Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Amos 5
When we hear a prophet say that a nation is fallen to rise no more, we are expecting that this is one of the Lord’s oracles against some foreign power.Surely the Lord is speaking about Babylon, Moab, or Edom.It is so deeply disappointing to hear those words of judgment spoken against Israel.Yet even though the northern kingdom would never rise again as a geo-political power, and even though there would be great loss of life, the opening verses of this difficult chapter have another side to them.100 would survive out of a city of 1000.The hope for Israel in the day of Amos is a remnant hope.
The way out of this difficult day is to seek the Lord.It is amazing to consider how straight-forward the way of blessing is for us.God says, “Seek Me and live!”If we are to seek Him in truth then we have to turn away from seeking false gods or seeking the true God in false ways.If we seek Him today, it does not mean that we will not suffer trouble, but to seek Him in truth is always the right way to go.
God expects His people who are called by His Name to be examples of righteousness and to lead others in the way of real justice.When they do not do this, they go against a powerful divine adversary.He formed the constellations.He made the boundaries of the oceans and the dry land.No fortress can stand if He determines to destroy it.His people, of all those on the face of the earth, should be first in obeying His commandments.
But this was not the case for Israel.Those who spoke for righteousness and justice were rejected, because the people hated the truth.They pursued their own self-interest and seemed to be doing well.The Lord reminds them that their prosperity can be taken away in a moment.It is one thing to build a beautiful house.It is another to live peacefully in it to the end of your days.When powerful people in any society are so obvious in their corruption, smart individuals learn to keep their mouths shut, lest they lose their heads.That may work for some time, but eventually that kind of injustice catches up with a society, even if it may take a few generations.
There is always another way in obedience to the Lord, but when a whole land moves toward corruption it is very hard to turn that kind of disaster around.Yet courageous people need to stand up and do what is right if there is to be any change.God is in charge, but has He ever turned around a people without first turning around a person?Someone needs to do the simple obvious things.Seek good.Hate evil.Establish justice. Maybe the Lord will use our small steps to do what only He can do.
People think that they would like the Lord to visit and to be close, but will His nearness be a safe thing for us?When you live in a society that seems overcome with evil and corruption, even those who want to do the right thing find themselves in a web of evil that makes it difficult to do anything but go down a drain of divine judgment from which there would appear to be almost no hope of escape.
People may think that if they can keep on worshipping, and privately and quietly attempting to live in a way that is a little more faithful than the average person, at least they will be safe.After all, look how bad some of those other people are?But what happens when God says to His worshipers as a whole, “I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.”What is needed is a waterfall of newly-discovered justice and righteous; something that would flow from heaven like an eternal stream of blessedness.Where is the spring from which waters like that will flow?Will it come from the people who were worshipping false gods even when the Lord was supplying bread from heaven to feed them?
Several hundred years after Amos, a child was born.That one righteous answer to the deluge of human sin and societal corruption has made all the difference for Israel and for the church throughout the world and throughout the centuries that followed.What can one man do?Generally one person within a dirty society is simply swamped by everything around Him.But Jesus did not come just as one man in a society.He came as the new Man, the God-Man of an entirely new resurrection kingdom.Yet He did His work here below within the environment of the Old Covenant order, though the northern kingdom was long gone.He grew up in Nazareth and ministered around the shores of Galilee.It was there among the passing kingdoms of this world that a new world of life was first proclaimed and believed.
We have come to embrace the message that He preached.When God visited the cross of Christ in judgment so long ago, something most amazing and unexpected took place.The King of a very powerful Kingdom gave us something to stand up for.Through the death of Christ we turn against sin in ourselves and others and say, “Enough!”Through the miracle of an empty tomb we have real and powerful hope.It is amazing that we would still be enticed by some lesser hope that would point us to some other Messiah, or some other way to beat the decay of death all around us.Jesus is the answer.By Him alone we can face the darkest days of societal disintegration with the confidence that the way of corruption is on the way out, and the way of righteousness and heavenly justice will soon be established.The remnant hope has become a most glorious and victorious eternal kingdom through the life and death of one Man.
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