Prepare to meet thy God.

Transcription of the seventh episode of Studies in the Book of Amos brought to you by Pastor Rusty Tardo.

You can listen here.

Let's open our Bibles to the Book of Amos.

Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Amos chapter 4 tonight, in our studies, in Amos' prophecies to Israel, they might as well be his prophecies to America, because we find them extremely relevant.

Let's pray.

Father, help us this evening. Help me to speak. Help all of us to hear, to heed, to understand, and to incorporate what we hear into our lives.

Father, let the message tonight not just wind up notes on our pages, but engrave in words in our hearts. Father, we ask that spiritually, we would profit, that we would grow, that we would be convicted and moved, stirred by the message this evening. Father, cause it to come alive in our understanding.

And Father, may all that we say and do glorify Christ, we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen, Amen. Amos chapter 4. We're going to read the whole chapter.

This is the shortest chapter in the book of Amos. Only 13 verses. There's a couple of them that are only 14 verses, but this one wins by a verse, as far as the shortest one.

So, let's read it. Hear this word, ye kind of Bation, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring and let us drink. The Lord God hath sworn by His holiness, that lo, the day shall come upon you, that He will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.

And you shall go out at the breeches, every cow at that which is before her. And you shall cast them into the palace, saith the Lord. Come to Bethel and transgress.

At Gilgal, multiply transgression, and bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes after three years. And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven. And proclaim and publish the free offerings, for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God.

And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places. Yet you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest.

And I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city. One piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied.

Yet you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew, when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased. The palmer worm devoured them.

Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt. Your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses, and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils.

Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning. Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

Therefore, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel. And because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. For lo, he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name. This is one powerful indictment.

Did you notice a phrase he repeated over and over and over again? If you listened carefully, you caught it. Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

Five times he repeated that phrase. All of these things happened to you. All of these disasters, these calamities, these trials, these difficulties, these problems, one after another.

Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Each and every one of those things was to teach Israel a lesson.

It was to draw Israel to repentance. It was to bring them to their knees. It was to cause them to repent.

But each time they stiffened their neck, they went on their head strong way, they were stubborn, they were rebellious. Each time God had to say, Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Didn't you get the message?

This is what he's saying.

Didn't you get the message when all these things were going wrong?

When you young men were being slain by the sword, when earthquake and famine shook the foundations of the country? When the enemy surrounded you, didn't you think that maybe something's wrong with my life? It's amazing how people, many times even Christians, don't get the message.

Things are going wrong. Things are falling apart. Their life is falling apart.

Their family is falling apart. Their job is falling apart. Business, career, automobile, houses.

Everything's going wrong.

And they blame the devil. Now, let's not misunderstand. The devil is a devourer.

The devil is a thief and a robber. And he is our enemy. He is our adversary.

He is out to kill, steal, and destroy. But one thing we must never forget, when we go through things like this, we better take stock of ourselves and make sure it's not God's hand that is against us. Because this is what Israel failed to do.

They failed to recognize it was the hand of God against them.

They were going on their merry way.

You know, you can rebuke the devil. You can't rebuke God. You can bind the devil when it's his oppression, his attacks, him robbing and thieving and stealing.

You can rebuke that, bind it, and so forth. But let me tell you, you're not going to bind the hands of God when it's his hand of judgment against you, when it's his hand of chastisement against you. So when things like this are going wrong, what should we do?

Take a look inside. Take stock of ourselves and see, is God getting my attention here? Am I in sin here?

Is this the chastening of God here? It's a very serious matter. Now, let's look back at verse 1.

I want to point out a few things. Actually, Amos in this chapter makes four pronouncements that are very, very strong, very shocking, very sobering. Keep in mind who Amos was.

Amos was not a professional priest. He was not a professional prophet. He didn't graduate from the schools and seminaries of the day.

He wasn't trained in diplomacy and subtlety. He was not known for his tact. He was not known for being gentle with people.

He was just an old country boy, a herdsman of Tekoa, homespun. God anointed him right off the fields and sent him off to preach and prophesy. So here he was in his own way, rough, crude, crude as far as his language is concerned, but with God anointed, anointed from God.

And here he comes into the fine refinements of Samaria, the city of luxury, the city of ease. Here's the herdsman of Tekoa, the man who's been herding his cattle for all of these years, the man who's been dressing these fig trees for all of these years. Here he comes into this refined city where all of these rich people are basking in their luxury, where the rich men and the rich women are sitting at ease in their couches of ivory.

And the prophet of Tekoa says this in verse 1. Now, this is really subtle. He says, hear this word, you cows of Bation.

You think he's talking to cattle? He's talking, listen to this now, he's talking to the women of Samaria.

Now, is he subtle or what? Is this man diplomatic or what?

He's calling and talking to these refined women in their luxury, in their ease, in their wealth, in all of their self-indulgence. And what does this prophet of God call him?

You fat cows! That's what he called them.

That's literally what he said here.

You cows of nation!

Now, you know, right then and there, that pulpit committee that was considering Amos, they left. They wanted to hire Amos, you see, to be the next pastor at the first church of Samaria. They had a pulpit committee out to hear him, but the minute he started calling the women fat cows, they said, he'll never make it, never.

He'll run everybody off.

Now, up until this point, Amos' message was directed actually to all of Israel. Remember, he had prophesied against the other foreign nations that surrounded Israel, the enemies of Israel. He had prophesied even to Judah.

But now he's speaking to Israel. He addressed the men firmly, powerfully in chapter 3, but boy, when he gets into chapter 4, he rips into these women. And he has no mercy in this message.

Now, Bation, when he calls them cows of Bation, Bation was known for its rich, green, fertile pasture land and the big, fat, lazy cows, dairy cows, that grazed in those pastures. It was famous for its dairy cattle. This phrase right here in Amos 4, verse 1, is really one of the great metaphors of the Bible, because these women of Samaria who basked in their luxury, who thought only of themselves, were compared to fat cattle grazing out in the pastures.

These greedy women, that's really what they were, were greedy women who thought only of themselves. And these women actually pushed, drove their husbands to perform criminal acts. These women had an unquenchable thirst for more, for things, for luxury, for possessions, for ease, for wealth, for money, for lands, for houses, for bigger, for better.

They drove their husbands to get more, to buy more, possess more, I want more, I want more.

They drove them.

They hounded them. They harassed them. And their husbands couldn't provide all of the things these women wanted by honest means.

They actually drove their husbands to acts of oppression against the poor. They actually drove their husbands to robbery, theft, perversion of justice, hurting, oppressing, stomping on the poor in order to satisfy the insatiable quench, the desires, the lusts of their own wives. Now make no mistake about it, these men were guilty.

These men were oppressors of the poor, but their wives were driving them. Now, you know that happens still today. Don't think that that's something that's only happened thousands of years ago, or don't think that it's something that only happens today.

Really, things like this are not as uncommon as you might think. We know of a tragic situation where one such woman drove her husband, hounded him, pushed him, was never satisfied with whatever he did, pushed the poor man into such serious debt that he couldn't make ends meet. He had to borrow one thing on top of another to buy this luxurious place, a house, and nothing satisfied, everything had to be the finest, everything had to be the best, everything had to be the greatest.

The poor man wound up with several mortgages. The poor man wound up in hock with other loans and things like that. Eventually, he took his own life.

He couldn't bear the pressure of it all. His wife literally hounded and harassed the poor man to his grave. In the situation here, these kind, these cows of Bation drove their husbands to acts of desperation, robbery, theft, oppressing the poor.

They made such heavy demands upon their husbands that they couldn't meet those demands by honest business dealings. They had to resort to extortion, violence, and oppression of the poor. You know the old saying that behind every good man there's a good woman, perhaps even a better woman, who has stood behind him, who has encouraged him, who has sacrificed with him, who has believed with him.

Behind every good and successful man is a good or better woman. And you know there's a lot of truth to that. I want you to know there's a great deal of truth to it.

But you know the opposite is also true. Behind many a wicked man has stood a wicked woman, driving him into further acts of wickedness. Now history has proven that to be true.

Our own Bible proves it to be true. Right here in this account that Amos speaks of, it's true. All you have to do is read your Old Testament.

Read the account about Ahab and Jezebel. And here's a wicked king.

He was wicked. Wicked to the core.

But behind Ahab was an even more wicked woman. Jezebel was more wicked than he. Driving him.

Pushing him. He was a murderer.

She pushed him to it. She gave him the ideas.

He was an oppressor of the poor. She's the one who's spurting towards it.

So such things have happened, do happen. And although we don't want to overstate the case, because I certainly don't want anyone to get the idea that all of the blame for the ill in society falls upon the women, you don't want to overstate the case. But Amos does show us that women do exert a great deal of influence on their husbands.

A godly woman exerts a godly influence on her husband. Now, some women might say that they don't see that influence manifested in his life, that they've been praying, standing, believing for years, and they still don't see where that influence has done any good. Believe me, it's doing a lot of good, because your husband could be so totally corrupt and bankrupt, God may have had to strike him with lightning by now if it wasn't for you standing behind him and praying for him and believing for him.

But a woman also exerts not only a great deal of influence over her husband.

But by influencing her husband and her children, because no one influences children more than the mother. By influencing the mother and children, the woman influences all of society. In fact, we can honestly say that no individual influences the future of society more than the mothers do.

You know why? Because mothers, you are raising the future. You are raising America's future.

No one has a more intimate relationship with children than the mothers do. You are with them through all of their most important, most formative years, when their values are assimilated and adopted, with their ethics, their morals. All of those things are learned very young, and no one exerts more influence on those children than the mother does.

Now, we've had a lot of instruction dealing with husband's responsibility. Husbands are responsible for what goes on in their homes. But make no mistake about it, wives, mothers, God holds you accountable likewise.

He holds you likewise accountable. Because you influence your children more than any human being in the world. You influence your husbands probably more than any human being in the world.

Whether or not you know it, you do. And in that regard, in that sense, you probably influence society far, far more than you realize, because you influence the future. When mothers succeed in transmitting godly values, godly morals, godly ethics, behavior, and so forth into their children, then all of society benefits.

But when mothers fail, when they ignore their children, when they fail to transmit proper values, morality, ethics, and so on, then all of society suffers, because everyone suffers when a juvenile delinquent is raised. Everyone suffers.

But I want you to notice again this powerful, powerful indictment of Amos the prophet, as he calls upon the women of Samaria to hear this word. Hear this word. You cows who bask in your ease and luxury because you have had no concern for others, because of your lack of pity, because of your lack of mercy, you're so wrapped up in your own self-indulgence, your own greed, your own greedy desires, because of your greed, because of your lack of pity on the poor, now God is going to have no pity on you.

That's what he's saying. Verse 2, The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness that lo, the days shall come upon you that he will take you away with hooks and your posterity with fishhooks. And you shall go out at the breeches, every cow at that which is before her, and you shall cast them into the palace, saith the Lord.

Now, Amos just goes from one thing to the next in rebuking the women of Samaria who are largely responsible for the spiritual condition it's in. The whole land has become bankrupt because of the condition of the women, the greed of the women, the greedy desires of the women. Notice, look back up in verse 1, where it speaks of the women saying, bring, which say to their masters or their husbands, is what it is a reference to, bring and let us drink.

I mean, they just drive those husbands to bring in more, do more, and we're just going to bask in our luxury and celebrate in our revelry and so on. But here's God's indictment. You'll reap what you sow.

In verse 2, you've had no pity on others, God will have no pity on you. Verse 2 says, God has sworn by His holiness. The Lord God, Adonai Yahweh, has sworn by His holiness.

He's taken a solemn oath, in other words, by His own holiness. His holiness is His predominant characteristic, His predominant attribute, His holiness. What God is saying here is absolute, it's certain, because Adonai Yahweh has sworn by His holiness that these women, and not only the women, but their weak, manipulated husbands also, they will be judged.

And their condemnation will be fearful, it will be terrible, it will be swift, it will be certain. He's saying God will humble them.

God would humble these proud cows, that's what He refers to them as, these proud cows who flaunted their wealth, who flaunted their luxury and their diamonds and so forth. This is the picture He paints here in verse 2 when He speaks about the hooks and so on. You heard about the old saying about husbands who had hooks in their noses.

You know, the wives pulled them around by the hooks in their noses. Well, you know, there's actually a biblical reference to those kind of things. That these husbands who were pulled around by hooks in their noses, by their wives driven, manipulated by their wives, the husbands in turn put hooks in the noses of the poor, of the poor, the needy, the oppressed.

They oppressed them and drug them and extorted from them and so forth. But here's what God says to the fat cows.

He said, just like the fat cow that you are, you will be butchered and hung on a meat hook. Verse 2, the days come, the days will take you. He says, the days shall come upon you that He will take you away with hooks.

Pretty powerful stuff, isn't it? Butchered, like the fat cow that you are. Understand, that's the metaphor he's using.

Butchered like the fat cow that you are, and hung on a meat hook, just like in a butcher shop. The remainder of you will be carried out with fishhooks, caught, trapped, drug off to your death or your destruction. Verse 3, the reference to going out at the breeches.

Look at this, you shall go out at the breeches, every cow at that which is before her. Now, this refers, the breeches here refers to great gaping holes that would be torn into the walls of the city. So, Mary, as the city is captured, the city will be demolished, the walls and towers will be torn down, and the enemy will come in and drag you out of the gaping holes and ruins of the city.

All of the inhabitants would be drug off forcibly, screaming by the conquering hordes. And all of that was fulfilled in the fall of Samaria when the Assyrians invaded. The walls of the city were shattered.

The women were dragged out of their homes to be ravaged, to be slaughtered, to be carried away captive by the Assyrians. This is a shocking picture that Amos paints here. It's a very shocking picture.

As he speaks of the women as cows who are being prepared to be butchered and drug off as cattle often are. They don't even know that they're being prepared for meat hooks. So the first thing he tells Samaria is that you cows are corrupt.

“Then he tells him something else in verse 4 and 5. Here's his second declaration. He says, your religion is rancid.

Verse 4 and 5. Come to Bethel and transgress. At Gilgal, multiply transgression and bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes after three years.

Now, you know, these were the things that Israel was supposed to do. Bring their tithes, bring their sacrifices. Come to the altars of God to worship.

Verse 5 and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven. And proclaim and publish the free offerings. For this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God.

Here, he bites into their religious practices. And he says their religious practices are corrupt. They're vile.

They're rancid. They stink to heaven. Because in spite of all their wickedness and their greed...

Now picture this. The Samaritans, for all of their corruption, were still actively practicing religion. They liked to go offer their sacrifices.

They liked to bring their ties. They liked to go through the rituals of worship and ceremony. That's what he says right here in verse 5.

He says, for this, like if you.

Or if you have a marginal reading in your Bible, it says, for this, ye love. This is what you like to do. You like to go through the religious ceremony, the ritual, the motions of attendance and worship, as though you're really doing something for God.

Yet, all the while, you're corrupt. All the while, you're oppressing the poor.

All the while, while you're supposed to be coming to Bethel to worship, you're coming there to transgress. Now, Bethel literally means house of God. It's an interesting word, Beth-el, el for Elohim, God, house of God.

Beth-el is the place where Joseph had his dream of Joseph's ladder and the angels descending and ascending. This is the place where he has this tremendous dream, and he says, this place is the gate of heaven. Genesis 28, you can read it when you go home.

He says, this is the gate of heaven. He saw these angels descending and ascending the ladder into heaven. This, he said, is the house of God.

Beth-el. And it came to be called by that name ever since. Beth-el, the place, the house of God.

Unfortunately, Beth-el was the city where Jeroboam had set up one of the golden calves. And so, when Israel went to Beth-el to worship, God was saying they actually went to Beth-el to transgress. They came there to bring their sacrifices, their offerings.

They were really into this worship. They came with their tithes and their free will offerings and sacrifices. And God, this is a sarcasm.

He's saying, come!

Come to Beth-el to transgress. Even their worship was sin, in other words. Their worship was sin.

Their worship was unacceptable. Here's something very interesting. It's an interesting picture.

The Samaritans were faithful in their church attendance. The Samaritans were faithful in fulfilling their religious duties and obligations. Faithful in offering the prescribed sacrifices.

Faithful in bringing their tithes and offerings. In that sense, they kept the letter of the religious commands, but all the while, they transgressed by committing idolatry. Their religion was rancid, and their lifestyle was rotten to the core.

They were oppressed.

Living lives of wantonness. So what God is doing right here is indicting their religion. He's saying your religion has no value, your worship has no value, your gifts, your tithes, your offerings, none of it has any value.

Now here's a question we can ask. Is a person who's living in sin, if they're doing wrong, acting wrong, living wrong, talking wrong, and yet they attend church, are they right with God? What if they bring gifts to church?

What if they double the amount in their offering that they've been giving?

I'm going to give more.

Does that make them right with God? Absolutely not. Their religion still stinks.

I want you to look with me over to another verse, chapter 5. Look at this verse over here, chapter 5. Look with me in verse 21.

I want you to notice what God says here. I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. The idea is as they offer up their incense and their prayers.

Prayer is supposed to be a sweet smelling savor to the Lord. But you know what He says? It's an abomination to me.

Verse 22, though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy vials.

Now, here they are coming, singing, worshiping, praising, dancing. All the songs that they used to sing when they worshiped God right back in Jerusalem before the true altar of God, in the true temple of God, they still sang those same songs here at the false church in Samaria before the calf. He says, take away the noise of those songs.

I don't want to hear it. Verse 24, here's what he wants to hear. Let justice run down as water and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Do right.

Live right. Be right.

Quit perverting justice. That's what God wants. Not more gifts, not more offerings, not more sacrifice, not more songs.

If our hearts are corrupt, if our actions are corrupt, then our religion is rancid. Samaria's religion was rancid. Now, think about this.

Their religion was rejected by God. Their religion was not accepted by God. Their religion was actually an abomination to God.

But think about this, because look back with me over here in verse 4.

They liked their religion the way it was. Verse 5.

He speaks of how they offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven and proclaim and publish the three offerings for this you love. This is the way you like it. Samaria was happy.

They were satisfied with their religion the way it was. They liked it that way. It was external.

It was superficial. It was shallow. They could live the way they wanted to out in the world.

They could come to the altars in Bethel, bring their gifts, offer their sacrifices, sing a few songs, and then go back out and live any kind of way they wanted to.

They liked it that way.

They didn't want to hear anything that would tear and bite and call them to holiness or repentance.

They didn't want that. They liked their religion the way it was.

Shallow, external, superficial, light, airy, amusing, entertaining, not convicting. It's the same way today. Things haven't changed in 3,000 years.

They really haven't. Things haven't changed much at all. People still like their religion light, superficial, shallow.

Come, pay your tithes, sing a few songs, nod your head, occupy a chair, and then leave and go live any kind of way you want to. Keep on drinking, cussing, lying, stealing, oppressing the poor, robbing your neighbor, whatever.

Hello.

People still like their religion that way.

You find here in verse 5 that they even attempted to add a few little extra things, to just add things to their tithe or their offerings or whatever through some of their religious motions, just to show that they really were devoted to God, a little extra activity, get involved with a little extra busyness at the church or whatever. Now, that's still current today. People think that because they're busy, they're active, they're always going to some meeting.

They've got meetings in most churches every night of the week, just about. They sing in the choir. They're on two committees.

They're on one board. They in the NYU and the PBD and the XYZ and all the other clubs and things that they all belong to in the church.

They're busy with everything.

They multiply their religious busyness, and yet their hearts are far from God. And still nothing is ever said, ever spoken that pierces their heart, draws them to repentance, calls them back to God. They like their religion shallow.

That's God's indictment of Samaria. It's certainly God's indictment of America today. You like your religion shallow.

That's what he tells them.

If Amos was speaking today to America, his message would be the same.

Hello.

His message would be the same. Notice this also in verse 5. They like to publish their deeds.

You publish the free offerings. This is what you like to do.

They like to proclaim all of their good deeds, their almsgiving. They want to feel good about themselves. You know, we did thus and so this month.

We, our offering this month was better than it was at this time last year. You know, offering this month was so much. Offering this time last year was so much.

They like to publish just what they're doing, how it's working, and all their offerings, and pat themselves on the back, tell themselves they're doing a good job, but all of it was contrary to the spirit of true worship. God said, your religion is rancid, shallow, superficial. It still caters to your own self-indulgence.

It does nothing at getting to your hearts. You're still wicked. You're still abominable.

You're still idolatrous. They made their gifts, came to church, but we're still idolatrous. It's no different today, beloved.

Multitudes sit in church pews or chairs if they don't have pews. They attend. They sing.

They go through the Bible verses. They nod their heads. But in many respects, multitudes are idolatrous still.

Or maybe they're not worshiping a calf. Maybe they're worshiping a car. Maybe they're worshiping a house.

Maybe they're worshiping themselves, because most Americans are hedonistic. Self is on the throne. They live for luxury, ease, pleasure, their own self-indulgence, their own wants, desires.

The most important thing in most people's lives is what I want.

What I want. What's important? What I want.

That's what's important. Not what God wants. Not whether these actions are ethical, moral, upright, noble, whether they'll be a benefit to my neighbor, a benefit to others.

The most important thing is what I want.

And so they are idolatrous. They make themselves the idol.

Things just haven't changed much in three thousand years.

So Amos makes another declaration.

Verses 6 through 11, he says, You have ignored instruction. You have ignored instruction. Verse 6 through 11.

I want you to notice these things. They've already, Israel has already been condemned for their failure to harken to the Word of God. They had the Word, they had the messages, the writings of Moses and the prophets, they rejected that.

They had prophets like Amos and the prophets before him who came, they rejected that. Amos then speaks of five calamities that have come upon the people. You know, when people won't harken to God one way, if they won't listen to the Word, if they won't follow instruction, then God has another way of getting their attention.

Hello. If the Word won't shake them, if the Word won't cause them to repent, get in line with God, do right, stop doing wrong, if the Word has no effect, then God has other ways and means. He just uses his Ways and Means Committee, and he has other ways of getting people's attention.

He brings out in these next verses what God did to get Israel's attention. He said, these things should have woke you up.

But they didn't.

They didn't wake them up. Five times we read, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Five times.

Now, notice the calamities he sent. First of all, he sent famine, verse 6. Read verse 6 with me.

And I also have given you cleanness of teeth. Now, you might think that sounds good. That's what we want, clean teeth.

But in this respect, it's speaking of they had no food, nothing to stick between their teeth that they could pick out with a toothpick. He sent famine.

I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places. Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Now, this is a reference to famine that had hit them, famine that had plagued them in their recent past.

It didn't mean it was famine that they were experiencing at the moment, because at the moment, they were living in luxury. Now, there were the poor, the needy, the oppressed, that the wealthy had beaten down and driven down, but they had a recent history of famine. God was telling them at this point that that famine, that lack, was actually sent by him.

Notice, I have given you.

God's the one who sent this calamity upon them. Don't think that God doesn't judge the unrighteous because he does, beloved. He judges.

He initiates their judgment. And he does it not because he hates them, but to call them to repentance, to wake up. It's supposed to shake them and say, wait a minute, what's going on here?

Maybe we're doing something wrong. Maybe we ought to wake up here. You get the idea?

So he sent famine, verse 6. Yet have ye not returned unto me. The famine didn't wake them up.

They still went on. Headstrong, stubborn, belligerent, they went on their way. So secondly, he sent drought, verse 7 and 8.

And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest, and I caused the terrain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city. One piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rains not, withered. So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied.

Drought, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. The drought that he sent, according to verse 7, hit at the worst possible time, at the time when the crops needed the rain to bear their fruit. To harvest, to ripen, to mature.

And at the worst time, just when they needed it the most desperately, he withheld the rain so that their crops wilted. Also, he points out that some crops got rain, while other crops didn't. Some areas got water, other areas didn't.

Some cities got it, some cities didn't. Now, you know, things like that should cause a person to stop and think. I mean, think about it yourself.

Suppose you were a farmer, or suppose you were a businessman, and the businessman down the road from you was getting all the business, and your own business was undergoing drought. Or, you're the farmer, the farmer down the road is getting rain, you're not. That would cause you to scratch your head a little bit, don't you think?

Say, what am I doing wrong? The whole idea was that God was instructing them through these things, chastening them, calling them to repent. Now, here's something that I find very interesting also.

Verse 8, he said, So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Now, I just think that this is an interesting statement, because he said the people will wander and search and journey to find water, but not to find God.

Isn't that interesting? Yet you have not returned unto me.

They will walk all over.

They will look everywhere for water, but they are not interested in searching for God.

You see, here they were.

Keep this in mind. Now, they were in Samaria.

They would go to Beth-El, where the calf was. They would go there to worship.

That was convenient.

But they wouldn't go to Jerusalem, to the True Temple.

They wouldn't go there to worship.

They would journey to look for the calf, but they wouldn't journey to God. They would go look for water, but not for God. You see the point?

You see the picture? This is an indictment of their appetite, their hunger.

They were experiencing, certainly, they had experienced a famine and a drought, but what even was more condemning was their spiritual appetite.

They would journey for water, but not for God. They would go to Gilgal. They would go to Bethel, but they wouldn't go to Jerusalem.

They'd go chase a calf, but they wouldn't journey to truly worship God.

In Jerusalem, excuse me.

The same thing is still true today.

People will travel to go to a restaurant. They'll travel to go seek out some form of entertainment, but they won't travel to hear the word of the Lord. Now, that's just a general indictment.

Certainly, it's not true of everyone, but it's too true too often. I couldn't tell you how many times we've heard of people who have said, I'm literally drying up, I'm dying, I'm starving. They'd be invited, well, they say, I really need the word.

Well, why don't you come to church? You know, I really believe the Lord will minister to you. It's too far.

It's too far. They live across town. They live 10 blocks away.

Whatever, it's too far. You know, it's inconvenient. Now, they won't think anything of driving to go to a restaurant.

Hello. They'll cross town. They'll cross the lake.

They'll do whatever to go eat at a restaurant. They'll do that to satisfy their physical hunger.

They'll think nothing of crossing town, crossing the lake, going whatever. They're going to go see a show or a movie, go to some entertainment, whatever.

They'll do that.

But this is the indictment of Samaria. You see how relevant this is? This is the indictment of Samaria.

You'll journey for water but not for God.

Yet you've not sought me, saith the Lord. You've not returned unto me. Well, here's the next thing he did.

The famine didn't phase him. The drought didn't phase him. So the next thing he did was he sent crop failure.

Verse 9. Notice this. I've smitten you with blasting and mildew when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased.

The palmer worm devoured them. Yet, have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. He speaks of three things that falls upon him in this verse.

Blasting. Now, that would be that hot, scorching, desert wind with all of its intense heat. That scorching wind would dry everything up.

It would wither it in no time at all. It would destroy their crops. And then mildew.

He speaks of mildew, the rot, the fungus, the disease that would eat the crops away.

So here's the point Amos is making.

Their gardens, their vineyards, their crops didn't grow. In fact, they shriveled.

They died because of the drought. But if something did grow, then the mildew got it. And if by some miracle, the drought didn't kill it and the mildew didn't kill it, then the insects ate it.

The palmer worm devoured it, he said. The locusts and so on. And still, he says, yet still had you not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

What escaped the drought was caught by the mildew. What the mildew didn't kill, the insects ate. And still they didn't repent.

Still they didn't turn. Still it never dawned on them that God was trying to get their attention. Now you can imagine things going on in many Christians' lives.

Things going wrong, one thing after another.

They rebuke the devil.

They confess the promises. And yet they never stop and repent.

Hello?

When all along, it's God's chastening hand, the reason all of these things are happening. It could be God's chastening hand. Now we always recommend you rebuke the devil.

You know what we're saying.

Rebuke the devil.

Claim the promises. That's the thing to do.

But first and foremost, make sure you're right with God. Make sure you're not in rebellion.

Make sure you're not in sin, defying God, disobeying God. Make sure your heart's right with Him, because if God's against you, you don't have a chance. Then the next thing he did was he sent plagues upon him.

Verse 10, I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt, the same plagues and pestilences that Egypt went through. He says, Your young men have I slain with the sword and have taken away your horses, and I have made the stink of your camps to come up into your nostrils. He's talking about their army camps, the smell because of the smell of rotting corpses out on the battlefield.

Yet, you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. He sent disease and death upon them. The very plagues of Egypt fell upon the people of God.

Plagues. Now, we could compare this to the plagues that are even now falling upon America. There are all kinds of plagues of sicknesses running through the country.

AIDS being perhaps the one getting the most headlines. In fact, just this past week, I saw one headline that said that they predicted 3 million would have it by the mid-90s. That's just a few years away.

3 million. Did you read that? 3 million with AIDS.

He says, your young men would be slain by the sword. Now, this would be a reference to the tens of thousands of Israelites who perished under the previous administrations, who died in the various battles and wars that Israel had experienced through its years. And I can't help but draw an analogy to America when you speak about the slain, the young men being slain.

You know, that's the military men who go off to battle, the youth of America, the youth of any nation. It's the young men who perish in war. You know that just this last century, just this last century, has seen literally millions of America's youth die on battlefields around the world.

Just the last century. Now, that's a short time in history. World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam.

Just a handful recently, by the grace of God. But the fact is that those battles, those great conflicts that cost America millions, literally millions of our young men, should have caused our own nation to do some very serious soul searching. I don't know if I shared this statistic with you, but I think I shared it at one of the prayer meetings or something about Vietnam.

You know, Vietnam kills 58,000 American soldiers. That relatively short, limited conflict. 58,000 American young men died over there.

58,000.

But since Vietnam has ended, over 100,000 Vietnam vets have committed suicide. Over 100,000 have died by their own hand since the Vietnam War. You know, war doesn't just take its toll on the battlefield.

It doesn't just kill its participants on the battlefield. It ravages hearts and minds and souls. Because war is far more hideous than anything we could imagine if we haven't experienced it.

People who experience it live with the scars of it the rest of their lives, except by the grace of God, the Lord delivers them from the things that they went through in such wars.

You know, something else I couldn't help but think of when I read about the young men being slain with the sword, and I couldn't help thinking about all of the reports that we keep hearing about America's black males, young black males, who are being systematically killed off on our inner city streets. In fact, from all the statistics that I'm hearing, young black males are about to be placed on the endangered species list, because they're dying so quickly, so young, every single day. And this too, this too, should cause America to take stock of itself.

Something is rotten in America for our young people to be dying this way. And yet America goes on blindly, just as Samaria did, thinking that God is blessing them. Hello.

Just like Samaria, thinking God is blessing them. After all, most of the nation is prosperous. God's on our side.

I mean, we're doing well right now. That's the way Samaria was at the time of Amos' prophecy.

At the time, they were enjoying peace and prosperity. At the present time, America is flying high.

Man, we just won over there in the Middle East.

We're patting ourselves on the back, hoping the economy is going to turn around, thinking that God's certainly on our side. We're as blind as Samaria. And all the while, God is calling this nation a fat cow.

He's about to butcher and hang on a hook.

All of these things, in other words, should cause a nation to take stock of itself and bring it to its knees in repentance and prayer. Unfortunately, look at the last sentence in verse 10. Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

So, verse 11, he sent great catastrophes upon them. Yet another plague, another chastisement, another judgment. Verse 11, I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning.

In other words, I've overthrown you. That's the terminology that's used in the Old Testament to speak of great disasters, great calamities, things like earthquakes, great terrible fires, volcanic eruptions, storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, cyclones, things like that, terrible catastrophes, overthrowing judgments. That's what he said he sent upon Israel.

And still they wouldn't repent. Now, if we wanted to make modern analogies, we would say it was things like Betsy, Camille, Hugo, Mount St. Helens, the recent San Francisco earthquake, the present drought right now out in California. For five years, they've been going through a drought.

And that's just to name a few, just a few, of the judgments our own nation has suffered. These things should again call us to take stock of ourselves, bring us to our knees and repentance. Yet God says, for all these warnings, verse 11, for all of these messages of the prophets, the chastisements, the rebukes, Israel continued to go on its stubborn and headstrong way.

Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Therefore, therefore, verse 12, He made a final pronouncement in this chapter. Your doom is determined, verse 12 and 13.

One of the most sobering verses. This verse, I know you've heard it before many, many times. Verse 11, therefore, thus will I do unto you, O Israel, because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God.

Now, that's sober. Prepare to meet your God.

You wouldn't turn and meet God in mercy.

So now you'll be confronted by God and meet Him in wrath. And the God you meet is not going to be that little calf over there in Bethel, but He'll be the Creator of all. Verse 13, He that forms the mountains, He that created the wind, not only the things you see, but the things you don't see.

He that declareth unto man what is his thought, because he's omniscient and knows everything, even the secrets of men's hearts. He that writeth, He that maketh the morning darkness, the omnipotent God, the Maker and Creator of mountains, He that treadeth upon the high places of the earth, which is a reference to His omnipresence, God who is everywhere, the Lord, the God of hosts is His name. The God they meet in wrath won't be that little calf in Bethel, but it will be the omniscient, omnipresent God of glory, the Creator of all.

And it wouldn't be a pleasant meeting. Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Solemn words.

Human destruction.