Read: Amos 3-4
The Lord is
calling His people into account because of their sin. God had chosen Israel to be His people and
they had forgotten what this privilege involved. Using a serious of rhetorical questions
(3:3-6), Amos builds up to the explanation of why he is speaking these harsh
words. The Lord is revealing things to
His servants (the prophets, 3:7) because He is just and will give them adequate
warning before He will judge them. The
Israelites had built their prosperity on oppression and robbery and God will
judge such greed (3:10). Using the
analogy of how a shepherd saves only two leg bones or a piece of an ear when a
lion comes to devour his sheep Amos gets his point across that only a small
remnant would survive the coming punishment.
He condemns the upper class women who he refers to as cows of
Bashan. They pampered themselves while
oppressing the poor and crushing the needy (4:1). This is a society where some live in
luxurious summer and winter houses (3:15) while others are oppressed and
abused. In verse four of chapter four we
read of Bethel and Gilgal which were centres of worship for the Northern
Kingdom. These places should have been
sacred but the people desecrated them with enormous idolatries offering
sacrifices to senseless gods. In the
past God had used natural disasters to discipline and warn His people but those
lessons were forgotten (4:6-11). In each
case they did not return to the Lord (4:8, 9, 10, 11). After having been given chance after chance by
God He was giving them one last chance through the prophet Amos, to turn to Him
and repent.
Prayer and Journaling
1. When we look closely at the sins of Israel in
the book of Amos we can’t help but see many of them in our society today. Spend some time re-reading Amos 3-4 asking
God to reveal to you sins that are prevalent in our society. Take a moment to repent of these sins on
behalf of our nation.
2. We know from other parts of Scripture that
wealth in itself is not sinful (it is the love of money that’s sinful). Amos rebukes the people for gaining wealth at
the expense of the poor and oppressed and for ignoring the needs of the
underprivileged in society. What does
Jesus want to say to you about this? How can you show God’s love through concern
for the poor and oppressed?
3. Pray for the church to grow in showing genuine
authentic love for others through acts of justice in society. Thank God for the ministry of the Four Winds
Distribution Centre and generosity of God’s people here at Southland! Pray that more people would answer His call
to help the needy!
