When was the last time you read the book of Amos? If you haven’t for a while, now would be a good time to relook at it. The message to Israel then, is the same message to us, now, for the same reasons.
Israel’s Problem:
In a time of stability and prosperity, Israel had slipped into idolatry, extravagance, and corruption. As a result, Amos addressed the people in their apostasy, who were caught up in social injustice, and warned them; God will soon bring judgment against them. The required response was to leave the hypocrisy of their apostate ‘solemn assemblies’ (5:21) and seek Him. In doing so, God would remember His covenant with them and restore a faithful remnant.
The Shared Problem:
The starting point of the problem, for Israel, was as it is for us. We ‘forget’ Who did what; Who saved us and brought us to this point by fighting battles on our behalf and Who made a way where there was no way (2:9-11; 3:1b). For this reason, Israel (and we have) committed great sin (5:12c), wandering far from the truth, thus God, trusting in their (our) own ability (6:13), wealth (5:11-12; 6:4-6), and worst of all, other ‘gods’ (5:5), to the point, they (we too) no longer want to hear the actual voice of God (2:12, 5:10b; 7:10b, 12-13, 16). In other words, they/we are distracted by every other thing, but God, when we should, in fact, be consumed by God alone.
Due to distraction, they (as we have) rendered themselves/ourselves deaf and blind to what God was doing and saying (3:6-8), to the point of no longer knowing right from wrong (3:10). Furthermore, God said, because you didn’t want to hear My voice, a famine will come upon you – a famine where My voice will not be heard among you, no matter how badly you want to hear it (8:11-12).
As a result of ‘not returning to God’ (4:6b, 8b, 9b, 10b, 11b) after many warnings to do so, through so many separate events (4:6-11), including famine, drought, plant disease, locust, and pestilence/plague, the prophet announces: “Prepare to meet your God” (4:12). The former served the purpose that Israel, and us, would ‘return to the Lord’ (4:6, 11), that they, and us, would be saved, ‘as a brand, plucked out of the burning’ (4:11). A direct NT reference to that is found in Jude, “save others by snatching them out of the fire” (1:23a).
The testing God inflicted (4:6-8), and struck (4:9-10) Israel with, was for the purpose that He would overthrow them (4:11) while in sin/deception. This came at a time where Israel was deceived into thinking they were secure (6:1) and in right standing with God, even desiring the ‘Day of the Lord,’ But God says, ‘Woe to you…’ There will be no escaping the things to come. When you ‘think’ you have avoided one crisis, another will be added, and then another again, and again and again (5:18-20; 9:1-4).
The ‘Day of the Lord’ refers to the coming Tribulation, reserved for unbelieving Israel, and the apostate-church, as well as the rest of the remaining unbelieving world (Rev. 6-19). Still, and despite the spiritual condition of Israel, and the apostate-church, God continues to call out to the remnant: “Seek Me and live” (5:4b, 6a, cf. Rev. 3:20). “Seek good, and not evil that you may live” (5:14).
Throughout the literal judgment of conquering and captivity, God shook ancient Israel, and will again (Heb. 12:26-27), that a remnant would be separated and saved. Amos makes the point clear, GOD DID THE SHAKING, as recorded in 3:6b, “Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it?” The question is rhetorical, with an obvious yes! God did it, and He is about to do it again!
In the not too distant future, this prophecy will find its ultimate fulfilment, applied to modern-day Israel, and the apostate church, for the same reason!
The plea, now, for us, is to forsake the ‘solemn assembly’ (the apostate-church cf. Rev. 3:16) who know not the voice of God and to ‘seek Him’ that we can be with Him. Or else, “Prepare to meet Him,” through His judgments by way of the coming Tribulation (Rev. 6-19).
Remember: “The Lord will judge His people, first (1 Pet. 4:7), for the purpose of separation and salvation, for, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:30b-31).
Do you remember at the beginning of the year we prophesied 2020 would be a year of testing, shaking, and separating? In case you missed it, here is the prophecy:
The Year 2020
When thinking about the year 2020 and what God might do the natural tendency is to lean towards the implication of 2020 vision. In fact, I did some research on what others were saying and sure enough, I found a bunch on ‘prophecies’ on just that. Not surprisingly, yet not wanting to dismiss the idea altogether, I searched the scriptures and found two 20:20 verses with an application of seeing.
Exodus 20:20 and John 20:20 are the verses of interest. The first (Exodus) follows the giving of the Law (vv. 3-17) where Israel ‘saw’ the thunder and lightning and heard the sounds of the trumpet coming out of the mountain (v. 18), and, they were terrified (v. 19, 19:16). Because of their fear, they stood far off (v. 18) believing, if God spoke to them directly, they would die (v. 19). Therefore, God could not speak to them directly, but through Moses (v. 20).
The words which God spoke instantly caught my attention: “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The statement in itself is interesting where God is saying, through Moses, do not fear… yet, do fear! Said another way: Do not be afraid, but be afraid? The second use of the word ‘fear’ directly relates to the consequence of disobedience or, breaking the Law, while the first is directed at the present by way of an introduction to the Law. Said again, yet another way: Do not be afraid of hearing from Me but, do be afraid of My judgment against sin. What a timeless message for all! When in right standing with God, there is nothing to fear outside of being in rebellion to God. Sadly, Israel did not get the message and their initial fear of God was short-lasting (Exodus 32) and the consequences followed closely behind, 3000 died (32:28).
At this point, some might be thinking, this applies to the Law, and we are not under the Law, but under ‘grace’ (Rom. 6:15). However, 9 of the 10 commandments are repeated in the NT with even greater demands. The only one missing is that relating to the sabbath. Therefore, the ‘grace’ argument carries no weight, furthermore, similar warnings to that of the Exodus account are given in the NT (1 Thess. 5:19, Heb. 10:31). So, the point and purpose are, 1). None of us can keep the Law (Isa. 53:6, Rom. 3:23, 5:12), and 2). Confessing to be a Christian under the age of grace does not give you a free pass, or a license to sin (Rom 6:1-2, 15).
This brings us to John 20:20. When Jesus appeared to the disciples, He started out by saying, Peace be with you (v. 19). The announcement is similar to that of God’s in Exodus 20:20: “Do not be afraid.” Jesus repeated this saying in verse 21 after confirming, it was Him (v. 20). In verse 20 the disciples ‘saw’ Jesus which made them glad, causing them to draw near. The difference between the disciples and the Israelites is drawing near, against, standing far off. Those that draw near, remain, and those that don’t, won’t’ A similar example of this is given with Peter, following Jesus from afar off (Mark 14:54) and subsequently, he failed to remain faithful during the time of testing (Matt. 26:69-75).
The writer of Hebrews narrows in on the same idea, referencing the term ‘draw near’ 6-times (4:6, 7:19, 25, 10:1, 22, and 11:6) in context of the day of Christ drawing near (10:25). Moreover, the writer draws a direct line from the Israelites who failed to draw near, because of disobedience (4:6), therefore they did not benefit from the covenant (4:2), which is to say, neither will anyone today get away with disobedience. The writer of Hebrews clearly disqualifying any argument against the OT not being relevant today and that what God did to the Israelites, He won’t do to us because we are living in an age of grace. Every dispensation experienced God’s grace, and grace is always followed by judgment, which will come in the form of the Great Tribulation for this generation.
In light of the coming ‘testing’ John also ‘saw’ Jesus (Rev. 1:12) in His returning state to ‘show’ him the things to come (1:3). When John saw Jesus, he was terrified (1:17). What John saw (vv. 12-16) was similar to that of the Exodus account. However, Jesus comforted John with the same words “Fear Not” (v. 17). John had no need to fear God due to being in right relationship with Him by drawing and remaining near. However, those who are far off and in disobedience, have every reason to be utterly terrified, and they soon will be (Rev. 6:12-17).
In sum, 2020 is relevant to ‘seeing’ and applicable to ‘drawing near’ that you/we may remain faithful, and benefit from the covenant, particularly in a time of testing. When we consider where we are in the biblical calendar today, I believe we will soon see some of the prophesied birth pangs Jesus warned about (Matt. 24:8), even this year leading into the coming Great Tribulation. Those who have not drawn near to God will grow cold and lose heart; they will depart due to disobedience, and they will be destroyed.
Jesus warned against this in the letters to the seven churches (Rev. 2-3). While those who remain faithful during testing (Rev. 2:10) by keeping His word, they alone are taken out of the way (Rev. 3:10), leaving the rest behind to suffer the judgments. (Rev. 6-19). The judgment of the Israelites killed 3000 due to idolatry (Exodus 32). The judgments during the Tribulation (Rev. 6-19) will kill numbers in the billions for the same reason; idolatry in the form of worshipping the Antichrist (Rev. 13-14, 20). To counter, the angel of Revelation 14 announces: ‘Fear God and worship Him, alone’ (14:7), which takes us back to Exodus 20 “You shall have no other gods before Me” (v. 3), following with the same in verses 4 and 5 which are talking about not having images, and not bowing down or serving any false gods, which is exactly what the antichrist will demand (Rev. 13).
In conclusion: 2020 will be a time of testing, where the people of God will receive greater revelation as to the nature of God. It will be a time of separating the true from the false. Those that fear God, they will draw near, and they will remain obedient, and they will be shortly removed from the earth (Rev. 4:1). Those who do not fear God, they will remain in their disobedience and they will remain on earth to endure the Great Tribulation where they will have one last opportunity to get right with God, yet under intense persecution, unlike anything, the earth has ever seen before, or will again (Matt. 24:21)
The following is an updated prophecy:
COVID-19 Prophecy – 15th March 2020
Last week, I asked God, where is this (COVID-19) all going? I immediately heard back, ‘This will pass as quickly as it came, for it is a wakeup call. If My people do not wake up after this, nothing will wake them up, and the next stop will be the great tribulation.’ In other words, this plague is a ‘warning shot’ designed to turn people around this side of the coming seven-year event. I strongly suspect, however, most will not. Although there is a lot of noise about prayer currently, I am betting as soon as things return to normal, it will be back to ‘business as usual’ for the lukewarm church. Time will soon tell. Either-way, the pale horse (sickness) of the tribulation is near, chomping at the bit, impatiently waiting for its time and release (Rev. 6:8, cf. Zech. 6:2-3, 7).
