Effects of Disobedience

Amos 8:1-14 Effects of Disobedience

Amos expands on the vision of ripe fruit through oracles that revealed God's charges of: (1) social injustice, (2) commercial dishonesty, and (3) indifference to holy days.

Detached Worship 8:5

They had no reverence for God.’’ Bad as they are, they do indeed keep up a show and form of godliness; they observe the sabbath and the new moon; they put some difference between those days and other days, but they were soon weary of them, and had no affection at all to them, for their hearts were wholly set upon the world and the things of it (Matthew Henry) They were weary of the restraints of the sabbaths and the new-moons, and wished them over because they might do no servile work therein . . . they would rather have been anywhere else than about God’s altars. Sabbath days and sabbath work are a burden to carnal hearts, that are always afraid of doing too much for God and eternity. Can we spend our time better than in communication with God? And how much time do we spend pleasantly with the world? Will not the sabbath be gone before we have done the work of it and reaped the gains of it? When they were employed in religious services they were thinking of their marketings; their hearts went after their covetousness (Eze. 33:31). They were weary of holy duties because their worldly business stood still they were not in their element, but in God’s sanctuary as a fish upon dry ground. Those are strangers to God, and enemies to themselves, that love market days better than sabbath days, that would rather be selling corn than worshipping God. Henry

The terrible irony is that the Israelites thought that ritualistic worship could excuse oppression and greed. ESV Real worship of God in the new moon and Sabbath festivals would have created compassion for the poor and the needy (ESV). We anticipate Monday because we are preoccupied with worldly things. Things such as buying and selling become our priority. This process is often gradual. We never plan to do it. It seems that good things just gain mastery over us. There is nothing wrong with buying and selling as long as our methods are clean and it does not become our god. Anticipation of Monday happens when we disconnect our spiritual life from daily life. We can’t think that we can go to the house of God on the Sabbath and go about their dishonest ways on the following days. This attitude creates a disconnect between our worship and our day to day lives. Anticipation of Monday happens because sin diminishes our desire for God. It destroys our ability to hear God and diverts our desire for the things of God (Patrick).

Diverted Direction 8:5-6

They have no regard to man, those that have lost the savor of piety will not long retain the sense of common honesty. They neither do justly nor love mercy Henry instigate their illegal, improper, and unjust schemes toward the poor: (1) to make the bushel smaller; (2) the shekel bigger; (3) use dishonest scales; and (4) sell the husk of the

wheat (those grain heads that fell in the dirt), with the wheat. All of these refer to cheating the poor when they buy food (cf. Lev. 19:35-36; Deut. 25:13-16; Prov. 20:10). These merchants' desire to exploit is so strong that their actions are the commands of their own hearts. Theirs was unfair and dishonest commercial enterprises, especially against the poor (cf. Micah 6:10-11). God hates this falsehood (cf. Prov. 11:1). It is never "business is business" with God or His people! Exploitation reveals a heart of self, greed, and fallenness.

· Desire for Profit These wealthy merchants sank so low as to sell grain mixed with husk, dirt, pebbles, etc. With profits from these fraudulent sales they purchased more slaves! Therefore, the poor paid for the exploitation of the poor! (Henry) The shop keepers and other tradesmen of Israel resented Sabbaths (rest days) and the new moon, because they represented a loss of income. Everything was about money to them.

· Deceptive Practices- false balances are a symbol of injustice (Lev. 19:35–36; Prov. 20:10; Mic. 6:10–11). The weight of goods being bought or sold was determined by hanging them on one end of a balance beam while standard weights (such as a shekel) were hung on the other end. If the weights were only slightly false in the merchant’s favor, considerable profits could be made. The situation was similar if the measure of volume (such as an ephah) being used was incorrect.

· Disregard for People - The rich and powerful were oppressing the poor and weak rather than helping them. But those who sought to bring the poor of the land to an end were themselves going to face a terrible end. (ESV) v 6 The poor who could not buy food were forced to sell themselves or their families into slavery for a small amount (2:6).

Dry Devotions- 8:11-13

Israel had rejected the words of the Lord from Amos and so they would go into exile, where there would be no word from the Lord at all. In its absence they will find that the revelation from God had been their most precious possession. they shall not find it. People who have repeatedly rejected God’s words will suddenly be unable to find God’s words at all. In 7:17 severe judgment came to a priest for rejecting God’s words, but here severe judgment comes upon the people as a whole for the same sin. (ESV) a famine of the word of God, when another kind of darkness shall come upon that land of light. the failing of oracles and the scarcity of good preaching. When Amos prophesied, and for a considerable time after, they had great plenty of prophets, abundant opportunities of hearing the word of God, in season and out of season; they had precept upon precept and line upon line; prophecy was their daily bread. In the coming captivity there will be no signs and no prophets to guide the people (Ps 74:9). It is a famine, a scarcity, not of bread and water (which are the necessary support of the body, and the want of which is very grievous), but a much sorer judgment than that, even a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. There shall be no congregations for ministers to preach to, nor any ministers to preach, nor any instructions and abilities given to those that do set up for preachers, to fit them for their work. The word of the Lord shall be precious and scarce; there shall be no vision, 1 Sa. 3:1 . They shall have the written word, Bibles to read, but no ministers to explain and apply it to them, the water in the well, but nothing to draw with. (Henry) God will give them the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. This was a token of God’s highest displeasure against them. Surely he was angry indeed with them when he would no more speak to them as he had done, and had abandoned them to ruin when he would no more afford them the means of bringing them to repentance. This made all the other calamities that were upon them truly melancholy, that they had no prophets to instruct and comfort them from the word of God, nor to give them any hopeful prospect. We should say at any time, and shall say in a time of trouble, that a famine of the word of God is the sorest famine, the heaviest judgment (Henry). What will be the effect of this (v. 12): They shall wander from sea to sea, from one border of the country to another, to see if God will send them prophets, either by sea or land, from other countries; since they have none among themselves, they shall go from the north to the east; when they are disappointed in one place they shall try another, and shall run to and fro, as men at a loss, and in a hot pursuit to seek the word of the Lord, to enquire if there be any prophets, any prophecy, any message from God, but they shall not find it Many never know the worth of mercies till they feel the want of them. Though they should thus wander from sea to sea, in quest of the word of God, yet shall they not find it. The means of grace are moveable things; and the candlestick, when we think it stands most firmly, may be removed out of its place (Rev. 2:5 ); and those that now slight the days of the son of man may wish in vain to see them. The virgins and the young men; these shall lose the word of the Lord, and the benefit of divine revelation, and shall faint away for want of it, shall lose all their strength and beauty. Those that trust in their own merit and righteousness, and think they have no need of Christ, they shall faint for thirst, when those that hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ shall be abundantly satisfied and filled (Henry).

Israel had rejected the words of the Lord from Amos and so they would go into exile, where there would be no word from the Lord at all. In its absence they will find that the revelation from God had been their most precious possession (ESV).

The People Have No Nourishment (spiritually). Even the youngest and strongest will faint. They will literally starve to death spiritually. Therefore, The people have no Hope. Their idolatry has done them no good in this day (Roger).They began to despise the word of God. They did not want to hear. They wanted God to shut-up and stop bothering them with messages that discomforted them. Just like the Israelites it is possible to undervalue God’s blessings in our lives and to take them for granted. To be content with our lives, just chugging along from day to day. Perhaps when we first met Christ we could not get enough of him. We would pray as much as we could, read our Bibles all the time, come to every meeting for worship, praise and hearing his word. But gradually these started to get crowded out by other things. The word of God became a bore, meeting with other Christians a time consuming chore when we had more important things to do. Then God’s word started to discomfort us. The Holy Spirit spoke and we did not like what we heard. Perhaps then we started to wish that the preacher would shut-up or only talk about comforting subjects. Maybe we would only read the parts of the Bible that make us feel good, not those that showed us where our lives were not in conformity to the will of God or that said things that we would prefer not to be the case. If only the Holy Spirit would stop bothering us!

Divine Discipline 8:2-3, 7-14

God brought judgement because they swore by their god which was their iniquity, thinking that they could help them which would certainly ruin them, and giving the highest honor to that which they should have looked upon with the utmost abhorrence and detestation. These exploitative merchants will answer for the crimes against both their covenant brothers and sisters and their covenant God!

It will be a time of natural calamity 7-9, mourning 10, and spiritual hunger 11-14 (Yates)

· Certain v. 2 The end has come v. 14 they shall fall They will find that God is jealous and will resent the indignity done him, and that he will be victorious and it is to no purpose to contend with him (Henry).

· Crushing Sorrow reigns when God’s judgments come they will soon turn the greatest joy into the greatest heaviness, the temple-songs, which used to sound so pleasantly, not only into sighs and groans, but into loud howlings, which sound dismally. They shall come to the temple, and, finding that in ruins, there they shall howl most bitterly. Death reigns, reigns to such a degree that there shall be dead bodies, many dead bodies in every place, slain by sword or pestilence, so many that the survivors shall not bury them with the usual funerals; but they shall cast them forth with silence, Many of them would be killed in a war they were about to fight on their own soil - and lose! All the families of that land were to know the terrible wailing that would take the place of singing. So many would die that even the traditional dirges of mourning over "corpses" would be replaced by: "silence."

· Complete v. 7-10 As to the upright there arises light in the darkness, which gives them the oil of joy for mourning, so on the wicked there falls darkness in the midst of light, which turns their laughter into mourning, their joy into heaviness. So great, shall the desolation be, that sackcloth shall be brought upon all loins, and baldness upon every head, instead of the well-set hair and the rich garments they used to wear