The Sin of Selective Obedience
Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked. So I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”
- Amos 2:4-5, ESV
How seriously do we take God’s commands to us? If we are honest, we take some much more seriously than others. But every word of Scripture is inspired by God and necessary to equip us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). God’s Word is full of commands that affect every aspect of our lives, governing not only all of our actions and words but also all of our thoughts and motives. Yet it is human nature to choose to follow some commands while ignoring or even openly rejecting others. In Amos’s day, Judah had done just that. In this post, we will see how bad this is in God’s eyes, so we must repent and take all of God’s commands to us very seriously.
Atrocities God Hates
The decree of judgment on Judah (Amos 2:4-5) is the seventh such pronouncement on Israel’s neighbors that spiraled clockwise inwardly toward Israel itself: Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and finally Judah (Amos 1:3-2-5). Each judgment has the same pattern: “For three transgressions…for four I will not revoke the punishment”. Then God names their egregious sin before promising judgment: destruction of their cities and exile or even annihilation of their people. When we look at their sins, the punishment fits the crime. Damascus had “threshed Gilead with a threshing sledge of iron” (Amos 1:3), meaning they had been overly cruel in their conquest, while Ammon had been borderline genocidal in their butchery of Gilead’s pregnant women in order “to enlarge their borders” (Amos 1:13). Gaza (Philistines) and Tyre had kidnapped numerous people and sold them into slavery to equally-cruel Edom (Amos 1:6,9,11), while Moab had desecrated the dead (Amos 2:1).[1] We have benefitted from centuries of the Gospel’s influence on the world, so the horrors described here are foreign to us…except that we saw them happen on October 7, 2023. In order to enlarge their borders “from the river to the sea”, genocidal Hamas terrorists—operating from old Philistine territory—slaughtered over a thousand people in Israel, desecrated corpses, put babies in ovens, assaulted women, and then kidnapped as many people as they could. Survivors have relayed unspeakable horrors that can only come from demonic hatred, so we should be filled with righteous indignation against the evil perpetrators. God’s people take comfort in the promise of His wrath coming upon the wicked, so we can relate to how Amos’s audience would have cheered at the prospect of their enemies perishing. The wickedness of Hamas against God’s image-bearers—both their hatred for Israelis and their disregard for the suffering of innocent Palestinians—means they deserve every Israeli bomb that falls on them. God’s words through Amos strike a chord today: “So I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour her strongholds….and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish” (Amos 1:7a,8b).
I believe most of the prophecies of Scripture were fulfilled before or during the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in 70 AD (see my church’s series on eschatology). Therefore, I am not suggesting the current Israeli military operation in Gaza fulfills this prophecy. Instead, this is a good reminder that this conflict began long before the destruction of Jerusalem. The biblical nation of Israel and its religion ended at that point, so current Israel and Judaism are different. There has always been only one people of God: the invisible Church of Jews and foreigners who trusted in God, hoped in Jesus, and were regenerated by the Holy Spirit. They were represented visibly by the nation of Israel, but now they are represented visibly by the global Church. Therefore, Israel cannot use texts like Amos to justify military action. Insteast, this text should remind us that God hates the perpetrators of atrocities and promises wrath against them. So if we think Israel’s response to October 7th is extreme, we should remember how much God hates sin against His image-bearers. It is not wrong therefore to have some sense of satisfaction in seeing justice done on Hamas, but as we saw previously, God’s wrath on the wicked should not cause us to be proud but fear (Romans 11:17-24). Since God delights in the wicked repenting and receiving His grace, we too should desire their repentance first and foremost. We should mourn their eternal condemnation and how their wickedness is causing innocent people inside and outside Gaza to suffer and die.
The Enemies of God
The evil of October 7th is so obvious that its universal condemnation should be beyond debate. However, Hamas has received a surprising amount of support in the West where Leftists march in support of Hamas and refuse to condemn their atrocities, sparking a wave of antisemitism. Many of the people supporting this adhere to the religion of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) we discussed last time. In addition to the many observances of the “alphabet abomination” who have declared this their high and holy “Pride Month”, their liturgical calendar declares November Islamophobia Awareness Month. Under the religious doctrine of critical theory, Muslims are oppressed and therefore join racial minorities, women, and the alphabet abomination as allies to be supported against all enemies. This may seem to be an absurd alliance considering the teachings of Islam against such things. But believe it or not, they have a common goal. Radical Muslims want to see the West fall and Islam take over the world. They likely understand the absurdity of the DEI religion but know better than to interrupt an enemy who is making a mistake. If the DEI religion causes the West to fall, it is all the better for them. That radical Muslims find open support within that religion is just icing on the cake.
But if we look a bit deeper, we find that Islam and the DEI religion actually have the same goal. Both—like all other false religions—are opposed to Jesus Christ and seek to halt the spread of His Kingdom. So while they use different tactics, they all fight against Christ and His Church. God builds His Kingdom through godly families, so they try to prevent that, whether through eclipsing them with ungodly families or destroying families with abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, feminism, careerism, and other such means. We should expect as much, because the conflict is between the rule of Christ and the rule of man: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”” (Psalm 2:1-3). The real enemy of God’s people is pride, so the prideful band together against Jesus Christ and His Church, committing atrocities every day all over the world…and God sees (and grieves over) them all. It is astounding that He has not wiped us out completely. The only explanation is that He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping His covenant to His people. The only thing more expansive than God’s hatred of evil is His infinite love for His Church (John 17:23,26).
Sin Worse Than Atrocities
Against the heinous atrocities of Israel’s neighbors, the sin of Judah seems benign: they had rejected God’s Law, following their lies into the sins of their fathers (Amos 2:4). And yet God issues the same decree of destruction, so Judah’s rejection of God’s Law was at least as bad as the atrocities of Israel’s neighbors. While it is easy to point out the sins of Hamas or the Left, we must be ever wary of identifying specks in others’ eyes while ignoring logs in our own (Matthew 7:3-5, Luke 6:40-42). Israel and Judah practiced similar idolatry, but Amos wrote before Judah had commited many of those sins. Therefore, in hindsight we see that Amos’s indictment of Israel was equally applicable to Judah. There was rampant corruption and oppression of the poor and righteous (Amos 2:6) as well as sexual immorality and idolatry that profaned God’s name (Amos 2:7-8). They even forced people to break their vows to God and silenced the prophets (Amos 2:12). Later, we see the women of Samaria described like this:
“Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’ The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks. And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into Harmon,” declares the LORD.
-Amos 4:1-3, ESV
This should sound familiar, as we previously saw Isaiah similarly describe the women of Jerusalem. Amos continues: “Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!” (Amos 4:4-5). This is clearly sarcastic, as God is not commanding them to sin but pointing out the absurdity of their dual lives. They sinned in their idolatry, sexual perversion, oppression, and corruption all while attempting to worship God too as if they were not hypocrites. Many American Christians do the same thing, which is nothing short of blasphemy against God.
But these observations use hindsight, so we must interpret God’s indictment of Judah in light of Amos’s original audience. Though Israel’s sins would ultimately be mimicked by Judah, the only sin Amos explicitly calls out is that Judah has rejected God’s Law in favor of following lies. Rejecting the Mosaic Law was tantamount to rejecting the covenant of God. The Israelites were given a massive blessing by receiving this covenant: “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God…They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises” (Romans 3:1-2,9:4). The longest chapter in the Bible (Psalm 119) is basically a celebration of those blessings. But to whom much is given, much is expected (Luke 12:48), so since God had given them His Word, He expected more from them than any other nation. Judah had chosen to reject parts of the Law, thus rejecting all of it (James 2:10). They were picking and choosing which of God’s laws to honor and which to ignore, thus placing themselves above God and acting as if they knew better than Him. Therefore, the sin of Judah rejecting God’s Law was worse than the atrocities committed by their neighbors.[2] The righteous shudder, grieve, and are filled with indignation just as much by double-minded children of the covenant disregarding God’s commands as unbelievers committing atrocities: “I hate the double-minded, but I love your law” (Psalm 119:113).
Disregarding God’s Commands Today
Clearly, God takes His Law very seriously, so we should too—and that Law was not abolished but fulfilled by Christ (Matthew 5:17). Part of His new covenant was a host of new commands. Even though our salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and independent of our works, Scripture is clear that saving faith causes us to keep those commands (John 14:15-24, James 2:14-26). So we should be even more diligent than the Jews should have been:
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
-Hebrews 10:26-29, ESV
Nevertheless, many American Christians and churches disregard clear commands of Scripture just like Judah did. One popular way to do this is antinomianism, which assumes that any Old Testament command not repeated in the New Testament is no longer binding. But as we saw previously, all of the moral laws are still binding today. But even New Testament commands are often conveniently dismissed by what I call “the cultural cop-out”: explaining away any difficult command by assuming it was only for the culture of the early Church. This is a dangerous assumption. As R.C. Sproul pointed out, if there is any question as to whether a command is cultural or universal, we should err on the side of considering it universal and obeying it. Instead, most American Christians assume these commands are cultural and ignore them.
There are many examples of such disregard for God’s commands. Previously, we have seen how the tithe and Sabbath are both universal, yet few Christians truly practice them. Some of the most blatant disregard revolves around marriage and gender. Men are commanded to be “sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness” (Titus 2:2). Women are commanded to be reverent, pure, kind, and home-focused if married (Titus 2:3-5). Husbands are commanded to love and honor their wives while living with them in an understanding way without being harsh or lazy, while wives are commanded to submit to and respect their husbands while displaying modestly and a gentle and quiet spirit (Ephesians 5:22-33, Colossians 3:18-19, 1 Peter 3:1-7). And while our culture despises children, the Cultural Mandate is still a universal command that is often disregarded by many Christians, who like the culture prioritize everything else above children. Many “one another” commands are also ignored, such as commands to honor each other (Romans 12:10), not be quarrelsome (2 Timothy 2:24), speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), encourage one another, and treat each other with purity (1 Timothy 5:1-2). We are also commanded to avoid grumbling and complaining (Philippians 2:14). Spend any time on social media and you will see these commands disregarded. All authority comes from God, and He has commanded us to submit to that authority, not just in marriage but also in in the church, workplace, and community as well as between children and parents, yet many Christians rebel against this. We are also commanded to honor our pastors, avoid causing division, submit our entire worship service to Scripture (including the songs), and especially love one another, yet many churches are full of divisive armchair Christians and casual worshippers. This list is certainly not exhaustive, so the bottom line is that we must get serious about obeying all of the clear commands of Scripture.
Just like the Mosaic Law, we cannot possibly obey all of these commands all the time, and there is certainly grace when we fail. But we show disdain for our Savior when we blatantly disregard the commands He has given us in His Word. And even though obeying God pits us against many mighty foes, we must not despair but have great hope because our King is sovereign and will bless our obedience to build His Kingdom and ultimately cause every enemy to either bow the knee to Him or be crushed by Him.
I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
-Psalms 2:7-12, ESV
NOTES
[1] Gordon J. Keddie, The Lord Is His Name, Welwyn Commentary Series, Hertfordshire, England: Evangelical Press: 1986: 23–25; Michael Bentley, Opening up Amos, Opening Up Commentary, (Leominster: Day One Publications: 2006: 20–24.
[2] Gordon J. Keddie, The Lord Is His Name, Welwyn Commentary Series, Hertfordshire, England: Evangelical Press: 1986: 28–32; Michael Bentley, Opening up Amos, Opening Up Commentary, (Leominster: Day One Publications: 2006: 49–51.
