Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Amos+004

Amos 4 (ESV)

⁶ “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

⁷ “I also withheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I 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;
⁸ so two or three cities would wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

⁹ “I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹⁰ “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;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹¹ “I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹² “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

¹³ For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
and declares to man what is his thought,
who makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

REFLECTION:

• The prophet criticized the ignorance of the Israelites with five “yet you did not return to me”: 1. Clean teeth means lack of food (6); 2. No rain causes them to suffer drought, because the main source of water in Israel is rain (7-8); 3. Blight and mildew refer to the hot wind blowing from the desert that decays and destroys plants (9); 4. The severity of the pestilence combined with the war and the corpses are all over the ground (10); 5. The overthrow of the town (11) has a retrospect of the great earthquake (1:1). If these five disasters come upon a nation that knows God but sins, the warning is very clear. However, God said the Israelites “did not return to me.”
• No matter what method God uses (by famine, drought, mildew, locusts, plague, or war) to warn the people, they ignore it. Since the Israelites did not accept God’s reminder, they must face God in judgment (12). They won’t be able to maintain this attitude for long, and they have to face the God that they refuse to obey, the God who tells them to take care of the poor. On that day, each of us will face God and give an account to God. Are you ready to meet God?

PRAYER:

Father, I am a stubborn and rebellious child. I am willing to repent, serve You faithfully, and be ready to meet You face to face and give an account to You.

HYMN:

Once Again – youtu.be/FkK4YHy-wNg