Cain, God had demonstrated to the universe what would be the result of permitting sin to go unpunished. The influence exerted upon his descendants by his life and teaching led to the state of corruption that demanded the destruction of the whole world by a flood. The history of the antediluvians testifies that long life is not a blessing to the sinner; God’s great forbearance did not repress their wickedness. The longer men lived, the more corrupt they became.

“So with the apostasy at Sinai. Unless punishment had been speedily visited upon transgression, the same results would have again been seen. The earth would have become as corrupt as in the days of Noah. Had these transgressors been spared, evils would have followed greater than resulted from sparing the life of Cain. It was the mercy of God that thousands should suffer, to prevent the necessity of visiting judgment upon millions. In order to save the many, he must punish the few. Furthermore, as the people had cast off their allegiance to God, they had forfeited the divine protection, and, deprived of their defense, the whole nation was exposed to the power of their enemies.” Ibid. That is why Satan can come in with hooks. Once God’s protection is removed, the devil can come in, put his hook in, and lead us at will. The Israelites had forfeited their defense. “Had not the evil been promptly put away, they would soon have fallen a prey to their numerous and powerful foes. It was necessary for the good of Israel, and was also a lesson to all succeeding generations, that crime should be promptly punished. And it was no less a mercy to the sinners themselves that they should be cut short in their evil course. Had their lives been spared, the same spirit that led them to rebel against God would have been manifested in hatred and strife among themselves.” Ibid.

Stop and think about that for a minute. If God had not dealt with and cut short the issues that were causing His people to be separated from Him by the destruction of thousands, the millions would have turned upon themselves.

Bloody God or Loving God

I have had people come to me and say, “I do not want to have anything to do with the God of the Bible, because He is a bloody God.” Is He a bloody God? Let us be honest. Yes, He is. He is a bloody God. But the blood that God sheds is in mercy, sparing multitudes whose lives continue on.

Somehow we must understand that God is a loving God, even in these acts that seem repulsive to us. He knows the heart and the probation of every individual, and He is working to save each one. When that probation is finished, God has to take action. We need to understand that. It will help us appreciate our God much more. God, through His prophet Amos, intended to prepare a people for their coming punishment. He was going to deal with this matter. He was not going to let it pass by, as the people hoped that He would. God said, I have allowed all these horrible things, yet you have not returned unto Me.

Prepare to Meet Thy God

“Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: [and] because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” Amos 4:12. Every Israelite knew that not one could be in the presence of God and live. Each had, through history and the stories that had been handed down and through the Holy Word of God, instruction that no one could be in the presence of God and live. They all knew that. So in verse 12, when it says, “prepare to meet thy God, O Israel,” it is not meaning, “Why don’t you bring a sacrifice and an offering of repentance so you will be welcomed into the courts of heaven by God?” That is not what it is saying at all. It is telling them that they are going to be ushered into the presence of God. That should have terrified them! The sinner who knows that he is not right with God does not want to be brought into the presence of the holy God, because he knows that is a death sentence.

Amos comes along and tells the Israelites that, in fact, they are going to be ushered into the presence of God and that they had better be prepared to meet Him. How would they react? How will we react?

A Lesson for Us

Amos 4:13 says, “For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what [is] his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord [that is Jehovah, that is the God of heaven], The God of hosts, [is] his name.” He is the one into Whose presence we are going to be ushered—the Creator of the entire Universe. It is judgment hour. God is a merciful God. God is a loving God. But He is also a God of justice, and He will deal with sin. It may take Him a while, and in the process of time, there may be some chastisements along the way to get our attention. But if we ignore them and continue on as we have been, we had better be prepared to meet our God.

To be continued . . .

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life Ministry. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mikebaugher@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Lessons From the Book of Amos, Part IV

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What Might Have Been

Ellen White records for us a vision that was given to her of the work that was taking place in Battle Creek, Michigan. The vision that she relates is about a meeting that occurred in the Tabernacle Church:

“We were assembled in the auditorium of the Tabernacle. Prayer was offered, a hymn was sung, and prayer was again offered. Most earnest supplication was made to God. The meeting was marked by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The work went deep, and some present were weeping aloud.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 104.

She goes on to say that the issue at hand involved the reception of the message to the Laodicean church, the need for repentance on the part of God’s people, and their reconciliation one with another. Those attending the meeting were often heard repeating the words of Jesus: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” Revelation 3:19.

She continues: “No one seemed to be too proud to make heartfelt confession, and those who led in this work were the ones who had influence, but had not before had courage to confess their sins.

“There was rejoicing such as never before had been heard in the Tabernacle.” Ibid., 105.

Would not that have been a tremendous occasion to witness?

“Then I aroused from my unconsciousness, and for a while could not think where I was. My pen was still in my hand. The words were spoken to me: ‘This might have been. All this the Lord was waiting to do for His people. All heaven was waiting to be gracious.’ I thought of where we might have been had thorough work been done at the last General Conference, and an agony of disappointment came over me as I realized that what I had witnessed was not a reality.” Ibid., 105, 106.

What a disappointment! You know, it is not good to dwell on things that might have been. It means sweet dreams dispelled, fair hopes blighted, and human lives ruined. Yet, dear friend, this was the prophet’s task.

Sorrow of a Prophet

This is the setting for the fifth chapter of Amos. Amos has a very heavy heart as he writes these words concerning the Northern kingdom of Israel: “Hear ye this word which I take up against you, [even] a lamentation, O house of Israel. The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up. 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.” Verses 1–3.

Amos was chosen by God because he was spiritually in tune with God. He understood what was transpiring, and no doubt, the lament had at its core “what might have been.” And now, instead of “what might have been,” there comes the need to face the reality of “what is.”

I wonder how many prophets have been shown “what might have been” down though the centuries of time. Many prophets wrote, “I have seen things that I cannot describe. I have seen things that I cannot put into words.” How many times have prophets seen what might have been and, because they were in one accord with God and desired His will, were overcome with sorrow upon returning to a state of consciousness?

Think of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of heaven, Who came down to this earth and walked among men, taking upon Himself human flesh, knowing the realities of heaven and knowing what it was like to be in tune with the Father. Yet, as He walked and as He saw what was taking place in the temple porticos, the Bible tells us that He was “a man of sorrows.” Isaiah 53:3. I can understand that. The Scriptures tell the sad story.

God has always extended a very glorious picture to His people. So often, however, they respond in like manner as we find recorded in Ezekiel 33:31–33: “And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee [as] my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, [but] their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou [art] unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.”

The Virgin is Fallen

Amos describes the people of God as wanting to come, sit, and listen to very melodious and beautiful music, but when the prophet comes to them with a message in hope of changing the direction of their lives, they do not want to hear it. They want to hear a lovely song sung. When the reality finally sets in of the consequences for rejecting God, it will be for them too late. This is the story that Amos here records. He says, “The virgin of Israel is fallen.”

Amos presents this matter to the Northern kingdom, using the illustration of a girl in her beautiful youth who is cut down, never to rise again. In every culture, in every land, there seems to be an awesome regard for youth. Youth is portrayed as that time in life when everything is a bowl of cherries. When a young person tragically loses his or her life, old and young feel it very deeply. That is the picture presented here—a girl in the blossoming of her youth was cut down.

Every time I hear of a young person who has lost his or her life, the thought always comes to me, What might it have been for that person, had he or she lived? What would have been the direction of his or her life?

The Reality

Amos is entertaining the same thought, and then he brings us the reality of the picture. Those who compose the cities, Amos says, will suffer until they are left with only ten percent of what they formerly had.

When a city suffers a fate like this, its glory is gone. It is not a very bright picture that is painted here by Amos. But what we need to focus on is the fact that this ten percent constitutes a remnant. The 90 percent that were sufficient to produce a glory of the city are going to be stripped away. We are told in Psalm 37:11 that “the meek shall inherit the earth.” And so a remnant is left. It is not intended to be a bright picture. It is a picture that is painted with dark colors, a picture of darkness and gloom.

“For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live.” Amos 5:4. God is hoping that the ten percent will increase. There will be a remnant that will be left, but He is wanting more than that. Most are going to be lost; the virgin is going to be cut down.

“But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. 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.” Verses 5, 6. The places that Amos refers to here—Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba—were places of sacred memory to Israel.

One of my responsibilities as a pastor is that of marriage counseling. I always ask the couple in distress what it was that brought them together in the first place. How did they meet? What are the memories of their early affections?

These verses reveal that God is basically doing the same thing. These three locations were places of sacred memory. Bethel was where Jacob dreamed of the ladder that led to heaven and where he made his vow to be the Lord’s. Gilgal was the place where the people reconsecrated themselves before they entered into Canaan. Beersheba was where Abraham called on the Lord, where Isaac built his altar, and where Jacob offered sacrifice before going into Egypt to be re-united with his son, Joseph.

But the tragedy is that all of these places of sacred memory for Israel and the resulting heritage had now been transformed into places of idolatrous practices. It is sad but true that places of sacred memory can be, through a transforming process, turned into places of haunt.

Plea to Return

So God appealed to His people to seek Him and to turn back. Even though the divine sentence had been pronounced, God was still pleading with any that may have been in the valley of decision.

Hosea was a contemporary with Amos. They wrote at the same time, and the story and the appeal were the same. Hosea unfolded to his readers that, even though Israel was unfaithful, God could take them back. The cry was, “How can I give thee up, O Ephraim? Turn and come back to Me, and I will heal all your backslidings. I will forgive your sins, if you will only come back.” (See Hosea 14:1–4.) Amos gave the same appeal.

This has always been the appeal that God has given. Regardless of what you have done, He says, “I will take you back. Just come to Me. Learn of Me. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me.”

In the time of the antediluvians, Noah built an ark, which held the portent of their destruction. For 120 years, with every wooden peg that was driven, Noah proclaimed to the people that destruction was on its way. “Turn from your wicked ways,” was the cry, but when the time came and the door of the ark was closed, only eight were saved.

Then there was Jerusalem. Jerusalem was thrust into a position of desolation. When Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives and cried out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!” Matthew 23:37. You would not what? You would not come to Me. You would not come and have your sins forgiven. You would not put away your unrighteous ways. You would not allow the Spirit to change your heart. Therefore, “your house is left unto you desolate.” Verse 38. Interestingly, even though these words of Jesus held the portent of their destruction, those in Jerusalem still received the exposure and witness of Pentecostal power, as He hoped that more would come to Him.

God’s threatenings are based upon the condition of man’s conduct. The threatenings of God are given concerning a certain set of circumstances created by men. If and when those circumstances change, through their repentance, the threatenings cease to apply. You see, those threatenings are designed to turn men back to God, not to plunge them into despair.

Protection of the Poor

“Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, [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: That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.” Amos 5:7–9.

God does not leave them wondering what they are going to do when the judgement comes. They have turned “judgment to wormwood.” Wormwood is mentioned in the Book of Revelation. It is a plant that has a very bitter, pungent taste, and here, Amos denounces those who have made the procedure of going to tribunals for protection a hateful, bitter experience. They have gone for a resolve, only to find bitterness.

The Lord had set in place the process of resolve for the purpose of protecting the poor from those who would try to take advantage of their unfortunate circumstances. There are always people who would fall into this category, and God takes a special interest in protecting His people from hurt and harm.

The interesting part about this is that the Jews have always had the reputation of striking a sharp deal, and they have handed this trait down to their posterity—literally as well as spiritually. Ellen White writes about striking sharp deals: “There should be in our business deal no shadow of selfishness or overreaching. Let no one take advantage of any man’s ignorance or necessity.” Testimonies, vol. 7, 163. We, as Seventh-day Adventists, have some things to learn in these areas. God especially hates this. In the days of Amos, it had become so difficult to obtain justice that God termed it “wormwood.” As a result, righteousness was left off in the earth. This should speak to us, as a church, today.

Turn Away

I could not begin to count the number of times I have heard stories in which individuals have made appeals to the church to do the right thing, only to be brushed aside. I do not know how many letters I have written about such situations. Maybe you have written letters, too, only to be flicked off like a bug. God said that is not the way it is to be. He pleaded for His people to turn away from sin and not do it anymore, because there are consequences that will come from such actions.

When we have it set in our minds that we are the only ones who have the right answer, and we fail to take into account the understandings of others, an attitude develops that we are right, that we will always be right, and that no one can tell us what we need to do. God says to turn away from this.

God says, “I am the One Who is to be your wisdom. I am the One Who, if you look to Me, will give you guidance and direction in every situation that you face, that indeed you will do the right thing, because I am the holy measurement. And every thing that you take off of Me will be measured right and correctly.”

This whole passage is an appeal to the people’s better sight. Turn away from sin, because there is infinite power in God, Who will help you through to salvation.

Prudent Silence

But the words take a turn in Amos 5:10, 11: “They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. 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.” This is God’s view of the whole thing.

Isaiah gives a different view: “They [God’s people] shall build houses, and inhabit [them]; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.” Isaiah 65:21. That will happen only when we have put ourselves into God’s care and keeping.

But the people depicted in the Book of Amos had become so self-exalted that they said, “We will be able to plant our vineyards, and we will have good wine next year, and we will build our houses, and we will be able to rejoice.” But God said, “No. You are not going to enjoy any of it,” for Amos 5 continues, “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]. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it [is] an evil time.” Verses 12, 13.

An interesting fact of reality comes alive here. Verse 10 says, “They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.” The one that was set up in the gate was appointed by God and was a mouthpiece or a spokesman for God. The gate was that special place of appointment where justice was to be rendered. If there was any place that was to hold a place of right doing, it was the gate of the city. Many times, throughout Scripture, God talks about the injustice that takes place at the gate. There will be an accounting for that.

What is the attitude revealed here? Well, it is an attitude of selfishness and arrogance—don’t tell me what to do; I want my own way. When this type of an attitude prevails, the Bible says that the prudent man keeps silence.

Have you ever heard someone say, Don’t keep harping on that; it makes me mad? Perhaps we have even said that ourselves. The better part of wisdom is, when something has been said, leave it alone. If there is no change, prudence dictates that silence is golden.

To know when to be silent and when to speak takes much wisdom. Why does it take wisdom? Because self gets in the way. Self wants to assert self. We always want the last word, do we not? Why? Because we know we are right, and the other person is wrong. If we can just speak a little bit longer, we feel that our last word will have the power of convincing. But I can tell you, if we would follow the counsel of the prophet about being prudent in knowing when to remain silent, it could save a lot of domestic dispute and violence. Be quiet!

Patiently Wait Upon the Lord

There is a tendency for us to run ahead of God. There is a tendency for us to become impatient. Do you remember the story of King Saul? When the Israelites were getting ready to go into battle against the Philistines, Samuel was to come and offer sacrifice. King Saul was to wait for Samuel to come, but he grew impatient and offered the sacrifice himself. (See 1 Samuel 13:8–10.) He had no business offering sacrifice. “Samuel had appointed to meet the king at Gilgal, there to ‘offer burnt-offerings and sacrifices, and to show him what he should do.’ The prophet did not arrive within the allotted time, and as Saul saw their dangers increasing, and the hearts of the people failing for fear, he became impatient. Instead of resorting to prayer, and humbling his soul before God, he determined to do something himself to relieve the difficulties of the situation.” The Signs of the Times, August 3, 1882. Ellen White wrote that “equipped as he was with armor and weapons of war, he approached the altar and offered sacrifice before God.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 618.

As soon as the sacrifice was offered, Samuel approached the encampment. Saul went out to greet him, proud of himself, of what he had done, and yet it was at that moment that judgment fell upon Saul’s house. “Saul endeavored to excuse his own course, by depicting the terror of the people and the danger of an immediate attack from the Philistines. But the prophet returned the stern and solemn answer,—

“ ‘Thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee; for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue; the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him [to be] captain over his people, because thou hast not kept [that] which the Lord commanded thee.’ [1 Samuel 13:13, 14.]” The Signs of the Times, August 3, 1882.

Saul failed the test God had given him. “The Lord had detained his servant [Samuel], in order to test the faith and obedience of the king. Saul did not stand the test. God had promised to be with him, if he would be obedient. He should have trusted this promise, and waited patiently for divine instruction and guidance.” Ibid. Since he disobeyed, Saul had to suffer the consequence of his disobedience. “This act [the sacrifice] was a flagrant violation of the divine command that only those should offer sacrifice who had been sacredly consecrated to the work. Moreover, the public nature of the act, as well as the high position of the offender, added greatly to the pernicious influence of his example, and rendered prompt punishment indispensably necessary.” Ibid.

Accept the Remedy

“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 5:15. God is talking here to religious people. He is saying, “Let there be a change. Let things come about where it will be a seeking of Me and My way.” How do people get into such conditions? It seems that there is always a pattern followed from which the end can be quite accurately forecast.

One of the interesting things about the ministry is that in many ways the work of a pastor parallels that of a physician. People have trouble recognizing that fact.

A physician goes to school and studies medical practices and techniques for years. Then he or she serves an internship where hands-on-instruction is experienced. The intern sees patients with a skilled physician. After examining a patient, the intern will make a diagnosis, based on the information gleaned from other patients with the same symptoms. Perhaps 98 percent of the time, people accept the diagnosis of the physician. The physician generally will write a prescription for medicine. The patient willingly takes it to a pharmacy, receives and takes the medication, and usually gets over the problem.

A pastor’s work is a little different in that it deals with fruit. A pastor goes to school to learn how to inspect fruit, along with the study of the Word, because the Word tells the pastor what kind of fruit to look for. (“By their fruits ye shall know them.” Matthew 7:20.) When a pastor spots bad fruit, he says, “My, my, what I see here is bad fruit; let me give you a prescription.”

Do you know what the responses of the people are? “Who are you to tell us?”

The pastor may respond, “I have been sent to this church as the pastor to try to help you see where you are going. I have seen your condition before. I have seen this and this and this happen in this and this and this individual, so I can tell you where you are going, because your fruit is the exact same fruit.”

And the people say, “Who do you think you are?” They do not want to accept the diagnosis or the offered remedy.

Prophets have the same calling, to a great degree. There is always a pattern that is followed, and it can be pretty well forecast. What is taking place in Amos 5? Why did all these things transpire in the way that they did?

Too Pure

Amos was trying to say that, first of all, God had given the children of Israel a true system of worship. It was the same system that had been delivered in the Garden of Eden. When man was put out of the Garden, the system of religious worship was changed to give man hope of redemption.

Another element was at work then, as it is today. When God gives man something good, the devil is not content to leave well enough alone. Man, in and of himself, cannot create religion, but he can adapt it. He adapts it because the devil, who knows all about God and religion, gives him ideas. The sad revelation is that what God gives us in the way of religious principles—now consider this carefully—are too pure for us. Think about that for a minute.

What God gives us in the way of religious principles are too pure for us. If we would accept the principles He gives for what they are, they have the potential of lifting us up to the state of purity, to the perfection He requires. We, in our human nature, want to bring those principles down to a comfortable level for us. We accomplish this by compromising what we know is right and good, that which is delivered to us by the hand of God. We change the good that God has given to us to fit the ideals that the devil gives to us.

Idolatrous worship seems less of an apostasy if it retains some forms of true worship. That is usually the compromise. We do not want to go too fast or too far away from God’s principles, but we do want to feel comfortable, so the devil lets us down into idolatry, as into other sin, by easy stages. First, we get rid of the spirit of true worship but retain the form. Then we get rid of the object of worship, which then corrupts the form. And then we adopt a new object, and we adopt that into the worship, which is really corrupted. This is the way that all sin goes. Easy does it, until we do not recognize the path down which the small steps have led us.

This is exactly the process of how the papacy was formed. It did not happen overnight. It took nearly five centuries for the papacy to form into the institution that persecuted the saints.

Creeping Compromise

The worship that was set up at Bethel and Gilgal was not pure and simple idol worship. It was worship of God by means of idols and in forms that mimicked the worship at Jerusalem. You see, heresy at the outset always masquerades in the guise of truth. Sometimes, when you see this process taking place, it is very difficult to put your finger right on the issue. This is why it is called creeping compromise. It moves imperceptibly, but it moves. If it moves far enough for someone who is in tune with God to raise an alarm, usually that person is chastised that he or she is just being legalistic or is trying to ruin what others are attempting to accomplish. So the prudent man remains silent, and things begin to change. Heresy masquerades. By adopting a sheep’s clothing, the wolf gets easy access into the fold, and it is only after he has entered into the fold and the immediate danger is over that his true character is revealed. But then it is very hard to catch him and to throw him out of the fold.

We must know what truth is, be able to recognize it, and prevent error from corrupting that which is pure. That is the mission to which historic Adventism has been called. It has been called to stop these false issues, to give a warning, and to hold the truth in purity very high.

Day of Darkness

The people in Amos 5 were not only to stop seeking evil, but they were to hate evil and to love good. Unfortunately, they did not go in that direction.

“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. And in all vineyards [shall be] wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord. 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.” Amos 5:16–18.

The word therefore, in verse 16, has a reference that carries us back to the cause of this judgment. That which has been outlined earlier is now the cause of that which is to come. These people thought they were just about right on as far as religion was concerned, but they were a long way off. They were even looking forward to the day of the Lord to come. They were Seventh-day Adventists; they kept the Sabbath. They looked forward to the coming of Christ, but they did not have a clue as to what the real state of things was all about, because they hated everyone who tried to share the real issues with them. They abhorred those who were speaking the truth, and the prudent kept silent. They thought they were ready for the day of the Lord. They knew that when this event happened they would be set in a place of security and power. They felt that this was the time when God would conquer their foes and set them up as His people forever. They looked forward to that day. They would be the beneficiaries of it all. But the truth of the matter was that when the day of the Lord came, it would be a time when God would judge all sin—even theirs.

So Amos said that that day would be a day of darkness. He described it for them: “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. [Shall] not the day of the Lord [be] darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?” Verses 19, 20.

Then God continued to describe His feelings of nausea when it came to worship time. “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.” Verse 21. This has to do with the incense of prayer that is being offered. “Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name [is] The God of hosts.” Verses 23–27.

God said, “I do not want anything to do with you. I hate everything with which you come to Me. You come and you offer worship; I hate it. I hate your feast days. You come and you sing your beautiful songs before Me; I do not want to listen. I do not even want anything to do with your instruments of music.”

Comparison Contrast

It is interesting that Amos played a comparison contrast here. God said, “I want to send you the purity of religion. I want to send you a purity that will elevate you. In order for you to rise to that purity, you need to have some guidance, some counsel, and I will send you prophets to accomplish that task.”

What did the people do? They hated those that God sent to them to help them. With the feeling of hatred in their hearts, they went to the temple and there began to play on the viols. They began to sing songs of music, and they bowed down in worship. God said, “You hate what I did for you. I hate what you are doing. I do not want to have anything to do with it. You do not want to have anything to do with those that I have sent to you; I do not want to have anything to do with you either.” There is a comparison contrast. Amos was trying to convey to them the feelings of God and how He felt about what they were doing with what He had sent to them as His good gifts.

“You will not listen; I will not listen. You hate; I hate.” But God said, “Mark it down. You will be the ones who will suffer far more than I. Judgments will come running down like a river upon you. You have neglected Me in times past. You have neglected Me in times present. You will not escape.”

Amos was not an easy prophet to have around—none of the prophets were. This is why the people killed them. This is why attempts were made to destroy their influence. The surprising thing about all of this is God’s forbearance.

God will forbear, but finally, there is a moment reached. None of us knows when our moment is reached, so the questions that we really need to ask ourselves are, How am I relating to the counsel that God gives? Are there things that, when I have heard them or when I have read them in the words of inspiration, I have ignored? I do not want to hear them, and if anyone says I ought to do them, I do not like them.

I have heard people, and I am sure you have heard people, who, when invited to a worship service, will ask, Who is preaching? If the speaker is perceived as one who preaches smooth things, you can be sure they will be there. If the speaker is known as one who speaks hard things, if he uses the Spirit of Prophecy, you will not see these people in attendance.

I saw this happen repeatedly when I pastored in Riverside, California,—right out the back door of Loma Linda. Many churches are clustered within close proximity of that area, and people are church floaters, going where they can get their ears tickled. (See 11 Timothy 4:3, 4.) That is not the way God would have it.

To be continued . . .

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life Ministry. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mikebaugher@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Lessons From the Book of Amos, Part V

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Perhaps you have never before studied the Book of Amos. I have chosen the Book of Amos in developing a series of articles to give us an understanding of the New Testament. You may wonder how Amos of the Old Testament is going to help us with the New Testament. You cannot understand the New Testament unless you understand the Old Testament.

In 1 Corinthians 10:11, we are told that the things that happened in the Old Testament were written for our admonition, for our instruction, and for examples to us upon whom the ends of the world are come. I find that statement very interesting, because it refers to Old Testament instances and says that those things are going to pertain to us for last day event understanding. I understand that to mean that those things found in the Old Testament, as far as principles are concerned, are last day concepts. History has an uncanny way of repeating itself.

As we read the Old Testament, we learn how God dealt with His people—how He tried to woo them, how He tried to lead them, and how He tried to help them. We learn what their reactions were to the way God was relating to them. It is all there. We also find that there were many times that God had to deal with distasteful situations and conditions. Many times God would extend His mercy and His love, only to meet with a stiff-necked people. They yearned after their own way, and they would have nothing whatsoever to do with God. That is basically the setting of the Book of Amos.

What was God going to do? There comes a time of finality when no remedy of any kind will rectify a problem. That is what Amos was called to reveal to God’s people. God said, “I have tried this, and I have tried that, and it did not work. So now I am going to call My prophet. He is going to be My spokesman. He is going to be My mouthpiece. I am going to send him with a message, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel.”

Woe Unto You

As we come to Amos 6, we find what is going to take place. ”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!” Verse 1.

This chapter starts out pronouncing a woe. When you are reading Scripture, and you come to the word woe, you want to pay special attention, because God is using this word to draw attention to what is going to follow. The meaning of the word woe has not changed over the years. We still use it today. When we talk about a bad situation, we may refer to it as a woe. It still carries with it the connotation of doom and disfavor, of calamity and misfortune. The prophet Amos is here attempting to let Israel know just where they stood in relation to their favor with God. To hear a woe coming from one of God’s prophets is no light matter. It needs to be taken to heart.

The Bible says, ”Believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.” 11 Chronicles 20:20. When God speaks, He means exactly what He says. This principle is taught in the Old Testament. This is certainly the case here with the Northern kingdom of Israel and with Judah as well.

At Ease in Zion

“Woe to them [that are] at ease in Zion.” The word ease depicts a very meaningful picture of what was taking place. God had to pronounce a woe, because they were at ease in Zion. The Hebrew word sha’anan used here for ease means to be tranquil—but in a bad sense—that is, to be settled back when everything around you is wrong. When things were in a life-threatening condition, there was a settling back, with an attitude of, Why should I care? It is not affecting me. Things are going great, as far as life is concerned. I am quite secure from any danger.

That was the attitude of the people when Amos came on the scene, and he said, ”Woe to you that are at ease in Zion.” This was a direct statement to those who were at ease in Zion. It was one thing for the world to kick back and to take it easy, believing that there was no accounting for their indifference or ease. But for those who were in Zion—those who knew the Scriptures and God’s requirements—to kick back, it was altogether a different matter.

Parallel to Laodicea

There is a parallel here to the church of Laodicea, and this is why I believe that Old Testament prophetic utterances have last day applications. What is the message to the church of Laodicea? It is, “Woe unto you. You think that you are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, but I am here to tell you a different story. You need to look at where you are, because in actuality, you are poor, wretched, blind, miserable and naked.” (See Revelation 3:17.)

I do not know of any one of us who would like to hear those words spoken to us, do you? There is a sense of stiffening up, when we hear words like that. We think that certainly they cannot apply to us—we are not miserable; we are happy most of the time! Wretched? No, no, Lord, you have it all wrong. Poor and blind and naked—what do you mean? We are rich and increased with goods, and we have need of nothing. This is specifically what God was speaking to His people in the days of Amos. ”Woe unto you who are taking your ease.”

Hiding From God

Being at ease is caused by only one thing. Those to whom Amos is speaking believe that they have been entirely successful in hiding their true condition from God. They consider themselves to be right. There is nothing wrong, as far as they are concerned. They think that God is off on a vacation somewhere and does not know what is happening. This indeed is a masterful deception that the devil will pull off in every generation.

Sacred history tells us that this is a very easy deception on God’s people. This is precisely the reason why it is so difficult for the Gospel to be accepted when it is preached. There are people who are at ease, either in the world or in Zion, who think that everything is all right when indeed everything is all wrong. Those who could benefit from the Gospel are so deceived that they think God—nor anyone else—knows their situation. It is easy to fall into such a trap, when everything around you seems to be going right.

At this particular point of time in history, Israel was at its height of prosperity. The stock market was at 12,000, and they were buying and selling and having a good time. They were kicked back, at ease. Yet, all of this was leading to a deplorable condition. They were oppressing the poor; they were grinding down everyone they could so their stock prices would stay high. They were riding high!

Temperance

As I studied about this, I mused to myself about what was really happening—what contributed to this deception, this kicking back at ease. I came across a very interesting quotation from pages 52 and 53 of the book Temperance: “The use of wine among the Israelites was one of the causes that finally resulted in their captivity.” We need to remember that the Book of Amos applies to last day conditions.

Ellen White continues, on page 53 of Temperance, to quote from Amos 6. Israel had problems with intemperance. Wine was blurring their thinking processes. We know that wine affects the mind in this manner, and I am convinced that this is one of the reasons we are in the condition that we are as a people today. “But,” someone protests, “Pastor, what are you saying? We are Seventh-day Adventists; we don’t use wine. What are you talking about?”

When I became a Seventh-day Adventist, I was taught that one of the foundational principles of Adventism was abstaining from alcoholic beverages. Let me ask you a question: When was the last time you heard a temperance crusade being promoted within the Adventist church? It used to be that temperance crusades came around as often as Ingathering. It was something that was promoted and upheld before the people. This is one of the things about preaching; we need to continually hold before the people the high ideals of God, or those principles seem to lose contact with our minds and are forgotten.

I have read how some Adventists today are now imbibing in alcoholic beverages, and they have no compunctions about doing so. If we want to be successful Seventh-day Adventist Christians, we will follow the counsels God has given for us. We will review them constantly, holding them up in our minds so we do not lose sight of what it is that God has for us. This will prepare us for the last days on this earth.

Like the World

Temperance crusades, unfortunately, have been relegated to the heap of old rubbish along with some of the other teachings that have made us distinct as a people. But God has not changed—we have changed. We, too, have been at ease in Zion for so long that we think we need to update things and do away with some of the old things we think hold us back as a people. But remember, God does not change, and neither should we.

We have the problem of doing the same things that the world does. We go to the same places that the world goes; we listen to the same music that the world listens to. So why should we not drink the same drink that the world drinks and have a “good time”? This was what was happening in the days of Amos. We need to learn the lessons that are there for us. The sad part is, in many Adventist churches, if we begin to touch on these areas of intemperance and how people ought to live, we will immediately be branded as mean-spirited, narrow-minded, bigoted, and meddlers into people’s lives.

When I was in conference work, I mentioned from the pulpit, one Sabbath during the 11 o’clock service, some of the concepts of temperance and stated that we should not imbibe certain beverages. That very week the conference president drove 175 miles to see me. After confirming things I had expressed in my sermon, he counseled, “Mike, you need to leave those things alone on Sabbath morning. Keep them for prayer meeting.” You know as well as I do what prayer meeting attendance is in comparison with the attendance at 11 o’clock on Sabbath morning!

False Security

Why not just sit back and relax? Maybe the world is not doing so badly. After all, the coming of Jesus is a long way away. These are the thoughts in many people’s minds. There is a danger in that kind of thinking; it causes us to lose the urgency of God’s message.

This is the very same kind of thinking that was in the minds of the children of Israel during the days of Amos when woe was brought upon them. “Woe to them [that are] at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria.” Israel thought that they were going to be safe. They were perched upon a mountain where they could see the approach of any enemy. God told them that it did not make any difference where they were located. They may have believed they were safe, but they were not.

”Pass 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 6:2.

The cities mentioned here were all very familiar to the Israelites. These cities had been overthrown and destroyed. If we were to bring this into a modern scenario and terminology, we would say, “Take a look at the Twin Towers [the former World Trade Center, New York City, New York] today. How much hope would there be for your security to look to the Twin Towers today? Thousands were killed on September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers came down.” That was the lesson that God was trying to bring to these people’s minds: “Look at these towns out here. You think you are doing just fine. Look at them; they are destroyed. You need to learn the lessons from those things.”

They were all aware of what had happened to these communities. They had thought these cities were safe, but they had fallen into the hands of their attackers, and Amos used the destroyed ruins as an illustration of what was going to happen to them. “You are no better than they are, and you are going to be just as vulnerable as they were,” he told them.

An Evil Day

“Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near. . . .” Verse 3. One of the greatest, fatal deceptions to come upon God’s people is to believe that the day of the Second Coming of Jesus is a long way off. When you begin to believe that all is well—you have money in the bank, your health is good, you think life will go on as it has for many more years, you are at ease while others are suffering around you, you think that the day the Lord can reach you is a long way away—the devil is speaking in your ear.

All the while you put off the evil day. All the while, you think that the Second Coming of Jesus is a far way off. Believe me, people who know about the Second Coming, and who know that their lives are not right with Jesus, see His Second Coming as an evil day. They do not welcome the Second Coming, because they know that ultimately it will destroy their lives.

The children of Israel viewed it in the same way. They knew that the day of the Lord was the Day of Judgment, and they looked at it as an evil day. So the seat of violence came near, involving the oppression of the poor for their own personal gain.

It is not unusual that, when people come into a lot of money, such as winning the lottery, for example, they suddenly consider themselves to be someone of great importance. Have you ever noticed that? Many, many of the people who have become big dollar winners end up living under a bridge, because they cannot handle the prosperity that comes to them. But they had thought themselves very important!

One of the first things people do, when they come into big money, is to bedeck their mortal bodies with all kinds of junk to make them appear attractive to other people. And they buy big, big houses and big, big cars, thinking that these will impress people around them.

Picture of Luxury

“Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; That 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.” Verses 3, 4.

What a tremendous picture is given in these verses! Prophets of old were able to put together word pictures that conveyed things you could not say by typing out a flat sentence. What a picture! While most people were out working from sunrise to sunset, these people were lounging on beds of ivory.

Ivory, even today, is a very precious commodity, but these were bedsteads that were inlaid with ivory! A very luxurious picture. Most people were lucky to have a mat to sleep on, let alone a bed—and certainly not a bed that was inlaid with ivory. They would stretch out and take their rest in luxury. This is a picture of the society today.

Perverted Appetite

And then, when they finally climbed out of their beds of luxury, they ate lambs out of the flock and calves out of the midst of the stall. It does not say that they were eating sheep and cows. It says they were eating the delicate meat of lambs and calves. They were eating lambs and calves, not sheep and cows, because one of the greatest treats for meat eaters is the tenderest cut. Nobody wants tough meat.

Have you ever heard of veal cutlets? Do you know from where veal cutlets come? Veal cutlets come from calves that have been penned up in small crates, hardly able to move. They are raised there until they are a certain age, and then they are slaughtered. Their meat is harvested at its most tender stage, so it can go upon the plates and into the palates of those who desire tender cuts of meat.

It would make you sick to see how these animals are raised and how they are treated, yet we see this very thing taking place in the days of Amos. They were crating up these little animals so they would have tender cuts of meat that only the rich could afford. If you are poor, you may be able to buy hamburger, but you certainly cannot afford veal cutlets. They are expensive. But here the people were satisfying the cravings of perverted appetites. They wanted the choice cuts; they would not settle for second best. They wanted tender meat. They wanted the lambs and the calves.

From what I have been able to determine, as I have researched this series on Amos, most Israelites—not all but most—ate meat only three or four times a year. That was the norm! The three or four times they ate meat centered around the times of their festivals. The poor ate meat even less times than that.

So the picture given in Amos 6 is that the leading citizens were eating quite a bit of the choice cuts—they had the money to buy it. Their actions were causing some very baleful effects to come into the nation. History has recorded that for us, and if we fail to learn the lessons that God has for us, then we are destined to repeat the same mistakes and to face the same future that Israel faced.

Symptoms Developing

Remember the visions recorded in Ezekiel 8 and 9, where God took Ezekiel to the temple and showed him the priests there that were worshipping the sun, playing the harlot? The record shows that God took him even deeper into vision and showed him greater abominations that were taking place. We ask, how in the world could these things of old have taken place? How could they have gotten so far out of hand that those who were commissioned of God to perform a sacred service so prostituted it that it became immoral and was an abomination before God? How could they depart from God in that way?

We see a definite pattern that brought these things to pass. Is it not true that if we see symptoms developing regarding a certain situation, we know what the results are going to be? This is one of the requirements of a physician. A physician always looks for symptoms. A pastor is somewhat like a physician. He watches for spiritual symptoms, and when he sees these symptoms, it behooves him, under the direction of God, to point out the potential results, so the actions can be corrected and God’s glory can be manifested.

Ezekiel saw things that were very uncomfortable for him, and as we have been studying, in Amos, we see things coming out in the forefront that are disturbing for us. We see certain kinds of trends and symptoms developing within the body of Adventism and within the body of Christians at large. I state this from a standpoint that the majority of God’s people are in other churches. (See John 10:16; The Great Controversy, 1888, 383.)

Sound of Music

“That chant to the sound of the viol, [and] invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David.” Amos 6:5. This verse is very difficult to translate. The phrase, “chant to the sound of the viol,” is translated in other versions to read, “sing idle songs to the sound of the harp.” But even this translation does not really do justice to what is being said here. The words, “sing idle songs,” are used only once in the entirety of the Old Testament, so it is difficult to find a translation that will make sense to us. There is an Arabic equivalent, however, which has the meaning, “to talk immoderately or to babble or prattle to the sound of the harp.”

It seems that this would be the best translation to apply to the context of what was taking place in this text and to us in the times in which we live.

The same is true of the phrase, “inventing to themselves instruments of musick.” The alternate translation of this would be, “shouting, they imagine themselves to be singing.” If you watch the videotape Are You Ready for Church? you see an exact parallel of this taking place today. In reality, there is nothing new under the sun! People are shouting and prattling and talking and considering this music. I am sorry, but I still like melodious strains of music and not all the babbling and shouting that passes for music today.

But let me point out to you that this was taking place in the days of Amos, and this music was part of their downfall. It was part of what led them to do things they probably never would have done otherwise. Ellen White tells us that music was part of the problem for the children of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai when they built the golden calf and just before they crossed over into Canaan, at Kadesh-Barnea, when they began to associate with the Midianitish women. They would never have succumbed to the temptations had it not been for the music. (See Patriarchs and Prophets, 319, 320, 454.)

Music pervades our entire society today. I am not bringing these things out to condemn anyone, but we need to elevate the standards once again. “If we do not receive the religion of Christ by feeding upon the word of God, we shall not be entitled to an entrance into the city of God. Having lived on earthly food, having educated our tastes to love worldly things, we would not be fitted for the heavenly courts; we could not appreciate the pure, heavenly current that circulates in heaven. The voices of the angels and the music of their harps would not satisfy us.” Review and Herald, May 4, 1897.

“That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.” Amos 6:6. The “affliction of Joseph” here means that the conditions in Israel were deplorable for most of the people, because most of the people were quite average people. They were getting by, but they were not happy, and they were not growing spiritually. They were not developing a character like God intended them to do. Those who were eating and drinking and laying and stretching themselves out on couches and beds thought life would never end. They had food, wine, and perfume. For what more could they ask?

Wrath of God

Verse 7 changes gears somewhat: “Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed. 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. And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. 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. For, behold, the Lord commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.” Amos 6:7–11.

Those who thought they were so blessed, living in luxury and letting the world go by, were to be the first to go into captivity. Do we dare make a comparison here? In the circumstances Amos described, he was speaking specifically of the leadership of that day. He asked, “Do you want the best places at the banquets? Do you want the most acknowledgement in the Synagogues? Then you are going to be the first to go into captivity.” And the reason was that they had departed from the plan that God had for His people.

All men are created equal. There is a value of the soul, and God looks upon all people the same, but there are certain areas of responsibility to which God has called people. He has equipped them for those responsibilities, but at the same time, they will have greater accountability when they are called before God in the Day of Judgment. That is the way that God works.

As He was trying to deal with the nation of Israel, God left no doubt regarding how He felt about the Northern kingdom. They would pay the price for their attitudes and their actions. God said, “I hate everything about you, and you are not going to escape; you are going to die.”

These verses give a very realistic account of the horrors of pestilence that would come after the seize of Jerusalem took place. So complete was the destruction to be that even where a large number gathered in a house to escape these dangers, not one of them would escape. There would be no place to hide.

Those who would give the burial message of them that had died did not even want to carry the bodies out, for fear that they would be attacked or sieged upon, so they would burn the bodies. When giving the burial message, they dared not even mention the name of the Lord. Why? Because they were fearful that a greater manifestation of wrath would come upon them by even mentioning the name of God.

This is one of the things that contributed to the loss of the name Yahweh. Many people have tried to re-capture the use of that name, and they have not succeeded. If someone comes to you saying that you need to call upon the name of the Lord in a certain way, do not listen. This is one of the things that contributed to the loss of the pronunciation of the name. The children of Israel did not dare call upon the name of the Lord because they were fearful that their sins would be raw and ripe before God and His wrath would come down upon them—even in a burial message. That is how far away from God that they had gone.

For Ensamples

Again I say, “All these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11. The books of the Old Testament, dear friend, point to last day happenings.

“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: Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? 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.” Amos 6:12–14.

The general order of things at this time of judgment, this time of retribution, would be so far out of the order that it would be like horses running on rocks—something you do not do. If you have ever ridden a horse, you know you do not run a horse on rocks. People knew that back then too. And you do not take oxen and plow a rock field. God was trying to convey to them that these things were not things that would normally be done, but they would be done to deal with such a corrupt and poisonous situation.

Some things become so poisonous in God’s mind that they have to be dealt with in a very severe way—a way that normally would not be used.

Again, we have to learn the lessons of these things. God is longsuffering. God is merciful. Israel’s history was long. That is the principle that God has for us in dealing with situations. We, as human beings, do not have long periods of time to deal with situations like God does. God did not deal with individuals per se; He dealt with entire nations who had long, long lives. Sometimes He allowed them to go on for hundreds of years, and then finally, when the cup was full, God dealt with them.

Translate that down to us today and to how we are to relate to people and individuals in circumstances within the church. We do not have long periods of time, but we can apply the principles. We can extend the hand of mercy, but when a limit is reached and situations become poisonous, we have to deal with them in the same way that God dealt with them. That is the lesson we can gain from Amos 6. If we are going on the same path as the children of Israel, we will have to pay the same price. The price was a permanent one for Israel. The whole Northern kingdom was lost.

A Remnant Spared

In spite of that, God held out a light. He held out the fact that there was a remnant that would be spared, and that remnant was Judah. And even out of Judah there was another remnant that was to be saved. A smaller group even yet—a remnant of a remnant. The Spirit of Prophecy tells us that the majority will leave us. (See Patriarchs and Prophets, 102, 103.) We need to try to examine the reasons why the majority depart, and stay far away from the circumstances that would draw us, if we possibly can.

The children of Israel loved their wine so much that it blurred their thinking. They loved their fine cuts of meat so much that they had perverted appetites. They loved their celebration music and dance so much that it caused them to enter into temptation. They loved their money that provided for all of this, and the love of money is the root of all evil.

Friend, we dare not repeat the same history. Are we going to survive? We can survive by understanding. We can survive by drawing near to God. We can survive by not stiffening our necks against rebuke, when it comes from the Word. We can survive. It is possible. Amos 6 is a dark picture, but God has placed it there so we can survive. He has made all the provisions for us to survive, if we will just learn the lessons.

To be continued . . .

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life Ministry. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mikebaugher@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Lessons From the Book of Amos – Part VI

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Reading the Book of Amos is a disturbing experience, because as we read, we are faced with the awesome demands a righteous God makes on the lives of His people. We are also presented with the consequences, if we do not follow the commands that God makes upon our lives.

In Part v of this series [April 2004], we noted the parallels between the church of Laodicea and the children of Israel with whom Amos dealt. In the message to the church of Laodicea, we know that, if it does not come into line with God’s position, He is going to spew it out. (Revelation 3:16.) In Amos, we are told the process that the church will go through. It is all revealed to us there. It is not a welcome message; it is not a comforting message, and if we have not been perturbed and disturbed by it, we probably have not yet grasped the message of Amos.

Selective Hearing

In reality, I think all of us have that little mechanism built into us where we tune things out. If you have ever had dogs, you know how they can exercise tuning you out when they want to. They will filter out all the whistles, all the shouts, and all the screams that are supposed to make them come to you or to mind. But it is uncanny how they can hear the rattling of their dish when food is being poured into it. They may be at the other end of the house or out in the field, but they can hear that food being poured into the dish, and they know that it is time to eat. Human beings are a lot like that as well!

We all have our sophisticated ways of tuning out what we do not want to hear. We find this technique, often called selective hearing, operational in the lives of husbands and wives. We tune out what we do not want to hear.

If we human beings can find ways of avoiding messages from each other, we certainly can do that with God. But God tells us over and over again, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22. He speaks to us out of heaven with all the authority of our Creator and as the One Who has the right to rule and to control our lives. But we bristle when God wants to control our lives for us. If what He wants us to do does not meet our selective hearing, there is a tendency for us to tune Him out.

This is what was happening in Israel of old. They also had selective hearing. They did not want to hear that God had the right to rule over them or that He had the right to expect them to respond. For the most part, sinful human beings do not want to be ruled over; they want to rule. If you do not think this is true, then I do not think you have heard the message that has been presented in the Book of Amos.

Filtered Messages

As we study the prophets of old, there is a tendency to filter out the messages that they delivered, because we do not want to face the truth that their messages have applications to us today. We especially hold this view pertaining to the Old Testament. And even though we, as Seventh-day Adventists, like to console ourselves that we are Bible Christians, when we come to a commanding passage in the Old Testament, we like to say that it applied to the people in that day. If there is something in the New Testament with which we do not want to come into harmony, we say that that instruction was given 2,000 years ago.

And then we look at the messages and instructions given in the Spirit of Prophecy, written just over 100 years ago. There are those today who allege that Ellen White was a creature of her day and time—that her writings do not really apply to us. There are even some people who want to rewrite her writings and update the English. I have never had any problem reading what she has to say. It is very clear to me. But there is always the desire to tinker with something that we do not want to hear. Amos 7 gives an account of this.

Vision of Disaster

“Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, [it was] the latter growth after the king’s mowings. And it came to pass, [that] when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he [is] small. The Lord repented for this: It shall not be, saith the Lord.” Verses 1–3.

Here is described a vision of judgment given to Amos. It was a vision of a natural disaster about to occur. The latter crop is referred to in verse 1. The first crop, or the first mowing, was given to the king as a tax, and the people had to depend upon the second mowing to not only feed themselves but also their animals and to have enough left over for the next year.

There is always more in the first mowing than there is in the second mowing, so you can imagine what was left—only enough for the people to just get by. But in this vision, Amos saw grasshoppers come in and begin to eat things down so that nothing was left. When Amos saw this, he, like Moses, began to intercede on behalf of Israel to God, so this would not take place. And the Bible says that God changed this disaster. He let it pass. He said, “It shall not be.”

Then Amos is given another vision.

“Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part. Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he [is] small. The Lord repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord God.” Verses 4–6.

Now, if the grasshoppers were a picture of a natural disaster, fire would seem to be something supernatural. If you have ever been through an area where a forest fire has burned, you know how devastating it is. All the vegetation has been destroyed, and it takes many years for restoration to take place.

That was the vision God gave to Amos—a warning of the devastation that was to come upon Israel as a judgment. And Amos said, “Lord, please, spare them; they are so small.” And the Lord said, “Alright, this is not going to happen.”

Intercessory Prayer

I wonder how many times intercessory prayer, prayer that we may never even know about, has spared us. Here was Israel, doing things that they thought God had no idea of, and the only reason they were spared judgment was because of God’s prophet. They did not even like Amos, but he was interceding on their behalf.

I am sure that we all have stories we could tell, either about parents or grandparents, who have interceded on our behalf. We will never really know or understand how many times intercessory prayer has preserved us until we enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The Plumbline

But then a third vision is given.

“Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall [made] by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb-line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” Verses 7–9.

A plumbline is a very basic tool of masonry or carpentry. It is used to build a wall so that the wall is plumb, that is, exactly vertical or true. The wall referred to in verse 7 had been established using a plumbline. It was set vertically straight by a plumbline.

Amos, in vision, saw the Lord standing like a construction foreman or a surveyor with a plumbline in His hand. He was checking the wall to see if it was still straight, if it was still bearing the load all right, and if it was still correctly aligned. He was looking to see that there was no hint of bulges or overhanging tilts or cracks or something that would cause the wall to go over.

What is the meaning of this vision? It is saying that the Lord brought Israel into being. He promised to save them; His laws were there to guide them. They were supposed to be in a covenant relationship with God and with His Law, and because of that, it was now necessary for God to take a plumb-line in His hand and to measure that wall to see if it was still straight.

God periodically comes by every one who has entered into a covenant relationship with Him and uses the plumbline to see if we are still straight and upright. It is not an arbitrary assessment; it is a highly precise and discriminating act, and we need to learn from Amos that this is how God works with His people. When we have agreed to be obedient to God’s Law and when we have been baptized to wash away our past sins, God uses the plumbline to continue measuring us.

Right to Measure

The two visions that Amos saw about disaster—the grasshoppers and the fire—have given way to a vision of something far more familiar in small scale, something almost domestic—the building of a wall with a plumbline. No disaster was involved in that. Grasshoppers coming through the field are disastrous. A fire sweeping through and consuming everything is disastrous. But using a plumbline to measure a wall is not disastrous. Everybody knows that a leaning wall cannot stand. A leaning wall has to be demolished and rebuilt.

The first two of these three visions equaled the equivalent of hell. This is the destruction; this is the wasting that is going to take place when judgment comes. The third vision of the plumbline is asking how are you going to measure up? Amos does not make any comment against this vision of judgment. He does not fall down on his knees and begin to pray, “Lord, spare Jacob.” The disasters of grasshoppers and fire had been canceled out in answer to the prayers of Amos. But Amos does not make any appeal against the use of the plumbline, because there is nothing harsh or capricious or arbitrary about God measuring His people. He has the right to do that.

Amos knew that. He knew what was going on, and if he should pray that God would overlook this fact—“Lord, do not measure Your people”—he would be a false prophet, because the words of the prophet deal with measuring.

Like Moses and others, he knew that this was God’s right and that it was helpful for His people. But Amos also knew that judgment would come, because he knew what was taking place in Israel.

Coming Judgment

The Bible never lets us escape from the fact that there is a judgment coming, and we are held morally accountable. As we see this fact being brought about in the Book of Amos, it should sober us in our thinking. This is why the apostle tells us that we are to be sober. (1 Peter 1:13; 4:7.) It should sober our thinking, because we live in a universe where good and evil matter. A lot of people do not think that evil matters. A lot of people do not think that good matters. But in God’s universe, good and evil matter, and where and on what side we place ourselves does matter.

“Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it [is] the king’s chapel, and it [is] the king’s court.” Verses 10–13.

Apparently, Amos had been telling what was going on around the countryside. That is not always the best or the most enviable posi-tion in which to be found. There was an encounter with the High Priest of the county, and this man went to the king and told him that Amos was conspiring against him.

Church and State Integration

Let us ask some questions here:

First of all, who was this man Amaziah? He was the priest of Bethel; he held a religious position. One of the things we need to understand is that for Israel the church and the state were very integrated. The priest and the king were to work together. The church controlled the state; religious ideas were to overrule any civil ideas of the government.

If we were to translate this into a setting of spiritual understanding today, we would see that the priest of Bethel would be like the Secretary of the Northern Conference of Israel, and the king would represent the conference president.

The priest dealt with the sanctuary; the king dealt with the business administration of God’s people. The king ruled God’s people; the priest dealt with the sacrifices of the temple. They worked very closely together.

Here was Amaziah, a priest, trying to pull rank on Amos, who was God’s prophet. Amos, if you please, was a self-supporting minister in God’s cause, and Amaziah was attempting to control how his ministry was run. This offers the opportunity for many parallels, but I will suggest only one. The priest of the order and organization was trying to dictate how independent ministries were to work and to operate! Indeed there is nothing new under the sun!

Attempt to Prejudice the Hearer

Amaziah was passing on information designed to prejudice the king from even entertaining the message that Amos had for him. He was building a case against Amos and his message so the king would not even consider whether or not the words that Amos spoke were true.

How many times have we heard about those kinds of things happening today? They happen so often on a religious level. If someone has a position to defend, many times they will go to any length to defend that position, even to the extent of misrepresenting the facts. They resort to bribery or falsehood or whatever meets the need at the moment.

Amaziah misrepresented Amos and then turned on him, and in so many words, he told Amos, “You are out of your league up here. This is religious headquarters. It is not the right place for a small-town preacher like you. Anyway, you belong in the south. They will enjoy your prophecy down there. Go back there, if you want to make a living.”

The expression in verse 12, “go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there,” implies that Amos was only doing the work of God for money. “You are only up here causing all this trouble, operating this independent ministry for the money that you get out of it.” Of course, that is always the issue with religious headquarters who think that they have a corner on the market of the self-supporting minister.

As mentioned before, religion and politics were mixed together in this setting, and for a prophet to predict the imminent fall of the nation and the death of the monarch, as Amos did in verse 9, would have been seen as terribly demoralizing and politically treacherous. So Amaziah took it upon himself to deal with this prophet by using misrepresentation and belittlement. Amos was not welcome. No wonder the land could not bear Amos’ words. No wonder the established religious leader tried to silence him. It was the natural response of the human heart. Amaziah felt he was just doing his duty. We need to understand that those conditions have not really changed at all today.

Chosen of God

Notice Amos’ response: “Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I [was] no prophet, neither [was] I a prophet’s son; but I [was] an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.” Verses 14, 15.

If we examine Amos’ reference to his occupation as a shepherd and a tender of sycomore trees, it appears that he was answering Amaziah’s criticism of prophesying for money by saying that he had no need of the prophet’s stipend, and he was not doing the work for the money. Amos made it clear that his background was entirely secular, that he was dedicated to the Lord and that the Lord had chosen him and had sent him.

God had chosen him because He could not find anyone else—not even from the ranks of the religious orders or from the king’s court or from the sanctuary—who could be used to carry His message. He sought one who was tending sheep and said, “I want you.”

Amos then became a type of the Great Shepherd, the One who comes to us bringing the message of gospel and truth. God chose a holy man. The Bible says, “Holy men of God spake [as they were] moved by the Holy Ghost.” 11 Peter 1:21. You do not have to be a priest; you do not have to be a king to carry God’s message of salvation. All you have to be is one who is dedicated wholly and completely to God, and He can use you in His cause.

“Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I [was] no prophet.” A lot of people asked Ellen White if she was a prophet. She always responded that she did not claim to be a prophet but a messenger of the Lord. The same feeling probably welled up in Amos when he was asked this. He said, “I am no prophet, neither am I a prophet’s son.” This is where the phrase comes from that we use so many times—“I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I can tell you, from what I see, that . . . .”

Work of Lay People

It is interesting to note that God called an Israelite to preach to Israelites. That is the method God uses to get His message across. If the professional rank and file are not going to do His will in completing the work He has called them to do, then He is going to raise up lay people to accomplish His purpose. When that happens, a scorning of the work that the lay people accomplish is going to take place. We need to be ready for that. If the message cannot be refuted from the writings of Inspiration, then you better watch out, because God has declared that His word will not return to Him void. You need to be aware, however, that there is always going to be opposition to the preaching of the truth.

Amaziah had said, in effect, that there was no salary for Amos, no career future. But Amos replied, “I am not a career man. I am a called man. The Lord took me from tending the flock, and He told me to go prophesy to His people, Israel.”

This is where spiritual gifts come into play. If God calls you to do a work for Him, He will equip you to accomplish the work. God calls individuals to ministry.

I believe that one of the failures that took place in Israel regarding the sanctuary was that those who were working in the sanctuary did not have a calling. They had a birthright. How many preachers’ kids do you know who have gone into ministry that did not have the same dedication as the father? The reason probably is that they did not have the calling to ministry. The father may have had the calling to ministry. The father may have encouraged the son to follow in his footsteps in ministry, but if that child did not have the call of God to go into ministry, it would be better that he work the plow than to try to fulfill a calling for which he has not been equipped. If God calls you to ministry, He will equip you for that ministry. He will give you the gift that is necessary for you to accomplish His ministry.

Service or Career Choice

There was a vast difference between Amos and Amaziah. This difference still divides those in full-time, Christian service today. The decision to serve God in full-time service can never be simply a career choice. I have colleagues who have selected ministry as a career choice, rather than being called of God. This was not the case with Amos. Amos did not decide one day that he was tired of following sheep from hillside to hillside and then choose to change professions and begin preaching. He did not think to himself that with such a change he would not have to get up so early in the morning to tend the sheep or worry about those who were out on the hillside in the bad weather. He did not consider that all he would need to do is preach on Sabbath morning and be done for the rest of the week. A lot of people believe that of a preacher. I do not think that very many of them have followed a preacher throughout the weekly routine to see just what he does.

Amos was not trying to focus attention on any sacrifice that
he was making to do God’s will. Rather, he was admitting his own lack of qualifications for the job. In effect, he was agreeing with Ama-ziah that he was out of his league as a country boy in the king’s sanctuary at Bethel. In other words, this messenger was utterly insignificant. What mattered is the fact that the Lord had sent him. He had a message from God, and Amos was driven by the message that he had received.

It was not his qualification for the job that put him where he was; it was God. All we need is a heart to obey God. That is all Amos had. We each need to pray for a heart to obey God, and if we are listening to the Word of God and trying to obey it, God can and will use us. When the occasion arose to defend the cause of God, all Amos needed was the word from God, and he was ready to go; he packed his suitcases and was ready.

“The Lord took me,” he said, “as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.”

Judgment Proclaimed

“Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not [thy word] against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.” Amos 7:16, 17.

That was Amos’ response to Amaziah. He was told not to prophesy again at Bethel. So what does Amos do in response? He immediately goes and prophesies against Israel at Bethel.

The location was important. Amaziah had not forbidden Amos to preach. He had not said, “Do not preach those things at all anywhere.” He just said, “Do not point out the wrongs that are being done at Bethel.” Why? Because that was the king’s chapel.

The offense of preaching often is found in where God’s message is delivered. Nobody minds the preaching of the Three Angels’ Messages, as long as the judgment is not part of the matter. “You can preach that all you want, but do not include us; do not point out what we are doing that is wrong! Tell all the people you want that they are going to hell, but do not tell us at headquarters that we are going to hell or that we are in danger of judgment.” This is basically what Amos was being told—“Go into someone else’s district; do not come into my district.”

Not My Backyard

A good friend of mine, a retired minister—independent minister now—was on an airplane in the Northwest. Little did he know, as he boarded the plane, that already seated in the plane was the local conference president. The conference president did not reveal himself to this man until after the plane landed at its destination. My friend got off first. The conference president followed him down the concourse and, coming up behind him, ran into him to the extent that it almost knocked him off his feet. When he recovered his composure, the conference president said to him, “What are you doing in my district?” My friend gave an excellent response: “I did not know it was your district. I thought it was God’s district.”

For Amos to speak in Jerusalem, where he was from, the things that God had told him to speak in Bethel would not have accomplished the purpose that God intended. God called him to preach in Bethel. His words, in verse 17, concerning Amaziah, his wife, his children, his land, and where he himself would end up would cause little or no problem if preached in Jerusalem. But speaking those things in the back yard where the priest lived was going to cause some problems. It would not be appreciated.

God had not just given Amos a message; He had given him a destination for that message. God said, “Go and prophesy to my people Israel.”

Rebuke; Exhort

Sometimes it is very difficult to deal with religious issues in the way that we should. It is not easy to speak out, pointing out areas where evil is taking place, but when God gives the message and calls us to go with that message, do you realize that we would be lost eternally if we did not carry out that message?

Ellen White would lament many times; she would weep before the Lord that she did not want to deliver the messages that God gave to her. She did not want to hurt people’s feelings with the messages that she had to carry. But she carried them anyway. She spoke them anyway. (See Spiritual Gifts, vol. 2, 60, 61.) We will never understand the anguish that she went through in having to do it.

In the instruction Paul gave to Timothy, the young man who would follow in his footsteps, he said, “Rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering.” 11 Timothy 4:2. That was where Amos’ personal experience was found. He told Amaziah that he must be obedient to what God had called him to do and that there was a vast difference between the word of man and the Word of the Lord.

Difference in the Word

Perhaps in Amos’ day it was at times difficult to distinguish the difference, particularly when some prophets spoke falsely in the name of the Lord, but that is not the case today. Why is that not the case today? Because, as 11 Peter 1:19 says, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed.” We now have the written Word of God, and that becomes the basis and the foundation of everything that we are to be and everything that we are to do. There is no doubt today about what God has said. We do not have to say, “Well, I heard this prophet, and I heard that prophet, and I heard another prophet, and I cannot figure it out.” No, we go to the Word, and there we find what is the truth. We can be sure that word, that message from God, always remains the same.

How are we to deal with situations like this? We see in this much more than just ourselves. We have before us the setting of prophet and priest, a setting where there is the confronting of the unwelcome, unsettling, unchanging Word of God. How are we to relate to that? How are we to cope with the voice of God when it applies to our situation?

Remember, we do not want to fall into the trap of filtering. When the Word comes, do not tune it out—examine it. Even though it may be cutting across our grain, do not filter it out. Do not become angry with the one who gives the message. Study it out; see if it is the truth. If you want to be angry with someone because it is the truth, be angry with the Lord, but do not be angry with the one who spoke the Word of the Lord. Does that sound reasonable? God can deal with anger. The message is the word of truth, so do not filter out what God is trying to get across. We will be in the same danger as Israel of old, if we do.

Do not try to fudge things or sort out things and put them into categories that we can get around. Take them as they come. If we will take God at His Word and apply God’s Word into our lives, it will not be long before Jesus can come. I am looking forward to that. I am longing for that day. I am getting tired of the things that I see going on in the world. I want it brought to an end. I want the Lord to come soon, and I know that you do, too. But we need to make sure that we are following as closely as we can what God has revealed to us in His Word.

To be continued . . .

Lessons From the Book of Amos – Part VII

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As we study the Book of Amos, we need to pray for God’s eyesalve to look not only at what was transpiring in the past but to also see what is happening in the time in which we live.

Too often we find ourselves reading God’s Word for an immediate answer to some problem or difficulty that we might have at the time—a solution that will answer the questions for the here and now. But this is not really the way to study God’s Word. Ellen White tells us that the prophets wrote more for our day than for the day in which they themselves lived, so our study of Amos is timely. (See Selected Messages, Book 3, 338, 339.)

Sad Judgment

Reading the contents of Amos 8 is like reading the obituary at the funeral of a friend, because we realize the finality of the deceased one’s life. Amos 8 is a sad chapter. What makes it even sadder is that the same dire consequences and circumstances will fall upon God’s people at the end of time as fell upon God’s people, Israel, in the Northern kingdom. Those who have had the benefit and the privileges of knowing the Three Angels’ Messages will, we are told, leave by the millions. We boast today, in Seventh-day Adventism, a membership of over 12 million, but one day, millions of these members will leave. Many, we are told by the Pen of Inspiration, will leave this truth and join the ranks of the opposition. (See The Great Controversy, 608; Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 195, 196.)

The story does not end there. “Standard after standard was left to trail in the dust as company after company from the Lord’s army joined the foe and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandment-keeping people of God.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 41. We are told that “the broken ranks will be filled up by those represented by Christ as coming in at the eleventh hour.” Last Day Events, 182.

The circumstances in the Northern kingdom were bleak, and it was into this situation that Amos came. He was not a citizen of Israel. He had come from the Southern kingdom of Judah. When he arrived, Amos began to deliver to the nations around Israel the message he had been given, declaring that it would not be long until the wrath of God would fall upon them.

The people of Israel, upon hearing Amos’ message, said, “Amen, brother, preach on. Preach it like it is.” He was naming the sins of the other countries and declaring that they and even the Southern kingdom, where he was from, would receive punishment. None of this got Amos in trouble. I suspect this part of his preaching brought a lot of applause and praise.

Amos saved Israel, the Northern kingdom, for his last message. When he began to preach, “You people of Israel, your sins are as bad as or worse than the rest; God is going to destroy you,” he was no longer the popular preacher that he had been. The people then told him to mind his own business and to go back to where he had come from!

Themes Used

In our previous studies, we have learned that God uses theme devices as He inspires His prophets to bring His word to us. As we endeavor to study the Word of God, we must understand God’s theme devices, or we are going to get off track in our interpretation of God’s Word. God uses theme devices for learning, so we will remember the lessons that are taught and will stay on track.

When Amos began his book, with the pronouncements of judgments on Israel and Judah as well as the surrounding nations, the theme device was, for three transgressions and for four. (See Amos 1.) Amos used this theme device to get their attention. The reasons were given as to why the judgments were coming. Then again, in chapters 7 and 8, this theme device surfaces in all of its full-blown glory.

No Escape

God repented of the first two of four visions of judgment. God was willing to overlook, for the greater benefit of the nation, their first two follies. That tells us something about God: He is willing, through His mercy, to overlook many of our faults, but we should never presume that because He does not punish us immediately, we can take advantage of that mercy by continuing to sin. If we do, we will find that God will ultimately bring judgment instead of mercy upon us.

God was willing to overlook things—for three transgressions and for four,—but the third and the fourth visions of judgment are very soon to kick in.

God has laws of operation that govern everything He does, including how He presents His messages to His people. If we are going to stay on track, we must understand how these laws operate. Let us study this further.

The fourth vision of Amos tells of the final judgment of Israel. As we read the words of this Old Testament prophet, we cannot escape the depicted concept of judgment. Judgment is not a comfortable topic. It is the very opposite of being comfortable. We are so disturbed by the topic that we often deny that God is bringing judgment upon a land or upon His people. We miss the point that God has for us, because we do not want to discuss judgment. Judgment denotes the idea that something really dreadful is going to take place, and the human psyche cannot cope with it.

We all remember 9/11—the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, and on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001. This generation will probably never forget 9/11. We may forget a lot of things, but that date is going to stay with us. When we saw the pictures on television showing the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center burning and then collapsing, we could not believe that such a horrendous thing was taking place. We were in a state of disbelief that something like this could happen on American soil. Of all the words that have been spoken regarding 9/11, I do not remember hearing anything said that this was a judgment of God. Thousands of lives were lost; hundreds of millions of dollars in damage was done. Could it have been a judgment from God? I believe so, because Ellen White tells us that such terrible disasters are indeed judgments of God upon the land. (See Manuscript Releases, vol. 11, 1.)

Most people’s minds will not allow them to process that kind of thought. Many people are in a state of shock, because some things are so awful they cannot cope with them. It is no surprise that many minds find it difficult to grasp the reality of the judgment of God, but it is important that we do think about it. The Bible makes sure that we do, because without judgment, all systems of human morality collapse. People want to do away with punishment. They manipulate laws so that punishment becomes less and less because of this concept of judgment in their minds. They do not want to deal with judgment. They do not want to deal with harshness, because they know that at some point in time—if indeed there is a God—they are going to have to face the judgment themselves. They somehow think that if they are merciful, then God will be merciful to them in their sin.

Amaziah’s Actions

In a way, this was the case with the High Priest, Amaziah. (See Amos 7:10–13.) He did not want to face the fact that judgment would come. As a result, he tried to silence Amos. This story is particularly intriguing, because it tells of an attempt by a religious official to stifle the preaching of a prophet whose message was unpleasant, embarrassing, and even threatening to the religious and governmental establishment.

From a purely human point of view, Amaziah’s actions were reasonable. He wanted to silence Amos. He viewed him as a prophet who was not authorized to be in the Northern kingdom. He did not appreciate being told that they were not following God. The reality of it is, however, that when you try to silence a prophet of God, you are, in fact, trying to silence God.

We know that this is not something new. There is nothing new under the sun! In the New Testament, we see this phenomenon was raised up again and again. Those whose fathers had killed the prophets also thought that they could silence John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul, and the other prophets. Sadly, they had failed to learn this lesson outlined in Amos. They thought that it applied to someone else, not to them. In reality, is not that the tendency of human beings today?

History tells us that religion always tries to have peace and harmony prevail above the truth that God demands justice and faithfulness. I have heard people say, “When we hear the governments in the Middle East crying peace and safety, that is then the sign of the end.” No, that is not the sign of the end.

The sign of the end is when religious pressure becomes so great that it forces all religious groups into a uniformity—not a unity, but into a uniformity—where there are no longer the variances that now exist. That is the peace and safety that needs to be carefully watched, because it has always been the plan and purpose of religion to bring peace and harmony into the lives of those who are following their religion.

This God is going to judge, and ignorance is not bliss. Refusal to consider the reality of God’s wrath against evil amounts to willingness to condone evil. The truth, today, is that people do not consider what is right or wrong. They do, however, consider how they feel about something.

How we feel, most of the time, is wrong, because we base our feelings, for the most part, upon our sinful natures. The sad story is that Amaziah, who wanted to protect his king and countrymen from hearing the predictions of their doom, would inevitably be unable to escape the effects of that doom himself. Amos’ message did not come from some manifestation of his own will but was a direct message from God. Amaziah, along with his fellow Israelites, was destined to experience the penalty of ignoring and opposing the message.

Summer Fruit

Consider now this vision of the summer fruit in Amos 8: “Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit. And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.” Verses 1, 2.

God asked Amos, “What do you see?”

Amos replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” The vision of summer fruit brings the message that it is over for Israel.

One of the things that my wife, Judy, and I like is tree-ripened, summer fruit. There is nothing quite like it. When we go to the grocery store, the fruit we buy there has been picked green and shipped across the country. It looks good, but it has little taste, and we often wish we had never bought it. There is nothing like tree-ripened, sweet, summer fruit.

What God is presenting to Amos in this vision of summer fruit is the idea that summer fruit does not last long. It is ripe. When we obtain tree-ripened, summer fruit, we had better eat it or preserve it immediately, or it will turn to mush. God is communicating the fact that the time is ripe. Their cup is full. They have presumed upon the mercy of God long enough.

“What did you see, Amos?”

“I saw some summer fruit. It was ripe, and it was ready to have some-thing done with it.”

God said, “You are right. It has to have something done with it. It has to be dealt with.”

After the plumbline of Amos 7, and then the rejection of God’s Word by the priest, Amaziah, the end of the line has come for God’s people—the summer fruit. God is not going to spare them any longer.

Picture of Disaster

Amos 8:3 depicts the awful picture of disaster: “And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: [there shall be] many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast [them] forth with silence.”

They were singing these songs at the temple in Bethel—a temple that was in a state of high apostasy, and had been from its very beginning. They would find that even though they received pleasure in the past from their songs, they now would be turned to howlings, to songs of lamentation. Dead bodies were going to be everywhere.

This is why I say that Amos 8 is such a sad chapter. It is like attending a funeral, because there is death and carnage and disaster in every place. God says, “I want you to pay close attention, because this is a type of the disaster that is going to take place at the end of the world.”

Often we have the idea that the disaster at the end of the world will be terrible because of so much bloodshed, but that is not the disaster with which we need to be concerned. The disaster at the end of the world is the fact that God’s people—those who have professed God—are going to be the ones slaughtered.

The world will get what it has coming, but God’s people have made a profession. They have said, “All that the Lord has said, we will do.” (Exodus 19:8; 24:3, 7.) They have the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish this, if they will. The tragedy, the disaster, is not that the world is going to be destroyed; the tragedy is that those who have taken the name of the Lord upon their lips are going to be destroyed.

Amos 8:3 is not talking about the dead bodies of the surrounding nations. It is referring to those who are at the temple singing the songs and worshiping. There will be many dead bodies.

New Moon

“Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; [yea,] and sell the refuse of the wheat? The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as [by] the flood of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only [son], and the end thereof as a bitter day.” Verses 4–10.

The new moon heralded the coming of the new month, and it was a time to come before the Lord. The people of Israel had watchmen set to watch for the new moon. When the new moon came, they blew the trumpet, announcing that a new month was on its way.

We read in Isaiah 66 that the Lord is going to come, and He is going to create new heavens and a new earth. “And it shall come to pass, [that] from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Verse 23. Somehow most of us have a tendency to zero in on this Sabbath promise to the neglect of the new moon promise. I would like to suggest to you that the new moon spoken of in this text is going to be just as much a reality in the new earth as will the Sabbath issue, because it is qualified by saying that the Lord is going to create new heavens and a new earth.

How do we as Seventh-day Adventists relate to the new moon concept? In Amos, the people were saying, “Get this new moon thing out of the way so that we can sell our corn. Get the Sabbath over with so we can sell our wheat.”

What about the new moon? Does it have significance for us? It most certainly does. Do you remember what is going to take place in the new earth concerning the tree of life? We are going to eat the fruit of that tree, how often? Every month. (See Revelation 22:2.) Isaiah’s prophetic vision reveals that he saw God’s people coming once a month to worship before the Lord and to partake of the fruit that will continue to sustain immortality. They will come Sabbath by Sabbath as well.

The Burden of Sabbath

The people of the Northern kingdom could not wait for the new moon to be gone. They could not wait for the Sabbath to be over. They would say, “Jeremiah, go out and look at the sundial in the garden. See how long the shadow is. Is the sun down yet?” What did they have on their minds? They wanted to get going with the worldly things of their lives. They had forgotten about God. The Sabbath was a burden.

There are Seventh-day Adventists today in the same situation. If they are keeping the Sabbath, it is a burden. They want it to be gone, so they can do their own things. They do not consider the Sabbath to be a time of spiritual blessing and refreshing. They cannot wait for the sun to go down.

There are others who make no pretense about the Sabbath at all. They just do their own things anyway. Maybe they are refrained a little bit. I remember hearing a teacher in one of the church’s academies stating that their family would go window-shopping on Sabbath. This teacher thought that as long as they did not buy anything, they were not breaking the Sabbath. Then, when the sun went down, they were ready to go into the stores to buy the items they had seen on Sabbath. They were “cultural Adventists.” Although they had grown up in the system, they had never really understood what a blessing the Sabbath day is.

God Sees It All

In Amos 8:7, the Lord says, “I will never forget anything that they have done.” God sees it all. God sees not only what takes place on the surface, but He is also able to look into the heart when you are keeping your eye on your watch, thinking that that action is not breaking the Sabbath. God knows that down in your heart you are hoping that you can make it to the store just before the sun goes down, so you will be ready to purchase when the clock strikes. Is that Sabbath keeping? Not at all. God says, “I see it all.”

Not only does God see our Sabbath-keeping, but also He sees every financial deal with which we are involved. He sees every greedy acquisition, every religious act, and every critical thought. Nothing is forgotten. God writes it all down, and our only hope is to come to a point in our lives where nothing matters but our God and the vindication of His character by our own. That is our only hope.

Coming Famine

As we come to the close of this chapter, I would suggest to you that there is a hint in the final verses of how judgment might have been averted.

In verse 11, we read: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread . . . .” No, there was not going to be a famine of bread, because Israel was at the height of its prosperity, but they were at the bottom spiritually.

You know, there will come a time, when the Spirit is being poured out on God’s people, that there will be some sitting in the pews who will not even realize what is happening. Some will receive the Spirit and others will not, but from all appearances, the difference will not be discerned.

But there is coming a famine in the land, “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”

That is a sad thing to think about, is it not? We pride ourselves in regard to all of the Bibles we have in the United States, but the day is going to come when there is going to be a famine in the land. That famine will not focus on whether or not you have a Bible. It is going to be more profound than that.

Many people think that if they have the Bible and if they have memorized verses, they are going to be okay. I am sorry to say that they are not going to be okay. When this famine strikes, it is going to be more profound than that. It is going to be so profound that they will not know how to apply the verses they have memorized, unless their hearts have been changed.

Spirit Withdrawn

“And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find [it]. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth: and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.” Verses 12–14.

One of the attributes of judgment is the fact that God withdraws His Spirit. When God withdraws His Spirit, that which you think you have a good handle on, you have no handle on at all. That can be part of judgment, and that is what is described in these last verses. The people are running everywhere, trying to find out what they should do, but they are not able to find it. They take their Bibles down from the shelves, open and leaf through them, but cannot find an answer that satisfies the need of their hearts. They have not paid attention to God’s Word. That is what was wrong in verse 5 when the described religious services were taking place. Instead of treasuring up those things that God had for them, they were wishing the Sabbath hours away.

The Application

How can we apply the lessons in this chapter of Amos to our lives? Part of what makes up God’s judgment is the withdrawing of His Word from His people and the withdrawing of the Holy Spirit so that the Word cannot be understood. It is only the Holy Spirit that guides into all truth. (John 16:13.) A famine of hearing the words of the Lord—what a warning to Seventh-day Adventists today!

Each Sabbath day, across the world, thousands of congregations meet. I wonder what takes place in those church services each Sabbath. I wonder what the Spirit of the Lord sees—not only from a pulpit point of view but also from a congregational point of view. Does He see His Word exalted? Does He see the moving of His Holy Spirit upon the congregations, or is the Spirit grieved away? Are the services frivolous, a time-passer to get people through the hours of the Sabbath day?

The Seventh-day Adventist Church was founded upon the Word of God, and it is the Word that needs to be preached today. It is the Word that needs to be followed, if we are ever going to get out of this world alive.

Mark it down. Amos 8:11 will be fulfilled to Adventists as well as those of other denominations. That day is going to come when there will be a famine in the land—a famine for the Word of God.

Ellen White talks about this day, and she places it near the end of time when judgment is going to fall. “Those who had not prized God’s Word were hurrying to and fro, wandering from sea to sea, and from the north to the east, to seek the Word of the Lord. Said the angel, ‘They shall not find it. There is a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord. What would they not give for one word of approval from God! but no, they must hunger and thirst on. Day after day have they slighted salvation, prizing earthly riches and earthly pleasure higher than any heavenly treasure or inducement. They have rejected Jesus and despised His saints. The filthy must remain filthy forever.’ ” Early Writings, 281, 282.

I am convinced, in my own mind, that the fulfillment of Revelation, when it says that they have no rest day and night, applies here. (Revelation 14:11.) Searching, wondering, wondering, searching—no rest day or night. What we see in these verses and in this quotation is another example of the parable of the ten virgins. (Matthew 25.)

Equal Chance

Remember, the Bible says that five of the virgins were wise and five were foolish. Do you know why it uses five and five? Why did Jesus not say there were four and six or three and seven? Why five and five? The reason five and five is used is because it is an equal number on each side, which means there is an equal chance for you to be in one group or the other. You are not in a lop-sided situation where there were two wise virgins and eight foolish. With those numbers, it would be difficult to get into the wise group, but you have an equal chance. The choice rests with you. So the five wise and the five foolish are presented before us.

The parable tells us that all ten virgins fell into the Laodicean condition. They all slumbered and slept, and when the cry was given, the five wise virgins trimmed their lamps and went in to the wedding, but the five foolish went out and began to search for oil. Oil represents the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the guide to God’s Word. It guides us into all truth.

They could not find any Holy Spirit; they could not find any Word. There was a famine in the land, as far as they were concerned. They went out, and they searched and searched.

What would they do? They would come up to someone and ask, “I know that you have an experience with the Lord. Can you please tell me what I need to know so that I can make it into the wedding feast? I am confused; I do not know. Please help me.” This is the plea they give. This is the plea for the oil to put in their lamps—a searching for truth. They knew they needed to have this oil so they could be saved.

While they hesitated, while they looked, while they searched, while they inquired, the door was closed, and it was all over—just like the story Amos relates in chapter 8. The idea is left with us that we need to make hay while the sun shines. We need to make our search now. We need to make our application now. You see, it was never God’s plan that Israel should suffer the fate that they suffered. His plan was perfect.

It is not His plan that we should suffer a similar fate, and we do not have to. Remember the five wise virgins and the five foolish. We have an equal chance to be in either group, if we learn the lessons.

A Land for Us

As this article is written, there is a war going on in Israel. They are fighting over a piece of real estate that has no blessing in it whatsoever. But God has a land for us. It is right now a land that we can see only by faith, but it is a real land nonetheless. If we are faithful, one day God is going to usher us into that land.

We need to make sure that we are learning the lessons that God has for us, because if we do, we will be classed with the five wise virgins and will be invited to go in to the wedding feast. God is going to say, “Come thou, blessed of the kingdom, enter into the joys that the Lord has prepared for thee.”

I am looking forward to hearing that pronouncement, and I know that you are, too. Let us spend time with the Lord and learn the lessons that He has for us in His Word. Do not just read it through on the surface. Dig down a little deeper, and we will be blessed as a result of our efforts.

To be continued . . .

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life Ministry. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mikebaugher@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Lessons From the Book of Amos – Part VIII

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This article concludes our study of the Book of Amos. Amos was a prophet who had a burden to present and to make clear God’s cause and solution. The last chapter of any book usually consists of a conclusion, and that certainly is the case with the writings of Amos.

Amos is a difficult book to read. It was conceivably more difficult for Amos when he first gave his message to the Northern kingdom of Israel. Practically the whole book is composed of judgments—judgments that were to fall upon Israel as well as the sinful, surrounding nations and upon Judah, the Southern kingdom.

God Always Gives Hope

In the opening verses of Amos 9, we see that God is detailing the fact that no one is going to escape the judgments that are going to fall upon this people. One thing is certain, as I have read the words of Inspiration, and that is that God, even though He of necessity deals with people in a very severe way at times, never leaves them hopeless. He has to punish; He has to deal with sin, but through it all, there is hope. There is a light shining that says, “This can all change.” Where He pronounces woe, He pronounces mercy. Where He wounds, He heals. Where He pronounces judgment, He provides a way of escape.

This is what we find as we come to the close of the Book of Amos. Even though it begins with, and the majority of the book deals with, problems and trials and judgments and difficulties, God says, “There is a light at the end of the tunnel for you.”

This tells us something. It tells us, first of all, about the mercy of God. He is not only a God of judgment, but He is a God of mercy as well. He has to deal with all the issues, however, and that may take up more space than the solution does. There are nine chapters in the Book of Amos and eight and a half of those chapters deal with judgment! Just a final little portion deals with His mercy. But the book does end in hope—hope in spite of the doom that has been pronounced upon those who have departed from God.

Destruction is Coming

“I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them: And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.” Amos 9:1–4.

If the Old Testament were printed like the New Testament, with the words of Divinity written in red, these verses would be written in red. As a matter of fact, every verse in this chapter would be written in red, except for two, indicating that God was speaking. Amos states that he saw the Lord standing on the altar and then records the words that come forth from that place. It is there where those words would begin to be written in red.

The altar that is referred to is not a lone altar but the whole of the sanctuary that was located in Bethel, where Amos was conducting his ministry. The people who went to this altar to worship thought that everything was just fine, that all was well between God and themselves. They did not realize that they were on the very verge of destruction.

The Lord standing with the altar under His feet signifies that everything in this world is in subjection to Him. This is something that we must realize also—everything in this world is subject to God. It may not seem that way right now, but it is so nonetheless. God has control over it all. But then, God gives the command that destruction is to take place.

If we reflect on other Old Testament history, we find stories of destroying angels that God dispatched to do a work of destruction. Here is one of those instances. There are those who believe that God does not destroy and that, ultimately, those who have died through the centuries will, through some universal act, all be purified and end up in the kingdom of heaven—including the devil and his angels. That is heresy! If there is anything that can be observed as we read Scripture, it is that God is sovereign over all; God judges all things; He judges righteously, and when righteous judgment is finished, destruction takes place.

Shaking

This being the case, I want to take you on a little trip, back to what took place in Jerusalem in 70 a.d. The Jews of that time had not learned the lessons of history. They had been given the messages of the prophets, such as Amos. They knew what was required of them, but they changed the messages in such a way that they became smooth messages. As a result, the Jews paid a price for their disobedience. Their temple was destroyed, because they failed to learn from the past. There is a lesson in this for us as well.

Do we have a temple? Yes, we do. “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are.” 1 Corinthians 3:17. We see these lessons come down through all the various eras of history to us, and we must learn from them. The Lord standing on the altar says, “Let everything shake itself down and fall on the heads of those who are seeking shelter there.” When the shaking begins, there will be no one who will escape. There will not be any place to hide where the Lord will not find them.

Where does the shaking begin? It begins in the house of God. God makes statements somewhat similar to what we have heard in recent newscasts concerning terrorists: You can run, but you cannot hide. That is what the Lord pronounces in Amos: “Mark it down. I will find you, and you will forfeit your lives.”

If the Jews of Jesus’ time would have read this material and understood it as it was to be understood, they would never have suffered the fate that they did. This is not recorded as just a history lesson for us, although there is history in it. These words have been inscribed so that we can make a spiritual application into our own lives from the events that have transpired in history. Ellen White wrote that “the ancient prophets spoke less for their own time than for ours, so that their prophesying is in force for us.” Selected Messages, Book 3, 338.

Lessons of Amos

We as Seventh-day Adventists have altogether too small of a view of what God plans to do in the end of time. There are some definite lessons for us, so I want to look at the whole picture that God has presented and that is being taught in Amos.

The nation of Israel is presented. We see that of this whole nation—all twelve tribes—the largest portion of the people abandoned the Lord and left His cause, never to be recovered again. The kingdom of Judah was left after this major apostasy of Israel took place. You would think that the ten tribes of the Northern kingdom would have served as an example to the two tribes of the Southern kingdom, but Judah did not learn, and as a result, they went into captivity. God wanted to redeem and preserve them, but most of them went into captivity in Babylon. Only a few who were vinedressers were left in Palestine. (See Jeremiah 52:12.) Only a small remnant of those taken came back to the Holy Land. We learn that of those who returned, the vast majority rejected the Messiah when He came. So this leaves, of the original number, a very, very small remnant. The whole scenario is repeated again with the Christian church!

The majority of the Christian church went into apostasy, but a smaller number of faithful few continued to maintain the faith. The Reformation breaks, the truth seems to be on track again, but then there is a turning back, and they begin to follow in mother’s footsteps and become harlots, just like her.

Out of the remnant is called those who would be faithful to the preaching of the Three Angels’ Messages. Yet, just like Judah of old, the majority of those who are called turn their backs and decide that the message given by God is no longer that important. That is why the servant of the Lord tells us that in the last days the majority of those who make up the church are going to go out of it. Is there a precedent? Is there history on which to base that conclusion? Absolutely! Over and over and over again, history has repeated itself.

Why is this happening? It is happening because the people have continued following the same thinking pattern as the Jews of old. No intervention has taken place in their lives. They have not experienced a dynamic conversion.

One thing we see as we study the last chapter of Amos is that there will be a remnant that will be saved. Ellen White says that it is a very small number. (See Testimonies, vol. 2, 445.)

So, here is God on the altar. He gives the command to destroy every vestige of worship that is conducted there; it is no longer acceptable. As a matter of fact, God says that it is an absolute stench in His nose. The words are, “Destroy it all. Search out those who are involved in Israel and destroy them also. Bring the pillars and the mantles down on their heads.”

As an interlude, Amos responds with an “Amen” to that which God declares. “And the Lord God of hosts [is] he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as [by] the flood of Egypt. [It is] he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord [is] his name.” Amos 9:5, 6. This is like saying, “Amen, amen,” to what is going to take place.

Blood Thicker than Water

The pace changes in verse 7. God asks a question: “[Are ye] not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord.” What does He mean by this? Well, what is happening is a comparison between the heathen and those who are called His family. The Lord makes the point that, as far as He is concerned, there is no difference between those who compose the heathen nations and His own children. It is not, in the least, a racial issue or a racial distinction that is being made here. It is a spiritual distinction.

The children of Israel, as you know, were called and held by God in a special position. They had a rank, which was head and shoulders above all the other nations around the world. They were a special people. They were a “called” people. They were a people with distinction. But when they forfeited that distinction, God changed in how He viewed them. They then became as nobodies, as far as God was concerned. They had no status whatsoever. God used the Ethiopians because of their proximity to Israel, but the Ethiopians had no standing as far as a people whom God recognized. They were classified as heathen people. God says that those who were called at one point in time were no better than those who were not called, because they had forfeited their calling. They forfeited their calling because of their practices as His people. They had fallen out of favor with God, and now they were nobodies.

I do not quite understand how it can be that God calls His people and, should they forfeit their calling, says, “You are no longer My family. I do not want you anymore. I do not know you anymore. You are a nobody to Me.” God says, “My ways are not your ways, neither are your ways My ways.” As I thought about what transpired here, in light of that Scripture, the thought came to me, “We do not do that as family.” Many times our family members will fall out of favor with one another, but blood is thicker than water. Right? But with God, it is viewed differently.

We are all members of His family, if we stay within His family. If we choose to go a way different from God by going out on our own, He says, “You are no longer My family.” We, as human beings, cannot quite grasp this, because we have close blood ties to family. We have a tendency to view God in a different way and think, “I am really better than God, because I would not disown my own family.” But the reality of the whole thing is that God says, “You depart from My way and it is all over.”

When we are in Christ, we are somebody. When we are not in Christ, we are nobody. This is why the Lord tells us that there are “Many that will come to Me in that day, saying, Lord, Lord, I know You. Have not I preached in Your name? Have not I done many wonderful works in Your name?” And how does the Lord respond? He says, “You are a nobody. I do not even know you. Depart from Me.” (Matthew 7:21–23.)

Amos reminds the people who God is. In Amos 9:6, it says, “The Lord [is] his name.” His name, Jehovah, Yahweh—however you want to pronounce it, He is the Almighty God. He is the all-powerful One Who is able to save you, Who has gone to every possible length to save you. But if you depart from Him, He does not know you. That is the point Amos is trying to get the people to understand.

“[Are] ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord God [are] upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord. For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as [corn] is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.” Verses 7–10.

The Way God Is

In the first eight chapters of Amos, 131 verses are filled with woe, judgment, and destruction. It does not seem that God has any desire or compassion to bring about some kind of recovery. This is why I have stated that Amos is a difficult book to read and to study, because most of it is filled with woe and destruction. But God desires to get a message across.

Is this really the way God is? Better mark it down. This is the way God is. He will go to every possible length to bring about an understanding of our condition so there will be a change of heart for our redemption.

The last five verses of the last chapter of Amos have real lessons for us. They hold out to the sinner the hope of recovery. Even though we may have gone far from the path He would have us take, God holds out His hands and He makes an appeal. He says, “Come unto Me, please. Do not let the day come when I have to say, ‘Depart from Me, I never knew you.’ ”

This is the heart of the messages of the prophets who have seen in vision the plain plan of God. It can only be for a time—the pain and the discouragement and the anguish—and then a great determination should come to God’s people to challenge for the kingdom. What we see taking place in the lives of those who have been called to be a covenant-keeping people has caused some to write them off altogether. If this is done, it is not the revealed will of God. God is saying, “The day is going to come when revival and reformation are going to take place. The day is going to come when My Holy Spirit is going to be poured out on all flesh. Some, it will soften and subdue. Others, it will harden and cause them to be blown away.”

In and through it all is a call for us to have greater and more determination, as well as diligence. It is a call to see us through to the end. And this is what God revealed to Amos. This is what God revealed through the New Testament prophets; this is what God revealed through Ellen White to us today. The vision that these prophets of God had, we need to understand and apply to our own lives. If we do not, we are going to be lost.

Amos has been asleep for a long, long time, but his words live on. Others have fallen asleep also, but they have left us with words of hope and encouragement. Ellen White and our church pioneers have gone to their rest, but we have volumes of material of instruction. It is all because of God’s great mercy and longsuffering that we have these materials today. I pray that all the writings, all the paper, all the ink, have not been expended in vain. May the messages that have been penned find the right place in our hearts and help us to see ourselves as we are. May we fall upon the Rock and plead for forgiveness. May we plead for the blood of Jesus to be sprinkled upon our records so when our names come forth in the judgment time, we will be as kernels of wheat which remain in the sieve and do not fall to the ground. May God help us to be able to see beyond the things of this world to the clear picture of eternity that is presented in the writings of the prophets. By His grace, may we be determined to have a place with the redeemed of all ages who will be able to stand beneath the tree and cast their crowns at the feet of the Saviour and say, “Worthy, worthy is the Lamb who has made salvation possible for us.”

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life Ministry. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mikebaugher@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.