Hear This Word, O Israel

Amos proclaims that of all the families of the earth God chose Israel alone. Yet they sold the poor for silver and for a pair of sandals, and lived in luxury, with a palace for summer and another for winter. Their sin in silencing the prophets and making the Nazirites drink wine had risen up before God.

The greater the love, the deeper the pain of betrayal. Like Judas Iscariot and Peter, those who have received grace may still give way to despair or yield to fear, and then the heart passes over into betrayal. Israel’s judgment weighs more heavily than that of the other nations because what God had hoped for from them was so very special.

The purpose of judgment was not suffering but repentance, and so judgment itself was an act of love. Though the winter palace and the summer palace and the palaces of ivory fall, there are still those who cling on in Samaria and Damascus and barely escape with their lives. God’s people must never forget that judgment and Christ’s return are certain, and they need to live each day honestly and faithfully.