Amos - The God Of Justice - Preach The Word

THE GOD OF JUSTICE
David Legge
against the house of Jeroboam''. The vision of the plumbline is the Lord standing at
the wall, and it seems He is holding a plumbline, and He is testing to see if the wall is
straight. What God is doing is, He's measuring Israel by His law, that's the plumbline -
but she does not conform to His law, she is out of plumb with His word and with His
statutes. Therefore judgement is coming upon the nation.
Now, it's at this point in these visions that there is an interjection. It comes from the
state priest, Amaziah. He had had enough of this backwoods prophet Amos, this
sheep breeder, this uneducated prophet. In verse 10 we read: 'Amaziah the priest of
Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, 'Amos has conspired against you in the
midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos
has said: 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive
from their own land''. Then Amaziah said to Amos: 'Go, you seer! Flee to the land of
Judah. There eat bread, and there prophesy. But never again prophesy at Bethel, for
it is the king's sanctuary, and it is the royal residence''. He interrupted Amos, he said:
'You are unpatriotic, you are treacherous! Amos, take your soapbox and return to the
backwoods of the South and preach there, but you're no welcome here in the North'.
Though Amos was from the southland of Judah, Amaziah and all the people saw Amos
as a traitor to their nation, a traitor to their faith, and a danger to national security.
Do you know something? Prophets have often been seen in that light. Jeremiah was
seen as a traitor, in fact Jeremiah was so opposed that he wanted to hand in his
resignation - and so did Moses by the way.
Can I ask you a question tonight: would you be willing to be thought a traitor to your
country for the cause of Jesus Christ? Would you? Now don't misunderstand what I'm
saying, Scripture is very clear that we are required to respect the powers that be -
Romans 13 - we're to fear God and honour the King, 1 Peter 2. We are to pray, 1
Timothy 2 teaches us, for rulers God has placed an authority over us. But we also
know from the New Testament that Peter and all the other apostles were commanded
not to speak, by the state forces, in the name of Jesus - and they said: 'We must obey
God rather than men'. Now I'm not talking here this evening about any form of civil
unrest or breaking the law, or breaking out in violence - there has been enough hurt
in the name of Jesus Christ and His kingdom - but what I am talking about is: there
might come a day very soon in our land, in the United Kingdom, where we will be
considered unpatriotic for standing beside Jesus. It might be that we will be required
again to make vocal protest, peaceful though it is, but very vocal. It might be that we
are required to make peaceful non-compliance with evil laws - what a challenge that
will be for some Christian police officers. But sometimes, when being faithful to God,
you can be accused of being unfaithful to your country and unpatriotic. Sometimes, to
tell the truth, you become a traitor and a threat.
It happened to Hudson Taylor. He went to China at a time when Britain was at war
with China - it's like a missionary going to Germany during World War II. If that
wasn't stigma enough, Hudson Taylor took the monumental decision of becoming a
Chinaman to Chinamen in order to win Chinamen. He shaved all his hair off, and he
just kept a long ponytail like the traditional ponytail the Chinese men wore. He dyed it
black and almost blinded himself in the process with the dye. He continually wore
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