Amos - The God Of Justice - Preach The Word

THE GOD OF JUSTICE
David Legge
First there is a vision of a plague of locusts, he intercedes, God relents. Then there is
a vision of a devouring fire, the prophet intercedes, God relents. Then there is the
vision of a plumbline, no intercession, but judgement. Now comes in chapter 8 and
verses 1 and 2 a vision of a summer basket of fruit: 'Thus the Lord GOD showed me:
Behold, a basket of summer fruit. And He said, 'Amos, what do you see?'. So I said, 'A
basket of summer fruit'. Then the LORD said to me: 'The end has come upon My
people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore''. The message was: Israel, like
summer fruit, has ripened for judgement. Amos has used a lot of agricultural
analogies, hasn't he? Here is the summer fruit ready to be cut off because they are
ripe, so Israel is ripe for judgement. Again in verse 4, if you glance your eye down to
verse 14, the prophet names the sins of the people of God: robbing the poor of their
homes, verse 8; complaining about holy days interfering with their business, verse 5;
setting excessive prices that hurt the poor, verse 6. His wrath is coming, he told
them, in an earthquake, verse 8 at the beginning - and we see in chapter 1 verse 1
that this prophecy was given two years before the earthquake. Look at chapter 1 and
verse 1, two years before the earthquake Amos give this prophecy proving that God
had come. We read in Zechariah 14, historically this took place in the reign of King
Uzziah. God was going to judge His people.
In verse 9 he speaks of an eclipse, in verse 10 of a funeral, and then in verse 11
famine. Look at verse 11 of chapter 8 please: ''Behold, the days are coming', says the
Lord GOD, 'That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst
for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but
shall not find it. In that day the fair virgins and strong young men shall faint from
thirst''. Amos is saying that not only will there be a natural famine of food, but there
will be a spiritual famine for the word of God. Listen, this is what Amos is saying: 'If
they will not listen to my word, the opportunity to listen will go. God will take His word
away from them!'.
Oh you know, don't you, believer, that there is no substitute for the word of God.
There is no substitute in the life of the believer for the scriptures, there is no
substitute in the life of the church for the scriptures. Jesus said: 'Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'. But imagine,
for us, in our New Testament era, if the penalty for not using the word of God was
losing it! You say: 'It couldn't happen!' - could it not? Here we have a picture of
people left hungering, left wondering. Verse 12, look how graphic it is: 'They shall
wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the
word of the LORD, but shall not find it'. I'll tell you: this is happening, it's happening
now. You say: 'What are you talking about?'. Well, we've got plenty of 'Christianity',
but very little prophetic word from our pulpits - and there is no substitute for that.
Can I tell you something: young people are fed up with the sham, they're fed up with
gimmicks and froth. There is a real hunger, particularly among young people today,
for the genuine article. They want to be fed by the word of God. They don't want to be
fed by legalism, or just naked precepts and principles of some kind of external
Pharisaism - but they want to know what God has to say to them now for their lives
today! Do you want to know that? You say: 'Surely we've more of the word of God
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