Amos 4
by Pastor David Groendyk

God continues his indictment of Israel in today’s chapter. Verses 1–3 further describe the way that the rich were taking advantage of the poor. Amos seems to be specifically singling out the wealthy elite women in Israel for their oppression of the poor, but the analogy extends to the whole of Israel. They had become like over-indulgent, feasting cattle—plump, lazy, and demanding. Have you heard the phrase, “If you want to know what a man is like, take a look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals” or some variant? To put it mildly, Israelites looked down on those below them. What is your attitude toward the lower class and impoverished in our society? What are your immediate thoughts and actions, for example, when seeing a homeless person on the street? Compassion and generosity should be at the forefront of our minds as Christians at all times, because self-sacrificing love is the defining trait of a believer.

Verses 4–5 have a cutting sarcastic edge to them. God calls them to worship, but he is calling them to their own false worship! They’re meant to tell us that Israel was in love with their false worship. They loved to “worship” God, but it wasn’t according to God’s commands but according to their ideas and traditions. The sarcasm is meant to tell us that no matter how much Israel practices their man-made version of their religion, God will never accept it. Don’t we also prefer to worship God according to our own ways than his? We’ll give God part of a Sunday for worship but not the whole day thereby making our work or recreation an idol. We choose churches based on style of music rather than biblical content thereby making our personal preference an idol. We marry political parties and movements to Christianity thereby making our politics an idol. We must be sure that all of our worship of God is untainted by whatever idols our hearts love to make.

Verses 6–11 show us that God, time and time again, has tried to get Israel’s attention but that Israel has failed to listen. He had sent many tragedies (and some really awful and shocking tragedies!) upon this people to try to get them to wake up, but the repeated refrain is, “Yet you did not return to me.” How do you react when you hear sin and repentance being preached? Does it make you uncomfortable? Do you try to ignore it? It’s not easy or comfortable to do the soul-searching work of examining our hearts and lives for sin, but it is good. It leads us back to God so that he would ever more satisfy us with himself rather than our own sin.

Everything thus far in this chapter are indicators of the dead, false religion in Israel. Not loving their neighbors and helping the poor, mixing their idols with God, and ignoring the repeated calls to repent and return are all signs that you do not know the one, true God. Verses 12–13 are harrowing. “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” No longer is God roaring from a distance; he is coming to meet them face-to-face. The God who forms mountains, creates wind, knows every single thought of man, and makes the sun rise is fed up with the rebellion. This is literally the last place you want to find yourself in. We’re all called to turn from our sin to God. And while God is extremely patient, generous with time, and compassionate in his appeals, his patience does not last forever. When the Lord comes, it will be terrible. But that doesn’t mean you have to be afraid! If you repent of your sin, trust in the atoning work of Christ’s sacrifice, and turn to worship God alone, his coming will be one of joy and singing! Praise God that, even as we constantly fall back into sin, he still gives us a way to be saved!