Amos: A Faithful Farmer

From our Sunday service on October 29, 2023, a message from the book of Amos. Watch the full message: Amos: A Faithful Farmer on YouTube.

One Pathway Through Amos

Just because this message is titled “Amos” doesn’t mean we’re going to talk about everything there is to say about the book of Amos. I’ve been studying Amos over the last month, and there are three key themes in the book. We’re only going to look at one of them, and even within that theme there are multiple directions you could go. We could do a whole series for two months on Amos, but we don’t have time for that today. This message is a streamlined string through the book and only one of many pathways we could take.

Here is the key theme I want you to take away: God wants you to represent a pure picture of Him.

Amos is a book a lot of people aren’t familiar with, and that is part of the reason I picked it. Let’s look at something we don’t usually look at and see how we can apply it to our lives. Because it is unfamiliar, let me first set up the context.

The Background of Amos

The book of Amos occurs during a period of regional peace and prosperity. Israel, the northern kingdom, and Judah, the southern kingdom, were experiencing relative peace under King Jeroboam II in the north and King Uzziah in the south. The territories expanded, their wealth increased, and trade flourished, leading to economic prosperity, particularly for the elite. But that prosperity was marred by social injustice and spiritual decline.

In that context God called Amos to deliver a message of judgment, primarily to Israel but also to the surrounding nations, emphasizing that they were being held accountable for their actions. In Israel, the worship of Baal and other Canaanite gods had become increasingly integrated with the worship of Yahweh. That is called syncretism, the combining of religious practices from one religion into another. Jeroboam II introduced idol worship, and corrupt secondary temples were set up outside Jerusalem in places such as Bethel and Gilgal. Israel had become so far from God that there appeared to be no difference between them and the surrounding nations. It was against this that God called Amos. The book is a powerful testament to the universal justice of God and His care for all people.

Who Was Amos?

In Hebrew his name would be pronounced differently, but for everybody’s sanity I’ll stick with our English pronunciation. We learn about Amos in the first two verses of the book.

The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.
Amos 1:1–2

From the reigns of the kings named here, we know Amos was giving this declaration around 760 to 755 BC. He lived in Tekoa, in Judah, near a place we might know, Bethlehem. It’s a very rural farming and shepherding area, not far from Jerusalem. The name Amos is unique in the Bible. No other character is ever called Amos. It means “the carrier of a burden,” and it’s possible he was given this name as a prophet because it was his responsibility to carry the burden of Israel, the burden for the people who had fallen away from God.

Amos also emphasizes humility right off the bat. Verse 1 says he was a herdsman. We would usually call such a person a shepherd, but the word shepherd in Israel carried the connotation of a pastor, someone who takes you to pasture, a preacher or spiritual leader. Amos goes out of his way not to call himself a shepherd. Literally in the Hebrew he calls himself a cattle herder. We hear why from Amos himself in 7:14–15.

Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
Amos 7:14–15

Amos was no prophet and no preacher. At this time the Israelite religion was at one of its peaks, and they had a whole school of prophets trained in the art of prophecy. Amos wasn’t from that school. He was no student of Isaiah. He was a shepherd wandering about and a simple fig tree farmer, harvesting sycamore figs seasonally in the rural countryside. He wasn’t the son of a king like Solomon, he wasn’t the leader of a religious group like Elijah, and he wasn’t educated in theology in any way.

So what can we take from this? Amos is a guy like us. He is just a faithful farmer, someone God saw doing his daily job. God said, “This man loves me, and I can use him to send my message to the people around him.” Amos went from the orchard to being an oracle of God’s words. He went from a humble beginning to being the voice of God, not because of who he was but because of what God had for him. The application for us is that Amos is a guy just like you and me, choosing to stand up against the wrongdoing of his time. So what was that wrongdoing, and why was Amos called?

A Spiral Toward Israel

The book opens with a very unique structure of judgments. We’re not going through the introductory section today, but each judgment follows a spiral pattern, and in the middle of the spiral is Israel itself. In the first chapter God condemns Damascus for its sins, then Gaza, then Tyre, then Ammon, then Moab, then Edom, step by step getting closer to His people Israel.

This was purposefully designed because God wanted them to hear the message. It’s easy to hear about the judgment on Damascus when you’re in Israel, because it doesn’t affect you. The same goes for Gaza, Tyre, and so on. Eventually the judgment gets to Judah, and it starts to get a little uncomfortable. Judah is part of the people of Israel. We split our kingdom in half, but it’s still our people. And then God targets Israel itself: “Okay, let’s talk about your sins.”

All of this was to show that the judgment on the other nations was the judgment Israel would face too, because Israel had lost its representative role in spirit, not in position. They were still God’s representatives, but in their spirit they had lost the heart to be God’s representatives. Today we’re looking at the accusations and warnings to Israel specifically. There are also sections of five visions of destruction and the promise of restoration, which could each be messages in and of themselves. Amos’s job here is to critique Israel, outlining their abandonment of the poor, the slavery they imposed on their debtors, and their rejection of appeals for justice.

Three Sins of Judah, Three Sins of Israel

We start in chapter 2, verse 4. “Lord” in all caps is the divine name, Yahweh.

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked: But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
Amos 2:4–5

This pattern of “three, yea, four” shows up in the Bible to draw out an emphasis. Judah transgressed in three things, and that was enough to punish them. To emphasize how bad it is, God says there are three, but there are four: you haven’t just gone to the point of punishment, you’ve stepped beyond it.

The first sin is that they despised the law of the Lord, which was to teach them to love their neighbor and love their God. The second is that they hadn’t kept His commandments, including the Ten Commandments. God had instructed them as His representatives to do certain things to show the nations around them that He was holy, set apart, and worthy of worship. The third is that their lies caused them to err, to wander from the path, the same wandering their fathers had walked. That draws back to the forty years in the wilderness, when a whole generation had to wander until they died off before entering the promised land. They fell into idolatry, dissatisfaction, anger, and jealousy for the things they had in Egypt, following the lie that it is better to be in bondage to sin and better to have your own way. The people in Judah believed those same lies, and because of it God says He will send a fire upon Judah that will devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

This idea of divine fire could be a whole message of its own. We know fire is in hell, God’s judgment. There are two ways you will face the fire of God. Either you face it in hell as eternal punishment, or you face the fire of purification as a believer, since the Bible says believers are tried by fire. The same fire that’s in hell you can get out of by turning to Jesus Christ, believing in Him, and being purified through His fire. Here the fire of judgment is coming on Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem. The strongholds and wealthy buildings, the things you’re trying to protect, will fall. That’s the target for Jerusalem. Next it’s Israel.

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes; That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name: And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
Amos 2:6–8

First, they trample on the poor. This was a very wealthy time for Israel, and while the elite had more money than they could do anything with, there was also a very large group of poor people just struggling to get food on their table. Instead of helping them, God says, you have taken their heads and rubbed them into the dirt to spite them just because they’re poor, when you had the ability to help.

Second, “turn aside the way of the meek.” These were humble people, docile, who didn’t try to fight you or create conflict. They would have lived at peace with you, but you made it impossible by exploiting and harming them. You turned their path of peace and humility into a path of self-defense, where they have to revolt against you because of what you’re doing to them.

Third is a sexual sin: “a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name.” This is part of Jeroboam II’s new cult of Yahweh. They had begun worshiping false idols in their temple worship and set up false temples in Bethel and Gilgal, with temple prostitutes performing these sinful acts in the name of Yahweh. God says you have not just done these things, you’ve done them to profane my holy name, and God does not allow that.

Then verse 8 goes back to the exploitation of the poor. They literally reclined by every altar of God on clothing they had taken as collateral. They loaned money to the poor, took the clothes off their backs, and when they went to worship, they laid those clothes down and knelt on them. God says that is disgusting to me. How could you take the clothes off the back of the poor so you could be comfortable in your worship of God? You’re supposed to be my representative, but the way you worship me is nothing but wrong.

They also drank “the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.” It would be like us having communion today with juice that had been taken as a penalty fee for unpaid loans. These poor people were going through a drought because of God’s condemnation on the nation. Elsewhere in the book the top of Carmel, the place that gets the most rain in all of Israel, is said to wither. These people couldn’t farm and had no produce. They would borrow seed for their farm, it didn’t grow, and they couldn’t pay. And the lenders took their wine and went to the temple and celebrated worship with the wine taken from poor people with no food on their table.

Then God reminds them where He took them from.

Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD. But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
Amos 2:9–12

God saved the Israelites from exploitation in Egypt, where they were a poor, oppressed class, always assigned the hardest work and exploited to the highest degree. God says, “Did I not free you from Egypt to give you this promised land? You were the oppressed one before. How dare you take this gift of freedom and use it to oppress your brother?”

He also reminds them of a holy calling. He called their young men to be Nazarites, who took a vow, a special relationship with Him, and He made their sons prophets to speak His words. And what did they do with it? The Nazarite vow was that they would never drink wine and never cut their hair. They dedicated their lives to God. And the spiritual leaders of Israel said, “Oh, Nazarites, you’ve promised not to drink wine. I know that’s what God told you, but it’s okay, go ahead and drink it.” They were poisoning the spirituality of their people. And the prophets God had called to speak, they told, “Do not prophesy to us.” This is very common, including in this book. God had dedicated people to preach His word, and the believers of the day said, “We don’t want to hear it. We don’t need the teaching. I don’t need the correction. Keep it to yourself.” They pushed it away, and because of this Amos is called.

“You Only Have I Known”

Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
Amos 3:1–2

Here we’re getting to a very important part of the passage. God chose the line of Abraham for a promise. There was nothing really special about the people except the faith Abraham had in his day. If Abraham hadn’t had that faith, the Israelites wouldn’t have been God’s representatives, it would have been somebody else. God says, “You have a special relationship with me, and it’s not of any merit of your own.”

Today we’re in the same position. We have a unique relationship with God, but it’s only through the blood of Jesus Christ. Don’t think for a second that because you have a relationship with God you’re more special than the unsaved. The only difference between the saved and the unsaved is the acceptance of the work of Jesus Christ.

“Punish” Means “Visit”

It’s very interesting what the Hebrew word behind “punish” is. The teens will know this, because we’ve been talking about it. When Joseph died, he told his children that God would surely visit them. That word “visit” is the same Hebrew word used here for “punish.” It carries the idea of caring for, nourishing, or providing for. God told Moses to tell the people, when He came to take them out, that God had surely visited them, the same word. It only comes to mean “punish” from its context, from the reaction of the people. You could literally translate it, “I will take care of you for all your iniquities.”

So the way God takes care of you depends on how you are acting toward Him right now. When the Israelites were in bondage, God took care of them by freeing them. When the Israelites were the oppressors, God takes care of them by correcting them. This is true for us as believers. If you’re living in God’s will, the way He cares for you is by giving you joy, blessing, hope, and peace. If you’re living outside His will, the way He cares for you is to correct you, to show you that the path you’re on doesn’t lead to good things, to save you from hardship down the road.

The difference between the saved and the unsaved is that when the saved go on the wrong path, God tries to bring them back. The unsaved don’t have that comfort. God lets them see the end of their journey and saves their judgment for the day of judgment, when they will meet it all at once. As believers we have the gift of correction. God cares for us enough that He will stop us before we go all the way down the bad path. Israel had been given a special position as God’s representatives, but they had failed in their role. I hope that’s not true of us as Christians. God will correct us if we stray, and that is a gift, not spite. God does not correct the wicked. He simply leaves them to their own evil. Just as Israel was facing consequences for their actions, so do we.

Warnings Come Before Judgment

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Amos 3:3–6

This is a list of things that are obviously “no” answers. Can two walk together unless they’ve agreed where they’re going? No, you have to agree first. Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? The lion roars to call in the other animals to eat, and if he hasn’t caught anything he would just give away his position. Will a young lion cry out of his den if he has taken nothing? No. Can a bird fall into a snare where no trap has been set? No. Would you spring a trap when nothing has been caught in it? No, you leave it there. Will a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? No, the trumpet is a trumpet of war, and if you hear it you’re going to be afraid. Is there evil in a city that the Lord hasn’t done? Is God going to wipe you out if He hasn’t allowed it as judgment? Again, no. Then think about this.

Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
Amos 3:7

In the same way these things are obvious, God is not going to judge you unless the prophets have come and warned you. There’s a theme throughout the Bible that there is no judgment where the truth has not been taught. Jesus says to the Pharisees that they would have no condemnation if He hadn’t called them out on it. He also says that if the law weren’t there, there would have been no condemnation to bring us to Christ. If God’s word hasn’t been taught, accountability for it is not yet available. God only judges you based on the knowledge you have. That’s why we have the age of accountability for children: until they can understand the gospel, they’re not held accountable to respond to it.

The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
Amos 3:8

That lion waiting to say “the food’s here” is roaring right now, and God is raising Amos as a prophet to speak about this injustice. Judgment can now come because you have been warned.

Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts, That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD.
Amos 3:13–15

God says He will take care of the transgressions of Israel and the altars of Bethel. Remember, Bethel and Gilgal were temples to Yahweh that were not the temple in Jerusalem. The Israelites were told to worship only in Jerusalem, and when the kingdom split they said it was too far and too complicated to travel there, so they made their own temples in Bethel and Gilgal. The altar for the sin sacrifice had horns on all four corners, and horns in the ancient world symbolized power, since the strength of the bow was in the horns. They put horns on the altar to signify the power of God. So God says, “I’m going to go to your temples in Bethel and cut off the symbol that they have any power. They’ll fall to the ground, because the way you’re worshiping me is not the way I told you to.”

They weren’t only doing this in Bethel. They were doing it in their daily lives, using their exploitation of others to “worship” Him. The false power that is restraining my nation and leading them astray will be cut off. How many Christians today claim to worship God but aren’t following His teachings? We’ll get into this in a bit: there are churches that don’t preach the truth anymore, that have traded the gospel for another gospel, which is not the gospel itself.

Verse 15 says these people were wealthy enough to have both a summer and a winter home, and houses of ivory made of precious materials. God says in His judgment, the comfort you had in those wealthy estates is going to be the first to go. Don’t think you can worship me in your selfishness and greed and that I won’t knock it out when my judgment comes for your hypocrisy. The first thing to go is your comfort.

Seek Me and Live

Skipping to chapter 5, God calls them to renewal.

For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
Amos 5:4–8

God says, “Seek me and you will live. Turn from your ways and come to the Lord. But don’t come to me in Bethel. I did not ask you to worship me in Bethel. Don’t come with your hypocrisy and your easy believer lifestyle. It’s easier for you to travel to Bethel, but don’t take the easy, so-called worship. Don’t visit me in Gilgal, don’t pass through Beersheba.” There is a way to worship Him right and a way to worship Him wrong. If you want to seek Him, you have to seek Him in the right form of worship. If you don’t seek God properly, you will not find Him. That is the warning.

He repeats it because it’s important: seek me and you will live, “lest” meaning “or else” there will be a fire in the house of Joseph. The house of Joseph is usually a phrase like Ephraim, used to reference all of Israel as the portion that follows God faithfully. Here we see the opposite. Joseph is the one person in the Bible who never does anything wrong, and this is the only time his name is mentioned as a negative, because even Joseph’s children have been led astray. Even Ephraim has been caught in this cult of false worship.

If you’re going to Bethel to stop the judgment, you’re not going to find anything to quench it there. You won’t find anything to quench God’s punishment in false religion and false Christianity today. His judgment will still come, and it won’t be quenched by false doctrine. “Judgment” here is the same word we would also translate as “justice.” You’ve changed your justice to wormwood, to bitterness, and you’ve left righteousness behind.

“Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.” These people were worshiping gods dedicated to the constellations, so this is a very specific attack on the idols they had fallen into. Don’t look at the seven stars and Orion. Look at the creator of the seven stars and Orion, the one who turns day into night and night into day, and takes the waters of the sea and makes them rain on the land to nourish it. These people were going through a drought. In fact, the entire reason Amos first felt his call was that he saw the locusts go through the land and said, “This must be the judgment of God,” and God put it on his heart to speak to the people. God is the one who can pour the rain on the earth. The drought is bad, but God is the one who can end it.

Noise in God’s Ears

Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
Amos 5:22–23

The Israelites never stopped offering their sacrifices. They would still go to the temple, maybe not the right one, and offer a burnt offering for their sins, a meat offering, and peace offerings. They were giving all these offerings to God, but they weren’t living in God’s commandments or God’s will. So God says, “Take away from me the noise of your songs.” That is a very intentional choice of word. False worship is not just emptiness to God. Meaningless worship isn’t just empty, it is actively antagonistic. It’s not that God is apathetic toward false worship. It is a noise to Him, an irritating sound in His ears, actively frustrating. God would rather you be apathetic than falsely worship. He rejected Saul because he didn’t obey and he sacrificed. And in the New Testament, Paul tells us not to give an offering to God if we’re doing it begrudgingly because we feel obligated. God says if you feel obligated to give an offering to me, don’t give it, I don’t want it. I want you to give because you want to give.

If you’re walking through the steps of being a believer out of obligation, just stop. It would be better to be honest than to come to Him and think you can pull the wool over the eyes of God and pretend that you love Him. These people went through the motions: the burnt offering for their sins, the meat offering, the peace offerings of their best animals. And God says, “I won’t regard it, I won’t consider it, I won’t acknowledge it. You just gave me the best thing you have from your cattle, and it’s a waste of your resources.” We should never attempt to worship God out of obligation, because it’s worse than apathy.

The false worshipers in Israel were worshiping to obtain goods through God’s blessings and to live in their own way. The worship had become corrupted, with sexual immorality implemented in these practices. It was about self-satisfaction more than serving God. They wanted to live their own way, and God was disgusted by the arrogance of people who thought they could be rewarded for such behavior. So He gives them a challenge.

But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Amos 5:24

Instead of all these things, do this. As He says in Micah, what does the Lord require of you but to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God? God doesn’t want us stuck in false worship. He wants us to have justice in our lives and to help those who need help, and to have righteousness as a mighty stream.

That is a continuously flowing fountain, like a freshwater spring in Israel. A lot of rivers there didn’t run all year. They had seasonal rivers and streams, and I think as Americans we don’t think much about those, but they were really important in Israel. God says, “I don’t want you to be a seasonal stream of righteousness. I don’t want you to be righteous only when it’s comfortable. I want you to be a year-long river like the Jordan, providing the nourishment of righteousness year-round.” So our application is that we should seek God and allow justice to flow out of our lives, continuously being that fresh spring that stands up for the truth.

A Faithful Farmer in an Age of Compromise

Amos went forward and preached to these people. He was a faithful farmer. He wasn’t a prophet, just a believer in God who believed in the truth, and he looked at his era and saw corruption. We can see it today too. I mentioned false gospels. A lot of churches are dropping what the Bible teaches and giving in on certain things.

In the Old Testament, Jeroboam gave in on idolatry. He said, “I’m not going to make idolatry illegal, I’ll allow some, I won’t tear down the high places.” Eventually idolatry became popular, so they took some of those practices and put them in the temple of God. People liked it, so they said, “Let’s make more temples, let’s make it more popular.” God didn’t order that.

What does that look like today? Homosexuality and transgenderism have made their way into our churches. First they made it into the culture around us, like the Canaanites had their idolatry, and we said, “Maybe we won’t go out of our way to denounce it.” I’m not saying we go to people and condemn them as harsh and evil and wicked. But we acknowledge it, and we say, “Personally I believe it’s wrong, I will not choose to walk that way, and I can’t make you change, but I pray that God would show you His grace and mercy and that His grace and mercy would cause you to change and live righteously.” The church hasn’t done that. A bunch of denominations are now splitting up. They say, “We’re going to allow this, we’re going to say it’s not wrong anymore, we’re going to compromise on the truth that God has. We’ll let them set up a new temple in Gilgal, a new church in Bethel, and it will be a little different, but we’re still worshiping the same God and the same Jesus.” That’s what we see happening here.

Another example is the prosperity gospel. Televangelists started preaching that if you give all your money to the church, God will bless you with so much more, and if you give your life to God, He will bless you financially. That wasn’t the promise here. Amos wasn’t living the dream. He was a faithful farmer who seasonally farmed some figs just to get a little extra money. The prosperity gospel says that if you give everything to God, God will give you wealth and the best blessings of your life. That is not the true gospel. It is another gospel that has made its way into the church. Churches today have chosen not to stand on the truth and have buckled to appeal to the cultures around them, just like Israel did in its day.

That puts us in a position: do we act like the other Israelites? We didn’t have time to go over it today, but there is a false prophet in this book named Amaziah. Amos is the true prophet, and Amaziah tells him, “I know this is what the Bible says, but this message is too harsh for them. They’re not ready for this truth yet. Do not prophesy about it.” He literally threatens him and says it’s best if Amos just goes a bit farther south and stays out of their area. That is what a lot of churches are doing today: “It’s a little too harsh, they’re not ready for this yet. We have our church here, maybe you should go back to yours. The culture is different now. God wants us to have a relationship with Him at any cost, so if we let them have this, at least they’ll have a relationship with God.” But what is God teaching these people? “Your relationship with me is fake, because you’re not following my commands or my truth. You’ve compromised.”

Two Choices

So today we have two choices, just as Amos did. Our first choice is to be like the people of Israel and abandon the truth. We see what the end of that looks like in Amos 8:11–12.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
Amos 8:11–12

For those who abandon the truth and no longer stand up and preach it, God says to Israel that the famine you’re worried about isn’t one of water, like the withering of Carmel. There is going to be a spiritual drought in your nation. You won’t hear the words of the Lord, and when you want to hear the truth, there won’t be anywhere to find it. It’s a sad thought that a nation can become like that if it abandons the truth.

But that’s not our only option. The second option is not to be devoid of truth and living in a lie, but to stand up for what is right. Amos 9:11 shows us the result.

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
Amos 9:11

We have the option either to stop being convicted of the truth and live a lie, or for God to restore us in fellowship with Him and allow us to represent Him to the world. Israel had the same choice: would they stay with their idolatry and keep their false temples? We know that eventually they turned back, because when Jesus meets the woman in Samaria, she says her people were told this temple in Samaria is where we should worship, but your Scriptures say it’s only in Jerusalem, and the Jews say Jerusalem is the right one. From that we know the Jews repented and were restored, and the prophecy of Amos 9 comes true: the tabernacle of David was restored, and through that Jesus Christ came. Amos has a whole section that deals with Jesus in prophecy, but we don’t have time for that today. Christ came and gave us the option to be saved through Him and have fellowship with Him.

Four Closing Thoughts

Why do we worship God? Is it to be blessed by Him, or is it to appreciate Him for who He truly is? Let me say that again: do we worship God to be blessed by Him, or do we really appreciate Him for who He is?

Do we obey God’s commands, or do we simply place His titles on ourselves? Calling yourself a Christian or a believer is not the same as being a follower of Christ. If we go through our daily lives taking advantage of others, and then on Sunday go to church and use those gains from taking from other people to give our tithes and offerings, God is disgusted by our gift. If we’re not treating other people right, He doesn’t want us to wear His title of Christian in pride. Don’t call yourself a Christian unless you actually are a follower of Christ.

Do we act as God’s representative? That was Israel’s role, and it’s ours today as well. Does the behavior in our daily lives reflect the God we serve, or is there no noticeable difference between us and the world around us? The Israelites had the same condemnation as Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Ammon, and Moab. They were supposed to be so different, and God says, “I find little difference between you.” When God looks at us as Christians, does He see very little difference between us and the world? Are we almost the same?

Will you choose to stand on the truth of God? We saw the story of Amos today: a faithful farmer from Tekoa in Judah who took care of sheep and harvested some figs. He saw the wickedness of his world, and he said, “I’m not going to stand by. I’m going to preach the truth whether they want to hear it or not. It’s not my job to make them change, but one way or another I’m going to make sure they hear it.” Will you be like Amos and stand for the truth when the religious leaders turn from God’s way, when the Christian is told to take in the poison of false doctrine, and when the preacher is told to keep silence? What will you do today?