Amos 9:1-10
Have
we in the United States of America reinvented God to make Him what we
want? I do believe many have, and I’ve
even heard such foolishness in Christian circles, that God is no longer the God
of the Old Testament who was angry and got even, no He is now a God of
love. So before you think about putting
your spin on God and His character, it might be wise to learn what He has said
about Himself!
The
Scriptures state the following: God is One God –Three Persons, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. He is Sovereign, the
Creator, the Judge, the Savior and He is all-powerful, ever – present, all – knowing. In that He is Holy and loving we see that He
is merciful, faithful, unchanging, truthful, righteous, and just. The Scriptures are very clear that He alone
is Infinite, Self-Existent, Self-Sufficient, and Eternal.
My
teacher Bill Gillham shared these truths with me; to have a healthy, vital,
growing relationship with God, we must have a realistic picture of who He is. What we believe to be true about God’s
character is a foundation for the way we live our Christian life. No convictions are more important to
victorious living than our view of God.
The
desire of my heart is for each of us to have a realistic picture of what God says
about Himself, and with that understanding we can now look with great interest
at chapter 9 of Amos. As stated at the
first of this document, many have bought into a God who is like themselves, but
much nicer. This is what Amos saw, “I saw the Lord standing
beside the altar, and he said: “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake,
and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left of them
I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away; not one of them
shall escape. “If they dig into Sheol, from
there shall my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will
bring them down. If they hide themselves
on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them; and if
they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the
serpent, and it shall bite them. And if
they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword,
and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for
good.” (Amos 9:1-4 ESV)
In
the verses that follow the Lord reminds them of who He is and what He has done
for them and in verse ten it is clear to whom this is coming: “All the sinners of
my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet
us.” Many of the priest and
the leaders were saying, we are God’s people do not listen to this crazy man
Amos, but God was the one speaking to Amos, and it happened just like Amos said
it would.
If
only we who claim to be followers of Christ believed what God has stated in
Scripture about His Character, for what you believe about someone’s character
affect how you act toward that person.
You and I would be wise to
grasp the truth of this Italian proverb – “After the game, the King and the pawn go into the
same box.” To update that
Bill Gates and the janitor at Microsoft will both stand before God, they both
will be equal and in the same box. God
has spoken in the Scriptures that all die and then the judgment, and what you
believed and acted on about God will show up at the judgment.
From
the Back Porch,
Bob
Rice
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