Turning A Minor Prophet Amos 1:1-3;2:4-7a/Amos 5:4-15,24
“A MINOR”
This morning we begin a new sermon series: Turning A Minor Prophet! Sounds equitable...! We'll be going from A to Z through the Minor Prophets. Minor's a bit of a misnomer actually. It sounds like the minor prophets are less important than the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but they aren't at all. In the days in which they prophesied they were considered no less significant, it's just that the books bearing their names are shorter in length than their major counterparts.
Augustine of Hippo gave them the name, The Minor Prophets, early in the 5th century. Before him, and in the ancient Hebrew canon, they were called “The Twelve Prophets”, as their writings were grouped together in one scroll, and the majors, on another scroll. Jesus, and the authors of the synoptic gospels, quoted the minor prophets extensively, and Jesus made clear, as he put it in his sermon on the mount...: “I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17)
When we read that this summer, I felt a God nudge. I wondered if everyone has read these prophets? After all, none of the Mariners started in the majors. They all came through the minors first.
Admittedly, there's some pretty heavy stuff here. It doesn't exactly make the best bed time read-ing. It reminds me when my brother Frank and I were roommates and he offered to read to me....
(Don crawls into 'bed' as 'Frank' comes up with a book in hand...)
Don: I hope tonight's story isn't as boring as last night's was. It put me right to sleep.
Frank: Don't worry. This story will keep you up all night.
Don: Really? What is it?
Frank: It's called, “The Disembodied Hand That Strangled People.”
Don: Really?! How cool! This is great! Sounds creepy! I never get a scary story at night.
Mom doesn't allow it. Says it gives me nightmares. A Disembodied Hand? Wow!
Frank: And you know what's really scary? They never found it! To this day, nobody knows
where the hand is! In fact, the hand could... OH NO! THERE IT IS! (choking himself)
IT'S G-GOT ME!! (gagging as Don faints with feet in the air) Calvin...? Calvin...?
(walking off and smiling) I should've thought of that weeks ago.
That story sounds a bit prophetic, but that was Daniel, with the mysterious hand writing on the wall. Amos is no less unsettling:“The Lord roars like a lion from Zion and thunders over Jerusalem! Because of her sin I will send fire on Judah that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem!”
(Amos 1:2; 2:5)
Yikes! Good luck falling asleep after reading that! Reminds me of Mr. Beaver's words to Lucy: 'Safe? Of course he isn't safe! But He's good! He's the King – the Great Lion, Son of the Emperor...!' So what do you make of that? As always, it's crucial to consider the context. So what do we know?
(from C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe)
Well, Amos' opening verse reveals a lot. There we're told that the book of Amos comprises a “vision that he saw concerning Israel, two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam, son of Johoash, was king of Israel.” (Amos 1:1) The stories of those two kings are told in the books of 1st and 2nd Kings and 2nd Chronicles. We know, as a result, that David's kingdom of Israel was divided into two upon the death of his son, Solomon, in 930 BC, and that Uzziah ruled the southern kingdom of Judah from 792-740 BC, and Jeroboam II rule the northern kingdom of Israel from 793-753 BC. That places Amos' prophetic ministry from about 755-745 BC.
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What's more, he mentions a great earthquake. It was so powerful in fact that Zechariah later mentions it as well: “You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah.” (Zechariah 14:5) As it turns out, geologists have uncovered evidence of a mammoth seismic event in the area dating to 750 BC providing a precise date for Amos' forementioned vision in 752 BC.
It was a time in which both the northern and southern kingdoms were known for their great prosperity, military security and nationalistic identity which had led to a kind of smug complacency. Enter the prophet, Amos, who arrives not from the palace but from tending sheep. It's safe to say, he's not the typical, run of the mill, Old Testament prophet. Most either came from the royal courts of the kings, as did Isaiah, or from a priestly family, as did Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Some were even profes-sional prophets like Samuel had been. Not so with Amos. He arrives straight from the fields of Tekoa. That's Tekoa, not Tacoma by the way, a small backwater town about six miles south of Bethlehem.
What's more, Amos is among the first of the minor or major prophets to get his own book. Only Joel precedes him. So significant is Amos' role in the life and faith of God's people Israel, that someone decided to preserve his prophecies in print. He's also a contemporary of the prophets Hosea and Jonah, but since Hosea's book is longer than Amos and Joel, Hosea's appears first in the scrolls and our Bible.
Amos opens with a message of judgment and coming destruction for the nations surrounding and threatening the divided kingdom. His approach is as clever as it is convicting. One can imagine the reaction in Israel as Amos prophecies the annialation of their enemies: Aram will burn, (Yes!), then the Philistines (Yeah – filthy Philistines!), then the Phoenicians (Ha- phony Ficians!), Edom, (eat 'em up, Lord!), Ammon, (Yah-man!), Moab (mow 'em down, Lord!), and even Judah! (Yes! Wait - Judah?)
Yup! “This is what the Lord says: 'For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not relent. Because they have rejected the law of the Lord, (that is God's Word)..., and have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, I will send fire on Judah and consume the capital!”
(Amos 2:4-5)
Remember it's the people up north that Amos declares this too. And at this point, even though this judgment is against their former neighbors and countrymen, they're now divided. “It's about time those sinners get what they deserve! They don't worship like they're supposed to. They trust in false gods for goodness sake. So yeah - Bring 'em down, Lord! We're going to make Israel great again!”
But it's precisely then that Amos lowers the hammer. One might imagine him clearing his throat and saying, 'Yeah, well I'm not finished yet!' “This is (also) what the Lord says: 'For three sins of Israel, even four, I will not relent. They (you) trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. I raised up prophets from among your children – is this not true? But now I will crush you...! Even the bravest warriors will flee naked on that day!”
(Amos 2:6-7,11,13,16)
All those prophecies of judgment were fulfilled 30 years later when Assyria invaded in 722 BC.
Some have wondered and speculated about which sins Amos is here numbering, and which is it, three of four? But in so doing, they miss the point. It's a poetic phrase Amos is using, and he uses the exact identical phrasing in proclaiming God's judgment not only on the pagan nations around them, but over the divided nation of Israel itself, implying that they're no better.
He saves them for last because his message is specifically and predominately for them. “Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you! Of all the families of the earth I chose you; therefore I will punish you for your sins.” (Amos 3:1-2)
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And what are their sins? Well, One: is that of their nationalism, their confidence that as God's chosen ones they are better than other people, that God's favor means they're guaranteed, even entitled, to prosperity and military security. “You have lifted up the shrine of your king!” he exhorts. (5:26) It smacks of the prosperity gospel that has become increasingly popular in protestant churchs today and of the nationalism that is being proclaimed in American churches and promoted on social media.
Two: is the existence and danger of superficial religion. That's what he was getting at when he declares: “This is what the Lord says: 'Seek me and live; do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal... For Gilgal will surely go into exile and Bethel will be wiped out. Away with the noise of your songs and the songs of your harps, but rather let justice run like a river...!'” (Amos 5:4-5, 23-24)
Bethel and Gilgal were the most popular places of worship for the people of Israel at the time. “They were carrying on superficial religious exercises instead of having spiritual integrity and practicing heartfelt obedience toward God.” They sang with emotion but didn't practice compassion!
(NLT Study Bible)
Three: even though they appear religious, it's clear that most are biblically illiterate. As he put it: “They have rejected the law of the Lord.” (Amos 2:4) As another commentator observes: 'The worship centers that King Jeroboam 1 had set up in Bethel and elsewhere (1 Kings 12:28-33) became thoroughly paganized. As long as they observed certain religious rites they believed they could live as they pleased. Ignorant of God's law, they had no basis for standards of conduct or godliness.”
(NIV Study Bible)
They were no longer reading God's Word. They'd become biblically illiterate. Sounds familiar. Jay Leno used to do on the street interviews. A couple of times he asked people biblical questions.
Q: Who were Cain and Abel?
A: A sitcom? (Oh. What was it called?) The God couple?
Q: How about Noah? What happened there?
A: He parted the Sea? (Really? Why?) To get away from all the animals, I think.
Q: Okay. Finish this biblical command: 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's....?'
A: Car? (Apparently you could covet his wife, but stay away from his car!)
Q: Who was swallowed by the whale?
A: Ok. Now I'm on the spot. (Let me help. It starts with Jo...) Dimaggio? (She's from New York.)
Q: What happened in the fight between David and Goliath?
A: They got in a fight with a rock. (Huh. Who won?)
Goliath. (Really? How so?) Well, yeah. He had a bigger rock – thus the name, Goliath.
Q: Go figure! So approximately, how many years ago did Jesus live?
A: Oh gosh;250 million years ago? (Mary traveled on a Brachiasaurus, gave birth in raptor's cave
So Israel's sins included one, nationalism; two, superficiality; three, biblical illiteracy; and four: complacency – specifically in terms of the plight of the poor and social justice.“For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins - how you oppress the innocent...and deprive the poor of justice. Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil.” (Amos 5:12-13)
This also strikes me as incredibly timely and relevant. I wonder if we haven't forgotten what really made America great – at least from a biblical perspective. It's what's carved on our country's greatest symbol to a hurting world – "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free." Our roots as a God-fearing nation were focused on social justice. Helping the poor. Giving shelter to the immigrant and disenfranchised. Providing hope and light in dark times. How far we've fallen!
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As Martin Luther King famously put it in his book, Strength To Love, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
(from MLK's book, Strength To Love)
Listen to Amos. Be prudent as you go on social media. There's so much hate on Facebook as of late, and it's coming from the far right as well as from the left. “Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord Almighty will be with you.” proclaims God's shepherd prophet. (Amos 5:14)
The 12 books of the Minor Prophets consistently call for Israel to reclaim her sense of divine calling and purpose. It was a call to remember how God called them to greatness, not by asserting their will financially or militarily, but by being a light to the nations, to show them how beautiful are the feet of those who embody good news, who bring God's heart for grace and justice to life. As Jesus noted, he didn't come to undermine the message of prophets like Amos, but to fulfill them, to bring them to life, which he actively did by hanging out with sinners, feeding the hungry & healing those who're hurting!
Amos 5:24 is like the John 3:16 of his book. There in beautiful, poetic imagery, is the theme of the entire book: “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
(Amos 5:24)
In other words, as plant and animal life flourishes where there is reliable, clean water, so human life flourishes where there is justice and righteousness, where people care for those most at risk, where we live out the radical calling of following Jesus lead and loving our neighbors, & enemies, as did he!