LogosWalk Word Journal
Hearing God Speak through His Word

"But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word
in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance."
-- Luke 8:15 (NASB)

Archive for the '30: Amos' Category

Amos 9:8-9 • The Spiritual Shake-Out

Saturday, September 12th, 2009
“‘Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom,
And I will destroy it from the face of the earth;
Nevertheless, I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob,’
Declares the Lord.
‘For behold, I am commanding,
And I will shake the house of Israel among all nations
As grain is shaken in a sieve,
But not a kernel will fall to the ground.'”
    —Amos 9:8-9 (NASB)

For those of us that have not grown up on a farm or in an agrarian culture, this can be a puzzling image. But imagine corn shaken about so that while the dust and chaff fall through the holes in the seive, the solid grains remain. The wicked are removed, the righteous preserved. It’s a process brought on churches, organizations, or movements that have need to be returned to their original spiritual purity. There’s probably a strong lesson here about the need to remove wickedness rather than tolerate it, hoping it will be overcome by righteousness. That does not appear to be a biblical principle applicable to God’s people.
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Amos 8:11-12 • A Different Kind of Famine

Friday, September 11th, 2009
“‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord God,
‘When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water,
But rather for hearing the words of the Lord.
People will stagger from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord,
But they will not find it.'”
    —Amos 8:11-12 (NASB)

The physical judgments of God mirror spiritual conditions. Throughout the Bible, a wide variety of symbols, types, and analogies are made between food/eating and God’s Word. Grain, bread, manna, and eating are but a few examples. Even the miraculous feeding of Israel in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan had a greater work concerning God’s Word.
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Amos 7:14-15 • Spiritual Prequalification

Thursday, September 10th, 2009
“Then Amos replied to Amaziah, ‘I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me, “Go prophesy to My people Israel.”‘”
    —Amos 7:14-15 (NASB)

David was a shepherd called to be king, Elisha was called from the plough to be Elijah’s replacement, Peter and John called from their fishing boats, Matthew from his tax collector’s booth, and Amos from his flocks and orchards to speak as directed by God. God’s calling is not prequalified by status, education, heritage, or any of the most common blanks for which we’d have to provide a description on a resume. What these examples all have in common is a willingness to immediately leave the old life completely behind to convey God’s message as directed. They were all committed to His Word.
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Amos 5:25-27 • 99 Percent Sovereignty Doesn’t Work

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
“‘Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? You also carried along Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,’ says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.”
    —Amos 5:25-27 (NASB)

God judged the first generation of Israelites that refused to take Canaan as ordered by making them wander for 40 years in the wilderness until that generation died; that is, paid the price for their sin. What God is stating here is that because of the hardness of their heart and predisposition to worship false gods, it didn’t matter if they followed the rituals provided in the Law of Moses because God did not accept their sacrifices. The same case is being stated in judgment of the generation at Amos’ time, that God refused to acknowledge and receive their sacrifiices and worship because He knew that they were spiritually unfaithul in following alternate false gods.
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Amos 4:10-11 • Reacting to Disaster

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
“‘I sent a plague among you after the manner of Egypt;
I slew your young men by the sword along with your captured horses,
And I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils;
Yet you have not returned to Me,’ declares the Lord.
‘I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
And you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze;
Yet you have not returned to Me,’ declares the Lord.”
    —Amos 4:10-11 (NASB)

What is the right response to tragedy, calamity, or disaster on any scale whether directed at us personally or as part of a larger whole? It’s a repeated biblical pattern that in such times, the quality of one’s faith and righteousness is proved by the speed to which we turn to the Lord…or not. The biblical examples of righteousness provided in the character and examples of so many throughout Scripture have in common a greater concern for what might be affecting their spiritual life than the physical.
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Amos 3:6-8 • He Reveals His Secret Counsel

Monday, September 7th, 2009
“If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble?
If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?
Surely the Lord God does nothing
Unless He reveals His secret counsel
To His servants the prophets.
A lion has roared! Who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?”
    —Amos 3:6-8 (NASB)

I am continually amazed and simultaneously puzzled at how Christians approach the End Times. Basically, Christians immersed in God’s Word agree on the basics. Most of the discussion involves the minor points that don’t negate the whole. But in general we know that there will be a rapture, there will be a tribulation, there will be a final conflict at Armageddon, Christ will reign for a thousand years, there will be a final judgment, and a lot of highlights in between. We seem to get sidetracked mostly by the one thing we don’t know: “When?” Putting aside the fact that Jesus specifically and categorically stated we would NOT know “when”, :”(Matthew 24:36)”: He does provide an absolute set of guidelines of how to deal with the timing of all these things:
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Amos 2:4, 6 • Liars & Thieves

Sunday, September 6th, 2009
“Thus says the Lord,
‘For three transgressions of Judah and for four
I will not revoke its punishment,
Because they rejected the law of the Lord
And have not kept His statutes;
Their lies also have led them astray,
Those after which their fathers walked.’

“Thus says the Lord,
‘For three transgressions of Israel and for four
I will not revoke its punishment,
Because they sell the righteous for money
And the needy for a pair of sandals.'”
    —Amos 2:4, 6 (NASB)

Judgment was pronounced on both the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel, together the whole of God’s people. Judah’s problem seems to be changing God’s Law from its original and right application into something worldly which God here labels, “Their lies”. Israel didn’t seem to bother with even the appearance of trying to keep God’s commandments and were wholly given over to the things and greed of this world. One was attempting to wrest some kind of spiritual payment, the other earthly. In their example we have two of the most common models of what goes wrong with a church, ministry, or movement, both rooted in pride.
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