The 7^th Sunday After Epiphany

SERMON

Text: Amos 8:11-12

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD God, “That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east, they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it.”

In Christ Jesus, Who reminds us that we cannot live by bread alone, but that we need every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, dear fellow redeemed:

Recently, I finished reading a novel set in 19^th century Ireland. A portion of the book revealed the horrors of the great potato famines of the 1840’s. The problem during those years was not a lack of fertile soil, for sizable crops were harvested. The problem was a blight, which caused the newly harvested potatoes to rot within forty-eight hours so that they were unfit for human or animal consumption. Hundreds of thousands of Irish peasants were removed from their lands during those years, because they could not pay their rent. Tens of thousands of those peasants were left to wander and die of starvation. It was said that many were buried with their teeth stained green from eating grass. It is difficult for us to even begin to comprehend such a famine, or to understand its drastic results, for we can walk into a grocery store at any time and purchase any food item we want.

My dear friends, this morning I want to talk to you about a famine, but a very different kind of famine. Our text speaks of a spiritual famine brought on by God as a just judgment for the sins of men and so depriving them of His saving Word. It is a subtle form of famine, for it can occur in the midst of outward plenty. Yet, it is even more serious than a physical famine, for while physical famine can claim the temporal lives of its victims, a spiritual famine of God’s Word can result in the loss of immortal souls. I would, therefore, urge you this morning—LET US RECOGNIZE THE DANGERS OF SPIRITUAL FAMINE!

I.

The conditions in Amos’ day were ripe for spiritual famine. Amos’ ministry took place about 760 years before Christ’s birth. At that time God’s Old Testament people were no longer united under one king. Instead, God’s people had divided into two kingdoms—one in the north called Israel, and the other in the south called Judah. Amos lived in the southern kingdom of Judah, but he was called upon by God to preach in the northern kingdom of Israel. Interestingly, Amos was a farmer called upon by God to serve as His prophet for a short time. He had no special training, but he did know and love his Lord!

What were conditions like in Amos’ day? Spiritually they were not good. Instead of being faithful to the Lord, the rulers of the northern kingdom of Israel had set up state-sponsored idolatry. They were afraid that if their people traveled to Jerusalem to worship the one, true God, they might want to reunite politically with Judah. Consequently, the kings of Israel set up two golden calves, one in the far north and the other in the far south of their land. They urged the people to worship these gods instead of the Lord God in Jerusalem. To make it a bit more palatable, they established a new priesthood, not unlike the priests in Jerusalem. They set up worship services with similar sacrifices and festival days. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the people of Israel accepted this change in their religious life without much protest. They apparently felt that doing the right thing was just too much trouble, and they seemed to think that as long as they made their sacrifices, it really did not matter where they made them or to whom they made them. But that is where they went wrong. There is only one, true God. Isaiah, who lived shortly after this time, spoke of this when he said, “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God’” (44:6). The people of the northern kingdom had embraced the concept of a false god, which did not exist! Their sacrifices, which were originally intended to show them pictures of the sacrifice Jesus would make in the future to win their salvation, were now reduced to works of self-righteousness—efforts in which the Lord God took no delight at all (cf. Isaiah 1:11).

Politically and economically Amos lived during boom times. Jeroboam II, the most effective of the kings of Israel, had expanded Israel’s borders so that they included most of the lands King David had once ruled. He controlled the profitable trade routes, which ran from Egypt to Babylon. He had fleets of ships sailed the Mediterranean Sea bringing in rich cargoes of trade goods. It was a time of prosperity for the king and the wealthy merchant classes. In many respects, the good times may well have contributed to the poor spiritual conditions in Israel in those days. The people felt quite self-sufficient—things were going so good, they seemed to feel they did not need to bother with God, especially if it deterred them from seeking their own pleasure!

Socially, the situation was grave. The lack of a proper faith-life could certainly be seen in the way the people of Israel treated each other, especially when talking about how the rich people dealt with the poor. The rich people took no thought of the poor. They were but a means to an end. Those who had grown wealthy in trade became greedy for land, and so they drove the poor off their farms and deprived them of their livelihood. We are told that the people were so greedy that when they drove people off their lands, they panted after the dust on the people’s heads (cf. Amos 2:7). They sold indebted neighbors into slavery, so they could enrich themselves and buy the most fashionable of clothing (cf. Amos 2:6). They built separate winter and summer houses and filled them with ivory furniture, while crushing the needy (cf. Amos 3:15, 4:1). They took a great interest in the musical arts, while drowning out the cries of the poor in courts where bribes perverted justice (cf. Amos 6:3-5).

Amos came to the people of Israel and announced God’s coming judgment upon them. He told them that “for three transgressions and for four” God would punish them (cf. Amos 3:6). They repeatedly had rejected God’s prophets who came to proclaim to them God’s holy will and word. Elijah and Elisha had performed many miracles to impress upon them God’s truth and power, but they remained unimpressed and refused to listen. In view of their continued rejection of God and His word, judgment did come some forty years later when the armies of Assyria took the vast majority of the people of the northern kingdom into captivity. They became known in history as the lost ten tribes of Israel, and have remained so to this day. No one knows what became of them! The very worst part of their judgment, however, was not the dissolution of their nation or being taken into physical captivity, but it was as Amos predicted—a famine of the word! Israel rejected the word while they had the opportunity to listen, and ultimately after they were in captivity God sent them no more true prophets. They could search, but they would never find the truths of God, for due to their hardness of heart God finally let them go, allowing them to reap a harvest of eternal sorrows. My dear friends, LET US RECOGNIZE THE DANGERS OF SPIRITUAL FAMINE! The conditions in Amos’ day were ripe for spiritual famine, and the children of Israel endured such a famine as a judgment for their sins and callous disregard of God’s living and saving Word.

II.

Lest we become smug and self-righteous, may God lead us to understand that the conditions in our present day appear likewise ripe for spiritual famine! What are conditions like today? Spiritually, they resemble the days of Amos in a number of ways. Just as Israel had a heritage of the one, true faith, from which they then turned away, so also we in America have a heritage from which we are turning away. Once the vast majority of Americans were professing Christians. In fact, a recent survey showed that 91% of American households had at least one copy of the Bible in their homes. In that same survey 80% of those surveyed claimed that the Bible was an important book, if not the most important book ever written. Yet less than 38% claimed ever to read it! Christian commitment to the one, true, Triune God has been reduced in many instances to a rather vague subscription to a universal god, whom we are free to describe in general terms as long we do not insist on any strict definition, which would prove offensive to others. A Christian understanding of salvation—that it is a free gift given by God through grace by faith based upon the redemptive work of Jesus Christ—is openly ridiculed! It has been replaced by a general call for moral living, however, even such morality is subject to the whims of individuals seeking self-actualization, while ignoring God’s Word, the Bible! Just as in Amos’ day many people feel it is just too much trouble to be faithful of the one, true God! He is much to strict for modern man!

Politically and economically, even in spite of the slow-down in our current economy, we are experiencing the greatest period of growth in our nation’s history, if not in the history of the world. We are a wealthy society, which not unlike the people of Amos’ feels no real need for God, because after all I have a strong portfolio of stocks and bonds to get me through any troubles! Or, I have a salary that is in the upper five or six figures, so I do not need to worry about God! How sad!

Socially, do we not see the same thing happening today as in Amos’ day? People are filled with greed and want to grow rich without effort. People misuse the court systems and through bribery can achieve what they might otherwise not achieve. They are willing to pursue their own selfish desires at the expense of others, rather than demonstrating a godly concern for the general welfare of all. This should not surprise us! Paul warns us in 2 Timothy 3, “Know this, that in the last days perilous times will come; for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” (Verses 1-5)

Into such a situation Amos walks and warns us in our text of the dangers of spiritual famine! If we do not as a people, as a Christian congregation, or as individual Christians want to hear God’s Word in its truth and its purity, as it reveals our sins but then also reveals our Savior, God will ultimately take His Word away and give to someone else! This is the warning, and it should not be taken lightly. There are places where God’s Word was once highly esteemed—places like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale Universities, which were begun as Christian institutions, but where now you will not and cannot find Christian truth for it has been entirely rejected.

What is the solution? It is the same for us today, as it was for the people of Amos’ day. In his final chapter, Amos, who had been sent to announce God’s judgment, turned to those few who with repentant hearts wanted to seek the Lord and hear His Word. To that remnant Amos promised God’s rich and continued blessing. And so today, my dear friends, let us humbly bow before God’s words of truth. When He uncovers sin in our lives through His law, may we be led to repent of those sins with sincerity of heart. When in sorrow we turn to our God, may we be led to trust solely and alone in Jesus as our Savior from sin, for He has washed us clean through His precious blood. May we, having been loved by our God so richly, reach out in love to those people who surround us in our lives—our families, our co-workers, our fellow Christians. May we, having been assured of our salvation, rejoice then in the blessing of our God, which shall fill our lives, as we seek to glorify His saving name by our words and through our actions. Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting