Amos 4
I. Outline of Amos
A. \\#1:1\\ The Time of Amos
B. \\#1:2-2:5\\ Judgment Against Israel’s Neighbors
C. \\#2:6-9:10\\ Judgment Against Israel
1. \\#2:6-6:14\\ Three Sermons
a. \\#2:6-3:15\\ Israel’s Past Sins
(1) \\#2:6-8\\ Israel’s Sins
(2) \\#2:9-13\\ God’s Power and Love
(3) \\#2:14-16\\ God Will Remove His Blessings
(4) \\#3:1-10\\ Israel’s Privilege and Accountability
(5) \\#3:11-15\\ A Coming Enemy
b. \\#4:1-13\\ Israel’s Present Sins
(1) \\#4:1-3\\ God’s Pledge
(2) \\#4:4-5\\ God’s Indignation
(3) \\#4:6-13\\ God’s Judgments
c. \\#5:1-6:14\\ Israel’s Future Sins
2. \\#7:1-8:14\\ Five Visions
D. \\#9:11-15\\ God’s Promise of A Future Restoration
NOTES:
I. \\#Amos 4:1-13\\ Israel’s Present Sins
A. \\#4:1-3\\ God’s Pledge
1. \\#1\\ "Bashan… Samaria"-God directs His promise to
the Jews in the north.
a. Bashan is the region west of the northern tip of the
Sea of Galilee. While it belonged it was probably
controlled by Syria at this time.
b. Samaria is the capital of Israel.
c. These two prominent locations cut across the whole of
the northern kingdom.
2. "oppress the poor… crush the needy… let us drink"-
The charge is that they have oppressed the poor and given
themselves to drink.
3. \\#2\\ "The Lord hath sworn by his holiness"-God’s
promises are always kept but here God augments the
certainty of it by resting the promise on His attribute
of holiness.
4. "he will take you… your posterity with fishhooks"-
Like a fish hooked and snatched out of the river, so God
will remove the northern kingdom, but this promise is
not being made to a single generation. It includes
their posterity, that is, all future generations.
5. \\#3\\ "ye shall go out at the breaches"-The walls of
their cites will be so broken down that the cattle will
graze where ever they please.
B. \\#4:4-5\\ God’s Indignation
1. \\#4\\ "Come to Bethel, and transgress as Gilgal"
a. Bethel means "house of God" and speaks of the God’s
presence and providence. Yet, Jeroboam choose that
city to put one of the false gods and Israel had
worshipped it for 150 years.
b. Gilgal was the first place Israel camped when coming
into the promised land. Samuel had judged there, but
it had become another center for idolatry.
2. God in sarcasm tells the Jews to…
a. "multiply transgression"-The major cities of Israel
were dens of iniquity and caldrons of false worship.
God tells them to come and do more,
b. "bring your sacrifices every morning"
c. "your tithes after three years"-Apparently, the Jews
no longer obeyed God’s command on WHEN to give
their tithe either.
d. \\#5\\ "offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving"
e. "proclaim and publish the free offerings"-It was not
that Israel did not worship. It was that they did not
worship Jehovah.
3. "for this liketh you"-God gives these commands because
this is what Israel was doing anyway.
C. \\#4:6-13\\ God’s Judgments - These the things that God was
doing to Israel to get their attention.
1. \\#6-11\\ God’s Smaller Judgments - God had done many
things to Israel for the purpose of bringing them to
repentance. The list starts in verse 6 and continues
through verse 11, with a total of nine judgments being
mentioned and Israel’s response given.
a. \\#6\\
(1) Judgment One-"I have given you cleanness of
teeth"-God had ceased to bless them with
crops and food so the people were going hungry.
(2) Response One-"yet have ye not returned unto
me"
b. \\#7\\ Judgment Two-"I have withholden the rain"
(1) God stopped the latter rains and when it did
rain, it was not a nation-wide rain but
scattered showers.
(2) \\#8\\ This caused the people to have to go in
search of water.
c. \\#9\\
(1) Judgment Three-"I have smitten you with blasting
and mildew"-These are diseases which rot
plants.
(2) Judgment Four-"the palmerworm devoured"-God
also sent the worm to eat that which did grow.
(3) Response Two-"yet, ye have not returned unto
me"
d. \\#10\\
(1) Judgment Five-"I have sent… the pestilence"
(2) Judgment Six-"I have slain with the sword"
The northern kingdom has suffered militarily
for years \\#2Kings 13:1-7\\ although they were
being blessed by God during Joash
\\#2Kings 13:23\\ and Jeroboam II’s reigns
\\#2Kings 14:23-27\\.
(3) Judgment Seven-I have… taken away your
horses"-This is what the Jews trusted in for
their military victories.
(4) Judgment Eight-"I have made the stink… to
come up unto your nostrils"-The stink must
be the smell of death and disease.
(5) Response Three-"yet have ye not returned unto
me"
e. \\#11\\
(1) Judgment Nine-"I have overthrown"
(a) God had already destroyed some cities with
the same kind of destruction He had given
to Sodom and Gomorrah, a permanent
destruction.
(b) They were like "a firebrand plucked out of
the burning." Once pulled out, the
smoldering stick would burn out and die.
(2) Response Four-"yet have ye not returned unto
me"-Through all of the judgments God had
sent, Israel had continued on their path of
disobedience.
2. \\#12-13\\ God’s Final Judgment
a. \\#11\\ "Therefore thus will I do"-God give a
judgment based on how Israel had responded.
b. "prepare to meet thy God"-God had no more minor
judgments to perform. Israel would now be destroyed.
c. \\#13\\ As God had started the chapter resting the
promise of Israel’s destruction upon His holiness, He
now closes it with a signature. It is signed by…
(1) "he that formed the mountains"
(2) He "…that created the wind"
(3) He that "declared… his thought"-Told Israel
and the world in advance what He would do.
(4) He "that maketh the morning darkness"-Probably
a reference to the One who controls the natural
order of daylight to dark. See \\#Amos 5:8.\\
(5) He that "treadeth upon the high places of the
earth"-He is the God who walks in the places
that man cannot walk.
(6) "The God of hosts, is his name"-God.
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