Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Then the
Sovereign LORD showed me another vision. In it I saw a basket filled with ripe fruit. “What do you see, Amos?” he
asked. I
replied, “A basket full of ripe fruit.” Then
the LORD said, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment
again. Amos 8:1 - 2 (NLT)
Amos, prophet
from the Southern kingdom of Judah, had been sent by the Lord to the Northern
Samaritan king Amaziah, to announce God’s judgment on Israel for their constant
wickedness. Amos presented three visions
of judgment, but each time God delayed bringing the hammer down!
King Amaziah
railed against Amos; the prophet stood his ground. It’s hard to imagine this as a standoff; that
presumes there are two nearly equal opponents.
Amaziah was a king with an army; Amos was a poor country boy who had a
few fruit trees and sheep. This was not
going to be a fair fight!
King Amaziah didn’t stand a Chance
Amaziah was merely
the king of Samaria; Amos was the prophet of Jehovah, owner of Samaria and the
rest of everywhere else in the universe!
Summer Fruit
God directed
his prophet’s attention to a basket of summer fruit. The word for “ripe” comes from “cutting” (as
in ready
for harvest). The word for “punishment”
comes from “end” (as in no more time). The two words sound alike in Hebrew. The point is made in picture (the basket) and
sounds (of similar words)….Amaziah, Israel, your time is up!
Sometimes Quite Uncomfortable
God’s Word has
a way of making one quite uncomfortable at times…a lot of times! Have you ever had that awful sense, down deep
in the pit of your stomach that Scripture is speaking to you? (Well….only every moment of my life!).
But, by
comparison with God, my life is lived in absolute wickedness. I think one of the reasons I gravitate to
using a daily devotional guide like the Book of Common Prayer, is that it
always begins with confession:
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.
I need this
every day. It’s hard to go six minutes
without a thought that should have gone “un-thought”!
My lack of
doing that which I should do is awfully like Amaziah’s group…content to let the
world go by while I do my religious stuff and feel good about it.
Yesterday we went out Christmas shopping and
there was that homeless guy…again….. I
gave him the cup of coffee that the drive thru had messed up. Hey, it was still hot, and I wasn’t going to drink
it anyway; and why waste a $2 latte?
Ooooh, that’s real spiritual, Russell!
When’s the last time I got up close and personal with meeting the need
of human touch?
Where are you going with this?
Before this
just becomes confessional unleashed, let me make a relevant point:
Amaziah had no
idea his world was about to come crashing down around him. And none of us has any assurance that ours
won’t do the same. With all the hurry up
and intensity of the Christmas season, it’s easy to get lost in tasks and tinsel
while the summer fruit basket over-ripens.
Try to keep in mind
that, no matter what the calendar or your To-Do list says, as a follower of Jesus
Christ you are on a mission….always! Giving
out a “throw-away” latte isn’t evil, but it isn’t exactly missional either!
Today
No comments:
Post a Comment