Remember Your Riches and Blessings Come from God.

"Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph." Amos 5:14-15

Photo by Burak Saygı on Unsplash

 Amos ground his teeth as he watched a priest from the Temple talk, in rather an intimate matter, with a known harlot. Not three steps further his chest constricted to watch a man sell his newborn son to the Moloch priest, after selling a lamb to another brother who planned to sacrifice it to God. Rarely did Amos venture into Jerusalem, but it was near the time of the Passover, and he could not miss that. He walked to the gate with his gaze to the ground. “Oh Lord, how long before Your judgment falls on these people?”

With slow steps, Amos moved through the streets, noting the coin thrown to the harlots and the incense burned to strange gods. Amos sensed the movement of God's Spirit on him and the overwhelming need to challenge his people to follow God’s ways. He stumbled and fell to his knees, but didn’t have the heart to rise. Instead, he bowed down and remembered the words of Joel:

“Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.” Joel 1:13

“Oh God, how I grieve for my people. How they have not listened, but wasted what You have given them," Amos prayed.

The grief in his heart pressed Amos further to the ground. Yes, there were those who worshiped at the Temple, but did they worship God in their hearts? Did they know God, the great I Am? They gave Him lip service, they did their due diligence attending the Passover, offering their sacrifices, but did they offer God their hearts? No. How could they when they so quickly turned to offer the unthinkable to other gods? How could they when the priests, those who were to teach them God’s ways, dallied with the pleasures of the ungodly? 

The memory of the babe in his neighbor’s arm squeezed his mind until tears poured down his face. To offer such, why? How could he possibly believe that Moloch, a god created by men, who themselves are powerless in light of the one True God…how could he possibly believe that Moloch would bless him for it? In truth, Moloch must only have become a god at the selfishness of men and women who did not wish to raise their little ones, who valued their own life and pleasure more than these small ones so treasured by the One True God. These infants were created by God for the purpose of worshiping Jehovah God, not to die before an idol. How could they not see this?

And what of the wealth, not wealth God blessed them with, but gotten by ways God abhors? “Oh my God, what will You do to us? What evil will come on us?”

But Amos knew. Had not Moses written it in the Law? Had not God spoken of it by the prophet Joel, and even by the mouth of Jonah? The day of the Lord was indeed near at hand.

The prophet Amos must have felt a great burden for both the people of Judah and of Israel. Later, he would prophecy against the neighbors of Israel, even those nations that had influenced in some way the people of Judah and Israel. 

Joel was told by God to have the priests mourn and call the elders and all the people to cry to the Lord, for the day of the Lord was at hand and destruction would come. Amos saw this need in his time. Can we see it in ours?

The liberals blame the conservatives, and the conservatives blame the liberals. Both are at fault. We need, each one of us, to know God. Not just in the ‘yes, I know God because I prayed the sinner’s prayer’; not just in the ‘yes, I know God because I go to church every Sunday’; Not just in the ‘yes, I know God because I regularly attend church whenever the doors are open, and I attend and serve in every opportunity the church allows me to attend and serve.” No. 

We need to know God in the manner that causes us to fall to our knees in awe of His holiness and righteousness. We need to know God in the manner that we can see His light, observe the rushing wind of His Spirit and are overwhelmed by the stillness of His presence. And not just metaphorically, but literally. We need to seek Him until we know we are in the Presence of the Almighty God, the lover of our souls, our beloved. 

And when He meets us, and fellowships with us, and fills us with His joy and peace and energy, we are able to get up and walk in His presence into a world where the manmade Molochs, and Baals, and other gods that promise wealth, prosperity, comfort, and all our needs met, who cater to our ‘poor little me’ syndromes, our selfish ambitions and our pride, prevail--to be able to walk in such a world and not be touched by it, because we are wrapped in His presence. 

And when we live like this, we’ll experience the true blessings of God’s everlasting peace and joy and contentment. We'll experience this in the midst of destruction and terrorism that threaten to overwhelm us...like Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail singing praises; like Corrie Ten Boom in the midst of the Nazi's.

The Lord delights in giving riches and comforts and pleasure to those who call on Him, to those who love Him, who are His children in Truth. But He will not stand with those who forget Him when the wealth and blessings He has given them is not used for His glory, is not used to help those in need, is not used to do His will.

Oh Lord, our nation has done this. We’ve forgotten You and all that You’ve given us. Turn our hearts to You, help us to humble ourselves and not wait for You to humble us. Enable us to see Your truth, Your Word, and repent of our evil thoughts and actions.

When His people, who have enjoyed all His goodness and riches and pleasure, turn away and forget where those good things come from, they become like the servant who has enjoyed the comforts of his master’s favor (the master that provides for his needs and comfort), and forgets he enjoys these comforts at the pleasure of his master. So the servant begins to take these riches for his own gain and misuses them in how he deals with those his master loves (like the poor). Like this servant, we, as a nation, do not wisely use the riches God has given us for His glory. And now we are seeing all sorts of evil.

But if we turn from our ways, if we mourn and lament and cry out to God, He will forgive and again bring us to a place of favor. God’s forgiveness is limitless, His mercies are new every morning, His faithfulness, and love, and graciousness we will know once more. 

Oh God, bring us to the point of knowing Your judgment, righteousness, holiness, so that we would know You at a deeper and greater level than in the  years we lived in Your goodness and riches and pleasure and acknowledge that You were the One who gave it. Forgive us for our attitude and actions that have reflected not only our falling away but also our lack of gratitude. To You be all glory and honor and praise. In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen.

“The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God…And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD,…For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.” Joel 3:16-21