(Not So) Famous Amos

Famous Amos. He made some good chocolate chip cookies if I do say so myself.
But then there is the not-so Famous Amos. The one that God called to speak to His people. Amos. A little book in the Bible, but known to possibly be one of the earliest recorded books of the Old Testament.
So what do we know about Amos? Not-so-much? Yeah, me too. This year in CBS (Community Bible Study) the two books we are studying are Amos and Isaiah. I was super stoked to study Isaiah and I figured Amos would be fine too.
Once I started the study of Amos my opinion changed (unfortunately, not for the better). I read Amos 1 & 2 and was all, "Ummm, blah blah blah, let's get on to Isaiah." I started answering the questions and couldn't get my brain to wrap around the significance of it all. I thought, "C'mon, there must be something here because it IS in the Bible. What am I missing?" So that's what I prayed and guess what! God proved to be faithful once again! Shocking, I know ;)

As I dug in more several things hit me.

1. Israel is God's. You've heard the statement "Don't Mess With Texas" right? Well those little words pale in comparison to how our attitude towards Israel should be. Don't mess folks, don't mess. God chose them. CHOSE. He made a covenant with Abraham long ago and said that He would keep it and He does and He will. I knew this before, but the reiteration of this hit me harder this time. Right now, little Israel is sitting right smack dab in the middle of a whole bunch of haters and it ain't gonna be pretty if they keep on hatin'. Me? I'm gonna stick with Israel.

2. The way that the people surrounding Israel were acting was appalling. They were so corrupt and wrong, just wrong. But then I think about our society today and how awful it is here too. People were being sold into slavery. People now are sold into slavery (we just don't like to talk about it much). People (literally) "ripped open the pregnant women... in order to extend his borders." People now take babies from their mommy's tummies- and what's worse- mommy's do this by choice now. People were killing others. People now are killing others. People turned their backs on God and worshipped silly things like golden calves. People now turn their backs on God and worship silly things like cars, homes, sporting events, tv shows, education, hobbies, etc. Hmm. Interesting how we aren't so different now than those we shake our heads at from back then.

3. Fire. This is what hit me the most. The Lord says that he's going to send fire to all these different people groups and their cities. The initial thought of this is yep, that's the God of the Old Testament- cold, distant, punishing, old man with long white beard sitting on a big throne- not caring. But that can't be further from the truth. Deuteronomy 4:24 says, "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire..." So when He is going to send fire He's not sitting from afar throwing out punishments on the people. He knows how they've behaved badly and He is interjecting Himself to make them new again. We also know that matter cannot be created or deleted- basic physics here kids. So when God sends fire to these places- it's not to get rid of them, it's to change them. Just as forest fires are necessary for regeneration of forests, it's the same basic principle.
I think of myself as a parent (well that was profound, since well, I am! Duh self!). When one of my kids disobeys, I can scream and yell and send them to their room. Or I can go to them and talk boldly about how I'm disappointed in what they did and how I expect them to behave better in the future and their punishment will be X, Y, or Z. This is what God is doing. He's not sending them to their room and out of his presence, He's immersing Himself into their domain and showing them that they are acting out of disobedience and they will be punished.
I think that as adults we get desensitized to punishment. We think it's only for kids (and some adults don't even think that kids should be punished). Side note: I'm going to be bold here and say that as a general statement kids who do not get disciplined for disobedience don't turn out to be responsible, integrity filled adults. I digress. We think that adults shouldn't be punished. Well guess what- adults still behave badly and choose poorly sometimes. And why shouldn't we be punished for these things to get it through our thick heads that our behavior needs to shape up!? We act greedily, selfishly, proud, rude, and disrespectful towards God and towards others. What makes us think that we should be exempt from being disciplined? We shouldn't.
God used fire- Himself- to discipline and change the behavior of those who had turned their backs on him.
The beauty in this- God cares so much for His children. He LOVES them! He's HUGE and so detail oriented at the same time. He rules from His throne and intertwines Himself in our lives. HE LOVES US.

4. Past generations. A relative of Israel, Edom, was one of the groups that was going to be punished for their raging, unchecked anger and their stifled compassion that manifested itself in killing others. If you look back, Edom was descended from Esau. Esau had never truly forgiven Jacob (his brother) for stealing his father's blessing from him. Look how this unforgiveness was then handed down through generations and caused so much more sin to abound. For all of us parents out there and people who wish to be parents in the future, please, please examine your hearts for unresolved sin and get rid of it! If you don't, it will only serve to destroy your children and your descendants. You won't "take it with you to the grave." It will be passed on to them. Ick. I don't want my parents to do that to me and I don't want to do that to my children!

Whew. I was so blessed this morning by our CBS group. We had fantastic discussion, much learning and I had the overwhelming knowledge of the Lord being in our midst. How grateful I am for CBS!