Amo 5:21-27 | KingComments | STEP | It is as if, between this verse and the previous one, we hear the reproachful question from Amos’ contemporaries as to how he can make such terrible threats in their direction. Surely they are faithful sons of Israel who serve the LORD as meticulously as possible, aren’t they? They make sacrifices, have meetings, sing their songs. Amos unmasks their outward appearance. Israel is so blind to their sinful state that they continue to keep religious feasts and gatherings in the assumption that God will be very happy with them. They live in the false confidence of being God’s chosen people, with whom it cannot go wrong, certainly not if they satisfy Him. Many people have such an idea about God. They live for themselves, but sometimes they give God something in the form of a regular visit to church or meeting. After all, once a year at Christmas is also regular. Then He has nothing to grumble about. God speaks here of “your festivals” and “your solemn assemblies”. These are their festivals and solemn assemblies and not “the LORD’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations” which He calls “My appointed times” ( ). This is also how we read in the days of the Lord Jesus on earth about “the Passover” as “the feast of the Jews” ( ). The feasts celebrated by the people were conceived by Jeroboam, the first king of the ten tribes realm ( ). Afraid that his subjects would go to Jerusalem to serve God, he set up fake feasts to be held at the golden calves in Bethel and Dan. It all looks a bit like the feasts of the LORD prescribed by law, but in reality they are idol feasts. God hates all such religious fuss. To Him it is nothing more than a form service. He sees through their hypocrisy and abhors it (cf. ). His people, who come to Him with great words, behave toward Him as one “who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning”, but “it will be reckoned a curse to him” ( ). What the LORD desires is “truth in the innermost being” ( ). “No delight” is literally “not like the smell” has to do with what they believe to be a “fragrant smell”. God turns up His nose at it, He detests such feasts and assemblies.

‏ Amos 5:21-27

God Disgusts Fake

It is as if, between this verse and the previous one, we hear the reproachful question from Amos’ contemporaries as to how he can make such terrible threats in their direction. Surely they are faithful sons of Israel who serve the LORD as meticulously as possible, aren’t they? They make sacrifices, have meetings, sing their songs.

Amos unmasks their outward appearance. Israel is so blind to their sinful state that they continue to keep religious feasts and gatherings in the assumption that God will be very happy with them. They live in the false confidence of being God’s chosen people, with whom it cannot go wrong, certainly not if they satisfy Him.

Many people have such an idea about God. They live for themselves, but sometimes they give God something in the form of a regular visit to church or meeting. After all, once a year at Christmas is also regular. Then He has nothing to grumble about.

God speaks here of “your festivals” and “your solemn assemblies”. These are their festivals and solemn assemblies and not “the LORD’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations” which He calls “My appointed times” (Lev 23:2). This is also how we read in the days of the Lord Jesus on earth about “the Passover” as “the feast of the Jews” (Jn 6:4). The feasts celebrated by the people were conceived by Jeroboam, the first king of the ten tribes realm (1Kgs 12:33). Afraid that his subjects would go to Jerusalem to serve God, he set up fake feasts to be held at the golden calves in Bethel and Dan. It all looks a bit like the feasts of the LORD prescribed by law, but in reality they are idol feasts.

God hates all such religious fuss. To Him it is nothing more than a form service. He sees through their hypocrisy and abhors it (cf. Isa 1:11-15). His people, who come to Him with great words, behave toward Him as one “who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning”, but “it will be reckoned a curse to him” (Pro 27:14). What the LORD desires is “truth in the innermost being” (Psa 51:6).

“No delight” is literally “not like the smell” has to do with what they believe to be a “fragrant smell”. God turns up His nose at it, He detests such feasts and assemblies.

God Does Not Look at Their Offerings

There are three offerings: burnt offerings, grain offerings and peace offerings. These are the three voluntary offerings described in Leviticus 1-3. But where are the sin offerings? It is remarkable that these are not mentioned. The people are not aware of their sinful state. How lovely it is to celebrate together. God loves it when His children have fun. Do you think He always wants to be reminded of all those negative things? No sadness. Laughing and being happy, that’ s what it’s all about!

The peace offering of the fatlings is a meal offering, a community offering. Enjoying together all the good things God has given. We make songs that express our joy. And when you ask if God is also happy with it, that is asking for the known way. Of course He is. The service has to connect with our time. Well organized, smooth songs, powerful, especially short, sermon, cheerful people. Clap your hands, stamp your feet. Express your feelings. Feel happy.

Isn’t it up to Him to determine the form and content of the service? In practice, the roles are reversed. He gets more and more the role of Spectator instead of the Center about Whom everything revolves. The human being becomes more and more the center about whom everything revolves. God is not satisfied with that. He cannot do that, not for Himself and not for His people. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom 11:36). Where He is not the absolute Center, He cannot be. He turns away from such offerings, He does not want to see them.

For those who believe that God is satisfied with everything as long as it is sincerely done, this discovery is shocking. Certainly, the Father seeks worshippers, but He gives His conditions: “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:23-24). He wants to be worshiped in a spiritual way and in accordance with the way He has revealed Himself in His Word, which is the truth.

God Does Not Listen to Their Expressions of Joy

Besides the sacrifices, there is also the music, which enlivens the festivals. Here too the homemade worship service in Bethel resembles the true worship service in Jerusalem (1Chr 16:40). It is all surrogate. Because it is purely about entertainment and the right mind of the heart is lacking, God does not want to hear it. Just as with the offerings, which we now bring in a spiritual sense, so it is also with the music. We find no indications for the use of musical instruments in the New Testament meetings of the church. The more man and his experience become central, the louder the call for their use will become.

In itself, the use of musical instruments in church meetings is the introduction of something from Judaism into Christianity. We can read in His Word, especially in the letter to the Galatians, that God does not tolerate any mixture between Christianity and Judaism.

But even if we would be free of Judaism and sing our songs beautifully in four voices and without musical accompaniment, the question remains whether our hearts are really focused on the Father and the Son.

Someone once said: ‘On Sundays I am a Christian, but during the week I am a businessman.’ All kinds of variations on this are conceivable. God is not keen on such an attitude. Then on Sunday you can say thanksgiving in beautiful sentences, but He does not hear it. To Him it is “noise”, of which He says: ‘Take away from My presence!’

It Is About Justice and Righteousness

What God wants is justice and righteousness in dealing with one another as members of His people. Amos has already sharply denounced their wrongful actions and the trampling on righteousness. Their lives are imbued with it. They have wronged the law in wormwood and brought righteousness to the ground (Amos 5:7). They are abundant in committing injustice. This has to change into a benevolent flow of justice and righteousness. Without this change, their entire outward worship has no value. Justice and righteousness must be allowed to run free, without anything to hold them back or set them aside.

Another view is that Amos here points to justice and righteousness that will strike Israel as a judgment of God because of the aforementioned things, and that nothing can stop this judgment. The judgment as an exercise of righteousness awaits Israel, and the world.

No Sacrifices

The prophet asks the question to indicate that they did not. It is possible that just as they neglected circumcision in the wilderness (Jos 5:5), they also neglected to sacrifice. It is plausible that they may have sacrificed quite a bit, but a lot was lacking in worship (cf. Isa 43:23).

By the way, it is questionable whether this verse is exclusively a reproach. It may be that the LORD means to say that, just as in the land now, it was not primarily about their sacrifices in the wilderness, but about their hearts (cf. Jer 7:22-23). Also in the wilderness, the sacrifices were not the main thing, but the doing of righteousness.

Amos compares the well-organized sacrificial service of his contemporaries with the sacrificial service during the forty-year wilderness journey. At that time sacrifices were almost not brought. The fact that God also remembers that time as a period in which the people followed Him (Jer 2:2; Hos 2:14), stems solely from His love and grace. In spite of their persistent idolatry, He has also seen expressions of love for Him. He does not forget these expressions. There are no such expressions in Amos’ days.

This verse can therefore also be seen as a ray of His grace that contrasts sharply with the situation in the midst of which Amos finds himself and which he denounces. Unrighteousness and violence prevail, the poor are oppressed, God’s Name is dishonored and terrible idolatry is committed.

Idolatry in the Wilderness

When the LORD asks in the previous verse: “Did you present Me with sacrifices?”, that question echoes God’s exclusive right to sacrifice. He asks, as it were: ‘Have you sacrificed only to Me and to no one else?’ If God is not served completely and alone, He is not served at all. This principle is always valid. God never shares His honor with anyone or anything else. That is why it is hurtful to give honor to other gods together with a service to God.

The previous verse deals with Israel’s behavior in the wilderness. Maybe there is a thought of grace connected to that verse, in this verse it is unthinkable. Amos points to sheer idolatry. That Israel committed idolatry in the wilderness is clear through the history with the golden calf (Exo 32:1-6).

The service with the golden calf in Bethel in Amos’ time is only a renewal of the golden calf in the wilderness. The golden calf then and that in Bethel under Jeroboam II shows the spiritual bond that exists between the condition of the people in the time of Amos and their original position when they were brought out of Egypt by the grace and power of the LORD.

It did not stop with the golden calf. After the punishment for sin with the golden calf, they did not stop serving the idols. Amos speaks about how they surrendered all their history to idolatry. Stephen quotes these verses from Amos in his speech to the Council to prove this (Acts 7:39-43). The people boasted of a service to God, but the power of the quote is that they did not sacrifice to God, but to the idols. The people have always served the idols. Their origin is connected with the idols. Abraham’s family served the idols before God called Abraham (Jos 24:2). The people served them in Egypt (Jos 24:14) and also in the wilderness (Amos 5:25-27).

There is a clear reproach in this verse that Israel was guilty of idolatry early in its existence. Stubbornly, in ever new forms, they persisted in it.

In what Amos says here, there is another principle that contains an important lesson for us. The principle is that God, when He judges, always goes back to the first sin. The lesson is that it is important for an astray Christian to go back to the moment when he went outside of fellowship with God for the first time. The moment of the deviation must be sought and confessed. The root must be judged, not just the deed.

Into Exile

In Amos 5:25 we have a look back into the past, Amos 5:26 places us in the practice of Amos’ days, while in Amos 5:27 we have the future for our attention. The people have filled the land with their appalling idolatry because their hearts are filled with it. God will purify His land of idolatry by removing its workers out of it. They have imported the pagan idols, God will export the idolaters. They will be taken away with their idols, even beyond the country of Syria, of which Damascus is the capital.

“Beyond Damascus”, that is the road to Assyria. Stephen also says “beyond Babylon” (Acts 7:43) when he addresses the descendants of the returnees from the Babylonian exile, the remnant of the two tribes. They will be scattered beyond Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem.

Thus it will surely happen, for He Who says this is “the LORD”, the God of the covenant. Because of the breaking of His covenant by His people He has the right to act in this way with His people. His Name is “God of hosts”. He also has the power to fulfill His purpose, whereby all heavenly and earthly hosts are available to Him.