A lot of the book of Amos is fairly brutal and bleak.
Then the Sovereign Lord showed me another vision. In it I saw a basket filled with ripe fruit. “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
I replied, “A basket full of ripe fruit.”
Then the Lord said, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again. (Amos 8:1-2)
It has been years in the making, Israel could not continue their neglect of God after all He had done for them. The unrelenting nature of these pronouncements is not just something for us to leave to that day, that time, that people and that’s all. It’s an indicator of God’s treatment of evil.
All that has messed up and ruined this world has not been ignored by God. He has a plan to deal with that. That plan, however, is part of His scheme to allow the real beauty of His hand to emerge without ever being tarnished again. This is why in as much as the devastation appears total, God continues to outline the response He seeks.
Do what is good and run from evil
so that you may live!
Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper,
just as you have claimed.
Hate evil and love what is good;
turn your courts into true halls of justice.
Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies
will have mercy on the remnant of his people. (Amos 5:14-15)
In as much as His own people have been fairly consistent in their rebellion, God still offers a means of averting disaster. That’s not all He offers though,
“In that day I will restore the fallen house of David.
I will repair its damaged walls.
From the ruins I will rebuild it
and restore its former glory …“The time will come,” says the Lord,
“when the grain and grapes will grow faster
than they can be harvested.
Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel
will drip with sweet wine!” (Hosea 9:11, 13)
That last part of the book of Amos is rich with a vision of restoration that should lift the hearts of anyone desiring something better than what we see and experience at the moment. That depiction of things being restored to the way they should be is not just something to hold onto if you’re from Israel. It’s something that should inspire you to pursue God wholeheartedly.
It points as well for us who have that hope to something new to replace that which was ruined. It leads us back to God and the desire to know Him and love Him.
(Photo by Solaiman Hossen on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 