THE theme of these verses is given clearly in the first verse, and it is the theme of the evil of complacency. Two opening remarks need to be made. The first is that this passage will hang without much power unless it is seen in the context of all that has gone before in the prophecy of Amos. These verse must be interpreted with the insight made clear in all that has gone before. The second is that there will not be much value for us in this passage unless we see how relevant it is for our situation today, both in state and in the church. There is a tendency to pass over the Old Testament as being of little relevance for the situation we live in today, but in fact history repeats itself, and human nature is just the same. The situation in Israel painted by Amos so vividly here, describing the conditions in Israel, has much that is similar at the core to the way we live today. So in the first place we shall seek to understand the situation in Israel described for us in these verses, and then we will seek to show their relevance for us in this present day.

THE SITUATION IN ISRAEL.

So far in this prophecy of Amos we have been hearing the complaint of God against Israel for their injustice and their going after heathen gods. We have heard the warnings of judgement declared by God, and the call to repentance. Now in these opening verses of chapter 6 Amos describes the way the rulers of Israel, who formed the life in Israel, reacted to the message from God declared by Amos.

The attitude of the rulers was one of complacency. They took no notice of the word of God through Amos. They felt no shame for their way of life. They had no fear of judgement. Indeed they seemed to feel that the warnings given by Amos did not apply to them. They were content with their lives, and felt no conviction when Amos spoke. All was well with them and they saw no need to change a life which was comfortable and pleasant. Amos spoke of disaster but they complacently felt it would not happen to them so there was no need to heed the message.

Even when God, through Amos, told them to compare their land which God had given them, and the blessings they had had bestowed on them, with the heathen lands around them, they simply did not see any meaning in the comparison. This is where we have to see this complaint of God in the context of the previous words in this prophecy of Amos. God had complained that these rulers in Israel had gone after other gods. Now God calls them to see how much better off they have been trusting in the Lord who had given them a greater and more prosperous land and life than any to be found in the heathen nations around them. God called them to look so that they might see wisdom, and return to the Lord who had blessed them, and cease to trust in heathen gods which gave little to those who worshipped them. But they took no notice. They were total blinded by their comforts and pleasures.

Amos paints the picture of the complacency of these rulers. The lived for their pleasures. Money and enjoyment was all they lived for. They lived well, and forgot anything and anybody but themselves, and were impervious to the plight of others. They simply heaped pleasure upon pleasure. Israel, described as 'Joseph' in verse 6, was in ruin in all departments of life, and the ruin was getting worse, but these rulers, whom the people looked up to, were not concerned because they just could not see, through their own pleasures, the ruin which was growing.

The folly of such complacency is given in verse 7. God tells them through Amos that, when he brings judgement, they will be the first to suffer, and the first to go into exile and the first to lose all they had lived for and put their trust in.

RELEVANCE FOR US TODAY.

In the first place the picture we are given here could easily be said of the United Kingdom as it is today. Like Israel, in our past God has blessed us. From the time of the Reformation at the time of Henry VIII and EDWARD VI God has poured out spiritual blessings in revival of true religion which has brought great blessings to our land and people, and also greatness which made us top nation in the world. Now we only have a shadow of what this nation was in the past, in influence, greatness and prosperity. Yet as a nation and specially in those who rule there is a blindness to the lesson of history. Nobody asks why we were great in the past, and where that greatness came from. There is a blindness to the decay in society that has happened over the 20th century. Instead of turning back to the godliness of the past which brought God's blessing, all the tendency is away from God, from his truth, from his moral requirements. Those who rule turn to themselves and their own wisdom, and despise the wisdom of God. Rulers are simply concerned about riches and growth, and nothing about truth, goodness or godliness. When disasters strike as is happening in the country as I write (August 2011), the economic disaster threatening to overwhelm Europe and the world and the mindless greed that has flooded the streets of our cities with destruction and violence, they have no answer, neither do they see that the problem does not lie outside us, but stems from the corruption within the human heart, which can only be remedied by the salvation God offers in Jesus Christ.

So what are the lessons this passage declare so loudly to us.

In the first place there is the lesson that human beings are the same now as they were in the days of Amos. Technology may be much advanced, and science improving our living, but the underlying problem of the human heart is exactly the same. As David cries with awful conviction in Psalm 51: 5 "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" is the problem of humanity today as it was in the Old Testament. The intellect of today may sneer at the Bible, but Genesis 3 which describes the fall of humanity in Adam, from which the corruption within human beings stems, is the only explanation of why humanity destroys, and causes all the problems in society now and in the past and will do in the future. Unless this blindness concerning humanity is removed the fate which Israel suffered will be ours, and which we can see happening already now. When a people turn from God, God withdraws from humanity, and the curb on human corruption is thus removed, and human depravity is given free rein, which no remedy in society can stop. Only when we turn back to the Lord will there be deliverance, because only God can curb human corruption.

In the second place, as Israel had total trust and concentration on worldly pleasure and comfort, which led them away from God and to disaster, so it is the same today. If there is any one god that is worshipped today in our society, it is the god of money, fleshly pleasures, and comfort money can buy. The aim of people is to get rich. The aim of government is for financial growth and prosperity, and the trust that if this is achieved we will have all that is needed. We may want this, but when we have it, it does not provide the security and peace we expect it will bring. Money can never buy contentment deep in the human heart, or promote good. Government, and even the church, can't see, that there are more important things than temporal wealth, and that such prosperity should only be seen as a by-product of righteousness and godliness. Riches alone never satisfy. They lead away from God. They promote emptiness in the long run, and everlasting damnation eternally.

In the third place, as Israel had a contempt of God's word and refused to heed it or believe it, so it is so in our society today, and specially within the church at large. There are exceptions in regard to this which can be seen in churches of every denomination which remain faithful to the Bible, but generally speaking there is a contempt of God's word.

This will be denied vehemently perhaps, but the fact is that the Bible and its truth is only upheld and preached generally as far as it conforms to human wisdom. So the revelation of God's attitude to sin, or the warning judgement upon sin, and the reality of hell and that God will consign people to hell, is denied or ignored or passed over or explained away. Human wisdom tells us that it is inconsistent with the love of God to imagine that a God of love could ever judge, punish or send people to everlasting damnation.

From this human wisdom there is a blindness to the true love of God revealed in the Bible, which is a love so wide, so huge, that God was ready to sacrifice and condemn his only begotten Son, so that He may be just as he justifies sinners. A love so great that he was ready to punish his Son for our sin, so that he may justly forgive us who have sinned. Human wisdom even rubbishes this substitution by God of Jesus Christ in our place, that Jesus may take the suffering and punishment which is our due.

The fact is that within the church today, like Israel of old, the full revelation of God is ignored, and there is a complacency that the church is doing well with its programmes of social reform, and is worshipping God in spirit and truth. There is no real enquiry as to why the influence of the church has declined, or any enquiry whether the forms of worship, and messages preached are approved by God or not.

There is a complacency within the church concerning sin and righteousness. One of the notable things about the life of the church is in how there is a continuous weakening in the knowledge of sin, and of what is sinful. Confessions of sin have deteriorated into mild regrets at the failures of caring in society, and personal failure in holiness is made light of.

APPLICATION.