Amos - The God Of Justice - Preach The Word

THE GOD OF JUSTICE
David Legge
I want you to come with me on a journey. The nation we are travelling to is the nation
of Israel which, of course, at this point in time in Scripture is a divided kingdom. The
northern part, the ten tribes, are in the north, the kingdom of Israel; and Judah and
Benjamin is in the south, and because Judah is the larger tribe the south is called
'Judah'. We are going to the northern kingdom of Israel, and the city in particular that
we're journeying to is Bethel. 'The House of God' is what 'Bethel' means - it has an
illustrious history in Scripture, but at this moment in time there is the Palace of
Jeroboam II and his private religious chapel, and there resides his private priest,
Amaziah. That's where we're going. The time is about 25 years before the fall of the
northern kingdom of Israel to the nation of the north, the Assyrians - we heard a bit
about that this morning. It's 25 years before that awful event where the Jews of the
northern kingdom were taken into captivity - but at this moment in time, 25 years
before that, the nation of Israel finds itself in peace. There is great prosperity, in fact
we could go as far as to say that people are living in luxury. Added to that, if that
wasn't enough, there is a renewed interest in religion - we might say a revival of
religion of sorts.
As we journey there, the religious service is about to start. It's in the King's Chapel,
Amaziah stands to his feet in charge - he's about to begin the program, we would say
- and all of a sudden that holy, sacred moment is disturbed by a commotion outside of
that religious building. This is what you hear: 'Woe to those who are at ease in Zion!'.
A voice is crying from outside, and as we run outside to see what's going on, there is
a man and he cries further: 'God is going to send judgement on this wicked nation of
Israel!'. As you rush out to see what's going on, you find there what you didn't
expect, perhaps, to see: an uninvited rustic hillbilly preacher who is actually a farmer,
a herdsman, a sheep breeder from Tekoa, which is about 11 miles from the holy city
of Jerusalem.
This man's name is Amos. His name actually means 'burden'. He is not a professional
prophet, he's not the son of a prophet, he didn't attend a prophetic school. In fact, if
you turn with me to chapter 7, we did this on Saturday evening but for the benefit of
those who weren't at that introductory night, we see that Amos says himself, chapter
7 and verse 14: 'I was no prophet, nor was I the son of a prophet; but I was a sheep
breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the LORD took me as I followed the
flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel''. He's just a
farmer, but he was God's man, who God called, with God's message - and, you know,
that's how God often works. He chooses ordinary people, often who find themselves in
common jobs, and He chooses those ordinary people to do extraordinary things in His
kingdom and for His glory.
We could look at many other great giants from Scripture who were exactly the same,
even farmers. Moses, you remember, was out with the flock of sheep in the Midianite
desert when God appeared to him in the burning bush and called him to be the
deliverer of the people of Israel in bondage in Egypt. David was out feeding the flock
and tending it when he was called to be the King of Israel - and it's still God's way!
What an encouragement that is! We read in the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians 1:
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