Regroup
Last Sunday during the sermon, the Pastor (Al Schwieger - thanks Al), challenged us to make a 2 degree shift in our daily paradigm. We weren't called upon to make some major change that was going to be too difficult to maintain. Nope - just 2 degrees. For many that minor shift might be to engage some daily spiritual thinking a reading. Something that would take only a few minutes. This blog could answer that shift for some. This is my hope.
Yesterday's post started rather abruptly with some information about the minor prophets. Today's entry speaks to some introductory information about the book of Amos for that is where this blog will start.
Amos
The first of the Minor Prophets is Amos who was a simple farmer from Tekoa. His message too was simple. Repent and return to the Lord. The problem he faced is that the people he was speaking to weren’t even vaguely interested in what he had to say. (I know the feeling.)
Amos spoke to what was then known as the nation of Israel or the Northern Kingdom. They were very well situated in terms of wealth and prosperity, as well as fairly safe politically. The world powers at the time were not terribly aggressive or situated for conquest. Peace was easy to maintain. Most of the civilized world traveled through their territory to get from one place to another so commerce and growth were abundant for them. They were affluent and self-satisfied. As such, a message of repentance fell upon deaf ears. It’s not that they weren’t religious. They paid attention to the rituals and traditions of their Jewish heritage. But their hearts did not belong to God. Their hearts belonged to their wealth and power and the sense of security that they had seemingly built for themselves. Does any of this sound familiar?
For the last several decades, we too have counted heavily upon our own sense of well-being, created in the vortex of wealth, power, and relative security. This does not mean that those gifts are to be despised or seen as evil, for they are not. God grants all of our blessings and in His infinity wisdom, He has chosen to give us these things. But our response to such abundance is on us. We cannot blame God for our decisions to look away from Him when times are good. The temptation to thank ourselves and take credit for our blessings is very similar to what we find in the book of Amos. Their story is our story. Instead of offering thanks to a holy and gift-giving God, they paid Him lip service. Sure, the sacrifices were made and the festivals were held; but hearts were cold and turned inward. This idolatry of the self is where the people of Israel went wrong.
We must look at ourselves every time we read the Scriptures. If we don’t take the time to make application into our own lives and allow the Word to inform and transform who we are as human beings, we have wasted our time. As we examine the people of Amos’ day, we must hold up the mirror of truth before our own faces and ask the tough questions. Where does this Word speak to me? How does God, who knows me through and through, want me to respond to what I read here today? What needs to change about me and am I willing to allow God to make those changes?
The people of the Northern Kingdom were, for the most part, unwilling to hear Amos and certainly did not make any changes to their attitudes toward God. The results for them were tragic and ended very badly for them. While we may not be able to affect cultural shifts in our communities or country, we are able to make such changes in our own lives, for that it truly all we are ever able to control. Then perhaps, as others observe our lives, they too will be impacted by the Word of God.
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