The Prophet Argues from the Order of Nature (Amos 6:12)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/15/2015 11:43 PM

My Worship Time                                        Focus: The Prophet Argues from the Order of Nature

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                          Reference:  Amos 6:12

            Message of the verses:  “12 Do horses run on rocks? Or does one plow them with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.”

             I can say that when I was a boy that all I wanted to do was to ride a horse, and when I got older I married a woman who likes to ride horses and so every once in a while we go horseback riding, and most of the time it is when we go on vacation.  This past spring we rode horses in a very large National park and we had to cross a creek and I can attest with the prophet Amos that horses will not run on slick rocks as it was difficult for me to get the horse I was riding to cross the creek, horses are too wise to gallop on slick rocks where they might fall. 

            Amos also asks the question “Do you plow the sea with oxen? (Message)”  Of course the answer is that you would not do something like that, you see Amos was a farmer and I suppose that is why he is using this kind of rhetorical questions to his readers, which are the Israelites and also those who live in Judah. 

            Amos is saying that if horses and farmers are smart enough not to do the things he is asking about then why would the children of Israel poison their judicial system?  Amos cannot figure this all out, but perhaps it is because they were not listening to the Lord and following the covenant that He gave to them.  Perhaps it is because they believed the same lie that Satan told Eve, that is telling her that God is holding something out on them.  Perhaps it is because of all their sinful ways that the Lord has allowed them to fall into the mess that they have made for themselves.  I remember reading from Dr. Wiersbe a number of times that the worst punishment that God can give a person or a nation is to let them do what they want to do and because they are sinful their sin will find them out and they will be miserable because of their actions.

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes this section:  “Their pride again came to the fore when they boasted of their military victories at Lo Debar and Karnaim (see NKUV or NIV).  We aren’t certain when Israel took these cities, and it’s not important.  What is important is that they were proud of their achievements and confident that nobody could defeat them.  Lo Debar means ‘nothing,’ and that’s what God though of their victory!  They boasted that the victory came because of their own strength, and their false confidence would lead to their destruction.”  We actually looked at these cities in our last SD, but this was another reason why Israel would fall, and that was because of their pride.

10/16/2015 12:01 AM