Monday, June 11 2012
Amos 4
Verse of the Day: V12 “Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.”
1. Repent (V1-3)
V1 “Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.”
The holy God through Prophet Amos time and again warned the people of Israel, especially, the wealthy leaders, to repent of their sins of drinking, and oppressing and crushing the poor and the needy, otherwise God’s severe judgment shall be upon them.
V2 “The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.”
2. Return (V4-11)
V6 “And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.”
God shall judge and punish the people of Israel with great famine, such that they had no food, and hence, their teeth were cleaned, as they ate nothing. However, the people still continued to sin, and God subsequently sent the mighty Babylonians to attack and overthrew all their cities, and killed many of them, and forced the rest of them as prisoners of war in the land of Babylon, because they refused to repent and return to Him.
V11 “I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.”
3. Ready (V12-13)
V12 “Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.”
Are you ready or prepared to meet God? Is God truly your God, Lord and Saviour? One day, we shall all meet the LORD, the God of hosts, and either He shall say to us, “Come to me, and enter into the pearly gates of heaven, as you have fully trusted me”, or “Depart from me, and be cast into the fiery pits of hell, as you have never fully trusted me”.
V13 “For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.”
Prayer of the Day:
Dearest God, please help me to be prepared to meet You by fully trusting in You.
