Sermon on Amos 2:1-16

Then against Moab, of which Ammon and Moab were adjacent to each other.

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom in lime (Amos 1:1):

The desecrating of the king of Edom; throwing his body into a lime pit and allowing it to be dissolved.

But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, with the sound of the trumpet: And I'll cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD (Amos 2:2-3).

Now having dealt with those nations round about, remember he is prophesying basically to Israel. He'll get to Israel in a while, but because Judah was also a neighbor to Israel, he prophesies against Judah, the Southern Kingdom.

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD (Amos 2:4),

Now you remember Paul tells us that they who have the law will be judged by the law. They that have not the law will be judged apart from the law. Here's a classic illustration. It is interesting that as God speaks of the judgment that is coming against Moab, and Ammon, and Edom, and Tyrus, and the Philistine countries, and Syria, that in each case He is making mention of their moral sins that are just a part of man's innate understanding and knowledge of good and evil.

God doesn't bring up the law; God doesn't mention the law. God judges them apart from the law. Any of us realize the horrible, heinous crime of taking a sword and ripping up a pregnant woman. That's a thought that is just reprehensible to us, and to all people. And so no mention of the law is made concerning these nations unto whom God did not give the law. They're judged apart from the law, yet judged. But to those to whom God gave the law, as He speaks now the judgment that is gonna come to them, the judgment is according to the law. They that have the law will be judged by the law; they that have not the law of God will be judged just by that moral instinctive innate understanding that man has of what is good and what is right. So with Judah, they despised the law of the Lord.

they've not kept his commandments, their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked: But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem. Thus saith the LORD (Amos 2:4-6);

And now he turns to Israel.

For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes (Amos 2:6);

So there was an oppression of the poor people in Israel.

Now, don't touch the Jews; God defends them. But also, don't oppress the poor, because God also defends them. Again, it is interesting how God always takes up the cause of the poor. God is interested in the poor, and He takes up the cause. He hears their cries, and there were the oppression of the poor there in Israel.

They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, they turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go into the same maid, to profane my holy name: And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god (Amos 2:7-8).

That is, the judges were fining the people, and then they were using the fines to buy wine for their orgies. Taking the, drinking the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; and yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath (Amos 2:9).

Not only destroyed the Amorites, the fruit from above, but destroyed the family ties, the roots from beneath, wiped them out completely. So that you haven't met an Amorite either.

Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you for forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. But is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD. You gave the Nazarite wine to drink; and you commanded the prophets to prophesy not (Amos 2:10-12).

So God raised up the Nazarites. Now Nazarites were men who had committed their lives to God. It was a vow of complete consecration to God. And a part of the Nazarite vow was that you were not to drink wine. But yet, here young men seeking to make this kind of a consecration to God and they were giving them wine to drink. Men who had been called by God to prophesy, and they were stopping them from prophesying.

Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves (Amos 2:13). Now really you need to almost go over to the land and notice how they load the sheaves on the carts, or on the donkeys, or even upon the women, to get a real picture of this. I've seen donkeys so loaded down with sheaves, that it looks like a huge bundle of sheaves with four legs. You can't see the donkey. But you see this huge bundle of sheaves moving down the road, and you look underneath and you see the four legs.

Or, in some cases I've seen them so laden the women down, you see two legs underneath, and this huge bundle. You can't see the woman, but underneath all of these sheaves someplace is a woman straining under the load. These carts that they have don't look that sturdy anyhow, the wheels are usually a little out of kilter, and they just heap them so high with sheaves that it just presses them down. So he is using a picturesque description, which of course the people there immediately relate to because they have seen these little carts pressed down with these huge loads of sheaves. And God said, "I'm pressed down like a cart that's overloaded with sheaves."

Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift (Amos 2:14),

You'll not be able to flee from the judgment that is coming even though you're a fast runner. the strong will not strengthen his force, neither will the mighty deliver himself (Amos 2:14): When God starts to bring His judgment there'll be no escaping.

Neither shall he stand that handles the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither he that rides the horse. And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD (Amos 2:15-16).

So God's judgment is gonna come against Israel; there will be no escaping of it.

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