Go to Bethel and Sin

The prophet Amos declared, “Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more” (Amos 4:4). We can translate that to mean, “Go to church and sin; go to church and sin more.” From this prophecy we want to understand the difference between true and false churches, true and false ministers, and the true God and false gods.

Today we hear little preaching from the minor prophets. Amos prophesied around 760 B.C., during the reigns of Uzziah in Judah and Jeroboam II in Israel. Uzziah and Jeroboam II ruled concurrently for thirty-six years during the second golden age of Judah and Israel. During this time they controlled almost all territories that Israel had possessed in the days of David and Solomon, including Damascus and Hamath.

This was a time of great prosperity for Israel, whose control of various trade routes brought a large amount of money to the country. But material prosperity and true piety are related inversely. Prosperity from God makes people independent of God and arrogant. The more wealthy, beautiful, brilliant, and powerful we are, the more self-sufficient and self-dependent we become. We can become more like the devil. True worship disappears and idolatry thrives when wealth increases.

During this time of extreme material prosperity, Israel became very wicked. In Amos 2 we find God’s charge against his people:

For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. They lie down beside every altar in garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god, they drink wine taken as fines (Amos 2:6-8).

These people practiced oppression, social injustice, high interest loans, cheating and devouring the poor, making more money, and finding their security, especially these merchant princes, in money. They rejected the covenant Lord and his covenant laws (Amos 2:4) and profaned God’s name through many sins.

Money is never the key to happiness. Yet prosperity does not mean diminution of worship! In fact, prosperity produces a proliferation of worship places and types of worship. There is great religious diversity when there is money. Every desire for worship is catered to. During Amos’ time there were churches in Bethel, Dan, Beersheba, Gilgal, and Samaria where people could feast, sacrifice, enjoy religious prostitution, and worship their own gods.

But the eighth-century B.C. also saw a great rise of wickedness. The Lord says, “For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. You oppress the righteous and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts” (Amos 5:12). Read Revelation 2 and 3, where the all-seeing Lord says, “I have this against you” (2:4; 2:20), “I have a few things against you” (2:14), and “I know your deeds” (3:1, 8, 15) in his rebukes to the churches.

We face the same problems Amos did. Let us, then, examine the prophet, his prophecy, and God’s certain judgment upon his people who profane his name.

The Prophet

To address this great sin of Israel, God raised up the prophet Amos to pronounce judgment. The book of Amos is full of the wrath of God: “The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness: ‘The time will surely come'” (Amos 4:2). God has sworn judgment by his holiness.

God is holiness in its highest degree. In Isaiah he is called the thrice-holy God (Isa. 6). Therefore, he

oppose sin, because sin is the contradiction of God and enmity against him. Every religion except the way of worship revealed in the holy Bible is an attempt to oppose the holy God and get away from him. Such religions reveal human hatred of the holy One.

Amos also likens Jehovah to a lion: “The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem. . . . Does a lion roar in the thicket when he has no prey? . . . The lion has roared-who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken-who can but prophesy?” (Amos 1:2; 3:4, 8). We see the Lion of Judah in the midst, roaring against evil, against those who profaned his holy name in the name of religion. Through this faithful pastor Amos, God roars his plans and purposes, by teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training his people in righteousness. Amos has no choice; he is the megaphone of God.

God called and commissioned this prophet from Judah to go north and prophesy in Israel. This holy God is against sinners who are his sworn enemies, yet he will pardon graciously if they turn to God from their evil ways. Therefore, when God speaks, he is being gracious and loving toward his people. If there were no prophecy, that would mean sure judgment, with no grace available.

Amos means “burden bearer.” Every true preacher is an Amos, a burden-bearer whomust deliver his burden by preaching the truth to God’s people. A true preacher bears the burden of the Lord; he must preach God’s word. Such a man is not self-called and self-appointed for selfish purposes. Amos himself said, “I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel'” (Amos 7:14-15). And whenever we hear the word of God truly preached by such a man of God, we must consider ourselves blessed of the Lord. It means our time for repenting has not yet passed, and we should avoid judgment by turning to God.

Amos was a humble shepherd, but God filled him with the Holy Spirit and so equipped him to prophesy with boldness, clarity, and brilliance.

The Prophecy

The northern kingdom was organized by Jeroboam I after the reign of Solomon, and it was Jeroboam who introduced bull worship in Israel. If we examine Jeroboam’s churches, we will get an idea of how many churches in the world today worship. Such churches have nothing to do with God’s word. It is all bull worship.

Jeroboam set up his churches for political reasons:

Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.” After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan (1 Kings 12:26-28).

Jerusalem was the seat of God where true sacrifices were made, the true word preached, and true prayer offered. This worship of bulls comes straight from the worship of golden calves (Exod. 32). It is pure paganism from Egypt. And look at 1 Kings 12:31: “Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites.” These people did not worship according to God’s Book. How many churches today throughout the world also neglect the Book and engage in such bull worship! Jeroboam used religion to serve his political ambitions; today we see ministers themselves inviting politicians to speak in their churches. This is bull worship. These churches have nothing to do with truth.

Jeroboam’s bull religion that was practiced in various sanctuaries in Israel served the interest of the reigning politicians. But such unorthodox, unscriptural worship of bulls and Baals was sheer idolatry; it was the worship of demons. It violated the orthodox way of worshiping the true God in one place, Jerusalem, as revealed to Moses in God’s law:

Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains and on the hills and under every spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places. You must not worship the Lord your God in their way. But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go (Deut. 12:2-5).

Paul says, “Not all who are . . . Israel are Israel” (Rom. 9:6), and we say that every church is not a church. We are foolish if we cannot discern what an authentic church of God is. The vast majority of churches are dedicated to bull worship. There is no presence of the holy God, no holy word, and no true sacrifice to atone for people’s sins. Such places, represented by Bethel, Dan, Gilgal, Samaria, and Beersheba, are frauds in which politicized, demonic religion that sanctions every form of immorality is practiced. People do not like a church that stands for the true God and his word and for holiness, because people like to practice evil.

As in ancient Israel, there is great prosperity in our country today that has produced great sin against God. Worship is thriving, but it is worship without God and his word, worship that pleases people’s whims and satisfies their felt needs. We enjoy religious pluralism, but it is pure Laodiceanism. What is Laodiceanism? It is the condition of the church of Laodicea as described by Jesus. Such people do not see their own sins or their need for God:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! . . . You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see” (Rev. 3:14-15, 17-18).

If we go to today’s centers of bull worship, we will see many happy people-husbands, wives, teens, children. The only one who is not pleased is God. He is angry and about to pour out his judgment. Note, then, God’s reaction to this great worship of bull: “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps” (Amos 5:21-24). And now comes the key verse in this prophecy: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:25). This is speaking about relational and social justice. When people hate God, others suffer. Only when we love and fear God will we treat people with dignity and justice.

There were many worship centers in Israel during Amos’ time. In Amos 8:14 we read, “They who swear by the shame of Samaria, or say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’ or ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives’-they will fall, never to rise again.” What they worshiped in Samaria was an idol, called “shame” (Heb.ashimah). These people were worshiping demons in the name of Yahweh. But true worship was in Zion, in the Jerusalem temple where God was present above the cherubim and worship was conducted by authorized priests in the authorized manner. Even so, today we must go to churches that preach the word of God in all its power, glory, and purity; where Christ crucified is exalted; where God’s sacraments are biblically administered; where God’s discipline is practiced; where the love of God governs in community life, and where people hear about the holiness of God, human sinfulness, repentance, atonement of Christ, conversion, holy living, heaven, and hell. We should not go to a church that pleases us, but to the church that glorifies and pleases God. Such a church shall feed us, and we shall prosper and be made fit for heaven. We should go to the church that humbles, corrects, teaches, and trains us, the church that causes us to look to God who raises up the humble to heaven itself.

When Amos went to Israel to prophesy God’s judgment, he noticed there was a great religious revival going on in the mega-churches of Samaria, Dan, Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba. He heard people exhorting each other, “Come to Bethel and worship, sing, sacrifice, fornicate, and be happy.” This was a corruption of God’s word: “Many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.’ The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Micah 4:2).

These Israelites were very religious and evangelistic, readily inviting others to church. But as we already noted, Bethel was a church serving politicians, a church where people were engaging in religious prostitution and worshiping a shame, not a savior. The omniscient, omnipotent, holy God of the covenant was not there, his word was not heard there, nor were his priests serving there. The true God was displeased with such mega-churches of Bethel, Dan, Samaria, Beersheba, and Gilgal.

The people were inviting others to come to Bethel. This is the principle of church growth. “Come to our church and sin; and come to our church and sin more. Come to our church and feel happy and have all your felt needs met. We will cater to you, but we will not say one word about God or sin or holiness or repentance or conversion or heaven or hell. Come!”

But how did God interpret this worship in Bethel? “Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings-boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do, declares the Sovereign LORD” (Amos 4:4-5). Notice, the leaven of sin was prohibited in God’s law but here it is permitted in the mega-churches. (PGM) These people were saying, in essence, “Bring all your sins; they will be accepted by God.”

“Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more.” These people could not fool God. They were going to their churches of Bethel and Dan, not to worship God, but to avoid him while engaging in sin. So God pronounced judgment on them: “The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks” (Amos 4:2). In ancient times, people would be shaved of their hair, stripped naked, and led away into captivity with hooks in their noses.

The pastor of the king’s cathedral in Bethel, a political appointee named Amaziah, did not like the roaring of the Lion of Judah heard clearly in the prophecy of Amos. So he wrote a letter to King Jeroboam II: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. For this is what Amos is saying: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land'” (Amos 7:10-11). Then Amaziah mocked Amos, and tried to threaten and intimidate him: “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom” (Amos 7:12-13). All true ministers will be mocked. Jesus said the world will hate us because of his name (cf. Matt. 10:22; John 15:18-21).

But Amos was pentecostal, like Micah, who said, “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD and with justice and might to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8). Every true minister is filled and endued with the Holy Spirit so that he can be bold and brilliant, not intimidated by the world. So Amos replied to the crooked hireling Amaziah: “You may be threatening me, but I am not threatening you. However, I will tell you what God has ordained. Your wife is going to be a prostitute, your sons and daughters will be killed by the sword, your land will go into exile, and you, Pastor Amaziah, will die in a pagan land” (Amos 7:16-17, author’s paraphrase).

What we need is not more money, but more God and the fear of God. What can more mammon do for us, except to make us independent and highly indulgent? These people were saying, “‘When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended, that we may market wheat?’-skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat” (Amos 8:5-6). Their churches were not houses of prayer; they were dens of thieves, as Jesus described the temple. There are only two masters: the true God or money. We worship money in this country. Look at the indulgence detailed in Amos 4:1: “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, ‘Bring us some drinks!'” Feminism is not a new thing. It has been around since Genesis 3.

What did these people do with all their money? “You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions. But you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end” (Amos 6:4-7). God deals with those who indulge in high lifestyles that have nothing to do with God.

Do you want to know how rich these people were? Look at Amos 3:15: “I will tear down their winter house along with the summer house; the houses adorned with ivory will be adorned will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished.” Prosperity, luxury, moral corruption, and the greed of the rich caused oppression and lack of justice for the poor. But God says, “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24).

Perdition

The third point is perdition-the sure judgment of God upon every person who hardens his heart against God, who refuses to receive grace, who rejects the claim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Savior of the world. Such a person can only look forward to God’s judgment.

When God’s covenant people sin, God their covenant Lord exercises discipline in the form of curses (cf. Lev. 26 and Deut. 28). As God’s prophet, Amos starts with lesser punishments and moves on to more severe punishments: “I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me”; “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. . . .Yet you have not returned to me”; “Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew . . . yet you have not returned to me”; “I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt . . . Yet you have not returned to me”; “I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me” (Amos 4:6-11). Note the persistent arrogance of the people in spite of God’s meting out punishment upon them. Therefore, he will continue to punish them.

Can anyone escape God’s judgment? Can anyone hide from God? The psalmist asked, “Where can I go from your presence?” (Ps. 139:7). The answer is nowhere. Our God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. When we run away from God, we are really running toward him. We cannot get away from God. The Lord says, “Though they dig down to the depths of the grave, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens, from there I will bring them down” (Amos 9:2).

Young people especially think they cannot be touched by God because they are muscular, strong, and powerful; the whole world is in their hands. But they cannot get away from God when he comes. What about the brilliant, powerful, rich people of the world? John writes: “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?'” (Rev. 6:15-17). Elsewhere we read about a great feast God will provide for the birds of the air: “And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, ‘Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great” (Rev. 19:17-18). All these people tried to hide. They cried out to the mountains to fall and shelter them from the wrath of the Lamb, but nothing happened. No one can escape God’s judgment.

What about the mega-church of Bethel and its crooked pastor? Amaziah hated God’s word and the sacrifices, place of worship, and priests ordained by God in his law. What about this political appointee who subordinated religion for political purposes and told the true pastor Amos, “Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom”? The Lion of Judah roared, pronouncing judgment on Bethel and its self-called, self-appointed, self-serving false ministers, including Amaziah:

On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel . . . Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing. Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire; it will devour, and Bethel will have no one to quench it . . . Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will be killed in a pagan land (Amos 3:14; 5:5-6; 7:16-17).

Seek the Lord and Live!

Bethel churches are all churches where God is not worshiped and his word is not preached, all churches that merely entertain people and minister to their felt needs, all churches that teach Jesus is just a man, or that he can be Savior without also being Lord. They are churches that teach one can be saved while continuing in sin, so that a thief can be “saved” and continue to steal, adulterers and fornicators can be “saved” and continue to practice sexual immorality, drug addicts can be “saved” and continue to sell and use drugs. Such churches are destined for destruction.

God says to those who go to Bethel, “Seek me and live; do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. . . . Seek the Lord and live” (Amos 5:4-6). God is seeking people to worship him in spirit and in truth. The true God, the true word, the true sacrifice, is not in Bethel, but in Zion. There is no gospel, no life, no light in Bethel. We must go where God is, where the gospel is preached, where light is and life is. Jesus says, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matt. 18:20).

We must not hate true ministers, but listen to them and embrace their words. About the people of Israel, the Lord says, “But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy” (Amos 2:12). If you do not want to hear the word of God, it may mean that God’s judgment is about to fall on you. Then he says, “You hate the one who reproves in court and despise the one who tells the truth” (Amos 5:10). Have you noticed that when you tell truth to your children, they do not like it? And this is not just the children’s problem; it is also the problem of adults. But God is gracious and invites us graciously to come to him: “Seek me and live” (Amos 5:4); “Seek the Lord and live” (Amos 5:6); “Seek good, not evil, that you may live. . . Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy” (Amos 5:14-15).

I offer to you a God who is merciful today. Because you are alive and hearing the word of God, it means there is still room for mercy. Jesus says his sheep hear his voice and follow him, refusing to hear the voice of a stranger (see John 10:1-30). If you are God’s sheep and you wind up in a Bethel church, then you will say, “I do not hear the voice of Jesus in this place.” You will get out and go to where the gospel is preached, where you do hear the voice of Jesus. There are many churches in the world that preach the true gospel.

The final promise is in Amos 9:11-12: “In that day I will restore David’s fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be.” This is speaking about raising up a Son of David to rule the world. This was fulfilled in the coming of Christ: “The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David'” (Luke 1:30-33).

In Jesus Christ, God will build up the fallen tent of David. God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. How can we enter it? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. The name Jesus means Savior; he will save his people from their sins.