TRUTH
CANNOT BE SILENCED
Scriptural
Text: Amos
7:10-17
Treated wrongly, some things will not simply go away. This is the case with an undisciplined
child, an untreated wound and with sin.
Sin needs the treatment of the gospel.
In
today’s passage, Amos went before King Jeroboam II and Amaziah the high
priest and warned them about God’s impending wrath. Both the king and
priest found this news unpleasant and told Amos to take his prophesies
elsewhere, namely, to Judah. Amos responded by asserting that he had
nothing to profit from warning Israel nor was he prophesying out
of occupational routine. Amos then proceeded to speak out judgment against
Amaziah and Israel. We can learn 3 lessons from today’s
text.
1. Many ‘respect’
God’s Word so long as it does not interfere in their lives.
Notice
that King Jeroboam and Amaziah did not challenge Amos’ identity as a
prophet nor the content of his message.
They merely told him to go elsewhere with it as it was not welcome in
Jeroboam’s kingdom
of Israel.
This
situation is not unique. It has been
played out several times in the bible.
Look at Queen Esther’s initial response to Mordecai when he
asked her to help stop Haman’s evil plot to commit genocide against the
Jews. She too did not dispute that
there was a plot or that it was heinous.
She merely pointed out that according to the palace rules, appearing
uninvited before the king would result in death. Another familiar episode would be that of
King Saul and his men when they faced Goliath. The latter defied the name of God day and
night and no one stepped up to defend God’s honour. The army did not dispute their God’s
good name. They just rationalized
their lack of defence as being justified on account of Goliath’s great
size.
In
today’s world, God’s Word is respected as the Holy Scriptures of
Christianity but many feel that it becomes relevant only on Sundays and is
definitely inconvenient to uphold His Word for the rest of the week.
Are
you guilty of compartmentalizing God and His Word? How will you apply God’s Word to a
decision you have to make today, even if, by doing so you will prove yourself
unpopular?
2. We should glorify God and not
ourselves.
Amos
clarified in verse 14 that he spoke God’s warnings to the people not
for profit or out of routine but because God compelled him to speak. When we speak God’s truth, some may
view us as trouble- makers or label us as attention seekers. This will be unpleasant but we must remind
ourselves that God’s love and mercy are the motivation behind our
actions. The message spoken is also
for the benefit of the hearers. There
is salvation and reconciliation to God for those who hear and take heed. Remember Jonah and the people of Nineveh. Jonah hated Nineveh and only spoke to them after God
literally forced him to. As a result
of this, the people of Nineveh
repented and were saved from God’s wrath!
When
we do our part, even if it is a small part, God can do great things with
it. Look at David, he was ridiculed by
his older brother, Eliab, for talking about slaughtering Goliath. To Eliab, David’s talk was a whole
lot of hot air (1 Samuel 17). David
was not deterred and proceeded to take small steps - he met Goliath, said a
few words of defence and with a sling, slung a pebble at Goliath’s
direction. God did the mighty work of
directing the stone so that it hit Goliath in the right place and with sufficient
force, to kill him.
God
works powerfully behind the scenes, often without our knowledge. He calls us only to speak on His behalf and
in that partnership, many can be saved.
Remember Queen Esther who spoke selflessly before the king in order to
save the Jews (Esther 4)? God did all
the groundwork to make it possible for the king to act in Queen
Esther’s favour. Before Queen
Esther appeared before the king, God engineered it such that the king would
be reminded of Mordecai’s unrewarded gesture of saving the king. God also granted Queen Esther much favour
when she appeared before the king.
With all that, the king granted Queen Esther’s request to save
the Jews. Queen Esther, like David,
had everything to lose by speaking out but they did so in faith, knowing that
when God called, He would do the rest.
As
Christians, there are many issues in the world that we need to speak up
about, so as to remind people of God’s standards. When we think of the negative backlash,
speaking out can be a daunting task.
However, be encouraged, if God is asking you to speak out on His
behalf, He will do the great work of reformation, even if you don’t see
it initially. Remember also, there is
power in God’s Word. When you
speak up for God, don’t use your own words, use instead the words of
the bible. Our lingo is never
sufficient. God’s words are more
than sufficient.
3. God’s Word will prevail and
there is a price for disrespecting it.
From
verse 16, Amos laid out what was in-store for Amaziah because of his
disrespect for God’s Word.
Amaziah would die in an unclean land and in a defiled manner. In death, he would be stripped of his
priestly status. Without the
protection of her husband, Amaziah’s wife would turn to prostitution in
utter desolation. Amaziah’s
children would also die by the sword.
There will always be a terrible price to pay for those who disrespect
God’s Word.
King
Jeroboam II was by the world’s standards, a successful king. He
consolidated the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings
14.25) but by God’s standards, as seen in Amos’ proclamation of
wrath, he was the most unsuccessful king as he led his kingdom into spiritual
disarray.
What
kind of success have you been seeking?
Prayer Response
Dear
God, thank you for today’s message.
I pray for determination and courage to apply your teaching to my
everyday decisions. Please help me
also to be brave enough to speak your truth in love in a world that does not
recognize you. I want to set my
priorities right and be a success in your eyes. Please guide me in that direction. Amen
Devotional based
on a sermon by Rev. Joel Yong