Rejection

Today's Reading: Amos 7-9

Amos has had some tough things to say about the house of Israel, because they had forsaken God. But in chapter 7, even Amos pleads for mercy on Israel (vv. 1-6). Despite his tender care for Israel, the reaction to Amos is not good.

"O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom" (vv. 12-13).

Rather than respond to God's word, they would rather the prophet simply went away, but like the old saying, "Be careful what you wish for . . ." Amos tells them a day would come when they would earnestly desire to hear God's word, but would be unable to do so.

"'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the Lord God,
'when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.

'In that day the lovely virgins and the young men
shall faint for thirst.
Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria,
and say, 'As your god lives, O Dan,'
and, 'As the Way of Beersheba lives,'
they shall fall, and never rise again'" (8:11-14).

This is the end of a people who reject the word of God. They spend their final days seeking that word, but they do not find it. Finally, for lack of His teaching, they fall, and never rise again. It is tragic, but it is inevitable. When the word of God is rejected, nothing is left, for nothing else can save man from his sins.