9-15-13. Amos 8:1-14. “Lovely and Strong” By the Grace of God – my devotional

Amos 8:1-14                                                                                             Kevin E. Jesmer

Key Verse: 8:11,12                                                                                 9-15-13

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “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. ¹² People 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.”

    Dear Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for a blessed Sunday where we could worship you, sing your praises and fellowship together as God’s people. I also thank you for the new series, Engage. Help us to engage in all sphere of life as Christians. I pray that you may open many doors in Ontario so that a missions movement may occur to the north. Please fill my heart with you words from Amos today. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Part 1: A Time Ripe For Judgment (1-6)

Verses 1-6, “This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. ² “What do you see, Amos?” he asked. “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered. Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. ³ “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!” ⁴ Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, ⁵ saying, “When will the New Moon be over  that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended  that we may market wheat?”—skimping on the measure,  boosting the price  and cheating with dishonest scales, ⁶ buying the poor with silver  and the needy for a pair of sandals,  selling even the sweepings with the wheat.” (NIV)

Amos’ next vision was of a basket of ripe fruit. The time was ripe for judgment. The people had become so eager to make money that they were impatient for worship services to end. Merchants had developed many methods of cheating the poor. Creditors were eager to foreclose and make debtors slaves. Materialism had become their religion and money their god.

I can learn here that there are sins deserving punishment perpetrated by people of God, even as they go about their worship. One of them is engaging in empty worship while we live hypocritical lives seeking after material things and exploiting the poor. Deuteronomy 6:4-6 read, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.” (ESV) God wants us to worship him and be engaged in worship with our whole hearts. Our lives must not be hypocritical but devoted to Christ in church and out of church.

This can happen to Christians when idols take over their hearts. We may go through worship and our hearts are really not there. We are obsessed with serving the idols that we hold dear. How do we know that we are in the grips of such a dilemma? Are we waiting for spiritual things to be over so that we can get back to our idol worship? Do we even remember what the message was? Do we sing and pray with empty hearts, not even drawing near to the throne of God? The idols that tempt me are the desire to be alone and engage in solitary things that want to leave me in isolation.

Yes, such things deserve judgment, but by the grace of God we do not receive the judgment that we deserve. Yes, we may be hypocritical. Yes, we may be empty hearted when we gather to worship the Lord. Yes… maybe our hearts may be focused on the acquisition of material goods, even at the expense of others. This is true. But Jesus Christ died on the cross for such as these. Those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior are forgiven. We are accepted by God, even with all of our problems. God’s grace means forgiveness, patience, hope and it means that we have room to breathe and grow and mature in our faith at a pace we can handle.

Part 2: A Famine Of God’s Word (7-14)

Verses 7-14, “The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done. ⁸ “Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? The whole land will rise like the Nile;  it will be stirred up and then sink  like the river of Egypt. ⁹ “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon  and darken the earth in broad daylight. ¹⁰ I will turn your religious festivals into mourning  and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth  and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son  and the end of it like a bitter day. ¹¹ “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,  “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. ¹² People 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. ¹³ “In that day “the lovely young women and strong young men    will faint because of thirst. ¹⁴ Those who swear by the sin of Samaria— who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’    or, ‘As surely as the godof Beersheba lives’— they will fall, never to rise again.”

God’s judgment would come in the form of an earthquake accompanied by an eclipse (8,9). (Compare Mt 27:45-54.) God was utilizing elements of the created world to bring judgment. Nowadays, in this New Testament era, I don’t believe that natural disasters are God’s judgment. But they may be a consequence of our lack of good stewardship of the planet. Our wonton use of fossil fuels and other pollutions are causing global warming. it is born out of lack of stewardship of God’s creation and demanding a certain lifestyle. And now we see the consequences of our actions. Even in the biblical flooding, we could see global warming and a consequence of excessive fossil fuel use.

Another consequence of insincere worship is unsatisfying, even heart deadening worship. When we let idols rule our hearts then our worship become empty. Our festivals may leave one with a spirit of mourning. Even singing may make one feel like they want to weep in sorrow instead of rejoicing in the Lord. Idols worship robs us of vibrant and life giving worship in the Lord. We must make Jesus our all in all and then we can experience life giving worship.

The most terrible consequence of materialism and idol worship is the famine of God’s word which it produces. It produces a famine of the word of God in peoples’ hearts. There are a lot of Bible’s and Christian radio stations and churches in this land. There are also millions of Christians. But there is also a vast majority people who do not know Jesus. And there a whole lot of Christians who can not hear the word of God. So many are 12 inches from knowing Christ. 12 inches is the distance from the head to the heart. How much of the word of God is getting into the peoples’ hearts and transforming lives? It is like diabetes. A person’s blood may be filled with sugar, but if there is no insulin, then the blood does not get into the cells. The person suffers from hyperglycemia. So it is with word of God in our culture. There is so much word of God being transmitted, but not much making it into peoples’ hearts. People need spiritual insulin, which could be the Holy Spirit. It could be good heart soil and a humble, sincere attitude.

Spiritually hungry people look for God’s word and do not find it–because they look in the wrong places. They should look in the Bible, not in idol’s temples, or in psychologists’ offices, or in empty ritual. And even if they look in the Bible they need to approach the Bible knowing Jesus is God and that the Bible contains the Word of God and shows the way to Christ and the Kingdom of God. Then they can begin to drink deep of the water of life.

Without accepting the word of God people suffer. Look at verse 13. “In that day “the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst.”  People should be lovely and strong. We are made to be noble sons and daughters of God. But because of no acceptance of the word of God…without a personal relationship with Jesus people tend to look like staggering and faint wanderers in the desert, parched and ready to collapse. I know that if I don’t put building the relationship with Jesus through his word, I too will stumble and fall and collapse because of living in this fallen world. I would be faint every day. But when I am in Jesus, I am tapped into my life source. Jesus, and the power that is in his name, empowers me. I could have some inner strength because of Christ. I am spiritually satisfied and not faint. Living water flows from within me. Oh, how people need Jesus. How can they survive in this hard world without Christ and the word of God? May the gospel spread throughout our land.

Prayer: Lord, open our ears to hear your word so that we can be “lovely and strong” by your grace. Help us to share your word with hungry people.

One Word: Lovely and Strong by the grace of Jesus.