THE CURSE OF AMAZIAH
THE CURSE OF AMAZIAH
Amos 7:17
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
These are critical times. These are defining times. The world’s systems are in upheaval as well as the nation of the United States of America.
The Church is to make God’s wisdom known to powers and principalities: To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Eph. 3: 10-11)
Tuesday morning while preaching on Amos 7:17, I identified the curse of Amaziah with Nancy Pelosi’s presumptuous presentation of the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate as a spiritual act by her and her colleagues. She presumed a role of the priesthood in her demeanor, tenor, and action. She presented the action as coming from a sanctuary thus giving the articles false credence of being “sanctified.”
Amaziah was a priest in the sanctuary at Bethel during the reign of King Jeroboam over the northern kingdom of Israel.
Amaziah was a corrupt priest and had not been ordained by the LORD to serve before the LORD as a Priest. The Bethel sanctuary was the King’s sanctuary, and was never ordained by God. The Lord’s only sanctuary was the temple in Jerusalem which was commissioned to David and Solomon.
Thus Amaziah is a false (fake) priest in a sanctuary not sanctified by the LORD, thus a false sanctuary ordered and built by man, but not by the LORD.
Why is this important at this time?
- “The Lord is separating the true church from those who are called his church.”
- “The Lord is busting up rings of darkness in D.C.”
I am preaching on this today because of a dream the LORD gave me Friday night. Before going to bed, I asked the LORD what I should preach about this Sunday. These are very serious times and I am not presumptuous just to preach to be preaching.
- This past week school prayer was returned to our schools. This is phenomenal; but, it hardly made the news.
- We have a new trade deal with China.
- We have the North America trade deal ratified by the Senate and signed by the President.
- The stock market hit all time highs.
- The Iranian crisis faded away even though the media tried to keep stirring it.
- The Speaker of the House sent the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate.
DREAM GIVEN TO CAROLYN SISSOM 1//18/20: “I was called to preach at a very large Church. The Pastor of the church was out of town. Our congregation went with me to be supportive. The congregation of the host church was so large it was difficult for me to see in the four corners of the auditorium. It was very crowded with some people standing against the walls.
When I stepped into the pulpit, a lady walked up to the platform with boxes of Christmas gifts. She wanted to solicit the congregation for a church sale to raise money for the children’s department. I asked her to sit down and wait until after the service to raise her money.
I didn’t have sermon notes with me. I opened my bible and went straight to Amos 7:17. When I opened my mouth to start preaching, I began to weep. I looked over at Jo Ann and she had a shocked look on her face as did Allen Farley. Sandra was leaned over with that look of something is about to happen. She seemed to have trust for the best outcome.
I walked down from the platform barely able to talk because I am sobbing uncontrollably. I began to walk among the people asking them to repent of sexual immorality. I began to see mostly men and boys. The woman seemed to fade from my view. I asked some of the boys their names, but couldn’t minister to them because I was weeping so that I could not talk. I looked to see if the pews were emptying up and people leaving the service, but only the men standing against the wall were not in view.
Since I was unable to preach after delivering Amos 7:17 and calling out sexual immorality in the congregation, I didn’t know anything to do but sit down. The Eastgate Church Family had their heads down, hopefully praying. The people were playing with their cell phones and fellowshipping without realizing the Holy Spirit was so grieved that His Prophetic voice was weeping over the congregation.
I felt dejected when I sat down that I had failed to deliver the people to make them stronger. Two boys about 10-12 years old came to me and each one kissed me on the cheek” (end of dream).
Amos was from the southern kingdom of Judah and sent by the LORD from herding the sheep to speak God’s words of judgment to the land, the people, the King, the sanctuary and in Amos, chapter 7, the judgment to Amaziah, the priest.
Amos was a prophet of Justice. His message can be summed up in righteousness and justice to be understood as what God requires; not the social standards of the times. The prophecy of Amos is God’s response to injustice and unrighteousness. God’s true prophets are always sent at the last “hour” before God’s judgment falls.
His words are directed in three areas:
- The administration of justice in the law courts.
- The affluence of the wealthy (elite).
- The state of worship which was empty in content though full of ritual.
The legal processes were totally corrupted and were used as an instrument of oppression.
At this time, the fortunes of the northern kingdom of Israel reached their highest point of prosperity and peace. Jeroboam’s father, Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the LORD (2 Ki. 12:2).
Prosperity brought immorality and they moved away from the God of their fathers. Judgment was already at the door. Like the lion ready to spring on its prey so God was ready to bring judgment upon His people.
Vision of the Plumb Line:
Amos 7:7Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, in His hand.
And the LORD said to
me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the
Lord said:
“Behold, I am setting a plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel;
I will not pass by them anymore.
The high places of Isaac shall be
desolate,
And the sanctuaries of Israel
shall be laid waste.
I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam.”
The LORD dropped his plumb line of “true” and He removed His presence from the land. There was no hope for the future of Jeroboam’s Israel. The rest is history.
Amos sees the Lord standing on a wall with a plumb line in his hand. The plumb line is a lead weight attached to a line to ensure walls were perpendicular. The plumb line is set among my people Israel and reveals the desperate state of the structure of Israel’s society. The twin pillars of religion and a just social order which should support the nation are so far out of true that they must be pulled down.
Hence the high places and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined and the house of Jeroboam (exemplifying the civil order will be exterminated).
The visions are interrupted at this point by an accusation by the priest of Bethel, Amaziah. Amos’ words would be viewed as a conspiracy and a direct threat to the king.
Amaziah’s Complaint
Amos 7:10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words
“For
thus Amos has said:
‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
And Israel
shall surely be led away captive
From their own land.’ ”
Amaziah knew the power of the prophetic words’ affect on the land and the people. When a prophet is able to get his message across to this extent, it affects men living in rebellion. Either the Words of the Prophet will bring repentance and revival or the Word will bring riots.
Jesus’ Words of righteousness caused the rioting of the people to nail Him to the Cross; as did Paul’s words.
Amaziah attempts to throw Amos out of northern Israel, the city and the sanctuary. When the true plumb line goes deep, it separates the true from the false.
Amos 7:12Then
Amaziah said to Amos:
“Go,
you seer!
Flee to the land
of Judah.
There eat bread,
And there prophesy.
But never again prophesy at Bethel,
For it is the king’s sanctuary,
And it is the royal residence.”
Amaziah insults Amos by telling him to earn his bread prophesying. He is humiliating him insinuating he is a professional prophet. Amos sets him straight and says He was sent with a message by the LORD.
Amos 7:14n Amos answered, and said to
Amaziah:
“I
was no prophet,
Nor was I a son of a
prophet,
But I was a sheep breeder
And a tender of sycamore fruit.
Then the LORD took me
as I followed the flock,
And the LORD said to
me,
‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’
Now therefore, hear the word of the LORD:
Amos is denying an association with the prophetic schools and emphasizes that he was taught of the LORD. His calling was not his choice, but the Lord took him and said to him, Go prophesy… He had been taken from his sheep to fulfill the divine mandate. His status depended on the divine call, not his own choice, and it is clear that the convictions of Amos were very different from those of contemporary prophets.
Amos 16b-17: You say, ‘Do not
prophesy against Israel,
And do not spout against the house of Isaac.’
Therefore thus says the LORD:
‘Your wife shall be a
harlot in the city;
Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword;
Your land shall be divided by survey
line;
You shall die in a defiled land;
And Israel
shall surely be led away captive
From his own land.’ ”
Amos now declares God’s punishment on Amaziah face to face. This is the curse of Amaziah. His wife would only be able to find a living as a prostitute in the city. His family would fall by the sword. His land would be divided up among the conquerors and he himself would end his days as an exile in a foreign country, a defiled land that is a land of foreign gods.
We are fighting wickedness in heavenly places; the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ… (2 Cor. 4:4 NIV).
In my dream, the “Church” was blind to the visitation of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ is the righteous divine measure, the criterion by which all men are judged. Jesus was not welcome among religious Pharisees and Sadducees. Believers made the righteousness of God in Christ have been apprehended to come to the measure of His fullness and declare his “true” measure. God places a higher value on justice and righteousness than on temporal materialism, the things that money will buy---Godliness with contentment is great gain.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church