epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Amos 6

Nations may be full of fear concerning imagined dangers, and soon find their concerns evaporate into nothing. On the other hand, there are times when people in one place or another have thought of themselves as so strong and well-positioned that they supposed themselves to be beyond danger, only to be defeated by a force that they should have better anticipated and prepared for. The northern kingdom was at ease in the time of Amos, and they considered themselves safe and secure. Amos instructs the notable men of Israel to look at other nations around them and to learn the lessons that could be gathered from their situations.

The day of disaster is nearer than they recognize. The biggest danger for the covenant people is not their ignorance of the power of those human forces that may soon be arrayed against them. The biggest danger comes to them when they forget about the God who brought them together and made them out of nothing. Israel was at ease, though the discipline of God would soon come. Heedless of earlier warnings, her leaders were resting their heads on downy pillows, eating and drinking, enjoying their music and their comforts. The Lord is not an ascetic philosopher. Good things in the created order are gifts of God to be enjoyed. Then what was the problem in Israel? They should have been mourning over the spiritual and moral depravity of the Lord’s people. The leaders of the nation refused to lead the people in true repentance, but instead lived as those who were full of the blessings of the Lord as if they had not a care in the world. They would be the first to be led into exile. The party would be over soon and their life of luxury would be gone.

God does not make false threats. Though He is slow to anger, He will do the things that He has promised, and His warnings should be taken very seriously. When He swears by Himself, it is because there is nothing greater than Him by which He can take a solemn oath. He accommodates Himself to this custom among men to swear by something great in order to reinforce the fact that He is very serious about His intentions. In this case He swears by Himself in order for us to consider how determined He is about the destruction He is bringing upon His people after these many centuries of patience. He hates the pride of His people and the strongholds of Israel, and He will turn the nation over to her enemies.

What will it feel like when trouble finally comes? Rather than the environment of ease and celebration that might seem to prevail at present, they would soon be overcome by the kind of fear that is palpable in a land that is facing an overwhelming adversary. There would be dead people everywhere, and even close relatives would not want to acknowledge the remains of the slain. People would be afraid to even mention the Name of the Lord.

How did things ever get this bad? The people of God should have had the Name of the Lord on their tongues in songs of worship and praise. They should have been acknowledging among the nations of the world the fact that they were blessed by such a great God who had done so many great things for them. They should have rejoiced in Him and in His great Law, and considered it to be a wonderful privilege to pay careful attention to His Word.

Instead they turned the justice and righteousness commanded by God into poison and bitter decay everywhere. There was no fruitful yield of holiness in the land. What they had would soon be destroyed. Their prosperity and small military victories would soon be songs of derision in the mouths of those who hated them, and they would be an oppressed people, they who had chosen to oppress their own brothers and sisters among the covenant people of God.

The strength and pomp of men can be so very impressive. We are easily stirred by public displays of what appears to be overwhelming power and wealth. When this happens in our own hearts it is because we have lost track of the big picture of God’s plan which is so clearly revealed to us in God’s Word. From the time of the fall of mankind in Adam’s transgression we have known that we are all on the wrong side of God’s settled determination that those who disobeyed in Adam would die. We are all in that group.

We have also known from the beginning that God by His grace would provide a way of life somehow through one called the Seed of the woman. The creation of Israel was an important step of preparation for the ultimate revealing of this one Seed who would solve our problem with sin and defeat the devil. When the people of God forget that big story, they can quickly become drunk in their own pride, forgetting to mourn the fact that we who have disobeyed deserve to die.

Israel had forgotten her reason for being. She had become such a poor display of the truth. God had not forgotten, nor had He given up on His plan to bring the fullness of life to those who were called by His Name. While this requires a winnowing process of separating the wheat from the chaff even today, no matter how weak the church may seem, the Lord will be true to His Word. Life has come to us through the Seed of the woman, and especially through His sacrificial death on the cross. God will be glorified in a marvelous display of the fullest salvation, though many who thought of themselves as first will in fact be last.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 6:00 AM

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