April 1, 2002
LifeWay Family Bible Series for April 14
A prescription for abundant life: 'Seek the Lord'
___Amos 4:1–6:14
___By Barbara Kent
___University Baptist Church, Fort Worth
___How do you break God's heart? Read Amos 4:1-11 and listen for the heartbreak in the words. God had done everything possible to get Israel to return to him, and they had continued in their sinful ways.
___They were so bad that even their going to church was a total mockery. The Lord declared through Amos to the people of Israel, "Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Burn leavened bread as a thank-offering and brag about your freewill offerings--boast about them. ..." (4:4-5).
___Today God might say, "Go to your great houses of worship, participate in extravagant celebrations you call worship, brag about your large offerings. Everything you do is a sham, a mockery." What words of condemnation!
___Read the rest of chapter 4, and you will find a picture of God's sweeping efforts to bring Israel back to himself. Nothing had worked.
___Forget about going to church
___Baptists tend to equate "going to church" with righteousness and godliness. Faithful attendance can be and should be evidence of a healthy relationship with the Lord, but as this passage so graphically notes, it may not always be so.
___When the hearts of God's people are not right, when all their ritual is without substance, it might be better to be honest and stop going to church--at least until hearts are right. Hear what the Lord says--"Seek me and live; do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba" (5:4-5).
___Chapter 5 offers a prescription for life: "Seek the Lord" (v. 4). Israel chose to ignore it, choosing instead to continue their empty religious rituals. Had the people been taught by their religious leaders that if they observed all the religious festivals, followed all the rituals and brought their tithes and offerings that they would have "life," or had they just made the assumption it was so?
___Regardless, Amos had a different view. He believed that unless a life was marked by justice, righteousness and goodness--regardless of the number of religious observances and offerings given--it would come under the judgment of God. And so, the plea, "Seek the Lord and live" (v. 6).
___A catalog of offenses and warnings
___How bad were the Israelites? Was Amos overstating the case against them? Not according to these verses. Here are the charges: They had disregarded justice (v. 10), despised those who tried to speak for the oppressed (v. 10), abused the poor by taking their grain (v. 11), taken bribes (v. 12), deprived the poor of justice (v. 12).
___Amos warned the Lord knew the magnitude and multitude of their sins and there would be consequences for these sins. The people acted as if there would be none, but Amos said their "good life" was about to end. They had built mansions but would never live in them. They had planted vineyards but would not drink the wine from them.
___Verse 13 may be saying the times were so evil that some might say the prophet should be silent. Obviously, Amos did not agree with this perspective. Instead, he proclaimed the need to seek good and not evil in order to live. He challenged them to hate evil, to love good, to maintain justice in the courts (v. 15). Only by so doing could they hope to find mercy from the Lord.
___In case they missed it the first time
___I tend to be rather plain spoken. My friends tease me and say, "If only you would learn to say what you really feel." In these verses, the Lord said what he really felt. The words are strong. What did he say?
___We teach our children to avoid using words like "hate" and "despise," but sometimes those words are appropriate. This was such a time. The Lord was justified in using them. He said, "I hate, I despise your religious feasts" ... "I cannot stand your assemblies" (v. 21).
___Of their offerings, the Lord said, "I will not accept them" (v. 22). He found their songs and harps to be merely noise, offensive to him (v. 23). The Lord was declaring in no uncertain terms that he rejected their highest and holiest religious celebrations. It would be like the Lord saying he rejects our Easter celebration, our Advent observance, our Lottie Moon offerings, our presentations of Handel's "Messiah."
___Then what does the Lord want?
___Water was crucial to life in the dry, arid region where Amos lived. Water meant life. The Lord here seems to accuse the people of damming up the streams of justice and deliberately blocking the path of righteousness. He issues a cry, a challenge for them to correct their sinful ways, to "let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream" (v. 24). Justice and righteousness must continue night and day, during rainy and dry seasons, without interruption. This is what the Lord wants and what he expects.
___Questions for discussion
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