Amos starts off in this chapter lamenting sorrowfully for Israel. He looks at them and sees what they do not see. He sees that God has seen enough and that they are blinded by their own lusts of the flesh. They have changed the locations that were meant for worshiping God and to be kept holy, into places for their own prosperity and their own gain. They have began to use God at their own convenience. They know they want God on their side, but they only want it for their own benefit. God hates this. God relays through Amos that he has seen enough and judgement will surely come. He also warns those that think they are right with him but are not. He says that they will be looking for the day of the Lord but will see darkness when he comes. Jesus uses this same language in Matthew 7:21-23.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name? ’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!” We should be very careful to not mock God with our worship, tithes, and offerings. We should always prepare our hearts with repentance and obedience out of love in our hearts and not just because it’s the right thing to do. The condition of faith that comes from our hearts is what God desires. He doesn’t need for anything in this world that we can give him other than the giving of ourselves to him and that is a daily choice. Jesus Christ will be our Lord and savior if we will let him. God created the pathway to him through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. All we have to do is walk down that path with him holding our hands all the way to the end of it. Love y’all! Have a great day!
Amos 5:1-27
Read scripture…
“Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament, house of Israel: She has fallen; Virgin Israel will never rise again. She lies abandoned on her land with no one to raise her up. For the Lord God says: The city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left in the house of Israel. For the Lord says to the house of Israel: Seek me and live! Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal or journey to Beer-sheba, for Gilgal will certainly go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, or he will spread like fire throughout the house of Joseph; it will consume everything with no one at Bethel to extinguish it. Those who turn justice into wormwood also throw righteousness to the ground. The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the water of the sea and pours it out over the surface of the earth — the Lord is his name. He brings destruction on the strong, , and it falls on the fortress. They hate the one who convicts the guilty at the city gate, and they despise the one who speaks with integrity. Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact a grain tax from him, you will never live in the houses of cut stone you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted. For I know your crimes are many and your sins innumerable. They oppress the righteous, take a bribe, and deprive the poor of justice at the city gates. Therefore, those who have insight will keep silent , at such a time, for the days are evil. Pursue good and not evil so that you may live, and the Lord, the God of Armies, will be with you as you have claimed. Hate evil and love good; establish justice at the city gate. Perhaps the Lord, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Therefore the Lord, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: There will be wailing in all the public squares; they will cry out in anguish in all the streets. The farmer will be called on to mourn, and professional mourners , to wail. There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass among you. The Lord has spoken. Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! What will the day of the Lord be for you? It will be darkness and not light. It will be like a man who flees from a lion only to have a bear confront him. He goes home and rests his hand against the wall only to have a snake bite him. Won’t the day of the Lord be darkness rather than light, even gloom without any brightness in it? I hate, I despise, your feasts! I can’t stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. Even if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle. Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice flow like water, and righteousness, like an unfailing stream. “House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the forty years in the wilderness? But you have taken up Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, images you have made for yourselves. So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.” The Lord, the God of Armies, is his name. He has spoken.”
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