Amos 4

What other privileges had Israel ignored?

·        4:1-5: The privilege of wealth.

In the case of the people of Israel wealth, and especially prosperity based in the productivity of the land, was a part of God’s covenantal promise.  And in the case of the Northern Kingdom the area of Bashan, east of the Sea of Galilee, was a good land for raising livestock and was part of the land east of the Jordan that was given to the two and a half tribes (Num. 32:1-5,33).  But now, hundreds of years later, these wealthy cows (a disparaging term for the women) of Bashan were living in decadence.  

They were worshiping idols in places of great significance to Israel in terms of what God has done for them.  Bethel was the place where Jacob had been given the promise that was first given to his Abraham.  Gilgal was the place where Israel was circumcised after crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land.  The judgment they would receive is again made very graphic.  They would be led with fishhooks, the way people were deported by the Assyrians, causing pain any time the captives hesitated or resisted.  (Harmon, v3, is an unknown place.  The Hebrew means high place or palace.) 

·        4:6-13: The privilege of warning.

The key thought in this passage comes from the words repeated 5 times: yet you have not returned to Me.  Time and time again God had sought to get the attention of His people but they resisted Him and rejected His call.  God has used famine (v6), drought (v7-8), pestilence (v9), plagues (like those in Egypt, v10) and then had allowed some cities to be overthrown (v11).  All these calamities were God’s way of getting the attention of His people.  But they would not hear and heed.  And note that all of this had been predicted in Leviticus 26 as the consequences of disobedience to be brought on God’s people.

The result of all this is a huge therefore in 4:12-13.  The words in v12, prepare to meet your God, are often heard in ridicule in our day.  It usually involves a funny looking man on a street corner holding a sign with those words.  People laugh, failing to even briefly consider the truth of these words.  But true they are.  The God who speaks them is The Lord God of hosts by name.  He is the Creator who made the mountains and wind.  He declared to men the need to seek and glorify Him.  And He uses calamities, what we call acts of God, to get our attention.  In other words, He is a gracious God.  Look how often He sought to call Israel.  But, as with us, we suppose His people became calloused to His calls.  

Like Israel we need to hear this warning: Prepare to meet your God!  The needed preparation is to return to Him.  May we, the Church of God today, hear Him! May we not be entrapped by our prosperity but rather may we worship Him in spirit and truth.  May we hear and fear!