If a butterfly dies in the rainforest of Brazil, will it cause a thunderstorm here in Canada? What do you think?
        Some people say that things in our world are so closely linked, in ways that we don’t even fully understand, that this may very well be true.
        Others say - "Get real. There’s no connection between butterflies and rainstorms.... between Brazil and Canada. What happens there and what happens here....... it just happens. What happens to you and what happens to me...... it just happens. Stuff isn’t that connected. Perhaps there’s some effect from one thing to another. But not anything that really matters..... much."

What do you think?
Is there "cause and effect" with what happens here on earth?
Perhaps even with what happens in your life –
        Does what you do cause certain things to happen elsewhere?
        Does your life have an effect somewhere, somehow?
        Does what you do make a difference?
        Does anyone notice?

Would you believe, would you agree that:
        things we do have an affect on those around us, and on the world around us.
Would you believe, would you agree that:
        people around us, the world around us has an affect on us.

        One group of people that needed a lesson in this truth was the people of Israel in Amos' time. They had this crazy notion that, people of God or not, they could carry on much as they pleased -
        doing whatever whenever wherever -
        and it wouldn't matter one whit.

        They could kind of float off into oblivion in their own little corner of the cosmos. Their economic policies, their judicial practices, their religious and spiritual tendencies could develop however they wanted and it wouldn't matter. No one else would be affected. No one else would notice.

        But the truth was otherwise. For there was One who was affected. And that One did notice! And He, God, wasn't about to let them carry on with their foolishness. So he sends the prophet Amos with more words for His disobedient people.

        Please read them with me; words about cause and effect - in general, and in the specific area of the relationship between the Creator of Heaven and Earth and His people.

Cause and effect – figure it out, Israel:
        When a bird blunders into a snare, it snaps.
        When an animal falters the lion catches it and roars.
In other words: Some things have inevitable consequences. They can't be avoided. The one leads automatically to the other. You can count on it.

And one of those tied-together things is well-being of your lives, of your cities... and God's blessings or punishments:
        V.6:"When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?"

You've had disaster after disaster, people. Now catch a hint and recognize that those disasters are the inevitable result of the punishment of God; they are the affect of your ignoring God, and Him coming down hard on you.

        For those of us who step into this prophecy from the outside it may be helpful to understand what it is that Amos is referring to here. You can catch a sampling of that, an overview, in chapter 4.6-11. There it speaks of a variety of natural disasters sent by God:
        crop failures, drought, blight and mildew, insect plagues and more.

Israel had, apparently, endured all these hardships and looked at them as meaningless events; items unrelated to their attitudes and behavior. They were simply coincidence, natural freaks, a combination of bad luck and poor timing.....
                Amos 3 tells them, "Think again!"

        Israel's problem was that they totally disregarded the promises made by God over the centuries to their ancestors. They completely discounted the covenants which had been made, the Divine-Human relationship which had been cultivated over the centuries.
        They didn't care.
        They thought it didn't matter.
They couldn't conceive of any cause-effect relationship between them and God.
        But -- how wrong they were; how totally wrong.

For, brothers and sisters, while the Bible tells us many things about what God is like, the foremost and greatest of His attributes is listed in 1 John 4.16: GOD IS LOVE.
        It is in love that He created the world.
        In love He made the human race.
        In love He walked and talked with them in the cool of the evening.
        In love He promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent.
                It was all in love.

        If you and I are to understand nothing else, let us first and foremost understand that God is a God who desires a relationship with human beings.
        Not that He needs it.
                He simply wants it -- wants it in love.

It is in love that He established a deep bond, a heart-to-heart relationship, a covenant, with the children of Israel. It was a forever-to-be covenant; a relationship as close as husband and wife, as close as parent and child.
        - that intimate
        - that tender

Ps 103:13 "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;"

Isa 49:15 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!"

Comforting images, loving images, tender images
        -- Biblical images of God's loving care for His people.

And Amos alludes to all that
        to that great Heavenly-Earthly covenant relationship
by using the covenant name for God in this prophecy. Do you see in v.6-8 where the word LORD is found? Notice the spelling, all in upper case? That is an indication to the reader that in the original Hebrew manuscripts the letters JHWH were found; Jewish code letters for the personal name of God, which is alternately translated into English as Jahweh, or Jehovah.
        That name, Jahweh, is the name that God only revealed to HIS special covenant people, to his beloved.

But don't let those images lull you into a false sense of complacency, of cheap security, a carelessness about the relationship between you and God.
        For as real as the gentle parenting image of God is, so real also is the fierce, raging image of God which Amos prophecies.
        The God who whispers gently, also roars in horrible rage when His covenant is violated, when His heart-to-heart relationship rejected and ignored.

V.8: The lion has roared - who will not fear?
God's wrath is as real as His love.
        In fact His wrath is born out of His love. It is a wrath born out of rejection; a wrath of holy jealousy.
        Just think about it:
        "It is much more painful when your wife or one of your best friends betrays you or does something to hurt you than when a stranger does so." [Veldkamp]

        While Jahweh is provoked with the disobedience and atrocities of the heathen nations, nothing is so painful to Him, nothing builds so much rage as the arrogant disobedience, the nonchalant disregard of Him by the people of the covenant; the ones for whom He had done so much, to whom He had provided Salvation.

So the Lion roars.
        God cries out in His heavenly jealousy that will tolerate no spiritual mistresses.
        Cause and effect – when one thing happens, another is the natural result:
        The Lion has roared -- who will not fear?
        The sovereign Lord has spoken - who can but prophecy?

When God speaks we HAD BETTER take notice.
For when God speaks, what He commands WILL be accomplished.
The cause of God's voice is never without effect.

Look no further than creation to see that truth.
        And God spoke.... and behold it was very good!

When God speaks out in rage, it is not like that of some human parents who seem to scream continually at their kids, who make threats and never carry through.
        You know, "I'll send you to your room for the rest of the day." An hour later, the kid comes downstairs and watches TV with no further words spoken.
                OR
        "You're grounded for the rest of the month" and the next day the little sinner is back in the street playing road hockey with his friends.

God has spoken.
        Consider the matter carefully. Look at your life. Do you take Him seriously, or not? Do you honor His great love relationship, His covenant that He made for you, or not

God has spoken.
        And Amos has no other choice but to lay out the grim reality before the people.... Whether they like it or not.

God has spoken.
        Now what about us?
        Do we listen? Do we take Him seriously? Do we care... really?
        Oh, we could turn to the secular, atheistic world around us and shake our heads. We could point accusing fingers at the abuses, at the lack of respect for the Lord's name, at the blatant idolatry that pervades our land, at injustices of various sorts. We could do it.

BUT

        That's not the place to begin. It's not the first item on the menu. Job #1 is to look in a mirror and ask,
        "God has spoken. Do I fear?"

Do I take Him really seriously? Do I believe it when He says: 'In so much as you did NOT do it (giving drink, clothing, visit, etc) to one of these little ones, you did NOT do it unto me... go away into eternal darkness'

Do I believe it when He says:
'If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.'
Do I take Him really seriously?

Do I take Him seriously - do I TRUST that He, the Covenant God, means what He says:
        'Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these other things will be given to you as well.'
        Or do we, in effect, turn our back on Him and busy ourselves with lining our own nest, however we have to do that?

Do I take Him seriously when He says in His Word:
        'Bridle your tongue....'

THAT'S job #1 friends;
        before all the finger-pointing, and smug head-shaking.

Job #1 -- looking carefully inside self and figuring out just how BIG an influence I am allowing God to be; how much room I am giving Him in my heart and mind; how willingly and lovingly I am responding to the Covenant God??
        to Jahweh who has sent His one and only Son, so that I, believing in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life in the great eternal splendor of my covenant Father's home!!

Does my relationship with God affect my life as much as my marriage does?
        Is it as important as my job?
        Do I consider it as much as I consider the opinion and value the relationship with my friends and neighbors?

The Lion has roared - who will not fear?

Brothers and sisters, the point of Amos 3 for you and I is NOT first of all to scare hell out of us. It is NOT to blackmail us into a quivering submission to the most Holy God.
        The point is to remind us that when God plays, He plays for keeps. When He binds Himself to a people in Love, He means it! And He demands that His people mean it, too.

And so tonight, as you hear the voice of God roaring in your heart, listen to it carefully.
        Listen to the roar of the Lion!
        And then run. Run as fast as you can. Run to flee the eternal wrath of God. Flee it by running straight into the arms of the One who is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev 5.5); the One who is also the Lamb that was slain to take away the sins of the world.
        For those who bow down to, and who fear with a holy fear the roaring of the Lion, who take God seriously and submit every corner of their lives to Him, are also those who will, one day in glory, be able to sing the song of the Lamb.