◄ What Does Amos 3:7 Mean? ►

Our God is a God of love and mercy, but He is also a God of justice and righteous judgement and when His people who are called by His name are sinful, idolatrous, disobedient, and rebellious, the inevitable result is their justified punishment.

The prophet Amos opens his book with a roar of judgement against several of the idolatrous nations that surrounded Israel. Specific judgements are made against Damascus and Gaza - and against Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab.

But following His pronouncement of wrath against these sin-ridden nations, the Lord proclaims His justified punishment on Judah and Israel - for His own people had broken His covenant, and His chosen inheritance had spurned God's goodness and grace.

Amos details the reason for God's judgement on both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel which amounted to religious, legal, social, moral, and political apostasy, where the intolerable oppression of poor people and a violation of their covenant with God, had to be addressed.

The Lord had revealed Himself to His covenant nation through Moses.. and yet they ignored His laws and His decrees despite His continuing blessings upon them. The punishment of Israel, then as now, is inevitable. As a nation, they had collectively violated His Word and rejected His offer of salvation by grace - through faith in Jesus Christ, their Messiah and King.

But God is a God of loving-kindness, great-goodness, and generous grace. He is long-suffering and full of mercy as well as being holy, righteous, just, and a principled judge. And Amos detailed certain principles that any one of us can understand.

He explained that two people cannot walk together unless they are in agreement. He said that a lion will not roar unless it sees its prey and starts to pounce. He points out that a bird will not get caught in a trap unless it has been baited and that people only begin to tremble and fear when the trumpet of war has been sounded.

Amos also reminded them that it is only as the Lord permits... that disaster eventually comes to a wicked city, before finally declaring: "Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants, the prophets."

God does nothing in history without first divulging His hidden plans... by informing us of the end from the beginning. The Scriptures, both Old and New, are packed full of such prophetic voices who reveal what will shortly take place... and we would all do well to pay careful attention to their pronouncements. Some have been fulfilled but there are many that are yet outstanding.

The roar of God's judgement upon a God-hating, Christ-rejecting, sinful world is still being sounded through a myriad of prophetic Scriptures. Indeed, Scripture warns that many false prophets will arise in these last days and doctrines of demons will infiltrate many church fellowships. We should therefore be increasingly careful when extra-biblical 'prophecies' are proclaimed by self-appointed 'prophets' in this present evil age.

It is good to be watchmen on the wall who warn the ungodly about the coming wrath of God - which Scripture calls 'the Time of Jacob's Trouble'. Let us seek discernment from the Lord, knowing that He has revealed to us all we need for life and godliness in His written Word, for "the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants, the prophets." But let us be wary of those self-proclaimed, latter-day prophets, that proclaim 'knowledge' that is adding to, subtracting from, or altering God's final Word, about whom we are so frequently warned in the Word of God.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your prophetic Word and the truths that You have shared with us through Your servants, the prophets. Thank You for Your incarnate Word - the Lord Jesus Christ. Help me to read and understand all that is going on in these last days of the Church dispensation. I pray that I may be one that sounds the warning of the coming wrath of God on this Christ-rejecting, sinful world, and point them to the Word of God which contains all that we need for life and godliness. In Jesus' name I pray, AMEN.