READ Amos 6–9
Yesterday I had a lengthy conversation with a Christian about the powers in this world who are governed by greed. He was anxious to ‘do something’ about the corruption yet If humanity could conquer evil, Jesus would not be necessary.
Before Jesus came, God made it clear that He will deal with corruption. It was happening then too. He called Amos, a farmer, to be His prophet to Israel and said:
“Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall . . . .Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.” (Amos 6:4-7)
The prosperity of greedy people does nothing for them when God determines it is time for judgment. No one can escape the wrath of God against sin: “For behold, the Lord commands, and the great house shall be struck down into fragments, and the little house into bits.” (6:11)
Amos reacted with compassion: “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!” (Amos 7:4–5)
Not only did Amos plead for the people, he was persecuted by those that God told him to speak against:
Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, “ ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’ ” And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. “You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ Therefore thus says the Lord: “ ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’ ” (7:10-17)
God was clear. There would be a day when He would make “the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight . . . . turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day” and He would “send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.” (8:9–12)
In those days, they tried to hide from Him but could not. His anger against their sin was powerful:
“For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’ (9:9–10)
Yet hope was also given. “Behold, the days are coming when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them.” (9:13–15)
It happened. They were exiled. Eventually, they got their land back. This is the same God that promises eternal life to all who trust in Him and the same God who will deal with the greed and evil that now seems so strong in our world, the same God who says:
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10)
He is not done yet, and He does have the last word!
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