Amos 5:1-17.

If you were to ask Israel they would say they were quite alive—thank you very much—and fully convinced of their right standing with God. But as Amos revealed last week, because of Israel’s self-centered rebellion against God, they were a people unprepared to meet God. This is why Amos preaches what amounts to a funeral song. As God's prophet he wants to see spiritual death become spiritual life, so he delivers a lament for the dead in order to disturb Israel into seeing just how dead they really are so they might seek God and live.