Prior to writing the passage I am focusing on, Amos had warned Israel about God's chastening. Then he wrote: "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. 13. For, lo, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is His name."
I have always focused on "prepare to meet thy God" when teaching or preaching on this text. As profound a reminder as that is for all generations, we don't need to ignore the fact the Amos wanted them to stop and consider the kind of God they should prepare to meet. He reminded Israel that He is the God that creates something from nothing. No one else can do that. Also, no one else is "The Lord, The Lord of hosts." What Amos is telling them is that they are fooling around with the eternal God who created the world and will call it to account. No one should have needed to remind them about who and what God is. After all, these were God's chosen people, the people whom God delivered from Egypt, saw them through forty years in the wilderness and gave them the Promised Land. These people to whom Amos wrote did not personally experience any of that, but it was an integral part of their history and they should have been taught that history from cradle to grave. They ignored God in order to worship wood and stone. They ignored God's moral order and did what they wanted to. We are not Israel, but we do know their history and we do know what God did for them. We know that He is the God who sent Jesus to save our sinful souls. It seems to me that with the spiritual climate in our country, and world, today we would do well to: "Prepare to meet (our) God." This needs to be taught and preached until the Lord comes. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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