Day 184
Today's Reading:
Amos declared that there would be a time of spiritual famine. God warned that there would be a day when people would search for His word but would not find it. This came to fruition. After the last of the Old Testament prophets, there was 400 years of silence before the New Testament. This time is often referred to as the “Intertestamental Period”. At the time of Amos, there was approximately less than 800 years until the New Testament when God spoke through John the Baptist and Jesus.
Think about that. For 400 years, heaven was quiet. No new prophets. No words from God. Just silence. In the middle of Amos warning Israel of the coming judgment and doom, God planted the seed of hope. He promised restoration. Even when God is silent, He is never absent. The long period of waiting was to prepare hearts and minds for His coming Son.
If you are currently walking through a season of silence, just remember that when God feels distant and prayers seem unanswered, take heart. The same God who spoke through Amos, the God who was silent for 400 years, and brought us His son as a baby, still works when quiet. Sometimes the deepest work happens during the period of waiting.
If God had been quiet for 400 years and you had lived through the silence, when He started speaking again, what would you say? Would it be panic, apologies, or “Can we discuss my life choices?” Would it be an ecstatic reunion? Be honest, what would you say to Him first?
After Amos compared the Israelite women to cows yesterday, he gave a warning to the complacent rich. To the wealthy leaders of Israel who were living in luxury while the nation was rotting. Woe to you in your ivory beds, eating choice lamb, and drinking wine while others live in poverty. They felt secure and thought disaster could not reach them. Amos mocked them by saying they think they are better than everyone else, but even the great cities had been destroyed. He warned that they would be led into exile and destruction. Only a tenth would remain. Do not go to the cities in Judah, or the religious sites in Israel. Do not play games, acting religious yet not helping the poor and needy.
Chapter seven had visions of locusts, fires, and a plumb line. With each coming judgment, Amos would intercede, and God relented. God was preparing to send locusts to devour the crops, and a consuming fire. The plumb line was a tool used to test for a straight vertical line. God said that Israel was crooked and could not measure up. The High Priest, Amaziah, was fed up with Amos and told him to go back home to Judah (south). Amos retorted that he never asked to be a prophet; he had been content living as a shepherd and fig farmer. God led him there to prophesy. Amos then told Amaziah that his wife would become a prostitute, his children would die by the sword, and that he would die in exile in a pagan land. Eek, do not rebuke the prophets of God.
God declared the end had come, time was up. The rich were cheating the poor, using dishonest scales, and ignoring the Sabbath. Chapter 9 began with total judgment: no one will escape. You cannot dig to Sheol, climb to heaven, or hide in the sea. God then shifted to the hope of a Messiah. A future king. “In that day I will restore David’s fallen shelter, I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins, and will rebuild it as it used to be, so that they will possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name.” (9:11-12). This restoration came through Jesus. The land would become so fruitful that the crops would grow faster than they can be harvested. Judgment and destruction are not the end. Restoration was the plan from the beginning.
Today's Discussion question:
f God went quiet for 400 years and you had lived through it, then He started speaking again, what would you say to Him after the total silence? Is it panic, apologies, or “can we discuss my life choices?” Is there an ecstatic reunion? Be honest with your first words to God.
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