May 9, 2011 – Amos 3-4

I wrote a few days back about the natural disasters and how they might be related to God trying to bring us back to Him.  The idea that we are in control, that we are Gods, is easily defeated by the ease in which mother nature can completely destroy us at any time with very little effort.  Chapter 4 has the same feel and the same increasing intensity that I talked about then.  People appear to be turning away from God as these things increase in intensity, falling back on the reasoning that a loving God would not allow these things.  Here we see God talking about the ailments that were brought upon Israel and the fact that they did not turn back from God.  “O Israel! And since I will deal thus with you, prepare to meet you God.”  4:12  In my scenario of increasing natural disasters, what does the natural disaster that equals “meet your God” look like.  I don’t want to know, in all honesty.  This trend we see of the lack of morality and religion is not something new in history and not something new for God.  He understands exactly what we are doing better than we do and He will deal with it in ways that He has already showed us and told us about.  He lets us know that the only way is to turn to Him and He is longing for that end.  We are not eager to listen or to obey and so we bring things upon ourselves that will make us turn our heads.  But we are a stubborn and hard headed bunch.  Look at the list of disasters that befell Israel before they met their God.  Watch the increasing intensity of disasters with an understanding that there is only One Way, Truth and Life.