God could have chosen any one family to become His beacon to the world and yet He chose the family of Jacob through a promise to Jacob’s grandfather Abraham. Now this family stood poised to receive the blunt end of the paddle – their sins had come home to roost, and they continued to live life as if everything was normal.
Amos declares this punishment not just to Israel (the broken group who left to do their own thing) but also Judah (in which people still honored God, but only a few). The sins of a nation can affect more than just the sinner – the church can suffer in the punishment as well. Verses 3-6 are very interesting verses. Here God describes how Israel should have responded to the prophets:
God choose to walk with man in order to bring about the redemption of mankind. Abraham agreed to this relationship and a covenant was created – for your loyalty God promises. One of those promises was that God would send prophets to the people before He acted to give the people a chance to repent of their sins. Lions do not give such a warning; traps do not give such a warning!
God sent prophets to tell of the looming future so that people could repent and change. As with a warning trumpet that warns people that a city is under siege from an invading army, so a prophet warns of God’s coming judgment. Yet warning after warning was not bringing the people to their knees before God, so the judgment continued forward. Yes, there were times when the judgment was slowed, but the people just lived as if it were business as usual.
Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. Amos 3:7 (NIV)
God is not a fiend or a manipulative ogre. God’s plans are plans to prosper His people but when they abuse His love and push Him away, they are setting themselves up for failure. As verse 8 says, “The lion has roared”. God gave the people a chance time after time after time but yet they refused His love and did not heed His warnings.
The United States stands on the verge of certain financial breakdown with warning signs ringing everywhere, and instead of making the necessary changes, the people are wandering around saying, “Keep spending” and “Let the government handle it” and “Print more money”. Where does it end? When do we stop and start making real changes to our lifestyles and start demanding it from our government officials? When do we stop the spending and start paying off our debts – because I can tell you for certain, more spending when you do not have any money to spend does not create more wealth nor does is pay off debt. More spending in this circumstance only creates more debt…but I digress.
God told Amos to proclaim to the enemies of Israel to come and watch the judgment being dished out against Israel. Israel would become easy picking to their enemies; in fact, their enemies would not have to do much to get Israel to capitulate. Israel had become so oppressive in governing and so drunk upon its wealth that it could no longer see the coming threat from the enemies that surrounded them. And God was not going to hold the disaster back.
This is what the LORD says:
"As a shepherd saves from the lion's mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites be saved…Amos 3:12 (NIV)
Israel would be left with only remnants to return to God. At God’s direction, Israel’s false gods would be wrecked, their great wealth would become dust, and their last hopes would be dashed because they did not have hope in God.
As the United States stands at the door of God’s judgment, who will stand in the gap and scream to the nation about the warnings God has been sending for years? We have reached the end of our rope just as Israel had reached the end of theirs. How much longer will God allow our sins to infect His kingdom? How much longer will He put up with our lustful desires, our hatred, our unbridled pride, and our oppressive behaviors?
I never intended this study to sound like a prophecy against the United States, but I can’t help what I am hearing from this reading. You decide on your own merit and study if God is not speaking to us through His Word.
- What happens when God’s Word gets personal?
- How has this reading affected you?
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