Session 3 Amos 5:4-15
AMOS 5:4-15
MEMORY VERSE: AMOS 5:4
Three year olds love to play hide and seek. They want us to count while they run and hide. However, they typically pick places to hide where they can easily be seen—under the piano bench, poking out from behind the recliner, or behind the glass coffee table. They hide in easy places because they want to be found. As we begin a lesson about seeking God, it is good to note that He is not hiding in difficult places far away from us—because He, too, wants us to find Him.
(In PSG, p. 28)
Amos’s third message in this section of the book (Amos 5:1-17) begins with a lament. Laments are quite common in the Old Testament. They are funeral dirges mourning a loss, such as the death of a loved one at a funeral. While the wealthy Israelites were consumed with celebrating at their religious feasts the wonderful lives they were living, Amos sang a song mourning their deaths. Amos pronounced them dead when they believed themselves to be living life to the fullest. The prophet’s message was clear: those who reject the Lord are dead, but those who seek the Lord will live.
This message also has a chiastic structure. Chiastic structures are prevalent in the Old Testament. A chiastic structure is where the first line of a passage corresponds to the last line of the passage, the second line corresponds to the next-to-last line, and so on, so that the passage reaches a climax at its center. The emphasis of a chiastic passage is usually on the center line. Taking into consideration its chiastic structure, Amos 5:1-17 may be seen as follows:
A. Lament of the death of the nation (vv. 1-3)
B. Call to seek God and live (vv. 4-6)
C. Accusations of no justice (v. 7)
D. Hymn to the Lord (vv. 8-9)
C. Accusations of no justice (vv. 10-13)
B. Call to seek God and live (vv. 14-15)
A. Lament of the death of the nation (vv. 16-17).
In Amos 5:18–6:14, Amos confronted the people of Israel with three misconceptions they had. First, they believed the day of the Lord would be a day of salvation for them; Amos indicated it would be a day of catastrophe for them (5:18-20). Second, the Israelites believed they were secure in their relationship with God because of their repetitive meetings for worship and the offerings they offered to Him (5:21-27). But Amos revealed that God rejected all their pretentious religious displays. Third, the Israelites thought they could trust in their military and their affluence for protection from their enemies (6:1-14). In reality, nothing could protect them from God’s judgment He was going to bring down upon them.
EXPLORE THE TEXT
4 For the LORD says to the house of Israel: Seek me and live! 5 Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal or journey to Beer-sheba, for Gilgal will certainly go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.
After having sung a lament to mourn the death of Israel, Amos, the prophet sent from the God who gives life, exhorted dead Israel to seek the Lord and live. Seeking the Lord meant having a devotion to God demonstrated by faithful obedience to His Word. However, seeking the Lord would require them to discontinue their empty religious practices at their sacred shrines. One of these shrines was at Bethel, located about ten miles north of Jerusalem. It was one of two locations where Jeroboam, the first king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, built altars, made two golden calves, and said to the people: “Here are your gods” (see 1 Kings 12:26-33). Dan was the location of the other altar. These altars served a dual purpose: they were the place where blood-sacrifices took place for the expiation of sin, and they were places of asylum—those who grasped the horns of the altar were immune from punishment (1 Kings 1:50; 2:28).
Beer-sheba and Gilgal were two of Israel’s other sacred shrines. Even though the shrine at Beer-sheba was located in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, it had become the destination of religious pilgrims from the north because of its significance in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Its omission from destruction may be because Amos was concentrating on what would happen in the Northern Kingdom. Gilgal held a significant place in Israel’s sacred history as well. After Israel crossed over the Jordan River, Joshua established Israel’s first camp at Gilgal, where they were circumcised and observed the first Passover in the promised land (Josh. 4–5). Gilgal was also near the place where Elijah was taken up into heaven (2 Kings 2:1). Consequently, Gilgal became a sacred shrine for the people of Israel. Amos’s message here must be read in light of his previous statements in Amos 3:14 and 4:4-5. Going to sacred shrines and putting on a religious display could not substitute for seeking the Lord Himself. Their false bravado displeased the Lord, so He would bring these places to ruin to demonstrate the worthlessness of such actions. Those who participated in them had nothing but exile and loss in their future.
6 Seek the LORD and live, or he will spread like fire throughout the house of Joseph; it will consume everything with no one at Bethel to extinguish it. 7 Those who turn justice into wormwood also throw righteousness to the ground.
Israel’s only hope for life was to forsake false religious practices and seek the Lord. Those who substituted religious activity for true devotion were in store for great disappointment. All such substitutes would lead to destruction, and this destruction would be brought about by an inextinguishable, all-consuming fire. The people of the house of Joseph, named here to represent the two main tribes in the Northern Kingdom—Ephraim and Manasseh (Joseph’s two sons)—had only one way to survive the devastation: Seek the LORD and live.
Amos emphasized the ultimate reason for God’s severe judgment on Israel. In the book of Amos, justice and righteousness coupled together defined Israel’s covenant responsibilities to the Lord. The prophet Isaiah did this
also: “For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, the plant he delighted in. He expected justice but saw injustice; he expected righteousness but heard cries of despair” (Isa. 5:7). Justice emphasizes fairness, righting wrong and punishing those who do wrongly. Righteousness emphasizes faithful obedience to God and treating others, especially the weak and poor, in a way that is in line with God’s character and instruction. Therefore, the people of Israel were morally corrupt in their relationships with both God and others.
8 The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the water of the sea and pours it out over the surface of the earth — the LORD is his name. 9 He brings destruction on the strong, and it falls on the fortress.
Located at the center of Amos’s chiastic structure of verses 1-17, the text reveals that the emphasis of Amos’s message was not on Israel but on the Lord. Verses 8-9 is a hymn declaring God’s sovereignty and power. First, Amos recognized that God controls the seasons. The constellations Pleiades and Orion were associated with the new year and the change of the seasons that affected the agricultural cycle. The earth and its seasons on which Israel depended for its crops are dependent on the Lord. Furthermore, every day all of creation is dependent on God’s constant rule. The Lord controls the waters of the earth both for the provision of life and the destruction of life through floods. It is this God for whom Israel needed to prepare to meet in judgment. It is this God who exhorted His people to seek Him and live. It is this God who is in control of all things, including the future.
Nevertheless, Israel thought it could be in control. Its recent military victories and impressive defensive fortifications convinced Israel it was invincible. Apparently, Amos was the only one to question Israel’s military national security. Israel’s fortifications had angled offset structures in order to defend against battering rams. Many of their cities were also surrounded by casemate walls, which were actually two thick walls around a city with a space of about five to six feet between the walls. In time of battle, the space was filled with earth and rocks so that when the enemy breached the first wall they faced earth and gravel within in and still another wall behind. To continue through the breach, the enemy would have to deal with digging through the rubble breaching another wall, while at the same time dealing with the defenders attacking them from above. However, as impressive as Israel’s military and fortresses were, God was going to destroy them. They would discover that self-effort is no substitute for trust in the Lord.
(In PSG, p. 32)
10 They hate the one who convicts the guilty at the city gate, and they despise the one who speaks with integrity. 11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact a grain tax from him, you will never live in the houses of cut stone you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
Verse 10 turns attention back to indictments brought against Israel. Amos addressed what was happening in Israel’s judicial system. The large space within the city gate together with rooms in the gate area was where local court cases were heard and judged. The judges were supposed to have been “able men, God-fearing, trustworthy, and hating dishonest profit” (Ex. 18:21), and they were to treat everyone fairly, whether an Israelite or a foreigner (Deut. 1:16-17).
However, Amos confronted the corruption that had swallowed up Israel’s judicial system. They had totally disregarded God’s law concerning the forbidding of false testimony against another person (Ex. 20:16; Deut. 5:20).
The people hated any judge who was willing to render fair judgments and convict criminals, and they despised any witness who faithfully spoke the truth in defense of the innocent. The people opposed godly judges and squelched honest testimonies. Israel ignored the fact that the Lord hates “a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers” (Prov. 6:19). This became a recurring issue for the people of Israel (Prov. 22:22; Isa. 29:20-21; Zech. 8:16-17).
Verse 11 specifies the consequences of Israel’s corrupt business and legal practices, but before Amos did so he delivered one more indictment. Amos declared what was about to happen was because you trample the poor and exact a grain tax from him. Trampling the poor means that they were taking large percentages of the fruit of the poor man’s labor by burdening him with a monstrous tax. Most of the poor were tenant farmers working for the noble class. They had to pay rent for the land and homes, and then on top of that, the nobility exacted a large grain tax on the poor that nearly depleted their harvest.
Next, Amos revealed what these greedy rich people had been doing with their ill-gotten gain. First, they had built for themselves houses of cut stone. There was a lot of expense involved in using cut stone. The poor lived in more modest homes made of clay bricks and uncut or rough stones. Amos also mentioned that these affluent nobles also had homes and furniture inlaid with ivory (3:15; 6:4). Second, these greedy individuals planted lush vineyards, hoping to enjoy the fruit of the vine they would produce. Through Amos, the Lord declared that these greedy rich people who were oppressing and profiting from the poor would not live in the houses they built or drink wine from the lush vineyards they had planted. Just as they had deprived the poor of the fruit of their labors, so also God would deprive the greedy rich people of the fruit of their unethical labors. These two judgments are listed among the curses that will happen to the people should they turn away from God and His covenant with Israel (Deut. 28:30).
12 For I know your crimes are many and your sins innumerable. They oppress the righteous, take a bribe, and deprive the poor of justice at the city gates. 13 Therefore, those who have insight will keep silent at such a time, for the days are evil.
Those who corrupted Israel’s judicial system and oppressed the poor may have thought they would get away with it. In some twisted way they may have thought there was nothing wrong with what they were doing. They appeared to have the attitude that “if it’s good for me, then it must be good for everyone else.” They failed to realize that living according to God’s law was what was best for them and for everyone else. But it did not matter what they thought; what mattered was what God knew. Amos made sure they were aware that God knew each of their crimes and sins, how they had oppressed those who were innocent, sullied the judicial system by taking bribes, and denied the poor of the justice they needed and deserved in the courtroom.
When the Lord brought His judgment upon Israel at such a time, those who had insight would realize they had gotten what they deserved. There would be no legitimate reason to protest the destruction God would exact on unfaithful Israel. Their rebellion against God, their moral corruption, and the oppression of the poor brought about a wickedness that pervaded the entire nation. God will bring down His righteous judgment because the days are evil, and those who are wise will realize nothing can be said about it.
(In PSG, p. 34)
14 Pursue good and not evil so that you may live, and the LORD, the God of Armies, will be with you as you have claimed. 15 Hate evil and love good; establish justice at the city gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
What was the solution? Was there anything anyone could do to avert the impending judgment of God? Simply put, the answer is “no.” When it comes to one’s salvation and eternal life, there is nothing anyone can do to save oneself. Salvation comes through faith alone in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone.
Paul wrote, “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Does this mean that a person’s actions or works are meaningless? The answer to this question also is “no.” Notice what Paul wrote next: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do” (v. 10). If a person has placed his or her faith in Christ for his or her salvation, then good works will be evidence of it.
It is for this reason Amos told Israel: Pursue good and not evil so that you may live. The person who has faith in God is the person who will be pursuing good and not evil. The writer of Hebrews wrote: “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6). Seeking good and seeking God are not exactly the same thing, but you cannot have one without the other. Good refers to that which is in accordance to God’s Word, that which is pleasing to God. Evil is everything that is in opposition to God and His character. If the people of Israel would truly seek the Lord as an outward expression of their faith and devotion to Him, then they could truly enjoy a life blessed with the presence of God. The life they claimed to have would truly be theirs.
In verse 15, Amos elaborated on what it meant to pursue good and not evil. First, it meant to hate evil. This means to hate everything that is in opposition to God’s Word and His character. To hate means to despise, to abhor, to reject, to see something as ugly and to separate oneself from it. The people of God should hate evil because God hates evil. It is an offense to God and destructive to all of creation and in particular to all of humanity. Hating evil begins with hating one’s own sin. To hate sin does not mean one should hate oneself or anyone else. People are not sin; they commit sin. However, if one loves God, then one despises one’s own sin and wants to rid oneself of it.
Second, they needed to love good. To love good means to be devoted to, to value above all else, to delight in, to aspire to that which pleases and honors God, because God alone is truly good (Luke 18:19).
Third, they needed to rid their judicial system of its corruption and establish justice in their courtrooms. If they did these three things, then perhaps the Lord would be gracious to them. The point is they needed to seek the Lord regardless of what God would do in response. By doing so, it would be a true outward expression of their faith and repentance toward God, and not just a ploy to win God over and escape His judgment. God was not negotiating with them.
(In PSG, p. 35)
KEY DOCTRINE
God
There is one and only one living and true God. (See Exodus 3:14; 1 Timothy 1:17.)
Use a Bible dictionary to better understand the background.
Read articles in a Bible dictionary about Bethel, Gilgal, and Beer-sheba. Note what events recorded in the Old Testament happened at these locations in Israel’s history and consider how Israel allowed commemorating those events to become a substitute for their own devotion to the Lord. What should believers today learn from what Israel did in Amos’s day?