JUST FOR LADIES – By Camille Stahl
Today’s Passage – Amos 6 – 9; Obadiah 1 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)
(Second Milers also read – 2 John, 3 John, Jude; Psalms 111 – 115; Proverbs 23)
Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Ephesians 4:32
Read the “0923 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
“We” Did It!
“Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?” (Amos 6:13)
Here we see God mourning over the fact that He is going to have to judge His chosen people because they are at ease. They’re comfortable and laid back, not looking to God. They believe they are doing fine the way things are. They only look to God for what He can do for them to make them even more comfortable. After all, they’re God’s chosen people, right? Well, yes. But look at what He told them here in verse 8.
“The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.” (Amos 6:8)
That meant that despite Jacob’s seed being His chosen people, He hated what they had become. God tells Israel that despite their status as His chosen people, He was going to deliver them into the hands of their enemies.
Because they weren’t looking to God, the children of Israel were looking to ‘other gods’. “Ye which rejoice in a thing of naught” – In your idols: for an idol is nothing in the world.
They were also boasting about doing great things in their own might. “Have we not taken to us horns” – We have arrived to power and dignity by our strength. Horns were the symbols of power and authority.
My question is, if God was displeased with Israel, is He not displease with what’s going on today? We too are pushing for a Godless country. We are enticed by the lusts of the flesh that Satan puts before us. When God’s judgment comes, we shake our fists at Him, yes even Christians. When something great is accomplished, we take all the credit.
Not too long ago, the Seaside Board Walk burnt down for the second time. A few business owners stated, “Why is God doing this to us?” It has since been rebuilt and they are advertising what a beautiful job they did rebuilding the Board Walk. And there are many other examples.
God is still in the business of afflicting the comfortable. When we are at ease in Zion, He sometimes has to shake us up with righteous affliction. To put it in today’s language, sometimes God has to shake our world to wake us up.
Thank You
1 John 5:13
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