Do We Silence the God Who Speaks?

So, after that text in Amos, which was just read, some of you might be wondering, you

know, probably quite valid, why is it that the Bible seems so confusing, all these weird

imageries, all this blood-curdling and bloodthirsty types of visions and images, odd place names.

It's just a lot of the Bible seems either confusing or it seems like just a bit repellent

because it's so bloodthirsty and violent.

In fact, many people might even be wondering if you're here this morning, like, why is

it that a church would even read such a thing like this in public?

Like, you know, on a Sunday morning you struggle to come here through the rain and you don't

want to really hear about all these things about judgment and destroying all the land

and destroying the deep and people being dying by the sword.

Like, it's not, you know, people don't sort of wake up in the morning on a Sunday and

say, gosh, I think I need to hear a story about massive earthly destruction today.

I think it'll really help my inner life and sense of peace if I spend some time thinking

about it.

That's not how Canadians wake up.

And it's one of the reasons, by the way, that many, many churches, if you're a person

who's come here this morning for a variety of reasons, you got dragged here, you got tricked

here or whatever, or you're in some type of a search.

And, you know, many people say, you know, George, it's no wonder, like, you know, churches

that talk about these types of things, it's not very helpful.

Like, look at how, like, yoga's peaceful.

Like, there's lots of peaceful things.

Star Trek, you know, Star Wars is a bit like, it has like the force.

It's like a bit religious.

It's far, like, it's better, George.

Don't you think it's better?

How can you talk about Amos in Canada in a day like today?

One of the things that we do, for those who are here maybe as guests, is we don't, we

believe that Messiah, that the best way to really learn about God and learn about ourselves

is to go through whole books of the Bible, where we talk about, I mean, the books, everything

in the Bible was originally written as a book, as an individual book, and we feel that's

really the best way to come to know who Jesus is and to come to know ourselves.

It's an honest way to look at things.

I'll illustrate, I mean, I just, the other day, actually, just this week I had two people

who had to deal with either insurance companies or car companies, and I'm not making a negative

comment about if you're here and you work for an insurance company, and if you're here

you work for a car company.

I'm not talking about all, if actually what I say is about you, then maybe that's one of

those things you need to repent of.

But in both cases, the person got screwed because of, sorry, maybe Andrew would have been

bothered that I said that.

Anyway, that's not too offensive, is it?

They got ripped off, that's the better word, maybe less offensive, because of fine print.

And, like, one guy that I was just talking to this week, he's probably out about 10 grand

because of fine print, that if he'd seen the fine print, he would have chosen a bit

of a different option about it.

And another person, it was obvious that they just were pretending that they were kind and

caring, but in fact they weren't.

They were just trying to close a deal on a car, and they were really just trying to close

a deal on the car.

I mean, basically they've learned that if you can fake being kind and caring, then you got

it made.

It helps you to be not kind and not caring and try to make money, except it didn't work

in this case.

So, you know, many of the times people wonder about Christians and about, you know, why,

you know, oh yeah, yeah, it all sounds good, you know, Jesus loves you, you know, the pig,

oh yeah, he's up there, stained glass window holding a little sheep, and he looks, but you

know, George, like there's all this other side about religion and about Christianity.

And that's one of the reasons, by going through books of the Bible, what in a sense we're

doing is we're saying, like what I'm telling to this is, I believe there is a God who really

does exist.

And I think there's some good philosophical arguments and other things for it, but at

the end of the day, I believe it because I believe that Jesus actually is God's son,

that he actually died upon a cross, that on the third day he actually rose from the dead,

that the tomb was empty, that he rose from the dead, that he proved that he was alive.

And it's because of him, and I trust him, that God actually speaks, he tells us about what

he's like, and that every human being needs to be reconciled to their creator.

And Jesus is God's means to reconcile creatures like you and me back to God.

And there's no other way other than what God has done to the person and work of Jesus.

Jesus.

And I really believe that.

Like, I believe it.

And it's because of that, I don't want anybody to say, well, you know, that we hide things

about what it means to be a Christian.

And at the end of the day, because Jesus trusted and loved the Bible, and if you go and you read

the Gospels, he's quoting the Bible, he's making allusions to the Bible, he says he doesn't

contradict a single thing in the Bible, and by that he means texts like Amos.

And when he actually, after he died and risen from the dead, and he appeared to his disciples,

on several occasions, he sends them back to read what we call the Old Testament.

Jewish people call it the Tanakh.

And he sends them back to read it because he says, I'm in that all the way through it.

And so that's why we read Old Testament texts like this.

Even if they seem a little bit bloodthirsty, they don't seem at all what Canadians are thinking

about.

They don't even seem at first as if it's what we need to think about.

But it really is what we need to think about.

You see, one of the things that's going on in this text, I'm going to have you, if you

have your Bibles, we're going to look at it in a moment.

So one of the things that's going on in this text, which is really, really important,

is that God actually wants to speak to every human being.

Like God, the thing about the Bible is it's all sorts of different types of literature

because people process things different ways.

They appreciate things different ways.

I've shared with you, I don't like poetry.

I never read poetry.

And when I have to preach on a poem in the Bible, it's going against the grain.

But I know there are many people who love poetry.

My former bishop, he was always quoting poetry.

He loved poetry.

I mean, he'd rather read a poem than a novel.

I'd much rather have a novel where somebody gets killed and then they try to figure out

who killed the person.

And that's my type of, I like that, you know?

I don't like poetry.

But that's fine.

The Bible's not just written for people like me.

It's written for all sorts of different people.

And that's why it's written in all sorts of different genres.

I've told you before, I have a good friend.

And she was a lawyer.

She'd been a lawyer for quite a few years, still is a lawyer.

And she was non-Christian.

And she started getting interested in the Christian faith.

And she was having a hard time figuring out how things worked.

And she was at a workplace thing, like an inquiry type thing.

And of all things, the speaker spoke on the book of Leviticus.

The book of Leviticus, if you're non-Christian or you don't know much about the book,

that's like all the law type of stuff.

And she said, as the sermon went on, on this long text of Leviticus, by the end of it,

she said, Christianity makes sense.

From Leviticus!

But she's a lawyer!

Like it fit with her.

So here's the thing.

I like abstract ideas.

I like being able to debate at an abstract level.

It's one of the things, it's just the way I am.

I know lots of people aren't.

So if I say to you that God is omnipotent, sovereign, omnipresent, active in his creation.

Now because you're good Christian boys and girls, you'll all nod and go, yeah.

But many of us, nothing is going on behind the eyes and between the ears.

I might as well have spoken to you in Turkish.

Because it would have had the same impact on you.

It doesn't mean anything at all to you.

For some people, abstraction thing, that's very, very good.

In fact, you know, images, oh my, images and movie clips, those are dangerous, you know.

But for others, we think in movie clips and images.

So one of the things at this point in time in the book of Amos is after six chapters have gone on,

where amongst other things, after six chapters in two different types of literary genres,

God has tried to communicate to the people of Israel, probably around the year 750 BC,

and about a massive, even though the country is very, very prosperous and very, very stable,

its prosperity and stability is based upon profound injustice, human suffering, and great evil.

And now, for the rest of the book of Amos, but especially in chapter seven, God gives three images.

And the images are to try to communicate in a visual way, like using words to try to create a mind,

a picture that God is omnipotent, sovereign, omnipresent, and holy.

But for those of us that that doesn't mean anything, the Bible, Amos uses three images to communicate the same thing.

In fact, it'd probably be better to say it's as if God gives the words for three short movie clips.

So let's look at them.

We'll look at them and then we'll see sort of, well, let's look at them.

The first one is verse one.

This is what the Lord God showed me.

Behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout.

And behold, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.

When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, and we'll talk about what he said later.

Now you get this image.

The three different images are going to show how that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, sovereign, and holy

in the natural world, in the supernatural and natural world, and in the human and moral world.

That's what the three images are going to do, through images.

And so what we see here is a picture of God being all-powerful and present and sovereign

and holy in the natural sphere.

And so it's a picture as if he sees God and he sees God summoning locusts.

And as God summons locusts, there's an overwhelming number of locusts.

And then God directs the locusts to go to where Israel is and to do what locusts do naturally,

which is to eat everything which is green.

And the significance of the mowings is you might be pleased to know that even in the year 750 BC,

the government makes sure it gets his taxes first.

I get my paycheck, the taxes are gone, right?

Even in 750 BC, that's how it was.

And so what it is is that the very, very early crops, the king comes and takes them.

Taxes are paid.

You have trouble with the rest of your crops?

Sucks to be you.

But the king's got his tax.

And so basically the king's got his tax and that's when the locusts come.

And the locusts devour everything.

It means there's nothing to eat for a year.

It means famine.

Now the second image is in verse 4.

It goes like this.

Remember I said that it's using images

because some of us think in pictures

that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, sovereign, and holy.

Nothing goes on in our minds.

Well, here's the second image.

This is what the Lord, verse 4,

this is what the Lord God showed me.

Behold, the Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire

and it devoured the great deep

and was eating up the land.

And here we have a different image.

It's as if God starts to speak and call out.

And as he speaks and calls out, a fire comes.

And this is a fire that can touch what we would call

spiritual or supernatural things and also natural things.

And he calls for this fire and when the fire has come, he sends it.

And it's a very, very interesting image of the great deep.

For Amos' hearers, it would have had a double meaning.

For some of them, it would have meant the oceans.

That there's a fire that comes from God that consumes the oceans

and then begins to consume the land.

But for others, it's a place where the really bad and nasty

but powerful gods live.

And so when God calls a fire and it consumes the deep,

it consumes the gods.

It consumes the gods that you're most afraid of.

And they're all consumed.

The water, the gods, and it starts to consume the land.

And it all comes as God speaks.

We have a hard time thinking of God as omnipotent,

omnipresent, sovereign, and holy.

It doesn't do anything for us.

This is an image that communicates it for those of us

who can't think in abstractions.

It also actually serves as an important check for us

because sometimes abstractions just remain abstractions.

We don't think of them as being real.

And a vision like this is trying to communicate to us.

It's like, I think I've told you this before.

I was at a, this is a long, long time ago

and I'm still part of the Anglican Church of Canada.

And there was a workshop on demons.

And most, a lot of Anglican clergy,

they're fine with the idea of the demonic

as a type of a symbolism for evil

or maybe even a symbolism for institutional evil.

And it was halfway through the workshop,

one of the speakers said,

one moment,

you're talking about demons as if they're real.

And the speaker said, yeah.

I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Like ontologically real?

Like not just an idea or a myth or a narrative

or an organizing principle,

but actually like real like a person?

Yeah?

Well, then,

then the brown stuff hit the fan

and the whole conversation went a different way.

And so actually for many of us,

the danger of just having the fact

that God is omnipotent,

omniscient, sovereign,

and holy

is it can just become something abstract.

These images help us say,

no, no, no, no, no,

that's what those big words

with lots of syllables mean.

And then the third image,

and you're going to have to take my word for it a little bit

because we're going to see in a moment

why I say what it is.

It talks about God being omnipotent,

omnipresent,

and sovereign,

and holy

in the realm of human life

and the moral order

and in institutions

and human relationships,

everything that it means to be human.

And that's in the image that comes,

the vision that comes in verse 7.

This is what he showed me.

Behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall

built with a plumb line,

with a plumb line in his hand.

And the Lord said to me,

Amos, what do you see?

And I said, a plumb line.

And we'll talk a little bit about more

what it means in terms of responding to it in a second.

But here's the image.

It's in the moral area

and the human area.

He sees the Lord.

He sees the Lord holding a plumb line.

I mean, nowadays they use lasers

and stuff like that, right?

It's a heavy weight at the end of a rope

that shows you what's vertical.

And there's a plumb line

and there's God holding a plumb line

and beside God is a wall

that's been built properly

according to a plumb line.

And it's an image

for the fact,

as what's going to come and see here,

is that God's plumb line

is going to be in Israel

and it won't be taken away.

And it's an image

that God desires

to build human lives

and human institutions

and human endeavors

according to his plumb line.

And those that aren't built

according to his plumb line,

as we'll see in the rest of the interaction,

will be destroyed.

And it's an image

of God being present

in human affairs

in a real way,

with real expectations

about how important institutions

should work,

like families

and marriage

and business endeavors

and government.

And that there's a way

that if God's presence

and purpose

and character

and law

and grace

and mercy

and love,

which is all

what's sort of imitated

and talked about here

with this plumb line,

that there's a way

that that should lead

to a type of human flourishing

that fits

with the created order

and there's a way

that it doesn't

and eventually God will destroy it.

There'll be judgment.

So that's the beginning.

And part of the reason

it's confusing for us

is that

in our culture

it's not the way

most people think about God.

And that's part of the reason

it's confusing to us.

Because it's not the way

we think of God

as judging

and as being sovereign

over these types of areas.

In fact,

in a sense,

relative to what

most Canadians

think of as God,

I would be an atheist.

I don't believe

that God exists.

But if you think about it

for a second,

and this text here

isn't going to try to prove

that God exists,

by the way.

And I'm not going to

in this sermon

try to prove

that God exists.

But if you think about it

for a second,

the God that most Canadians

think of

is,

I mean,

you know what,

you go to a better place,

you know,

he's kind and loving,

she's kind and loving,

it's kind and loving,

it's like a force,

it's through everything.

You know,

it has less character

and less reality

or and less...

Like,

if you described

a human being

in those terms,

would you think

that was attractive?

And what human being,

like,

in fact,

if you talked about

somebody in those ways,

you'd probably,

like,

if you had a friend

that you described

in those same ways,

you'd say,

that person has to start

to learn to have

some self-assertion.

Like,

two-year-olds

aren't like that.

People aren't like that.

Why is it that we think

that God's like that?

Like,

shouldn't that be

a little bit of a clue to us

that the type of God

that most Canadians

think of as being God

can't possibly be God?

Or if it is,

it's a God

who needs therapy

or something.

Like,

come on,

stand up for yourself.

Like,

tell us something

about yourself.

You know?

And yet,

most Canadians,

because most Canadians

think the same way,

just as in Amos,

when he's speaking

to Israel,

Israel has gotten

so accustomed

to speaking of God

in a similar type of way

that it's a complete

and utter shock to them

to hear that God

might be something

completely and utterly

different

than that their

educational institutions,

their religious institutions,

their legal institutions,

government institutions,

the entertainment institutions,

all the way

that they talk about God,

that that view of God

might be wrong.

wrong.

Not true.

And in some ways,

then,

what goes on here

in Canada

is the very same thing

that's going on

in Israel.

And it's a bit

of a shock to us

to hear a text

like this.

So, I mean,

I just want to suggest

to you,

this text isn't going

to argue,

but I'm going to just say,

if you think about it

for a second,

it's far more likely

that if God exists,

he's something like this

than the way

most Canadians

think of God.

Because the way

most Canadians

think of God

doesn't make sense.

Doesn't sound real.

It's not like

the way real things are.

Now,

some of you might say,

okay, George,

that might be true,

but gosh,

you sure hope

that that isn't true.

Like, George,

don't you think

that's a bit of a

bloodthirsty,

blood-curdling,

violent God?

Well, I,

I,

to God,

you need to take

seriously.

But I,

I've only given you

the,

the,

the visions,

and the visions

take place

within conversation

and dialogue,

and you need to see

the rest of it

before you start

to have a view

of what the Bible

is really trying

to communicate here,

because it's trying

to communicate something

not only about

who God is,

but what it means

to be human,

and what it means

to flourish

as human beings.

And so the images

are there to catch

your attention,

but you need

to understand

how Amos

and how God

talked to each other

about the different

images and what

they reveal.

So if it,

this,

let's go back

and look again

at what happens.

I said I'd speak

about it,

and I will.

Look at chapter 7,

verse 1.

Now you've got

the images

that God is

omnipotent,

that he's omnipresent,

that he's sovereign,

that he's holy.

Omnipresent means

he's closer to you

than you are

to your breath,

closer to you

than your mind

is to you,

closer to you

than your thoughts

are to you.

That's what

omnipresent means.

He's also transcendent,

he's completely different,

he's all-powerful.

But the text

is communicating

this in images,

so here's the first

image and what happens.

This is what

the Lord God

showed me.

Behold,

he was forming

locusts when the

latter growth

was just beginning

to sprout,

and behold,

it was the latter

growth after the

king's mowings.

When they had

finished eating

the grass of the land,

I said,

Oh Lord God,

please forgive!

How can Jacob,

that means Israel,

how can Jacob stand?

He is so small.

The Lord relented

concerning this.

Notice that,

the Lord relented

as Amos called out.

It shall not be,

said the Lord.

It shall not be.

Now,

just a bit of a pause

here before we get

into some other things.

Here's a real challenge

for us.

Many Christians,

and if you're here

as a guest this morning,

you're still trying

to figure out

the Christian faith,

or as I said,

you got tricked

to come in here,

you came here

to get out of the rain

or whatever.

Hopefully I'll have

lots of coffee

with us later on.

But here's the thing

which is a real challenge

for those of us

who are Christians.

We lament

what's going on

in parts of our culture.

Part of Canada,

there's a whole part

of Canada

that's increasingly

embracing the culture

of death.

And as well

for Christians,

especially Christians

who are older,

the fact that the church

and the Christian faith

used to have

a privileged position

in our culture

and in our country

that that's gone,

completely gone.

In fact,

that the opposite

is increasing.

It's very worrisome.

But here's the thing.

Do you notice this?

Amos intercedes

for his nation

and his city?

And this is a challenge

to every single one of us.

Do we intercede

for Canada?

Do we intercede

for Ontario?

Do we intercede

for Ottawa?

For those of you

who come from

La Belle Provence,

do you intercede

for Gatineau?

And do you intercede

for Quebec?

Amos isn't said,

God doesn't say to Amos,

what do you mean

giving me lip?

That's not what God says.

God relents.

See,

there's a mystery here

that the Bible

just talks about.

It just shows it,

but it never explains it.

There's a mystery here.

It portrays God

as transcendent,

as omnipotent,

as omniscient,

as sovereign,

as holy,

as being one

who can call locusts,

who can call fire

that devours idols

and spiritual presences

in the land

and water

and is present

in the moral order.

Yet at the same time,

what it portrays

is that God,

as he's working,

he listens to the prayers

of his people.

And yes,

that is mind-boggling.

It's one of those things

to use an Irish expression

that's gobsmacking.

But that's what it's trying

to portray.

It's telling us,

amongst other things,

to intercede for our city

and intercede for our nation.

But you see,

the other thing

which is going on here

in the text,

which is really,

really important

before we get

to the other

different images,

is that

look at what he says.

Look at how Amos intercedes

for,

and he's going to intercede

for this twice

in verse 2

and in verse 5.

Verse 2 again,

Oh Lord God,

please forgive.

How can Jacob stand?

And what does it say?

Why?

He is so small.

Now let me ask you this.

Do you think

that if you went

to the Supreme Court

of Canada

and sat in

on their meetings,

they'd begin their meetings

by saying,

let's just all remember,

Canada

and all that goes on here,

we're small

and God is big.

I think that's how

they begin their meetings

and their deliberations.

Do you think

the Liberal Cabinet,

and I'm not playing

partisan politics,

do you think

the Conservative Cabinet

began their meetings

by saying,

I just want you all

to remember,

we're small

and God is big.

Okay,

let's think.

Do you think

that's how they think

at the CBC?

Do you think

in the Faculty

of University of Toronto,

University of Ottawa,

Carleton?

Do you think

that's how

when the executive

of Google

gets together

that they say

to themselves,

just remember,

we're small,

God is big.

It's not part

of the self-identity

of Canada

or of corporations,

of Hollywood.

It's not how

we understand ourselves.

And in fact,

actually,

probably for many

of the people

that I've just

mentioned,

but maybe not

all of them.

You don't want

to be presumptuous.

It would be offensive.

See,

one of the things

that Amos

is trying to communicate

week in and week out,

and I know that Daniel

and I have shared

the sermons

and I haven't yet

had a chance

to listen to Daniel

and we all come,

you know,

there's different things

that the Bible

really calls on

and speaks out to us,

but the Bible

wants to regulate,

Amos is a book

that wants to,

really,

these visions

are so important

to the book of Amos.

Canada thinks

that God

is small

and people

are big

and institutions

are big

and movements

are big

and banks

are big

and money

is big

and social progress

is big

and being progressive

is big

and all of these

things are big

and God is really,

really tiny

and small.

And we breathe that in.

We breathe it in

when we go to school.

We breathe it in

when we go to work.

We breathe it in

when we go to Tim Hortons

or we go to Starbucks.

We breathe it in

when we read the newspaper.

We breathe it in

when we read,

when we watch the movies

and we breathe it in

and we breathe it in

and we breathe it in

and it's easy

to start to become

that part of our spirit

or the way

that we follow Jesus

is that in our heart

of hearts

we sort of see

that God is getting

smaller and smaller

and smaller

and all of these things

are very, very big

and that's how

the world looks.

And Amos

is trying to shock us

and say,

no, no.

God is big.

Google,

that's smaller.

That's smaller

than the Down Syndrome

child you saw

in Tim Hortons

yesterday.

Google will come

to an end.

That young child

will live forever

in eternity.

And even though

individuals are bigger

than institutions

and countries,

how many people

spend all their time

thinking about

Nortel stocks today?

Well, maybe some of you

who lost your shirt on it

think about it occasionally,

but the rest of us

don't.

And the Bible here

is trying to help us

to understand

that God is big.

People are small.

Now, some of you

might say,

George,

that's a very,

very worrisome idea.

Whoa, that's a

worrisome idea.

George,

haven't you seen

what it's like?

Like, look at some

cultures and some

religions where God

seems to be really,

really, really big

and it just seems

to crush people.

It just seems

to crush people.

George, if you knew,

you know, if you knew

what it was like in Quebec

in the 1950s

and the way they

talked about the church

and God

and religious things,

it just crushed the people.

George, if you look

in places like Saudi Arabia

where God,

at least on the surface,

seems to be big

and people just get crushed.

Like, George,

you look at what happens

with the Taliban.

George, you look at

what happens in some

places under Hinduism.

Look at something.

George, do you see

what happens when God

seems to be big

and people are small?

People just get crushed.

Here's the thing.

I'm just going to say it,

but I'm not going to

spend much time on it.

Here's the thing.

At the end of the day,

there really is a God

who really does exist

and so every different

religion,

apart from that,

apart from the God

who's revealed

in the scriptures

and is revealed

in the person

and work of Jesus,

all of the different

religions and spirituality

of the worlds,

they,

I'm going to be

very un-Canadian here.

Okay?

Give me a little bit

of grace.

I'm going to be

profoundly,

massively,

un-Canadian.

But all of the

different religions

and spiritualities

are distortions

of the real God

and left to our

natural thinking

and our natural

processes,

unless it's constantly

reformed by God's word,

our understanding of God

will start to be

deformed

and twisted

and wrong.

And that's why

one of the things

that the Bible does

as we understand

the whole counsel

of God

in the context

of the grace

that comes to us

in the person

and work of Jesus,

and we start to

understand the person

and work of Jesus

in light of the

whole counsel of God,

is that the Bible

regularly subverts

every religion

and spirituality

and ideology.

It subverts

and undercuts it,

but at the same time,

it fulfills it.

It undercuts

and subverts

and it fulfills

because it tries

to reveal

who God really is

in the context

of our heart,

who we really are,

and the wellspring

of the different types

of decisions

and longings

and hopes

and fears

that we actually have.

And that's what

the Bible does.

And so what Amos

is trying to communicate

is that when we

understand who God is,

and we're going to see

this more as it goes through,

is that when the Bible

says is that

when the God

who really does exist,

when we accept,

when we hear him speak

and we see how he redeems,

and in light of his redemption

and the way he speaks

and what he tells us to do,

when God is big

and people are small,

people matter to God.

And institutions will be built

that enable human flourishing.

But when God is small

and people

or ideologies

or idols

or projects

are big,

evil grows,

injustice flourishes,

and people suffer.

That's what Amos

is trying to get to us.

And that's why God judges.

Now, why is it

you can say

that the Bible

is trying to communicate

that when God is big

and people are small

that people actually flourish?

Well, you see,

in some cultures

where God is really

massively big

and people are small,

you could not imagine

Amos interceding

for his city

and God listening.

You see,

the entire flow,

the image

seems so unbelievably powerful

and if all you had

was verse 1,

verse 4,

verse 7,

and that was it,

you'd have to say

that these places

where God seems to be huge

so huge and big

that people are crushed

that that has to be true.

But that's not how

the Word of God goes.

It gives us this

overpowering image

of God being omnipotent

and God being omnipresent

and he's transcendent

and he's sovereign

and he's holy

and he reveals it

and he reveals it

in a context of

human injustice

and human evil.

And little tiny Amos says,

God,

we're so small,

please relent.

And God does

because people matter to God.

And it comes up again

in the next one,

verse 4.

This is what the Lord God

showed me.

Behold,

the Lord God

was calling for judgment

by fire

and it devoured

the great deep

and was eating up the land.

Then I said,

Oh Lord God,

please cease.

How can Jacob,

that means Israel,

stand.

He is so small.

And the Lord

relented concerning this.

This also shall not be,

said the Lord God.

And then we see

the third vision.

And it's this vision

of the wall

which shows that

in fact,

God is not,

that the purpose

of God being big

and people being small

is,

and the way that

the real God,

the God who's revealed

in the Bible,

the God who's revealed

in the gospel,

in the person,

work,

and teaching of Jesus

that he's concerned

at the same time

with proper human flourishing

is also in this image

of the wall.

Verse 7,

this is what he showed me.

Behold,

the Lord was standing

beside a wall

built with a plumb line,

with a plumb line

in his hand.

And the Lord said to me,

Amos,

what do you see?

And I said,

a plumb line.

It's funny,

he can't say,

I can't see,

he doesn't say,

I see you God.

He doesn't say that.

He doesn't talk about the wall.

He just says,

I see the plumb line.

Then the Lord said,

Behold,

I am setting a plumb line

in the midst of my people Israel,

and I will never again

pass by them.

In other words,

I'm going to spare

these other judgments,

but I'm not going to leave

being omnipresent.

I'm always present.

I'm always real.

See,

when you give your life

to Jesus

and receive the grace

that comes from God

and start to listen

to his word,

everybody around you

will say,

you've lost your senses,

you're losing touch

with reality.

The Bible says

you're starting

to enter reality.

That for the first time

in your life,

you're beginning

to live in the real world.

Verse 8 again.

And the Lord said to me,

Amos,

what do you see?

And I said,

a plumb line.

Then the Lord said,

behold,

I am setting a plumb line

in the midst of my people Israel.

I will never again pass by them.

The high places of Isaac

shall be made desolate.

That's an institution.

Not just,

not about mountain places.

It's talking about those places

in any culture

that are viewed as high places.

It's,

you know,

that it's like

when there's

in the Citizen

or the National Post

or the Globe and Mail,

they want to get

expert opinion.

They go to the faculty

of the University of Toronto

or the University of Ottawa

or the Université de Montréal

and that adds prestige.

It's a high place.

And the sanctuaries of Israel

shall be laid waste.

The retreats,

the spas,

the ways by which

we recoup

and we gather our energy,

all of the things

secular,

spiritual,

and religious,

which we understand

in a secular,

social way

as a sanctuary,

they will be laid waste.

And I will rise

against the house

of Jeroboam

with the sword.

So we see here

that this,

the Bible's trying

to communicate

a very, very,

it's trying to purge us.

Okay,

I had this real problem

the other day.

I was talking to somebody

and he found out

I was a pastor

and then he started

to praise people

who were religious.

And I didn't know

what to say to him,

but I wanted to say to him,

you know what,

I'm doing a sermon

on Amos 7

and it doesn't say

that religious people

are good.

It doesn't say

that spiritual people

are good.

It's not interested

in you becoming religious.

It's not interested

in you becoming spiritual.

It's calling you

to the one true,

real God

who acts

in a powerful way

through the person

of his son

to reconcile you to him.

And I was a bit tongue-tied.

I wasn't expecting

it was going to happen.

I didn't quite know

how to,

to sort of,

I felt like

it would have been

a bit rude

to tell you,

well,

I'm really glad

that you're flattering me

and complimenting me,

but actually I think

you're completely wrong

and I don't agree

with a word you've said.

I mean,

I just didn't know how to,

as a Canadian,

I didn't know how to,

to manage that,

you know.

I don't agree with anything

you said.

But it's,

it's trying to communicate

this powerful thing

about who we are.

But by the way,

one other just thing

before we go to the next,

you know one of the things

we see here?

God cannot make straight

what does not bow.

God cannot make straight

what does not bow.

This image of the plumb line,

and it's interesting,

the way that we get in line

with the plumb line

is by bowing.

And that's because

one of the things

that we do as creatures

when we're fallen

is the fall means

that we're all bent.

Maybe we're bent like this,

I don't know.

And the way it gets made straight

is when we start to bow to him.

We're made straight.

So how do we respond?

See, that's what's going to happen

right now

with the rest of the text,

just bringing it up

very, very briefly in closing,

is that Amos would have had

a public ministry.

It wasn't that Amos

wrote these few things down

and just sort of left it

in a book in a coffee shop

and then forgot about it.

Amos would have been

saying these things

over and over and over again

in public.

And probably what would have happened

is that he would be,

you know,

there's three different genres.

It's a different thing

in the book of Amos.

There's three different genres,

chapter one and two,

chapters three through six

and chapters seven to nine.

And he would have maybe

been giving these different things

at different times

and maybe talking to people

about explaining what they meant

and making them practical and real.

And eventually,

they would have gotten written down.

So how do you respond?

So the rest of the chapter

gives us the warning,

the spiritual warning

about how not to respond.

You see,

God wants us to respond

by repentance

and by intercession.

Calling out to God

for others

because we have a compassion

for our city

and our nation

and the other institutions.

And repentance

because we want to bow to his word.

What we don't want to do

is silence God.

But that's the very,

very deeply ingrained human habit

in the face of the true God speaking

is to ask him to be silent.

Listen to how it happens here in verse 10.

The visions are over.

Amos has had his conversations with God.

He's proclaimed this publicly

in Bethel

and Amaziah.

Verse 10.

That Amaziah,

the priest of Bethel

sent to Jeroboam,

king of Israel,

saying,

Amos has conspired against you.

He lies, basically.

Amos hasn't conspired against Jeroboam.

But Amaziah,

hearing all of these things,

he wants to get Amos in trouble

and he lies.

Amos has conspired against you

in the midst of the house of Israel.

The land is not able

to bear all his words.

For thus Amos has said,

Jeroboam shall die by the sword

and Israel must go into exile

and from his land.

And then after Amaziah

has in a sense sent this to the king

with the hope that the king

will do something,

probably in terms of executing Amos,

Amaziah speaks to Amos.

Verse 12.

And Amaziah said to Amos,

O seer,

go,

flee,

away to the land of Judah

and eat bread there

and prophesy there.

But never again prophesy at Bethel

for it is the king's sanctuary

and it is a temple of the kingdom.

Know what that is?

He doesn't say it's God's sanctuary

and a temple for God.

That's not what he says.

It's the king's.

It's a temple of the kingdom.

Amaziah hears God

and says to God,

shut up

and go away.

And that's the persistent issue

even for us as Christians.

Part of the growth of holiness

is as different parts of the Bible

convict us.

Maybe about how we treat our wife

or how we treat our children

or how we're relating to our neighbors

or our thought life

or our money.

Or a political view

that we might have to have

a view on abortion

or on doctor assist,

like on euthanasia

that goes against our culture

that means that we won't be

as welcome with our set

and we want God to be silent

and to go away.

It's the issue of holiness

for the rest of our lives

is that there's always part of us

that wants to say to God,

shut up and go away.

The beginning of the Christian life

doesn't come,

the Christian life isn't about

me teaching you techniques

to never say shut up to God

and go away.

The Christian life begins

when we come to the point

to recognize

that what is being described

here in the Bible

is who I am

and that there is a God

who does exist.

And when we in a sense say,

I can't fix this, God.

I need you to do

what only you can do.

My only hope

is that this plumb line

you talk about

is not just a moral order

but is also a grace order

and a mercy order

and that you will have mercy upon me.

And despite the fact

that there is a deep habit

out of my heart

to tell you to shut up

and be silent,

my only hope

is that you will have mercy upon me.

In Amos' time,

they had what we think of

as a surprising thing.

We have the Ten Commandments.

If you go back

and look in Exodus and Deuteronomy,

it doesn't begin,

the Ten Commandments

don't begin by saying,

by God saying,

listen, I've thought up

ten really important rules

that are really smart

and really wise.

You need to do them.

How is it introduced?

I am the God

who redeemed you.

So listen.

So in Amos' time,

they could have understood

that it's in the context

of redemption

and grace

that God speaks to us.

we live more than 750 years

after Amos.

750 years after Amos,

Jesus came

and we live now after that

and we understand

in a way that Amos

could have only hoped

that God has acted

in a powerful

and public way

that his Son,

who is our Lord,

is also the one

who would die for us

as an act of grace,

that he would give us

his righteousness,

our inability

to tell God

to shut up,

to stop saying that,

that Jesus never said that

and his perfect life

stands for ours

and it's as we're gripped

by what Jesus

has done for us,

by God's mercy,

knowing that God knows

all there is

to know about us

and how deeply

ingrained we are

to tell him

to shut up

and to go away,

that God still loves us

and still sent his Son

and closed us

with his righteousness

and paid the penalty

for our sins,

that in light of that,

he has reconciled us

to God

and as the Word of God

confronts us

about how this week

we've lived

as if God is small

or this week

we've come to realize

that we have lived

a certain part of our life

telling God

to shut up and go away

and we can say,

God,

you've made that clear

to me now.

Help me, Father,

be gripped

by what you've done

for me on the cross

in the person of your Son

that I might begin

to amend my life,

that I might trust

that you are wise in this,

that I might listen

and think about it,

that I might talk

with other believers

about what the wisdom

of your Word

actually means.

Lord,

mindful of what you have done

for me in the cross,

grant me the courage

to stop telling you

to shut up and go away

but to listen to your Word.

that's the Christian life.

I invite you to walk in it

if you haven't started

walking in it.

There's no better time

than today

than to call out to God

for mercy

and to begin to walk

the Jesus way

with Jesus and others.

Let's stand.

Bow our heads in prayer.

Father,

you know those parts

in our lives

where we don't want

to bow to you.

You know those parts

of our lives

where we don't want

to hear your Word

because it's just going

to threaten the way

we think,

it's going to threaten

our politics,

it's going to threaten

some of our relationships.

You know those ways

that we think about money,

for instance,

and that we know

that if we start

to have a different,

if the text about money

start to affect our lives,

Father,

we don't want to hear

that stuff,

Father.

You know those things

about us

that we don't want

to hear your Word

speaking into our life,

but we thank you,

Father,

you know everything

there is to know

about us

until you sent your Son

to die upon the cross

for us.

And we ask,

Father,

that your Holy Spirit

would work in our lives,

that we would call out

to you for mercy,

that we would call out

to you for grace,

that we would be

disciples of Jesus

who would trust Jesus

to make us right with you.

The grace in who he is

and what he's done

for us in the cross

and his teaching,

that that would grip us.

And as, Father,

that gospel grips us,

helps us, Father,

to listen to your Word,

to bow to you,

to no longer tell you

to be silent,

but to listen to you

and to begin to live

free and whole

and for your glory.

Father,

this we ask in Jesus' name,

your Son and our Savior.

Amen.