The Point of No Return
God was fed up with the northern kingdom. What had the Israelites done? Many of the same things nations do today.
On the bank of the American side of the Niagara River, in the state of New York, an ominous sign stands guard. Large letters proclaim, “Danger. Niagara Falls Restricted Area. Boating Beyond This Point Prohibited.”
Why such a dire warning? Because approximately 3 miles downstream, the water current moves at 8 miles per hour (mph) and then accelerates. Its force is that of a supercharged EF5 tornado.¹
Half a mile before the falls, the rapids begin. The water current there is 25 mph. That current’s pressure is equal to winds blowing at 790 mph, faster than the speed of sound.² If you are in the water in those conditions, you have no control. You are helpless. You are doomed. Your fate is sealed.
It is the point of no return.
The book of Amos tells us that the spiritual condition of the northern kingdom of Israel in the 8th century BC had reached the point of no return. Although the southern kingdom of Judah also faced divine judgment for its sins (2:4–5), Amos focused most of his prophetic ministry on the northern nation. Israel had become a “sinful kingdom,” and God had seen it all (9:8).
Yahweh finally had reached His limit with the only people on Earth with whom He had formed a covenantal relationship (3:2). God hadn’t broken the Mosaic Covenant; Israel had. And the terms of that covenant carried consequences.
What had the Israelites done that brought them to the point of no return?
Their Manifold Transgressions
Amos proclaimed, “Thus says the LORD: ‘For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment’” (2:6). The phrase three . . . and for four was a common poetic literary device that communicated an intensification of moving from one state to a more complete or fuller state.
It doesn’t imply a literal, numerical four. For example, the same phrase is used with previously mentioned nations, and their sins did not always add up to four. Also, the Lord states later, “For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty [countless] sins” (5:12).
Amos didn’t specify every sin the northern kingdom committed. Still, the examples he gave are sufficient to understand why God felt His people finally reached their limit and crossed the line. Although Moses had warned the nation some 700 years earlier by presenting a blueprint for spiritual disaster, Israel ended up following that blueprint to a T (Dt. 8:11–20).
Luxury and Leisure. Amos ministered at a time of relative success, prosperity, and comfort (at least for the elite) during the reign of Jeroboam II (Amos 1:1). These aristocrats owned both winter and summer homes, some of which contained expensive inlaid-ivory furniture (3:15; 6:4).
Others favored resilient, stone-cut homes with beautiful vineyards (5:11). Israel’s upper crust enjoyed a life of opulence, indulgence, and indolence (6:4–7), presumably unaware or not caring that they were being led astray by what Jesus later called “the deceitfulness of riches” (Mt. 13:22).
Pride. Moses had warned about the dangers of affluence, the first danger being pride (Dt. 8:14, 17). Pride is an internal condition of the heart. It is inherently blasphemous because it attributes to oneself what should rightfully be attributed to God. Israel suffered from pride, and God abhorred it (Amos 6:8, 13).
Idolatry: Forgetting God. People who are materially well off and attribute their good fortune to their own abilities easily forget about God (Dt. 8:14). Forgetting God typically leads to idolatry, which the Ten Commandments condemn (8:19; Ex. 20:3–5). Idolatry substitutes the God of the Bible for a god of our own desires (Ex. 20:2; Ps. 115:8). It fashions a god in our image, rather than submitting to the God who made us in His image.
It doesn’t matter what form idolatry takes; whenever we make the God of the Bible subordinate to us and not us to Him, we practice idolatry. Israel’s history reeked with idolatry. When Jeroboam I split from the house of David to become king over Israel (the 10 northern tribes), he immediately erected two golden calves, replacing the true and living God of the Bible.
He also syncretized the priestly system and liturgy of the Law of Moses with those of his own making (1 Ki. 12:26–33). This hypocritical syncretism continued to Amos’s time (Amos 3:14; 8:14), and it sickened God. The Lord even spoke sarcastically (4:4–5; 5:25–27) and vehemently to His Chosen People: “I hate, I despise, . . I do not savor” (5:21).
Once idolatry is exposed, idolators often push back (v. 10). Their resistance can take the form of seduction to compromise or direct, hostile suppression. Israel engaged in both (2:11–12; 7:12–13).
Oppression and Exploitation of the Weak and Vulnerable. If we stop loving the Lord our God, then we will stop loving our neighbor as ourselves (cf. 1 Jn. 4:20). This is what Israel did. Instead of loving people, Israel’s upper class took advantage of them, especially the destitute and downtrodden.
Israel’s rich and powerful were greedy defrauders and exploiters of the poor (Amos 8:4–6). They impounded clothes from the needy (2:8; cf. Ex. 22:26); imposed heavy taxes or rents on the impoverished, though they themselves lived in splendor (Amos 5:11); and perverted justice by taking bribes or ignoring the judicial cases of those who couldn’t afford bribes (v. 12).
Forgetting they once had been slaves themselves in Egypt, they bought and sold human beings as if they had no more value than a pair of sandals (2:6; 8:6; cf. Dt. 24:17–18). Even the aristocratic wives participated in the avarice. God called them “cows of Bashan” who “oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring wine, let us drink!’” (Amos 4:1).
In God’s final assessment, Israel transgressed because it had turned justice into bitterness and regarded righteousness as disposable (5:7; 6:12; cf. Isa. 10:1–2).
Refusing to Return. God was extremely patient with Israel. He repeatedly sent the people prophets to encourage them to repent, but they refused (2 Ki. 17:13–14). He even brought calamities on Israel to get the people’s attention, to provoke them to grieve “for the affliction of Joseph” (Amos 6:6); but they would not. Five times He lamented Israel’s lack of spiritual contrition: “Yet you have not returned to Me” (4:6, 8–11).
Israel ignored God’s repeated harbingers and passed the point of no return. The consequences were catastrophic. Yahweh declared through Amos, “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” (v. 12).
Danger! Falls Ahead!
Most of us see that “it is an evil time” in which we live (5:13). The New Testament predicts that, as the hedonistic currents of the last days move faster and faster, signs exist of societal collapse eerily similar to those in the days of Amos. They should serve as a warning to each generation that danger lies ahead:
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power (2 Tim. 3:1–5).
The Bible tells us that Israel’s fate was an example from which we, “upon whom the ends of the ages have come,” should learn (1 Cor. 10:11). May we be careful to heed the danger signs God has put before us so that, unlike Israel, we do not reach our point of no return.
ENDNOTES
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- Tim Ballisty and Jon Erdman, “Floodwater’s Underrated Power,” The Weather Channel, May 21, 2015 (tinyurl.com/WaterPressure-1).
- Ibid.
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