Has God Spoken?

Amos 6:1-14

Has God spoken and if He has spoken why would anyone not believe what He has said?  As I read the sixth chapter of Amos, these thoughts came to mind; we are as a nation and a people much like the people that Amos is addressing.  After reading this chapter numerous times, and asking the Holy Spirit to open my eyes to truth, I read Gene A. Getz footnotes from the Life Essentials study Bible on page 1195 and note #9 titled Material Prosperity.  “During the time Amos prophesied, the children of Israel were experiencing economic prosperity and military success.  The leaders particularly paraded their wealth and position.  They built large houses, gorged themselves on the best meat, and drank bowlfuls of the best wines.  They concluded that they were successful, powerful, and secure from the attacks of their enemies.  They evidently believed that God approved of the way they were living and was blessing them accordingly.”  The question must be asked, what nation comes into your mind?  In sales we often used the phrase, “The old is forever new” or as my dad would say, “We learn nothing from history, because if we did, would we repeat it?”

My prayer is that you will read Amos and especially chapter six, it begins in this manner; “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes!”

(Amos 6:1 ESV)  Am I all wet, or could we easily put the USA in the place of Zion, and Washington D.C. in the place of Samaria, and the American people in the place of Israel?

In verse two the prophet reminds them of other nations who were also mighty at one time and very prosperous and were destroyed or have been brought to a place of no influence as a power broker in world affairs.  Do names come into your mind of great nations who no longer exist or have no voice in the big picture of today?  Mighty nations like Rome, Egypt, Greece, and much later, France and the British Empire.   Do you recall a Germany that tried to conquer the world, or a Soviet Union, the mighty U.S.S.R. that is no longer, and they all had one thing in common, they believed they were able to do as they pleased.  Now that is as dangerous for a nation as it is for you and me.

Verse three deals with the leaders and the people ignoring the warning of the prophet, and the coming judgment.  And verse four and five refers to their prosperity and the attitudes of their hearts.  But in verse 8, “The Lord GOD has sworn by himself, declares the LORD, the God of hosts: “I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds, and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.” (Amos 6:8 ESV)  I often forget that God hates pride, and these people were, as are we, prideful, arrogant, putting their faith in citadels, walls and towers, and they falsely believed their city was impregnable.  

Verses 9-11, deals with the destruction of the things they trusted in and in human life.  When God speaks to a people or to a nation, wise people repent and seek to be agents of change, much like Nineveh.  Do you recall in Matthew 12:38-42, where the scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign, and this was his answer: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

(Matthew 12:39-41 ESV)

As someone once told me, “A word to the wise is sufficient” so let the wise listen to these words from Gene A. Getz: “There is a lesson here for all people – nationally and personally, believers and unbelievers.  Material prosperity and success and power are not conclusive evidence of God’s approval of the way we live.”  Actually, “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice