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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.
This is what the Lord says:
“For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not relent. Because
they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept His decrees, because
they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors
followed, I will send fire on Judah that will consume the fortresses of
Jerusalem.”
Amos 2:4-5
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Up to this point in the Book of Amos, we have found the Lord
declaring judgment those nations who were the enemies of His people with Aram,
Philistine, Phoenicia, Edom, Ammon, and Moab called out. Maybe someone reading
this might ask themselves, “What about the Israelites? Didn’t they sin against
God as well? Is God not going to send judgment upon His own people, just as He
did their enemies?
Well, as we will see in our final two devotions in this
series and the continuing study of Amos, Chapter 2, the Lord answers those
questions with a definite “yes” on all counts, first talking aim at the
southern kingdom of Judah. Look again at these words from today’s passage:
This is what the Lord
says:
“For three sins of
Judah, even for four, I will not relent. Because they have rejected the law of
the Lord and have not kept His decrees, because they have been led astray by
false gods, the gods their ancestors followed, I will send fire on
Judah that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem.” Amos 2:4-5
As we see in these verses, the Lord leads with the same
statement found in the past six devotions, “For three sins, which simply meant
that the person He was addressing had committed many sins. In the case of
Judah, the Lord spells out the specific transgressions He would punish them
for. They included:
1. They rejected the law of the Lord.
“Because they have
rejected the law of the Lord.”
God had given His people a long list of directives and
commands which were intended to have them live in a way that would be in
accordance with His will, fulfilling His expectations. If the Israelites
accepted the law and held to it, then they would indeed be His people and He
their God. They would live in His favor and receive abundant blessings from
Him.
But the Israelites of Amos’ day had not done that. They
rejected the law that had been given to their ancestors and were living in
whatever way they saw fit, by their will and no one else’s.
That was obviously not going to work with God. Neither would
the next sin He mentioned.
2. They did not keep His decrees.
“Because they have not
kept His decrees.”
This is not the same as the first sin. On one hand, the
people of God chose to reject His laws all together on some occasions but still
in others, they took into consideration what He had commanded them to do and
weighed it against what they wanted to do, choosing the latter. In other words,
they opted for disobedience over compliance, defiance over conformity. Perhaps
this was no more evident than in the last sin that the Lord details.
3. They worshiped false gods and idols.
“They have been led
astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed.”
It’s not like these false gods somehow possessed the
Israelites and forced them to go astray. Rather, the people of God had a choice
before them, follow God who had commanded them to have no other gods before Him
or abandon God to worship and bow down to any number of pagan gods that were
available. Unfortunately, the Lord reminds us that the Israelites of Amos’ time
were not the first to sin against Him this way. The Israelites mentioned in
this passage were repeating transgressions that had been committed first by their
ancestors.
So what did God promise to do to His own people?
He tells us in our passage:
“I will send fire on
Judah that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem.”
And this is exactly what He did through the Babylonian
forces led by King Nebuchadnezzar who attacked Judah and its precious holy city
of Jerusalem, looting the territory before reducing it to a heap of smoldering
rubble, desolate and mostly uninhabited after taking away the Israelites into a
seventy year period of captivity. As promised, God didn’t relent in bringing
judgment on His people for their sins.
So what can we draw from this to help us live our lives
today?
It all comes down to not repeating the mistakes the Israelites
made in our scriptures for today.
First, we need to accept and not reject the holy word of
God. We need to be in close study of that word each and every day we’re given
for the scriptures attest and we need to remember that no one lives by bread
alone but rather through every word that comes from the mouth of God
(Deuteronomy 8:3). The only way we remain spiritually healthy is by feeding our
souls from the Bible daily.
Secondly, we need to obey what we read in God’s word. It’s
no good to read the word if we’re not going to comply with what it tells us to
do. James put it this way:
Do not merely listen
to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to
the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in
a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what
he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives
freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing
it—they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:22-25
God honors the one who is obedient unto Him, the one who
listens to what He says through His word and then puts it into action. He
expects us to receive His instruction and then put it into action.
Finally, the Lord expects us to worship Him and Him alone.
When we allow the ways and things of the world to dictate what we do and how we
live, we turn our backs on God and give our devotion to the world and its
offerings. This will always lead us into deep trouble with God because He will
never settle for being second to anything when it comes to the matter of
worship and adoration. He and He alone is the One worthy of all honor, glory,
and praise, and He expects all of His people to give Him nothing less than
that.
Yes, God shows us in today’s (and in tomorrow’s) devotion
that He will not hesitate to send judgment anyone who sins against Him, even
His own beloved Israelites. He has not, He is not, and He will never accept sin
in anyone’s life and will do whatever it takes to correct that sin if it happens,
no matter who you are.
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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