Okay, I confess… Every time we roll around to Wednesday, I feel like there ought to be a theme song. Only in my head, it’s some cheesy seventies game show kind of theme song. Wonder why that is? Anyway, Amos is this week. (How many of you didn’t realize there was an Amos in the Bible? Just wondering.) Drop down into the comments and share what spoke to you out of Amos. Next week we move on to Obadiah…
Amos 7:3 (NIV)–So the Lord relented and did not fulfill the vision. “I won’t do it,” he said.
I don’t think it’s wrong to admit that the prophets can be a little scary. Their mission, after all, was to warn Israel (and us!) what would happen if they didn’t turn from their sins and back to God. You could bog down for days in plagues, exiles, and death. If you did that, though, I think you’d miss the point. The reason the bad things are there is that they are consequences of sin. Our holy God demands a holy people. Aren’t we glad He provided the way to holiness with Jesus, since we can’t do it ourselves?
At any rate, to focus on the punishment is to miss the grace. It is terrifying to know what will happen if we don’t get it straight, especially when we look at our world today and know that God won’t be patient forever. But don’t get the idea that God is a vengeful, angry God. Prophecy is not what will irrevocably happen in these cases. It is what will happen if things don’t change. That is why I love Amos 7:3. Lots of horrible stuff was laid out in Amos, but then the people repented–they changed–and God said, “All of those things? I won’t do them.” There’s the grace. There’s the absolute beauty of God. He had the whole plan laid out, all of things they deserved, and He didn’t do it.
It’s why Jesus came, isn’t it? All of those things we deserve by God’s law… and He doesn’t do them to us. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Thank God for grace.” Without it, we’d be prophecy recipients, every last one of us.
-JB
Dawn Lucowitz says
Amos 6:1a – Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria.
In this book, the word complacent is the one that jumped out of the page at me. How easy it is to get complacent in my little “cushy” world. I have been blessed with so much. We are very comfortable financially and have an unbelievable support system of family and friends. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of getting complacent. Being satisfied with being comfortable is a trap I don’t want to stay in. I believe in God and know he will provide for all of my needs, but I have been blessed enough to not have to put that one to the test. I know he will provide the security I need. He will make sure I always have food, water, and shelter. I know that if I didn’t have the network of family and friends, he would be more than enough to satisfy me….but again, I haven’t had to experience that.
In order for me to not stay complacent, I need to remind myself that my circumstances could change any second. I need to remind myself that many of the people I pass by every day were comfortable like me not too long ago and their circumstances changed on them. I need to make sure that spiritually I don’t get too comfortable. I need to continue to grow daily. I need to not just read my bible and Jodie’s blog, and pray about all the hurt in the world…I need to do something about it. I need to be living my faith outwardly. I need to be showing that God is enough for me.
Jodie says
Are you living my spiritual life? This goes along with Matthew 16, which God has been hammering me with so much lately. He will take care of it. I need to trust Him to do that. AND, I need to start using some of the abundance He has given me to reach out to others. The complacency thing is an easy trap to fall into. It has been on my mind a lot with the situation in Japan and some other instances that make me realize the only real security is God. Everything else could be gone in the snap of a finger. It would be easy to let that be a very scary thing, but we have to remember… We have God. And He will take care of it, just like you said.
Jessica R. Patch says
My favorite verse in Amos comes from 5:24 “But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” NKJV
You nailed it with, “to focus on the punishment is to miss the grace.”
Jodie says
Why, thank you! The one you chose is excellent as well. More of who God is. I love how much we see of Him when we take it piece by piece!
Jen says
I promise I didn’t bail on you completely last week…. I sat down to post my verse, had a run-in with you-know-who on FB, and ended up getting a little side tracked. But I did have one picked out and ready to share!!! It’s another one of those “secrets of life”….. so simple, but so hard to remember at times.
Amos 5:4- This is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live…”
How often do we find ourselves with a void that needs filling, a problem that needs solving, or a question that needs answering? You got it- about every 30 seconds. But how often do we seek God first in those situations? I don’t know about you, but there have been times when I’ve looked everywhere else, and it’s only when all else failed that I’ve turned to Him. Thankfully, my head isn’t as thick as some would believe because those times are getting fewer and further between. If we seek Him FIRST, we truly can start to live… because that’s when everything begins to fall into place.
Jodie says
I get hammered on this one a LOT. I should run to God first, not as my last resort. And another thing… I need to start my day with Him EVERY day. It makes a huge difference.