Amos 3-4
The first picture is a good environmental reminder to help save the physical earth. The second is the lesson in Amos 4 on how to save one’s soul. Both are important but which is far more important?
Bible Passage: Amos 3
2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
God chastises those whom He loves.
For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. (Heb 12:6)
3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
Walk with God by walking in His light and truth.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (I John 1:6,7)
7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
God warns and guides us through His servants using the word of God.
Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. (Heb 13:17)
Bible Passage: Amos 4
But some people will still NOT return to God!
Although God sent famine …
6 “Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities. And lack of bread in all your places; Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
and drought almost everywhere …
7, 8 “I also withheld rain from you … I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
the crops were blighted and attacked by locusts …
9 “I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
plague and war …
10 “I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; Your young men I killed with a sword,
along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
‘supernatural’ disasters …
11 “I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
Yet if we refuse to return to God after all His chastisements, He will come to meet us on Judgment Day!
12 “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
Is God unkind to punish those who do not accept Him? Not so, because man is already condemned and God has already intended to meet him for judgment.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16-18)
By asking man to return to Him, God is giving us a chance to avoid meeting Him when He returns for judgment! He who does the truth will return to God in the light.
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. (John 3:19-21)
