Amos 1 & 2 -- Be Careful About Your Amens

A shepherd became an evangelist after getting his revival message from God, and I can just see the Israelites clustered around him, saying, “Amen!  Preach on, brother!” as he pronounced God’s coming judgment on their enemy neighbors.  “Syria will be destroyed!  Gaza will be punished!  I’ll punish Phoenicia, and Edom, Ammon and Moab!”  But starting in 2:4, my commentary says, “Now the Lord is getting uncomfortably close to home.”  Judah and Israel were listed next, and to be numbered among those Gentile nations must have been appalling.  “By their sin, Judah and Israel had forfeited all special recognition by Jehovah.”

God was about to send them all into captivity for ignoring Him and His teachings.  They’d been warned, but they hadn’t listened or made any changes.

The sidebar in my Bible today was from Hearing God’s Voice Above The Noise:  “When God speaks, do I listen?  When God roars from heaven and wants my attention, do I stop talking and listen?  Or is my life so busy that I only listen now and then?  Do I only listen to God when it doesn’t interfere with the normal course of events?  Or have I been so arrested by what God says that I stop dead in my tracks and listen?”

Father, You know how much I dislike it when I talk to Joseph about his behavior and he says, “I know, but …”  He’s actually saying that, yes, he agrees with me, but he doesn’t necessarily want to obey for some reason, trying to rationalize it all.  I often do that to You, Father.  I’m sorry.  I know that once I hear from You, my immediate reaction should be to change what I’m doing and not try to argue or rationalize.  Please help me to do that, Father.  I don’t want You to have to ever say about me, as You did about Judah, “He rejected the teachings of the Lord and did not keep His commands.”

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford