GOD has just delivered a devastating word concerning Israel, the ten tribes of the northern kingdom, through Amos. We considered this in the previous sermon. This word was that the privileges as a nation was now being taken away. God would not own Israel as a nation as his people, nor bless the nation as a whole with his protection. We saw that this happened in the reign of Hoshea, the last king of Israel. The purpose of God in choosing the nation of the Jews would now be preserved through the kingdom of Judah in the south. Immediately following this terrible word of judgement comes the gracious words of the three verses we are now to consider. In spite of the rejection of the nation, God's grace and mercy is still extended to every individual Israelite. The final rejection had not yet taken place, so the offer of grace was made to all the nation, but now as individuals. And this is the way of God ever since and is God's way throughout the gospel age.

The gracious word from God by Amos is plain and straight forward. It is "Seek me and live." (v.4) and repeated in verse 6 "Seek the Lord and live."

There was nothing new in this call. It has ever been the call of God to sinners, but it needs to be constantly repeated because fallen creatures, which human beings are, so quickly forget and corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What we need to notice is that this is the only hope for human beings. Life is only found in the Lord. Only the Lord can give life, and in him and not in any other supposed god.

We can see the problem as it presented itself in Israel when we read the verses before us. Amos declares the word of God “Seek the Lord …. do not seek Bethel ….” etc. Here was the problem in the northern kingdom. After the separation of Israel into two kingdoms, the one in the north of ten tribes, and the one in the south of the tribe of Judah, the northern kingdom was cut off from the place designated by God where his worship should be observed and where God could be found. In this situation the northern kingdom had a problem of where to go to worship the Lord and offer sacrifices according to the law of Moses. In answer to this need they seem to have chosen Bethel, Gilgal and Beersheba. There may have been more, but these are the three places mention in these verses.

The question is 'why did they choose these places?' The reason seems to have been that these places had been associated with the worship of God, and places where sacrifices had been offer to God, in the past. In Samuel 7: 16 we read that Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah were towns where Samuel had come to legislate and judge concerning the various problems amongst the people. Because of this these places came to be considered as places where God met with his people. This idea can be traced back to the appointment of Saul as the first king over the whole nation of Israel. In 1 Samuel 11: 14 Gilgal was the place where Saul's consecration as king over Israel was confirmed by Samuel, and at this time sacrifices and offerings were made to the Lord. We find this also in 1 Samuel 10: 8. Samuel sent Saul ahead of him to Gilgal, where Samuel would follow to offer sacrifices and offerings to the Lord. In Amos 8: 14 we discover similar use of Beersheba, which was used as a place of worship.

The trouble was, as has been common all down history, that these places of worship had become corrupted. They had become places where worship, sacrifices and offerings, were made to false gods, to the false gods of the heathen around them. If it was not quite as bad as this, the offerings and sacrifices had become just formal performing of prescribed rituals, and the belief had grown up that the simple doing of these outward acts merited the attention and favour of God.

In going to worship at Bethel, and Gilgal, and Beersheba, the people were not truly seeking the Lord, but rather coming to God with defiled offerings, or coming to a false god gathered from the heathen around them. Amos speaks God's word to them to seek the Lord, and by this God was telling the people that the worship they offered at Bethel, and the other places was not offered to God, and was not seeking him, and was offensive to him. This is a very hard and difficult message to take in and accept. In our day we do not outwardly give our worship to idols, but the pure faith of Jesus Christ, revealed in the Bible, becomes corrupted. Outwardly the forms and ceremonies have all the semblance of true worship, but in subtle ways the truth of God given in the Bible has either been corrupt, or wrong emphasis is over-shadowing the truth, or the Gospel has been corrupted by the diminishing the truth to make it acceptable to the world, or corruption can enter because of the pride of the human heart -- people wanting position and glory which alone pertains to Christ.

When the word of God according to the Bible is clearly set forth, and there is an attempt to bring the light of God's truth on the errors of present worship and teaching, then there is a strong reaction. The people seeking to bring the light of the Gospel into the church are declared arrogant and judgemental, and there is a strong denial that the teaching and practice grown up within the church is anyway defective. This was true in the days of Christ. Christ brought the truth of God directly and vividly in his preaching, and the people were drawn to Jesus. They saw that he was speaking truth with authority, not like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. Immediately there was a reaction from the establishment. The Jewish leaders were jealous of Jesus, and at heart frightened by him. They saw that if people followed the truth as Jesus taught it, their authority and position would be threatened. Because of this they opposed Jesus vehemently. When Jesus answered their criticism of him, and showed up their hypocrisy and the errors of their teaching and ways, all that happened was that in anger they wanted to kill Jesus and quench the truth.

It is the same today, as it has been in previous times, and those who seek to stand for the truth of the Gospel are opposed, and if possible silenced. However this must be resisted and standing for the truth faithfully continued. The glory of God and the salvation of precious souls is at stake. This is what Amos was doing. He remained faithful to the word of the Lord given him.

What is the word of the Lord. The message here through Amos reduces it to its simplest terms. Seek the Lord and live. This tells people that only in the Lord can their be life. Life encompasses true life in this world, and life eternal when this life is over. True life now means life showing, through obedience to God and faith in him, the joy of holiness, the practice of divine love, and the comfort of being under the guidance and protection of the Lord.

In seeking the Lord is our only hope, the only hope of life and the escape from death. The awful consequence of not seeking the Lord, but rather going after that which is not the truth of God, is plainly and awfully declared in our verses. Amos paints a picture of the fire of God's judgement sweeping away Bethel, and Gilgal. In other words the fire of God's judgement will sweep through the places where the worship of God is false, and bring them to nothing. Such judgement, we are told here by Amos, is one that human power cannot quench. It will devour Bethel. Amos mentions the House of Joseph, and so it is clear that the words are not spoken to the world at large but to the church.

The question is what is meant by seeking the Lord? In answer to this the words of Isaiah in chapter 55 and verse 3 and 6 make things clear. Verse 3 of Isaiah 55 commences with the words of the Lord “Give ear to me”. What does this mean? It means listening carefully, diligently, truthfully, earnestly to God's word in the Bible, and not just parts of the Bible, but the whole of it, accepting the whole as the infallible and true revelation given by God. If we are not prepared to do this, and instead trust our own wisdom to pick and choose what we will accept or reject, then we have ceased to truly seek the Lord. Then giving ear to the Lord means that we must seek by the Holy Spirit to understand the plain and obvious meaning of the word of God we are reading and studying. Because the Bible is God's revealed message to us, we must listen carefully to it to understand it.

Then in the giving our ear to the Lord, Isaiah goes on to add the words 'hear me'. This is God saying 'Hear me!' We only hear God as we give ear to his word when we are prepared to receive his word and obey his authority, and are prepared to commit our lives to that word in obedient faith. There is no other way that is seeking the Lord. The idea in our time that it is acceptable to judge the word of God, and the truth of the Bible, and declare what we think is God's word and what we think is not, will not do. In such a pose we have not humbled ourselves before God. We have not confessed that our sinful hearts cannot perceive truth. We have set our wisdom and authority above the authority of God. It shows we are not willing to accept the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians that man in his wisdom cannot know God.

Isaiah goes on in verse 7 of Isaiah 55 by speaking of how repentance is essential to the business of seeking God. Repentance is not only accepting that we have sinned against God, but that this sin deserves the judgement of God of everlasting death in hell. Mercy from God is dependent on such repentance. Repentance truly is accepting that sin must be forsaken, and that this reaches into our thoughts as well as our actions.

In Jeremiah 29: 13 and in Deuteronomy 4: 29 we see that true seeking of the Lord involves the heart, and the whole energy of our inner being. The promise of God in Jeremiah 29: 13 goes like this "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." The Deuteronomy verse says the same thing. Seeking God with our whole heart means there must be total surrender to the word of God. There must be no reservations in our acceptance of his truth. There must be no hiding behind human wisdom. There must be no avoiding the truth because we find it hard to accept. There must be a complete opening of our life, our mind, understanding, our desires, our actions, our thoughts, to the searchlight of God's truth, and the willingness to accept what God reveals and repent from the heart.