God Is Calling For True Obedience.

Amos 5:6-6:14
‘Seek the Lord and live’. ‘Seek good, not evil...’(5:6,14). Those who truly seek the Lord are to live a godly life. God sees right through hypocritical religion. He is not pleased with it: ‘I hate your show and pretence - your hypocrisy of ‘honouring’ Me with your religious feasts and solemn assemblies... Away with your hymns of praise - they are mere noise to My ears. I will not listen to your music, no matter how lovely it is’(21,23). God is looking for true obedience: ‘a mighty flood of justice - a torrent of doing good’- ‘Let justice flow like a river and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’(24). God speaks to us about our sins - ‘Many and great are your sins. I know them so well’- so that we might learn to ‘hate evil’ and ‘love good’(5:12,15).

Amos 7:1-9:15
‘That’s enough, prophet! Go back to Judah and do your preaching there... Don’t prophesy here at Bethel any more’(7:12-13). Amos was a faithful preacher of God’s Word - but his hearers wanted to get rid of him! This was the beginning of a time of great darkness: ‘The days are coming when I will send a famine through the land - not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the Word of the Lord, but they will not find it’(8:11-12). There were dark times ahead - but God was looking beyond them to a brighter future: ‘I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel’(9:14). ‘Restore us again, O God of our salvation...’(Psalm 85:4-7).

Praying Through God’s Word: Amos

AMOS

1:1-2:16
‘The Lord roars.’ ‘The Lord thunders’ (Amos 1:2). We thank You, Lord, that Your Word comes to us from above – ‘The Lord will roar from on high.’ You speak to us from heaven – ‘He will thunder from His holy dwelling.’ We dare not ignore Your Word. Your Word comes to us as a Word of warning – ‘He will shout against all who live on the earth’ – and a Word of judgment – ‘He will bring judgment on all mankind.’ You’re calling for our attention: ‘Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth.’ You’re speaking to us about Your ‘fierce anger.’ You’re calling us to turn from our sin. Help us, Lord, to return to You and hear Your Word of salvation: ‘I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more (Jeremiah 25:30-32,37; 31:34).

3:1-5:5
‘You only have I chosen… therefore I will punish you for all your sins’ (Amos 3:2). Along with the privilege of being ‘chosen’ to belong to You, Lord comes the responsibility of living as Your servants. Teach us not to take Your Word lightly – ‘The lion has roared – who will not fear?’ (Amos 3:8). You speak to us very directly about the way we are living – ‘You have not returned to Me’ (Amos 4:6,8-11). Help us to take You seriously: ‘Prepare to meet your God’ (Amos 4:12). You’re calling us to ‘seek You and live’: ‘Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the evil man his thoughts, Let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will freely pardon’ (Amos 5:4; Isaiah 55:6-7).

5:6-6:14
‘Seek the Lord and live’. ‘Seek good, not evil…’ (Amos 5:6,14). Those who truly seek You, Lord, are to live a godly life. You see right through hypocritical religion. You are is not pleased with it: ‘I hate your show and pretence – your hypocrisy of ‘honouring’ Me with your religious feasts and solemn assemblies… Away with your hymns of praise – they are mere noise to My ears. I will not listen to your music, no matter how lovely it is’ (Amos 5:21,23). You’re looking for true obedience: ‘a mighty flood of justice – a torrent of doing good’ – ‘Let justice flow like a river and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ (Amos 5:24). You speak to us, Lord, about our sins – ‘Many and great are your sins. I know them so well’ – so that we might learn to ‘hate evil’ and ‘love good’ (Amos 5:5:12,15).

7:1-9:15
‘That’s enough, prophet! Go back to Judah and do your preaching there… Don’t prophesy here at Bethel any more’ (Amos 7:12-13). We thank You, Lord, that Amos was a faithful preacher of Your Word. How sad, sinful and shameful it was that his hearers wanted to get rid of him! This was the beginning of a time of great darkness: ‘The days are coming when I will send a famine through the land – not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the Word of the Lord, but they will not find it’ (Amos 8:11-12). There were dark times ahead – but You, Lord, were looking beyond them to a brighter future: ‘I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel’ (Amos 9:14). ‘Restore us again, O God of our salvation…’ (Psalm 85:4-7).

What does God say to people who keep on refusing to return to Him?

"And still you didn't return to Me, declares the Lord" (Amos 4:8-11). What does God say to people who keep on refusing to return to Him? This is what He says: "Prepare to meet your God" (Amos 4:12).

God's Word is not to go in one ear and out the other ear.

Privilege and responsibility (Amos 3:2). "The Almighty Lord has spoken. Who can keep from prophesying?" (Amos 3:8). God's Word is not to go in one ear and out the other ear. It's to change us. It's to equip us for living as His people and being His witnesses.

Are we being changed by God's love?

"I brought you out of Egypt..." (Amos 2:10-11). God had done great things for His people. Sadly, this is followed by "You made the Nazirites drink wine. You commanded the prophets to stop prophesying." God has been good to us. How are we reacting to His love? Are we being changed by His love? His love is not only a gift to be received. It's a power to make us more like Him.

We speak because God has spoken.

Amos begins with a humble description of himself - "one of the sheep farmers" (Amos 1:1). Being a prophet of God has nothing to do with  what we are in ourselves. It's all about God. It's all about His grace and His call. Looking after sheep - This is such an apt description of the ministry of a pastor. "The Lord roars from Zion" (Amos 1:2). These words make us think of a lion. This could be terrifying for sheep. Think of the lion - Aslan - from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (C S Lewis). It's a picture of Christ. His voice is more than a roar. It's the voice of love. The "roar" speaks of authority. The greatest authority is the authority of love. How does the Lord command our respect? He loves us. As we learn to appreciate His love, we learn to love Him. Our love for Him is inspired by His love for us. As we learn to love Him, our obedience to Him increases in strength. "The Lord has said this" (Amos 1:15). The prophet's voice is to be an echo of the Lord's voice. We speak because God has spoken.

Life can be turned around.

"Search for Me and live! ... Search for Me and live!" (Amos 5:4,6). Life can be turned around. This isn't something that we can do for ourselves. It must done for us by the Lord. "Search for good instead of evil so that you may live" (Amos 5:14). The Lord gives us a new direction in life. When we read of the call to conversion, we must remember that we cannot answer this call in our own strength. The strength that we need must be given to us by the Lord.

An alarm to the unconverted - and the converted

"How horrible it will be ... " (Amos 6:1,3-6,13) - This is a prophecy concerning God's judgment. Such words need to be heard, if people are to be turned back into walking in the ways of the Lord. If we don't hear of God's judgment, we are likely to keep on walking in our own ways. There needs to be "an alarm to the unconverted" (Joseph Alleine). There needs to be an alarm to the converted. The danger of remaining apathetic and unconverted is not the only danger. There is also the danger that, after being converted, we become apathetic and backslidden. God is calling us to turn to Him. He's calling us to keep on being turned towards Him.

God loves us, He's leading us into a closer walk with Himself, and He's leading us to give all the glory to Him.

"The days are going to come, declares the Almighty Lord, when I will send a famine throughout the land. It won't be an ordinary famine of hearing the words of the Lord. People will wander from sea to sea, and roam from the north to the east, searching for the Word of the Lord, but thy won't find it" (Amos 8:11-12). There's a real sadness in these words. People are looking, and they're not finding.  They know they're looking for something, but they don't know what it is. It is the Word of the Lord. May God help us to continue speaking the Word of the Lord and looking to Him to send the blessing.

"I will restore and rebuild My people, Israel, as they were a long time ago" (Amos 9:11,14). This is not about good times and bad times. Sometimes, we have good times. Sometimes, we have bad times. This is about the blessing of God, which comes to us from the faithfulness of God. We must never forget the Lord. Real blessing comes from Him. God-given blessing is more than things turning out all right for us. It's having a real sense that the Lord is with us, that He's showing us how much He loves us, that He's leading us into a closer walk with Himself, and that He's leading us to give all the glory to Him.

A prayer for God's mercy

"Almighty Lord, please forgive us!" (Amos 7:2) - This is the prayer that the Lord is waiting to hear and answer. "Almighty Lord, please stop!" (Amos 7:5) - This is a prayer for God's mercy. We come to Him, deeply aware of our sin and His judgment. We cry to Him for mercy. Why should He have mercy on us? From our point of view, there is no answer to this question. From His point of view, there is an answer - the Cross. Upon Christ, there is our sin and God's judgment. To us, there is mercy and grace. There are people who do not want to hear the Word of the Lord. They say, "Don't ever prophesy again in Bethel" (Amos 7:13). Why did they tell the prophet to "run away to Judah! ... and prophesy there" (Amos 7:12). The reason is this - "This is the king's holy place and the king's palace" (Amos 7:12). Holy? - What is holy about a place when its people send away the prophet of God, and tell him to preach the Word of God somewhere else? If a place is really holy and the people are really holy, there would be a real desire to hear what the Lord has to say to us. What did Amos say about this? This is what he said - It was the Lord who said to me, "Prophesy to My people, Israel" (Amos 7:15). The Lord says, "Speak." The world says, for the Word of the Lord "Stop speaking to us." A true prophet will speak the Word of the Lord.

God Is Calling For Our Attention!

Amos 1:1-2:16
‘The Lord roars’. ‘The Lord thunders’(1:2). God’s Word comes to us from above - ‘The Lord will roar from on high’. He speaks to us from heaven - ‘He will thunder from His holy dwelling’. We dare not ignore the Word of the Lord. His Word comes to us as a Word of warning - ‘He will shout against all who live on the earth’- and a Word of judgment - ‘He will bring judgment on all mankind’. God is calling for our attention: ‘Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth’. God speaks to us about His ‘fierce anger’. He calls us to turn from our sin. Let us return to the Lord and hear His Word of salvation: ‘I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more (Jeremiah 25:30-32,37; 31:34).

Amos 3:1-5:5
‘You only have I chosen... therefore I will punish you for all your sins’(3:2). Along with the privilege of being ‘chosen’ to belong to the Lord comes the responsibility of living as the servants of the Lord. God’s Word is not to be taken lightly - ‘The lion has roared - who will not fear?’(3:8). God speaks to us very directly about the way we are living - ‘You have not returned to Me’(4:6,8-11). We must take Him seriously: ‘Prepare to meet your God’(4:12). God calls us to ‘seek Him and live’: ‘Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the evil man his thoughts, Let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will freely pardon’(5:4; Isaiah 55:6-7).

To Understand History, We Need Revelation.

Warning against "the danger of going outside the sphere of faith into the area of observation", G. C. Berkouwer disputes the legitimacy of interpreting the ways of Providence on the basis of facts" (The Providence of God, pp. 164-165). He aims to guard against the possibility that "everyone according to his own prejudice and subjective whim (can) canonize a certain event or national rise as a special act of God in which He reveals and demonstrates His favour" (p. 164). Acutely aware that "the interpretation of an historical event as a special revelation of Providence too easily becomes a piously disguised form of self-justification" (p. 166), Berkouwer insists that "no event speaks so clearly that we may conclude from it a certain disposition of God - as long as God Himself does not reveal that His disposition comes to expression in the given event" (p. 170). Concerning events in the history of Israel, which are recorded in Scripture, Berkouwer writes, "The Divine disposition is, indeed, revealed in these events. But  it is the word of revelation which  explains them" (p. 171). Concerning the interpretation of contemporary events, he warns, "we have not been given a norm for explaining the facts of history... in the absence of a norm only an untrustworthy plausibility remains" (p. 171).  Using insightful exegesis of Scripture, Berkouwer warns against a misguided interpretation of contemporary events. Commenting on the words, "Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?" (Amos 9:7), he writes, "the fact of the exodus may not be used as basis, isolated from revelation and seen by itself  from which to draw selfish conclusions about God's dispositions... As a mere historical facrt, the exodus puts Israel on the same level with other nations. But accompanied by a proper faith in God, it constitutes a challenge and, given the proper response, further blessings" (p. 176).

We speak because God has spoken.

Amos begins with a humble description of himself - "one of the sheep farmers" (Amos 1:1). Being a prophet of God has nothing to do with  what we are in ourselves. It's all about God. It's all about His grace and His call. Looking after sheep - This is such an apt description of the ministry of a pastor. "The Lord roars from Zion" (Amos 1:2). These words make us think of a lion. This could be terrifying for sheep. Think of the lion - Aslan - from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (C S Lewis). It's a picture of Christ. His voice is more than a roar. It's the voice of love. The "roar" speaks of authority. The greatest authority is the authority of love. How does the Lord command our respect? He loves us. As we learn to appreciate His love, we learn to love Him. Our love for Him is inspired by His love for us. As we learn to love Him, our obedience to Him increases in strength. "The Lord has said this" (Amos 1:15). The prophet's voice is to be an echo of the Lord's voice. We speak because God has spoken.

Are We Being Changed By God's Love?

"I brought you out of Egypt..." (Amos 2:10-11). God had done great things for His people. Sadly, this is followed by "You made the Nazirites drink wine. You commanded the prophets to stop prophesying." God has been good to us. How are we reacting to His love? Are we being changed by His love? His love is not only a gift to be received. It's a power to make us more like Him.

God's Word is not to go in one ear and out the other ear.

Privilege and responsibility (Amos 3:2). "The Almighty Lord has spoken. Who can keep from prophesying?" (Amos 3:8). God's Word is not to go in one ear and out the other ear. It's to change us. It's to equip us for living as His people and being His witnesses.

What does God say to people who keep on refusing to return to Him?

"And still you didn't return to Me, declares the Lord" (Amos 4:8-11). What does God say to people who keep on refusing to return to Him? This is what He says: "Prepare to meet your God" (Amos 4:12).

Life Can Be Turned Around.

"Search for Me and live! ... Search for Me and live!" (Amos 5:4,6). Life can be tuned around. This isn't something that we can do for ourselves. It must done for us by the Lord. "Search for good instead of evil so that you may live" (Amos 5:14). The Lord gives us a new direction in life. When we read of the call to conversion, we must remember that we cannot answer this call in our own strength. The strength that we need must be given to us by the Lord.

Keep on turning to the Lord.

"How horrible it will be ... " (Amos 6:1,3-6,13) - This is a prophecy concerning God's judgment. Such words need to be heard, if people are to be turned back into walking in the ways of the Lord. If we don't hear of God's judgment, we are likely to keep on walking in our own ways. There needs to be "an alarm to the unconverted" (Joseph Alleine). The danger of remaining apathetic and unconverted is not the only danger. There is also the danger that, after being converted, we become apathetic and backslidden. God is calling us to turn to Him. He's calling us to keep on turning to Him.

Almighty Lord, please forgive us!

"Almighty Lord, please forgive us!" (Amos 7:2) - This is the prayer that the Lord is waiting to hear and answer. "Almighty Lord, please stop!" (Amos 7:5) - This is a prayer for God's mercy. We come to Him, deeply aware of our sin and His judgment. We cry to Him for mercy. Why should He have mercy on us? From our point of view, there is no answer to this question. From His point of view, there is an answer - the Cross. Upon Christ, there is our sin and God's judgment. To us, there is mercy and grace. There are people who do not want to hear the Word of the Lord. They say, "Don't ever prophesy again in Bethel" (Amos 7:13). Why did they tell the prophet to "run away to Judah! ... and prophesy there" (Amos 7:12). The reason is this - "This is the king's holy place and the king's palace" (Amos 7:12). Holy? - What is holy about a place when its people send away the prophet of God, and tell him to preach the Word of God somewhere else? If a place is really holy and the people are really holy, there would be a real desire to hear what the Lord has to say to us. What did Amos say about this? This is what he said - It was the Lord who said to me, "Prophesy to My people, Israel" (Amos 7:15). The Lord says, "Speak." The world says, for the Word of the Lord "Stop speaking to us." A true prophet will speak the Word of the Lord.

Beyond The Famine ... To The Blessing

"The days are going to come, declares the Almighty Lord, when I will send a famine throughout the land. It won't be an ordinary famine of hearing the words of the Lord. People will wander from sea to sea, and roam from the north to the east, searching for the Word of the Lord, but thy won't find it" (Amos 8:11-12). There's a real sadness in these words. People are looking, and they're not finding.  They know they're looking for something, but they don't know what it is. It is the Word of the Lord. May God help us to continue speaking the Word of the Lord and looking to Him to send the blessing.

"I will restore and rebuild My people, Israel, as they were a long time ago" (Amos 9:11,14). This is not about good times and bad times. Sometimes, we have good times. Sometimes, we have bad times. This is about the blessing of God, which comes to us from the faithfulness of God. We must never forget the Lord. Real blessing comes from Him. God-given blessing is more than things turning out all right for us. It's having a real sense that the Lord is with us, that He's showing us how much He loves us, that He's leading us into a closer walk with Himself, and that He's leading us to give all the glory to Him.