Some of you may remember Rob Reiner’s 1992 film “A Few Good Men.” It contains one of the most iconic scenes in American cinematic history, when Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee (played by Tom Cruise) cross-examines Colonel Nathan Jessup (played by Jack Nicholson) about his involvement in a “Code-Red,” a term for harsh, unsanctioned physical punishment that unintentionally caused the death of a marine and led to a military trial. During intense questioning by Kaffee, Jessep ultimately admits he ordered the Code Red, but not before giving a riveting speech about the need for tough military personnel who are willing to do what’s needed to protect American civilians. Here’s an excerpt of the exchange:
Jessep (Jack Nicholson): You want answers?
Kaffee (Tom Cruise): I think I’m entitled to them.
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessup: You can’t handle the truth!
This last line has become one of the most memorable phrases in film. Apart from Jack Nicholson’s brilliant acting, I suspect the reason this line resonates with us is because it affirms our own experience of truth—that is, truth can be hard to handle. Do you know people who would rather live in a land of fiction and fairy tale rather than face the cold hard facts of life? Do you have any family members who habitually to avoid their problems rather than make the necessary changes to overcome them? Do you have any friends who are stuck in life because they can’t face their fears or failures? Unfortunately, in my work as a pastor, I see this all the time. Even though Jesus once said, “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free,” we live in a culture where many people just can’t handle the truth. And they don’t like it when someone tries to tell them the truth!
The Old Testament prophets force us to reckon with the truth! Perhaps this is the reason why they are some of the most unpopular and neglected books in the Bible. God raised up these preachers to proclaim the truth to people who didn’t want to hear it. They confronted the kingdoms of Israel and Judah about their problems of political corruption, economic exploitation, military aggression, social injustice, moral manipulation, and counterfeit spirituality. The people wanted to live in their illusion of outward success rather than be face the truth about their internal failures. But these prophets were called by God to challenge the nation’s collective consciences so that they might repent from their sins and avoid God’s judgment.
Even today, thousands of years after they were written, the prophetic books are still echoing truth to our reluctant souls. They are still convicting us of our national pride and personal depravity! They are still holding us accountable for our attitudes and actions. No one likes to be confronted about their beliefs or behaviors, but the Old Testament prophets are still forcing us to handle the truth!
So, for the next few months we are going to hear from the prophet Amos. He’s going to use the plumb line to square our crooked souls with God’s truth!
Amos, an Unlikely Prophet (1)
In the eighth century B.C., God called a man named Amos to be the first writing prophet. We know virtually nothing about his background except for his vocation, his hometown, and a rough timeline of when he preached. In verse 1, we learn that he was a shepherd (or perhaps a sheep-breeder) from the town of Tekoa, a small rural village about 10 miles south of Jerusalem. In chapter 7:14, we will also learn that he was a cultivator of sycamore fig trees. Both jobs could have required extensive travel as an agricultural specialist, but we don’t know this for sure.
Amos says that he wrote during the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam of Israel “two years before the earthquake.” Although it was a period of peace and prosperity when Israel flourished physically, it was also a time when Israel turned their backs on God spiritually. Both kingdoms looked healthy and happy on the outside, but they were rotting on the inside. They were in jeopardy of receiving God’s judgment, which they would eventually endure in the forms of earthquake and then exile.
It is ironic that God would call a small-town southern Judean shepherd to become a prophet to King Jeroboam and the upper crust of the northern Kingdom of Israel. It’s difficult enough to receive rebuke from someone that you deeply respect, let alone from someone who has no credibility at all. As a country bumkin from the “wrong side of the tracks,” a man who had no formal education or experience as a prophet, the cards were stacked against him to get a hearing before Israel’s elite.
This would be like someone from Franklin County going to Montpelier or Washington D.C. and saying, “Listen up folks! God sent me here with a message for you!” We all know how this turns out! You’d have better luck preaching to a brick wall!
Even though Amos was an unlikely candidate for this special prophetic mission, sometimes God chooses improbable people with unconventional qualifications to carry out his providential purposes.
Amos’ unlikely calling reminds me of the life of the great evangelist D.L. Moody. Moody was born in the rural town of Northfield, MA, but when his father died when he was just four years old, his widowed mother couldn’t afford to feed her nine children, so she had to send some off to work for their room and board. Dwight too was sent off, where he received cornmeal, porridge, and milk three times a day.
When Moody turned 17, he moved to Boston to work (after receiving many job rejections locally) in an uncle’s shoe store. One of the uncle’s requirements was that Moody attend the Congregational Church of Mount Vernon. In April 1855 Moody was 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.
Moody went on to become a makeshift military chaplain during the Civil War, he started a church in Chicago, and he traveled the world as the most prolific evangelist of the 19th century. Although he never received any formal education, he regularly preached to crowds of 15,000-30,000 people all over the world, published multiple books, and founded three schools, one of which is my alma mater, the Moody Bible Institute, which was established in Chicago in 1886. As an uneducated man from a poor family in a rural village, D.L. Moody didn’t fit the profile of an influential evangelist, but God called him to preach to the likes of President Ulysses S. Grant, the British royalty, and anyone else who needed to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Like the prophet Amos and Moody, the evangelist, sometimes God calls unqualified people to declare his Word to an unlikely constituency. Sometimes God calls farmers and carpenters and teachers and athletes and truck drivers and business people to be preachers! Sometimes following God’s call requires leaving the comfort of our hometown or the security of a stable career. Sometimes answering God’s call means that we must proclaim his Word to people who don’t really want to hear it! Sometimes following God’s call entails speaking truth to people who can’t handle the truth! If God calls you to any of these tasks, will you be ready?
The Lion in Zion (2)
In verse 2, Amos begins his prophecy with an announcement that “the Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem.” The Israelites in the north no longer recognized God’s voice; they worshiped their own version of God on their own holy hills. They needed to return to worship at the place God had chosen, not the place they wanted. They set up their own cult shrines in the cities of Bethel, Gilgal, Dan, and their capital, Samaria. Unrepentant and continued sin would lead to God’s judgment—judgment that would turn the fertile fields below Mount Carmel into a dry and withered wasteland.
Have you ever heard a lion roar? The sound is terrifying and sends chills up and down your spine, even when you know that the beast is behind bars at the zoo. Amos compares God’s voice of judgment to a lion’s roar. When we turn a deaf ear to the one true God—when we try to worship God on their own terms rather than his—when we run after created things rather than revere the Creator, God roars like a lion! It is the fearsome sound of ensuing judgement. As Amos did with Israel, he is warning us to listen to God’s Word and repent from our sin before it is too late!
God’s Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors (1:3-2:3)
After Amos begins with this brief warning for Israel, he quickly shifts his focus toward God’s judgment on Israel’s neighbors. He cleverly structures his prophecy to set Israel up for a fall. From chapter 1:3 to 2:3, he pronounces oracles of judgment on six of Israel’s long-standing enemies. As Amos announces God’s judgment on these nations for their wickedness, he lulls Israel into a sense of safety and security. Then in chapter 2:4-16, he is going to blast the kingdoms of Judah and Israel by declaring that they are just as bad, if not worse, than their wicked neighbors. (Stay tuned for that story next week.)
But for now, lets take a look at the prophecy of judgment on Israel’s enemies. Notice how each oracle follows the same pattern. They all begin with the divine declaration, “Thus says the Lord.” Amos was simply the messenger; God is the one who composed the message. Then there is a formal charge, “For three transgressions of ______, and for four, I will not revoke punishment…” This shows that every nation was guilty of multiple sins. Then comes the specific atrocity for which each nation was guilty. And finally, there is a pronouncement of punishment on the guilty nation. The punishments include breaking down national defenses, destroying royal dynasties, and devastating whole groups of people.
The one common denominator of the oracles against Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab is that each involves a sin against basic human decency. Doom is declared on Damascus for their genocide against Gilead! Punishment is pronounced on the Philistines for their commerce of captives! Trouble is brewing for Tyre because they broke their treaty of brotherhood! Indictment eclipses Edom when family faithfulness fails! Anguish will arise in Ammon for its atrocities against the pregnant women of Gilead! And finally, mourning would be heard in Moab for blaspheming the bone of Edom’s king! These are all violations of the basic code of human behavior written the hearts of all people. God holds even pagan nations responsible for respecting human life; the life that he created.
As we consider God’s judgment against these nations, notice that America does not appear on the list. Of course, not—this prophecy was given long before America was a nation! But what if God raised up a prophet like Amos to preach against the sins of America and her people? I wonder what he would say? I wonder if he would mention America’s military aggression and political power plays against other nations? I wonder if he would mention the political hardness of heart that has gridlocked our nation’s capital? I wonder if he would mention the rampant racism, economic exploitation, and social injustice that continues to plague our communities? I wonder if he would mention the 320,000 sexual assaults that occur in America every year? I wonder if he would mention the 45 million babies that have been aborted over the past fifty years? I wonder if he would say anything about the clergy and churches that have abandoned the Bible and its authority? I don’t know; I’m not a prophet! But I wonder what God’s prophet would say to America today! And I wonder if we could handle the truth?
Yes, God’s prophet Amos reminds us that God is a God of justice and he will only tolerate injustice for so long. The day of reckoning was upon all these foreign nations. Judgment Day would soon come for those nations who sinned against the Lord by plundering the pinnacle of his creation: human life! And this day of judgment would be a mere foreshadowing of the great Judgment Day that will take place when Jesus returns to the earth—the day when we will all answer for our actions and attitudes toward our fellow human beings!
Will we be ready for that day? The only way we will be able to endure Judgment Day is if we’ve been washed in the blood of the lamb. You see, the lion that roars from Judah became the lamb that was led to the slaughter. God’s own son, our Lord Jesus Christ, died on the cross to offer us forgiveness for all of our sins, even our sins against humanity. Have you put your trust in Jesus Christ? For he is the only one who could fully handle the truth!