Seek Me and Live

I believe it is by God’s grace that the word Amos preached can be proclaimed in our own time. I say this because Amos’s cry, announcing judgment on the people of Israel for their sins, casts fresh light on the wars now being fought between nations, and it has given us the chance to look back on our own sins.

Amos proclaimed that God’s fierce judgment would fall because of the sins of Israel and its neighbors, and his heart was an urgent plea that they repent before judgment came. Before bringing great affliction on Israel, God made Amos announce judgment on Aram, and then caused him to carry the word that judgment was coming on Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and even Judah, and that they must repent. The reason so many nations come under judgment is the sin they have committed. The Gentile nations could at least plead that they did not serve God, but Judah and Israel had broken God’s law and fallen into idolatry. Having seen and heard the judgment of the other nations, Israel should have repented, as the people of Nineveh did when Jonah brought them the word of judgment. Instead, the Israelites mocked and tormented Amos, the very man who warned them.

Israel believed that God would help them no matter what, so however sharply Amos exposed their sins, they would not listen. Held captive by the thought that they were the chosen people, they had wrongly assumed that God would pour out his judgment on their enemies.

Are we not making that same mistake today? Our country is doing so well now; surely there won’t be a war? I go to church, so God will protect me. Every week I come to worship and give my offering, and I pray every day, so he will drive away every evil spirit and every wicked person. If that is what we are telling ourselves, we are no different from Israel, clinging to the belief that they were the chosen people.

Israel watched other nations hear the word of judgment and thought it was none of their concern. If we, in the same way, look on the wars in Ukraine and in Israel as someone else’s business, we will come under the wrath of God, just as judgment came upon Israel and Judah.

When the word of judgment went out to Aram, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and Judah, Israel should have examined their own sins and repented. Had they not lingered in the place of sin until God’s wrath came, had they truthfully confessed their sins, repented, and turned back, God would have withdrawn the judgment he had announced through Amos. Now we must hear Amos’s word of judgment as a word addressed to us, and our nation and our people must repent before God. We have not returned thanks to God for the grace that gave us a life of plenty, and we have not obeyed his command to take the gospel to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. If we repent of every one of these sins, God will turn away his wrath.

Rather than becoming a stumbling block to God’s work, like Amaziah, who mocked Amos for proclaiming judgment, may you praise God and take part in his purposes. I hope you will hear the word as God’s word, do what is good, fulfill the task God has given you, and so live in his grace.

Watercourse Church publishes these books and gives them away free of charge, and I thank the members of our church who have given themselves to bringing out this seventeenth volume of expository sermons. The people of Watercourse Church are praying earnestly that all into whose hands this book comes will open their hearts and receive Jesus Christ.

February 2024
Pastor Cho Chun-sook, Watercourse Church