Amos 4:6-13, What will it take for repentance?

(We are returning to our more "normal" posts, a little longer than the last couple of months or so.  For a while I want to be in the OT prophets.  Following the election in the US and the return of President Trump, and with the increase in volatility of the wars in Ukraine and Israel ... even with a possible cease fire with Hezbollah ... we see the increased focus on Israel, the geographical focus on the Bible, past and future.  Let's start with consideration of repentance from the heart.)

Rev. 16 is the chapter on “the bowls of wrath.”  With the 3^rd bowl (v4-7) the angels announced God’s righteousness in pouring His wrath on the earth.  In the 4^th (great heat, v8-9) and 5^th (painful and gnawing darkness, v10-11) the result on earth was that men blasphemed the God of heaven and they refused to repent of their evil deeds.  My thought was, “how can men be so foolish as to refuse to repent?”  What will it take?  Consider other passages with the same emphasis.

·       2 Chron. 28:22: King Ahaz (father of Hezekiah, son of Jotham, both godly kings) engaged in extreme wickedness, involving the golden calves of Jeroboam and the Baals, Ashtoreth and other idols.  God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria, and then the king of Israel.  Even King Ahaz’s son was killed.  The Edomites attacked Judah, the Philistines invaded the lowlands and Negev of Judah, and then the King of Assyria turned against Ahaz, refusing his plea for help.  Now in the time of his distress King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the LORD.  This is that King Ahaz. After God’s goodness in the time of his father, Ahaz refused to acknowledge God’s goodness and turned away from God.  God sent distressing trials and Ahaz refused to repent. 

·       Isa. 26:10-11: Verse 10 speaks of God’s grace, His goodness to Israel.  Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness.  In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. Then v11 says, LORD, when Your hand is lifted up (in judgment) they will not see.  God’s judgments come after periods of grace and goodness.  It is all an attempt by God to call men to repentance.

·       Jeremiah 5:3: O LORD, are not your eyes on the truth?  You have stricken them but they have not grieved.  You have consumed them but they have refused to receive correction.  They have made their faces harder than rock.  They have refused to return (i.e. repent, return to God). 

·       Haggai 2:17: I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labors of your hands, yet you did not return to Me.

·       Amos 4:11: Amos prophesied to the Northern Kingdom (Israel).  The following chart shows that his message was that God had begun to work His way through the promised consequences given by Moses in Lev. 26 and Deut. 28.

Judgment	Lev. 26	Deut. 28	Amos 4
Famine/Drought	v18-20	v23-24	v6-8
Pestilence	v21-22	v27-28	v9
Plague	v23-26		v10
Defeat		v2-26	v11

Amos’ concluding words to this were well-known and often mocked : Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!  But don’t stop there.  For behold, He who forms mountains, and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth, the LORD God of hosts is His name.  God cannot be faulted for man’s refusal to repent.  The angels are right in Rev. 16.  He is righteous!  His judgments are correct!