Amos 5:1-25

Verse 1 - Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

A lamentation is like a poem, which is sung or spoken in rhythm. It is the type of song that is tragic and speaks of plagues and troubles.

Verse 2 - The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

“She shall no more rise” - When Israel started worshipping false gods, she declared that she had the strength to stand on her own. Therefore God is telling her that she will not rise up of her own. This verse also states “…there is none to raise her up.” This declares that no nation on the face of the earth will be a help to Israel in making her a kingdom once again. When it happens, it will be by the power of God.

This is the proper interpretation as there are many passages that tell of the rise of Israel again to a nation. Some of these passages are as follows:

1. Amos 9:11 - In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

2. Hoshea 1:10,11 - Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. 11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

3. Hoshea 3:5 - Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

4. Romans 11:25,26 - For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Verse 3 - For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

The obvious reason Israel shall not rise again is because God will not allow it. He will not allow them to have the strength to raise themselves up.

God will destroy 90% of the Israelites. If 90% of our church membership was killed, or moved off, or refused to come to church, what would our church do. This is what Israel faced. God will take away their self-sufficiency. God will force them to seek His face and His will for their lives. He will force them to be happy with what He gives to them, and will force each of them to do what they should do. Nobody will be able to think they don’t matter, because every person will matter. Every person must do His job, or it won’t get done. In many churches, as in Israel, many people believed their “little” part didn’t matter, that if they did a little wickedness, the good of the majority would “overrule” their “little” wickedness and good would still prevail. When 90% are gone, the remaining 10% will see just how important the little bit is.

Verse 4 - For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

Verse 5 - 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.

What is so special about Bethel? This is the “House of God” where God revealed Himself to Jacob. In short it has a history of God’s presence. It is not that Israel needs a history of God’s presence, they need the presence of God with them now. Bethel is also the place where Jeroboam set up his golden calves, so don’t go there to inquire of the false gods.

What is so special about Gilgal? Nothing at all. It is just another place where idols are set up and false gods are worshipped.

What is so special about Beersheba? Nothing at all. It is a place where historically Abraham, Isaac and Jacob worshipped, but Israel had set up their idols in this place also, and worshipped and served false gods.

God instructs Israel to trust something that won’t go into captivity. All the cities of Israel shall go into captivity, but God will not go into captivity.

Verse 6 - Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

The house of Joseph is mentioned because that is the principal name all the ten tribes go by.

Verse 7 - Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

Wormwood is bitterness. This speaks to a specific people (crooked judges) who are judging the land of Israel, but they have perverted judgment and made it bitter. Verse 12 amplifies this passage, speaking about how the rich give a bride to get their way, but the poor don’t have money to give a bride, therefore they get no justice at all.

Rev. 8:11 - the star is called wormwood, and many people died of the waters because they were made bitter.

Jeremiah 9:15, 23:15 - God will give Israel wormwood to eat and drink because they have been very rebellious to Him.

Lam. 3:15, 19 - Jeremiah declares that God has filled him with wormwood, he is very bitter.

Government plays to the group of people who have the most money and the most influence.

Verse 8 - Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:

It is important to notice that all of these things speak of the God of creation, not the Saviour, or the Messiah, or the king of hearts and lives, and nations. Israel doesn’t even recognize God as creator. This is so like this people today, who believe in evolution because they want to get along with “scientific experts”.

The seven stars are one word, as appears in Job 9:9 and 38:31, and there is interpreted with the word “Pleiades”, a constellation of stars that appears in the spring and is taken as tidings of good things to come.

The word “Orion” is a constellation that occurs in winter and is a sign of bad weather.

These two constellations point to the fact that God gives both good and bad. Sometimes in its own season, sometimes because of our sinfulness.

It is important to see that seven stars speaks of that which God has created, which involves many different things.

The seven stars of Job 9:9, 38:31, and the passage before us speaks of the natural stars of the universe which God has created.

Rev. 1:16, 20, 2:1 and 3:1 also speaks of seven stars, but these stars are not the natural stars of the universe, but they are God’s creation.

These stars speak of the local church, created by Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh.

Matthew 16:18 states that Jesus Christ will build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Peter didn’t build the church, nor anybody but Jesus Christ. Therefore the church is also a creation of Christ. It must also be remembered that Satan is the great counterfeit and he has build his church after the pattern of Christs’ church.

that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth

This is speaking of the hydrological cycle of the earth where water is evaporated out of the ocean, formed into clouds and falls to the earth as rain. This is also referred to in Eccl. 1:5-7.

Verse 9 - That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

It is God that allows the spoiled to gain enough strength to overcome. There is no such a thing as “down and out” with God.

Verse 10 - They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

Righteousness in the government is despised because evil people want everybody to go in the evil way they have chosen for themselves.

Verse 11 - Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

This verse is not speaking about a welfare system as is presently in the United States. Israel had no welfare system. If a person lost their property, and became destitute, they sold themselves into “slavery” to be freed at the year of Jubilee, or at the end of the seven year cycle.

Wealthy people will not live to enjoy the fruits of their labors because they have crooked labors. They have stolen from the poor and not worshipped, nor served the living God. Therefore God will take from them, as they took away from the poor.

Verse 12 - For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

Sin may be hidden from others, but they can never be hidden from God. He knows all our thoughts, and everything about us.

Justice is not served because the rich give a bribe to get the courts to go their way.

Verse 13 - Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

Sometimes, and this is one of those times, anybody that is prudent will keep their mouth shut. If they speak up, the wicked will defame them, and they will be ruined. Their reputation will be destroyed, and then whatever they say will be taken the wrong way.

Verse 14 - Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

The way to live is simple, not complicated. Seek good and not evil. Do as verse 15 states, “hate the evil, and love the good.”

This is voluntary, not involuntary. This is something that is determined to do. Not something that comes naturally, perhaps, but something that a person must determine to do.

Verse 15 - Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

It is amazing that these are voluntary. People today believe they are involuntary, that we cannot control people that we love and hate. That we cannot control the things we love and the things we hate.

Humanistic philosophy teaches that whatever we do is what we are. Scriptural “philosophy” teaches that whatever we are is what we do.

Establishing judgment in the gate (in the government) is something that must be striven for, worked for, and constantly accomplished.

There is no guarantee that doing all these things will cause God to not judge Israel. It is for sure that if nothing is done, God will judge. It is best to obey God, and not face the judgment of God. [1]

Verse 16 - 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.

A. Refer to Malachi 1:10 - Israel hasn’t changed - they still want to pay and be paid instead of repenting or doing any work for God themselves.

1. This person formerly occupied his time with crops, but since there are no crops, he will be involved in mourning.

3. Mal 1:10 - They are still paying people to do what they should do with spiritual maturity.

Verse 17 - And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.

a. In the book of Revelation, it was Jesus Christ Himself who opened the seven sealed book.

b. Then, and only then, did the angels sound the trumpets, announcing more of the judgments of God.

d. Isaiah 63:3 - Jesus Christ will tread the winepress of the wrath of God alone.

2) Lamentations 1:15 - The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.

3) Rev. 14:19,20 - And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

4) Rev. 19:15 - And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

1. God will not pass by them, (as in ignoring them), beside them, above them, or below them. He will pass through them.

2. This is to be compared to the saved person going through the valley of the shadow of death.

a. The saved person doesn’t go through death, but through the shadow of death.

Verse 18 - Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

A. Those that believe the day of the Lord will be a time of rejoicing will be in for a surprise.

1. It will not be a time of rejoicing, but of realizing that there is more trouble to be answered for when God is seen.

2. These same people desired the days of the Messiah, but missed Him and caused Him to be crucified.

b. Matthew 11:7-15 - Christ explains the greatness of John the Baptist, and the work he had to do.

B. God explains to the people of Israel that they don’t understand anything about true spiritually, or true worship.

2. They are saying the right words to be “religious,” but their hearts are far from God.

3. They have a true ignorance of the meaning of the coming of the day of the Lord, and of the judgment to come, the judgment they are facing.

1. Their wickedness before God and the grace He has given them to salvation and faithful service.

6. They continually judge themselves by those people around them instead of judging themselves by the rule of God.

7. I Cor. 10:13 - But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.

1. I Cor. 3:10-15 - There is coming a day when God will judge all our works, thoughts, and deeds, and the purpose behind them.

2. When we stand there before God and our life’s works is burned up, there will be much sorrow.

3. Sometimes we sing the song, “No Tears In Heaven,” but what does that song mean?

4. Rev. 21:3 states that this is the time when Jesus will wipe away all tears, and this is not in heaven, it is in the New Earth! This time is after this present earth and heavens are destroyed by the fire of God’s vengeance! I believe there will be tears in heaven when we see more clearly how filthy we were upon this earth, and how lazily we worshipped God, and how many thing we put before Him, how much time we wasted, and how slowly we rose to serve the true and living God.

Verse 19 - As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

A. A man was fleeing from one sort of trouble and found another sort of trouble which was twice as bad.

2. I Thess 5:3 - When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

B. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him - People will look around them on this earth and believe they have it very bad, therefore they want the day of the Lord to come quickly and take them out of this world.

1. The problem is that the troubles they face in this world is nothing compared to the trouble they will have when they stand before God.

2. Lost people often believe if they can just die and get out of this world, all their problems will be over. Death is only the beginning of their troubles, which shall last for all eternity.

3. People think they have trouble now with their jobs, their cars, their families, etc., but this is only a drop in a bucket of the troubles they will have before God.

C. or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

3. When this person believes they have come to a place of safety, comfort and security, they relax, and lean their hands upon the wall (instead of leaning upon Christ), and a serpent bits him.

Verse 20 - Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

1. We should all be able to say, “I am looking forward to receiving rewards” instead of giving excuses about our laziness.

2. II Tim. 4:6-8 - For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Paul was anxious to be with the Lord, and made no excuses for his lack of spirituality, because there was no lack of spirituality, as there often is with us.

3. He will burn our useless works, and much of our gladness will burn up with those vacant dreams.

5. Instead of see the brightness of His glory, we might very well see the darkness of His anger. [2]

4. Burnt offerings. This means they also had an altar, a time set aside, priests, one to give the burnt offering, utensils, and preparation, and a great host of other things.

5. meat (meal) offerings. This means they also had an altar, a time set aside, priests, one to give the meat offering, utensils, and preparation, and a great host of other things.

6. Peace offerings with fat beasts. This means they also had an altar, a time set aside, priests, one to give the meat offering, utensils, and preparation, and a great host of other things. The fat animal also means they had an animal set aside which they fed for the purpose of offering.

7. Musical instruments. This means they had the time to practice, get together and decide on the songs to sing. They had good skill, at least pleasing to the ear (and foot) (melody).

8. Notice in verses 21-23 the times the pronouns “your,” and “thy.” All of these things belong to the people, not to God. This is why He doesn’t like them or want them. God is not a thief. He will not take that which others claim to be theirs.

1. Judgment - Matt. 23:23 - Israel still needed judgment, mercy and faith during the time of Christ.

2. Righteousness - Rom. 10:1-3 - Israel had the wrong kind of righteousness, and didn’t now it!

Israel lacked true worship just as many churches today lack true worship. They have all the material things they believe is required for worship, but do not have true worship. Like many churches and saved people today, Israel lacked a “behind the scenes knowledge” and personal, individual worship, and working at personal sanctification. To illustrate what Israel lacked and didn’t know about, I want to use an example of something we all know about. Mark McGuire recently broke the record of the most home runs hit in a single season. There are many things about breaking this record that should be noted.

1. First, nobody knew when the season began that he would break the record. He didn’t know either. He just did his best. This is what every saved person should do. We never know what the end of our lives will bring. We should always do our best.

2. When you see Mark McGuire standing at home plate swinging the bat and hitting another home run, you should also see the many hours of practice and training behind the scenes. All the glory of hitting those home runs didn’t occur at home plate. There is no doubt in my mind that he spend many hours by himself working out, strengthening his muscles so he could hit a home run. There is no doubt he spend many hours practicing his swing, his batting stance, and the techniques of the various pitchers he would face. This is called dedication.

3. Sometimes we see church services, and the good things that happen there, and think that is where all the glory is. That isn’t so. When church services go good and we are able to worship we sometimes believe that good church services are what causes good worship. The truth is that if we don’t worship at home, we won’t be able to worship when we come to services.

4. The sportsmanship shown by McGuire when the umpire call the strike wrong or the ball wrong, or whatever way it was, was very good. He did throw a fit immediately after the ump made the call, but later on television, I saw him apologize for his remarks. Jack Buck told St. Louis that the fans were wrong when they booed the umpire, forcing the police to give him an escort out of the stadium. Buck said he said some things wrong about the call and he apologized publicly. Buck wanted the fans to applaud the umpires at the next game. The fans gave the umpires a standing ovation. Baseball wasn’t ruined, but all these “bad” incidents helped to stir the public up to good sportsmanship. When McGuire broke the record, Souso came to him and hugged him for joy. All of these separate acts have caused baseball to be a very popular sport right now. The truth is that these men are great because their love for baseball is great. Christians sometimes try to be great all by themselves, and not by pointing others to Christ. But this is missing the entire point. When Christ is the center of a church, a home, a person’s personal life, then that person will be great, not because of what they do, but because God will give them blessings (whether those blessings are material or not - they may be completely spiritual: as peace during troubled times, or great wisdom) He doesn’t give to others.

5. Churches can show this kind of “sportsmanship” and can cause many people to become interested because in these kind of churches is love for God and one another, fellowship with God and one another, and companionship that is greater than any friendship the world know about. All these are good things, and they happen because of all the “homework” done before services. All these good things happen because there is something bigger than church services involved. Jesus Christ is involved. Christians should be looking upward, not inward. We should be pointing everybody to Jesus Christ, and His goodness, His greatness, and His glory. We should never want people to see us.

6. In the beginning of the church, during the book of Acts, Christians had this kind of enthusiasm and spiritual understanding. Because Christians were enthusiastic about Christ, others saw it and it was a life changing experience for many people.

7. The whole thing I am trying to get across is that there is a very personal, individual relationship with Christ that is missing from many church services, and may be missing from ours. If individual church members don’t have this personal relationship and fellowship with Christ, it is impossible to give it to others. It is as impossible for a person to give what he does not have, as it is for him to come back from where he has not been.

Verse 21 - I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

A. Often times people will state they want to please God, therefore they will do such and such. This is not what God wants from us. He wants us to worship Him with our whole heart, our whole mind and our whole soul.

Verse 22 - Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

A. Some people state they will wear what God expects so God will love them. This isn’t correct. It must be understood that God loves sinners, and we are sinners. We love God in our hearts, but we show others that we love God by keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.

Verse 23 - Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

A. Songs are supposed to be for worship, but when there is meanness and idol worship in the heart, external singing is not accepted by God. This is true, whether it is for Israel, or it is for us.

Verse 24 - But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

A. Instead of God accepting the “worship” of these double minded people, He will send judgment to them.

Verse 25 - Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

Verse 26 - But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

Verse 27 - Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.

I. The captivity of Judah is coming, and there is nothing anybody can do to stop it.

A. God has put up with all the rebellion from Judah and Israel that He is going to put up with.

B. This thought goes all the way back to chapter 1 and 2 where God uses the phrase “…for three transgressions of ______ and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof…”

A. This is a much more serious captivity than going to Damascus, although that captivity was no small thing.

1. When Israel went into Syrian captivity, they were not very far from their land.

2. When Judah goes into Babylon captivity, they will be removed far away from the land.

B. The contrast in this is that when Israel went into Syrian captivity, they were never able to return to the land of Canaan, but when Judah went into Babylon captivity and were taken so very far away from the land of Canaan, God allowed them to return after 70 years.

C. Going into Babylon captivity might not mean much to us, who are Gentiles, and therefore don’t understand the times and customs of the day.

1. Babylon was the center of Satanism in that day, and it will be the center of Satanism in the last days.

2. For Israel, who is supposed to be a worshipper of God, and be protected by God, going into Babylonian captivity is like saying that God is dead, or that He is powerless to protect the people He loves the most.

3. The truth is that Israel and Judah had played around so much with Satanism, false worship, and had failed to be witness like God commanded, that He gave them what they acted like they wanted.

4. Israel and Judah acted like they wanted what the world had, so God let them have it.

5. When it was too late, Israel discovered what the world had wasn’t such a good thing.

[1] Preached to here 9/2/98 IBC Wednesday Evening

[2] Preached to here 9/9/98 IBC Wednesday Evening

[3] Preached to here 9/16/98 IBC Wednesday Evening