Morning Light – November 6th, 2017 – Amos 03: How Does God Punish?

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Today: [Amos 3] How Does God Punish? Does God destroy, devastate and rain calamity down upon us when we are disobedient? Does God create “designer hells” for us to go through in order to accomplish His will in our lives? Does God ever hate us? Or does He love us so much at times He kills us to take us to heaven? Why do little babies die? Why does God allow war and death to be splattered on the headlines every day of the world? Our study in Amos 3 today gives compelling answers to some of the most timely questions of our day.
[Amo 3:1-15 KJV] 1 Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. 3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? 4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? 5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin [is] for him? shall [one] take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? 6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done [it]? 7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. 8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy? 9 Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof. 10 For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. 11 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; An adversary [there shall be] even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled. 12 Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus [in] a couch. 13 Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts, 14 That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. 15 And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD.
After denunciations against pagan nations in the region, and specific censures against Judah and Samaria individually, chapter 3 of Amos speaks in general over the whole of the tribes of Israel for their transgressions since coming out of Egypt, some 750 years before. Verse 1 begins with the address speaking against the “whole family” which Jehovah brought up from the land of Egypt. Egypt for us is a type of the world. As God brought the Hebrews out of Egypt so He has redeemed us for Himself out of the community of fallen man. The Exodus according to Paul speaks of baptism into Christ for us:
[1Co 10:2] 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
Therefore, as God looked upon the children of Abraham as His family so He looks upon us likewise as His family of all the families of the earth. Our identity as Christians is established first in Christ above race, ethnicity, generation or nationality. The intention is blessing, but because the people in Amos day were iniquitous in their lifestyles they were facing punishment. We might ask the question, does God punish today? Does He punish His children? Today, in raising children punishment is greatly marginalized and seen as barbaric and abusive. Our culture extrapolates that to their understanding of God and reject the idea that God does anything but demonstrate kindness and gentleness, accepting anything about us with infinite patience and tolerance. Yet this verse speaks of God punishing the people. The response of many would be “well, this is the Old Testament and doesn’t apply to the believer…” Perhaps we should consider Hebrews 12:8:
[Heb 12:8 KJV] 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
What form does God’s chastisement of His people take? Verse 3 of our chapter contains a very deep insight. “Can two walk together except they be agreed…” In other words, the people are not in agreement with God, therefore He withdraws Himself. This is exactly what God did in the beginning with Adam and Eve:
[Gen 3:23-24 KJV] 23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Also, when Moses was dealing with the people in the wilderness, because of their rebellious nature God intended to withdraw Himself from them:
[Exo 33:1-3 KJV] 1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, [and] go up hence, thou and the people … 2 …for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou [art] a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.
We can see by these verses that God chastises His people by withdrawing Himself from them when they forsake His ways and flaunt themselves against His law. V. 4-5 speak of the consequences of sin, comparing them to a lion roaring against the prey and a bird being taken in a snare set for it. In other words, man cannot choose his own way without repercussions. We live in a fallen environment. There is no neutral choice where we master our own fate. If by overt rebellion or by subtlety we walk against God’s word there will be consequences to our actions.
Verse 6 declares “shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it?”. Now, we must pause and comment on this verse. It is translated in the causative sense, implying that God actively and personally brings evil against us when we are disobedient. How does this reconcile to the following two verses:
[Jhn 10:10] The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.
[Luk 9:56] For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save [them]. And they went to another village.
Both Amos 3:6 and John 10:10 and Luke 9:56 must be reconciled in our thinking to have a proper understanding of who God is. Either He is a destroyer or He is not. Again, the simplistic answer is to simply dismiss the conflict by says “that’s Old Testament, it doesn’t apply to us…” But what about Hebrews 12:3 regarding the chastisement of God spoken of to New Testament believers?
The answer is in properly translating the tense of the wording of Amos 3:6. There are two different ways this verse can be translated. It could be translated as “causative” or “permissive”. In other words, it could be rendered as though God personally and with prejudice brought evil upon the people or it could be interpreted that God instead permitted evil to come upon the people because of their disobedience. Which is correct? In fact, when looking deeply into this passage the reality is that the original language translation does not specify whether God actively causes or passively allows evil (the word evil here is more properly translated “affliction” rather than malicious destruction). So, if the passage does not delineate whether it is portraying God as actively or passively acting in this sense what do we do? We look at other passages such us John 10:10 and Luke 9:56 for clarification. These passages directly state that God does not actively cause death and destruction to come upon His people. Therefore in the broad context of what the bible tells us about God we can conclude that the proper interpretation of Amos 3:6 is that God passively allows, or permits us to suffer the consequences of our actions if we choose to forsake His ways and His laws.
At this point the casual Christian is rolling his eyes and thinking “please get on with it – is all this really necessary?”. In fact, it is. The enemy has taken verses like this and used them to bring accusation against God in the world and in Christianity as well. Biblical scholarship many times accuses God of perpetrating against us what the cross clearly promises to remove from us. That would leave us with a precocious God who vindictively manipulates us for His so-called benevolent purposes. If God smites us one the one hand and heals us with the other then having faith and trust in Him becomes very difficult without violating other doctrines of scripture and coming up with an esoteric explanation of suffering that opens the door to Satan to come and destroy our lives because we have been wrongly taught that our suffering of what the cross promises to remove is somehow fulfilling the higher will of God.
Shall a trumpet be blowing in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord has not done it (or properly understood – allowed it). The fact of the matter is that God has allowed sin and the consequences of sin beginning with Adam and Eve to rage on this planet for 6000 years. Does this make God evil? Why doesn’t God just end all human suffering? Because in Gen. 1:26 God gave man dominion over all the earth. God gave man dominion and man promptly handed that dominion over to Satan in the fall. Satan became the prince of the power of the air as a consequence of man’s choice and not God. God did not elevate Satan to the role he now operates in – man did, by transgression. God then chose to intervene by initiating a covenant with Abraham, through which He brought forth His law by Moses toward the end of bringing forth Christ as a man born in the earth by covenantal right who in His earth walk lawfully usurped the power of Satan and opened the door of Salvation for us to walk free from the ravages of sin and the consequence of sin through accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.