The Logic of the Lion: Covenant, Calamity, and Prophecy Text: Amos 3:1-8
Introduction: The Scandal of Particularity
We live in an age that despises distinctions. Our culture is allergic to the very idea that one thing could be different from another in any meaningful way, that one choice could be better than another, or that one group could have a unique relationship with God that another does not. This is the great democratic mush of modernity, where every man does what is right in his own eyes, and every path leads to the same non-existent destination. Into this gelatinous consensus, the prophet Amos speaks a hard and angular word. It is a word that establishes the scandal of particularity, the offensive reality that God chooses, God distinguishes, and God holds His chosen people to a terrifyingly higher standard.
Amos was a shepherd from Tekoa, a man from the southern kingdom of Judah, sent by God to prophesy against the northern kingdom of Israel. Israel was at the height of its prosperity under Jeroboam II. They were wealthy, militarily secure, and religiously complacent. They had their shrines, their sacrifices, and their feast days. They assumed that their external observance, combined with their status as God’s chosen people, guaranteed them a permanent place in His favor. They thought that covenant relationship meant covenant privilege, a sort of divine immunity. Amos arrives to detonate this delusion. He comes to teach them that covenant privilege always, without exception, means covenant responsibility. And where that responsibility is abdicated, the privilege curdles into a curse.
The message of Amos is not just for ancient Israel. It is a perennial word for the people of God in every age. Whenever the visible church grows comfortable, fat, and happy, whenever we begin to mistake our baptisms, our buildings, and our budgets for genuine faithfulness, God sends an Amos. He sends a rough-hewn word to remind us that intimacy with God is a dangerous thing. To be known by God is to be placed under a microscope. To be brought near to the holy fire is to be in constant peril of being consumed by it if we treat it lightly. This passage in Amos 3 lays out the logic of God's dealings with His people. It moves from the premise of their unique election to the conclusion of their necessary judgment, and it does so with a series of unanswerable, common-sense questions that are meant to corner us, to strip away our excuses, and to leave us standing naked before the roar of the Lion of Judah.
The Text
Hear this word which Yahweh has spoken against you, sons of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, “You only have I known among all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” Do two men walk together unless they have made an appointment? Does a lion roar in the forest when it has no prey? Does a young lion give forth its voice from its den unless it has captured something? Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground when there is no bait in it? Does a trap spring up from the earth when it captures nothing at all? If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity happens in a city has not Yahweh done it? Surely Lord Yahweh does nothing Unless He reveals His secret counsel To His slaves the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? Lord Yahweh has spoken! Who can but prophesy?
(Amos 3:1-8 LSB)
Privilege and Punishment (v. 1-2)
The oracle begins with a summons to listen, grounding what is about to be said in the history of redemption.
"Hear this word which Yahweh has spoken against you, sons of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 'You only have I known among all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.'" (Amos 3:1-2)
God addresses the "entire family," both northern Israel and southern Judah. He reminds them of their foundational redemptive event: the Exodus. This is not just a historical footnote; it is the basis of their relationship. He brought them out. He chose them. He established a covenant with them. This leads to the staggering declaration in verse 2: "You only have I known among all the families of the earth."
The word "known" here is not about intellectual awareness. God, being omniscient, knows everything about every family on earth. This is the Hebrew word yada, which speaks of a deep, intimate, relational, and covenantal knowledge. It is the same word used for the intimate knowledge between a husband and wife. God is saying, "I have entered into a marriage covenant with you, and you alone." This is the doctrine of election, stated with bracing clarity. God, in His sovereign good pleasure, set His electing love upon Israel. This was not because they were better, stronger, or more righteous than anyone else. It was pure, unadulterated grace.
But notice the shocking turn of the logic. Our modern, sentimental view of God would expect the next word to be "therefore, I will bless you," or "therefore, I will overlook your faults." But God says the exact opposite. "Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." This is the central axiom of covenant theology. Proximity to God increases accountability. Grace is not a license to sin; it is the ground of judgment against sin. If a stranger’s child is throwing a tantrum in the grocery store, I might be annoyed. If my child is throwing a tantrum, he is inviting a swift and certain reckoning. Why? Because he is mine. He bears my name. His behavior reflects on me in a way the stranger's child does not. Israel bore the name of Yahweh in a world of pagan idolatry. Their sin was not just a moral failure; it was blasphemy. It was covenant infidelity. It was spiritual adultery.
This principle applies directly to the New Covenant church. To whom much is given, much is required (Luke 12:48). We who have been baptized into Christ, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, are in a position of far greater danger than the pagan who has never heard the name of Jesus. Judgment begins at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). We should not be surprised when God disciplines His church. We should be terrified if He does not.
The Logic of Causality (v. 3-6)
Amos now unleashes a series of seven rhetorical questions, each designed to demonstrate the unbreakable link between cause and effect, between God's action and the world's reality. The logic is simple and rustic, drawn from the everyday life of a shepherd and villager.
"Do two men walk together unless they have made an appointment? Does a lion roar in the forest when it has no prey? Does a young lion give forth its voice from its den unless it has captured something? Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground when there is no bait in it? Does a trap spring up from the earth when it captures nothing at all? If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity happens in a city has not Yahweh done it?" (Amos 3:3-6 LSB)
Each question expects the answer, "Of course not!" People don't just happen to walk together in intimate fellowship; they agree to meet. A lion doesn't roar for no reason; it roars when it is about to strike or has already secured its prey. Traps don't catch birds without bait, and they don't spring for no reason. A trumpet blast, the shofar, signals imminent danger and naturally causes fear. These are all self-evident truths. Amos is building a case, brick by logical brick. You see these effects in the world, and you rightly infer the cause.
Then comes the capstone, the devastating conclusion in verse 6b: "If a calamity happens in a city has not Yahweh done it?" The word for calamity here is ra, which can mean evil or disaster. This is one of the hardest statements in Scripture for our modern sensibilities to swallow. We want a God who is in charge of the good things, the blessings, the healings. But we want to attribute the disasters, the famines, the plagues, the invading armies, to secondary causes, to nature, to chance, or to the devil. But Amos, speaking for God, will have none of it. He is asserting the absolute sovereignty of God over all things, including what we call disaster.
This does not mean God is the author of sin. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. But it does mean that nothing happens outside of His decree. He is the ultimate cause behind all secondary causes. The Assyrians may be the immediate cause of Israel's destruction, but Yahweh is the one who sent them. This is the teaching of the entire Bible. "I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity; I am Yahweh, who does all these things" (Isaiah 45:7). To deny this is to create a deistic, impotent god who is not the God of the Bible. It is a terrifying doctrine, but it is also a doctrine of immense comfort. If God is not sovereign over the calamity, then we are ultimately in the hands of blind, meaningless chance. But if He is sovereign, then even in the midst of disaster, we know that our God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him, for those who are called according to His purpose.
The Prophetic Necessity (v. 7-8)
Having established God's sovereignty over disaster, Amos now explains the role of the prophet in relation to that sovereignty. God does not act in a vacuum.
"Surely Lord Yahweh does nothing Unless He reveals His secret counsel To His slaves the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? Lord Yahweh has spoken! Who can but prophesy?" (Amos 3:7-8 LSB)
This is a remarkable statement about how God works in history. Before He brings judgment, He sends a warning. He reveals His "secret counsel" to His prophets. He does not sucker-punch His people. He tells them what He is about to do and why He is about to do it. This is an act of covenant faithfulness, even in judgment. He sent Noah before the flood, Moses before the plagues, Jeremiah before the exile, and John the Baptist before the coming of Christ. And here, He has sent Amos before the Assyrian invasion.
The warning, therefore, is an act of grace. It is an opportunity to repent. The fact that a prophet is speaking is evidence that God is speaking, and the fact that God is speaking means that judgment is not just possible, but imminent. This leads to the final, powerful conclusion.
"A lion has roared! Who will not fear?" The roaring lion from verse 4 is now identified. It is Yahweh Himself. The impending judgment is not a random predator; it is the personal, holy wrath of the covenant Lord. The natural, sane, and right response to a lion's roar is fear. To hear it and yawn is the act of a fool. Spiritually, to hear the warnings of God and to continue on in our comfortable sins is the height of insanity.
And for the prophet himself, the response is just as necessary, just as unavoidable. "Lord Yahweh has spoken! Who can but prophesy?" Amos is not prophesying because he enjoys it. He is not a professional pundit looking for an audience. He is under a divine compulsion. Jeremiah described it as a fire shut up in his bones (Jer. 20:9). For Amos, hearing the word of God is like hearing the roar of a lion right behind him. He has no choice but to speak. The message is not his own; it is God's. And the responsibility to deliver it is absolute.
Conclusion: The Roar and the Cross
So where does this leave us? This passage lays out a stark and severe logic. Covenant intimacy leads to covenant accountability. Divine sovereignty is the cause behind earthly calamity. And God's prophetic word is the necessary roar that precedes the judgment.
For Israel, this was a warning of impending temporal doom. They did not listen, and within a few decades, the northern kingdom was wiped from the map by the Assyrians, just as Amos foretold. They heard the roar, but they did not fear. They plugged their ears with their wealth and their empty religion.
For us, the roar of the lion is even more profound. We live on this side of the cross. We have seen the ultimate calamity fall upon the ultimate Son. On that dark Friday, a great disaster occurred in the city of Jerusalem. And has not Yahweh done it? Indeed, He has. "It was the will of Yahweh to crush him" (Isaiah 53:10). God the Father, in an act of infinite and terrifying holiness, poured out the full measure of His wrath for "all our iniquities" upon His only beloved Son.
Jesus Christ became the covenant-breaker for us. He stood in the place of faithless Israel, in the place of the faithless church, in your place and mine. He absorbed the punishment that our covenant unfaithfulness deserved. The Lion roared, and it fell upon Him. He was the prey that was captured so that we might go free.
Therefore, the prophetic word that comes to us now is the gospel. It is the announcement that the Lion has been satisfied. The judgment has already fallen. And the invitation is to run, not from the Lion, but to Him. For all who take refuge in Christ, the Lion of Judah who roars in judgment becomes the Lamb of God who was slain for our salvation. But do not be mistaken. To hear this gospel and to treat it lightly, to presume upon this grace, to think that our baptism or church membership gives us a pass to live as we please, is to make the same mistake Israel made. It is to hear the roar of the lion and not to fear. And for those who refuse the shelter of the Lamb, there remains nothing but a terrifying expectation of judgment from the Lion.