Preface: I was out doing errands....and was on a local Christian college where I occasionally leave something little for students that has the URL for this website on it. Over the many years it has been everything from pens to notebooks....and now it is bookmarks with a list of the books of the Bible. While walking quickly and passing these out I received a weather alert to take shelter....for there could be wind gusts up to 80 mph. I got home in time to watch a hundred foot tall maple bending as I've never seen it bend in over forty years. I had been praying on the way home. The damage so far has been minimal but there is another storm coming later. I have a brother-in-law who many years ago parked his Mercedes convertible at a park....this in Florida....and took a nice walk in the beautiful weather. A thunderstorm and deluge came quickly and by the time he made it back to his car....with the top down....the car was half full of water....and the insurance company totaled it. Weather alerts can be life saving blessings....and so much more of a blessing is the alerts that God gives us in His word. They are not with a shrill sound....but with a still small voice from the words of Scripture....a calm voice in our mind as we read but one packed with intense warnings! Instead of carrying an iPhone....we carry so to speak our Bible....and it does not vibrate....but the Christian upon reading faithfully as we should be doing should feel the intensity of the message. Alas we seem to value our iPhone today more than God's Word....but as in the book of Amos below....God as if tells His hearers that after the storm has passed and the carnage lay everywhere....He will still take us up and shelter us from that which endangers our soul!
It was certainly one of the biggest earthquakes in history....8.2 is the most often used numeration. There is archeological evidence galore that it indeed happened....and that it covered a large area....and probably centered in what is today....Lebanon.
The prophet Amos....a simple herdsman....began his prophecy by writing...."two years before the earthquake".....and Zechariah....maybe 250 years later still referred to that earthquake....as being during the time of King Uzziah.
So Amos prophesied destruction upon Damascus and Gaza (the Philistines) and Tyre and Edom and Ammon and Moab and Edom and Israel and Judah....and he detailed what they had done to get God's anger to such a degree. Amos saw the destruction in multiple visions....and wrote about this later pointing out that he had these visions....two years before the earthquake. There was no need for him to try to describe a particular earthquake....for this was truly the....mother of all earthquakes.
Chapter six should get our attention in America....for we have been for a long time...."at ease in Zion"....proud of our power...."I abhor the pride of Jacob, and hate his palaces; Therefore I will deliver up the city and all that is in it." (6:8) Here Amos is prophesying a future judgment....and also....unbeknownst to him....another future judgment after that....which would be us today....for we also sleep on our beds of ivory....so to speak....stretch out on our couches....eat and drink and be merry....all the while having no compassion on our brothers who are not safe under the great and powerful king....commissioned by God Himself to make us great again....or so we believe.
So is there another earthquake coming in the same area? Yes....and even greater than the one during the life of Amos....as even the Mount of Olives will split in two....and we likewise are given warnings before the earthquake....and ignoring those warnings....just as did Judah and Israel.
There is much more than an earthquake coming....and the judgments have already begun. As you read through Amos....if you should choose to do so....you will find some interesting verses to meditate upon. You will read in 3:7...."Surely the LORD God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to his servants the prophets"....and God has indeed though men like Billy Graham warned us for a half a century.
You will read where God told the Israelites to go ahead and offer their sacrifices and pray and give offerings....in Bethel....where they set up pagan idols to worship....kind of like us with Old Glory hanging just feet away from the pulpit. (4:4, 5:5)
God told them that He already sent many judgments upon them....one being plagues....or in our case a pandemic....yet we still did not turn from our idols. God told them that he despises their feast days and does not savor their sacred assemblies. (5:21)
The people told Amoz....this mere herdsman....with no credentials....to get lost....to go back to his own land....that they had their king!
The Lord's hand of mercy is also extended to the people....but not before Amoz prophesied of a day...."Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God....'that I will send a famine on the land....not a famine of bread....nor a thirst for water....but a hearing the words of the LORD'." (8:11)
The above famine of the Word of God is today folks. How was your sermon two days ago? Were you humbled under the holiness and judgments of God? Were you warned of the evil days that we live in? Were you told to look to that day when Jesus returns in great power and glory.....revealed to the whole world as One whom they rejected? Did your knees shake at times under the message....were there any tears either in the pulpit or in your own eyes? Probably not....but there was most likely an abundance of laughter and gaiety.....signifying....evidence of....brothers and sisters....that....famine of the Word of God.
R. C. Sproul has a wonderful YouTube video available on Amos and Hosea....Dust To Glory....Amos and Hosea.
