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Amos 9

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Verses 1-15, “I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and He said: “Strike the doorposts, that the thresholds may shake, And break them on the heads of them all. I will slay the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not get away, And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered. “Though they dig into hell, From there My hand shall take them; Though they climb up to heaven, From there I will bring them down; And though they hide themselves on top of Carmel, From there I will search and take them; Though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea, From there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them; Though they go into captivity before their enemies, From there I will command the sword, And it shall slay them. I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good.” The Lord God of hosts, He who touches the earth and it melts, And all who dwell there mourn; All of it shall swell like the River, And subside like the River of Egypt. He who builds His layers in the sky, And has founded His strata in the earth; Who calls for the waters of the sea, And pours them out on the face of the earth— The Lord is His name. “Are you not like the people of Ethiopia to Me, O children of Israel?” says the Lord. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, The Philistines from Caphtor, And the Syrians from Kir? “Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth; Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” Says the Lord. “For surely I will command, And will sift the house of Israel among all nations, As grain is sifted in a sieve; Yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, Who say, ‘The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.’ “On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old; That they may possess the remnant of Edom, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,” Says the Lord who does this thing. “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they be pulled up From the land I have given them,” Says the Lord your God.”

In this final chapter of Amos, we see that there is no escaping the judgment of God. He commands the doorposts of the house of Israel to be stricken, bringing the whole house down upon their heads. Those who try to escape, will not be successful, because there is nowhere to hide from God. As David rightly stated in Psalms 139:7‭-‬8, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.”  The Lord's eyes were on the sinful kingdom of Israel, and being the God who sees, He will set His eyes on them for harm rather than good, from which there will be no escape. All of this will be used, however, to sift His people and purify them. Then God would restore the house of David to Israel, and even the gentiles would be brought in through Jesus. Israel will be planted again in land, and never again to be pulled up.

People who have no faith in God will try to hide their sin from Him, as though He cannot see. That is why sin is often commited in darkness, as far away from God as they think they can get.  John 3:19‭-‬21, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”  Those who have faith in God will come into the light, knowing that there is nowhere to hide that He cannot see. This is true fear of the Lord...and the beginning of wisdom. You see, when we fear and respect Him properly, we do not need to fear His hand of judgment, especially the great wrath to come. This fear purifies our ways, because we know that His judgments are just and will happen according to His word.  Psalms 19:9, “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

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