HAVING exposed the sins of Israel, and the falseness of their worship, God tells them of his complaint against them. This complaint is emphasised by God repeating it five times. After each description of his acts of chastisement, God complains that the people are not listening to him, and are refusing to mend their ways, or even confess they had need to change them and repent.

FACING THE TRUTH REVEALED.

Apparently Israel had experienced, over a considerable time, many different calamities and trials; many repeated again and again. Verse 6 describes famine. Verses 7-8 describe drought. Verse 9 describes blight on crops through infection and insects. Verse 10 describes being overrun by an enemy, and many people being killed. Verse 11 describes direct action which brought total destruction to areas of the land. These afflictions were experienced from time to time, and repeated again and again.

It is clearly taught that God was the one who brought these afflictions upon Israel. Amos is writing or speaking, but his words clearly tell us that God was the author of these actions against Israel.

Because we hear God complaining that Israel had not returned to the Lord we can deduce that all these afflictions had a gracious purpose. The purpose was that by the afflictions Israel may be halted in their godless ways, made to think and review their way of living, and ask the question whether the affliction they were suffering was saying anything about their way of life. In a word these afflictions by God were a form of chastisement whereby God was showing his disapproval of the way Israel was living, and were a call to them to consider their ways and repent and return to the Lord in obedience.

Because God speaks of returning to him, this pre-supposes that God was speaking to those who were his people, and to those who claimed to be the people of God, and not to the world in general. Israel, these ten break away tribes, had been amongst the whole body of the nation of Israel that God had blessed in delivering them from bondage in Egypt, and giving them the promised land in which they lived. They had been faithful and obedient to the Lord. They had been recipients of great and gracious blessings from the Lord. They still claimed to be the people of God and looked to God for his continued blessing.

From this we can deduce that these afflictions, though very severe at times, were gracious acts of God. If God had given up on Israel, then he would not have bothered to act in these ways to call them to repentance. God was graciously giving Israel opportunity to repent and return to the Lord, and so avoid inevitable final judgement which would mean complete separation from God and all that is good. Chatisement is an act of love on the part of God. He still wants to bless, and is ready to forgive on true repentance.

TRUTHS REVEALED.

From all this observation and thinking on these verses there are certain eternal truths that can be gleaned, which are eternally abiding.

In the first place God does use natural disasters for his own purposes. Here God used famine, and drought, blight on crops, storms, attack from enemies, to make his people think and review the way they were living. Insurance companies glibly speak of acts of God whereby they seek to avoid liability for paying out insurance costs. Belief that God acts in this way is rarely believed. This is also true within the church as a whole. It is glibly and arrogantly declared that God is not a God who brings afflictions and devastations like this. However we are told clearly in Amos that God does act in this way, and so it behoves all Christians to stop and ask if God is speaking, when disasters fall, and if so what he is saying.

In each of these afflictions God speaks in the first person. God addresses Israel with the word “I”. From this we learn that God is active in the world. God created the world and all things, including the vastness of space. Having created the world, which the Bible declares he created for his own pleasure, God does not stand back and let the world just go on its course without any intervention. It has been suggested in the past that the world is like a clock, which having been wound up, is left to run; but this is not so. It is plain from the verses here which we are thinking upon, that God intervenes in the affairs of mankind. That the world in general denies such direct action of God does not alter the fact. We have evidence in the Bible of God's intervention time and time again. The greatest intervention is the sending of Jesus Christ into the world, to take our nature upon him, and then die the death we deserve so that we may be saved from it.

We learn also that God will not stand by when his church has wandered away from his truth and obedience to his word, and when the worship and living of his church falls short of the truth he has given in his word. God acts in chastisement, and it behoves the church to stop and reflect when things are going badly. It is so easy, as it was with Israel, to imagine that the church is doing very well, when all the activity within the church in so many good ways is considered; but if the growth of the church, and its witness to the nation, is plainly not effected, and the church is still struggling, then the church needs to ask if God sees the work and witness of the church in the way we see it, and ask whether the church is truly in the way of true godliness, or whether there needs to be a reformation from the very roots.

As we think more deeply concerning the chastisement of the Lord, it is plain that God's afflictions are a means of grace. The afflictions have a gracious and loving purpose. We read in the Bible that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. When we see Jesus in the Gospels we find him weeping over Jerusalem, complaining that his desire was that he may gather the people as a hen gathers her chicks. These words of Jesus concerning Jerusalem opens up the heart of Jesus in deep pain at the hardness of heart of the people and rulers in Jerusalem because they would return to him. We see the heart of Jesus longing to bless, and protect, and love, and lead the people into the joy of true fellowship with God through faith in him. However, the words of Jesus when he wept over Jerusalem end with the tragic cry 'but you would not'. It grieved Jesus that Jerusalem refused to turn back to the Lord. They wanted their own way. They trusted in their own wisdom. They had no time for the Lord.

In our churches today, and this would be true in a greater or lesser degree in every church, there are so many who are content with their lives and the religion they express in their lives and by their conversation, who when the gospel of forgiveness through Jesus is preached, they react with violence against the Gospel. They will have nothing of it. They either oppose the one who ministers the gospel in every way they can, or they simply refuse to listen. These people hate to be told that all the good works that they do, and the work for the church they perform, are worthless in the sight of God, and are useless in any way to gain acceptance with God. Seeking to establish their own righteousness before God, they will not submit to the righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel, which truly justifies before God all who believe in Jesus. Such is the pride in fallen and corrupt human nature that we hate to be told that we are not able to contribute anything to our salvation and acceptance with God. It is offensive to the pride in human nature to face the fact of our vileness in the sight of God, and that only in Christ can we be clothed in a righteousness that can safely protect us in the presence of God's holiness.

The fact that God's complaint against Israel was that they did not return to him reveals how much God longed for them to leave their godless and sinful ways, and return in repentance to him. God longs that he may bless us with is saving love. God longs that we may have fellowship with him and be under his loving care. God longs that we may dwell with him under his guidance and direction. It for this reason he makes every endeavour to cause us to consider our ways and return to him in repentance. Because of his love God is grieved and hurt when his people embrace false religion, and worldly life style. God is pained when the people who claim to be members of his church dishonour his Name before the world, and whose testimony cause the world to blaspheme God, and turn away from God. If the witness of the church is to be effective in the world it must be a witness that is backed up by living which shows forth the righteousness and goodness of God. God certainly will not use defiled vessels.

Finally, there is a very urgent message in these verses concerning God's chastening actions. When God acts in chastening we should not treat such action with lightness or ignore them. From this passage we see that God will continue his chastisement until his people return to him from their sinful ways. As we read through the passage, not only does God continue his chastisement, but the severity of the chastisement increases the longer sin and godlessness is maintained. The afflictions begin with famine and drought. No doubt these increase in severity if they have to be repeated. Then the afflictions become more serious. It is not just the material realm around Israel that is effected, but the people themselves. God sends plagues. Sickness is used by God to cause people to stop and think. Then there is death, and large areas devastated, which brings death and disaster to all in the effected area.

In 1 Corinthians 11 where Paul uncovers serious disorder and evil in the conduct of Holy Communion, we find him telling us in verse 30 that the chastisement of the Lord, not only resulted in sickness, but in some cases death.