Virtual Bible Study: Amos 3

Welcome to this week's Virtual Bible Study! Let's get started!

First Step: Read the Text. (This doesn't take too long). This Week’s Reading is Amos 1. You can read it here.

Second Step: Lesson/Focus Text

“The lion has roared–who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken– who can by prophesy?” Amos 3:8

Sand castles in the Shores of Life

A few weeks ago, my family went and had the time of our lives at a wedding! Jenny and Jon Steffenson, two friends of ours, were married outside Columbus here on the banks of the Yellowstone river. After the wedding and eating, my children busied themselves by making sandcastles in the sand along the shoreline. My kids got really into it, especially Matthew our middle child, who spent hours and hours building his castles.

Of course those castles would, with the rain the next day, all be a faded memory. The waters of the river will rise up and all their work, all their labor, will be washed away down the river. One day soon there will be nothing left of all the work and sweat they spent there one fateful day in July.

This is what Amos sees happening to Israel. Listen to what Amos says here:

- Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod and to the fortresses of Egypt... An enemy will overrun the land; he will pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses.
- On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.
- I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house;
- The houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished...

The Bible repeats this theme again and again. All the mansions of the world, all the gold and finery, everything that we treasure in this world will all be turned to dust. Everything we materially invest our lives in will return to the earth again. It came from there. It will return there someday. Our summer home and our winter home both will fall and be abandoned. There is nothing on this earth that will last. All will be torn down.

That is because these things don’t last. They don’t remain. The computer you bought today that you’ll treasure for the next couple years will soon become obsolete. The truck you bought and showed off to your friends will soon rust and break and be replaced by something newer. The clothes you bought will be eaten by moths. These are all just sand castles, made on the shores of life. They may remain for a time. They may last through your lifetime, but they will not live past you and at your death they will pass into the hands of another, leaving you just as poor as the next man.

The thing that lasts is the love and compassion you show others. That remains! That lasts! A single action you take will be remembered for years to come. And that action will inspire other actions and other actions down the road. Until you’re never sure where the line of action started or where the love originated from. It’s just there! “Who started that tradition,” they will say. And they will never know. For the love that was given and passed and given and passed sustains others long after you’ve passed through the years.

This love remains. This love lasts. This love will be around long after the people have passed away and gone their own separate ways. The homes these people lived in will all be owned by others or demolished or abandoned. The possessions they clung to will have passed into the hands of others or be turned over in some garbage pit. The treasures they cherished will all be garbage. But the love shared one to another will last. This is the treasure Jesus spoke of in Matthew.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

God in Amos challenges us. In his judgement against Israel we are called to repent. To repent of our own materialism. To repent of our own consumerism. And to realize that in the end all the things we surround ourselves with are just sand castles made in the shores of life. Amen!

Third Step: Questions to Ponder...
1. How much stuff do you really need to live life? Look around your home: What do you really need?

2. Is there anything you are working toward that is pointless? Or whose novelty will fade with time? How could that money and time be channeled in more productive ways?

3. What treasures are you storing up for yourself here on earth? What would happen to it all if you died today? What treasures might you store up for yourself in heaven?

Fourth Step: Email(if you like) your responses. You can just reply to this email or email it to craznluv@msn.com.

Fifth Step: Close with prayer...
Eternal God, we live in a temporal place where the only certain thing is change. May we rest in your changeless grace and love, reaching out to our neighbor in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

See you next week!