Amos 3
COMMENTARY:
: 2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I punish you for all your iniquities. (6485 “punish” [paqad] means to impose a penalty on, inflict punishment on, inspect, look at, make a search, hunt up, seek out, or to make a careful inspection.)
DEVOTION: Have you ever been chosen to play on a team on the playground? Sometimes the best players are picked first and then the rest are taken because there is no choice. The rest are just not good players.
Here we have God choosing the children of Jacob or Israel from all the families of the earth to be HIS followers. It started with Abraham then Isaac and finally Jacob to be called by God for special service to HIM.
HE was close to them. HE spoke to them personally in the wilderness. HE chose Moses to lead them. HE gave all HIS commandments to them for all to hear. It frightened the people so the said that God should only speak to Moses and they would listen to him. They lied.
God spoke and they disobeyed. What happens when you disobey your parents or leaders? There has to be discipline or there is no reason to obey in the future. The problem is that some parents never follow through in their discipline and the children just continue to disobey with no consequences. So they don’t listen in the future because they know the warning is not real.
That is not true with the LORD. HE does discipline after HE is disobeyed. HE starts with a soft discipline and finally after many warnings it is a very hard discipline which is usually captivity by another nation.
HE has blessed our nation but we have disobeyed after many warnings. What is going to happen next to us? Should we start changing our behavior? The sins of a nation have consequences.
CHALLENGE: This nation needs a revival and the only ones that can cause this to happen is genuine believers. What are we going to do about it???? The warnings are already here!!
: 3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (3259 “agreed” [ya‘ad] means meet, be gathered together, assemble, appointed, betrothed, be engaged or summoned.)
DEVOTION: The LORD is making a statement here to the children of Israel. HE uses practical truth that is found everywhere in the world.
Two people are going for a walk together. If one person doesn’t like the other person they will not walk together. If there is disagreement between two parties over what action should be taken in a given situation, they will go their separate ways.
Now we have the LORD and the people of Israel walking in different directions. One direction is right in the eyes of the LORD and the other direction is wrong. God cannot condone sin. HE has to judge sin in anyone’s life even if it is in the life of those HE loves very much.
HE chose to walk closely with the children of Israel. HE picked them for HIS special people. HE loved them. HE promised many things to them if they obeyed. HE warned them if they disobeyed there would be consequences. They would not listen.
This is true even today. We are to agree with the basic teaching of the Word of God. We are not to reinterpret it the way we like. We are not to change the real meanings of words to please what we want to believe. We are not to think that the Bible is outdated and needs to be updated. This is not done by those who genuinely want to obey the LORD. We are either to agree and obey or disagree and disobey. No middle ground with the LORD or should there be with us.
CHALLENGE: Learn to agree with the LORD and then walk the way HE wants us to walk. Don’t give in to false teachings.)
: 7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets. (5475 “secret” [sod] means conclave, confiding, confidence, counsel, a purposed plan of action, implying thought and action or intimate fellowship.)
DEVOTION: The LORD reveals that HE has a close relationship with Israel alone. HE had delivered them from Egypt. HE has to deal with their sins. The agreement between Israel and the LORD had been broken. They were moving further away from the LORD with their sin. It had to be dealt with.
The ten tribes were committing violence and robbery from their palaces. That meant that the example of the nation’s leaders were wrong. They were setting a poor example for the rest of the people.
The LORD chose to speak to the people through the prophets. The prophets were a link between God and man. They received the message from the LORD and then shared it with the people.
The children of Israel didn’t want to listen to the prophets. This means that they didn’t want to listen to God. It was a sad state of affairs for the only nation that the LORD had picked to represent HIM. It was because of their attitude toward the prophets and HIS word that the LORD was going to send judgment on Israel.
Today we have the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit to inform us regarding the LORD’S desire regarding the work of the church and those who are members of HIS church.
Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. The Holy Spirit indwells us to help us with our prayers and our work for the LORD. The Word of God directs us regarding our relationship to each other and to the world around us.
The three persons of the Godhead are involved in our lives. The Father is the one who is presently blessing us with HIS blessings. The Son is at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. The Holy Spirit is indwelling us and giving us the assurance of our relationship to the Father and Son. All three persons are important.
God has revealed HIS plan for the rest of the existence of our world. HE has revealed to us that Christ is coming again to take us to be with HIM. HE has revealed that those without Christ will spend eternity in a literal place called Gehenna or the lake of fire.
There are many secrets revealed to us in the Word of God. Praise the LORD. The LORD has established pastor/teachers to instruct us in the Word of God. Are we listening? HE is doing no business without informing HIS people.
CHALLENGE: We need to make sure the voices we listen to are repeating the Word of the LORD and not just their personal opinion of what they think HE is saying. Interpretation is important. We need to hear: “Thus says the LORD.”
: 10 For they know not to do right, says the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. (686 “store up” [atsar] means make treasurer, to keep or lay aside for future use, restrain, or accumulate things.)
DEVOTION: There comes a point when those who have disobeyed long enough, that they just don’t know what the right things to do are. Israel had gotten to that point. They had disobeyed for so long that it was normal for them to act against the commandments of the LORD.
The new normal was to do things that displease the LORD. It happened in Israel and it can happen in our lives as well. We have stopped listening to what the LORD expected and look at others for the right things to do. Everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes and we decide to follow their example.
When the LORD looks down at us right now what does HE see? Does HE see people who genuinely want to do what HE expects of them or does HE see people who want to please their neighbor and not rock the boat?
Our society is teaching us that we should be politically correct rather than Biblically correct. The problem is that many of our leaders in the church are teaching the same things. This is very displeasing to the LORD.
We need to go back to the point where we were doing things that are pleasing to the LORD and not be concerned about what society things of us or our teachings.
CHALLENGE: What are we accumulating regarding our growth in the LORD? Are we storing up sin or righteousness?
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