Dwight Lyman Moody was born on February 5, 1837 in the rural village of Northfield, Massachusetts. His father, a farmer and stonemason, died at the age of 41 while praying on his knees. When Dwight was only four years old, he had five older brothers and a younger sister, with an additional twin brother and sister born one month after his father’s death. His mother struggled to support the family, but even with her best effort, some of her children had to be sent off to work for their room and board.
Dwight too was sent off, where he went he received cornmeal, porridge, and milk, three times a day. He complained to his mother, but when she found out that he had all that he wanted to eat, she sent him back. His oldest brother ran away and was not heard from by the family until many years later.
When Moody turned 17, he moved to Boston to work in his uncle’s shoe store. One of his uncle’s requirements was that Moody attend the Congregational church. In April 1855, Moody was then converted to Christianity when his Sunday school teacher, Edward Kimball talked to him about how much God loved him. His conversion sparked the start of his career as an evangelist. However, his first application for church membership was rejected. As his teacher, Mr. Kimball, stated:
I can truly say, and in saying it, I magnify the infinite grace of God as bestowed upon him, that I have seen few persons whose minds were spiritually darker than was his when he came into my Sunday School class; and I think that the committee of the Mount Vernon Church seldom met an applicant for membership more unlikely ever to become a Christian of clear and decided views of Gospel truth, still less to fill any extended sphere of public usefulness.
Moody’s primary education was limited and he never received any formal theological training. His style was always rough and unpolished, but God called this unlikely candidate to preach, and he became one of the greatest preachers of the 19th century.
Amos: From the Pasture to the Pulpit (Amos 1:1; 7:14)
Like Moody, Amos wasn’t a likely character to become a preacher. He wasn’t born into a prophetic family, he wasn’t raised to be a preacher, nor did he attend any of the prophetic schools in Jerusalem. Instead, he was an agriculture man from the little mountain village of Tekoa, ten miles south of Jerusalem. He was engaged in the rural occupation of shepherding and he was also employed as a dresser of sycamore-fig trees and was possibly a sheep-breeder.
God called Amos to leave the hills of Judah and preach against the moral decay and social injustices of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Under the long reign of King Jeroboam II, Israel reached the pinnacle of its power and prosperity. Israel’s cities were filled with splendor, but there was no justice in the land (Am. 3:10). The poor were afflicted, the weak were exploited and sold into slavery (Am. 2:6-8; 5:11), and the leaders and officials were corrupt (Am. 5:12).
Against this backdrop of national arrogance and debauchery, Amos was an unlikely candidate to prophesy against the powers of Israel. He was a simple shepherd from rural Judah, but in God’s ironic providence, he called this layman to the office of prophet to preach against the many moral failures of the Northern Kingdom. Thomas E. McComiskey comments on God’s unexpected choice of Amos, “The dark days in which he lived called for a man of sturdy moral fiber and fearlessness. Such was Amos. His character, molded in the harsh terrain of the wilderness of Tekoa, enabled him to stand before the priests and the people, proclaiming the word God had given him.”
Much like Moses and David before him, Amos was prepared for public proclamation in rural pasturelands. His experience guiding sheep would be valuable in his ministry of guiding a nation. God moved him from the pasture to the pulpit, and he became one of the greatest preachers of his generation.
Isn’t that just like God? He doesn’t always use the people that we would expect him to use. Sometimes he calls the least likely people to do the most amazing things. When Moody was working in his uncle’s shoe store, no one would have expected him to become the most influential evangelist of the 19th century. When Amos was tending his flocks and trimming his trees in Judah, no one would have expected him to become a one of God’s most powerful preachers in redemptive history!
How about you? What might God be calling you to do? When God calls us to do something for him, we could make up hundreds of excuses! We could say, “Well, I don’t come from the right family!”, “I come from a small town”, “I don’t have the right education or training!”, or “I’m too scared!” Or we could just follow where he leads us and do what he has asked us to do. You may think that you are an unlikely candidate to be used in God’s service, but as we see with Amos, God is likely to call and use the unlikely!
Transition
Well, all nine chapters of the Book of Amos are filled with the visions he received from the Lord and the sermons he preached to the people. Instead of giving you an overview of the whole book, I thought I would just share chapter 7 with you today. It contains some of his visions and a confrontation with a priest named Amaziah.
Amos: Locust, Fire, and a Plumb Line (Amos 7:1-9)
Chapter 7 begins with a series of three visions of judgment that the Lord gave to Amos. The first vision was of God preparing a swarm of locusts to consume the harvest from Israel’s second seasonal crop. The great hoard stripped the land clean and left no food for the people to eat. This was God’s way of pouring out judgment upon his people for their wickedness.
When Amos saw what God was going to do, he pleaded with him to forgive. He appealed to the Lord on the basis of his sovereignty and Israel’s vulnerability. He basically said, “Lord, you have power to do anything! Israel is so small; it cannot survive without the crops. Please change your mind.” And because the Lord is both sovereign and compassionate, he relented, and the vision of the locusts never came to pass.
After this, the Lord gave Amos another vision: this time it was a vision of judgment by fire. This ferocious fire dried up the sea and devoured the land. It appeared like an atomic bomb was dropped on Israel and annihilated all of its inhabitants.
At this, Amos cried out to the Lord again and interceded on Israel’s behalf. He begged the Lord to not carry out this plan. And again, God heard Amos’ prayer, changed his mind, and promised not to do this either.
Then the Lord gave Amos a third vision. This time Amos saw the Lord standing on a plumb wall with a plumb line in his hand. A plumb line is a simple tool used to measure whether something is perfectly vertical or upright. It is a long string with a metal weight on the end. God said that he was setting a plumb line among his people Israel. This was a visual metaphor for how crooked God’s people had become. Spiritual unfaithfulness, social injustice, and economic inequality were rampant, and God had had enough. God himself would raise his sword against King Jeroboam and he would destroy the pagan shrines and idolatrous temples that had been built all over the land. This time, he would not relent or change his mind!
It would be very interesting if God used his plumb line to measure America today. Would he find our nation plumb or crooked? Would he see us as straight or warped? What would he think about our social policies and economic procedures, our spiritual practices and ethical positions, our legislative leanings and judicial decisions?
I suspect that we would measure up about the same as Israel did in the eighth century B.C. Like them, so many people in our country today don’t care about God or his ways. Like Israel then, today we live in a culture that is dominated by greed, selfishness, and entitlement.
Listen to what Jean Twenge says in her book Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled–and More Miserable Than Ever Before:
Years ago, duty and responsibility were held more important than individual needs and wants…Today, few of these rules apply. We are driven instead by our individual needs and desires. We are told to follow our dreams, pursue happiness above all else. It’s OK to be different, and you should do what’s right for you. Compared to Boomers in 1973, GenMe is twice as likely to agree with this statement “There is no single right way to live.” Young people say that the most important quality a child can learn is to “think for himself or herself,” and only half as many young people as old say that obedience is a good lesson for children.
The choices of the individual are held so paramount that the most common advice given to teenagers is “Just be yourself.” (Not that long ago, it was more likely to be “Be polite!” Filmmaker Kevin Smith says, “My generation believes that we can do almost anything. My characters are free: no social mores keep them in check.” Or take Melissa, 20, who says, “I couldn’t care less how I am viewed by society. I live my life according to the morals, views, and standards I create.”
This is the social trend—so strong it is really a revolution—that ties all of the generational changes together in a neat, tight bundle: do what makes you happy, and don’t worry about what other people think. It is enormously different from the cultural ethos of previous decades, and it is a philosophy that GenMe entirely takes for granted. “As long as I believe in myself, I don’t really care what others think,” says Rachael, 21.
This is an apt indictment of our culture, but I would like to take it one step further. When people today say, “There’s no one single right way to live,” they are implying that God’s way is not the right way. When people say, “Obedience isn’t important,” they are essentially saying that obedience to God isn’t important. When people say, “I can do anything,” they are saying that they don’t really need God for anything. When people say, “I couldn’t care less about how I am viewed by society. I live my life according to my morals, my views, and my standards,” what they really mean is that they couldn’t care less about how God views them or about what God has to say about anything!
Unfortunately, this is exactly where our society is today. This is where Israel was when Amos saw the plumb line and preached about God’s impending judgment. Amos’ prayers and pleas held off God’s judgment for a while, but when people persist in their pride and arrogance toward God, judgment is inevitable. I wonder how long our prayers and pleas will hold off God’s judgment upon our nation?
Amos and Amaziah (Amos 7:10-17)
Well, how did Israel respond to Amos’ message of God’s impending judgment? About the same way you are responding to my sermon right now! The people of Israel did not want to hear this message of doom and gloom. They didn’t want anyone holding them accountable for their sins or way of life. They wanted to hear a message of encouragement: something that would make them feel safe and secure and warm and fuzzy.
Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, wrote a letter to King Jeroboam, whereby he accused Amos of conspiring against the king and the people of Israel. He told Amos to stop his preaching and go back to the south where he came from, and earn his bread there. Neither he nor his message of judgment was welcomed there any longer.
Amos responded to this accusation by appealing to his background. He said that he didn’t come from a preaching family nor did he choose to become a preacher. As a matter of fact, he said that he was a simple shepherd and tree-trimmer, minding his own business and happily doing his work, when God traded his pasture for a pulpit. Basically, Amos said that he was just doing what God told him to do. He was just the messenger, but the message was from God! He said, “You can tell me to stop preaching about your sins! You can command me to stop prophesying about God’s judgment! But Israel will certainly go into exile!”
Over the years, how many politicians have been voted out of office for having the courage to do the right thing? How many preachers have been kicked out of their churches for preaching unpopular messages? So, in good prophetic fashion, I say to you today: “Don’t shoot me; I’m just the messenger; the message belongs to God!”