Amos

Amos 2: God judges ungrateful Israel

Begin in prayer

Before we read how Israel sinned against God’s kindness, let us confess our need for Him. Please ask Him to take away our excuses and help us see why our own strength cannot save us.

Hear, earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

Jeremiah 6:19

Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Show us the kindness Israel rejected and the rescue Jesus gives. Make us more like Jesus, ready to hear You and care for those in need. Please bless our family as we read together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

God’s judgments move from Moab to Judah and then to Israel itself. Moab burned the bones of Edom’s king into lime, and Judah rejected the LORD’s law. Israel sold the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, denying justice to the oppressed. Their worship went together with sexual sin and taking advantage of the poor. God had delivered them from Egypt, destroyed the Amorite, and given them prophets, yet they ordered His prophets to stop prophesying. He will crush them, and neither strength nor speed will bring escape.

As you read Amos 2, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God judges Israel for sinning against His kindness, and their strength cannot save them.

Israel hears the same sentence that God spoke against the surrounding nations. Receiving His kindness makes their rebellion heavier, because they know the One they are rejecting. The poor man’s clothing could be held as security for a debt. God’s law required its return before sunset, because he needed it for covering (Exodus 22 verses 26 and 27). Israel lay on pledged clothes beside the altars, bringing the gains of oppression into worship. Their treatment of the Nazirites shows the same contempt for God. These people had made a vow that included refusing wine, yet Israel gave them wine (Numbers 6 verses 2 and 3). Alongside this, Israel ordered the prophets to stop speaking. The people God rescued now resist His word, and their own strength cannot deliver them from His judgment.

How does Amos 2 show us that God judges Israel for sinning against His kindness, and their strength cannot save them?

God’s gifts make Israel’s rebellion worse.

The LORD destroyed the Amorite, brought Israel out of Egypt, and led them forty years in the wilderness (verses 9 and 10). Israel’s home and freedom came through His kindness. He also raised up prophets and Nazirites among their own sons. Rejecting these gifts was sin against the God who had cared for them.

God sees the sins Israel brings into worship.

Israel sells the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes (verse 6). A man and his father use the same maiden, profaning God’s holy name. This sexual sin is wrong, even when the men also come to the altars. Coming to the altars does not make cruelty to the poor clean in God’s sight.

God’s judgment is stronger than Israel’s strongest people.

The grain cart gives a picture of crushing weight (verse 13). Before God’s judgment, the swift cannot flee and the mighty cannot deliver themselves. Neither the bow nor the horse can provide escape. Israel needs a rescue that human strength cannot give. God gives that rescue in Jesus, the Saviour who did not run from the cross.

Memorise

Flight will perish from the swift; and the strong won’t strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself.

Amos 2:14

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, how do I resist God’s word when I need Christ’s mercy?

God had brought Israel out of Egypt and led them forty years in the wilderness. They answered His kindness by selling the needy for a pair of shoes and commanding His prophets not to prophesy. Now God says, “neither shall the mighty deliver himself”. They lay on pledged clothes beside the altars and gave the Nazirites wine to drink.

We also sin against God’s kindness. The swift cannot outrun God’s judgment, and neither can we. Jesus went to the cross for His people and carried their sins in His own body. He paid His people’s debt in full, leaving nothing more to pay. Then He rose again. The One who saves is stronger than all our sin.

Turn from your sin and put your faith in Christ. Stop defending what God calls wrong, and ask Him for mercy. Christ grants forgiveness to the sinner who relies on Him. Those He saves learn to thank Him by loving the needy and listening to His word.

Parent's note

Tell your children that Israel’s wrong treatment of poor people and the sexual sin in verse 7 were sins against God. Speak of these sins as fits your children’s age, and show them their need for Christ. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God for His kindness, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so please give each one room to pray if they wish.

Such confidence we have through Christ toward God; not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;

2 Corinthians 3:4-5

Lord God, thank You for Your kindness and for the rescue found in Jesus. Please help each of us turn from sin and trust Him. Forgive our excuses, give us hearts that listen, and teach us to care for people in need this week. Amen.