Woe to You!

Amos 5:18-27

Have you ever had someone say, be careful what you ask for you might just get it?  It seems that many in Israel who desired “the day of the Lord” and Amos asked the question why, “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!  Why would you have the day of the LORD?  It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.  Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? (Amos 5:18-20 ESV)   

A warning needs to be injected in this paper, that the word of God is as stated in Hebrew 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning, the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  It was the voice of Amos, but it was God who was speaking to the people words they did not understand, and words they were not willing to except.

Picking up the account in verse 21, and listen it is not Amos that hated and despised feasts and burnt offerings, for they were not made to him, but to God.  “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.  Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.  Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.  But let justice roll down like waters, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.  (Amos 5:21-24 ESV)

What is our take away from these verses; be careful what you believe about God, and always search the Scriptures with a heart open to this truth: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice