God our Saviour Judge (Amos 1: 1 - 2: 3)
I was reading the book of Amos in preparation for a sermon series titled Amos: the Lord Roars against injustice. I found it challenging. I encountered a side to God that I never want to experience.
Here are my reflections:
Amos announces that the LORD is fed up with the nations and their sins against humanity and is going to attack (Amos 1: 3 - 2: 3).
1:2, “The Lord roars from Zion
and thunders from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds dry up,
and the top of Carmel withers.”
God is going to attack
The Lord roars. What are the things that roar? Water roars but so does a Lion. I think a roaring Lion is the picture Amos wants us to see.
He alludes to it in chapter 3: 4, “Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing?”
Also, notice where this roar is coming from. From Zion, from Jerusalem. Where is Jerusalem? In Judah where the LORD is referred to as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. So the Lord - the lion roars. But what does this mean? You know that when a lion roars, it means business. It is ready to attack. So God is in attack mode. And what will ensue is certain devastation (“the pastures of the shepherds dry up”) and what was strong (the top of mount Carmel) will become weak.
I have not heard a Lion roar in person. I do not know how many of you have and the zoo does not count. I am talking about hearing one in the wild where it has a reason to roar.
The closest I have come to a Lion’s roar is on TV. More recently in the movie Narnia, the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe, the scene where Aslan roars at the ice queen, gave me the chills! How much more chilling and scary it must be to hear one in the wild. Amos wants his readers to get this. The Lord is roaring. Be afraid, be very afraid for he is in attack mode. You are no longer safe and secure. I like how Mr Tomnus put it in the movie. He said to Lucy, “He is a good lion, but he is not tamed”.
The Lord roaring against the nations and their crimes against humanity should lead us to believe the following or reflect on them:
Reflection number 1: God is the God of the nations
Amos declares this towards the end of v8 when he refers to God as the Lord God. The NIV says, sovereign Lord. So he is the supreme ruler. As one commentator says, and I quote, “Feel the weight of the monotheism of Amos!”. Therefore, the nations, our nation is accountable to him and no other, not even their gods, for there is only one God. Yes, they are accountable to human authorities but ultimately to The LORD.
So if someone were to ask you, how can God judge people who are not his own? Simple, God is the God of the nations.
Reflection number 2: God cares
One of the most popular questions about God is: “How can God allow suffering?”. I was chatting to a teenager one Friday, he had a lot of questions.
I felt like I was on etv’s 3rd degree or grill a pastor on campus. He kept the questions coming. The one question we spent most of our time on was, “How can God allow such terrible things to happen to people?”. He got really personal. He said, “how can God allow my mom and grandmother to be treated so harshly by the apartheid government?”.
He said, it has made our lives a constant struggle. We struggle for food, for money, and I struggle at school. Life is so hard.
How can God allow human beings to treat each other in such an inhumane way? But what I have found is that there is a question or an assumed implication behind this question.
Here it is: Does God care? So it sounds something like this: “How can God allow suffering?, Does he not care?”. Does God care when women are being raped, not by one man, but multiple men as we heard recently on the news? How sick is that? Does God care when woman are tortured, murdered and abused? Does God care when someone is kidnapped and sold as sex slaves? Does God care when unborn babies are torn to bits and then removed from the womb? Does God care when home invaders use unnecessary violence? Does God care that innocent, defenseless, vulnerable civilians are killed in the Russian-Ukraine war? Does God care about the xenophobic attacks in our country?
Amos says, yes he does, so much so that he will judge those who commit such senseless crimes against humanity. He will personally see to it. Throughout this passage, God says, “I will break…, I will cut off…., I will send fire…..”
We can trust that God will act for two reasons:
1. God has a track record.
Who do you think brought down Pharaoh who enslaved his people? God. He raised Pharaoh up and brought him down showing the world his power (Romans 9: 16ff & Exodus 9: 16ff). Who do you think brought down Hitler? The Sovereign Lord. Who do you think abolished slavery? The LORD almighty.
Who do you think ended the apartheid system? God the supreme KING. Look at his track record and know that he cares and therefore he will deal sovereignly with the wicked.
2. His name is Promise keeper.
The one who is speaking is the LORD God - The covenant God. He does not break his promises. So it is not a question of if but when. Take heart, God cares, he will put an end to the wickedness and you can be sure of it because he has a track record and his name is promise keeper.
Reflection number 3: How much the world needs God and to hear him speak through his church
As we see the nations in this passage, it is hard to overlook their depravity. The inhumane treatment of one another. The same can be said for our nation today.
This is what happens when there is no God in man's heart. People get hurt. People desperately need to know the God of the Bible. Godly ethics is born from knowing God. Don’t you agree? This responsibility lies with us - the church, like it did for Israel - the first church. We should read God’s warning to the nations as a wake up call to reach the depraved soul.
And so as a church we need to ask ourselves are we doing enough to meet this need? Are you doing enough? Are we pointing people to Jesus Christ who can change the heart and bring it into a right relationship with God and therefore in a right relationship with others. This is where we need to start. But it also helps to speak up and ask the tough questions of our state, community forums, bosses, workers, teachers and lecturers when we see injustices, instead of letting people take advantage of others and doing nothing to stop them. Where there is wickedness, senseless crimes against humanity rise up and say, “Thus says the Sovereign Lord.”
Reflection Number four: Don’t mess with God
You cannot go away from this passage saying God is kidding, he is not so upset about such things. He is just venting. He is letting out his frustrations. It is like the saying, he is all bark but no bite. Do not do it. These words from Amos are meant to warn us. We are not going to get away with whatever sinful, horrifying wicked thing that we are doing, and some of you know what I am talking about. Please, my brother and sister, DON’T TRIFLE WITH THIS GOD! It will not go well for you.
So what do you do when God is roaring against you? You go to God. You go to the lion who is also the lamb and you repent and believe in him.
You go to Jesus and ask him to forgive you. For this is why he came. He stepped into our world over two thousand years ago and faced the full weight of God’s attack, his judgement and wrath, so that you and I do not have to. The lion roars - he has his sights set on you. If Christ will not be your saviour he will certainly be your judge.
May God's word bear much fruit in you.
