Day 192 – Amos 1-5

Talking Points

• Amos, sometimes called the farmer prophet, is called out from the shepherds to prophesy to Israel. It is always interesting who God calls to stand in this service, calling His people back to Him. In this case, it wasn’t a scribe or some other religious expert. It was a shepherd.
• God had sent prophets before to declare, “Thus says the LORD…” Yet, the people didn’t listen or heed their messages. Recognizing this leads us to a very important realization as we read through the Bible: It is not enough to have God’s Word. The key is to heed it. “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22).
• Amos announces that God will deal severely with the sins of Israel’s neighbors and Israel, as well. They have practiced drunkenness, sexual sin, and self-serving greed, all in rebellion against God’s Word.
• The Bible tells us of a common tendency: The people hate the message, and so they hate the messenger. A life given to God and walked out in integrity stands as a conviction to those who walk in rebellion. “They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks with integrity” (Amos 5:10). May we be quick to see the value of Godly people who carefully speak God’s Truth; it is God’s grace to place them around us.

Thoughts

Amos delivers a heavy announcement: “God is going to punish your sins. He is going to punish you. It is coming!” The description is frightening. For the first four chapters, you can hear the drumbeat of God’s coming wrath. It will be terrible. The ruin of cities, plunder by foreign armies, God’s grace and protection lifted, death, destruction, and embarrassment — it is coming. And, then, in His great grace and promise of mercy and faithfulness, God calls to them, “Seek Me and live” (5:4,6).

How does that work? How can that make sense? How, in the middle of declaring Your anger and Your coming punishment for sin, can You offer a way of escape — an unmerited way to be saved? Sure, You could offer hope to the righteous few, the ones who hadn’t turned against You, but salvation to the very rebels You are angry with? How does that make sense?

Honestly, it doesn’t. It just doesn’t. And, yet, that is our God. That is His message. From the very first sinners in the Garden all the way to you and me — “Seek Me and live.“

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8

“Grace that is greater than all our sin…”