Devotion 11.04.26

Amos 5

The Day of the Lord

18 Woe to you who long

  for the day of the Lord!

Why do you long for the day of the Lord?

  That day will be darkness, not light.

19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion

  only to meet a bear,

as though he entered his house

  and rested his hand on the wall

  only to have a snake bite him.

20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—

  pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals;

  your assemblies are a stench to me.

22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,

  I will not accept them."

God holds his people accountable, yet in his steadfast love, he still gives us redemption.

This is the kind of text I think of when I think of real Old Testament judgment.

God is using extremely harsh words for the nation of Israel, his chosen race, which will become the stump of Jesse from which a shoot will rise (Isaiah 11:1).

As I read the full passage, I could not help but think about the passage in Revelation 3 in which Christ judges the seven churches:

"14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

"These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."

Might God not say the same kinds of things to us in his church today? Luke warm. Tepid at best. Turning the gospel into a reward's program for those who seek the riches of this life in power, influence, or literal wealth via earthly schemes. In his days on earth, Christ bore the full weight of his wrath on those who were the religious rulers and their followers. Paul and the others bore witness to Christ and corrected and admonished the churches in their epistles.

In the days of the Old Testament, in the days of Christ, in the days of Paul, Luther, and now us, God continues to speak his Word to us from his servants. We know the answers, but at times, we continue to back away from the true opportunity before us and fall back to our earthly schemes. Amos continues in his message though:

"23 Away with the noise of your songs!

  I will not listen to the music of your harps.

24 But let justice roll on like a river,

  righteousness like a never-failing stream!"

God's righteousness is Christ, the well of water that holds the spring of life from which we shall never thirst (John 4). As with David, we go to him on bent knee and acknowledge our short-comings, our failures, and in deep humility seek his forgiveness. We are assured of that forgiveness through faith in Christ, the one who delivers us from a life of sin and redeems us as his own. With the time we have between now and the day of judgement, pray we use our gifts to bring glory to Christ and share the news of his work to redeem a lost world.

Pray with me: Gracious God, Heavenly Father, Forgive me when I focus on myself and use your name or your Word to advance my agenda and not yours.