(Amos) Raising Up the Ruins — David Guzik

Tonight we're going to finish up the book of Amos and I hope that I hope you're enjoying it because I I certainly am. There's a tone. There's a there's a just sort of a texture to the book of Amos. That's so Wonderful.

He wasn't a professional prophet as we'll see later on in chapter 7 just a working guy a farmer and that God Used him in a wonderful way. Amos chapter 7 beginning here at verse 1. Thus the Lord God showed me behold he formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop.

Indeed, it was the late crop after the king's mowings. And so it was when they had finished eating the grass of the land that I said, oh Lord God forgive. I pray Oh that Jacob may stand for he is small.

It's the Lord relented concerning this it shall not be says the Lord. The prophet Amos is going to relate to us now a vision that he saw from the Lord. Do you want to know how you know, it's a vision because it was something that the Lord showed him pretty simple.

They're verse 1 thus the Lord God showed me behold He formed locust swarms. So in this vision that the prophet Amos has he sees a swarm of locusts arise and descend Upon the land of Israel. Now, he's seeing it in a vision.

Before it actually happens and nobody has to tell Amos what's going on here the message of God to the prophet is this is what I'm going to do in judgment to Israel. I'm going to send swarms of locusts and I'm going to do it at the beginning of the late crop it's late in the harvest and Amos sees a swarm of locusts coming to devour the crops of Israel.

Notice it came after the king's mowings. And what that means is that the the king the the royal house would come and he would take his cut first from you land the taxes now the taxes had to be paid first and Then afterwards came the locusts.

Well when the king takes his cut and the locust takes the rest. What's left for you? Nothing and This incredible devastation. This is why the prophet Amos is so. It's so distressed by this if you notice it says in verse 2 this is all that Jacob may stand for he is small.

You see at this vision of terrible judgment. The prophets heart is moved. It's moved with pity and compassion for Israel and he asks God to consider Israel's frailty Lord I know we deserve this. I know you promised to send this but but Lord look at us.

We're small. Oh Jacob may stand for he is small. He says Oh Lord God forgive. I pray and that's a good prayer to Forgive means, you know that you have something that you need to be forgiven for means, you know that you're in sin.

So the prophet here sees this vision of locusts coming upon the land and he knows it would absolutely Devastate the country and so he pleads before God God, please don't do this. Relent forgive and take a look at us God and have mercy upon us.

And look at what the Lord did at verse 3. So the Lord relented concerning this. That is something in response to the prophets prayer the Lord relented. Is it really that simple? I mean God shows Amos.

I'm going to send judgment and Amos said Oh Lord, please. No have mercy on us. God relent because we're small and God says Okay. You know, we want to complicate this. We want to say well now, okay God never really intended to send the judgment to begin with.

He was just sort of tricking Amos into thinking that he would to draw prayer out of him. I Don't think so. That would make God manipulative. It would make God a deceiver and our God is not a deceiver.

Well, we say well they couldn't be then because what if Amos didn't pray. What if he didn't pray with earnestness like he seems to pray here when he said Oh Lord God forgive. I pray. Oh that Jacob may stand for he is small you sense emotion behind that.

He didn't just casually pray. Oh Lord. No, that's not a good idea. Can we do something else? No, he was earnest in his prayer as if he was stretched out with every fiber in his being towards God. So what if he didn't pray or what if he didn't pray with the same earnestness?

You have to believe that good God would not have relented and the locusts would have come. And this is a another amazing example I say another because scripture is sprinkled liberally with them. It's another amazing example of how much rests upon prayer.

Now, I know I know we could endlessly debate tonight how this incident reflects on the issues of predestination and human responsibility. Well did God predestined to send the swarm of locusts or not? Well, if he did then he changed his mind and and what about that God then man can change God's plan.

Well, if he didn't then why did he say he would go debate back and forth? I think you just got to clear all that away and say listen, this is what the scriptures say. We're clearly left with the impression from this that the plague either came or was held back based upon the prophets prayer.

Friends, that's exactly how Amos prayed. Amos prayed as if the welfare of the nation depended upon his prayer. Now here's a question for you for me for all of us tonight. When's the last time you prayed that earnestly for something.

No, and I don't mean that earnestly for something selfish. Like when the lottery was up to about a hundred million a few weeks ago. I Mean when's the last time you prayed for somebody's soul with that kind of earnestness.

When you prayed for somebody's salvation. Believing in your heart that heaven or hell depended upon the passion of your prayer. And you know, well, no my prayer doesn't really matter. It's not well, then why even praying at all?

If it matters at all, then it's worth your passion. Then it's worth an investment of your mind and your heart and your effort and your earnestness. If it's real if prayer really does move the hand of God.

And it deserves more than what we give to it. You see the same point reflected again. Look at verse 4 here. Thus the Lord God showed me behold the Lord God called for conflict by fire. And it consumed a great deep and devoured the territory.

Then I said, oh Lord God cease. I pray. Oh that Jacob may stand for he is small. So the Lord relented concerning this this also shall not be said the Lord God. You see after the vision of locusts now Amos sees a vision of a great Consuming fire upon the land of Israel and in response.

He does what he did before he pled for mercy. Again this is beautiful. Because this adds another dimension to the prophets ministry and prayer now. He's persisting in prayer. They didn't say well look man.

I did it once, you know, if it's going to keep coming then Lord, okay, whatever God. He says no, I'm gonna keep this passion in my heart up and I'm gonna pray again. I'm gonna keep praying because I believe that my prayer matters.

As it happened with the vision of locusts God relented at the prayer of the Prophet. Listen, we can try to make prayer far more complicated than it is. I Don't think you can read this passage or many other passages in the Bible where in dramatic ways.

Men and women move the hand of God with their prayer without coming away understanding that God wants us to believe. That our prayers affect him. That he moves in response to our prayer. That's how God wants you to go to prayer.

To believe that that God is ready and willing to act upon our prayers now I could go on and qualify that endlessly, you know. It means that we have to pray with a passion for God's will and for God's glory and not for our own selfish lusts.

Or not just according to our wisdom and all that and all of that said. Still God wants it deeply impressed in our hearts. I want to move and I want you to work in partnership with me, you know. The great thing about this and the great thing about prayer is that it brought the Prophet Amos into such a beautiful alignment with the heart of God and That's what God longed for from the Prophet to have his same heart.

But what if the Lord would have given this sort of scenario to Jonah about Nineveh? The plague of locusts as a vision the great consuming fire. Jonah would have gone. Yeah Lord send it. That's why God didn't do that with Jonah he knew his heart, you know.

You know, there's a lot of work to do in Jonah before I can give him this sort of thing. But Amos was at a different place. He was more in sync with the heart of God. And that's what prayer demonstrates.

God's Plumb Line and Israel's Crookedness

And here's another vision verse 7. Thus he showed me behold the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line. With a plumb line in his hand and the Lord said to me Amos What do you see. And I said a plumb line.

Isn't that great? Amos is so simple, you know, he didn't say Lord. I see that you're measuring Israel morally according to the absolute standard of your holy justice. Which is true. I mean, that's what the whole scene is about.

He says I see a plumb line. It's just great. Amos is just so straightforward. Then the Lord says behold. I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will not pass by them anymore. The high places of Isaac shall be desolate and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.

I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam. You see a plumb line measures if a wall is built straight, you know how plumb line works, don't you? It's a string with the specific weight at the end and it's held up from something up there and you know.

The great thing about gravity is gravity makes that plumb line straight. You don't have to do anything special to it at all. It just goes straight because of gravity. So when you're building the wall, you just keep yourself at the proper relation to the plumb line and the wall goes up straight.

Well, you see what God's doing here to Israel. He's looking at the wall of Israel here. He's got the plumb line against it. He goes, you know what this walls crooked. They're not measured up. You see God's holding his straight edge his standard against his people and seeing how they line up.

You see because Israel is chronically Crooked against the plumb line of God Israel and her leadership. They're going to be judged with the sword and that's the simple message here my friends. This is really pretty awesome when we think about it.

Isn't this something that our age our generation needs to hear? God has a plumb line. He has a level he has a straight edge. God has a standard. Now I Say that in full recognition that I don't live up to God's standard, but I should.

Now if I stand before you tonight and say that God Has a standard and we should all live up to it. And then I tell you that I don't live up to it. Does that make me a hypocrite? I? Don't believe so. For this simple reason what makes a person a hypocrite is if they pretend to live by that standard.

Friends if we're going to throw out every standard that we don't perfectly live up to. Then our world is in complete chaos. And actually we're rushing towards it right now. I Mean think about it. We teach our children that they shouldn't lie, right?

Mommy and daddy have you ever lied? Well, yes you have. Well, does that make you completely morally bankrupt and unable to tell your children that they should never lie? Of course not. Now what makes you not a hypocrite is if you tell your child, you know Mommy and daddy sometimes lie too and we have to repent and get it right before God.

We're wrong when we do it, too. That's the standard we all have to strive for it. God has a plumb line. Oh Man desperately wishes that he could get out some magic scissors and cut God's plumb. So that God has nothing to measure us against but it'll never happen.

God has a standard. God has his plumb line. I Wonder if it was being written today if Amos wouldn't say God has his you know laser-pointed level, you know out there. You know because the technology today people don't use the same measuring things, but you get the point, right?

Some God has a standard his straight standard and he measures mankind against it. He's not grading us on a curve. There's no curve to a plumb line. It lies straight. Now in the midst of all this pretty heavy pronouncements of judgment, right?

The people don't like hearing these. So it shouldn't surprise us that some opposition comes up against Amos. Look at verse 10 here. Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam the king of Israel saying Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel.

The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel shall surely be led away captive from their own land. Now I want you to notice here. This is Amaziah's words against Amos.

Amaziah was a priest of Bethel. Now that tells you something right there. He was a corrupt man. He was a wicked man. Because there was never supposed to be a priest at Bethel. Bethel was not a God-approved center of sacrifice only Jerusalem was.

But Bethel was one of the centers of pagan worship that the kings of Israel Set up as rival cities of worship to the God's appointed city of Jerusalem. After the civil war in the days of Rehoboam when the northern kingdom of Israel divided from the southern kingdom of Judah.

And so here you have this wicked man this priest of Bethel. He doesn't like what the Prophet Amos is saying. He's saying hey, wait a minute here. You can't do this. Why after all first of all notice what he says he says this to the king.

Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. See, he's just spreading flat-out lies about Amos, isn't he? There's no conspiracy. Amos isn't part of some kind of conspiracy against the king of Israel or the house of Israel.

Now it may be true that the land is not able to bear all his words, but that's the land's problem. It's not Amos's problem. And then he says thus Amos has said Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel shall surely be led away captive from their own land.

Then Amaziah said to Amos notice this here verse 12. Go you seer flee to the land of Judah there eat bread and there prophesy. But never again prophesy at Bethel for it is the king's sanctuary and it is the royal residence.

Hey, mr. Prophet. You're bugging the king. You're bugging me. Get out of here. Go back home. We don't want to hear it. See Amaziah was offended that Amos came to Bethel and prophesied. So he does his very best to send him back to Judah go back home.

We don't want to hear it here. By the way by his threats, he's letting Amos know I'll slander you a lie against you. I'll do whatever I have to do to set you up. This is how I'm coming against you Amos.

Now look at the answer from the Prophet Amos in verse 14. Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah. I Was no prophet nor was I a son of a prophet. But I was a herdsman and a tender of a sycamore fruit. Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said to me go prophets I to my people Israel now therefore Hear the word of the Lord.

You say do not prophesy against Israel and do not spout against the house of Isaac. You see what he's saying. Amaziah tells Amos knock it off. We don't want to hear it. You your prophetic office is closed down and this basically comes back and he says hey, listen, man.

I didn't ask for this. I Didn't volunteer for this duty. I was just a farmer. I was out there tending the sheep and and in the the sycamore tree orchard. That's it, man. I didn't ask for this. God came to me.

Amos replies to Amaziah saying listen, I'm not a professional prophet. I'm a reluctant prophet. I'm a farmer by trade. I'm hardly the type to go out and launch a conspiracy. I don't need this. I'd rather go back to my sheep.

I'd rather go back to the sycamore trees. But he says no the Lord took me as I followed the flock. See like many others in the Bible God called Amos as he faithfully performed his present calling. Such an important principle in ministry.

Faithfulness Before Promotion in Ministry

Do you want God to use you in more wonderful ways? Well, you should I think that should be said to everybody every person should say as much as God may be using me right now I want him to use me in even a more wonderful way.

Well, let me tell you one key to that not the only key but one key to that is for you to be absolutely Faithful with where you're at. You know God I I'd like to have this position in the church. You know I'm kind of wondering when they'll come and and ask me to to be an elder or be a pastor or be this.

Are you being faithful where you're at? That's the question. Any wise leadership will first look to that. Are you being faithful right with it? And Amos was faithful as a sheep breeder and a tender of the sycamore fruit then God made him an honorable prophet.

But notice he was an honorable farmer before his honorable prophet. He didn't say well Lord, you know, if you make me a prophet then I'll be honorable. No. Start out by being an honorable farmer. And if God chooses to raise you up as an honorable prophet, then he'll do so.

I Think it's also precious that God used Amos as a sheep breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. What I want to get across is God was using him even when he was breeding the sheep and tending the sycamore fruit.

If you were out to buy wool from somebody wouldn't you like to buy it from the prophet Amos? You would know he wouldn't cheat you. You would know that he would give a good deal and that he'd work hard and when you buy the sycamore fruit from him.

You don't have to worry about him putting his thumb on the scale. You know, it would be pleasant dealing with him and he'd take a concern with you you see he was serving God where he was as a Farmer and Then when God called him to be a prophet He was still being used as a farmer all.

Throughout the book of Amos are all these Agricultural illusions everything is like the sheep or like the field or like this or like this. He's just the dumb farmer boy out there seeing everything through the eyes of a farmer.

But you know, that's how God uses men and women. Every prophet every minister they have or they should have a style all their own. I Mean God speaks to them all and moves them all yet. They don't lose their individuality their originality.

It's like the the breath that causes the music is the same. But the two instruments aren't alike the breath blows through at the same, but the instruments are different. Each voice should have its own special tone its own special cry even when God is eminently seen.

Still man is not lost because God wants to use man not make him completely invisible. But use him it's funny about that. I think that if anybody Aspires to be a teacher or a leader or especially somebody who would speak before a congregation.

It's really something to think about God. What if you called me to be in the pulpit or as I teach? You know, I think when you're just starting and when you're learning how to teach when you're growing in these things.

You're impressionable and you will consciously or unconsciously model yourself after those you admire. Have you ever bumped into that where you you you go and you you're maybe listening to a pastor who's on staff at a prominent church and and the Pastor of the prominent church has a distinctive style and you listen to the guy who's on a staff and he sounds just like him.

Well, it's just a natural thing. It doesn't have to be deliberate. It's not like the guy woke up in the mornings that I want to be just like him. There's a natural modeling that goes forth, but I Think it's very important that even though it may begin that way and something may develop that way.

It's very important for everybody who teaches everybody who preaches to be able to say Lord help me to be myself in the pulpit. It's not easy. You would think it would be easy to be yourself in the pulpit.

Well, you just go up there and you'd be yourself. Actually, it's very hard. I think it takes a long time. I Really started becoming myself in the pulpit and It's something that God wants to use in each individual.

But it just takes time. But it takes a heart to want to be like that, too. God wants to use you you. Do you sometimes think that God made a mistake when he made you? You look at somebody else that you really admire you think oh look at they're really used of God.

You say, you know Lord what you should have done. You should have made two of them and none of me. No, no, no. No God knows exactly what he's doing. He made one of them and he made one of you and You have a work you have a ministry.

You have a life that you can live for God that nobody else can live. I can't do it. You can do it and I can't. So you need to do it? Paul said that he wanted to run the race that God set before him. Well, you have a race that God has set before you.

It's not my race. You run your race with everything you have before the Lord and I'll run mine and we'll see the work of God accomplished beautifully. So that's what? Amos simply replied to Amazigh. He said listen, you're telling me verse 16.

You say do not prophesy against Israel and do not spout against the highest house of Isis. That's what you're telling me. But this is what he responds verse 17 this is impressive from the Prophet Amos just after he received this rebuke from the establishment from the Authority verse 17.

Therefore thus says the Lord. Your wife shall be a harlot in the city your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword. Your land shall be divided by survey line. You shall die in a defiled land and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land.

That's gutsy folks. Amos is being accused of bringing down the national morale. You know, he's saying we're going to be led away to captivity. We say baby saying bad times are coming. Look things are great.

There's prosperity and abundance under the reign of Jeroboam the second and here comes this guy spoiling the whole party. Fresh from that criticism Amos looks and I think when the Lord put that word in his heart and in his mind He gave him those exact words by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

He had to swallow hard. And say well if you think that's bad, let me spell this out to you Amazigh let me tell you what's going to happen to your wife and to your children. If you think Amazigh wasn't happy with him before wait until he said this.

He says you're going to die in the defiled land and Israel shall surely Be led away captive now, you know, it's very interesting. Look back to this at verse 11. This is what Amazigh accused Amos of saying Jeroboam shall die by the sword.

Now, there's no reference to Amos saying that maybe he did and it wasn't recorded. But there's no reference to him saying that and then it says and Israel shall surely be led away captive from their own land.

There's no record of Amos saying that before this point again, maybe he did but there's no record of it. Let's say he didn't. Then I picture Amos in verse 17 saying oh, yeah, and just for the record. You're exactly right.

Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land. You're absolutely right. Well Frank. This is Amazing that Amos would have the courage to stand up and speak for the Lord in this situation and I'm sure Amazigh was very offended.

I'm sure lots of people didn't like it and they spoke out and said well. No, you can't say that you're a lying prophet. Well, you know how you tell the difference between a lying prophet and a true prophet proofs in the pudding.

If it happens then Amos was speaking truly. So that's where you say anybody can stand up and say well, you know, the Lord says this is going to happen. The Lord says that's going to happen. Well, does it happen?

It certainly did in Amos's case. Every one of those things was fulfilled and Israel was led away captive. Friends if it doesn't happen, well, then it certainly doesn't happen and the person shouldn't be regarded.

The Basket of Summer Fruit and the Certainty of Judgment

It doesn't slow down Amos one bit look at it here verse 1 of chapter 8. Thus the Lord God showed me behold a basket of summer fruit and he said Amos What do you see and I said a basket of summer fruit?

Again, so simple Amos isn't out there trying to spin an interpretation. Lord. I think the fruit represents Israel in its ripe character before God because that's exactly what it did. See, that's summer fruit.

Summer fruit is fruit that you need to eat right away. It doesn't keep very long. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's spoiled, but it means that it's ripe and it doesn't have much time left. That's the idea.

This is fruit that doesn't have much time left. But instead of answering back to the Lord Oh Lord I see a picture of the tardiness of Israel's hour and how they must hasten to repent because their time is ripe.

Just like this representation says no I see a basket of summer fruit and then the Lord said to me verse middle of verse 2 here the end has come upon my people Israel and I will not pass by them anymore and The songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day says the Lord God many dead bodies everywhere.

They shall throw them out in silence. Now there's something here that I'm not really privy to having not studied this passage in the original Hebrew but I could read commentaries written in English that tell me about the original Hebrew and They tell me that there's a very significant and striking word play in this passage between the term for summer fruit, which is something like chaos and the term for easy which is something like or excuse me the term for end not easy, which is kiss and Basically the word play coming together.

It's something like this. So when Amos replied to the Lord that he saw a basket of ripe chaos. God said kiss. It's a word play in the Hebrew. That would be very striking to the person who read it. What it means is an end is going to come upon Israel.

Just like ripe fruit is ready to be thrown out a similar judgment is going to come upon rotten Israel. Look at for some of the reasons why beginning here at verse 4 here it is you who swallow up the needy and make the poor of the land fail saying When will the new moon be passed that we may sell grain and the Sabbath that we may trade wheat?

Making the ephod small and the shekel large falsifying the scales by deceit that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals even sell the bad wheat. See here Amos is returning to his familiar theme of social justice.

Decrying those in Israel who make their money from the unjust treatment of the poor and the vulnerable. These people are so money-hungry that when God says what you need to take the new moon feast off.

You need to take the Sabbath off. There they are. They're watching their clock. When's the Sabbath over? When's the Sabbath over? I got to go out and make a buck Instead of honoring God by the Sabbath.

Oh, they couldn't wait until it was over. Then they cheated even worse. They made the ephod small. It's like saying you made your pound small and your dollar big. There's chronic corruption and cheating in the business world and God saw it and he was angry.

When you cheat at business God sees it and he's not pleased. Don't cheat. Say oh. You don't know my business and everybody else is cheating. And if I don't cheat right along with them that I'm gonna get swallowed up.

I have to just to stay afloat in the corporate or in the business culture that I'm in. Then make a stand for God and trust him to make it up. Don't cheat. Don't go and make your ephod small and your shekel large.

God sees it and even if it's totally accepted in your marketplace, even it's totally accepted if it's still cheating then don't do it. Cheating and dishonesty in business. It's not a small sin. And I don't think God takes it as a sin that can be excused by what we think of as necessity.

God sees it and he takes account. So judgment is certain. Look at it here in verse 7. The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob. Surely, I will never forget any of their works. Shall the land not tremble for this and everyone who mourns dwells in it.

And so shall switch shall swell like the river and heave and subside like the River of Egypt. You know anything about geography and that part of the world, you know that the Nile River in Egypt is very famous for the way that it floods and then recedes every year and It's a remarkable difference.

I mean yards and yards of difference in height in the flow of the Nile between flood stage and it's receding stage and Just as much as that goes up and down like this. God says I'm going to do this to the land.

Possibly meaning an earthquake and I'm going to do it to your lives. That's the kind of trembling I'm going to bring. Just like that Nile River goes up and down that radically that's how I'm going to shake this land and I'm going to shake your lives.

Why look at the parent verse 7? I will never forget any of their works and might I say that this reminds us that time. Can never erase sin? Now oftentimes we feel that if we have forgotten the sins of our youth.

Or if others have forgotten all about the sins of our youth then God must have forgotten about him. Also He hasn't Remember those terrible things you did as a teenager terrible. Some of them you may laugh about now or think, you know, well, you know just teenage, you know, it was flat-out sin, wasn't it?

Flat-out sin. And do you think that just because it was a long time ago and for some of us longer than others? Because it was a long time ago. You think God's forgotten about it. Time does not erase sin.

We somehow think it does because we forget about it. You know time heals all wounds time passes by it's all water under the bridge not before God. Time does not atone for sin. Only the atoning work of Jesus can cover sin not time.

So think about it when he says surely I will never forget any of their works. Is that a positive statement in Amos chapter 8 verse 7? No. But how about this one? Compare it with Hebrews 6 10. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love.

Which is shown towards his name and that you've ministered to the Saints and do minister. Just as much as God doesn't forget the evil works of the wicked. He doesn't forget the good works of his people and he doesn't forget them for one moment.

Oh. Some of you get discouraged. You get discouraged because there you are you're in the service of the Lord or maybe you're at a place in your life. We're honestly you can't serve. You're just busy with other things right now and God has your focus on other things.

And so you're serving diligently in whatever sphere you can but you remember fondly the days when you could be more actively involved in Christian service. And you're all depressed because you can't do that the way you want to right now.

God's not forgetting what you did before. And if you'll be faithful to him He'll open up doors for you to go back and even a better opportunity to serve him. So don't think about that. God is unjust to forget your work.

He remembers it's still before him. He's still happy about it. You've forgotten about it. It's just kind of a distant memory for you. Not before God. He still looks at that thing and he smiles. And if you notice here God says again all of it shall swell like the river and heave and subside like the River of Egypt.

Again, he's drawing this dramatic point about how he's going to shake up the land and look at how extensive the judgment will be. Verse 9. And it shall come to pass in that day says the Lord God that I will make the Sun go down at noon.

And I will darken the earth and broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentations. I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head. I will make it like mourning for an only son and it's end like a bitter day.

I notice here because all this reference to celestial catastrophe. Many people think that Amos is now looking forward to the ultimate day of the Lord. But it may be just as well that he's speaking of his own day and speaking of an eclipse of the Sun or something like that.

You know astronomers go back and they can figure out that there were two Total eclipses of the Sun in the lifetime of Amos and maybe he's referring to those. This is going to be a day of deep mourning like the mourning for an only son.

Famine of Hearing the Word of the Lord

Now look at the word he speaks in verse 11. Behold. The days are coming says the Lord God that I will send a famine on the land. Not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water. But of hearing the words of the Lord they shall wander from sea to sea from north to east.