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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 Sovereign Lord has sworn by Himself—the Lord God
Almighty declares:
“I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I
will deliver up the city and everything in it.”
“If ten people are left in one house, they too will die. And
if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them asks
anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,”
then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
“For the Lord has given the command, and He will smash
the great house into pieces and the small house into bits. Do horses run on the
rocky crags? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into
poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness—you who rejoice in the
conquest of Lo Debar and say, “Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?”
For the Lord God Almighty declares, “I will stir up a
nation against you, Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath
to the valley of the Arabah.”
Amos 6:8-14
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
Are someone who feels they are completely self reliant,
like you can do all things and make anything happen in life without aid?
There are plenty of people out there like that. They want
to take credit for anything that happens, never once considering that someone
else might be at work, seen or unseen, helping them along. Obviously, this
prideful attitude wouldn’t even leave an inkling of possibility that God might
be at work .
The people of Israelites were like this during the time
when Amos was called on to serve as God’s prophet. They were a people who God
had blessed abundantly, just as He had blessed their ancestors, but instead of
honoring God in every way and placing their full hope and trust in Him, they
chose to give their devotion and worship to false gods and idols, gods and
idols of their own making. Worse yet, they took credit for all their successes,
giving no recognition to God at all.
We know all this because the scriptures tell us so. Look
again at these closing verses from Amos, Chapter 6:
The Sovereign Lord
has sworn by Himself—the Lord God Almighty declares:
“I abhor the pride
of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything
in it.”
“If ten people are
left in one house, they too will die. And if the relative who comes to carry
the bodies out of the house to burn them asks anyone who might be hiding there,
“Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush!
We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
“For the Lord has
given the command, and He will smash the great house into pieces and the small
house into bits. Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow the sea with
oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness
into bitterness—you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar and say, “Did we
not take Karnaim by our own strength?”
For the Lord God
Almighty declares, “I will stir up a nation against you, Israel, that will
oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.” Amos 6:8-14
We know three things right off the bat as the Lord begins
to speak against His people.
First, we know they exhibited pride. God said so Himself
and that’s all we really need to know. We aren’t given a full exposition on the
prideful actions of the Israelites, only that they believed the conquest of Lo
Debar and Karnaim happened by way of their own strength.
Second, we know God abhorred the pride of His people and
found their actions detestable.
“I abhor the pride
of Jacob and detest his fortresses.”
Look up the word “abhor” and you will find sister words
like “hate”, “loathe” and “disgust”. Add them all up and you can see where
pride was completely unacceptable to the Lord God Almighty and that the
Israelites were in big trouble for adopting prideful attitudes. Perhaps they
forgot this proverb and the foreboding warning contained within:
Pride leads to
destruction, and arrogance to downfall. Proverbs 16:18 (GNT)
We know God’s word is always true and so it should be no
surprise that the third thing we learn from this passage is that judgment will
come on anyone who chooses to live in abhorrent pride. Look at what God
promised to do to the Israelites:
“If ten people are
left in one house, they too will die. And if the relative who comes to carry
the bodies out of the house to burn them asks anyone who might be hiding there,
“Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush!
We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
“For the Lord has
given the command, and He will smash the great house into pieces and the small
house into bits.”
“For the Lord God Almighty declares, “I will stir up a nation against you, Israel, that will oppress you all the way from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”
Pride leads to destruction and arrogance to downfall.
This promise from Proverbs is exactly what we find taking place in these words
from Amos. God was going to smash the once hallowed nation of Israel into
pieces and cast any Israelites who were fortunate enough to survive into exile.
Judgment was coming by way of the Assyrians on the northern kingdom of Israel
while the Babylonians would take care of the southern kingdom of Judah. Everything
would be ransacked and looted before being demolished; the once free Israelites
would be deposed and displaced for seventy years. Many of those who were taken
away would never get the chance to see their homeland again. Such was the
penalty for a pride the Lord despised.
Friends, study of what happened to the Old Testament
Israelites is critical to us understanding how God wants us to live (and how He
doesn’t want us to live) today. This account reminds us that pride is unacceptable
to God and He will deal harshly with anyone who chooses to adopt it in their
life.
Are we paying attention?
Are we willing to surrender all the honor, glory, and
credit to God for what happens in our lives, detaching any merit from ourselves
outside of our willingness to surrender and defer what happens in life to God
and God alone, the only One who is in control?
Unless we want to suffer a fate similar to the
Israelites, I pray we are because the Lord is making it clear.
Abhorrent pride isn’t going to work.
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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