Return to Me

Old Testament – Nahum 1:1-15 – New Testament – 2 Corinthians 7:8-12

Return To Me!
“The Lord God Has Spoken”
Amos 3:1-15

In Hebrews 1:1, the Bible says, “God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways.”

• The term “various ways” refers to the different forms of literature God used to communicate different messages to His people at different times.
• One of those forms is prophecy – God’s words spoken through the voices of men He chose, calling His people to repentance to avoid His impending judgment or promising them a future when He had no choice but to punish them for their apostasy.
• However, the message of all the prophets always included God’s promise of the Messiah who would eventually come to establish His kingdom upon this earth, as it is now in heaven.

In the opening chapter of his prophecy, Amos had made it clear that while he was not a prophet, nor from the family of prophets, God had sent him to deliver a message to His people.

• Amos was a shepherd and a grower of figs from “Tekoa,” a small village on the edge of the Northern Judean hills between the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
• The prophecy of Amos took place midway through the eighth century, during the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam, king of Israel.
• It was a time of peace and prosperity, but the abundance of God’s blessings had led God’s people to disavow their need for God and to disregard God’s Laws.
• Each time Amos came into Jerusalem to trade, he saw how the apostasy against God and the wickedness against people had increased, and he knew such ingratitude to God and inhumanity to man would not go unpunished.

Out of all the nations of the world, God chose to make a covenant with the nation of Israel – the children of Abraham.

• God had proved Himself to be a covenant-keeping God.
  • He had delivered them from Egyptian slavery.
  • He had provided for them in the wilderness.
  • He had given them the most cherished land on earth.
  • He had given them His commandments.
  • He had given them prophets, priests, and kings.

• The nation of Israel had proved herself to be a covenant-breaking people.
  • They refused to worship God and God alone.
  • They refused to obey God’s commandments or to keep their part of the covenant.
  • They refused to give God the glory due His holy name, thereby flaunting their position of privilege before Him.

• God had no choice but to punish Israel as evidence to the world that He would not tolerate sin, even in the lives of His own people.

CAN TWO WALK TOGETHER EXCEPT THEY BE AGREED?

In Hebrew, the word “agreed” means “met” – if two people are going to walk together, they must meet at some point!

• God had called Israel to walk with Him as He had walked before them from Egypt.
• God wanted them to continue to walk together – always reaching for that deeper, closer companionship God desired to have with His chosen people.
• But Israel was no longer walking in agreement with God’s will and God’s ways, and God sent Amos to warn His people of the coming judgment.

Amos used six statements to illustrate his words of warning to the people of Israel:

• Verse 4 – “Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey?” No, the lion would be quiet until he caught his prey, and then he would roar so that no other lion would come and try to take his meal.”
• Verse 4 – “Will a young lion cry out of his den if he has taken nothing in?” No, the baby lion waits for his mother to bring him the meat to eat, then he lets out a roar.
• Verse 5 – “Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no “gin” is for him?” No, a gin is a trap, and unless there is a trap set, there can be no bird caught.
• Verse 5 – “Shall one take up a snare from the earth and have taken nothing in?” No, the bird in the net trips the closure, and if there is no bird in the net, there is no closure of the net.
• Verse 6 – “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid?” No, the people knew that when that trumpet sounded, the enemy was coming.
• Verse 6 – “Shall there be evil in the city and Lord hath not done it?” No, God knows our lives from beginning to end and every day in between.

Amos draws the conclusion:

• Verse 7–8 – “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealed His secret unto His servants, the prophets. The Lion roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
• The Lord is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah!”

God is warning America of some very devastating times ahead unless God’s people repent and return to serve and worship the God of our fathers.

• God has always sent a word of warning before He unleashed His judgment upon a people.
  • Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Elijah, etc.
• God is warning us today through His servants who are still brave enough to “preach the Word”!
  • America is already under God’s judgment:
    • Morally – homosexuality
    • Economically – $29-trillion in debt with another $129-trillion in unfunded liabilities.
    • Militarily – immorality and unrighteousness has drained our resolve.
    • Politically – power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
• The rise of evil (corruption) in any nation is in direct proportion to that nation’s disregard for God – not just among unbelievers, but believers.

Amos 3:11 – “Therefore, saith the Lord God, an adversary there shall be even round about the land, and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled!”

• The religious leaders never made the connection between the moral and social breakdown of their society and their selfish ambitions, including their desire to worship God in their own way, rather than in the way God had desired and demanded.
• The violence and injustice Israel was enduring was a direct result of their profane worship of God, and such is the case in America.
• The majority of evangelical congregations in the West are not aware that today’s church is facing the greatest challenge in its history, and that is not what it can do to attract the millennial generation or to increase its influence in the world.
• The greatest challenge facing the evangelical church today is whether JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!
• For once true Christianity is totally removed from western culture (and it soon will be), the secularists and progressives can promote their unbiblical worldviews of nihilism, humanism, socialism, communism – i.e., the New World Order.