Amos Five – Seek Him and Live

The Reunion Church is a Bible teaching church in Peoria AZ.  We believe that the Bible is inspired of the Holy Spirit and is God’s order and authoritative truth for us. Find out more about what we believe HERE.   Each week, when we open God’s Word, we seek to understand it in context, and so examine the history, the culture, the language, and the biblical contexts in which the passage was written.  We are diving into the Book of Joel, and as is our practice, will look at context first in order to understand the author’s intent for his writing.

Context: Historical and Biblical

Historical

Chapter one, verse one of Amos contains one the most significant clue as to the date of Amos’s ministry and prophetic messages. Uzziah was king of Judah, and Jeroboam was king of Israel. Uzziah’s reign in Judah was from 783 to 742 B.C., and Jeroboam’s reign in Israel was from 786 B.C. to 746 B.C. With a strong historical degree of certainty, the time of Amos preaching to Israel was from 760 to 770 B.C.

The Assyrian Empire provided contract or paid protection from smaller aggressions against both Judah and Israel during this time. This kind of “big brother” protection did not come without a paying a steep price. Without the concern of enemy aggression or the continual use of resources and manpower, both kingdoms (northern and southern) expanded and flourished economically. The economic boom was accompanied by an increase in a more liberal and self-aware approach to religious activities and sacramental worship. The de-centralized shrines at Bethel, Dan, Gilgal, and Beer-sheba had constant streams of worshipers bringing growing numbers of non-approved sacrificial animals and pagan offerings. Amos showed God’s disapproval of such religious activities by announcing God’s judgment upon the non-sanctioned religious sites, by giving counsel to stay away from them, and thereby declaring God’s rejection of their religious activities (Chapter 5:4–5; 5:22–24). Increased religious activity, increased crowds, increased prosperity, a decisive decline in Godliness and honor to the covenant and moral laws of God.

Amos was a sheep breeder and sycamore grower from the region of Tekoa in Judah. He sold lamb to butcher’s markets, lambs’ wool to clothing merchants, and trees to carpenters. His name literally means “load-bearer.” Amos came to Bethel to deliver to the religious leaders at the top of the heap the message of God’s displeasure and disgust with where they had led and allowed their faith and worship to go. Amos also refused the term “prophet” (nābî) as an appropriate description of his role. He claimed no special authority associated with traditional titles when Amaziah ordered him out of Bethel (7:12–13). Instead, he gave his testimony of vocational heritage as “a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees” when the Lord ordered him to prophesy to Israel. He came to Bethel not as a representative of one of the prophetical community but as an “everyman” under the order of God to deliver the message of a godly prophet.

Amos knew the history of Israel and the history of the nations around Israel. He knew Israelite politics, society, and religion. He had enough courage to confront those who oppressed the poor, religious leaders such as Amaziah, and greedy land-grabbers and merchants. His strong sense of the Lord’s call to prophesy was the enabling force of his ministry (7:15). To Amos (the load-bearer), the message was more important than the messenger, which is why God sent him. Such a sense of calling has continued to be the authority and motivation for service to the Lord’s calling to this day.

Biblical

Abuse of power in the social structure and compromise with paganism in the religious were the two targeted sins which Amos would denounce. Paradoxically, in spite of record numbers worshipping at temple in Samaria, and at the de-centralized shrine sites, the period of preaching to Israel by Amos was characterized and necessitated by moral and spiritual decline, godless living, civil unrest, and social upheaval. Israel’s frequent attendance at the shrines to make religious sacrifices did not result in moral, spiritual, and social uprightness. Religious leaders were greedy and self-serving, the rich oppressed the poor, indulged in extravagant and decadent lifestyles, denied justice to the oppressed and weak, and engaged in immoral sexual activities (2:6–8; 4:1; 5:11– 13). The breaking point in all of this was that they no longer lived as they believed, and who they were (God’s chosen people) was grossly contradicted by their accelerated and self-entertaining religious activities. Everything not palatable or that they did not want from the authority and order of the Laws of God they deconstructed and reconstructed under a new narrative. All style – no substance, all ritual – no righteousness.

Amos 5:21-24

“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

These were the biblical and historical times when Amos’s arrived in Israel to preach and proclaim a bold, un-biased, and hard message of judgment from God. Israel’s outward show of devotion to God was complete hypocrisy, and unfortunately nothing new or uncommon to the spiritual shepherds of the household of faith – it had been nearly 200 years of bad leadership and breeding bad sheep, they fed off one another. Bad shepherds breed bad sheep – bad sheep enable bad shepherds. Enter Amos the “Load- bearer.” Message delivered. The prophet’s words were heard throughout Israel’s entire landscape leaving no part nor person unscathed. God’s response to the leaders and to the people – NO MORE.

As you can see, the Biblical context for the book of Amos is simple, and yet in the head and hearts of the religious leaders and the people of God it became so difficult and complex. However, it was made complex because of their constant push back against the authority and order of the very God who had continually delivered and provided for them. We see the same contrast represented in our present-day. We too have made God’s faith process very difficult and complex in how we self-focus in worship, within our daily approach to the righteousness of God, and our minimalistic adherence to the authority and order of the Word of God.  (Note from editor: If you are searching for a Bible teaching church in Peoria AZ, we encourage you to ascertain whether God’s Word is held in high authority.)

In the Amos message, God’s actions, sovereign judgment, and great compassion are present though not always distributed in equal portion. More importantly, the Amos understanding and his uncompromised command for the leaders and people to humbly return to God and His greatness frames the backdrop of relevance for Biblical discipleship in every era and all times, not the least which is our own. It is as if the ancient Amos is a 2023 Amos. And 2023 Amos is telling the world what God has told Him to say is just as He said twenty-six hundred years ago – NO MORE.

• No to any worship void of the true presence of God.
  No to the huge disconnect between our Worship and our personal conduct.
• No to our passive aggressive rejection of Biblical authority and the order and priority of God.
• No to our rewritten narrative on the righteousness of God. No to our politically driven evangelical piety.
• No to our lack of responsible care and righteous protection of our children and our elderly.
• No to our progressive minimalist approach to God’s Word.

Our spiritual freedom and grace are not entitlements and our covenant relationship with God has righteous expectations and must be enjoyed with humility and fidelity. It is God and God alone who cares for and commands the destinies of all people, even our enemies. Our sense of security must always be anchored in God alone, since our days of prosperity and plenty are the direct result of His blessing, and our times of gravity may actually be His love and discipline at work to save us from ourselves. Our worship must motivate and inform our own acts of righteousness, compassion, and justice towards all humanity – the wounded, afflicted, and oppressed. Our righteousness must have a singular intent and possess one crucial evidence of it’s validity – that we believe and practice the priorities and values of the One whom we acknowledge as Lord. Israel, lost it – what about us? Lets find out.

Amos Five – The Text

This is God to Amos – Amos to the House of Israel (all leaders) – the People of Israel (Jewish people). He says, Seek me and live – come to me, and you will live. Most often the verb (seek) gives the image of a quest for something unknown, or a search for someone lost or inaccessible, which we know of course, is not the circumstance here. The best translation of the Hebraic literary context here is “come to me” or, even more clearly, “come back to me and worship me” or “come to me for help,” “come to me for counsel.”

Of these, “come/turn back to worship me” may be the translation most accurately reflecting the authors original intent and context because of the obvious unrecognized worship going on in the remote shrines in Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba. However, a term for “worship” is not enough if it simply means a ritual or tradition. Some possibilities of interpretation rest on: “come and let me be your Lord, come back to being my people.”

The ancient Hebrew has two commands that present themselves in verses 5, 6, 14 of Amos five.

Command One – Seek (this describes the condition – needing guidance and truth) and “live” the consequence:*

Command Two – Come To Me (this describes the options – if you want to live)