Amos 4

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!” Amos 4:1

Amos does something here that few preachers would ever attempt. He calls the “church ladies” “cows.” Any preacher trying this today would soon be looking for a new job. [1] He not only calls them cows, but cows of Bashan. Cattle from this area were usually strong, fat and sleek because the Bashan pastures were rich and fertile (Num. 32:1-5; Deut. 32:14; Psa. 22:12; Ezek. 39:18; Mic. 7:14).

We see something else about these “church women.” They were living debauched, deluded and dissipated lives. They were oppressing the poor and crushing the needy in order to keep up their dissolute lifestyles (cf. Isa. 32:9-13). In addition to all this, they were drunks, demanding that their husbands bring them more booze every day. Coffman says of the word bring, “This means, ‘Get it; we don’t care how!’” [2]

We might wonder if we are much better off in our Western culture. In a 2008 study published in the journal Adolescence, approximately 25 percent of college students reported that they had recently engaged in binge drinking. [3] The figures have surely gotten worse since this publication.

We can suppose that these ladies were also spendthrifts, dressing themselves in the finest clothes, all at the expense of the poor and needy. Bell gives us a modern picture of similar abuse:

Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos (Philippines, 1980s) used their power to amass private wealth, siphoning foreign aid, loans, and the profits of domestic companies into secret Swiss bank accounts (suspected $20 billion). Imelda Marcos liked shoes. She had a special section of the presidential palace, comprising five separate rooms, which housed over 1,220 pairs of shoes. Imelda also left behind 500 gowns and 300 bras…Imelda Marcos put the “enjoyment of her feet” above the “empty bellies of the children of the country” that looked to her for leadership. [4]

So, the leaders of Israel and their wives were awash with luxury, debauchery, hypocrisy, and numerous other degradations, but they were very devout in serving their golden calves. Henry David Thoreau said in his classic work Walden, “Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.” [5]

God’s Swift Judgment

The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness: “The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.” Amos 4:2

God’s patience had just about run out for the socialites of Samaria (the fat cows of Bashan). Their game would end quickly and the enemy would burst upon them. Their punishment would be almost too much to imagine. The Assyrians who would conquer them were probably the cruelest people of antiquity. They would put hooks through the noses and lips of these abusive women and lead them off into captivity (cf. 2 Chron. 33:11). Coffman, citing J. Kier Howard notes, “The Assyrian illustrations depict such scenes with captives being led with hooks through their noses or mouths, and Amos was no doubt familiar with this barbaric practice.” [6] The mention of fishhooks probably alludes to the thoroughness of their conquest.

How sad for the women and for the society! John Edgar McFadden in his book A Cry For Justice, comments: “All of the Hebrew prophets knew that for the temper and quality of a civilization, the women are greatly responsible. A country is largely what its women make it; if they are cruel or careless or unwomanly, the country is on the road to ruin.” [7]

“‘You will each go straight out through breaches in the wall, and you will be cast out toward Harmon,’ declares the LORD” (4:3). The city walls that they trusted in will be smashed since the Assyrians were quite skilled in conquering walled cities. They will go out through the breaches in the wall and they will go toward Harmon. None of the commentators have ever identified this location. Obviously, they were going out as captives of the Assyrians. Jewish scholar Charles Feinberg comments: “The thought of the prophet, however, is quite clear: exile will be the portion of the pleasure-loving, poor-opposing, unfeeling women of Samaria.” [8]

They would endure all this because of their love of luxuries and pleasures. All around them were the poor and poverty-stricken, but they never noticed those whom their own actions made destitute. Wiersbe says: “What the Western world considers necessities and luxuries to the citizens of other nations: things like thermostat-controlled heat and air conditioning, refrigerators, automobiles, adequate medical care, telephones, and abundantly available electricity and fuel… Luxury doesn’t mean owning abundant possessions so much as allowing possessions to own us.” [9]

Sinners In Good Standing

Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Amos 4:4

Bethel was a famous Israelite shrine. Father Abraham had visited there and built an altar. There he called on the name of the Lord (Gen. 12:8; 13:3-4). Later Jacob visited Bethel and had a vision of heaven. He declared that Bethel was the house of God (Gen. 28:17). Even the Ark of the Covenant was there for a time (Judg. 20 26-27). Unfortunately, this holy site was profaned, since King Jeroboam I placed a calf idol there. From that point, the religious practices were mixed. A holy shrine thus became a religious meeting place.

Religion was held in high regard by Israel and it continues to be held in high regard by the world’s masses. Boice comments: “They suppose, on the assumption that God thinks as they do, that God is basically pleased with all religious practices…On the contrary, not only is God not pleased with our religious practices, he is actually very much displeased. Even more, he hates, he despises religion.” [10] Boice continues: “I would go so far as to say that nearly every important biblical truth is the direct opposite of what the human mind thinks naturally.” [11]

Bethel was a mixture. The people were careful to follow the precepts of the law but their hearts were full of false religion. “They had perverted the places of most sacred memories to the nation…They were adhering to the letter, while transgressing it by their calf-worship.” [12] They were doing the same things at the shrine of Gilgal. We remember that Gilgal was the place Israel first set up camp when they crossed the Jordan into Canaan. It was there that the people were sanctified from Egypt (Josh. Ch. 5). The young men who were lacking it were circumcised there. They were all reconsecrated there to the Lord. Now the people were taking their false religion to Gilgal and defiling that holy site as well.

The people probably boasted of their great revival meetings at Bethel and at Gilgal. However, Wiersbe says, “The people in Amos’s day didn’t return home determined to help the poor, feed the hungry, and care for the widows and orphans.” [13] In fact, “the more frequently the Israelites visited their shrines, the farther they were from God.” [14] That all might sound familiar to our day.

According to Barna surveys, it is revealed that the weekly worship services are the only time that church people worship God. Yet, eight out of ten believers do not feel they are regularly worshipping God in these weekly services. Half of the believers feel that they have not entered the presence of God in genuine worship during the past year. [15]

“‘Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings – boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,’ declares the Sovereign LORD” (4:5). While leavened bread was not to be burned accompanying a sacrifice (Exo. 23:18), it could be burned as a new grain offering (Lev. 23:17). The leaven of pride could not accompany any offering to the Lord, and the Israelites were boastful of their offerings. Commentator Ray Stedman tells of once hearing a man who stood up in a meeting saying, “I want to give $100 anonymously.” [16] He was no doubt sounding like the proud Samaritans and their offerings.

All this was far removed from the poor widow woman who dropped two tiny coins in the offering container at the temple. No one but Jesus saw or cared about her small offering. He was delighted because the two small coins were everything she had to live on (Mk. 12:41-44).

The High Cost Of Half-Heartedness

“I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD. Amos 4:6

The Hebrew reads here, “I have given you cleanness of teeth,” as seen in other translations (ASV. NAS, NKJ, NRS, & RSV). This is an interesting way of saying that they lacked food and were in a famine. They would have no trouble keeping their teeth clean. It may be that this famine is alluded to in 2 Kings 8:1, or more likely in Joel 1:1-20.

The author proceeds with a listing of plagues visited upon the people. After each plague we have the sad words, “Yet you have not returned to me” (4:6, 8, 9, 10, 11). The five plagues may correspond to five as the number of the covenant. [17]

“‘I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up.

People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,’ declares the LORD” (4:7-8). Without our modern-day irrigation systems, the people of Bible times were totally dependent upon the rains. With the resulting drought, the people starved for water and the crops dried up. In verse 7 we see that the rains were even withheld during the critical three-month period before the harvest. Pett says, “Rain withheld before the barley and wheat harvests (when there were yet three months to harvest) could have a dreadful effect on the harvest.” [18] In spite of this, the people did not return to God.

Long before God had promised: “The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed” (Deut. 28:24).

“‘Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, destroying them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,’ declares the LORD” (4:9). Here we see plant disease and insect infestation to the gardens and vineyards. We all need to remember that this is God’s world. He made it by his word (Jn. 1:1-3) and he sustains it by his word (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3). When we ignore or violate his word, the world will no longer cooperate with us and with our efforts. God had long ago promised, “The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish” (Deut. 28:22). In spite of all God’s dealing the people did not return to him.

“‘I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me,’ declares the LORD” (4:10). This clearly speaks of defeat in battle and the stench of the dead. “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth” (Deut. 28:25). Yet, despite all their military defeat, the people did not return to him.

“‘I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me,’ declares the LORD” (4:11). The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:1-25) was one of the greatest disasters in the history of the world. Heaven rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and the other cities and all the people of these wicked cities were destroyed. However, The Lord spared Lot and his daughters from the inferno.

Some of the Samaritans had obviously been destroyed in a similar disaster. Yet, God rescued others at the last minute, like a burning stick pulled from the fire (cf. Zec. 3;2). A stick recovered from the fire is of much use to anyone, yet, it illustrates the continuing mercy of God. The eventual restoration of the ten northern tribes will also be a picture of a stick rescued from the fire (Isa. 27:13).

“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God” (4:12). Phillips says, “This is one of the monumental statements of scripture, one of the sayings that looms like a grand peak above a plain.” [19] It is a statement for every evil society and every evil person on earth today.

The judgment of the ten tribes is worse than other judgments. Jamieson and company say, “God is about to inflict the last and worst judgment on thee, the extinction of thy nationality.” [20] The ten tribes of Israel have now been without a country and disbursed among the Gentiles for 2,700 years.

“He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth – the LORD God Almighty is his name” (4:13). What can we possibly add to this final seal of God’s decree?

Footnotes

1. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT, p. 1423.

2. Coffman, Commentaries on the Bible, v. 4:1.

3. Donna Freitas, T he End of Sex: How hookup Culture Is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy (New York: Basic Books, 2013), p. 40.

4. Bell, Bell’s Commentary, Amos, vs. 4:1-13.

5. Quoted in Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT, p. 1422.

6. Coffman, Commentaries on the Bible, cit. Howard, vs. 4:2-3.

7. Coffman, Commentaries on the Bible, quoting John Edgar McFadden in his book A Cry For Justice, p. 36. v. 4:1.

8. Feinberg, The Minor Prophets, p. 99.

9. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT, p. 1423.

10. Boice, The Minor Prophets, Vol. 2, p. 188.

11. Ibid., p. 187.

12. Feinberg, The Minor Prophets, p. 100.

13. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT, p. 1424.

14. Pfeiffer & Harrison, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, p. 833.

15. George Barna, Revolution, (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2005), pp. 31-32.

16. Stedman, 39 Sermons on Romans, vs. 12:6-8.

17. Pett, Commentary on Amos 6, Pett’s Commentary on the Bible, vs. 4:6-11.

18. Ibid., vs. 4:7-8.

19. Phillips, Exploring The Minor Prophets, pp. 100-101.

20. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, Commentary on Amos, v. 4:12.