Four-years ago on this date I was reflecting on the global pandemic that was spreading over the world. The LORD kept bringing a passage of Scripture to mind. It was Amos 4. The context is the prophet Amos proclaiming the word of the LORD against the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Soon the Northern Kingdom would be taken into exile by the Assyrians. The refrain in this chapter is the part that stood out to me and still rings in my ears today. The refrain is: “Yet you have not returned to Me.” Yet, you have not returned back to the LORD God! Look at verses 6-11:
“Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
And lack of bread in all your places;
Yet you have not returned to Me,”
Says the Lord.“I also withheld rain from you,
When there were still three months to the harvest.
I made it rain on one city,
I withheld rain from another city.
One part was rained upon,
And where it did not rain the part withered.
So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water,
But they were not satisfied;
Yet you have not returned to Me,”
Says the Lord.“I blasted you with blight and mildew.
When your gardens increased,
Your vineyards,
Your fig trees,
And your olive trees,
The locust devoured them;
Yet you have not returned to Me,”
Says the Lord.“I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt;
Your young men I killed with a sword,
Along with your captive horses;
I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils;
Yet you have not returned to Me,”
Says the Lord.“I overthrew some of you,
Amos 4:6-11
As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
And you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning;
Yet you have not returned to Me,”
Says the Lord.
God tells Israel that He brought “cleanness of teeth” (hunger to all the cities). God says He withheld rain. He brought blight and mildew that destroyed the crops. What was not destroyed by the blight was consumed by the locust. He says He sent plaques similar to that which were put on Egypt in the days of Exodus. People were killed and cities were destroyed. Yet, Israel had not returned back to God.
In verse 12 God says to the northern Kingdom. “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
They did and they were exiled to Assyria! They did not return to God. While all this was happening, the Southern Kingdom of Judah was watching it and doing the exact same sins. In Jeremiah 3:6-10 we read these words:
“The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: ‘Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,’ says the Lord.”
Judah had watched Israel get exiled for the exact same sins as her sister, Israel. Instead of learning from the example of Israel and repenting and turning back to God, Judah committed the exact same sins!
The Apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth these words in regards to the Old Testament.
“Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:6-11).
The events in the Bible are examples to us in the church. It is real history involving real people who are just like you and me. They deal with the same issues, just in a different culture and time period.
I wrote on this day in 2020 after thinking about these verses in Amos and some from Jeremiah that we as the church have not learned the lessons that were taught to those in Israel the easy way, so now God is calling us to wake-up again. To be the BODY OF CHRIST. To shake us (me included) out of apathy and out of complacency. It is not easy (I would be the first to raise my hand), but critical at this point in history. Let us pray that we never get to the same point as Jeremiah 15:1 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth.'” Jeremiah was told earlier in the book to stop praying for the nation of Judah. God had made His choice to kick them out of the land to Babylon (just as the northern Kingdom was kicked out to Assyria). Jeremiah 14:11 says, “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not pray for this people, for their good.'” They needed to learn their lesson outside of the land of Judah, it was for their good (well-being, prosperity).
The Body of Christ, whether in the United States of America or around the world needs to take this time, this season to wake-up and return to God. Not just with our hands and wallets, but with our whole heart and being. The Lord of Hosts is His name! We serve the King of kings and the Lord of lords! Let us (me included) not take it lightly!
Does our heart, our mind, our all need to be surrendered back to Jesus Christ, today? Is God saying to the church in America and the world: Yet, you have not returned to Me? Let us turn back to Jesus Christ. Keep our eyes, ears, minds, and whole being fixed on Jesus Christ, the Author and the Finisher of our faith!