Amos 9:1-10
English Standard Version

The Destruction of Israel
9 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:

“Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake,
    and shatter them on the heads of all the people;
and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
    not one of them shall flee away;
    not one of them shall escape.

2 “If they dig into Sheol,
    from there shall my hand take them;
if they climb up to heaven,
    from there I will bring them down.
3 If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
    from there I will search them out and take them;
and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
    there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
4 And if they go into captivity before their enemies,
    there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
and I will fix my eyes upon them
    for evil and not for good.”

5 The Lord GOD of hosts,
he who touches the earth and it melts,
    and all who dwell in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile,
    and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
6 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens
    and founds his vault upon the earth;
who calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out upon the surface of the earth--
the LORD is his name.

7 “Are you not like the Cushites to me,
    O people of Israel?” declares the LORD.
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
    and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom,
    and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,
    except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
declares the LORD.

9 “For behold, I will command,
    and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
    but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
    who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’

The Lord orders the load-bearing pillars to be struck down so that the structure collapses under its own weight (or probably the society collapses under the weight of its sin--again, physical things that are happening are pictures of what is happening to the people spiritually).  There will be nowhere to hide from God.  The people cannot run to the mountains or the heavens or to the depths of the sea.  Judgment will find them there.  Even the grave (Sheol) will not be able to save them.

There is a callback to the book of Numbers when the LORD used fiery serpents to judge His people when they were in rebellion.  The answer then was for them to look at the image that pictured the cross, and the answer for this people is the same.  The people will go into captivity and many of them will be killed.  The LORD's eyes will be upon them not to bring them blessing, but to bring them justice for the wickedness they have done.

They have forgotten how big God is.  He is the one who created everything out of nothing, set the laws that nature exists under, and He sustains all things that would die without Him constantly superintending the little things like the changes in the seasons, the rain, and the boundaries of the oceans that He set.

He establishes and tears down peoples and nations.  Are they any different to Him than the Gentile nations that He has recently judged and found worthy of destruction?  They believe they are something special, that their genetics make them invincible, but He assures them that they are no different and that a day of destruction is coming for them.  The house of Israel (the northern ten tribes) will be shaken and the sinful people will die.  Unless the LORD intervenes, not a single one of them will survive this judgment.

Amos 8
English Standard Version

The Coming Day of Bitter Mourning
8 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me,

“The end has come upon my people Israel;
    I will never again pass by them.
3 The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”
declares the Lord GOD.
“So many dead bodies!”
“They are thrown everywhere!”
“Silence!”

4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy
    and bring the poor of the land to an end,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over,
    that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
    that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great
    and deal deceitfully with false balances,
6 that we may buy the poor for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals
    and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,
    and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
    and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

9 “And on that day,” declares the Lord GOD,
    “I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
    and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on every waist
    and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD,
    “when I will send a famine on the land--
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
    but of hearing the words of the LORD.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
    and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD,
    but they shall not find it.

13 “In that day the lovely virgins and the young men
    shall faint for thirst.
14 Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria,
    and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
and, ‘As the Way of Beersheba lives,’
    they shall fall, and never rise again.”

The LORD starts off this prophecy by showing Amos a basket of summer fruit.  We don't really get an explanation of why other than it has something to do with how the LORD sees the state of the northern tribes.  They are about to be judged.  They will weep and mourn bitterly.  There will be dead bodies everywhere, and no one will be left to bury them.  The few that remain will be taken into exile.

They will receive justice for the injustices they have committed towards the poor and needy.  The people were greedy and spent all their holy days thinking of when the holy day would be over so that they could go back to working and making money--even if that money was earned by dishonest gain or the sale of their fellow countrymen.  This was abominable to the LORD.

The LORD is going to remember their wickedness (the Old Testament is full of references that the LORD will have mercy and choose to forget the sins of the people, but not here).  When he acts, it will be bring a response from both heaven and earth.  The earth will shake and the sun will go dark like it was setting at noon (both these things happened when Jesus was crucified and took the judgment we deserved, and they will happen again in the last days to those who choose to drink of the cup of the wrath of God themselves).

The day is coming quickly when their hedonism will be turned into mourning and suffering.  There will be great famine that will reflect to the people the condition of their own hearts.  It will be widespread so that they will not be able to run anywhere to escape it.  The idols the people of Israel worshiped would be unable to save them.  Even the young will perish from lack of food and water.  They will die and no one will take their place.

Amos 7:10-17
English Standard Version

Amos Accused
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,

“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
    and Israel must go into exile
    away from his land.’”

12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now therefore hear the word of the LORD.

“You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
    and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

17 Therefore thus says the LORD:

“‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,
    and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
    and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
    and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”

Similar to what happened with Jeremiah, the priest and king of Israel accused Amos of conspiring against the king because of the words of the prophecy that the LORD had given him.  Specifically, they are upset with the prophecy that the king will die by the sword and that the people will go into Exile.

They told him to flee to Judah and prophesy there, but that he was never again to return to Israel (they would put him in exile).  They also ordered him to never again prophesy against their places of worship (specifically Bethel where they set up one of the golden calves, the other set up in Dan in the north).  This is where they had made their own sanctuary and temple so the people would not travel to Judah to go to the LORD's Temple.

Amos does not stop prophesying and says to their faces that they indeed will face the judgment of the LORD.  Their wives will turn to prostitution and their children will die by the sword.  Their lands will be divided up, and they will die in the lands of the Gentiles--they will not be buried in the Promised Land.  Their bodies will remain in exile forever.  The rest of Israel that is not killed will go into exile into far-away lands.  This is the word of the LORD.

Amos 7:1-9
English Standard Version

Warning Visions
7 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. 2 When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

“O Lord GOD, please forgive!
    How can Jacob stand?
    He is so small!”
3 The LORD relented concerning this:
    “It shall not be,” said the LORD.

4 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. 5 Then I said,

“O Lord GOD, please cease!
    How can Jacob stand?
    He is so small!”
6 The LORD relented concerning this:
    “This also shall not be,” said the Lord GOD.

7 This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

“Behold, I am setting a plumb line
    in the midst of my people Israel;
    I will never again pass by them;
9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
    and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
    and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

Amos sees a vision of a day coming when l plague of locusts will come upon the Land.  He gives the timeframe of this plague as sometime after the king had taken his tithe of the firstfruits, and later growth is just beginning to sprout (anything that would have been harvested might be protected from the locusts, and anything which did not yet sprout would be safe too, but it seems as if nearly all of the harvest will be vulnerable).  Amos cries out to the LORD to forgive the people and not let this vision come to pass, because they could not survive such a judgment, and the LORD relents and says "It shall not be."

Then the LORD gives Amos another vision of a judgment by fire.  The "great deep" (the seas) were dried up and the land was being eaten up by this consuming fire.  Amos also cried out for the LORD to forgive and save the people from this judgment because he knew they could not survive this either.  The LORD also relented of this judgment.

Then the LORD showed Amos that He was going to destroy all the high places, sanctuaries to the idols, and false prophets and priests and priestesses.  He will make war with the house of Jeroboam (the king of the northern kingdom of Israel at this time), and they will cease to exist as a nation.  Amos did not ask for the LORD to relent, and He did not say He would, for this is exactly what He promised would happen.  The northern kingdom of Israel would not like this prophesy, as we'll see next time, and they would blame Amos for it, but Amos did not invent these words.  He simply spoke the words that the LORD put in his mouth.

Amos 6
English Standard Version

Woe to Those at Ease in Zion
6 “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
    and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria,
the notable men of the first of the nations,
    to whom the house of Israel comes!
2 Pass over to Calneh, and see,
    and from there go to Hamath the great;
    then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
    Or is their territory greater than your territory,
3 O you who put far away the day of disaster
    and bring near the seat of violence?

4 “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory
    and stretch themselves out on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock
    and calves from the midst of the stall,
5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp
    and like David invent for themselves instruments of music,
6 who drink wine in bowls
    and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
    but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
7 Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile,
    and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.”

8 The Lord GOD has sworn by himself, declares the LORD, the God of hosts:

“I abhor the pride of Jacob
    and hate his strongholds,
    and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.”

9 And if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. 10 And when one's relative, the one who anoints him for burial, shall take him up to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him who is in the innermost parts of the house, “Is there still anyone with you?” he shall say, “No”; and he shall say, “Silence! We must not mention the name of the LORD.”

11 For behold, the LORD commands,
    and the great house shall be struck down into fragments,
    and the little house into bits.
12 Do horses run on rocks?
    Does one plow there with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison
    and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood--
13 you who rejoice in Lo-debar,
    who say, “Have we not by our own strength
    captured Karnaim for ourselves?”
14 “For behold, I will raise up against you a nation,
    O house of Israel,” declares the LORD, the God of hosts;
“and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath
    to the Brook of the Arabah.”

Even with all the warnings that the LORD has given to Judah and Israel (the southern and northern kingdoms), there are some saying "Peace, peace" when the LORD is saying "Repent, repent!" The rich and powerful imagine they will somehow be safe and escape the coming judgement.  It will not be that different in the end times, and there will be no distinction--al will face the same judgment.  The LORD has been destroying the nations around them as a warning to them of what is coming, and tells them to look at the destruction of those nations and decide if the LORD is coming to bring peace or war.  He asks the important question:   "Are you any better than them?"  The answer is clearly, "No!"  In many cases, they were actually worse than the Gentile nations around them.

Many take comfort in that day saying the day of the LORD's judgment was far away and may be coming, but they won't be alive to see it when judgment was on their doorstep.  Many in the last days will say the same thing.  This is preview for us of exactly what things will be like in the end times.  People will be living in sin, eating, drinking, marrying, and laughing it up and judgment will come upon them suddenly--like a thief in the night.  So it was with Israel here.

While their country is falling apart, they are living in luxury, giving no thought to those suffering around them.  Now judgment is going to come to the leaders of the kingdoms--the house of David and the house of Joseph.  These will be the first to go into exile and the party life they have been in to numb themselves from what's going on around them will come to sudden stop.

​The people can try to build strongholds to protect them from the invading armies, but they will not be successful.  The LORD has set His face against those that were once called His people.  They will be broken and smashed to pieces.  What should be fertile land is now in need of cultivation.  Justice has been turned to poison and what should be the fruit of righteousness to bitter wormwood.

Even when the LORD has kept them safe and given them victory, the people have taken the credit giving no glory to God.  The LORD will now let them stand in their own strength and they will fall and fail.  Many will die and the rest will be taken into exile.  No one will escape..no part of the Land will be untouched.

Amos 5:18-27
English Standard Version

Let Justice Roll Down
18 Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!
    Why would you have the day of the LORD?
It is darkness, and not light,
19     as if a man fled from a lion,
    and a bear met him,
or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
    and a serpent bit him.
20 Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light,
    and gloom with no brightness in it?

21 “I hate, I despise your feasts,
    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
    I will not look upon them.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
24 But let justice roll down like waters,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

25 “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 26 You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, 27 and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts.

Many thought they desired the day of the LORD because they thought that they would automatically be on the side that inherited the blessings prepared for the people of God because they were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The LORD tells them they should not desire this, because in that day justice will be done and the wicked will receive their reward in full, and most of these people are wicked.  When that Day comes, there will also be an end to choosing which side you are on.  You will receive judgment or blessing and you will forever remain in that state--eternal life or an eternity in the Lake of Fire prepared fro the devil and his angels.

An end to this world is not going to be an end to pain and suffering for the rebellious.  We hear many today that speak and think like this--that their relatives are "at peace" and "are no longer suffering" (especially if they died because of a disease that was painful like cancer).  That's just not true!  The Bible is clear that when the wicked die, their souls are taken to a place of torment that is worse than anything they faced while they are alive.  It's so bad that they want to return to tell their family members to repent so that they won't have to face it, and yet, that is not the worst of the punishment that is in store for them, for even that place that we call Hell will one day be thrown into the Lake of Fire that was prepared as the eternal place of punishment and separation from all of God's blessings that was prepared for the devil and his angels.  Do not wish an end to this life for those that are still spiritually dead, because they will step into an eternity that is far worse than anything they faced during their short lifetime.

Though the people were going through the motions of being religious and celebrating the required feasts and sacrifices, and assembling together at the required times, this worship was deplorable and unacceptable to the LORD.  Why?  Because the people did not give their hearts to the LORD.  To obey is better than to sacrifice.  The people tried to honor Him with their lips while their hearts were far from Him, and the LORD was not deceived by the show they were putting on for everyone to see how spiritual and religious they were.  This is the issue when we make the goal of the LORD's covenant purely external (to make us "good" people who don't do certain things and do other things).  Our behavior is a byproduct of what is in our hearts and minds or as Jesus would say later the issue is with the root of the tree, and the tree will bear fruit that is consistent with the nature of the root.  The people of Israel have a "root" problem, not just a "fruit" problem.

The LORD tells the people to go away and stop singing their worship songs to them.  They are nothing but noise now because they do not mean what they say.  They can stop playing their harps and other instruments for Him, because He is no longer listening.  This will not change until they do justly and love mercy.  They need to have a change in heart where they start to love the things that God loves and hate the things that God hates.  They need to see themselves as wicked and wretched and in need of a new heart that only the LORD can provide.  There are no works they can do to get them back into right standing with God--there never were.

The LORD is going to execute judgment against them and neither their king nor their idols will be able to save them.  He is going to send them into exile in a land far away, beyond the borders of the Promised Land (Damascus actually lies within the boundaries of the Abrahamic Covenant, so they will be sent totally outside of the Land promised to Abraham and his descendants).  Then and only then will they begin to realize that the LORD is the LORD of Hosts (the Lord of heaven and earth and all that is in them).  His dominion is not limited to territorial boundaries, but his dominion is without boundary of space or time.

Amos 5:1-17
English Standard Version

Seek the LORD and Live
5 Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

2 “Fallen, no more to rise,
    is the virgin Israel;
forsaken on her land,
    with none to raise her up.”

3 For thus says the Lord GOD:

“The city that went out a thousand
    shall have a hundred left,
and that which went out a hundred
    shall have ten left
    to the house of Israel.”

4 For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel:

“Seek me and live;
5     but do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
    or cross over to Beersheba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
    and Bethel shall come to nothing.”

6 Seek the LORD and live,
    lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
    and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
7 O you who turn justice to wormwood
    and cast down righteousness to the earth!

8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
    and turns deep darkness into the morning
    and darkens the day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
the LORD is his name;
9 who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,
    so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

10 They hate him who reproves in the gate,
    and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
11 Therefore because you trample on the poor
    and you exact taxes of grain from him,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
    but you shall not dwell in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
    but you shall not drink their wine.
12 For I know how many are your transgressions
    and how great are your sins--
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
    and turn aside the needy in the gate.
13 Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time,
    for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good, and not evil,
    that you may live;
and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you,
    as you have said.
15 Hate evil, and love good,
    and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,
    will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord:

“In all the squares there shall be wailing,
    and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’
They shall call the farmers to mourning
    and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,
17 and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,
    for I will pass through your midst,”
says the LORD.

The northern ten tribes called Israel are going off to exile and they will never again rise to their place of prominence among the nations.  They will not be completely destroyed as they are promised that they will go out a city of 1,000 and come back as one-hundred.

Why?  What has changed for the LORD's people?  They have ceased to seek the LORD.  He calls to them one final time to "Seek the LORD and live."  Otherwise fiery judgment is coming on the house of Joseph (the leaders of the northern ten tribes).  They are to seek the LORD, but not at any of the high places they have gone to commune with Him in the past.  These tribes thought like the pagans that the gods were attached to specific places and if they were removed from the Land they would be removed from God or that if another country defeated them it was because that country's god was stronger.  The LORD tells them that they will have to seek Him while in a foreign land, because they will taken into exile.

He is the LORD who made the stars of the heavens and designed them to make beautiful constellations visible from Earth to keep track of days, and times, and seasons.  He is the one that controls the seemingly uncontrollable seas with their constant tossing and churning (a symbol of the instability of the Gentile nations).  The LORD sets boundaries for the sea just like He sets boundaries for the Gentile nations.  He restrains the destructive power of the sea just like He will allow the Gentile nations to punish, but not destroy His people.  The LORD is in complete control of even the things that look chaotic.  None of these things in nature can be explained apart from His divine will and providence.  He is the Creator and the Sustainer of all things.

He causes the night to turn to day and then to return to night again.  He controls the wind and the rain and tell the lightning bots where they should go.  Not even the strongest warrior or fortress can withstand His wrath if He turns to judge them.  There is no place to hide from Him and no one stronger than Him to run to for protection or salvation.  He is the only one able to save, so they would be wise to fall on their faces before Him, repent and plead for mercy.

They have become the very things that God says that He hates.  They hate wisdom and correction and abhor the truth.  They use and abuse the poor and try to excise taxes from the poor while the rich and powerful live comfortably, paying little to nothing in taxes (this is not an argument for Communism, but there was a "fair tax" system where everyone paid the same percentage, and there were accommodations for those who were unable to pay anything).  Because of this, the people will not dwell in their palaces and mansion. They will not drink the wine of their walled-in vineyards.  Someone else will enjoy the fruits of their labors, because they will be sent into exile.

The LORD knows their many sins and transgressions.  He knows the condition of their hearts--that they are far from Him.  They have persecuted the prophets and the other righteous ones that the LORD has sent to them to warn them.  They are pervert justice for a bribe--every man has his price.  Those who cannot pay a bribe are denied justice and are turned away at the city gate.  This is not the way that the LORD commanded them to conduct business, personal, or civil affairs in the Law.  These are abominations to the LORD which He hates and have made the people detestable to the LORD and the other nations.

The LORD says that the wise men remain silent in such a time as they know their wisdom is not welcome.  They are likely to be persecuted or even killed for speaking the truth.  The wicked do not want to hear reproof of their folly, nor do they want to hear the truth of God's Word.  They want their ears tickled to tell them that the LORD is permissive and winks at their sin and they have no need to repent.  Our world today is not that different.

The people as individuals and as a nation are told the need their moral compass realigned.  They need to seek good, not evil.  Then, and only then might they live.  If they return to the LORD He will once again be their God and they will be His people.  They are to hate evil and love good just as He does.  They are to love what He loves and hate what He hates.  They are to do justly and to love mercy.  If they do this, there is a chance that the LORD will make their punishment less severe.

However, God knows the end result.  The people will not repent.  They will be stubborn and rebellious and will face a heavy hand of punishment and correction.  The whole land will be in a state of mourning and lamentation.  The LORD will pass through there midst, but this will not be like Passover where the LORD passed over the houses of the Israelites.  They are now like the Egyptians who experienced the tenth plague when the LORD went through midst.  Recall how much grieving and mourning there was among the Egyptians when they woke up and every household was touched by the judgment of the LORD.  This punishment seems much more severe in that it seems the LORD said it will be as if 90% will face destruction and only 10% will one day return from the Exile.