God Uses Tragedy

Amos 7:1-9

¹This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. ²When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, “O Lord God, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” ³The Lord relented concerning this: “It shall not be,” said the Lord. ⁴This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. ⁵ Then I said, “O Lord God, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” ⁶The Lord relented concerning this: “This also shall not be,” said the Lord God. ⁷This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. ⁸And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; ⁹the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

Our first full week of Lent brings us to a topic with which we are all intimately acquainted – tragedy. Our focus will be the death and resurrection of Lazarus. But before that story, we find countless references to the suffering we do here on this earth as a result of our sin. Now that I am well into my 60s, I look back and realize I have lived a fairly uneventful life in terms of tragedy. Both of my parents are still living and while my one brother has passed, I know he is with the Lord because he held onto Jesus with both hands. I’ve never faced the lose of home or work, and while I did have cancer over 20 years ago, obviously, it wasn’t a great tragedy, as I’m still here today. But, as a church worker, I have walked with countless people through the stuff of life, and that so very often includes tragedy. God’s people suffered amazing tragedies and we learn from them as they faced those trials with God, and sometimes without Him which is always worse. Maybe with a week spent thinking about their lives, we can examine our own responses to the tragic things that happen to us.

In the Old Testament, we find the prophet Amos, who is listed among “the twelve” so called Minor Prophets. They are called “minor” because their works are shorter than the “major” prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentation, Ezekiel, Daniel). While their messages may be shorter, they are of equal importance. Amos worked in Israel’s Northern Kingdom under King Jeroboam II, who ruled from 793 to 753bc.

The Northern Kingdom reached the pinnacle of its earthly glory under King Jeroboam II. Yet within less than one generation after Jeroboam’s death, the Assyrians dismembered the Israelite territories. In 722 b.c. they captured Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, and carried off King Hoshea and a large part of the Israelite population into a captivity from which they never returned. We rightly apply this word of God to ourselves when we let it expose human selfishness. These passages condemn our covetous hearts when we adopt the standards of the world and value making money above worshiping our God and Savior. It illustrates the Seventh Commandment, forbidding us to take advantage of our neighbor in business. It instructs us as forgiven sinners to bear witness to our Christian faith by practicing honesty when we buy and sell. It reminds us that we worship the Lord not only by hearing his Word and singing his praises but also by practicing justice and righteousness among our fellowmen in our communities.

Eickmann, P. E. ©1989. Hosea, Joel, Amos (p. 2, 4-5). Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House.

These nine verses from the hand of Amos expose two terrible events that God claims He will share with the people should they continue to rebel against Him and chase after other gods. First, a plague of locusts, and second an all-consuming fire. Dealing first with the locusts, we know that this plague would be one they recognized as similar to what God visited upon the Egyptians during the time Israel was enslaved to them. The timing of this plague is critical. If a locust plague attacked in the late spring, the results were catastrophic. They destroyed both the late-spring vegetable crops as well as the more developed but as-yet unharvested grain crops sown earlier. If the locusts arrived earlier, the late-spring crops would not have sprouted, and so they would be spared. If the locusts came later, the grain would already have been harvested safely.

Amos’ second vision, the vision of fire, closely parallels his first vision. The first vision was of a locust plague that would devastate the crops. This second vision is more comprehensive because the fire consumes both the water sources and the entire land. “The great deep” implies that the divine fire is cosmic in its implications. It points toward the universal judgment and the fiery conflagration of the whole earth, and indeed the entire universe, at the second coming of Christ, who will “judge both the living and the dead”. However, just as Amos interceded in 7:2, he does so again in 7:5. Amos pleads with Yahweh and is met with the same gracious relenting. Israel will continue—for a time. Even so, the present world will continue, but it too shall come to its appointed end. Yet the intercession of Christ will spare all believers from everlasting judgment by fire.

Lessing, R. R. ©2009. Amos (p. 453). St. Louis: CPH.

Romans 8:34

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

God wants to relent. While wrath and judgment are a part of His nature, the deepest place in His heart is filled with love and mercy. He wants nothing more than to forgive and restore. Chapter 7 of Amos begins with a series of visions, the focus of which point to God’s desire to see His people restored to Himself. In the first two visions, (locusts and fire) God indicates that He will destroy the people; first with famine, then with fire. In both cases, the prophet intercedes, and God follows His heart of love and relents. He grants mercy. But the third vision does not end as well. God here declares that He will cut off the worship life of the people. Their sanctuaries will be laid to waste. The collapse of the culture is eminent when that happens. Here we find two very important spiritual principles; first, God want to be and is merciful and loving. But while we would like those characteristics to be the only ones we have to see, that cannot be the case. He is also just and righteous. Those parts of His character cannot be denied. Second, when the spiritual life of a people is decimated, they will fall. We would do well to pay heed to both of these principles.

Just like small children who want their parents to give them everything they ask for, we want God to be the big sugar-daddy in the sky who does everything we tell Him to do. That seems like the loving way to be a god, right? As parents, we know better. Your children cannot thrive on candy and video games. There must be loving discipline and justice in the home in order to raise children who are responsible and caring people who contribute to the world around them. But just as parents sometimes withhold discipline because it is too painful for them to administer, so God is withholding His wrath, for His heart is first of all merciful.

Something we take very lightly today is the demise of the Christian force that once was predominate in our culture. There are many who today say that we are a “post-Christian” society, headed quickly to “non-Christian.” This is a tragic state of affairs, as it will mean the collapse of who we are as a people. As with the nation of Israel, when the sanctuaries are laid to waste, so too will be our center and our heart. While we think we can survive on our own, without the benefits of a loving Savior, we cannot. The realities of that life will be harsh.

This is not to ever paint a picture that is filled with only despair. Our God is always forgiving and ready to restore that which has been shattered by us. In Christ Jesus, God brought redemption into our world. His loving and merciful nature did win out on the cross. That does not mean He will ignore our idolatries or faithlessness. But the triumph is always His in the blood of Jesus. Even when all around us fall away, we do not have to follow their lead. In the midst of the storm, God’s strength will always be there for us, no matter the circumstance. We can be an Amos, or a Daniel, or a Joseph and remain strong in the arms of our Father. Tragedy may assail us, but we always have the blood of Jesus to claim as our salvation.