CAUSE AND EFFECT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Listen to this message that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel—against the entire family I rescued from Egypt:”

“From among all the families on the earth, I have been intimate with you alone. That is why I must punish you for all your sins.”

“Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?”

“Does a lion ever roar in a thicket without first finding a victim?”

“Does a young lion growl in its den without first catching its prey?”

“Does a bird ever get caught in a trap that has no bait?”

“Does a trap spring shut when there’s nothing to catch?”

“When the ram’s horn blows a warning, shouldn’t the people be alarmed?”

“Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has planned it?”

“Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until He reveals His plans to His servants the prophets.”

Amos 3:1-7 (NLT)

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever heard of the theory of cause and effect?

At its base definition, it means the following:

“Noting a relationship between actions or events such that one or more are the result of the other or others.”

In other words, something happens because of something else happening first.

Let’s say you’re watching a football game and your team is winning by two points. The game is within the last three minutes and all your team needs to do is get a couple of first downs and run out the clock. They hand the ball off to the running back who gets hit hard and fumbles with the opposing team making the recovery. The opposing team drives down and kicks a field goal with just seconds left to beat your team by a single point.

When the game is analyzed, a case will be made that the lost fumble was the cause that led to the loss (the effect).

Not into sports analogies?

Imagine that there are a group of people who all own homes next to a river. Typically, they live near the water with no problem but a weather system came through with dumped heavy rains for three to four days. Every day was just one downpour after another and the river ended up breaching its banks and flooding all the homes, displacing the families and causing immense damage.

The meteorologists will say that the four days of heavy rain caused the severe flooding (the effect).

Here’s one more, especially pertinent to the area where I live as you seemingly need to go through a tunnel to get anywhere.

A person is heading to work and they are about five miles from the tunnel they must pass through when traffic comes to a dead stop. A one hour delay ensues because there was an accident in the tunnel and it took time to clear out the wrecked cars. The person ends up being late for work (the effect) because of the accident in the tunnel (the cause) and the associated back up of cars.

You get the point. A certain event occurs (a cause) and it leads to something else happening (the effect) that would not have happened had it not been for the impact of the cause.

Why go into this kind of discussion?

Because the matter of cause and effect is central to what God has to say within the opening verses of Amos, Chapter 3. Look again at His words here:

“Listen to this message that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel—against the entire family I rescued from Egypt:”

“From among all the families on the earth, I have been intimate with you alone. That is why I must punish you for all your sins.”

“Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?”

“Does a lion ever roar in a thicket without first finding a victim?”

“Does a young lion growl in its den without first catching its prey?”

“Does a bird ever get caught in a trap that has no bait?”

“Does a trap spring shut when there’s nothing to catch?”

“When the ram’s horn blows a warning, shouldn’t the people be alarmed?”

“Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has planned it?”

“Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until He reveals His plans to His servants the prophets.”  Amos 3:1-7 (NLT)

Note here that the Lord is speaking out against the Israelites through His prophet Amos and shares a series of cause and effect relationships in order to make His main point.

If two people walk together, they have to agree on the direction they will go. The agreement on direction becomes the cause for the effect of walking somewhere together.

If there is no victim in the thicket (the cause), then the lion would not roar (the effect).

If the young lion has not yet caught its prey (the cause) then it wouldn’t growl in its den (the effect).

If a trap is not baited (the cause) then it will not catch a bird (the effect).

If nothing is in the vicinity of a set trap to trigger it (the cause) then the trap will remain in its set state, having caught nothing (the effect).

The blowing of a ram’s horn would signal imminent danger for God’s people. If it were never blown (the cause) then the people would have no reason to be alarmed (the effect).

Finally, the Lord gets to the primary points He wants to make, both associated with the matter of cause and effect.

First, disaster (the effect) would never come to a city unless the Lord ordained it (the cause). He is the Author of judgment and thus no punishment befell His people that He didn’t endorse and, and in many cases, initiate.

The second and final point is simply this:

The Lord punishes His people (the effect) when they choose to sin against Him.

This was why God was speaking against the Israelites as they had willingly and willfully chosen to disobey His commands and do what they wanted to do, worshiping false gods and idols instead of the Lord along the way.

Today, the same cause and effect relationship is in play. God expects our complete devotion and compliance with His word, will, and way. When we obey and follow Him uncompromisingly (the cause), then we live in His favor and blessing (the effect).

To do the opposite will place us in the same place as the Israelites of Amos’ day, causing God to effect us through His judgment.

Let’s do ourselves a favor and remain on His good side, shall we?

Amen

In Christ,

Mark
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