Amos 1-4 A Checkup For Every Church

When this local shepherd started his message from God, promising destruction of the enemies of Israel and Judah, I imagine the Jewish people cheered him on!  Six times he’d said, “This is what the Lord says:  ‘For the many crimes of ____, I will punish them.’”  With their fascination for the number seven, I’ll bet they waited with baited breath to see what nation was next!  And to their astonishment, it was their own!  Judah and Israel!

God spelled out a litany of sins they were committing.  In chapter 3, God said this punishment would be greater for them because they had been chosen and they were therefore sinning against a flood of light.  Also, they were to be a light to the world, and all they were spreading was the darkness of sin.

God called a spade a spade.  The wealthy women in Bashan were called cows.  This was not time for diplomacy.  They needed to be shocked back into understanding how they were sinning.  God even showed them how He’d tried to get His message across and how, despite everything, they had failed to listen.  He told of five specific things He’d done to wake them up, but with every one, He says, “Still you did not come back to Me.”  So what would be the result?  “So this is what I will do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, get ready to meet Your God, Israel.”  That was not a gospel appeal.  It was a message of judgment.

These people thought they were “doing religion right”, but my commentary says, “There was no confession of sin, no brokenness before the Lord, but only a religious event that made the participants feel good.  The whole system was corrupt; the people were sinning when they thought they were serving the Lord … The test of a spiritual experience is not “Do I feel good?” or “Did we have a big crowd and a good time?”  The real test is “Do I know God better and am I more like Jesus Christ?”

Father, help us to be learning more about You and acting more like Jesus Christ.  Don’t leave us to become like the worshipers in Judah and Israel, thinking we are doing it right, but being sorely mistaken.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford