Our Holy God. A reflection on Amos 4.
Amos 4 “This is serious - I, God, have sworn by my holiness! Be well warned: Judgment Day is coming!”
“By my Holiness!” - I am so thankful I have a Creator who cannot tolerate evil - that He won’t make exceptions and try to justify our wickedness with excuses. I am so thankful that He cannot tolerate the things that hurt me and destroy others. He is Holy - Pure Love - Pure Light - Pure.
“You know, don’t you, that I’m the One who emptied your pantries and cleaned out your cupboards, who left you hungry and standing in bread lines? But you never got hungry for me. You continued to ignore me.”
“You never got hungry for me.” He can ONLY bring us to His Glory if we choose Him. Judgement day is coming - there will be an end - and He wants all of us. Every single one of His blessed creations. Nothing can change that. He is love - our wickedness can’t even change the fact that He is love... If we only hunger for Him... If we only turn to Him and accept His love, He will make us holy through His Son, so that we can reclaim our position with the Creator of the Universe.
So if we can, for a moment, try to grasp that the point of our existence isn’t ‘me’ focused but God focused... and He wants us ALL to join Him in THE Promised Land. “And this I have done to you, Israel, and this is why I have done it. Times up, O Israel! Prepare to meet your God!”
We will meet Him face to face some day. I don’t know when that day is - but if He is goodness and truth, light and love, kindness and grace AND He is all that matters, well, that kind of changes everything. My purpose, my actions, my words - it all changes. I am His... even today in this broken world - and I will trust that as He brings me to my knees, He is good.
Amos 4 from the Message Bible. :
You Never Got Hungry for God
4
“Listen to this, you cows of Bashan
grazing on the slopes of Samaria.
You women! Mean to the poor,
cruel to the down-and-out!
Indolent and pampered, you demand of your husbands,
‘Bring us a tall, cool drink!’
2-3
“This is serious—I, God, have sworn by my holiness!
Be well warned: Judgment Day is coming!
They’re going to rope you up and haul you off,
keep the stragglers in line with cattle prods.
They’ll drag you through the ruined city walls,
forcing you out single file,
And kick you to kingdom come.”
God’s Decree.
4-5
“Come along to Bethel and sin!
And then to Gilgal and sin some more!
Bring your sacrifices for morning worship.
Every third day bring your tithe.
Burn pure sacrifices—thank offerings.
Speak up—announce freewill offerings!
That’s the sort of religious show
you Israelites just love.”
God’s Decree.
6
“You know, don’t you, that I’m the One
who emptied your pantries and cleaned out your cupboards,
Who left you hungry and standing in bread lines?
But you never got hungry for me. You continued to ignore me.”
God’s Decree.
7-8
“Yes, and I’m the One who stopped the rains
three months short of harvest.
I’d make it rain on one village
but not on another.
I’d make it rain on one field
but not on another—and that one would dry up.
People would stagger from village to village
crazed for water and never quenching their thirst.
But you never got thirsty for me.
You ignored me.”
God’s Decree.
9
“I hit your crops with disease
and withered your orchards and gardens.
Locusts devoured your olive and fig trees,
but you continued to ignore me.”
God’s Decree.
10
“I revisited you with the old Egyptian plagues,
killed your choice young men and prize horses.
The stink of rot in your camps was so strong
that you held your noses—
But you didn’t notice me.
You continued to ignore me.”
God’s Decree.
11
“I hit you with earthquake and fire,
left you devastated like Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick
snatched from the flames.
But you never looked my way.
You continued to ignore me.”
God’s Decree.
12
“All this I have done to you, Israel,
and this is why I have done it.
Time’s up, O Israel!
Prepare to meet your God!”
13
Look who’s here: Mountain-Shaper! Wind-Maker!
He laid out the whole plot before Adam.
He brings everything out of nothing,
like dawn out of darkness.
He strides across the alpine ridges.
His name is God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
