When God has had Enough

When God has had Enough!

Relationships are tricky to say the least. One minute you are on your honeymoon and the next you are living in the dog house. We do and say things subconsciously and inadvertently that hurts the very ones we love. There are always some little quirks that each of us have that just drive the other person crazy. We half-heartedly attempt to correct our flaws. We fight and we make up. But one day there may come a time when one or the other, or both, have had enough. And whatever it takes to destroy that relationship it happens. Lawyers are called, papers are signed, and lives are destroyed. The list of causes that lead a couple to this breach of covenant are too numerous to list. It’s like the guy on TV trying to plug a crack in the dam with a piece of gum. Soon the floodgates are wide open and it is not going to be good.

I have learned that what will destroy one relationship will make another marriage stronger and vice versa. Generally, you can rest assured that they did not get to the breaking point overnight. Usually, it is a step by step, day by day, month by month, and year by year pattern of abuse, compliancy, and or neglect that destroys relationships. One of my favorite songs that just came out is by Casting Crowns called Fade Away. It begins with the children’s song be careful little eyes, little feet, & little ears what you see, do & hear, because families don’t fade away in a day. There is no such thing as a sudden divorce.

Just like our physical and emotional relationships, we as humans have with each other, there is a spiritual relationship each of us has with our Creator and Redeemer. Not to say they are identical, but they are similar. God created mankind to have an intimate relationship with him. Then sin entered the picture and that relationship was hindered. God has continued his relentless pursuit of each and every one of us from that day until now. But have you ever thought what it would take to destroy your relationship with God? Not in the sense that he will cast you forever away from his presence, though that will happen one day to those who never accept him. But, can we destroy our relationship with God in the sense that he no longer has any use or benefit of us? We are causing more trouble and problems instead of advancing the kingdom. We do not like to talk about a concept like this, but, I am afraid it is a fact of life. And when we are no longer bearing fruit, he might as well take us out, either take us out behind the woodshed or take us out altogether, because we have lost our saltiness.

One time when this actually happened is found in the Book of Amos. Amos was an 8th century prophet called by God from Judah, the Southern Kingdom, to go and preach to Israel, the Northern Kingdom. The 8th century was a time of political intrigue and unrest. Most of Israel’s and Judah’s enemies were weak or occupied with other peoples invading their own lands. God’s people was pretty much left alone. They began to expand their borders and reached a status not seen since the time of Solomon, some 200 years past. While on the outside everything was promising, internally things were on the downhill slop of a roller coaster. Corruption was commonplace and the rich kept getting richer and the poor taken advantage of at every turn. The very courts where the poor and downtrodden sought justice, perverted justice to the highest bidder. God continued to send his prophets to appeal to his covenant people to return to him. But God’s appeals, for the most part, fell on deaf ears.

In his first two chapters, Amos uses a literary device or mnemonic saying to impress upon his listeners the severity of the sins of seven of Israel’s neighbors. He proclaimed “For three sins and for four, God will punish….” and Amos would name Israel’s neighbor that was to be punished. He described their sin (i.e. the fourth one) as the straw that broke the camel’s back, as we might say today. He doesn’t list the other sins of each nation, but only the one that caused God to say that he had had enough from that particular nation.

Amos list these seven nations and pronounces what God has in store for them. Since seven is the number of completion (i.e. seven days to create the heavens and the earth), the people of Israel felt happy that their enemies were finally going to get what they deserved. Then when the audience thinks Amos is done, he announces that there is one more nation that needs God’s correction. An eighth nation is heading for disaster, the number eight representing over-flowing or over-kill. Like the other nations, this eighth nation is also overflowing with sin. After a few minutes of uncertainty and making them sweat, he unloads on the people of Israel that they are the eighth nation that God is fed up with. I can imagine the surprising looks on their faces. “Us, you must be kidding,” I can hear them saying. He then proceeds to enumerate Israel’s sins that will cause God to punish them in the next few chapters.

But beginning in chapter seven the style of his message changes, Amos records five visions that God revealed to him involving Israel. You might say that these five visions are five signs that things aren’t going well! A unique feature about these five dreams is that, taken together, they follow a progression of what it takes for God to get to the point where he has had enough.

The first vision is that of a locusts invasion. The crops have just started coming in. The monarch has received his portion of the crops when the locusts come and devour everything that is left. They do not leave even a leaf; everything is stripped bare. This is quite common in this area of the world. Israel was no stranger to such events. They were well aware of the destruction such a plague could cause, they could ask the Egyptians if they needed to. There is also a pun of sorts in both this vision and in the second one. Amos asks God “What is going to become of Jacob as a result of his punishment, because he, Jacob, is so small?” One must remember his history, as previously summarized, for this pun to make sense. Even though Israel may be small compared to some of the ancient civilizations like Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, Israel, during Amos’ time, was experiencing a prosperity that they had not seen since in the last 200 years. Most of the mega-powers were weak and/or having to deal with enemies from without while both Israel and Judah were doing very well. Politically and economically, they were booming. Spiritually, they were on life support. As a result of her spiritual health, or lack thereof, Israel went within a quarter of a century or so, from being at the pinnacle of economic boom to total annihilation. That is a vertical bungee-card jump in the timeline of history, straight down! Only they didn’t bounce back from this plunge. They crashed into whatever they were plunging headlong into, which just happened to be God’s rod of correction—the Assyrians.

The second vision is very similar to the first. Israel is described again as “small.” The major difference is that instead of locusts being employed as the instrument of destruction, this time it is fire. What the locusts left behind, the fire would surely destroy. God wanted his people, and us today, to get the picture. Israel would look like parts of Europe, Hiroshima and Nagasaki looked like after World War II when the Assyrians were through with them. However, the prayers of the prophet are able, once again, to stay the hand of God’s wrath. The interpret-tation of these first two prophecies is self-evident. The Near-Eastern person knew that a locust plague and a fire destroyed everything. They got the message. There was no need for someone to explain it to them.

However, the third and fourth visions differ from the first two in that their interpretation is not self-evident. Therefore, God provided the proper interpretation for Amos and for us. In the third vision, God asks Amos to identify an object he is holding. Amos replies it is a plumb-line, which was used in construction to test the craftsmanship and sturdiness of a building’s walls. If the wall was acceptable then it could be used as part of the building’s structure. If not, if it was found out of sync or unstable, it would be torn down and the builder would have to start over from scratch. God had placed a plumb-line in the midst of Israel to see how she was measuring up. Israel was found lacking, in more ways than one. How would we measure up today I wonder? Another unique feature about the 3rd and 4th visions, is that God does not give Amos an opportunity to intercede on behalf of Israel. It is too late. He has spared them for the last time. Judgment is certain. He has had enough.

Sandwiched between the third and fourth visions is an account concerning a local priest Amaziah, who threatens Amos. His accusations focus on Amos’ prophecies about the destruction of Samaria, Israel’s capital, and Jeroboam II, the king of Israel at this time. Amaziah told Amos that this was the king’s shrine, a royal shrine. Which implies that it was not God’s shrine. He tells Amos that he should return to Judah and do not come to his shrine again to prophesy. He told Amos that the land could not take his preaching. What he meant is that everything is going great, there are no problems and Amos should not be trying to create any problems by saying that destruction is imminent, even if God sent him to say so. Amos reminded Amaziah that he was no prophet or even the son of a prophet, but God had called him to go to Israel to preach and how could he do otherwise. He also informed Amaziah that since he did not want to hear God’s word, here was a word from God just for him and it was free of charge. His wife would become a harlot, his children killed, the land would be auctioned off, and he, like so many others, would be dragged off into exile and die a homeless and friendless death. “Now stuff that in your pipe and smoke it,” I’m sure he wanted to add.

The local shrines or sanctuaries where Amaziah worked were the places one would come to receive a word from God and to hear his teachings; we would call those places a church today. But they had become a place void of God’s word, a sex-and-false-religion shrine. Their worship songs and choruses would become funeral dirges, like Taps. Can you imagine coming to church and hearing Taps being played as the special music just before the sermon? There would be no need for a sermon. The fact that Amaziah did not want Amos to preach God’s word was just another indication of how far from God Israel had removed themselves from His instruction.

The fourth vision is much like the third vision. God asks Amos what he saw. Amos replies a bowl of fresh, ripe fruit. Not for consumption or nourishment but illustrating that Israel was ripe for the picking. In fact, when it is all said and done, the countryside will be strewn with the dead bodies of the Israelites. “Here, there and everywhere” is the way God describes it. He then goes on to list several of Israel’s sins including making a dollar at all cost by falsifying their market scales and other equipment. They trampled upon the poor and the needy. They would rather sell their goods on the Sabbath than worship God. They sold the poor for the price of a pair of sandals and discarded them in the same manner. In fact, God was so fed up with their sin he swore by the arrogant pride of Jacob, Israel’s ancestor, that they would surely be destroyed. I don’t know about you but when God takes an oath against someone, you better watch out because you can count on it happening. Who you know and how much money you have will be totally irrelevant. You are not going to get out of what is coming except with your life and that is exactly what happened. Three different times in the Book of Amos God takes an oath against his people. It is a sad, sad day indeed when God, who is slow to anger, long suffering and patient, a God of everlasting loving kindness and steadfast love, seeks to destroy the very object of his affection! On that day, you could say that God indeed has had enough.

The affect of God’s punishment for Israel’s sins would create a famine in the land, Amos tells the people. Not a famine as in a drought of crops, because that is obvious, but it will also create a famine of God’s word. The people will stumble from sea to shining sea like a drunkard in search of God’s word, but will not find it. From the top of the country, Dan, to its Southern border, Beer-Sheba, the nation will fall never to rise again. I would not want to try and imagine what this world would look like if God’s presence was removed. One day we are told that will happen. But, I don’t want to be here when it does happen. It will a day of mourning, mourning like a mother mourns the death of her only son Amos tells us which is more sorrowful than just the death of a child. The death of an only son means that the family name and the family’s heritage ends with the death of that child.

If all of this were not enough, we are not even done yet. There is a fifth vision that puts the finishing nails in the coffin of God’s people. Like Samson who brought down the temple of the Philistines upon their own heads, God will shake the foundations of the temple and will destroy the people. God is standing by the alter of the temple, not to accept their sacrifices, but to destroy their temples and those who are in them. God tells them that they can travel from the outer realms, or the heavens if you are a Star Wars fanatic, to the depths of hell itself, or to the top of the world or the depth of the sea, but they cannot hide from him. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans Ch. 8 that nothing can separate us from the love of God. And if nothing can separate us from the love of God, obviously then there is noting that can hide us from Him when he has set his face against us either. Israel found out this was true, and one day so will those who deny and reject him.

As the consequence of Israel’s sin, instead of watching over his “chosen people” for blessings, as the way things should be, God has chosen to set his eyes upon them for evil. Let’s face it, when God is out to get you there is no place you can hide. God reminds them that he is the one who simply touches the earth and it melts, he commands the seas and Tsunamis race across the ocean and crash into the land. He is letting them know that they have forgotten who God really is. I am afraid we have done the same. We think of God more today as a friend, a good-ole-boy on equal footing with us. We forget that, as the Psalmist says, who are man that thou art mindful of him! We have forgotten that to see God’s face was instantaneous death. To touch the ark, the place of his earthly dwelling, cost a man his life when David was bringing the Ark back to Jerusalem, and he was one of God’s chosen people (maybe a deacon today), not a heathen. We have lost our respect for God and act as if we have the right to come to him in any fashion that we might choose. If not careful, we will be like those who opened the Ark in the Indiana Jones’ movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. All that will be left is for the wind to blow away our remains. Or as one of the generals said on Under Siege, “10,000,000 people will reach 10,000 degrees in less than a second.” Israel lost a proper understanding of who God really is and I’m afraid we are following in their footsteps.

Part of Israel’s problem was her pride in being God’s chosen one. God had already told his people back in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, that if they did not obey him that there would be consequences. {Cut a covenant illustration} One of these consequences was a locusts invasion followed by an outside conqueror. It’s amazing how accurate God’s word is. God then reminds them that they are no different than any other nation. Amos listed Ethiopia and the ancestors of the Philistines as nations who are, as we would say, on the other side of the world from us, as nations on par with Israel—God’s chosen. In other words, Israel’s status as the “chosen one” will not afford them any special privileges than that any other nation, no more so than those on the other side of the world would have. Israel will have to answer for her crimes just like everyone else and so will we.

None of this is sounding too promising up until this point—a locusts plague, fire, tearing down the walls, ripe fruit for the picking, churches collapsing on its members. You might be asking is that all there is to God’s message—punishment and total annihilation. Believe it or not, this is not the whole story. With that thought in mind, let’s look at what Amos is telling us about the nature of God and his dealings with us? There are three implications we can draw from Amos’ visions. First and foremost, this should remind us that God is a loving God, full of compassion. I know, some of you are thinking where did you come up with that. All we have talked about so far is God destroying people and almost the entire book of Amos is devoted to that theme. Then how can you say that God is love? This is where the Old Testament gets a bad rap. The Old Testament is all about punishment and judgment, while the New Testament if full of grace, is what you have heard? I am not sure what Bible you are reading, but mine does not say that at all. God made the world in love. We would never even be here if it wasn’t for him. Next, all we have to do is to look back at Israel’s history to reinforce that objection. God had picked Israel to be his chosen people since the time of Abraham. He had brought the out of slavery in Egypt and gave them a land to live in. He had delivered them, time and time again, from one enemy after another. He made them a great nation under kings David and Solomon. And now some two hundred plus years later he is still sending prophets like Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and Hosea, to plead with them to turn from their sins and avert the coming destruction. Yet it was some quarter of a century or so after these appeals before the ax finally fell. If one thing is certain in the Bible, it is the fact that as long as the actual destruction or punishment has not taken place, there is still a chance for a reprieve. Like the prisoner pacing in his cell 5 minute before midnight waiting to hear from the governor and finally does. Judgment is never the final word in the Bible! God’s love, as Jesus himself put it, is a love that seeks every person’s salvation.

Secondly, this should tell us that while God is waiting for us to come to him or to return to him, he is actively seeking us. He is placing events and people in our path so that he can reveal himself to us and draw us closer to him. For Israel, he sent prophet after prophet, warning after warning, to get their attention and to let them know they were heading head-long down the path of destruction. For us, we are about to celebrate that time of year when God’s ultimate prophet, priest & king, his only Son, came to bridge the gap between man and God. Jesus is another in the long list of God-a-sodes, (as compared to episodes) here on planet earth. The lesson we need to learn is to look back at the events in our lives and take notice of what God is doing and his actions in the events surrounding our lives. Remember, he did not create us just to sit back and watch us fall flat on our faces. He has a plan for each and every one of us—to bring Him glory.

Finally, the third implication is that, unfortunately, one day God will have had enough and then what? For Israel, we know that in 722 B.C. the Assyrians came and destroyed Samaria, the capital of Israel, and deported most of the nation as slaves. For Judah, they were not quite as sinful, they fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. God’s hand of mercy and grace allowed them and extra 135 years to return to God. How long will it be before God says to us, individually or as a nation, “I have had enough?”

Let’s bring to the here and now. Since God created us to bring glory and honor to his name, why would He allow is to live one second beyond our usefulness? I want to ask that question again, because even though it is a hard question it is one that must be asked none-the-less, frankly we just do not want to face up to the answer. Again, why would He allow us to live one second beyond us accomplishing the purpose he has put us here to accomplish? Let’s face it, the reason we do not like that question is because it informs us that it is not all about us and we would rather it be otherwise. But I am sorry to inform you it is not about me, nor it is about you. The Psalmist tells us that we were created to bring glory to God. When we stop bringing him glory, what further use are we? We forget that even our death can be used to bring glory to God. Just look at what the death of his only Son accomplished! Fortunately for us, the last word is never judgment. The Book of Amos, like many others in the Old Testament, ends with a note of restoration. Israel is not totally destroyed, there is a remnant left.

We have to remember that Amos’ message was directed to God’s own people—the church today. Not the heathen or the unsaved. In fact, in one place God calls the heathen foreign nations as a witness against his own people earlier in this Book. Things were so bad that even the heathen the unsaved were called to testify against God’s own people concerning their sins. Such news should inform us that there are problems within and without the Church. Within the Church things and people are not always what their appear to be. Outside the Church there are those who need to realize that today is the day of salvation. The whole Old Testament can be summarized by two themes. The first is God calling a people to be his chosen people and a blessing to all the nations of the earth and the second is their fighting that calling every step of the way. Let us not follow their example because one day, there will be a day when God will have had enough. This Day of the Lord ,as the prophets called it, will be a day we will stand before the Lord God Almighty and all our deeds brought to light for what they really are. Israel dreamt of the Day of the Lord when God would come and deliver them from all their enemies. God gave them what they wanted but changed their thinking a little. The day of the Lord was a day of punishment of his own chosen people for their sins. May it not be so for us! God disciplines his people, not just to punish them for punishment’s sake, but as a means to bring them and us back to him. Whatever the case, come home to the one who created you, who designed you for a special purpose, and who loves you the most. Your life’s purpose is to bring glory to God, not put another notch in your belt or another feather in your hat.