CAN I GET A WITNESS?

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

·        Chapter 7 opens the third and last major division of the Book of Amos.

·        These final three chapter contain visions of the future.

·        Verses 1-3 is a vision of grasshoppers consuming the crops.

·        This was the second crop of the year upon which he people depended for their own use after the king's tribute had been paid.

·        However, this time, after the king had gotten his due, a plague of locusts came in and took their share so that there was nothing left for the people who had really done the work. 

·        This was catastrophic because the people could not expect any relief from the political authorities. 

·        This was a judgment that should have shaken the people and should have awakened them.

 1.     INTERCEDING WITNESS (AMOS 7:4-6)

4 Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, the Lord GOD was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farm land.  

·        Literally, "caused me to see."

·        Many commentators believe the "fire" here was actually a drought.

·        This judgment is more extensive than that of the locusts, because it deprived the people of food and water, essential to life itself. 

5 Then I said, "Lord GOD, please stop! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?" 6 The LORD changed His mind about this. "This too shall not be," said the Lord GOD.

NASB

2.     TRUTH-TELLING WITNESS (AMOS 7:7-9)

7 Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall, with a plumb line in His hand. 8 And the LORD said to me, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. 9 "The high places of Isaac will be desolated And the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste. Then shall I rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."

NASB 

·        Typically when you have a vision of a plumb line in Scripture, it means that God is getting ready to judge. 

Isaiah 28:17

17 "And I will make justice the measuring line, And righteousness the level; Then hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, And the waters shall overflow the secret place.

NASB 

Zechariah 2:1-2

1 Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2 So I said, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is."

NASB 

·        This time Amos did not intercede for the people again, realizing that God's judgment is just.

·        He gives His people opportunity after opportunity to repent and to follow Him. 

·        But there comes a time when He will not pass by the sinner without taking judgment and punish the unrepentant.

·        The whole structure of the nation was so bad that it would have to come down. 

·        The local high places, the sanctuaries which had been turned into places of apostasy, would become "desolate. 

"Man, by rebellion, challenges God’s Omnipotence. He will have none of Him; he will find his own happiness for himself, apart from God and in defiance of Him and His laws; he plumes himself on his success, and accounts his strength or wealth or prosperity the test of the wisdom of his policy. God, sooner or later, accepts the challenge. He brings things to the issue, which man had chosen. He “enters into judgment” (Isa_3:14, etc.) with him.""

Barnes Commentary 

"They are here called Isaac as well as Israel, the house of Isaac (Amo_7:16), some think in allusion to the signification of Isaac's name; it is laughter; they shall become a jest among all their neighbours; their neighbours shall laugh at them. The desolation shall fasten upon their high places and their sanctuaries, either their castles or their temples, both built on high places.

Matthew Henry's Commentary 

3.     OPPOSED WITNESS (AMOS 7:10-13)

10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. 11 "For thus Amos says, 'Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.'"  

·        It is evident that the prophecies given to Amos were having their effect.

·        Amaziah, the chief priest of the temple, spoke falsely against Amos to the King, because Amos prophesied against the false worship that took place in the temple.

·        He tried to represent the prophecies as a conspiracy and treason against the king.

·        This is a classic example of taking ideas out of context and giving them an altogether different meaning by slight subtraction or addition of words.

·        Amaziah was the priest of the golden calf.

·        He was a hired preacher.

·        Amaziah did not tell the king that Amos' prophecies were conditional, that if they would repent, their ruin would be prevented, and he lied by misquoting Amos; Amos did not say that Jeroboam would "die by the sword". 

"It is no new thing for the accusers of the brethren to misrepresent them as enemies to the king and kingdom, as traitors to their prince and troublers of the land, when really they are the best friends to both."

Matthew Henry's Commentary 

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah, and there eat bread and there do your prophesying! 13 "But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence."

NASB 

·        On occasion, seers did receive pay for their advice, and some prophets gave advice for hire; but true prophets gave prophecies solely for the good of the people and the nation. 

·        Here, Amos was given a "less than polite" suggestion to go away.

·        Amaziah was totally void of spiritual things.

·        When he called it the king's chapel and the king's court he expressed his allegiance to the king rather than the Lord. 

"The sin he is charged with is forbidding Amos to prophesy; we do not find that he beat him, or put him in the stocks, only he enjoined him silence:"

Matthew Henry's Commentary 

4.     OBEDIENT WITNESS (AMOS 7:14-17)

14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, "I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs. 15 "But the LORD took me from following the flock and the LORD said to me, 'Go prophesy to My people Israel.' 16 "And now hear the word of the LORD: you are saying, 'You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.' 17 "Therefore, thus says the LORD, 'Your wife will become a harlot in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line, and you yourself will die upon unclean soil. Moreover, Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.'"

NASB 

·        This prophecy is made against the background of judgment in the form of an invasion of the land. 

·        This is a very disturbing prophecy, but the thing is that it was a true prophecy.

·        When Assyria came down, they did make the women harlots.

·        The sons and daughters were destroyed, and those who were not destroyed were taken into captivity. 

"For the opposition he gave to Amos God will bring ruin upon himself and his family. This was the sin that filled the measure of his iniquity."

            Matthew Henry's Commentary