Thoughts for another day

Feb. 28, 2014.

Today's verse:  Amos 8:11. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:   (KJV)

(Pls. read the above before you read further.  Thanks)

In the days before their exile and the destruction of both the Northern Kingdom and Judah), God sent the Jews a number of prophets to warn them of their sinful ways.  Yet, it went onto deaf ears and they sinned with gay abandon.  They worshipped the idols of the people they had vanquished before they settled in Canaan and they even immolated their children to molech.  They were the people of promise: of the covenants God had made with their ancestors, with Abraham and Moses, but they didn’t revere their God who had shown them His might, in bringing them out of captivity from Egypt and settling them in the land flowing with milk and honey.

Little did they bother to keep God’s covenant and His laws.  They had His Temple in their midst so they thought they could do as they wished for of course, they were the people of promise and what could possibly happen to them.  They forgot that the God who had assured of them of safety and prosperity was the very One they were offending; and scorning every one of His messengers.  They really had scant respect for God and His statutes and the ways of life He had made known to them. 

Which is why God warns them through the prophet Amos of their erroneous ways, threatening them with the most grievous of all punishments, viz. a famine, not of food or drink, but of His Word.  Now imagine this: if there’s no Word of God among us, what’re we supposed to do.  I know you, and I too, live on God’s Word.  I’m strong because He says I’m strong and He tells me wonderful things in His Word.  It’s His instruction manual for me and if His Word were not there I’d be like a fish without water and die.  To even think of such a situation is calamitous.  But has much changed in the world today?  There’re millions and millions of people out there who behave every bit like the erroneous Jews of the time of Amos and the situation is even more terrible.  Our work is to warn them and if we can’t tell the people, we, having mended our ways, must atleast pray for them so God in His mercy may spare them His wrath that is surely upon the world.