Virtual Bible Study: Amos 4

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 4. You can read it here.

Second Step: Lesson/Focus Text

“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel...prepare to meet your God. He who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness and treads the high places of the earth–the Lord God Almighty is his name.” Amos 4:12-13

Perking Up Your Ears to God

Bill Cosby has the funniest segment about children. He says children have “brain damage” which is shown in how many times you have to tell them to do something and how little they understand why they do what they do.

I can honestly say that he’s absolutely correct. I have told my son to do something(say, take out the dogs. Not something too hard to do). He won’t acknowledge me the first time or the second time. The third time he’ll say he will. But it won’t be til the fourth or the fifth time telling him(and usually threatening him) that he finally gets up and does it.

I’ve tried to figure him out. I’ve tried to understand. But I just can’t. Why does it take threats for him to finally turn around and do what I’ve asked him to do?

This is what God is thinking in this chapter of Amos, I’m sure. Amos repeats the phrase: “...yet you have not returned to me.” Not once...not twice...but FIVE TIMES! Five times God repeats this phrase to the people. Here’s what he says before. You can join in on the chorus if you like. The chorus is... “Yet you have not returned to me.”

- I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town.
CHORUS
- I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town but withheld it from another...People staggered from town to taown for water but did not get enough to drink.
CHORUS
- Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees.
CHORUS
- I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps.
CHORUS
- I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stink snatched from the fire.
CHORUS

See? God is talking to children! Very obstinate children too. Children who don’t understand or listen. Children who, even when they are punished, still don’t listen!

And God wants what every parent whose children are misbehaving wants. He wants them to admit they’re wrong! To say they’re sorry! To repent and turn from their ways. That’s what God is after. God wants a relationship with them again. He wants them to treat the poor right. To do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with their God. That’s what God wants. That’s what he’s after.

And God is not only mad but also very sad too. God is hurt in this chapter. Hurt over his own children’s actions toward other people. Hurt to see people at the margins of society trampled on by the rich and haughty. That is the spirit behind the first five verses of chapter 4. There is deep hurt and intense pain throughout these verses. It’s almost like God is saying: “Fine! Just do what you want! I don’t care!”

But God does care. And so cries out to them over and over again. He tries to get their attention time after time, only to be ignored. And so God decides to show Himself.

“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel...prepare to meet your God. He who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness and treads the high places of the earth–the Lord God Almighty is his name.”

God takes the same approach to get our attention too. When our minds and hearts are far from God, we find the consequences of our behavior close at hand. The natural ups and downs of life take their toll on us even more. A death in the family and we feel abandoned and lost. A relationship is broken and we feel hurt and rejected. We worship ourselves and hide away in our entertainment or in the latest craze. We sin and lose ourselves in our drug of choice.

But all the while God is calling us to repent. Calling us to see the error of our ways, to return to God and be saved. God shakes us up to get our attention, to see the relationship restored, and to push us in the direction we should be going.

Let us now be like obstinant children. Let us lift up our heads, hear God calling to us in the distance, and rise to meet the God who showers us and all the world with hugs and kisses.

Third Step: Questions to Ponder...
1. Where is God calling you to repentance? Where have you fallen off the path?

2. What events have happened in your life that have turned your attention back to God? What would it take to turn your attention back to God now?

3. How does knowing God from verses 12-13 change things in your life?

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...
Forgiving God, you call us back to yourself over and over again throughout our lives. Use the events in our life to remind us of you. Forgive us when we stumble off the path and embrace us in your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

See you next week!