A Watching World

God doesn’t just drop the hammer.  He is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  He is slow to anger and abounding in love (Exodus 34:6).  But in the mid 700’s B.C. God sent the prophet Amos to delare to His people that things had to change.  Time after time He had called to the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in that day to return to Him and leave the filth behind to find healing and restoration in Him.   Things had sunk to an unsustainable state of immoral depravity and cruelty over generations by that time.  And it was God’s people who were the worst of the lot!  A watching world was saying wrong things about God based on how poorly His people reflected Him in how harshly they treated one other.

‘They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”  (Amos 3:9-10)

God declared of His own people, “They do not know how to do right” (Amos 3:10).  It was grain and wealth gotten by robbery and violence that they had stored up.   God wants His whole creation to know who He truly is and how to love Him and love each other rightly.  He will not stand by and let an unbelieving world say critical things about Him that aren’t true because of how His own people are acting.  He will make sure the world knows what He stands for one way or the other.  In Amos’ day, it took the overwhelming judgment of God.

There are some who see God in bad ways as a mean nasty destroyer.  I hope as you read through the Twelve you see His real character coming through.  The last thing He wants to do is to act in wrath against His creation.  His words to the stiff-necked, prideful, corrupt, and arrogant people of the Northern Kingdom are strong here, but remember His character.  Get a good look at how much God hates sin and what it does to us.  Sin warps us to use and abuse one another and do the same to God in our selfish pursuits.  God would be unkind to sit back and say or do nothing while we destroy one another.  Though Amos has a tough message, it is one that calls us out on our hurtful and sinful patterns and into a closer relationship with God who says over and over again, “Seek Me and live” (Amos 5:5).  So let’s ask ourselves, “What does it take for God to get through to us and for us to leave behind the things that break our relationships down and separate us from Him?  Sometimes a strong word is in order, and Amos is just the man for the job.  Let’s make the choice to set our feet on paths of peace and to “seek God and live.”