One benefit
of living in Central Ohio is that we are blessed with one of the best zoos in
country – if not the best. The Columbus Zoo offers lots of great animal
exhibits that are always plenty of fun to visit if you have the time to go spend for a day at the zoo. Whenever we go, we usually find that one day
is never enough time to see all that there is to see.
It’s always
fun to see the animals; they are wild and exotic and they come from all sorts
of remote places around the world. But, what
always makes the trips more fun and exciting is when the animals are up and
active and moving around. Often they are
lazily sleeping the afternoon away. But
every once in a while the lions and tigers will be up prowling around, and
putting on a show for the zoo patrons.
That always makes the trip that much more enjoyable.
It happened
on one occasion that we were at the zoo visiting the gorilla exhibit. The visit started off with observing a group
of very sleepy and lazy looking gorillas.
But as we stood there watching, one of them, the largest one got up and
began to move around his cage. He
climbed up to the top of the trees, he climbed down, he sauntered across from
one side to the other and back again. We
were standing observing through a large glass pane and we suddenly saw him
begin to run around the circumference of the enclosure. Will was kneeling down directly in front of
me at the glass as we were both taking the whole thing in. And as the gorilla ran past at full speed, he
reached out his hand and pounded the glass right in front us. Needless to say, we were startled. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Both of us were grateful for the strength of
the plexiglas that stood between us and the gorilla.
That’s the
way it is when you go to the zoo. It is
fun to see the animals. It is especially
fun when they are swimming or diving or flying or prowling or snarling or
roaring – but always behind the
glass, always inside the cage, always safely and securely locked away. Because, as Will and I discovered, powerful
and un-tamed animals can be frightening even behind the glass, let alone in
front of it. Imagine, how frightening
would it be if the animals every got free?
Sad to say, it
is entirely true that this exact “keep him close, but always behind bars”
approach that people employ with gorillas and lions at the zoo is the exact
same approach that people take with their God.
They want to keep him close. They
want him near by so they are able go to see him when they want, to spend time
with him when it suits them. But always
in a cage. Always behind bars. Always under surveillance. Because a God who is permitted to roam free,
who acts according to his own nature and his will just isn’t safe. We want a god, we even need a god, but it is
a tame god we are after. A God much like
a gorilla behind a pane of plexi-glass. Fun to see. Fun to watch him as he prowls around doing
his God thing. But always under our control,
under our watchful eye, making sure he doesn’t do anything for which we do not
approve. Anything more just wouldn’t be
safe.
There is
that old adage, the more things change, the more they stay the same. We want a god we can keep under
supervision. The Old Testament
Israelites felt the same way. They
wanted to believe in the Lord, to practice their religion and keep their faith;
but they wanted to do it in a way that suited them, that suited their needs and
their lifestyle and their choice.
Jeroboam was
King of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
He wanted a god. His people
wanted a god. But they wanted a tame
god, a god who didn’t think too much for himself. A god who let them decide
those complex and complicated issues of morality and justice. Things that are too complex to leave in the
hands of a black and white, over simplifying god. Right and wrong is so contextual, after all. Right and wrong can be defined and determined
by so many different criterion. You
shouldn’t limit yourself to such a narrow understanding. You shouldn’t paint with such broad
brushes. There are times after all when
you need to fudge a little. To expand the boundaries of justice so you have the
freedom to say and do the things that need to be done.
And so he
did. Right and wrong were defined to
allow for advantage to be taken of the widows and orphans, the poor and the
destitute. Servants were made from the
less fortunate. Purses and wallets were
lined from with the excess gleaned from those lacking the power to speak for
themselves. And what about the
Church? Where was the voice of the
church to speak up on behalf of the poor?
To speak against the injustice of the powerful? They said nothing. They did nothing. Amaziah the priest in Bethel was little more
than Jereboam’s yes man. The colleges
and seminaries to train the prophets were little more than propaganda houses
for the status quo.
So God sent
Amos. Amos was neither a prophet nor the
son of a prophet. This was not his
profession or paid vocation. He was a herdsman
and a farmer. But God called him and
sent him to speak his Word faithfully, in all its truth and purity against the
injustice of the day. The God whose
teeth you have tried to remove, who you have locked away in a cage – to keep
him near by but always on your terms, the god who you have tried to tame, to
make more palatable to your lifestyle and your choices is no tame lion. He does not wear your muzzle. He does not fit in your cage. He cannot be contained by your bars. He is not restrained by your chains.
In chapter
1:2 Amos declares:
“The LORD
roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the
shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.” (Amos 1:2 ESV) The Lord roars and Amos is his mouthpiece. He can only be marginalized and pushed out and
pushed away for so long. He can only be
ignored and kept on your terms for so long.
The Lord is God. And like a lion
roaring and prowling around in the streets, he is powerful. And he must be heard. To ignore him means your death.
The word
that the Lord gives this morning in our text is a metaphor. The Lord gives Amos a vision and Amos tells
us what he sees – the Lord is holding a plumb line, measuring the wall, testing
to see if it is true.
This is a
plumb line – a weighted piece of string or twine. A relatively simple device, but it always
hangs straight up and down. A stone
mason constructing a wall could use this to check his work, to see how well he
had done his work, could see if the stones have been placed straight up and
down. Crooked stones make for weak
walls. The metaphor follows like this: the
Lord has tested the strength and quality of Israel and has found them to be
less than true. He has compared them to
the plumb line of His Holy Word and they have not measured up.
And so says the
LORD in our text. “I will never again
pass by them; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the
sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of
Jeroboam with the sword.” (Amos 7:8-9 ESV)
You see,
this is the 3rd vision that the Lord had given to Amos. In the first two, the Lord promised to
relent. He expressed his anger at the
sins of the people; but he was merciful.
He did not destroy the people for their sin even though they deserved to
be destroyed. He gave them another
chance. We take God’s mercy for
weakness. We take God’s mercy to mean
that we are in control, that we have the right to determine right and wrong,
truth and falsehood. We take God’s mercy
to mean that we call the shots and so foolishly we place all kinds of muzzles
and restraints on the Lord as though we have the power to decide what he can
and cannot say and what he can and cannot do.
We would like to believe that we are God.
Have you
seen Jurassic Park? A movie about a zoo
for dinosaurs. T-Rexes and Velociraptors
in cages to be viewed for fun by zoo patrons.
One of the classic scenes takes place just after the T-Rex excapes. He is pounding his way through the rain
soaked park cause the earth to vibrate.
When we see him he lets out a tremendous roar. If t-rexes cannot be caged and kept in a zoo,
how much less can our God? In his mercy,
He puts up with our foolishness. He
permits us to dismiss him and ignore him and minimize and contextualize His
Word and His Law. But he is not a tame
God. He is not a trifling God. He is powerful. He is willful. He is the one who decides right and wrong and
truth and morality. He has revealed that
will and that power to us in His clear Word.
People say all the time that the Bible is so complicated and so complex;
you can’t really know for sure what it means.
People say all the time that you have to just read it for yourself and decide what it means for you. God’s
Word is clear. God’s Word reveals God’s
will. God’s Word reveals his clear
teaching. He is not obliged to confine
himself to the cages we would make for him.
And so the Lord breaks free and like a lion, like a liberated T-Rex, He roars
with a deep, deafening, earth shaking roar.
What do you
think He would say, Dear Christian? What
words would come from this terrible and powerful and un-tamable Lion? Where would he sink his teeth and flare his
nostrils? At you?
He
could. After all, you have tried to tame
him. You have refused to hear him. You have built your wall with your own
blueprints and his plumbline would show your lack of craftsmanship. He could roar at you. But he won’t.
At least not yet.
For now, the
Lion of Judah roars, but not at you. The Lion of Judah roars but at the
Devil. Because the devil is roaring at
you. Peter tells us that the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. He has no right to do that. He has no power to do that. He cannot destroy you. He cannot harm you. The Devil is a liar, a charlatan, much like the
Great and Powerful Oz who pretends to roar and snarl and snap but in reality
has no greater authority than you or I.
And so the Lord, the Lion of Judah comes to put that other, that false
lion in his place. To back him off and
back him down. Satan slinks away with
his tail tucked between his legs. And so
does death. Utterly defeated by the
great and powerful Jesus.
And what
about Sin? He takes it into
himself. He eats it up – bite by putrid
and stinking bite. He takes it all. He
consumes it all so that it is forever gone, never to be seen again. Jesus.
The Lion of Judah destroys our enemies and keeps them at bay. Jesus, the lion of Judah, roars.
People are
people; we have been ever since the beginning.
We want to minimize and marginalize the Lord so that we can make the
rules and we expect the Lord to obey. But
the Lord is far from tame. He is far
from restrained by the parameters we might create for him. He is great and he is powerful. And He uses that power for you.
Amen.
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