Read Amos 5:1-17
Questions from the Scripture text: For the third chapter in a row, with what command does Amos 5:1 begin? Concerning whom? What sort of word is it this time? What has happened to her (Amos 5:2)? Who has determined this (Amos 5:3)? What has He said? What does He command them to do (Amos 5:4)? But where/how have they been doing this, that He now rebukes (Amos 5:5a–c)? What is He doing to this manmade worship (verse 5d–e)? By comparison, what does He say about divinely instituted worship (Amos 5:6a)? What might He do to their manmade worship (verse 6b–d, cf. Leviticus 10:1–2)? What had God offered them, and what did they do to it (Amos 5:7)? But what has God done (Amos 5:8-9)? Who is He (Amos 5:8f)? But how do Israel respond to the righteous (Amos 5:10, Amos 5:12c, Amos 5:13)? And to the poor (Amos 5:11a–b, Amos 5:12d)? What will God do to them (Amos 5:11c–f)? For what (Amos 5:12a–b)? What does the prophet urge them to do (Amos 5:14-15)? And what will God do? Who is speaking in Amos 5:16-17? Who will be lamenting, to what extent? Why (Amos 5:17b–c)?
Why does the prophet lament? Amos 5:1–17 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these seventeen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the prophet laments over sin to teach sinners to lament over that sin, and to turn back to seeking the Lord and His good.
Amos 5:1, Amos 5:16-17 bookend the passage with lament. The prophet calls for them to listen to his own lamentation (Amos 5:1); it’s a preview of lamentation that is going to come, because YHWH is going to judge them (Amos 5:16-17). He is literally going to decimate them (cut them down to a tenth, Amos 5:2-3).
Why? They have sinned profoundly against the Lord (Amos 5:4-9) and against His people (Amos 5:10-13). They thought they were seeking the Lord by the manmade worship that they set up in Bethel and Gilgal (Amos 5:5), but the Lord’s command that they seek Him (Amos 5:4, Amos 5:6) makes it plain that He did not approve of or receive that worship. He threatens their worship with the same response as the manmade worship of Nadab and Abihu (Amos 5:6, cf. Leviticus 10:1–2). How can man come up with how to worship? It is YHWH Who created even the heavens (Amos 5:8a), Who rules in all providence (verse 8b–c), Who brought even the flood (verse 8d–e).
But they have also sinned against His people—against the righteous, whom they rejected into silence (Amos 5:10, Amos 5:12c, Amos 5:13) and against the poor, whom they trampled for wealth (Amos 5:11a–b, Amos 5:12d). Just as God has commanded a repentance in which they truly seek Him, so also God has commanded a repentance in which they hate the evil that they have been seeking , and love good and seek it instead (Amos 5:14-15). Loving neighbor goes hand-in-hand with loving God and belonging to Him.
The Lord announces this lament, with an offer of astounding grace to Israel: “So YHWH God of hosts will be with you […] YHWH God of hosts will be gracious.” Behold the grace of God to sinners! When we realize that manmade worship is evil, we must hate it. When we realize that refusing the correction of the just, or trampling upon the poor, is evil, we must hate it. Behold the God Who is gracious to sinners, and seek Him and His good!
When have you lamented sin? What sin are you weakly resisting that you should be hating? What does God offer?
Sample prayer: Lord, forgive us for all manmade worship, for all rejecting of righteous correction, and for all manipulating and taking advantage of others. Make us to hate it like You hate it, and make us to love You and what is good, in Christ, AMEN!
Suggested Songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH440 “Come , Ye Sinners, Poor and Wretched”
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