Basic Markets: Supply and Demand
How are prices set, you might be asking? Why does the price move up when demand is high and down when its low? What is demand? And supply?
Demand is essentially what it says it is: it is how much of a certain product people demand in a certain area. It is the amount people are willing and able to buy. Eg if people in Imbali buy 50 bags of maize-meal per day, the demand for maize-meal in Imbali is 50 bags.
Supply is similar. I produce 50 bags a day. I supply 50 bags per day. It is the amount people are willing and able to sell.
So, how are prices set? Easiest is to draw a graph. Y-axis (vertical) is price, X-axis (horizontal) is quantity (amount). In Imbali, if I try to sell my maize-meal at R100 a bag, how many people will buy? Maybe one very silly person! Ie: the demand is one. But if that person wanted to buy all my bags would I agree? Of course! I would sell all my bags! Therefore, supply would be 50 bags.
Thus at the same price of R100, demand is 1 and supply is 50.
If the price was R1, what would happen? Well, I might be willing to sell one bag as a special deal, but probably not more. Supply = 1. And demand? Well, everyone would want to buy at that price! Demand = 50.
What actually happens is that the price is set where demand = supply.
How? Well, the producer lowers the price until the goods start to be sold. If he just keeps on producing he’ll be swamped with his product!
The customers will start to buy when the price reaches what they think its worth. Eg: if you thought R2.50 was a good deal for a bag of maize-meal, you would buy when the price reaches R2.50. If it doesn’t, you won’t buy it - you’ll buy something else instead.
Profit hunting - the price equaliser
Profit = Selling Price - Cost [Eg: Price = R2.50, Cost = R1.50, Profit then = R1]
If profits are high somewhere, people can make money - so they all come running. Of course this increases supply - supply becomes more. Now there are more products to sell, so the producers have to lower the price to sell them (look at the graph of the demand curve - to increase quantity the price must come down). The price lowers until there is no more huge profits to be made, and the market rests.
The Business: Setting Prices
You’ve just opened a small business. You know how prices are set. You look at the market and see that your type of product sells for R50. If your costs are above R50 what happens? Either you go out of business, or you become more efficient and reduce your costs! What if you reduce your costs to R40? Well, you can set your price at R45 and still earn a nice profit, while everyone will come and buy your product because it’s cheaper and just as good as everyone else’s.
So we can see that the market ensures that only the most efficient people survive. This benefits everyone, because people are channelled into where their talents can be used effectively. If they fail in one area, they try in another until they succeed, and that is where they belong.
Global competition is therefore good for us! It makes sure that those who are ineffective go out of business, or it forces them to eliminate wasted costs to get costs and prices down to competitive levels - and that means cheaper products for us in the shops.
Interest
What is interest, and why do people like banks charge interest?
Think of a house. To live in it, you pay rent to the owner. In the kraal, you served the chief for the right to stay in his village - ie you rented the right to stay in the village from the chief. You paid by serving him. If I wanted to use your cow for a month, you would charge me for it. I would have to rent your cow, because you wouldn’t be able to use it for milk or whatever. You gave up your cow for a while, so I had to pay you for that.
Now money is similar to a cow. If I have some money, I could use it now and buy something with it. But if you want to borrow it for a month I have to give up buying that thing for a whole month. You must compensate me for that. I might also need my money in that time, but because I lent it to you I can’t use it. You must therefore pay me for the risk I take in not having access to my money (if eg car breaks down, or someone is sick). [You also need to compensate me for inflation decreasing the value of my money].
Therefore interest is like rent on money, like rent on a cow, house or any other thing. In fact, money actually represents all those other things, because with it I can buy a house or cow or anything else - so it’s almost as if you are renting those things from me, just through my money. Money represents what can be purchased in the economy.
Inflation
Why can’t the government just print more money?
Money represents goods in the economy. Lets say we have one cow. Its worth R100.
Thus R100 = Cow.
But you can print more money, and you print another R100. Now there is R200, but there is still only one cow. How much is the cow worth now? It can’t be worth R100, because what happens to the other R100 - it becomes worthless.
Thus R200 = Cow.
Therefore, by printing more money without increasing the goods available in the economy you are just making your money more worthless.
(In a sense, inflation is like a tax - the government takes away some of your money’s worth by printing too much.)
Tax
Tax is the Government’s way of getting paid for the work it does. It provides public services - services which may not be profitable (therefore nobody would do it - like post offices in rural areas), or which are too big for one company (like the road network).
It is also a way of distributing wealth. In SA the rich are taxed more than the poorer people - we have a sliding scale. The more you earn, the more tax you pay (from 18% up to 42%).
The problem with this is it can remove people’s incentive to work harder, as they don’t gain as much as they should because so much goes to the taxman. But we need such a system to be more equitable and to try to minimise the gap between rich and poor.
Trade Unions
Are only effective when faced with abusive monopoly-powered employers. In free market this is generally not the case. Trade Unions push wages above the proper price, and labour becomes too expensive. But the company must cut costs to compete globally (otherwise it goes bankrupt, and everybody loses their jobs!). Labour is expensive, so machines become a cheaper option! Machines are brought in and jobs are cut so that the wage costs stay the same as they were before the increase.
Trade Unions in SA have lead to GREATER UNEMPLOYMENT! They are too powerful, and look after only themselves. Wages are too high, leading to machines, and no possibility of employment for the unskilled. Trade Unions are there to serve their members: the skilled workers. They DO NOT serve the unemployed unskilled masses, even though they say they do. This is a complete lie, because they know that their wages would fall if their jobs were opened to unskilled people. SO the trade unions actually WANT machines, because they are the only one skilled enough to work them - their wages goes up - and so does unemployment.
The poverty gap grows larger.
{Obviously business has a part to play as well! Unemployment is not just the trade unions fault - but they do not help!}
[Eg: In England, trade unions were crippling the economy in the late 1970's. Maggie Thatcher took them on and broke their power from striking. UK economy grew stronger - today 5th largest in world and growing.]
Note that strikes often hurt the strikers! They end up with less pay overall than if they had accepted company’s demands. It’s merely a power-play by the bosses, and labour gets caught in the middle.
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Understanding basic economics....part 1
A recent discussion on the pros and cons of socialism and capitalism prompted me to pull out a little presentation I (Daniel) did on basic economics. Some of you may find it handy!
Global systems
Let’s start with the big picture: Global economic systems. There are two fundamental types:
Communism
It is a system of central control. The government controls the whole economy from the centre, through the civil service (bureaucracy). It sets prices and tells people what to produce and how much to produce.
Advantages:
He must also be able to handle millions of decisions per second, and enact them immediately. In other words he must be omniscient (all-seeing) and omnipotent (all-powerful).
In short, he must be God! The reason why Communism fails is that it fails to see that the heart of man is sinful.
Capitalism
In its pure form it is a system of no central control whatsoever. Every person makes his own decision about what to make or what to buy. In making these decision, prices are agreed upon (we’ll look at this a little later), and we now have a VALUE placed on the goods. This value can be compared to all the other values in the economy. This then gives us the INFORMATION we need to make the decisions necessary to keep the economy running.
Advantages:
Therefore what we have in the world is social capitalism: Government acts like a referee with police and the justice system and laws to make sure that everyone plays fair. The problem is also that the Government can be corrupted, but at least a democratic government with two strong parties can watch over each other to minimise corruption.
The Government also levies progressive taxes, i.e.: they tax rich people more than poorer people to distribute wealth.
(Socialism is a milder form of communism: Government acts as a “Big Brother” to look after its people. In its pure form it controls the economy centrally (‘Public’ [Government] ownership of companies and resources). Pure socialism fails for the same reasons as communism.)
Summary
In summary, the system which handles information best is the capitalist system, with its price information machine.
The system which best handles the problem of human sin is a socialist capitalist system. It uses people’s greed for society’s good to produce real value prices, and then has a referee, the Government, to ensure that nobody acts like a bully.
Coming up... understanding supply and demand, profits, setting prices, interest, inflation and tax :-)
Global systems
Let’s start with the big picture: Global economic systems. There are two fundamental types:
- Communism
- Capitalism, or the “free market” economy.
Communism
It is a system of central control. The government controls the whole economy from the centre, through the civil service (bureaucracy). It sets prices and tells people what to produce and how much to produce.
Advantages:
- It can easily ensure equitable distribution of economic goods between people.
- It can eliminate the poverty gap.
- All men are placed on an equal footing.
- The advantages are hardly ever realised - the people in control become corrupt, and they and their friends become rich while others starve.
- A large, modern-day economy is almost impossible to keep track of, let alone run! There are myriads of decisions which must be made each SECOND which a centrally-controlled economy cannot keep pace with. What happens is that decisions are made on wrong or old information, and then by the time the decision is implemented, the situation has changed. Thus, in the old USSR there were all sorts of shortages all the time, even in such basics as toilet paper!
He must also be able to handle millions of decisions per second, and enact them immediately. In other words he must be omniscient (all-seeing) and omnipotent (all-powerful).
In short, he must be God! The reason why Communism fails is that it fails to see that the heart of man is sinful.
Capitalism
In its pure form it is a system of no central control whatsoever. Every person makes his own decision about what to make or what to buy. In making these decision, prices are agreed upon (we’ll look at this a little later), and we now have a VALUE placed on the goods. This value can be compared to all the other values in the economy. This then gives us the INFORMATION we need to make the decisions necessary to keep the economy running.
Advantages:
- Prices are like information machines. This conquers the first disadvantage of the communist system.
- The second disadvantage (that of humans being sinful) is partially conquered in a capitalist system. This system recognises that people are greedy and act in their own best interest. What happens is that people always try to get the best price - they haggle with each other until they reach a suitable price. With hundreds of people all getting the price they want, the average of all those prices, because of all this selfish effort, actually reflects the true value of the good to people in society, therefore allowing correct decisions to be made. The price reflects the value that society places on the good. So Capitalism harnesses people’s selfishness and greed for society’s good - the information that prices give us is correct information and accurately reflects its value, allowing the right decisions to be made!
- Problem is when people become too powerful they can force others to accept unfair prices. They can also pollute rivers and so on which don’t have any prices. Again, pure capitalism fails because of the sinfulness of man (people do not act in the best interests of everyone else).
- Capitalism does not distribute wealth, and does not look after those who unable to contribute economically
Therefore what we have in the world is social capitalism: Government acts like a referee with police and the justice system and laws to make sure that everyone plays fair. The problem is also that the Government can be corrupted, but at least a democratic government with two strong parties can watch over each other to minimise corruption.
The Government also levies progressive taxes, i.e.: they tax rich people more than poorer people to distribute wealth.
(Socialism is a milder form of communism: Government acts as a “Big Brother” to look after its people. In its pure form it controls the economy centrally (‘Public’ [Government] ownership of companies and resources). Pure socialism fails for the same reasons as communism.)
Summary
In summary, the system which handles information best is the capitalist system, with its price information machine.
The system which best handles the problem of human sin is a socialist capitalist system. It uses people’s greed for society’s good to produce real value prices, and then has a referee, the Government, to ensure that nobody acts like a bully.
Coming up... understanding supply and demand, profits, setting prices, interest, inflation and tax :-)
Thursday, 5 November 2009
God in the dark
The last few days have been hard. I have felt very empty after my mother has left. And as the homesickness has intensified the doubts set in: what if we made a mistake in moving here? What if we can't or don't do what we want to do here for the gospel? And of course these doubts grow and grow and get more general until I am wondering if the gospel is in fact true at all. It is a downward spiral, all negative self talk is. But, as I am a child of the King, because He loves me and saved me and has a relationship with me in spite of myself, He stepped in once again. He guided, spoke to and encouraged me out of the slump, in so many wonderful ways.
He reminded me to rejoice as Daniel and I have been reading Philippians in our evening bible readings. We have every reason to rejoice as Christians. And this book is so encouraging, as we see Paul leaving what is behind and striving ahead to the goal of perfection and heaven.
He brought across my path some of Spurgeon's writings just when I needed them most. Only minutes after a time of prayer that consisted mainly of me crying and unable to articulate my thoughts or feelings to God, let alone pray as I should, self sacrificially, a dear friend Emailed me these words of his:
"Prayers are instantly noticed in heaven. The moment Saul began to pray the Lord heard him. Here is comfort for the distressed but praying soul. Oftentimes a poor broken-hearted one bends his knee, but can only utter his wailing in a language of sighs and tears; yet that groan has made all the harps of heaven thrill with music; that tear has been caught by God...."
And he has provided great comfort in reminding me that it is right we are here, in giving me a great sense of excitement for the future here, and expectation of what He is going to do. We are loving it here, and all the reasons why were, by His doing, stark in my mind this week. He has also provided encouragement through friends and family who have been so loving towards me.
This emotional roller coaster ride has been played out against the backdrop of an increasingly dark world. The days are getting darker and darker, we are talking middle of the afternoon sun sets. It feels as if the world is shrinking, that the sky is getting lower and lower. I kept thinking of the big African sky, there is nothing like it. But then God opened His storehouses, and let it snow - giving my soul yet another source of encouragement!
Snow is just wonderful, it changes winter completely. It reflects the light making the world brighter, it changes the gloomy scene into a fairytale land. And just when I was wondering if I had enough books, crafts, and ENERGY to keep my kids entertained indoors until Christmas, we woke up to a child's play paradise. Snow is enormously entertaining. It is as fun, healthy, diverse, and luxurious as a day at the beach. There is something wonderful in all weather. God is good.
Woohooo!! Snow!
Making snow castles!
You can EAT them after you build them!!
Not quite suntan weather....but that will come in the Jan snow!
A beautifully transformed neighbourhood.
Cheer in the darkness.
He reminded me to rejoice as Daniel and I have been reading Philippians in our evening bible readings. We have every reason to rejoice as Christians. And this book is so encouraging, as we see Paul leaving what is behind and striving ahead to the goal of perfection and heaven.
He brought across my path some of Spurgeon's writings just when I needed them most. Only minutes after a time of prayer that consisted mainly of me crying and unable to articulate my thoughts or feelings to God, let alone pray as I should, self sacrificially, a dear friend Emailed me these words of his:
"Prayers are instantly noticed in heaven. The moment Saul began to pray the Lord heard him. Here is comfort for the distressed but praying soul. Oftentimes a poor broken-hearted one bends his knee, but can only utter his wailing in a language of sighs and tears; yet that groan has made all the harps of heaven thrill with music; that tear has been caught by God...."
And he has provided great comfort in reminding me that it is right we are here, in giving me a great sense of excitement for the future here, and expectation of what He is going to do. We are loving it here, and all the reasons why were, by His doing, stark in my mind this week. He has also provided encouragement through friends and family who have been so loving towards me.
This emotional roller coaster ride has been played out against the backdrop of an increasingly dark world. The days are getting darker and darker, we are talking middle of the afternoon sun sets. It feels as if the world is shrinking, that the sky is getting lower and lower. I kept thinking of the big African sky, there is nothing like it. But then God opened His storehouses, and let it snow - giving my soul yet another source of encouragement!
Snow is just wonderful, it changes winter completely. It reflects the light making the world brighter, it changes the gloomy scene into a fairytale land. And just when I was wondering if I had enough books, crafts, and ENERGY to keep my kids entertained indoors until Christmas, we woke up to a child's play paradise. Snow is enormously entertaining. It is as fun, healthy, diverse, and luxurious as a day at the beach. There is something wonderful in all weather. God is good.
Woohooo!! Snow!
Making snow castles!
The wonderful thing about snow castles (that sand castles can't offer) is......
You can EAT them after you build them!!
Not quite suntan weather....but that will come in the Jan snow!
A beautifully transformed neighbourhood.
More light in the house.
Cheer in the darkness.
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Good bye mom
A black cloud has been growing over the last few days, as the inevitable has been approaching. My mom left today. My stomach knotted into a nauseas mess, my chest tightened causing that increasingly familiar claustrophobic feeling. It just sucks.
She, being her typical other person centred self, insisted on taking the nearly 3 hour journey to the airport on the bus. I must say this did ease the good bye. It was so drawn out with my dad, sitting all that time in the car, the horrible hanging about at the airport, and the long, empty drive back. But coming into the house after seeing her off on the bus was awful.
The whole time we kept saying, 'I can't believe you are in front of me!' It was so wonderful to have her right there to hug and touch and look at, having those conversations that just grow as they go, with no reason or point. Just being together and enjoying each other. It was such a warm wonderful time.
She did find it hard, seeing how final it is that we have moved. Seeing how settled we are here, and how right it is for us to be here. It is great and helpful, but also hard. I have found that too, every wall we finished painting, every friend we have made, when we found the perfect school for Kristin, the perfect job for Daniel, the ideas we got for the farm as we stood on the soil and got inspired, every step has been exciting, but has also revealed the finality of moving here. This is it. Here we are.
It is great and wonderful, and we are happy, but at moments like this it is very, very sad. Too sad for words. I don't know when I will see her again. We live such different lives, in such different worlds.
But it was a great visit, and so necessary. She got to see how I lived, where I lived. It was so helpful seeing my new world through her fresh eyes, and explaining things to her, showing her things and sharing reactions with her. She loved all she saw and experienced, even though she was a bit cold! The 2 weeks flew by so quickly. We packed in a lot. On Thursday Daniel's parents took us to their cabin for lunch.
The cabin is very important in Norwegian culture. It is the get away, and the more secluded it is the better. Most modern ones have water and electricity, but ours doesn't. It is deep in the forest on our farm, and the most delightful thing.
Inside the cabin.
The food was made on an old oven.
The last few days my mom and I talked a lot, while drinking lots of coffee. It was so nice. We spoke about everything and nothing. Ministry opportunities here. How we felt about being apart. People we both love. The children. My childhood. Her childhood. It was awesome. Definitely worth the pain of saying good bye.
Good bye mom. I love you so much.
She, being her typical other person centred self, insisted on taking the nearly 3 hour journey to the airport on the bus. I must say this did ease the good bye. It was so drawn out with my dad, sitting all that time in the car, the horrible hanging about at the airport, and the long, empty drive back. But coming into the house after seeing her off on the bus was awful.
The whole time we kept saying, 'I can't believe you are in front of me!' It was so wonderful to have her right there to hug and touch and look at, having those conversations that just grow as they go, with no reason or point. Just being together and enjoying each other. It was such a warm wonderful time.
She did find it hard, seeing how final it is that we have moved. Seeing how settled we are here, and how right it is for us to be here. It is great and helpful, but also hard. I have found that too, every wall we finished painting, every friend we have made, when we found the perfect school for Kristin, the perfect job for Daniel, the ideas we got for the farm as we stood on the soil and got inspired, every step has been exciting, but has also revealed the finality of moving here. This is it. Here we are.
It is great and wonderful, and we are happy, but at moments like this it is very, very sad. Too sad for words. I don't know when I will see her again. We live such different lives, in such different worlds.
But it was a great visit, and so necessary. She got to see how I lived, where I lived. It was so helpful seeing my new world through her fresh eyes, and explaining things to her, showing her things and sharing reactions with her. She loved all she saw and experienced, even though she was a bit cold! The 2 weeks flew by so quickly. We packed in a lot. On Thursday Daniel's parents took us to their cabin for lunch.
The cabin is very important in Norwegian culture. It is the get away, and the more secluded it is the better. Most modern ones have water and electricity, but ours doesn't. It is deep in the forest on our farm, and the most delightful thing.
There it is, I have mentioned it before.
My mom with Daniel's parents.
Inside the cabin.
The food was made on an old oven.
The last few days my mom and I talked a lot, while drinking lots of coffee. It was so nice. We spoke about everything and nothing. Ministry opportunities here. How we felt about being apart. People we both love. The children. My childhood. Her childhood. It was awesome. Definitely worth the pain of saying good bye.
Good bye mom. I love you so much.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
some Telemark history and beauty......
For the last two days I have been ignoring my children and taking my mom around to see some sights. Telemark is the county we live in. It has been described as a mini Norway, boasting all the beauty Norway has to offer. The history and artwork and colours and way of living here is so unique and quaint and delightful! The society - in my vast experience of like 9 months - seems to me to not have changed much. Of course there is everything modern and convenient, it is the first world and all, but there is something in their way of life that makes me feel like it is 100s of years ago. Perhaps it is the my-door-is-always-unlocked-just-walk-in kind of hospitality, or the time people have to just be and talk, look and consider. Or maybe it is the fact that so many of their homes look like museums - and could pass as one as they are so old. There is a really strong sense of time here. I'll show you some pictures of the last few days and maybe you can get some idea :)
Inside their house as it was when they lived in it (not so long ago, the first half of the 1900s).
Some ornaments they made.
Their clothes. True story.
That round chair is a traditional Norwegain chair and is made out of a tree stump.
This is the home of a new friend, we had coffee there after the museum, a very similar feel.
This is what houses and barns looked like before modernisation, for centuries. Grass on the roof is kind of their thatch. They take a certain kind of mud from the river and bark and of course grass. In some places we have even seen goats on the roofs eating the grass! It is a very effective roof that lasts for absolute years.
A barn.
A house.
My mom and I, we were in the mountains where snow has already fallen for the season.
This is an olden day pram/push chair - how they carted their babies in the winter. A pram sled.
This is a hotel we stopped at for tea.
Those chairs again, we have one, nearly everyone does.
where we sat and had tea.
A tea cup. Yes, I hear you say, that is interesting. Well, this is a very traditional and well known pattern, and we found a set just like this on our farm.
Norwegians have coffee and waffles a lot, every chance they get.....an aspect of their culture I embrace with great joy! The waffles are served with crushed berries and cream. YUM!
This is my uncle-in-law, Jan, he is awesome, and was our tour guide for the day.
Up on the mountains, above the tree line, where the trees don't grow. It is beautiful.
Back down again on the other side of the mountain.
I took this through the window while driving, you see little pockets of houses everywhere, surrounded by mountains and forests and lakes.
This is an old house, although most people's houses look like this. This particular one has recently been restored and is now a museum. 3 siblings lived here and were the life and soul of the village. They had on average 28 people in their home everyday!
Inside their house as it was when they lived in it (not so long ago, the first half of the 1900s).
Some ornaments they made.
Their clothes. True story.
That round chair is a traditional Norwegain chair and is made out of a tree stump.
This is the home of a new friend, we had coffee there after the museum, a very similar feel.
This is what houses and barns looked like before modernisation, for centuries. Grass on the roof is kind of their thatch. They take a certain kind of mud from the river and bark and of course grass. In some places we have even seen goats on the roofs eating the grass! It is a very effective roof that lasts for absolute years.
A barn.
A house.
My mom and I, we were in the mountains where snow has already fallen for the season.
This is an olden day pram/push chair - how they carted their babies in the winter. A pram sled.
This is a hotel we stopped at for tea.
Those chairs again, we have one, nearly everyone does.
where we sat and had tea.
A tea cup. Yes, I hear you say, that is interesting. Well, this is a very traditional and well known pattern, and we found a set just like this on our farm.
Norwegians have coffee and waffles a lot, every chance they get.....an aspect of their culture I embrace with great joy! The waffles are served with crushed berries and cream. YUM!
This is my uncle-in-law, Jan, he is awesome, and was our tour guide for the day.
Up on the mountains, above the tree line, where the trees don't grow. It is beautiful.
Back down again on the other side of the mountain.
I took this through the window while driving, you see little pockets of houses everywhere, surrounded by mountains and forests and lakes.
Monday, 26 October 2009
Religion leads to death
(Talk 2 of 2 talks from Amos given at a combined evangelistic meeting held by all the churches in Notodden and Heddal. The talk was presented in Norwegian, and the gift of tongues was exercised!)
Let me set the scene for you. We’re going to travel back in time to around 2000BC to the Sinai Desert:
On the third month since God had rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, they arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai. The mountain rose up before them, and a great cloud covered its peak. As the people gathered before the Lord, there was a mighty shout in the heavens, and all of the angels stood to attention, called to order around the mountain to observe the establishment of the tribes of Israel as a nation.
What a momentous occasion: the first nation that would be led solely by God!
The ground shook, and the mountain trembled. The people quivered with fear, as God spoke from the cloud to Moses, the leader of the Israelites. For forty days and forty nights He spoke to Moses, teaching the Israelites how they should behave as God’s Chosen Rescued People.
He formed a judicial system, and gave them laws to be governed by. He gave them laws to keep them healthy, and laws to set them apart as being different - set apart for Him. And then He continued to explain to Moses the most important laws: how they were to relate to each other, and the laws that governed how they related to Him, how they should sing and dance and celebrate their rescue, and how they should make amends when they had done wrong. They were to be a Holy Nation, the Chosen People of Israel.
Wow! Imagine being one of the ancient Israelites standing at Mount Sinai, seeing the mountain ablaze, hearing the laws being given, hearing how sinful men could be brought near to a Holy and Almighty God! But somewhere along the line someone forgot to pass the message on. A few hundred years later the nation of Israel was not standing in awe of God. In fact, they were actively ignoring him, while paying lip service to their “religious duties”. And so God, in his mercy sends Amos, a prophet – to warn the people of their impending destruction. In chapters 1-5 we’ve already seen a devastating critique of the Israelites: the holy people, the people chosen to be different! They were not the shining light of righteousness and good living they should have been - no, they were lying, cheating, stealing, trading slaves, they were adulterers, trampled the poor, they were greedy - while all the time remaining outwardly religious.
Does that not sound familiar?
How many of us have been put off Christianity because of Christians?
How many of us who are Christians struggle to go to church because of the hurts other Christians have inflicted on us?
How many times have we ourselves fallen, let the standards slip, done things we knew were wrong – but never mind, we can pray a little prayer and God forgives?
But is this true? Can we just engage in a religious incantation and expect to sway the heart of the Almighty? Is it enough to just be outwardly religious?
1. Religion leads to ...?
Well, let’s listen to what God has to say through Amos about the religion of the Israelites, his Chosen People, from Amos 5:21-23
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.”
What a shock! God says that he HATES their religious activities! Take them away!
Here were the very people of God, doing the very religious activities prescribed by God – and God says he hates their religion! Why? He hates it because their lives do not match up to their professions of faith. Their lives shout loudly of their disdain for God. And the empty trappings of religion cannot long obscure their selfishness. It soon starts to leak out, to show itself in their business dealings, in their marriages and dealings with their children, in the way they treat their slaves, and in the way they treat the poor and powerless. The stench of their sin is in God’s nostrils and he will bring an end to it. Amos 5:24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
But wait! Surely we would expect God to say “Get more religious”. Pay more. Do more. Isn’t that what religion is all about? Making you feel guilty enough to give money or do stuff so that the religion can continue?
Think about Islam: that depends on strictly following the Five Pillars of Islam, amongst other things faithfully praying 5 times a day facing towards Mecca. Allah commends such activities. The activity is considered righteous or good – and enough good acts will outweigh the bad, and you are heaven-bound!
Or Hinduism, which involves sacrificing to your gods.
Or Buddhism, which involves following a strict code of Enlightenment
Or Humanism, which involves following a certain way of thinking with Man as the solution to all his own problems.
All our religious activity is bent towards pleasing God, the gods, or the Universe, or the Force or whatever name we give to the spiritual realm (or even if we dress it up as the Future of Mankind or Evolution and other such things).
But the God of the Bible says that he hates it.
Why? Because he sees our lives and they don’t match our religion. We are two-faced.
Don’t you just hate two-facedness? My Dad remembers sitting in church as a young man, watching one of the men in the neighbourhood playing the part of a dutiful and loving Christian husband – when he knew that he was an adulterer, cheating on his wife with married woman. He knew this because when he went around delivering coal in the early morning he saw him all climbing out of the lady’s back windows! There they were sitting in church, expecting that God would be impressed with their religious activities!
God is not fooled. We cannot cover over the things we’ve done wrong with our religious acts. Religion cannot save us!
But hey you might say – I’m not an adulterer, or a thief! I don’t lie, don’t cheat people – and I certainly don’t have any slaves. I’m basically a good person. I’m not like the Israelites. I’m OK.
But are you? You see, Amos continues in disclosing the Israelites ruinous litany of sin: and in chapter 6 comes to the real reason: it’s a heart issue.
No amount of being good will help when we have no relationship with God.
2. Self-centredness is the problem
We see this in 6:4-6 and 6:8b:
“Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, 5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and ... invent for themselves instruments of music, 6 who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of [Israel]!
“[The Lord] abhors the pride of [Israel]...”
They are not grieved over the ruin of Israel – that is, Israel’s sin (6:6). They are consumed with pride (6:8), with thoughts of self and luxury and comfort instead of God. They merely play him lip service – fob him off with a couple of bulls or goats, like a child – “here, have this, this should keep you happy”.
God is no longer their first love – they are their own first love! And eventually his patience will run out. Eventually his righteous anger will arise against them for all their evil and injustices – and their pride in themselves and their disdain for Him who is their King: Amos 6:8 The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts: “I abhor the pride of [Israel] and hate [its] strongholds, and I will deliver up the [land] and all that is in it.” And Amos 9:10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.”
And that horrible, devastating verdict is just as relevant to us here in Notodden today. Perhaps even more so, since we can’t even say “but we’re the chosen people of God”! If God’s verdict was “Guilty because of self-centredness and pride” against his OWN PEOPLE – that means we’re in serious trouble! It means that it doesn’t matter whether we are religious or not. It doesn’t even matter whether we are moral or “good” or not. Because even being good leads to death – trusting in our own righteousness, instead of making right with God. God is not fooled by external appearances, but looks within, at our hearts. Do we love Him? Or do we love ourselves?
God created us to be obsessed with HIM, to literally give glory to him, to praise him, instead of ourselves – but we exalt ourselves. The Law, Moralism, talk of “Be good, behave yourself, sit up straight and eat your spinach” – none of that has the power to save us when we are enemies of God.. None of that can remove us from the throne of our hearts and put God back on. None of that can save us from God’s righteous anger at the damage we have done to this world, to the hurts we have inflicted on other people, and to the disregard and disdain we have shown him.
These things – our attempts to be good, to please God, to avoid the Dark Side of the Force, to plug in to the Energy of Life – whatever name we want to give it – it’s like someone caught in quicksand trying to pull themselves out by pulling their own arms....
There is nothing we can do to save ourselves.
Religion, in whatever shape or form, leads to death.
Even being good does not help – that too simply leads to death.
We are utterly lost, helpless, sinking deeper and deeper into a quicksand of our own making.
And that is what Amos wants us to understand. Only now, now that we understand that we cannot save ourselves; only now that we understand that our religion and our own “goodness” counts for nothing ; only now can we hear the surprising message of hope. Because that hope has nothing to do with us. That hope does not depend on us and our own religious duties or goodness: that hope, surprisingly, comes from the one who has been hurt the most, and the one who is the righteous judge of all: God
3. This brings me to my third point: Religion leads to death; being good leads to death – knowing God leads to Life
At last! We see this ray of hope right at the end of Amos in chapter 9. Verse 11 reads: “In that day I will raise up [Israel] that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old ... declares the Lord who does this. “
Who does it? Not us, working away with our religious fervour – but God. Again in verse 14 and 15 the Lord says “I will” “I will”. He will restore the people. He will bring about perfection.
Religion leads to death. Being good leads to death. But relationship with God leads to life.
The question then to ask is this: How do we know God?
Well, let’s leave behind Amos and the Israelites of 760 BC, and zoom forward in time to around 33A.D. and listen in to a man named Philip who asked Jesus this very same question, as recorded in John 14:8-9:
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us [God], and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen [God].
Jesus’ answer was startling: if you know me, you know God.
You see, there’s two problems with getting to know God.
Firstly, God is so big, so other – how do we know him? Well, we can’t go up to God – so God came down to us. In the person of the Lord Jesus we see God on our level: God with skin on! What’s God like – well, he’s like Jesus. If you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen God! To know Jesus is to know God. And we can know Jesus because his life is recorded for us in the Bible.
But what’s the second problem? The second problem is our own hearts. We have strayed far from God, and we are alienated from him. We try to reach out with our religion, but to no avail. We cannot reach God through our own efforts. We cannot earn our own forgiveness. We are like men in quicksand, and we cannot pull ourselves out. The only way to get out of quicksand is for someone else, standing on solid ground, to pull us out. And that is what Jesus does. He pulls us out through a remarkable rescue plan: the Cross.
The premise of the Cross is simple: a swap. We are alienated from God, unable to reach him – we are spiritually dead. But Jesus, Jesus IS God. He is in perfect relationship – spiritually alive.
Because of his great love and compassion, Jesus chooses to take our place – spiritual isolation and death – and let us take his position of perfect relationship and spiritual life.
A man named Peter, who was an eyewitness of Jesus’ death, put it like this: “[Jesus] suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God...”
And that forgiveness stretches throughout time and history, even all the way back to the Israelites listening to Amos. And so they can fall to their knees and cry out to God to forgive them – and, because of the SWAP that Jesus achieved they can be forgiven, and know that they are one of the people in Amos 9v11 being built up and restored – and not one of those in verse 10, the sinners who will “die by the sword”. They had to turn away from their empty religious acts, turn away from trusting in their own goodness - and turn back to God, bringing their WHOLE LIVES under his authority.
And we have the same choice. To continue with to trust in our own religious or moral efforts, which will end in our death and destruction – or to turn to Jesus, accept the swap that he has achieved, and submit our whole lives to him. Jesus has DONE IT. So, we can be FREE, free from religion, free from having to be good, free from trying to please God by our own efforts. Jesus offers freedom from all of that.
I had to learn this lesson. I was brought up in a Christian home and I faithfully read the Bible and prayed every day. But by the time I was 19 it had become no more than a religious duty – something to be ticked off – and the rest of my life had no connection with Jesus at all. I was staying with my uncle and aunt at the time, in Drammen in 1995. My cousins were just babies – what a perfect opportunity to help out! But no, instead I was self-absorbed, just using them as a place to stay – I didn’t give them any money to help out with expenses, I didn’t help with the babies, I didn’t clean. It’s not like I chose not to do these things, no - I was so self-centred these things never even occurred to me! And I certainly didn’t think about God outside of my little religious moments. I was just like the Israelites in the days of Amos. Living the good life, ticking off my religious duties – and headed for eternal destruction.
And then someone warned me. And took me to church. And I heard a message like this. And there Jesus confronted me with my empty religion, my empty moralism, and offered me forgiveness – offered me LIFE! And I said YES, I want to live, I want to be FREE!
And I was. The next morning I woke up completely changed. It was as if the day had dawned for the first time. Life was brighter, full of purpose and meaning. I even enjoyed helping out with my baby cousins - and for a 19-year-old guy I think that is a miracle in itself!
Amos’s message reminds us that it’s not about the good outweighing the bad, it’s not about religious acts covering over the bad things that we do, but about bringing your whole life and submitting it to Jesus: your loves, your dreams, your fear, your relationship, your sexuality, your money, your time, everything you are and everything you will be – it’s giving it over to Him and saying I am yours, you have brought me back to life and my life is yours.
Perhaps, just like me, you were brought here tonight by a friend that cares for you. Perhaps, like me, Jesus is confronting you with the emptiness of your religion or moralism, and offering you forgiveness. Perhaps, like me, tonight you will choose to live.
Religion leads to death – but Jesus leads to Life.
Almighty God,
I know that I have been trusting in my own efforts to impress you. I have been trying to reach Heaven on my own. I am sorry. I am sorry that you have not had first place in my life. Thank you for warning me tonight to stop trusting in myself, and to trust in the Lord Jesus. Thank you that he took my place on the Cross, and offers me his Life in return. I want to LIVE. I want to be FREE. I want you, Lord Jesus, to be my Saviour and my King. I give you my life. I give you everything I am. Thank you Jesus.
Amen.
Let me set the scene for you. We’re going to travel back in time to around 2000BC to the Sinai Desert:
On the third month since God had rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, they arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai. The mountain rose up before them, and a great cloud covered its peak. As the people gathered before the Lord, there was a mighty shout in the heavens, and all of the angels stood to attention, called to order around the mountain to observe the establishment of the tribes of Israel as a nation.
What a momentous occasion: the first nation that would be led solely by God!
The ground shook, and the mountain trembled. The people quivered with fear, as God spoke from the cloud to Moses, the leader of the Israelites. For forty days and forty nights He spoke to Moses, teaching the Israelites how they should behave as God’s Chosen Rescued People.
He formed a judicial system, and gave them laws to be governed by. He gave them laws to keep them healthy, and laws to set them apart as being different - set apart for Him. And then He continued to explain to Moses the most important laws: how they were to relate to each other, and the laws that governed how they related to Him, how they should sing and dance and celebrate their rescue, and how they should make amends when they had done wrong. They were to be a Holy Nation, the Chosen People of Israel.
Wow! Imagine being one of the ancient Israelites standing at Mount Sinai, seeing the mountain ablaze, hearing the laws being given, hearing how sinful men could be brought near to a Holy and Almighty God! But somewhere along the line someone forgot to pass the message on. A few hundred years later the nation of Israel was not standing in awe of God. In fact, they were actively ignoring him, while paying lip service to their “religious duties”. And so God, in his mercy sends Amos, a prophet – to warn the people of their impending destruction. In chapters 1-5 we’ve already seen a devastating critique of the Israelites: the holy people, the people chosen to be different! They were not the shining light of righteousness and good living they should have been - no, they were lying, cheating, stealing, trading slaves, they were adulterers, trampled the poor, they were greedy - while all the time remaining outwardly religious.
Does that not sound familiar?
How many of us have been put off Christianity because of Christians?
How many of us who are Christians struggle to go to church because of the hurts other Christians have inflicted on us?
How many times have we ourselves fallen, let the standards slip, done things we knew were wrong – but never mind, we can pray a little prayer and God forgives?
But is this true? Can we just engage in a religious incantation and expect to sway the heart of the Almighty? Is it enough to just be outwardly religious?
1. Religion leads to ...?
Well, let’s listen to what God has to say through Amos about the religion of the Israelites, his Chosen People, from Amos 5:21-23
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.”
What a shock! God says that he HATES their religious activities! Take them away!
Here were the very people of God, doing the very religious activities prescribed by God – and God says he hates their religion! Why? He hates it because their lives do not match up to their professions of faith. Their lives shout loudly of their disdain for God. And the empty trappings of religion cannot long obscure their selfishness. It soon starts to leak out, to show itself in their business dealings, in their marriages and dealings with their children, in the way they treat their slaves, and in the way they treat the poor and powerless. The stench of their sin is in God’s nostrils and he will bring an end to it. Amos 5:24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
But wait! Surely we would expect God to say “Get more religious”. Pay more. Do more. Isn’t that what religion is all about? Making you feel guilty enough to give money or do stuff so that the religion can continue?
Think about Islam: that depends on strictly following the Five Pillars of Islam, amongst other things faithfully praying 5 times a day facing towards Mecca. Allah commends such activities. The activity is considered righteous or good – and enough good acts will outweigh the bad, and you are heaven-bound!
Or Hinduism, which involves sacrificing to your gods.
Or Buddhism, which involves following a strict code of Enlightenment
Or Humanism, which involves following a certain way of thinking with Man as the solution to all his own problems.
All our religious activity is bent towards pleasing God, the gods, or the Universe, or the Force or whatever name we give to the spiritual realm (or even if we dress it up as the Future of Mankind or Evolution and other such things).
But the God of the Bible says that he hates it.
Why? Because he sees our lives and they don’t match our religion. We are two-faced.
Don’t you just hate two-facedness? My Dad remembers sitting in church as a young man, watching one of the men in the neighbourhood playing the part of a dutiful and loving Christian husband – when he knew that he was an adulterer, cheating on his wife with married woman. He knew this because when he went around delivering coal in the early morning he saw him all climbing out of the lady’s back windows! There they were sitting in church, expecting that God would be impressed with their religious activities!
God is not fooled. We cannot cover over the things we’ve done wrong with our religious acts. Religion cannot save us!
But hey you might say – I’m not an adulterer, or a thief! I don’t lie, don’t cheat people – and I certainly don’t have any slaves. I’m basically a good person. I’m not like the Israelites. I’m OK.
But are you? You see, Amos continues in disclosing the Israelites ruinous litany of sin: and in chapter 6 comes to the real reason: it’s a heart issue.
No amount of being good will help when we have no relationship with God.
2. Self-centredness is the problem
We see this in 6:4-6 and 6:8b:
“Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, 5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and ... invent for themselves instruments of music, 6 who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of [Israel]!
“[The Lord] abhors the pride of [Israel]...”
They are not grieved over the ruin of Israel – that is, Israel’s sin (6:6). They are consumed with pride (6:8), with thoughts of self and luxury and comfort instead of God. They merely play him lip service – fob him off with a couple of bulls or goats, like a child – “here, have this, this should keep you happy”.
God is no longer their first love – they are their own first love! And eventually his patience will run out. Eventually his righteous anger will arise against them for all their evil and injustices – and their pride in themselves and their disdain for Him who is their King: Amos 6:8 The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts: “I abhor the pride of [Israel] and hate [its] strongholds, and I will deliver up the [land] and all that is in it.” And Amos 9:10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.”
And that horrible, devastating verdict is just as relevant to us here in Notodden today. Perhaps even more so, since we can’t even say “but we’re the chosen people of God”! If God’s verdict was “Guilty because of self-centredness and pride” against his OWN PEOPLE – that means we’re in serious trouble! It means that it doesn’t matter whether we are religious or not. It doesn’t even matter whether we are moral or “good” or not. Because even being good leads to death – trusting in our own righteousness, instead of making right with God. God is not fooled by external appearances, but looks within, at our hearts. Do we love Him? Or do we love ourselves?
God created us to be obsessed with HIM, to literally give glory to him, to praise him, instead of ourselves – but we exalt ourselves. The Law, Moralism, talk of “Be good, behave yourself, sit up straight and eat your spinach” – none of that has the power to save us when we are enemies of God.. None of that can remove us from the throne of our hearts and put God back on. None of that can save us from God’s righteous anger at the damage we have done to this world, to the hurts we have inflicted on other people, and to the disregard and disdain we have shown him.
These things – our attempts to be good, to please God, to avoid the Dark Side of the Force, to plug in to the Energy of Life – whatever name we want to give it – it’s like someone caught in quicksand trying to pull themselves out by pulling their own arms....
There is nothing we can do to save ourselves.
Religion, in whatever shape or form, leads to death.
Even being good does not help – that too simply leads to death.
We are utterly lost, helpless, sinking deeper and deeper into a quicksand of our own making.
And that is what Amos wants us to understand. Only now, now that we understand that we cannot save ourselves; only now that we understand that our religion and our own “goodness” counts for nothing ; only now can we hear the surprising message of hope. Because that hope has nothing to do with us. That hope does not depend on us and our own religious duties or goodness: that hope, surprisingly, comes from the one who has been hurt the most, and the one who is the righteous judge of all: God
3. This brings me to my third point: Religion leads to death; being good leads to death – knowing God leads to Life
At last! We see this ray of hope right at the end of Amos in chapter 9. Verse 11 reads: “In that day I will raise up [Israel] that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old ... declares the Lord who does this. “
Who does it? Not us, working away with our religious fervour – but God. Again in verse 14 and 15 the Lord says “I will” “I will”. He will restore the people. He will bring about perfection.
Religion leads to death. Being good leads to death. But relationship with God leads to life.
The question then to ask is this: How do we know God?
Well, let’s leave behind Amos and the Israelites of 760 BC, and zoom forward in time to around 33A.D. and listen in to a man named Philip who asked Jesus this very same question, as recorded in John 14:8-9:
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us [God], and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen [God].
Jesus’ answer was startling: if you know me, you know God.
You see, there’s two problems with getting to know God.
Firstly, God is so big, so other – how do we know him? Well, we can’t go up to God – so God came down to us. In the person of the Lord Jesus we see God on our level: God with skin on! What’s God like – well, he’s like Jesus. If you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen God! To know Jesus is to know God. And we can know Jesus because his life is recorded for us in the Bible.
But what’s the second problem? The second problem is our own hearts. We have strayed far from God, and we are alienated from him. We try to reach out with our religion, but to no avail. We cannot reach God through our own efforts. We cannot earn our own forgiveness. We are like men in quicksand, and we cannot pull ourselves out. The only way to get out of quicksand is for someone else, standing on solid ground, to pull us out. And that is what Jesus does. He pulls us out through a remarkable rescue plan: the Cross.
The premise of the Cross is simple: a swap. We are alienated from God, unable to reach him – we are spiritually dead. But Jesus, Jesus IS God. He is in perfect relationship – spiritually alive.
Because of his great love and compassion, Jesus chooses to take our place – spiritual isolation and death – and let us take his position of perfect relationship and spiritual life.
A man named Peter, who was an eyewitness of Jesus’ death, put it like this: “[Jesus] suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God...”
And that forgiveness stretches throughout time and history, even all the way back to the Israelites listening to Amos. And so they can fall to their knees and cry out to God to forgive them – and, because of the SWAP that Jesus achieved they can be forgiven, and know that they are one of the people in Amos 9v11 being built up and restored – and not one of those in verse 10, the sinners who will “die by the sword”. They had to turn away from their empty religious acts, turn away from trusting in their own goodness - and turn back to God, bringing their WHOLE LIVES under his authority.
And we have the same choice. To continue with to trust in our own religious or moral efforts, which will end in our death and destruction – or to turn to Jesus, accept the swap that he has achieved, and submit our whole lives to him. Jesus has DONE IT. So, we can be FREE, free from religion, free from having to be good, free from trying to please God by our own efforts. Jesus offers freedom from all of that.
I had to learn this lesson. I was brought up in a Christian home and I faithfully read the Bible and prayed every day. But by the time I was 19 it had become no more than a religious duty – something to be ticked off – and the rest of my life had no connection with Jesus at all. I was staying with my uncle and aunt at the time, in Drammen in 1995. My cousins were just babies – what a perfect opportunity to help out! But no, instead I was self-absorbed, just using them as a place to stay – I didn’t give them any money to help out with expenses, I didn’t help with the babies, I didn’t clean. It’s not like I chose not to do these things, no - I was so self-centred these things never even occurred to me! And I certainly didn’t think about God outside of my little religious moments. I was just like the Israelites in the days of Amos. Living the good life, ticking off my religious duties – and headed for eternal destruction.
And then someone warned me. And took me to church. And I heard a message like this. And there Jesus confronted me with my empty religion, my empty moralism, and offered me forgiveness – offered me LIFE! And I said YES, I want to live, I want to be FREE!
And I was. The next morning I woke up completely changed. It was as if the day had dawned for the first time. Life was brighter, full of purpose and meaning. I even enjoyed helping out with my baby cousins - and for a 19-year-old guy I think that is a miracle in itself!
Amos’s message reminds us that it’s not about the good outweighing the bad, it’s not about religious acts covering over the bad things that we do, but about bringing your whole life and submitting it to Jesus: your loves, your dreams, your fear, your relationship, your sexuality, your money, your time, everything you are and everything you will be – it’s giving it over to Him and saying I am yours, you have brought me back to life and my life is yours.
Perhaps, just like me, you were brought here tonight by a friend that cares for you. Perhaps, like me, Jesus is confronting you with the emptiness of your religion or moralism, and offering you forgiveness. Perhaps, like me, tonight you will choose to live.
Religion leads to death – but Jesus leads to Life.
Almighty God,
I know that I have been trusting in my own efforts to impress you. I have been trying to reach Heaven on my own. I am sorry. I am sorry that you have not had first place in my life. Thank you for warning me tonight to stop trusting in myself, and to trust in the Lord Jesus. Thank you that he took my place on the Cross, and offers me his Life in return. I want to LIVE. I want to be FREE. I want you, Lord Jesus, to be my Saviour and my King. I give you my life. I give you everything I am. Thank you Jesus.
Amen.
Is God Angry?
(Talk 1 of 2 talks from Amos given at a combined evangelistic meeting held by all the churches in Notodden and Heddal. The talk was presented in Norwegian, and the gift of tongues was exercised!)
I love Jesus.
But why?
I’m a success in the eyes of the world. I’m well educated, have a good job, a lovely family, decent health. My parents are happily married, my marriage is a success, my kids are great. I have no issues. Most of my friends will tell you that I’m the most stable person they know. I don’t need God in my life. I barely even need the state. I have no need for God.
So why do I love Jesus, and why does my whole life revolve around him, and His plans and desires, instead of my own? Why do I consider Jesus the King of my life and not me?
To explain why we’re going to take a journey to listen to a man who lived almost 3000 years ago, in around 760BC. Hold on – it’s going to be quite a ride!
Amos 1:11 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and ... Jeroboam the ... king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
Amos was a guy who lived in around 760BC. His job was tending sheep. He was an ordinary guy. But he was given an extraordinary message.
And what was his message? It was this: God is angry.
And that is my first point: God is angry
We see this graphically illustrated in v2 2 And he said: “The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of [Mount] Carmel withers.”
The Lord roars a destructive fire out from Jerusalem on top of Mt Zion. God ROARS out his judgmental fire. He is angered by the injustices of the nations, by the evil of the people, and his anger burns against them. They will be judged for their crimes against humanity, and be punished for what they have done wrong. He will see justice done!
I know the concept of God as an angry God is very politically incorrect today – but isn’t that what we want? I suppose it depends WHY he is angry. Let’s carry on reading:
3 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed [Israel] with threshing sledges of iron. 4 So I will send a fire upon [their] house ..., and it shall devour [their] strongholds.... 5 I will break the gate-bar of Damascus, ... and the people of Syria shall go into exile...,” says the Lord.
First in his sights is the neighbouring nation of Damascus. They are condemned for making brutal war on Israel, treating people like crops to be harvested up (threshed).
And the chapter carries on through nation after nation, listing why God is angry with them.
He’s angry because of: their warfare, pregnant women being murdered (lit. Ripped open), people being bought and sold like things, for breaking contracts and reneging on promises, for seeking revenge, being angry without pity, and for desecrating the dead.
In other words, God is angry because of the INJUSTICES he sees done in the world. He is angry because he is JUST. God loves justice. More than that he himself is the standard of justice. And that is a good thing. Would we want God to ignore such things, ignore such evil, just sweeping it under the carpet. No!
And Amos’s message is just as relevant to us in Norway 2,800 years later, as it was to the Jews living so many years ago. The reason is that people haven’t changed. We have not changed. Turn on the TV. There we see warfare, pregnant women being murdered (lit. Ripped open), people being bought and sold like things, people breaking contracts and reneging on promises, people seeking revenge, being angry without pity, desecrating the dead – oh, and more. Ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The underground sex slave trade. Pornography rings abusing women and men. Large corporations utilising people as resources, parts of the machine in the manufacturing process. And we just pollute and pollute and pollute this world.
Would we want God to ignore such things, ignore such evil, just sweeping it under the carpet?
Just recently NAV uncovered a massive fraud in the social security system. A 61 year old mother stole over Kr8million of public funds through creating false identities. A total of ten people were eventually involved – and if they hadn’t been discovered, could have stolen over kr275million!
That fraud - theft of public monies - has a large effect. What about the old people who now get poorer care? Or the children who’s school needs to be closed? Or the roads that are now in disrepair and dangerous? All of us now have to pay for those people’s sin, their greed. What would our reaction be if the judge, when giving his judgement said: Ahh, that doesn’t matter, no big deal, you can go free.
That would be a national outcry! How dare he do that! How dare the judge not deliver justice and punish the wicked. Where is the justice for the elderly, the children, the communities who have suffered evil at the fraudster’s hands?
No, we expect and demand that our judges are impartial and that they judge rightly and dole out the appropriate punishment. How much more do we expect that of God? He must be just! And if he is just, he will be angry, because there is much evil in this world.
And that’s exactly the God we meet in the Bible. A God who is disgusted with evil, with injustice, and who will punish it.
God is angry, and that is good.
Of course, if God is angry, that begs the question: who is he angry with? Unfortunately for us, God is angry with everyone – because we have all done wrong. My second point is this:
2. Gods anger is universal (there is no escape)
We see this in chapter 2, verse 6. You see, Amos spent chapter one judging Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab. These were all the lands around Israel, and you can imagine the Israelites feeling pretty pleased that their neighbours, who had frequently attacked them, were finally getting their just desserts. You can imagine that Amos’s message was pretty popular.
To put it our language: “God is going to kick their butt! He’s going to put Gaza in its place. Moab’s going to get it the neck!” Yes! You can imagine the crowds listening to Amos cheering and shouting.
Woohoo! YEAH!
Until Amos’s next sentence
6 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment...”
The cheers stuck in their throat. The shouts died out abruptly. Happiness and glee on faces was replaced by confusion and anger. God couldn’t be serious! Judging them! Lumping them together with the evil neighbours????
Actually, they soon find out that the bulk of Amos’s message is a dire warning of judgement not for others – but for them.
Listen to the list of sins Amos condemns the Israelites for:
Amos 2:6-8 6 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— 7 those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; 8 they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.
Amos 4:11 “Hear this word, you cows of [Israel],..., who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
Amos 5:10 They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
Amos 5:21 “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies”
They are involved in the slave trade, abusing people, trampling the poor and needy, sexual immorality, greed, ignoring God (while being sincerely religious), and lying.
And, again, Amos’s message is just as relevant to us in Norway 2,800 years later, as it was to the Jews living so many years ago.
We still love to compare ourselves to others and feel superior to them – just like the Israelites were doing when they heard their neighbours being judged. Isn’t that why programs like Jerry Springer, Paradise Hotel, Big Brother, The Moment of Truth, and so on are popular. We can watch them secure in the knowledge that we are morally superior to those people. We are better people! And in that lies the unspoken assumption that we are on the right side of the moral line. That should we meet God he would have to let us in because we’re basically decent people – especially compared to that lot. How many of us think that we can wave our Norwegian passport at God and he’ll let us into Heaven – because compared to the rest of the world, we’re pretty good!
But that is to make the same mistake the Israelites made. And the truth that Amos rams home is that, like the Israelites, we are not superior. We are exactly the same.
Just like Israel, we stand condemned, we stand guilty, we stand judged. We are part of the problem. We have not been just towards others. We have done, said and thought unjust things – and therefore, if God is just, then he will punish us. And this is right.
God’s justice is universal. There is no escape.
Think about it: Israel were God’s chosen people! He called them his own, his treasured possession – and they face his wrath and judgement. Being from the right country will not shield you from God’s right judgement. Being a nice person will not shield you. Having a father who’s a minister will not save you. Being a politician or an accountant or a råner (people who cruise up and down the street showing off their cars) or an engineer will not save you.
A few years back you will remember there was a TSUNAMI - a giant tidal wave – that smashed into Thailand and other places. When that wave hit it didn’t matter if you were a CEO of a large company earning millions every year, or a busboy surviving on a few dollars – when the Tsunami hit, you were washed away. There was no-one who was able to withstand that powerful wave, none who could stand on the beach and say “stay back” – no matter who they were.
And God’s judgement is like that tidal wave.
There is no family line, no geographical region, no religious practice, no house, no mountain, no money, no status, no title, nothing at all that can shield us from God’s judgement.
There is no escape.
God’s judgement is universal.
But thankfully, Amos teaches us one more thing. And that is that God is merciful.
3. God is merciful
There’s one big clue that God is merciful, and that’s Amos himself! Amos has been sent to warn the people of impending judgement. A warning is an act of love. Look out: Danger!
Amos 5:14-1514 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. 15 Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of [Israel].
Turn away from evil, and do good. Establish justice instead of injustice. And God may be gracious, merciful to those who do this.
But hang on! What about all the evil they’ve already done? Does God have some kind of cosmic scale, with the good we’ve done on one side, and the evil on the other – and if the good outweighs the bad then we’re let into Heaven? NO! God is JUST. And that is good! He cannot just sweep away the evil that has been done simply because we’ve patched a few good works on the end. That would be wrong!
So how can God forgive them 2800 years ago? And, perhaps more relevantly, how can he forgive US, here, today, for what we have done?
How can he be both JUST and MERCIFUL?
To find out we need to jump 800 years forward from Amos to Mt Zion. This time it is not judgement being roared out from Mt Zion like in v2, but judgement is being poured out on Mt Zion. But not on the city on top of that mountain, the idolatrous city of Jerusalem – but the judgement is being poured out on one man, just outside the city limits, on a hill called Golgotha. There is Jesus, being nailed to a cross, crying out with his dying breath “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” as he pays the penalty so that he CAN forgive those he is praying for. Judgement was poured out on him like a funnel through time and space, like a large magnifying glass burning down on him. And he absorbed it with his very life. He died. The innocent, eternally valuable Son of God died – in order to rescue people like you and me.
Justice served, mercy came running, like a prisoner set free. Mercy poured out through time and space – poured out 2800 years ago to forgive and restore those Israelites who repented and turned back to God and worshipped him as their king. And that mercy reaches forward even to today, even to this moment right now, to forgive and restore those who repent, that is, turn from the evil we do naturally, and to embrace Jesus as Lord and King.
At the beginning of this talk I said that I loved Jesus, and said that I was going to tell you why. Well, this is why. Because Jesus loved me enough to take my place, to take my judgement, and to leave me a free man, a truly free man. I deserve God’s anger. Like the rest of you, I have been unjust. I have lied and cheated and stole and murdered – maybe not always physically, but certainly up here (in my thoughts). I have broken promises, I have been cruel, I have gossiped, I have slandered. I deserve God’s judgement.
And it is right.
His judgement is right.
But glory be to God! For He has provided a way out – an escape. His arms outstretched on a cross, he bore the concentrated wrath, the deserved anger of my sin, your sins, of sins and injustices committed throughout time and space all bearing down at that one point in history – and he absorbed it for you and for me. And it cost Him everything. It cost Him his life. In Heaven there will be only one scarred body – and that is Jesus’s. He took the punishment I deserved in my place. What love! And that is why I love Jesus and will give everything for Him. Because he gave everything for me.
And he offers the same to you. Jesus absorbed the magnifying glass of God’s righteous and and judged – he absorbed it and deflected it away from those who put their trust in him.
Will you trust him?
Or burn in the face of God’s anger?
The warning sign is flashing. Amos’s message is clear:
God is angry.
His anger is universal (there is no escape)
But in his mercy he offers a way out.
1 Peter 3:18 says this: For Jesus died once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God .
How will you respond?
2 prayers...
Firstly for those who wish to submit to God for the first time.
Almighty God, I recognise that I am under your judgement. You are angry with me, and I deserve that anger. I have been unjust, and I deserve punishment. Therefore, Lord God, I thank you for your mercy. Thank you Jesus for your death on the cross! Thank you that you, the just one, died for me, the unjust. Help me to live with you as my King. I give you my life.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
And now for those who know and love the Lord Jesus:
Lord God, please remind us of the reality of your judgement. Thank you that you are just, and that is right. But, Lord, there are so many around us who will be lost in the tidal wave of your judgement. In your mercy, Lord, give us opportunities to speak of the awesome good news of Jesus, who can shield everyone who trusts in Him from that judgement. We love you Jesus.
Amen.
I love Jesus.
But why?
I’m a success in the eyes of the world. I’m well educated, have a good job, a lovely family, decent health. My parents are happily married, my marriage is a success, my kids are great. I have no issues. Most of my friends will tell you that I’m the most stable person they know. I don’t need God in my life. I barely even need the state. I have no need for God.
So why do I love Jesus, and why does my whole life revolve around him, and His plans and desires, instead of my own? Why do I consider Jesus the King of my life and not me?
To explain why we’re going to take a journey to listen to a man who lived almost 3000 years ago, in around 760BC. Hold on – it’s going to be quite a ride!
Amos 1:11 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and ... Jeroboam the ... king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
Amos was a guy who lived in around 760BC. His job was tending sheep. He was an ordinary guy. But he was given an extraordinary message.
And what was his message? It was this: God is angry.
And that is my first point: God is angry
We see this graphically illustrated in v2 2 And he said: “The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of [Mount] Carmel withers.”
The Lord roars a destructive fire out from Jerusalem on top of Mt Zion. God ROARS out his judgmental fire. He is angered by the injustices of the nations, by the evil of the people, and his anger burns against them. They will be judged for their crimes against humanity, and be punished for what they have done wrong. He will see justice done!
I know the concept of God as an angry God is very politically incorrect today – but isn’t that what we want? I suppose it depends WHY he is angry. Let’s carry on reading:
3 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed [Israel] with threshing sledges of iron. 4 So I will send a fire upon [their] house ..., and it shall devour [their] strongholds.... 5 I will break the gate-bar of Damascus, ... and the people of Syria shall go into exile...,” says the Lord.
And the chapter carries on through nation after nation, listing why God is angry with them.
He’s angry because of: their warfare, pregnant women being murdered (lit. Ripped open), people being bought and sold like things, for breaking contracts and reneging on promises, for seeking revenge, being angry without pity, and for desecrating the dead.
In other words, God is angry because of the INJUSTICES he sees done in the world. He is angry because he is JUST. God loves justice. More than that he himself is the standard of justice. And that is a good thing. Would we want God to ignore such things, ignore such evil, just sweeping it under the carpet. No!
And Amos’s message is just as relevant to us in Norway 2,800 years later, as it was to the Jews living so many years ago. The reason is that people haven’t changed. We have not changed. Turn on the TV. There we see warfare, pregnant women being murdered (lit. Ripped open), people being bought and sold like things, people breaking contracts and reneging on promises, people seeking revenge, being angry without pity, desecrating the dead – oh, and more. Ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The underground sex slave trade. Pornography rings abusing women and men. Large corporations utilising people as resources, parts of the machine in the manufacturing process. And we just pollute and pollute and pollute this world.
Would we want God to ignore such things, ignore such evil, just sweeping it under the carpet?
Just recently NAV uncovered a massive fraud in the social security system. A 61 year old mother stole over Kr8million of public funds through creating false identities. A total of ten people were eventually involved – and if they hadn’t been discovered, could have stolen over kr275million!
That fraud - theft of public monies - has a large effect. What about the old people who now get poorer care? Or the children who’s school needs to be closed? Or the roads that are now in disrepair and dangerous? All of us now have to pay for those people’s sin, their greed. What would our reaction be if the judge, when giving his judgement said: Ahh, that doesn’t matter, no big deal, you can go free.
That would be a national outcry! How dare he do that! How dare the judge not deliver justice and punish the wicked. Where is the justice for the elderly, the children, the communities who have suffered evil at the fraudster’s hands?
No, we expect and demand that our judges are impartial and that they judge rightly and dole out the appropriate punishment. How much more do we expect that of God? He must be just! And if he is just, he will be angry, because there is much evil in this world.
And that’s exactly the God we meet in the Bible. A God who is disgusted with evil, with injustice, and who will punish it.
God is angry, and that is good.
Of course, if God is angry, that begs the question: who is he angry with? Unfortunately for us, God is angry with everyone – because we have all done wrong. My second point is this:
2. Gods anger is universal (there is no escape)
We see this in chapter 2, verse 6. You see, Amos spent chapter one judging Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab. These were all the lands around Israel, and you can imagine the Israelites feeling pretty pleased that their neighbours, who had frequently attacked them, were finally getting their just desserts. You can imagine that Amos’s message was pretty popular.
To put it our language: “God is going to kick their butt! He’s going to put Gaza in its place. Moab’s going to get it the neck!” Yes! You can imagine the crowds listening to Amos cheering and shouting.
Woohoo! YEAH!
Until Amos’s next sentence
6 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment...”
The cheers stuck in their throat. The shouts died out abruptly. Happiness and glee on faces was replaced by confusion and anger. God couldn’t be serious! Judging them! Lumping them together with the evil neighbours????
Actually, they soon find out that the bulk of Amos’s message is a dire warning of judgement not for others – but for them.
Listen to the list of sins Amos condemns the Israelites for:
Amos 2:6-8 6 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— 7 those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; 8 they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.
Amos 4:11 “Hear this word, you cows of [Israel],..., who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
Amos 5:10 They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
Amos 5:21 “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies”
They are involved in the slave trade, abusing people, trampling the poor and needy, sexual immorality, greed, ignoring God (while being sincerely religious), and lying.
And, again, Amos’s message is just as relevant to us in Norway 2,800 years later, as it was to the Jews living so many years ago.
But that is to make the same mistake the Israelites made. And the truth that Amos rams home is that, like the Israelites, we are not superior. We are exactly the same.
Just like Israel, we stand condemned, we stand guilty, we stand judged. We are part of the problem. We have not been just towards others. We have done, said and thought unjust things – and therefore, if God is just, then he will punish us. And this is right.
God’s justice is universal. There is no escape.
Think about it: Israel were God’s chosen people! He called them his own, his treasured possession – and they face his wrath and judgement. Being from the right country will not shield you from God’s right judgement. Being a nice person will not shield you. Having a father who’s a minister will not save you. Being a politician or an accountant or a råner (people who cruise up and down the street showing off their cars) or an engineer will not save you.
A few years back you will remember there was a TSUNAMI - a giant tidal wave – that smashed into Thailand and other places. When that wave hit it didn’t matter if you were a CEO of a large company earning millions every year, or a busboy surviving on a few dollars – when the Tsunami hit, you were washed away. There was no-one who was able to withstand that powerful wave, none who could stand on the beach and say “stay back” – no matter who they were.
And God’s judgement is like that tidal wave.
There is no family line, no geographical region, no religious practice, no house, no mountain, no money, no status, no title, nothing at all that can shield us from God’s judgement.
There is no escape.
God’s judgement is universal.
But thankfully, Amos teaches us one more thing. And that is that God is merciful.
3. God is merciful
There’s one big clue that God is merciful, and that’s Amos himself! Amos has been sent to warn the people of impending judgement. A warning is an act of love. Look out: Danger!
Amos 5:14-1514 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. 15 Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of [Israel].
Turn away from evil, and do good. Establish justice instead of injustice. And God may be gracious, merciful to those who do this.
But hang on! What about all the evil they’ve already done? Does God have some kind of cosmic scale, with the good we’ve done on one side, and the evil on the other – and if the good outweighs the bad then we’re let into Heaven? NO! God is JUST. And that is good! He cannot just sweep away the evil that has been done simply because we’ve patched a few good works on the end. That would be wrong!
So how can God forgive them 2800 years ago? And, perhaps more relevantly, how can he forgive US, here, today, for what we have done?
How can he be both JUST and MERCIFUL?
To find out we need to jump 800 years forward from Amos to Mt Zion. This time it is not judgement being roared out from Mt Zion like in v2, but judgement is being poured out on Mt Zion. But not on the city on top of that mountain, the idolatrous city of Jerusalem – but the judgement is being poured out on one man, just outside the city limits, on a hill called Golgotha. There is Jesus, being nailed to a cross, crying out with his dying breath “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” as he pays the penalty so that he CAN forgive those he is praying for. Judgement was poured out on him like a funnel through time and space, like a large magnifying glass burning down on him. And he absorbed it with his very life. He died. The innocent, eternally valuable Son of God died – in order to rescue people like you and me.
Justice served, mercy came running, like a prisoner set free. Mercy poured out through time and space – poured out 2800 years ago to forgive and restore those Israelites who repented and turned back to God and worshipped him as their king. And that mercy reaches forward even to today, even to this moment right now, to forgive and restore those who repent, that is, turn from the evil we do naturally, and to embrace Jesus as Lord and King.
At the beginning of this talk I said that I loved Jesus, and said that I was going to tell you why. Well, this is why. Because Jesus loved me enough to take my place, to take my judgement, and to leave me a free man, a truly free man. I deserve God’s anger. Like the rest of you, I have been unjust. I have lied and cheated and stole and murdered – maybe not always physically, but certainly up here (in my thoughts). I have broken promises, I have been cruel, I have gossiped, I have slandered. I deserve God’s judgement.
And it is right.
His judgement is right.
But glory be to God! For He has provided a way out – an escape. His arms outstretched on a cross, he bore the concentrated wrath, the deserved anger of my sin, your sins, of sins and injustices committed throughout time and space all bearing down at that one point in history – and he absorbed it for you and for me. And it cost Him everything. It cost Him his life. In Heaven there will be only one scarred body – and that is Jesus’s. He took the punishment I deserved in my place. What love! And that is why I love Jesus and will give everything for Him. Because he gave everything for me.
And he offers the same to you. Jesus absorbed the magnifying glass of God’s righteous and and judged – he absorbed it and deflected it away from those who put their trust in him.
Will you trust him?
Or burn in the face of God’s anger?
The warning sign is flashing. Amos’s message is clear:
God is angry.
His anger is universal (there is no escape)
But in his mercy he offers a way out.
1 Peter 3:18 says this: For Jesus died once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God .
How will you respond?
2 prayers...
Firstly for those who wish to submit to God for the first time.
Almighty God, I recognise that I am under your judgement. You are angry with me, and I deserve that anger. I have been unjust, and I deserve punishment. Therefore, Lord God, I thank you for your mercy. Thank you Jesus for your death on the cross! Thank you that you, the just one, died for me, the unjust. Help me to live with you as my King. I give you my life.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
And now for those who know and love the Lord Jesus:
Lord God, please remind us of the reality of your judgement. Thank you that you are just, and that is right. But, Lord, there are so many around us who will be lost in the tidal wave of your judgement. In your mercy, Lord, give us opportunities to speak of the awesome good news of Jesus, who can shield everyone who trusts in Him from that judgement. We love you Jesus.
Amen.
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