Pastor Kenneth Steward from Glasgow RP Church of Scotland, preached on Amos 7:12 and 13. Sermon points are below the following scriptures:
Amos 7:12 [ESV2011] And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
[Emboldening and underscoring below, are mine]
- God sent Amos from Judah to prophesy against Israel; Amos went to Bethel, the false religious center of the northern kingdom
- Israel had a NEW way of worshipping the one true God; Jeroboam had instituted worship of a golden calf in Bethel
- Amos had 5 visions between chapters 7-9 which were to be realized in about 60 years
- Amos and Amaziah entered into conflict because Amos was prophesying doom
- Differences between Amos and Amaziah explained
- Amos 7:1 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!”
- 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!”
- The intercession of Amos averted both of the above judgments
- Value of intercession and how God accomplishes it
- An example of intercession seen in Abram regarding if 10 righteous men were found in Sodom; several more examples from scripture
- The elaborate worship at Bethel was a sham, everything was governed by money
- What Amos understood that intercessors today also understand
- The source of prayers is a committed heart for the people of God
- Amos 7:7 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.”
- Plumb line, a reference to righteousness, explained; “pass by them” is a reference to how the angel of the Lord passed over them in Egypt, explained
- Amos did not intercede again
- The value of our own intercession explained
- Amos 7:12 And the word of the LORD came to me: 13 “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, 14 even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord GOD.
- 7:15 “If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts, 16 even if these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.
- That is, God will not permit intercession after a certain point; then, the righteous person’s prayer will save only him/her
- The above discussed briefly in terms of Scotland, the US…because of our provocations of God
- Discussion of the priest: part of the state-run church; opposing God and His word via Amos
- Political opposition; ‘spin’ defined, as it was going on then also
- Amaziah compared to Balaam: compromise…money
- Warning apparent in the ways of Amaziah: danger of becoming man pleasers; conforming to peer pressure, to be liked, esteemed, for titles, status, recognition…
- Encouragement from the ways of Amos: be content to be evil spoken of by the churches; to be fined; imprisoned (by King, prophet, priest); don’t be intimidated; intercede