Wednesday, July 14 PM

You may have noticed we've been reading through Amos on Sunday mornings, and I thought, well, as I share tonight,

I thought I'd just share a little bit about the prophet Amos.

Among the first prophets that are written, maybe the first prophet that are written, in about 900

BC, after Solomon died, Jeroboam decided to set up some golden calves in the

Northern Kingdom and separate the worship of the

Northern Kingdom from the Southern Kingdom, the Southern Kingdom being made up of primarily

Judah, the Levites, and I think the tribe of Benjamin, which was a really small tribe.

The rest of the tribes were all in the Northern Kingdom, and of course, with the golden calves in the

Northern Kingdom, the people didn't have to come to worship at Jerusalem. It was the idea of Jeroboam that, you know, with the golden calves in the

Northern Kingdom, they could worship there, and obviously that would be idolatry.

And so, the Northern Kingdom was an idolatrous kingdom.

Now, that doesn't excuse the Southern Kingdom, okay, but nevertheless, they were idolatrous.

The book of Amos, the prophets in general speak against idolatry and injustice and vain worship.

I looked through Amos. I didn't see any direct reference. This is not because it's not there, okay, it's because I didn't see it, to any words from God against idolatry, mostly against injustice and vain worship.

Who was Amos? A hundred and seventy years or so later, the people in the

Northern Kingdom were a real disappointment to God in their injustice, in their self -satisfaction, in their not caring for one another, and I'm sure in their idolatry.

But in about 760

BC, God spoke to this shepherd, this herdsman, in a little village called

Tekoa, just south of Bethlehem. Now, this is about,

Tekoa is about ten miles, you know, about, okay, about ten miles south of Jerusalem.

And God speaks to this herdsman, and well, this is what he says.

In chapter 7, verse 15, this is what Amos says. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the

Lord said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel. Now, when he uses the word

Israel, he's talking about the Northern Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom is Judah, the Northern Kingdom is

Israel. Go to my people Israel, okay, and prophesy to them.

And this would be Bethel.

Bethel is where the golden calves were set up, and it was about ten miles north of Jerusalem.

Okay, so here's this shepherd, this, he also says, you know,

I'm not a prophet, I'm not the son of a prophet. You know, I'm a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.

Now, this is not the American sycamore tree. This is a, it's in the mulberry family, and it's a tree that has figs.

And they're not all that tasty, like a regular fig tree, okay.

And so, when the figs appear, you have to either smash them or slice them to get them to ripen up and get enough sweetness to it, you know, to make it, you know, worth eating.

And so, that's what a dresser of fig trees did, at least the sycamore fig trees. So, now this is interesting.

This is who Amos is. He's a shepherd, and he also dresses sycamore fig trees, smashes figs, slices figs, causes them to ripen so that they'll be good enough to eat, so that they will ripen, so that they will mature.

It's almost as if, you know, the career of Amos reflected his prophetic ministry in that as he spoke the judgmental, cutting words of God to the

Israelites to bring them to repentance, to grow up and mature in their faith, okay, if you will.

Well, that's what he did with the fig trees. That's what he did with the fig trees.

And he was faithful, okay. Now, you might, let's see, you might say that for just a little reference,

Amos lived in Norman, okay, and Oklahoma City is

Jerusalem, and Edmond is Bethel, okay. That's where he was sent, okay, just for a little reference, okay.

South of Jerusalem, you know, and then north, okay, go up there to Israel and speak to my people up there.

Prophesy to my people Israel. And, you know, a prophet, you know, let me read this little section here.

He is speaking in, prophesying in the northern kingdom, okay, and one of the priests up there in chapter 10, verse, chapter 7, verse 10,

Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam, 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. I thought, you know, that's interesting.

The message that God gave Amos as he spoke that message, the people there recognized we're not able to bear this message.

It's just too much. It's too heavy. It's too condemning, judgmental.

For thus Amos has said, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from this land.

And Amaziah said to Amos, O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah.

They call him a seer. Now you know how to spell seer, S -E -E -R. Now you know what a seer is?

That's the person that sees. That's S -E -E -R, seer, person that sees.

So they call him a seer because they can see things that other people can't see. And in a sense, a prophet can see the future.

But in reality, they don't see into the future. They see what

God has revealed to them about what's going to happen, okay?

Now there's a big difference. There's a big difference here. You see, a prophet is a person who is in an intimate relationship with God, an intimate relationship with God.

Not only do they hear and repeat the words of God, but God gives them a vision, okay, to show them, okay?

For example, in chapter 7, verse 4, this is what the

Lord God showed me. This is what the Lord God showed me.

You see, God speaks to these prophets. He shows these prophets what He's going to do.

And this is what He's done with Amos. And He's brought Amos into the very world of God, okay, if you will.

He's entered into the plans of God. God is upset with His people.

He needs a man to go and minister to those people to give them a word of judgment, a word of warning.

And this judgmental word, this word of warning, is for the purpose not to condemn, okay, but now notice in chapter 4, repeated 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times in chapter 4, and then 2 times in chapter 5, repeated 5 times in chapter 4, yet you did not return to me, declares the

Lord. Yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. You see, this message that He's giving the people, okay, is a message to get them to repent, to turn, and come back to the

Lord. The Lord desires them to come back to Him, to be

His people, 5 times in chapter 4, and then twice in chapter 5, the message is, seek me and live, seek the

Lord and live. So the message is, you know, one of to get the people to repent, to come back to the

Lord. The Lord is wooing them back to Himself, and yet they won't.

And in about 30 years, in 722

B .C., the judgment that Amos spoke of, that was coming from God if they didn't repent, came to pass, and the northern kingdom was destroyed by Assyria.

About 30 years later, 722 B .C., that's the message that God gave

Amos. Amos was a shepherd and a dresser of fig trees.

He was faithful. You know, some prophets, when they're called, for example, Jonah, not quite so responsive.

Amos apparently heard the Word of God. Chapter 3, verse 8, it says,

The lion has roared, who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy?

I mean, when the Word of God came to Amos, Amos heeded and went.

He was obedient, if you will. He went.

He was a faithful prophet, clearly spoke the message of God.

And not only did he speak the message to his people in the northern kingdom, but also in the southern kingdom.

They were guilty likewise. Not only did he speak the message to the southern kingdom, but he spoke the message to the surrounding nations, to Damascus, to Gaza, to the

Philistines, to Tyre, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab.

You know, the God who speaks is not only the

God of Judah and Israel, He's the

God of the surrounding nations. Not only is He the God of the surrounding nations and all the Gentiles, He's the

God who made chapter 5, verse 8, He who made the Pleiades and Orion.

He's the God, the creator of the universe. This is the God who speaks. This is the

God whom Amos declares, okay? And he declares this, you know, it's interesting.

Yes, he speaks God's Word, but he also lives out God's Word. Think about the prophet

Hosea. You know, God told Hosea to go marry a prostitute and have some children by her, okay?

And Hosea did. Hosea was obedient. But you see, what Hosea went through was to show the people what

God was going through. You know, how the people had forsaken

God and gone whoring after other gods. Forsaken their husband, if you will.

If you've read through Ezekiel, you know, Ezekiel, you know, God had

Ezekiel do a number of things. Not only speak His Word, but act it out. You know,

Ezekiel, I want you to get a little brick, okay? And I want you to build a little model of Jerusalem on top of it, and then

I want you to bring some siege works against it, you know. A little model, okay? I want you to dig a hole in a house, you know, and pack your bags and go through there like you're running for your life, okay?

I mean, you know, just act out, okay, what God was going to do, you know.

And the prophets were faithful to carry those messages out. Not only did they carry out the

Word of God, you know, by speaking the Word, but they acted out the message of God.

And not only did they act out the message of God, but they, if you will, portrayed

God Himself to the people, like Hosea, okay?

I mean, what Hosea went through was just what God was going through. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet, right?

The weeping prophet. But in a very real sense, okay, it was

God who was weeping. I mean, and when Jeremiah, you know, wept over Jerusalem, that was what

God was doing. God was weeping, you know, over, you know, the sinfulness of His people.

And He was hurt, rejected.

You know, sometimes we don't like to think of God being emotional. Now, don't get me wrong here. The emotions that we have are fallen emotions.

The emotions that God experiences are not fallen, okay? But God loves,

God hates, God grieves, okay? You see what I'm saying here? And throughout the whole

Bible, it's the prophets that express that. There was a fellow that wrote a book, his name was

Abraham Heschel, on the prophets. And he brings this out very clearly.

The ministry of the prophets, he describes as pathos, P -A -T -H -O -S, you know, the emotional life of God.

And again, it's reasoned emotion, unfallen emotion, okay?

It's not motion, I mean emotion out of control. When God, when we love, we fall in love, we fall out of love.

When God loves, He sets His affection. You see what

I'm saying here? He doesn't love like we love. He is love. All right?

His emotions are perfect. They're different than ours. And when

Amos spoke, he spoke the words of Christ.

He spoke the words of Christ. I share two more scriptures with you, and then we want to pray.

First Peter, chapter 1, verse 10.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be searched and inquired carefully.

Inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

You see, when the prophets spoke, they spoke in the spirit of Christ.

It was the spirit of Christ that spoke through them. And they spoke of the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

The message of judgment that Amos brought, okay, was judgment, but it was judgment not without hope.

Not without hope. At the end of Amos, in chapter 9, verse 11.

In that day, this future day, I will raise up the booth of David that has fallen and repair its breaches, raise up its ruins, rebuild it as in the days of old.

And then in verse 14, I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel.

They shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine.

They shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the

Lord God. It's a message of judgment, but it is a message of judgment that is not without hope.

And then the last scripture I share with you is Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1.

Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, the prophet spoke to our fathers.

But in these last days, he is spoken by his son. In these last days, he is spoken by his son.

You see, and in a real sense, the prophets were preceders of Christ.

They set a precedent, okay. When Christ comes, he will come as a prophet.

Not only a priest and a prophet and a king, but as, you know, as a prophet. As Moses declares in, where is it,

Deuteronomy chapter 18, you know. After I'm gone, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers, okay.

When Christ came, he came as a prophet.

And as the prophets in the Old Testament preached a message, repent, okay.

Repent when Jesus came preaching, what did he preach?

Repent, for the kingdom is at hand. Repent, for the kingdom is at hand.

And so, not only have the prophets spoken the word of God, but the very word of God has come in Jesus.

You see, the prophets spoke the word of God. Jesus is the word of God.

Hallelujah. Well, I hope you learned a little bit about Amos. A herdsman, a dresser of fig trees, a fellow that, you know,

God called him, right. Through the whole Bible, I'm impressed, you know.

If anybody comes to God, you know how they get there? You know how it starts out? God comes and gets them.

And I'm sure that's the way it was with you. That's the way it was with me. We want to pray tonight.