Amos 2 (6)
Pray Psalm 12.1, 2.
Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases!
For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
They speak idly everyone with his neighbor;
With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
Sing Psalm 12.1, 2
(Hamburg: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)
Help, LORD! The godly cease to be! They who believe in You are few.
Falsely the wicked confidently flatter, deceive, and mock what is true.
Read Amos 2.1-16; meditate on verses 14-16.
Preparation
1. What kind of people are in focus here?
2. What happens to them?
Meditation
When a nation is in trouble, especially from an outside military force, it looks to its strongest and best to deliver and save them. With that in mind, God’s condemnation of Israel begins by aiming at just such people.
The “swift” shall not be able to flee the judgment to come. The “strong” shall have no power against what God will do. The “mighty” will not even be able to deliver himself, much less the nation (v. 14). Archers shall not stand; cavalry shall fail; and the “most courageous men of might” will “flee naked” in the day of God’s wrath (v. 15).
Where does that leave the people? The farmers and homemakers, children and old people, shopkeepers and priests and lawyers and teachers and all the rest? Defenseless and ripe for being taken into captivity. And the Assyrians would be just the people to oblige in a few more years. The people of Israel probably believed such a calamity could never happen to them. They cheered God on as He threatened the surrounding nations. But now Israel was in the crosshairs and utter desolation was His aim.
“But who is this Amos guy?” they probably reasoned? He’s not even a real prophet. He’s a sheepherder, for crying out loud! Why should we listen to him? And so they did not. Yet Amos fulfilled his calling faithfully.
Who are we? Why should anyone listen to us? But we have a charge from God: Be witnesses to Jesus (Acts 1.8). We can’t make people believe, but we can help them hear. And we must not fail in our calling.
Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162|
Everyone was failing miserably at their calling: the runners were slow, the strong were weak, the mighty were powerless, the archers missed their mark, the speedy were caught, even those on horseback, and the mightiest of all were humiliated. And the main reason? They had taken their eyes off the LORD, and not only were they not keeping His Law, they despised it. They were being led astray because they had no basis to their lives—whatever was acceptable in their culture was okey-dokey with them. Thus, they fell into disrepair and judgment.
That really happened to them. And we should read of it not as a Grimm fairytale, but as the honest to goodness truth. And here’s the deal: God never changes. This same thing could happen again. Will happen again unless we repent and turn to His ways and live on the Jesus Path (1 Chron. 7.14). Next time it will be the Church who has not been a delight, and those who wear His Name as Christians, will bear the brunt of His displeasure (1 Pet. 4.17).
“Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.
Your faithfulness endures to all generation; You established the earth, and it abides.
They continue this day according to Your ordinances, for all are Your servants.
Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.
I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have given me life.
I am Yours, save me; for I have sought Your precepts” (Ps. 119.89-94).
“Give us help from trouble, for the help of man is useless.
Through God we will do valiantly, for it is He who shall tread down our enemies” (Ps. 60.11, 12).
Mindfully and willfully to be His friends, and not His enemies (Jn. 15.14). We never want to say with the comic strip character Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
When we are His friends and doing His commandments, we can joyously say is the face of battle, “The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the LORD” (Prov. 21.31). We will never experience what the Israelites of old did when their dependence was on a horse that could not deliver them (Amos 2.15). No one can outrun the judgment of God. But those who trust in Him will be delivered by Him.
His wrath, love and forgiveness are indeed awful (commanding awe).
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) sums up the story succinctly with his beautiful hymn, How Sweet and Awful Is the Place:
How sweet and awful is the place with Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays the choicest of her stores.
While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast,
Each of us cries, with thankful tongues, “Lord, why was I a guest?”
“Why was I made to hear Thy voice, and enter while there’s room,
When thousands make a wretched choice, and rather starve than come?”
’Twas the same love that spread the feast, that sweetly forced us in;
Else we had still refused to taste, and perished in our sin.
Pity the nations, O our God, constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious word abroad, and bring the strangers home.
We long to see Thy churches full, that all the chosen race
May, with one voice and heart and soul, sing Thy redeeming grace.
Why would anyone rather starve than come to God, and His Law, and amazing love and grace?
Reflection
1. How would you explain to an unbelieving friend what it means to be a “friend of God”?
2. What does it mean for us to help people “hear” the Gospel?
3. Why do you think Christians today are so reluctant to talk with others about Jesus?
When men reject God’s word, adding obstinacy to sin, and this becomes the general character of a people, they will be given up to misery, notwithstanding all their boasted power and resources. May we then humble ourselves before the Lord, for all our ingratitude and unfaithfulness. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Amos 2.14-16
Pray Psalm 12.3-8.
Pray that believers everywhere would know a renewed desire to feed on and obey the Word of God.
Sing Psalm 12.3-8
(Hamburg: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)
Stop, LORD, the lips that utter lies, all tongues that speak with boastful pride,
who say, “Our own lips we will prize; no lord will ever us override!”
Rise up, O LORD, and rescue all the poor and those so sorely distressed.
Give them the safety for which they call; grant that they be no more oppressed.
Your words are pure and proven true, like silver seven times refined.
You will preserve Your Word ever new, and keep the heart to You inclined.
Proudly the wicked strut and stand; Your indignation builds on high.
Men may exalt their wicked plans, but You will judge them by and by.
T. M. and Susie Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
