The entire first chapter of this book and parts of the second chapter describe in detail how God will bring his judgment on the neighboring nations of Israel. The Israelites rejoiced at this and even encouraged Amos to tell them more. These pagan nations really needed to be brought into line.
But when Amos had finished with Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab, he began to speak more about his own country, Judah. And that caused his listeners' faces to change. Then Amos dropped the bomb and proclaimed judgment on Israel. How could Amos dare to lump them together with the other nations?
Leaders remain objective. They are trustworthy because they wear no blinders. They see the beam in their own eye before they try to remove the small splinter from someone else's eye.
Matthew 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
When leaders stop being objective, people begin to wonder whether the leader has started acting in his own self-interest. This causes trust to erode. People trust leaders who practice the Law of Solid Ground and thereby pursue these three primary goals:
- Protection. They make sure their people have a safe environment.
- Equipping. They make sure their people have everything they need to do the work.
- Progress. They make sure the enterprise reaches the agreed-upon goal.
Amos 2:4-16
4 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:
5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:
8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.
12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:
15 Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.
16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.