Therefore thus I will
do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O
Israel. – Amos 4:12 (ESV)
What precedes this
statement that we would think of as being rather ominous? Beginning in
the sixth verse of this chapter, and keeping in mind that the prophet and his
audience would have Israel’s historical narrative in mind as the framework
within which to understand what is happening in and to Israel, we hear their God
telling His covenant people that “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your
cities, and lack of bread in all your places” (4:6a). Now, we would
normally think of “clean teeth” as a good thing, but in this case it means, as
indicated by what follows it, that there was no food. The Creator God of
Israel had sent famine upon His covenant people. We have a tendency to
think that calamity will somehow always drive a person to seek God, but that is
simply our modern interpretation. Such thinking does not necessarily line
up with the example of Scripture. In the case of Israel, which we will
continue to see as we look through the remainder of this chapter, this did not
happen. After speaking of the cleanness of teeth and the lack of bread,
God says, “yet you did not return to Me” (4:6b).
We go on to find the
Lord saying “I also withheld the rain from you” (4:7a). He said that He
“would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would
have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither” (4:7b).
With this, it was also said that “two or three cities would wander to another
city to drink water, and would not be satisfied” (4:8a). In spite of
directing this upon His covenant people, God said “you did not return to Me”
(4:8b). Lest one think that the rain that came on one city or a
particular field could be construed as a blessing for the people of that city
or the owner of that particular field, the Lord continues on and says, “I
struck you with blight and mildew” (4:9a). Both blight and mildew result
from the presence of water, and serve to ruin crops. Accordingly, just in
case there were plants that escaped the blight and the mildew, the people are
reminded that “your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive
trees the locust devoured” (4:9b). Nothing was escaping God’s cursing,
even when there seemed to be a blessing at hand, and the Lord declares that
even then “you did not return to Me” (4:9c).
Things just go from
bad to worse for the people of the Creator God, as we see in the tenth verse
that “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your
young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench
of your camp go up into your nostrils” (4:10a). Yet surprisingly, or perhaps
not so surprisingly by this point in time, we find that the people “did not
return” (4:10b). Having done all of that, with no proper response on
behalf of these people that He had elected to be a witness of His power and
glory and blessings to all of the nations of the earth, and to serve as the
vehicle by which He would bless all the earth, we find God now saying, “I
overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were
as a brand plucked out of the burning” (4:11a). In this, they could have
seen themselves as Lot, who had been directly rescued by God from the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but they did not, and they “did not return”
(4:11b).
Why would all of this
be a cause for return? Would it not simply be a reason to become even
more angry at God, if indeed He was controlling and sending all of these
things? It should have been a cause for return, because it should have
been recognized by His covenant people for what it was, which was God’s
faithfulness to His promises to them. Those promises can be found in the
books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. In the twenty-eighth chapter of
Deuteronomy, we can read about the curses for disobedience that God promised to
bring about if His people were unfaithful to His plans and purposes for
them. Through Moses, the Lord said, “Cursed shall be your basket and your
kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of
your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock”
(28:16-18). Tying this to Amos, certainly, this will produce a cleanness
of teeth and a lack of bread. Reading on, we find that “The Lord will
send on your curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to
do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your
deeds” (28:20a). Why is this promised to happen? “Because you have
forsaken Me” (28:20b) is the clear answer, as God’s people would venture
outside of their covenant responsibilities and obligations, and fail to provide
the appropriate response of gratitude to the grace shown to them.
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