September 2, Amos 7
This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. Then I said, "O Lord GOD, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!" The LORD relented concerning this: "This also shall not be," said the Lord GOD. - Amos 7:4-6
In Chapter 7, Amos related three visions the Lord gave him about his plans to take action to punish Israel's unfaithfulness. The fire that devoured the sea and was eating up the land symbolized God's intense anger with his idolatrous and disobedient people. In the vision before it, God made a great horde of locusts to eat up all the crops as another demonstration of his wrath toward Israel. When Amos saw those visions, he cried out to the Lord. He pleaded with God to relent from his plan to punish Israel with such severity. God heard and relented from his plans to punish the Israelites with those extreme measures.
Amos's fervent prayers on behalf of Israel remind me of Abraham pleading for Sodom and Moses pleading for Israel to be spared. These godly men prayed to God on behalf of others, and pleaded with the Lord to change his mind about a scheduled act of judgment. They all remind us of the greatest intercessor of all, Jesus, who prayed for his apostles and for us in the garden before his arrest and crucifixion. Now after his glorious resurrection and ascension, the book of Hebrews says he lives forever to make intercession for us before the Father. Amos's prayers and God's answer to those prayers remind us of the New Testament words of James about prayer: "The prayer of a righteous person has great power in its working."
Those exchanges between Amos and the Lord also remind us of the great love and compassion of God. He loves his people. He doesn't want to destroy them. And so he accepted Amos's humble prayer and gave the Israelites mercy. He did not give them the wrath they deserved.
But the third vision reminds us that God's merciful kindness and patience eventually run out. When sinners grow more hardened in their disobedience and refuse to listen and repent, they must be judged. In that third vision, God showed Amos a wall that had been built with a plumb line. It was straight and in square when God first established it. But when the plumb line of judgment came, the wall was no longer as it had been before. It was flawed, and the plumb line revealed its faults. The plumb line of God's judgment exposed the unsoundness of the wall and condemned it to destruction. The time for mercy and repentance had passed. Israel had run out of time and Judah was not far behind. God would no longer pass over their wickedness.
When Amaziah the priest accosted Amos, he mischaracterized the prophet's words when he told the king about the prophet's message. He failed to mention the mercy Amos had secured for the nation with his fervent prayers. When Amaziah said the country couldn't bear Amos's words, he reminds us of wicked Ahab and Jezebel calling Elijah "the troubler of Israel." The words Amaziah didn't like were God's words, not Amos's words. He advised Amos to get out of Israel and go home to Judah, and not preach in Israel any longer. Amos defended himself and his mission. He told Amaziah that he was not a formally trained prophet, but a cowboy and a farmer who answered God's call to go deliver a message to Israel. He told Amaziah bitter truth about his family and what would happen to them. His wife would become a prostitute, his children would be killed and he would go into exile and die far from home.
Amos did not preach these stern warnings because he was mean or hateful. He did it because he was faithful to God's call and because he had compassion for doomed people. Like other faithful prophets and the apostles, Amos obeyed God and told the people what God told him to say.
How often do you and I pray with fervor to God to spare people from trouble and suffering? Intercessory prayer is a great work and an honored privilege. God welcomes those prayers because he loves people and doesn't want to destroy them. But we must remember that the time for patience and mercy runs out, and a holy righteous God must judge unrepentant men and women. And when you and I hear convicting words from the Lord, how do we respond to them? Are we angry and defiant, or grateful for grace that points to changes we need to make? Those are just some of the ways we should apply the teaching of this chapter to our lives.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—September 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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