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7/20/13. Amos 3:1-15. THE PROPHET MUST SPEAK GOD’S WORD – My devotional

7/20/13. Amos 3:1-15. THE PROPHET MUST SPEAK GOD’S WORD – My devotional

A-Word-From-the-Lord-copy

Amos 3:1-15                                                                                                 Kevin Jesmer

Key Verse: 3:8                                                                                              7/20/13

“The lion has roared— who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken— who can but prophesy?”

      Dear Lord heavenly Father thank you for the blessing of the Gospel. Coming to know you and grow in you is very satisfying to my heart. Nothing else in this world satisfies my heart and soul as much as you do Lord. Without you, sometimes I feel simply like an organism struggling to survive in a hard world. But with you I am a child of God and a servant of God, husband and father, family member and friend, with a very important mission to spread the good news about Jesus and his saving Gospel. Please continue to mature me in the faith. Please open the way for career missionaries to be sent to Canada to reach out to the Native people. Bless this week’s Art of Marriage seminar. May it bear abundant fruit. Please illuminate your word within my soul. Grow me in faith. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Part 1: God Will Discipline His Chosen People (1-8)

Verses 1-8, “Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt: “You only have I chosen   of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins.” 3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? Does a lion roar in the thicket  when it has no prey? Does it growl in its den  when it has caught nothing? Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground when no bait is there? Does a trap spring up from the ground if it has not caught anything? When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing  without revealing his plan  to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared— who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken— who can but prophesy?”

The point of verses 2-6 is that things happen because something has caused it to happen. Some things have a clear cause-effect relationship. Two people have a date because both agree to it; a bird is caught because a snare has been set. Disaster comes to a sinful city because the Lord sends it.  It does not happen on its own. There is a good reason. In this case, in about 40 years, the city will be laid waste by invading forces. It will not happen for no reason. It will have happened because the Lord allowed it to happen and because of the unrepentant sins of the inhabitants.

People go through hard times and they wonder why? There is an answer, but we may not know it. There is an answer that we may not understand nor accept at times. The answer is in the Lord. Many answers can only be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, in God’s way and in God’s time. I don’t have all the answers for life’s problems. But I know, that in time God will help me to come to understand many things. One day we will be able to ask the Lord, face to face.

From these verses I can see that sometimes we are our worst enemy. Verses 3-5 read, “3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? Does a lion roar in the thicket  when it has no prey? Does it growl in its den  when it has caught nothing? Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground when no bait is there? Does a trap spring up from the ground if it has not caught anything?”  Let’s face it…we agree to walk with others in sinful ways. We set our own traps. It is our choices.  We need to guard our hearts and choose to walk in the footsteps of Christ and in the fellowship of the righteous.  Don’t be surprised if you don’t end up tasting the Lord’s discipline to help you to turn from waywardness. When it happens, simply thank God and learn from it.

In many ways I have chosen time and again to remain in a melancholy spirit and choose to remain in negative thoughts. Then I wonder why I fail to taste the joy of life. I am reminded of Grace Hong’s words, “Shepherd Kevin, be happy!” These words are simple and profound. Why not choose to be happy? Why not walk in the way of happiness? Why not? Jesus is there to help, each step of the way.

In the Old Testament era, God reveals his plan to his prophets. The passage states, “When the lion has roared who will not fear?” God has spoken to his servant, so he must prophesy. And that he did. Look at verse 1 again, ““Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt.” God loves his people whom he chose of all the families of the earth, whom he redeemed from Egypt. He cares, so he will discipline them to turn their hearts away from sin and idol worship and towards the Lord. Amos, God’s servant, rebukes and warns them of this fact. God still warns the people through his word and his servants. It is not easy to deliver the message of judgment. But sometimes that is what needs to be preached. This message needs to be delivered with much prayer and compassion. As servants of God we need to speak the full message of salvation.

Part 2: Samaria Does Not Know How To Do Right (9-15)

God proclaimed judgment on Samaria. Look at verses 9-15, “Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod    and to the fortresses of Egypt: “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria; see the great unrest within her    and the oppression among her people.” 10 “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “who store up in their fortresses what they have plundered and looted.” 11 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “An enemy will overrun your land, pull down your strongholds  and plunder your fortresses.” 12 This is what the Lord says: “As a shepherd rescues from the lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued, with only the head of a bed and a piece of fabric from a couch.” 13 “Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the Lord God Almighty. 14 “On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. 15 I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished,” declares the Lord.”

The unrest in Samaria, capital of Israel, was caused by two things: Jeroboam I had made his own religion by putting a calf-idol in Bethel. This continued to poison the inner lives of the people (14). The wealthy people built expensive houses and enjoyed glamorous vacations, with their luxurious winter houses and their summer houses (15), and oppressed the poor. Samaria’s thirst for luxury, ease and comfort, among other things, had sapped all spiritual strength from the people of God. They tried very hard to build their houses but they neglected to realize that every house that is not built on the rock will fall. (Matt 7:26)

Unless Samaria repented they would face judgment. Look at verse 11. Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, would empty the palaces in Israel with the spoils robbed from the poor. Look at verse 12. So ravaging would be the actions of Sennacherib that the few people left alive would only be comparable to a piece of an ear of a sheep taken out the mouth of lion to prove that it was killed.

God would judge their false religion that mocked the sacrifice. Look at verse 14 again, “On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.” This is in reference to the great altar erected at Bethel by Jeroboam l for the worship of the golden calf. The horns of the altar of the golden calf represent the most sacred part of the heathen altar. The predication is that when the judgment comes then the horns will be broken off signifying God’s rejection of this heathen altar that was used to attempt to bring about the forgiveness of sin. The horns are a symbolic representation of what would occur, but one day a powerful enemy would overrun them and leave only a small remnant, like an ear of an animal saved from the lion’s mouth by a shepherd.

In this prophecy there is a great emphasis on domesticity. There is talk about houses, and vacation homes. These people had a sense of family. They were in fact one big family. They were God’s family but they seemed to forget that fact and live as if God was not their father and as if they were not brothers and sisters. That is the tragedy.

The people of Judah and Samaria never got away from anything, though they thought they were on the right track living without the Lord. Even if they were doing wrong, they felt that they would  not have to pay the piper. But judgment would come.

The same rings true today. America is not on a good course. We seem to be drifting, not from spirituality, but away from the Word of God in the Bible. Christians are drifting from the way of the cross. Many do not know how to take the way of the cross. They can not differentiate their own will from the will of God. Their desires seem to be of utmost importance. Where is all this leading? To greater blessings from God? I think not.  The consequences of living without God and ignoring our spiritual “family” ties with our Father in Heaven and with other brothers and sisters in the Lord, will come upon us. As long as America ignores Christ, one day we will face the consequences. We may not see it but it will happen. Maybe it is happening  right now. We must take heed and repent and draw near to the Lord right now. Lord, help me to draw near to you. Help our nation to heed the warnings and draw near to you.

Prayer: Lord, may I heed your clarion call and draw near to you. May America draw near to you.

One Word: May the nation listen to the word of the Lord.

 




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