Amos 9 (2)

Pray Psalm 52.1-4.
Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?
The goodness of God endures continually.
Your tongue devises destruction,
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
You love evil more than good,
Lying rather than speaking righteousness.
Selah
You love all devouring words,
You deceitful tongue.

Sing Psalm 52.1-4.
(Warrington: Give to Our God Immortal Praise)
Why do the mighty boast in sin? God’s love endures, it knows no end!
They with their tongues vain boasts repeat, and like a razor, work deceit.

Men more than good in evil delight, and lies prefer to what is right.
They utter words both harsh and strong with their devouring, deceitful tongue.

Read Amos 9.1-4; meditate on verses 2-4.

Preparation
1. What would be Israel’s response to the coming judgment of God?

2. What was God’s disposition toward them?

Meditation
These verses depict a scene of chaos, desperation, and terror. As the Assyrians and Egyptians, having surrounded the people of Samaria and Israel, drew the net tighter, escape would have been everyone’s most pressing desire.

But they would have been wrong in thinking they might escape from the enemies around them. They would need to escape, not from nations, but from God to avoid the judgment that was falling on them. God is sovereign over the nations. He was bringing ancient foes to destroy the people of Israel who had not repented and turned to the LORD. And though they might flee to the most unlikely places—hell, heaven, the top of Mt. Carmel, the bottom of the sea, even in surrender and captivity to their enemies—God would search them out to bring on them the judgment He had promised long before Jeroboam led them in rebellion against Judah and God.

This was the course they had taken, fully knowledgeable of God’s warnings and threats. They silenced the prophets who called them to repent, and they continued their chosen course of pagan religion and lawless behavior. And now the cup of God’s wrath would be poured out against them in full, to the dregs.

God would take them, bring them down, search and seize them, and command creation to attack them and the sword to destroy them. God is sovereign. His grace reaches to every creature. Those who deny and spurn Him will know just what He promised and they chose: harm, not good.

Pray for the lost people in your community and your Personal Mission Field.

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
The bad news is bad. But the good news is good.

When one is displeasing to the LORD, fleeing from the wrath to come is not possible.
When one is pleasing to the LORD, there is nowhere we can flee from His love and care.

“Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your Presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me,’
even the night shall be light about me;
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You” (Ps. 139.7-12).

We are ever known and ever loved by God; regardless of what, when, why, or where we are.

“I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deut. 31.6; Heb. 13.5).

As always, we have options. We can choose the love of God, or His wrath.
“Though they dig into hell…climb up to heaven…hide themselves on top of Carmel…hide from My sight…go into captivity…I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good” (Amos 9.2-4).

Voices, voices,
The world’s and His,
Choices, choices,
That’s all there is.
(Annette Adams, Written with Rhyme and Reason, 2003)

“…I have set before you life and death…therefore choose life…that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life…” (Deut. 30.19, 20).

Reflection
1. Jesus is Immanuel: God with Us. How do you shelter in His Presence throughout the day?

2. Whom will you encourage today with the promise of Jesus’ Presence?

3. How will you prepare today to make the right choices?

That which makes escape impossible and ruin sure, is, that God will set his eyes upon them for evil, not for good. Wretched must those be on whom the Lord looks for evil, and not for good. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Amos 9.2-4

Pray Psalm 52.5-9.
Pray for those who today are enemies of the Lord, remembering that you too at one time were His enemy (Rom. 5.10). Pray that God will confront and convict them, and that many will open their hearts to the Gospel.

Sing Psalm 52.5-9.
(Warrington: Give to Our God Immortal Praise)
God will forever break them down, uproot, and cast them to the ground!
He from their safety tears them away, no more to know the light of day.

The righteous see and laugh and fear, and say, “Behold, what have we here?
Such are all who at God conspire, and wealth and evil ways desire.”

But as for me may I be seen in God an olive ever green!
Ever in God, most kind and just, shall I with joy and gladness trust!

Thanks evermore to our Savior be raised! His faithfulness be ever praised!
Here with Your people, loving God, I wait upon Your Name, so good!

T. M. and Susie Moore

If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.