Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20100516.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Amos: Heeding The Word Of The God Of The Whole World
Part V: Our Need To View Seriously Our Accountability To God
(Amos 3:1-15)
  1. Introduction
    1. If God calls a believer who knows His Word to obey Him on an issue in life, that believer must view God's call very seriously in light of his relationship to the Lord and his awareness of His revealed will.
    2. Such a lesson is presented with great force in Amos 3:1-15, and we view it for our insight and application:
  2. Our Need To View Seriously Our Accountability To God, Amos 3:1-15.
    1. God held Judah and Israel accountable for punishment due to their special relationship to Him and hence of their heightened knowledge of His Word and will, Amos 3:1-2:
      1. We learned in past lessons that God's judgment on the Gentiles around Judah and Israel (Am. 1:3-2:3) would arise for failure to heed the Noahic Covenant call to honor God's image in man, Genesis 9:1-17.
      2. However, Judah and Israel were the people of God chosen out of all the nations as those who had been given His Law that gave them a greater knowledge and hence accountability to heed Him, Am. 3:1-2a.
      3. Thus, for such heightened responsibility, Judah and Israel would surely be punished for sin, Am. 3:2b.
    2. However, Israel had even more wickedly failed to keep even the Noahic Covenant God required of all the nations around her, making her overwhelmingly destined for His severest judgment, Amos 3:3-15:
      1. Introducing His greater cause for judgment, God gave some rhetorical questions in Amos 3:3-8 that revealed how inevitable was His coming judgment on Israel, Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 1433-1434:
        1. Two [God and Israel] do not walk together on a road lest they agree [as God and Israel do not], 3:3.
        2. A lion [like God] does not roar in the thicket [warning of judgment] unless he has spotted his prey [Israel] and begun his dreadful charge to chase it down and kill it [God's judgment], Amos 3:4a.
        3. A lion's growl in his den does not occur unless he has his prey [picturing sure judgment], Am. 3:4b.
        4. A bird does not fall into a snare unless the trap was first set and baited [sure judgment], Amos 3:5a.
        5. A trap does not spring up from the earth lest what is caught has triggered it [Israel's sin], Am. 3:5b.
        6. People do not tremble in fear lest a trumpet alarm has been sounded in a city [of judgment], 3:6a.
        7. Disaster [God is predicting] does not come upon a city unless God has decided it occur, Amos 3:6b.
        8. God does nothing unless He reveals His plans to His servants the prophets [as He did to Amos], 3:7.
        9. A lion roars inevitably to cause its hearers to fear, and so God's communication to His prophets inevitably causes them to prophesy that message [of sure judgment to Israel], Amos 3:8.
      2. Thus, repeatedly having emphasized the inevitable CAUSE-EFFECT relationships of Israel's horrible sin and God's equally sure judgment, He called the rulers and wealthy of the palaces of Ashdod (Philistia) and Egypt, Gentiles, to gather on the mountains of Samaria, Israel's capital, and see the great tumults caused by its oppressive violations of the Noahic Covenant within her, Am. 3:9, Ibid., p. 1434.
      3. In fact, God concluded there were so many abuses of the image of God in Samaria with all its plunder and loot, it had gone beyond the Gentiles in no longer knowing how to do righteousness, Amos 3:10!
      4. Accordingly, for such overwhelming wickedness in His own people of Israel, God promised to bring an invader surely to overrun, destroy and retributively loot Samaria's own palaces, Amos 3:11.
      5. Aware that some of his hearers might think God would yet save Israel were she to call upon Him for help, Amos predicted the only thing to be [figuratively] "saved" of Israel would be a few leg bones or an ear as would be left after a lion was finished devouring its prey, Amos 3:12a; cf. Amos 3:4a,b; Ibid.
      6. Those in Israel who lounged on beds and couches should thus not dismiss this word, Am. 3:12b; Ibid..
      7. Israel's false worship at Bethel and her luxurious summer and winter mansions and those adorned with ivory would be destroyed in judgment, so all would certainly fall in God's judgment, Amos 3:13-15.
Lesson: Due to her special relation to God, her greater knowledge of His will and her sins that were worse than those of the less accountable Gentiles, God's severest judgment would surely fall on Israel!

Application: May we view our accountability to God as His people who know His Word very seriously so as to (1) repent of what sins we know and (2) to obey the Lord with the highest level of motivation!