Introduction

Amos 5:18—6:14 is structured around two woes: two announcements of sorrow and grief. Both of these woes have to do with confidence. For the first one, Israel is confident that God is on their side, and therefore they have nothing to fear should God come in judgment. For the second woe, confidence is in strongholds and military success; Israel has nothing to fear from her neighbours.

We know from the rest of the passage that this confidence was misplaced; it was the wrong kind of confidence. Amos makes it very clear that, contrary to expectations, things are not going to work out in the way that the people hope. Firstly, the day of the Lord will not go well for them. It will be darkness and not light. They will escape one danger, a lion, only to face another danger. What is more, it will be a day of exile and destruction. East beyond Damascus is where Israel will go. Their city will be destroyed with no one left to bury the bodies.

Israel thought God was for them but in reality he was against them. That is a disastrous mistake to make and it would be awful if we were to do the same thing today.

The Bible encourages us to trust in God’s promises, to be bold in our obedience to God, and confident that nothing can separate us from his love. Just like Israel, we look forward to the day of Christ’s return because we are confident that it will be a day of light and brightness. But now we see that it is possible for our confidence to be misplaced. It is possible for us to become complacent, to presume upon God’s grace, but that can lead to not only God being angry with us but to us not even realizing God's anger.

So how can we know when our confidence is misplaced? How can we know that we have not become complacent in our privileges, and that we are not deceiving ourselves of God’s favour, when in reality we are following the way that leads to destruction?

Israel’s misplaced confidence

• Explain how Amos helps us answer this question by giving examples of what misplaced confidence looks like.

• Explain the different misplaced confidences in Israel: religious ceremony, strongholds, status, and success.

• Explain how these confidences are the ones that our societies generally encourage.

• Explain the results of these misplaced confidences: pride and selfishness.

God will destroy the proud and selfish

• Explain how the Lord will destroy the proud, the selfish, and religious hypocrites.

• Explain how we can escape judgment by seeking the Lord, trusting in Jesus Christ.

• Explain how we can know our confidences show themselves in the fruits that we bear.

• Apply: Where is your confidence?

The Lord weeps for the proud

• Explain the link between Amos’s weeping and that of the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Explain how Amos 5:25–27 is used by Stephen in Acts 7:1–60.

• Apply: Pray that God would be gracious to us and not allow us to become so proud that we become too hardened to hear the voice of the Lord.