Amos - The God Of Justice - Preach The Word

THE GOD OF JUSTICE
David Legge
Now though Amos, we saw, was not a typical prophet in that he was not an attender
to any prophetic school, neither was he in the lineage of prophets - his father wasn't a
prophet - he was typical of a prophet in this much: that he spoke for God, that's what
prophets do, but also what was typical of him being a prophet was that though he
spoke for God, and though he has, as we have seen, a very judgemental message
from this God of justice who was bringing wrath upon His own people for their
misdemeanours, just like all the other prophets Amos' heart broke for the people that
he was speaking to. That's characteristic of many a prophet - they spoke for God, but
their heart broke for the people. They were sort of pulled between the two: they were
loyal to God, but they were from among the people and they loved them. As the great
prophet Jeremiah, and indeed the greatest prophet of them all, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Amos wept.
What you have before you tonight in chapter 5 and chapter 6 is really a lament, a
funeral lamentation as the prophet of God weeps over the state of God's people - just
like Jeremiah, who said in chapter 9 of his prophecy: 'Oh, that my head were waters,
and my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night for the slain of the
daughter of my people!'. You remember our Lord Jesus Christ asked the question of
the disciples: 'Whom do men say that I am?', and one of the characters of the Old
Testament that they thought had come back from the dead was Jeremiah - and I
believe that they mistook Jesus for Jeremiah because of His compassion, because of
His breaking heart over His people. He had come to His own, but His own received
Him not. We read in Luke 19: 'Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,
saying, 'If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make
for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes'' - and He wept as He broke
His heart.
All God's choice servants were men and women of tears. Albert Smith said: 'Tears are
the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on'. Of course Amos, his
name means 'burden', and we've seen, haven't we, how he came under the burden of
God as he cried judgement to the people of Israel. He wept as he preached - tears
were the safety valve, as the pressure of that burden was so great that there had to
be an outlet. So this was the distillation of the soul, liquid prayers if you like,
streaming forth like a river from God's prophet because, though he spoke for God and
he didn't hold back, he put the trumpet to his mouth and he blew the warning, yet
internally his heart was breaking for a people who would not hear, and for whom
judgement was hastening.
I believe dry-eyed syndrome pervades the church of Jesus Christ in the West today.
There are few tears in the eyes of preachers, this one included; few tears in the eyes
of the people in the pew. Somewhere along the way we have allowed our tear ducts to
become cauterised by the spirit of the age - whether it is materialism that we talked
about last night, or religious pluralism, or post-modernism, eternal realities are no
longer real enough to make us want to cry over them. Is that not true? But not God's
man, Amos - God's man with God's message, chapter 5, chapter 6. He is lamenting in
tears. Here's the reason, we saw it on Tuesday night: he was walking with God, he
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