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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“The lion has roared—so who isn’t frightened? The Sovereign Lord
has spoken—so who can refuse to proclaim his message?”
“Announce this to the leaders of Philistia and to the
great ones of Egypt:”
“Take your seats now on the hills around Samaria, and witness the chaos and oppression in Israel.”
“My people have forgotten how to do right,” says the Lord. “Their
fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence. Therefore,” says
the Sovereign Lord, “an enemy is coming! He will surround them and shatter
their defenses. Then he will plunder all their fortresses.”
“Now listen to this, and announce it throughout all Israel,”
says the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.”
“On the very day I punish Israel for its sins, I will
destroy the pagan altars at Bethel. The horns of the altar will be cut off and
fall to the ground. And I will destroy the beautiful homes of the wealthy—their
winter mansions and their summer houses, too—all their palaces filled with
ivory,” says the Lord.
Amos 3:8-11, 13-15
(NLT)
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
If you take a good hard look at our world from an objective
moral perspective, you could easily say that the line has been blurred (if not
completely erased in some matters) between right and wrong.
It’s true, right?
Ever more day by day, it seems like many people think that
wrong is right and right is wrong. Attitudes and behaviors of these people have
seemed to take the understanding of these two words and flipped them upside
down, maybe because we have become more adept at coming up with our own
conceptions of right and wrong than we have been at conforming to a known
perfect standard.
In other words, we have adopted a very subjective approach
to looking at right and wrong, defining it the way we want to (if we want to
even consider it at all) and this often causes us to present ourselves before God
as if we have forgotten what right and wrong are to start with.
That definitely was the case with the Israelites during the
time of Amos the prophet. We know this because God tells us Himself. Look again
at these verses in today’s scripture passage:
“The lion has roared—so
who isn’t frightened? The Sovereign Lord has spoken—so who can refuse to
proclaim his message?”
“Announce this to the
leaders of Philistia and to the great ones of Egypt: ‘Take your seats now
on the hills around Samaria, and witness the chaos and oppression in Israel.’”
“My people have
forgotten how to do right,” says the Lord. “Their fortresses are filled with
wealth taken by theft and violence. Therefore,” says the Sovereign Lord, “an
enemy is coming! He will surround them and shatter their defenses. Then he will
plunder all their fortresses.”
“Now listen to this,
and announce it throughout all Israel,” says the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s
Armies.”
“On the very day I
punish Israel for its sins, I will destroy the pagan altars at Bethel. The
horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. And I will destroy
the beautiful homes of the wealthy—their winter mansions and their summer
houses, too—all their palaces filled with ivory,” says the Lord. Amos 3:8-11,
13-15 (NLT)
The Lord leaves no doubt about His assessment of the lives
His people were living saying:
“My people have
forgotten how to do right,” says the Lord.
What led Him to this determination?
It’s obvious it was the blatant sinfulness of the Israelites
who gained wealth through “theft and violence”. Thus, the Lord would bring violence
upon His people in response to their transgressions and He was inviting the
leaders of Philistia (the Philistines) and Egypt to take a ringside seat to
witness the judgment He was sending:
“Announce this to the
leaders of Philistia and to the great ones of Egypt: ‘Take your seats now
on the hills around Samaria, and witness the chaos and oppression in Israel.’”
What would they get to see?
God advertises the following:
“An enemy is coming! He
will surround them and shatter their defenses. Then he will plunder all their
fortresses.”
“On the very day I
punish Israel for its sins, I will destroy the pagan altars at Bethel. The
horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. And I will destroy
the beautiful homes of the wealthy—their winter mansions and their summer
houses, too—all their palaces filled with ivory.”
The Israelites had stolen to gain their wealth in direct
disobedience of God’s command not to steal (Exodus 20:15). God would send an
enemy to plunder away that wealth gained by illicit means and then destroy the
beautiful homes and palaces of the wealthy, leaving them in ruin.
The Israelites had constructed altars to worship pagan gods
in direct disobedience of God’s command to have no other gods before Him
(Exodus 20:3-4a). In response, God would ensure those altars were demolished,
rendered as useless as the faith of His people.
In both instances, the committed iniquities provided a solid
indication that the Israelites had forgotten how to do right. And there was no
questioning what God meant when He said the word “right” for He simply meant
living in a way that He commanded through His word or will.
If the Israelites had only conducted themselves in complete
compliance with what God expected, then they would have stayed out of trouble,
basking in the blessing of God’s goodness instead of languishing in His
punishment. They would have found themselves in His favor.
But that’s not what happened. For the people of God decided
their way was the way to go, a fatal choice to sin that only led them down the
path of destruction.
Given all this, consider this question:
What does God see when He looks at your life?
Does He see someone who is submitting fully, a person
bending their will in a way that matches His, a person who shows Him that he or
she knows what is right?
Or does He see someone who has no regard for what He desires
and instead opts to follow their own wants, a person who does what they want to
do, regardless if it is right or wrong?
In other words, when the Lord looks at your life, would He
make the statement, “This person, My child, has forgotten how to do right.”
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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