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AMOS 7:10-17
(Reading: Luke 22:66 – 23:12; Jeremiah 38:1-13)
Too Close For Comfort!
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
Whenever a sermon is preached, there is always a reaction.
God’s Word always has an effect.
It comforts you in the faith, or it disturbs you for not living out that faith.
And if you’re feeling that you’re not having any reaction to it at all, that too is a reaction - a very negative one.
But it can actually happen that preaching also has a much stronger negative reaction.
It could mean a sharp comment to the minister at the door after the service.
He might receive quite nasty anonymous letters. It could even be that he becomes unacceptable in certain churches.
Those people, then, don’t see God’s Word as a comfort or challenge.
It is an affront - an assault on their intelligence, or position, or the group they belong to.
Now, it’s seven and half chapters into Amos.
There has been much preaching by Amos.
And no one can mistake his message.
Even when he conveyed it through a vision, it’s still black and white.
Amos was definitely not liked.
He upset many people.
He condemned them to the most awful judgment of the Lord.
All because he was speaking the Word of the Lord.
We may wonder why Amos hasn’t been reprimanded yet.
He seems to have got away with a lot so far.
But when this book does mention his getting rebuked, we certainly know the Lord’s been hitting home.
It is no one less than the highest church official in the land who confronts Amos - Amaziah.
What a contrast that would have been!
The learned and powerful Bishop of Bethel meets the farmer from backwoods Judah.
Amaziah, as the priest of Bethel, the leading place of worship, would have been like the man they call the Bishop of Rome today.
Because you know who that is - don’t you?
He is the Pope - the Head of the whole Roman Catholic Church.
He isn’t just another bishop, he is the bishop!
In the same way, Amaziah is not ordinary priest, he is the priest.
He’s on all those influential committees; he’s constantly consulted by the government; he’s the one who’s always quoted in the papers.
If anyone has his finger on the pulse of government, it is this very political priest!
But Amos?
He couldn’t have been more different!
In the words of our first aspect to this text … THE LORD’S PROPHET IS JUST NOT P.C.!
Perhaps you’re wondering what I mean by P.C.?
Are you puzzled as to what this has got to do with a personal computer?
That’s the P.C. some of us know.
This P.C., though, stands for being politically correct.
You see, Amos certainly wasn’t currying any favours from the powers that be!
Quite the opposite!
In the general climate of economic boom, he was a terribly wet blanket.
And, to be quite honest, he was a little too close to the bone about what was really happening.
Today, they would slap a law suit on him.
There would be some government legislation, just like has been proposed under the so-called ‘hate-speech’ laws, that he would be prosecuted under.
He would be deported, at the very least!
So, they tried to shut him up.
Amaziah sent a strongly worded letter to the king.
That was the way to silence Amos, then.
The king was the highest court of the land.
Amaziah was hoping, at least, for a verbal restraining order on him.
You see, Amaziah was afraid.
And he was doing what people do when they’re afraid of someone - they persecute them.
What, then, does Amaziah fear for?
Well, let’s see the ways he tries to deal with the ‘Amos’ problem, to find out what that is.
In verses 10 and 11, he goes for the jugular.
He labels Amos as a traitor.
This crime, which today still means the death penalty in many of this world’s nations, would have to be the worst of anything anyone could do.
It is definitely not P.C.!
Why - this is being unpatriotic!
But notice how ridiculous this charge was!
Amos - part of a conspiracy?
That could only be if God was the other party in this conspiracy!
There was certainly no one else in cohorts with him.
Notice what the word, ‘conspiracy’, does, though.
There’s something secret, hidden.
It’s implied he is part of a mysterious, unknown group.
And that’s exactly where Amaziah claims the upper hand.
As a political priest he would have known what to say to try and put someone away.
He had trampled over more than a few other opponents before.
Like the Pharisees were with Jesus some eight hundred years down the track, he knew that if he let this man go on like this, the people might come to believe in him.
They could realise he’s right!
Or, at least, see that something’s quite wrong.
And the last thing Amaziah needed now was a Royal Commission into the state of the Bethel Shrine’s finances!
The better way, by far, was to be rid of that man right now!
Isolate him, alienate him - all those things which make him appear definitely not P.C.
We can think here of how Jeremiah was accused of treason, as we read in Jeremiah 38 verse 4.
We can also think here of when Jesus was called a revolutionary in Luke 23 verse 2.
And what about the time the apostles were charged with disturbing the peace in Acts 4?
In the same way Amos was being effectively deleted.
They were trying their hardest to rub him out!
This is what the phrase, “The land is not able to bear all his words,” means.
Amos is said to be upsetting the whole social fabric.
Any more of him and there’ll be a revolution on our hands!
“Look, King Jeroboam, he’s even said that you have to be killed!”
In Calvin’s words, this first approach of Amaziah was like a roaring lion.
He really went out to scare Amos.
He tried to frighten him real bad!
Use what Amos had just said, and twist it around a little.
The newspapers and televisions do the same today.
And that’s because this political power-play has been around for ever and a day!
You see, congregation, Amaziah had a lot to lose.
There was a huge remuneration with his job.
Bethel was vital to him, and what Amos said devalued it.
What we have here is a prime example of power politics.
Someone with power, uses it against someone without power.
An obvious abuse of power!
To make sure he gets his way, and to make sure he gets his way sooner that later, Amaziah uses a second type of power politics, as well.
From the obvious public ranting he has against Amos, he also has a subtle private attack, too.
In the verses 12 and 13, he says to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
Let’s remember here the huge social gap there was between Amaziah and Amos.
One commentator said that if Amaziah was the 8th Century equivalent of an archbishop, Amos, by comparison, was an untrained and unpaid lay preacher.
It’s hardly a fair contest, as Amaziah has already shown.
The whole political structure was behind him, and he’d win any court case.
The courts had all become kangaroo courts anyway!
He had the money and enough influence to be sure it would go his way.
“So, let’s settle this thing out of court, Amos.
“You can keep doing what you’re doing.
“You can do it where you come from, and still get a fair income.
“You’ll still have your own private principles - no one’s saying you have to change your mind.
“Be off - before the king reads his mail and decides that being deported is too good for a would-be assassin!”
Amaziah’s certainly changed from the roaring lion!
In fact, Calvin here calls him, “a sly fox.”
He’s been in politics a long time.
Congregation, THE LORD’S PROPHET IS JUST NOT P.C.!
And he never can be!
For while Amaziah, and those like him today, will say it’s alright for the fundamentalists like Amos to have their view, just make sure they keep it to themselves!
It’s like a denomination which has become so liberal, there is room for everyone to believe anything they like, except the one who dares to say that there shouldn’t be room for everyone!
Then you watch how quickly the system can turn against him.
Believe what you like, but as soon as it means believing something which means someone else shouldn’t do what they like - watch out!
THE LORD’S PROPHET IS JUST NOT P.C., and neither, congregation, should we!
So let’s be that!
Let’s see, through Amos, in our second aspect, that … HE IS WHAT THE LORD CALLS HIM TO BE.
In the face of such strong official church opposition, Amos stands firm.
He answers back to Amaziah.
And let’s hear the different parts to his answer.
Verse 14 is where Amos begins his reply.
He says, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.”
Notice, there’s no quick defence of a wounded pride.
He’s honest about where he’s come from.
He was never picked out with a gifting for being a prophet.
There’s no human ability here; no years of training from childhood onwards.
He wasn’t born to it either.
A son of a prophet can readily follow the footsteps of his father.
He would know what’s involved!
Amos was a shepherd, and he also took care of sycamore figs.
A bit of mixed farming, definitely a different background altogether!
And that’s just it!
There’s no human pre-conditioning or preparation.
His call was quite out of the ordinary - an extraordinary call!
Don’t think he was here because he couldn’t think of anything else to do!
Don’t think that he was here because it was better than back there!
“The LORD took me,” Amos declares!
Verse 15 answers Amaziah in the most devastating way.
This is the ultimate in power-play!
You see, Amaziah would most likely have thought that here was a prophet, like so many more he knew.
There was a school of the prophets at Bethel, after all.
That school had been there since the days of Elijah.
But it appears that the only thing prophetic about that school, and what it produced, was the name on the sign.
Already in King Ahab’s time, he had four hundred of these men on his payroll.
And certainly down south in Judah, at this same time, Micah is pointing out how these prophets have sold out.
But Amos can’t be bought.
His isn’t a career - it’s a calling.
And where God says “Go”, you don’t say “No”!
So here he is!
HE IS WHAT THE LORD CALLS HIM TO BE.
This is an important lesson for all those with positions in the church.
We are not here to serve ourselves, whatever that service may be.
As soon as you stop realising that what you’re doing is a call from the Lord, you’ve become an Amaziah.
You’re only looking after yourself, then.
You think about whatever job, or position you hold, whether in the church, or in the world.
Do you see that as where God means you to be?
Hadn’t thought of it that way?
Well, you must.
Otherwise, how different would you be than anyone else?
Now, we’re not Old Testament prophets.
But in Jesus Christ, the greatest prophet, each of us is a prophet, too.
We are called - especially set apart - to witness to him wherever we are.
You’ve got every reason for living - because of Christ’s doing and dying!
Since his call was from the Lord himself, Amos could do nothing except follow God’s will.
He couldn’t change his course.
He couldn’t change his message.
God had called him.
He gave him that message.
He had no alternative, or any wish, for doing anything but what God commissioned him to do!
HE IS WHAT THE LORD CALLS HIM TO BE!
The last two verses of the text, the verses 16 and 17, shows this vividly.
Amos just keeps on going on.
“Now, then, hear the word of the LORD.
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the house of Isaac.’
”Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”
Amos not only repeats what he has declared before against the whole nation, he also applies the Lord’s word to Amaziah personally.
Harsh as that may seem, and much as Amaziah himself wouldn’t have believed it at all, still judgment is coming.
And when it comes it destroys them all - everything they ever held dear!
That’s why Amos mentions his wife, his children and his land.
They are the most important things for Amaziah.
But they are also, sadly, the only things in Amaziah!
Unpopular and unwelcome as his message had been, Amos keeps on going.
No threats, no intimidation, no hostility, will silence a man with his credentials.
This prophet was like the greater prophet still to come; the prophet who also would face the opposition of the established religion, and suffer much, much more.
And he - Jesus Christ - would be the prophet that ends all prophecy.
In his first coming he did that by fulfilling all the prophecies about the salvation of his people.
In his second coming he will do that by fulfilling all the prophecies about the judgment of all people.
Friend, don’t get caught off-side with Jesus.
Don’t be like Amaziah and the many others who will only meet him as Judge.
Greet him now as your Saviour!
And that means he must be your Lord, too.
You have to follow Him, wherever he tells you to go.
Like Luther at the time of the Reformation, you will have to make your stand.
When people argued, threaten, and tried to do away with him, he was compelled to declare, “Here I stand; I can do no other; so help me God.”
Congregation, this is the test of a true and faithful messenger of God.
Would you pass it?
Are you standing up for the true Christian faith?
Does your life show the power of the Holy Spirit?
Do you keep on keeping on?
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
Lord, give us courage, however hard it may be, to obey your Word.
Help us to speak your Word in every way you call us to speak it.
Don’t let us be afraid of people, but through the gospel of Christ that we show, may they come to a holy fear of you.
It was Jesus who witnessed to the end, even though men condemned him to death on the cross.
It’s in his name alone, we pray, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
The source for this sermon was: www.rcnz.org.nz
(c) Copyright, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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