Plainly Speaking
Title: What do you Expect?
by Karl J. Forehand
What do you Expect?
After the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, I
called a prayer meeting at our church. At first I though I would talk about
comfort and God’s provision, etc.; but God led me somewhere totally different…
In our Sunday School class, we have been studying the book of Amos. Each
week, we are amazed at the similarities between Israel and the United States.
In Amos’ day, Israel was made up of two nations, the Northern and Southern
kingdoms. Although, they split over a disagreement, they both enjoyed great
prosperity and days of peace with their enemies. In their comfort, they
forgot their first love and began to abuse their worship and began to practice
many terrible things like temple prostitution and idol worship. They were
unrepentant and independent with no room for God in their lives.
Amos addressed both nations with the following words, “Woe to those who
are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria,
The distinguished men of the foremost of nations, To whom the house of Israel
comes.” (Amos 6:1).
I don’t know about your country, but we are “at
ease,” spiritually, in the United States. God never gave the command to
be at ease, yet we have assumed we can “coast” in our prosperity and blessing.
We have misused our liberty and abused our freedom. All across our nation
and our world there is apathy.
We see apathy in our churches. Most
churches are simply playing religious games. We go through the motions
of Christianity and never real bother about the Great Commission and the
Great Commandments. Make no mistake about it though, the reason our churches
are ill and the reason our nation is ill is because of Christians that have
shifted into neutral.
We often see ourselves as “distinguished men”
in the “foremost nations.” One reporter called us the “last superpower.”
Israel is still God’s chosen nation and possibly the only reason God has
blessed other nations is because we have blessed Israel. Praise the Lord
that He is rich in mercy.
Our nation is sick, our churches are anemic and Christians are apathetic
and we are still holding out our hands for God’s blessings.
Amos went on to say, “Do horses run on rocks? Or does one plow them with
oxen?” (Amos 6:12a). In other words, we can’t keep doing what we are doing
and expect different results. We can’t continue to do things that don’t
match with God’s economy. Just like you can’t plow a field of rocks, we
can’t keep ignoring God and expect his blessing. We also can’t expect Him
to withhold judgment for our land(s).
About 50 years after Amos’ message, the Northern Kingdom was overrun.
Not long after, Judah was utterly destroyed and it’s people taken into captivity.
God is not a grim reaper, but He is also not a spiritual Santa Claus. I
wasn’t ever a perfect boy, but “Santa Claus” still came every year. God
is merciful, but He is also Truth. He will only put up with blasphemy,
superficial worship, insincere service and apathetic hearts for so long.
Amos said something very relevant to us, “This is what he showed me: The
Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb
line in his hand. And the LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos?" "A plumb
line," I replied. Then the Lord said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among
my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. "The high places of Isaac
will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my
sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam." I believe God has a plumb
line set against his people, not just the United States. I think He is
seeing that we are not “true.”
What is God’s prescription? It is the
same as it always has been. It is “But unless you repent, you too will
all perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). We have taken our liberty and our freedom and
abused it. It is time for us to repent (turn) today. Before we pray for
the victims and survivors, let us pray that God will change our hearts NOW,
before it is too late.
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