Amos 4
Prepare to Meet your Maker!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, September 4.
Are you prepared to meet your Maker? Do you need to have a cancer diagnosis or a near-death experience to get right with God? The refrain of Amos 4 is “Yet you have not returned to Me” (6, 8, 9, 10, and 11). In every occurrence, the prophet declared one of the judgments that had befallen Israel: famine, drought, blight, plague, and conquest. According to the Mosaic Law, these were the promised results of violating the covenant (Deuteronomy 28:15-24). God was keeping His promise by punishing them for their idol worship. His people had broken fellowship with Him by coopting themselves with demons, which is why he called them “cows of Bashan.” This was not a rude reference as people would say today, but a supernatural one. Bashan was the Old Testament version of the gates of hell, seen as the gateway to the underworld of the dead. Interestingly, this imagery of demons and death was utilized in the messianic prophecy of Jesus’ crucifixion in Psalm 22:12, “Many bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.” God was not being rude or rash, He was mercifully using every possible crisis to get them ready for what really mattered – eternal judgment!
When you are facing death, there’s only one way to prepare yourself, and it was boldly stated in Amos 4:12, “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.” God’s motivation in all their calamities was their wholehearted repentance because that would be the only place they could find rest for their souls. That is the good fruit of covenant faithfulness, the abundant life of being in the yoke with the One who saves. Are you ready to meet your Maker?
Seize the moment and prepare today for what we each must face tomorrow. Every crisis is an opportunity to get right with God! He’s only a prayer away.
God bless you!
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