THE POWER OF INTERVENTION AND INTERCESSION

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In Christ, Mark

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

This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

So the Lord relented. “This will not happen,” the Lord said.

This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

So the Lord relented. “This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.

Amos 7:1-6

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

God was not happy with His people. Not at all.

The reasons were many because their sins were many. Just in the last chapter of so in Amos we have found God calling the Israelites out for worshiping false gods and idols, committing a multitude of social injustices against the poor and needy, and living in a pride that He classified as abhorrent and detestable.

Despite His many attempts to get His people to turn from their transgressions, repent, and return to Him, God had seen no results. His people seemed to feel like their actions would hold no consequences, like they could live however they wanted to and God would just stand by and allow it.

They were wrong.

For just as we have read about the Lord detailing the sins of the Israelites, we have also read just as much about the judgment He was determined to send, a judgment that would result in destruction and devastation, death and captivity.

Punishment was coming and there was no way to stop it. Or was there?

Look again at today’s scripture passage drawn from the opening verses of Amos 7 as we learn about a powerful tool used by the prophet who this book is named after:

This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

So the Lord relented. “This will not happen,” the Lord said.

This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

So the Lord relented. “This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.  Amos 7:1-6

Don’t get lost in the magnitude of what happened in these six verses. The Lord was ready not just once but twice to send terrible consequences on the Israelites and He allowed the prophet Amos to see what was to happen.

The first vision involved swarms of locusts who would come to strip the land clean and destroy the harvest, removing the primary food source for God’s people. Deadly famines always followed these events and so the Israelites were destined to suffer starvation

The second vision was even more deadly, a judgment by fire as the land was left devoured by the flames, the great deeps of the sea evaporated and dried up. It was an all consuming fire that no one would be able to survive.

Indeed, Israel was in deep trouble and in danger of complete annihilation. That is, until Amos spoke up on their behalf and showed us the power of intervention and intercession.

Note that there was nothing compelling Amos to speak up. He could have just remained silent and let the Lord carry out what He wanted. After all, if he did bring forth a rebuttal, he would be going it against the Lord God Almighty Himself, the Maker and Master of all things, the One who possessed infinite power. It would have been easy to keep quiet.

But he didn’t.  

Instead, he spoke out on behalf of his fellow brothers and sisters of Israel, pleading and begging for God to forgive them, to allow the people of God to survive. For sure, it was a risky move. God could have just stripped His messenger of His prophet duties on the spot before wiping him from the face of creation for speaking out in opposition to His proposed judgment.

But He didn’t.

Instead, God listened to the appeals of His prophet and honored the requests, relenting in carrying out each of the punishments Amos saw within the visions. In both instances, we find the Lord simply saying:

“This will not happen.”

For the moment anyhow, God had chosen to stop the wheels of judgment on the Israelites, all because of the intervention and intercession of Amos. Through the prophet’s actions, we see two key things that we need to remember as we consider intervening and interceding in the lives of others.

First, God does listen to the pleas of His people, particularly when they are lifted up in the interest of someone who may be in precarious circumstances. We should never allow ourselves to be deceived that God doesn’t care about what we have to say. He certainly disproved that through His exchange with Amos.

Secondly, we should never allow ourselves to be deceived and think that God will not change His mind and relent from something He may have considered doing. Again, we see through the brave, caring intervention and intercession of Amos that God not only listens to our petitions but He is also willing to honor them.

Given this, who do you know that is going through difficult times or maybe traveling down the wrong road in life? Are you aware of anyone who needs intervention and intercession?

If so, I urge you to not hesitate in following the lead of the prophet Amos and boldly coming before the Lord on the behalf of another or others. For when you do, you never know what the outcome might be. You may just end up helping save a life or spare someone from God’s judgment.

That’s reason enough to at least try.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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