Monday, September 14, 2015

Obstinacy PT-1 (Amos 4:6)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/14/2015 10:41 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                       Focus:  Obstinacy PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Amos 4:6

            Message of the verses:  “6 "But I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities And lack of bread in all your places, Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD(NASB95)  “6 "You know, don’t you, that I’m the One who emptied your pantries and cleaned out your cupboards, Who left you hungry and standing in bread lines? But you never got hungry for me. You continued to ignore me." GOD’s Decree (Message).”

            We begin to look at the last eight verses in the fourth chapter of Amos and one thing we need to notice in these verses that five time we see the phrase “yet you have not returned to Me.”  Once again I want to compare what was going to happen to Israel during the lifetime of Amos with what will happen during the seven years of the Tribulation period as described in Revelation chapters 6-19 as God sends twenty-one different judgments on planet earth and we read similar things when some of these judgments are given to those on planet earth and the people know that it is God who is doing this, but yet, like Israel in this passage they will not turn to the Lord and repent of their sins.  In the case of Israel during the time of Amos the people did not stop practicing their false worship of the Lord.  We read what the Lord has to say about this in Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.’”

            We have mentioned in earlier SD’s when we studied the other OT prophets and also the books of the Law that some of the covenants that the Lord made with Israel were conditional, like what we read in Deuteronomy chapters 27-29, and if Israel did not obey those covenants then the Lord said He would punish them by taking them out of their land. “19 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them’ (Deut. 30:19-21).”

            Famine (Amos 4:6):  “6 "But I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities And lack of bread in all your places, Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD (NASB95).”

            When we look at this verse in the NASB we see the phrase “cleanness of teeth,” and this speaks of not having any food, which was a part of the judgment on them by God as He sends the Assyrians to judge them.  Now a part of the covenant that God gave with Israel was that if they obeyed Him they would have abundant food, but since they did not obey Him they had no food to eat.  Dr. Wiersbe writes that “You would think that this would move people to confess their sins and return to God, but Israel did not return to God.”

9/14/2015 11:00 PM

           

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