The Wrong Way To Respond To God’s Grace
March 23 | Rick Thiemke
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Amos 2:6-16
Judgment on Israel
6 Thus says the Lord:
“For three transgressions of Israel,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they sell the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals—
7 those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth
and turn aside the way of the afflicted;
a man and his father go in to the same girl,
so that my holy name is profaned;
8 they lay themselves down beside every altar
on garments taken in pledge,
and in the house of their God they drink
the wine of those who have been fined.
9 “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,
whose height was like the height of the cedars
and who was as strong as the oaks;
I destroyed his fruit above
and his roots beneath.
10 Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt
and led you forty years in the wilderness,
to possess the land of the Amorite.
11 And I raised up some of your sons for prophets,
and some of your young men for Nazirites.
Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?”
declares the Lord.
12 “But you made the Nazirites drink wine,
and commanded the prophets,
saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’
13 “Behold, I will press you down in your place,
as a cart full of sheaves presses down.
14 Flight shall perish from the swift,
and the strong shall not retain his strength,
nor shall the mighty save his life;
15 he who handles the bow shall not stand,
and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself,
nor shall he who rides the horse save his life;
16 and he who is stout of heart among the mighty
shall flee away naked in that day,”
declares the Lord.
In Amos 1:1-2:5, Amos delivers scathing judgment, calling out the seven nations surrounding Israel. Unexpectedly, Amos saves the longest and most intense accusations against the eighth nation, Israel. They were the bullseye of Amos’ rebuke.
Our text lays out how God’s people were contradicting the salvation that the Lord had given to them.
The Wrong Way to Respond To God’s Grace
God’s covenant and chosen people were living and behaving in ways that were incongruent to what God had done for them. When God reaches out to man with grace, His purpose is to make him truly human - to make us like Jesus, the perfect Man.
Sinning Against Others
Verses 6-7a lays out their sin against others. They sought material possessions, saw the rights of other people as irrelevant (the sin of indifference and oppression) and saw nothing wrong with their self-advantage at the expense of others. The people of God were not only ignoring the poor, they were selling the poor into debt slavery and denying them legal representation.
The very people that were once bullied by others have now become bullies themselves. They had once cried out to God for mercy from their oppressors and enemies, received it from the Lord and now turned around and oppressed others. Jesus told a parable about this in Matthew 18:23-34.
We cannot restrict our awareness of sin to the offenses we commit against the first and greatest commandment, and dismiss the sins against the second which is like it (Matthew 22:36-40).
Sinning Against God’s Word
The people of God were participating in the Canaanite worship of Baal, which included sex acts as acts of worship (verse 7). They would have described these women as ‘holy’ women who dedicated themselves to Baal by making themselves available for this aspect of worship. This was known to be offensive to the God of Israel and was a deliberate violation of His law.
God and His law cannot be separated. God and His Word cannot be separated. When we reject God’s Word, we reject God.
Sexual gratification had replaced the holy name of God as the guiding principle of life. Self-centeredness overrode the divine revelation of God’s Word. God’s Word is our only authoritative rule and guide for our actions and behavior. We are called to obey out of love for Him.
Sinning Against Grace
God’s aim throughout redemptive history is to dwell in the midst of His people. The house of God was the outward visible sign of that indwelling. The altar was reaching out to draw people into His presence through the virtue of the shed blood sacrifice.
God in His grace condescends to dwell among sinners.
Verse 8 describes how they came to the altar with garments taken in pledge and unmercifully kept back from those that pledged them (Exodus 22:26-27). This offended our compassionate God. They went to the place where God invited them into His presence - they went to the right place doing the right thing - but did not seek or enjoy fellowship.
When God’s compassion toward us is not reflected in human compassion toward others, we visit the altar in vain. It is impossible to be right with God if we are wrong with others. If our actions and attitudes toward people are not patterned on the attitudes and actions of God to us, then we cannot in reality claim to belong to Him (1 John 4:20).
Discussion Questions
Amos highlights the contradiction between God's grace and the people's behavior. How does this challenge our understanding of grace, and in what ways can we ensure our actions align with the grace we have received?
In what ways do we see indifference to the plight of the poor in our own area today? How can we as a group take actionable steps to address these issues?
Reflecting on the idea that our treatment of others reflects our relationship with God, how can this be lived out?