THESE verses have been printed in full, and the passage looked at as one whole, because there is one overall message which is being pressed forward by God, to the church, and to the world. We must get this message clear in our minds, before we seek to look at the many details and truths which are to be found in this statement. Because of this we shall be spending more then one sermon on these verses.

The overall message in these verses is that the patience of God with sin and sinful people will not endure forever. God has been speaking plainly to Israel about their sin, and that he could not tolerate their sin, and that he does judge sin and would judge their sin. Israel treated God's warnings with indifference. They presumed on his patience and his continual relenting from his threat of judgement. They did not heed God's warnings through Amos and the other prophets. Because God relented and withheld his judgement Israel refused to change, believing that judgement was not real and a myth.

This attitude is not limited to Israel. It has been an attitude of the church all down the ages, and it is the continual attitude of the world. These days the church, in the main, denies the reality of God's judgement upon sin, and builds up a view of the universal love of God which condemns the idea of judgement from God as a lie, and contrary to a true understanding of God. The Bible witness is denied. The Old Testament is said to be an expression of an unenlightened age. The judgement of God expressed in the New Testament, and in the words of Jesus, is ignored. Church life is not evaluated by the Bible, and correction from the Bible is refused. The world's wisdom is embraced over the Bible. It is for these reasons the message here in Amos is so urgent. God will not stand back forever where his truth is denied, and his holiness watered down. Just because God has allowed all these failures in the church to go on without any interference does not mean he will stand back forever and ignore them. God's patience and mercy endure forever, but only upon those who show true repentance, and heed his word. God is patient, but as God tells us in these verses before us, his patience is limited, and will run out where there is no heeding of his warnings, and repentance shown.

THIS LESSON EXPRESSED IN THESE VERSES.

Is this lesson of the limited nature of God's patience taught in these verses? This question needs to be answered by looking closely at this passage. The lesson is too startling and far reaching for a mistake to be made. Many today would deny this lesson, and say that God's forgiveness will never cease to be offered, and God's love endures to all regardless of belief or behaviour. So let us look at these verses.

As soon as we do we see that there are three parts to it. The first two we observe God relenting towards Israel, but in the the third there is change.

In each section there is an expression of God's anger against sin in his raising up affliction upon the people. In the first section Amos is told by God that he was going to raise up a swarm of locusts, which would ravage the land and strip the country clean of all its crops. A specific time is mention. It is between the first and second crop, so that the main harvest is totally destroyed. Although in the experience in time this plague of locusts could be called a natural disaster, and so shrugged off as an unfortunate occurrence, yet the record is that God warned Amos of the approach of this plague of locusts, gave the time when it would occur and God states that he is the author of the plague. For these reasons we can see that this apparent natural disaster was caused by the direct intervention of God in the affairs of this world.

We are told that after the devastation happened, or while it was being executed, that Amos prayed to God, and pleaded for God to save Israel and withdraw the plague. His plea in prayer was that Israel was too weak and too small to be able to withstand this plague. It is plain that Amos understood the coming of the locusts as the hand of God coming in judgement upon Israel because of their sin and turning away from the Lord.

We are told that God heard the prayer of Amos, and answered by relenting of the punishment he was inflicting. It is plain that the plague was not a judgement of total destruction, but a judgement of warning, and the aim was to bring Israel to confess their sin, and turn away from it in true repentance.

The second section tells a similar story. The plague sent was different in character. The plague was of drought where there was no rain and the sun was so hot, that nothing could grow, and the rivers dried up leaving no water. But the story is the same and has the same purpose. God's patience is shown, and his mercy revealed. Amos' prayer was answered. God relented and withdrew the affliction.

In both cases God's patience with Israel continued, and he did not pursue his judgement to the bitter end to destroy the people altogether. When we come to the third section, the scene is changed. There is no happening promised which would be a warning to bring the people to their senses, and no implication that the Lord was ready to relent and forgive. Instead we have a simple statement of how God was going to proceed in his action against Israel. God tells Amos that he was judging Israel by his implacable straight code of holiness, and was coming to punish them because they had transgressed that standard. God also tells Amos the nature of that action. We are told that God was not going to spare Israel any more, and the implication is that however earnestly Amos prayed for relief, God would not grant his prayer. The warning is of total destruction of the false worship that so offended God, together with the sword destroying the nation as well. The imagery of a sword raised against Israel speaks of the coming of a powerful nation to attack and totally annihilate the nation so that it could not be saved.

The plumb-line sent amongst the people speaks of the inviolable nature of God's holy standard by which he assesses a nation and shows that any transgression against this standard will be punished.

So the three sections show a progression. In the first two sections we have examples of God's patience with Israel, and his readiness to relent and cease the plagues he brings on them. We see God ready to listen to the prayer of his prophet, and relenting. There does not seem to be any change in Israel as a whole, but because they are weak and helpless to stand against God's action of warning and judgement, God is ready to relent, and be patient in waiting for Israel to heed his words through his prophet Amos.

In the third section the change is marked. God is not warning, but simply stating his action of judgement. Prayer now will not avail. God's patience has plainly run out, and judgement must and would be executed.

THE WISE REACTION.

The question remains as to how we are going to react to this statement of truth. The fact is that the truth of God is being stated here. God is stating how he acts and how he deals with people, and specially to the church, those, who like Israel, claim to be the people of God.

As is seen in this case in the history of Israel, God is always looking down on the church, and those who claim to be his people. He is seeking a church which honours his word, and lives in love and holiness. He is seeking a church whose worship and service is according to that which is taught in the word of God. God hates to see that which is not according to his word.

When the church falls short of those standards that the Lord has laid out in his word, the Bible, then God sends warnings. These take the form of warnings through preachers who are faithful to his holy word. Then, if this testimony is not heeded, God acts in the life of the church. These actions are for warning and calling the church to reconsider its ways and practices. God's patience perseveres for years and years, but then this passage warns us that a time will come when the lack of reformation in the church, and the church's lack of conforming to his holy word, will bring an end to his patience, and then God will judge the church by the standards of his holy word.

This is the warning that is given in the letters to the churches in Asia in the first three chapters of the book of Revelation. The warning is that if these churches did no repent and heed God's word, God would remove their candlestick altogether, which is imagery for acting so that church ceases to exist. In the first five centuries after Christ there were strong churches in north Africa. Now there are none.

The Church of England was blessed at the Reformation. It has experienced great times of refreshment from the Lord in the last 400 years, and these can be compared to the first two sections of the verses from Amos we are considering. However the Church of England, except for a relatively small number of congregations, still acts in contradiction to the Bible in two main ways. The first is in the view of the ministry which claims for itself mediatorial function, so taking upon itself that which belongs alone to our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ. The second is its readiness to adjust the Word of God to human opinion and wisdom, and only accept as the word of God in the Bible that which human wisdom deems acceptable.

These blemishes are not deemed to be blemishes, and the Church of England looks to its massive structures as evidence of God's blessing. It ignores warnings, the decline of the number of clergy, and the diminishing congregations. God's patience with the Church of England may not have run out, but we can't ignore the lesson here in our passage that an end does come.