- Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever.” Amos 1:11 – Amos, a simple shepherd, is called out from the sheep fields to be a prophet of the Lord. Here Amos is speaking to Edom, a brother nation to Israel. The people of Edom came from Esau, the brother of Jacob who was the patriarch of Israel. One would think these two nations would be close and supportive of one another, yet that is not the image we get here. For reasons not fully outlined in this chapter we see Edom bought Israelites as slaves and held onto wrath and anger instead of handing such things to the Lord. Our verse shows us what Edom’s anger towards Israel did to him, it tore at him perpetually. Such is the life of those who choose to keep his wrath towards someone instead of turning to the Lord with those emotions. Anger will tear perpetually at them, it will consume their mind and heart till all that’s left is division and death to that relationship. This week is centered around giving thanks, truly the stark contrast to giving wrath. I don’t know who it is in your life that you have may have been holding anger, wrath, hatred, or even just grumblings towards, but today should be the day you give all that to the Lord. All such things are going to tear at your life perpetually, ripping away joy and peace. Anger is easy to hold onto, but forgiving is hard, yet only one offers you healing. Be thankful today that the Lord no longer has any anger towards you and that His wrath toward you has been satisfied because of Jesus. Be willing then to imitate the actions of the Lord towards those who you are holding anger against today. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3289
- For three…and for four….(v.3 and others) They wouldn’t stop. That’s what this line that stands out many times in Amos’ writing means. This was a cultural way during that time of say someone just continued to do what they were doing. And in the case here, God’s people just would not stop sinning. They loved their idols and loved their new way of life too much. If we’ve seen anything from these previous books like Hosea and Joel, our God is a God of second chances. He is showing that His character is not a “One and done” type where is He is just waiting for you to mess up to strike you. He’s demonstrating Himself as a patient, loving father who sees He children walking away from Him; towards a path that is only going to hurt them. As any loving father, He’s going to offer the child a means of return and forgiveness, but this fact remains. The child needs to turn around. There needs to be a change taking place in the child’s life. If not, this is when we begin seeing the wrathful side of God. When He offers His loving, helpful hand out to us but we smack it away because we just don’t want to stop what we want to do. Take it from Jesus’ example, God wants to spare us from having to deal with the punishment of our sins. If though we push Him away, continue to push His love and help away, understand dealing with the punishment for you sins is exactly what you’ll be doing. There needs to be a stop, turn around, and accepting of His hand. Until then, God is going to be just and allow you to deal with your sins, and everything that comes with them, on your own. – Daily DEVO 42
- Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. Amos 1:3 – This phrase “For three…and for four…” comes up quite a few times here in Amos, so what does it mean? It’s a poetic way of saying the people just kept on with something. In this context it was keeping on abusing God’s people. Not just three or four times, but a continual abusing and continual sinning that went past God’s patience. What this helps us see is that God does have patience with us. He’s not going to smite His follower just because they slip up. He understands we’ll struggle along they way and just wants us to refocus and move back onto the mission. It’s when we refuse to turn and refuse to listen that we begin to feel the course correction of God in our life. Know God will bring things into our story to get us back on the right path and sometimes those course corrections aren’t gentle, yet know God is also very patient with us. If then your story isn’t fully pursuing the mission, what course correction needs to take place today to get back on track? I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1192
- The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. Amos 1:1 – To better understand Amos, here’s what’s happening in the book. Amos, a shepherd, is being sent to the northern kingdom of Israel to come down on them for their mistreatment of other people. They have treated their own brothers with all sorts evil and God chose Amos to deliver His message to them. While Amos wasn’t a prophet to start with, nor did he come from a family of prophets, as Chuck Swindoll said, more than almost any other book in the Bible, Amos holds God’s people accountable for their ill-treatment of others. So don’t let your current labels dictate your future calling. You may have made some deep mistakes in your past, but that doesn’t mean you can’t share the message of Jesus. You may not see yourself as qualified, but Jesus just needs you available. Let narratives like we see in Amos be proof to you that no matter where you came from, what labels you carry, what’s your backstory, or what limitations you think you have, if God wants to use you then all He needs is for you to be open to Him using you. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2077
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