seperation

six years ago, i stumbled across amos 4. i say that i stumbled because i didn't just read it and go on, nor did i read it and understand immediately what the Lord was saying. even now, six years later, i don't have a complete grasp of what He was and is saying, but i know more now than i did then.

something about verses four and five really pierced my soul and would cause me to seek what God is saying to us. the amplified brings out a part, but my spirit told me it was still inconclusive.

it took about two years of looking at the verse before i decided to find out what bethel means. the amplified bible tells us that bethel is the place where the golden calf was located, but the word bethel means "the house of God". it is the place where jacob had the vision of the staircase descending from heaven.

gilgal was much more difficult. i began by attempting to define it in order to uncover what God was speaking to me. gilgal means "the rolling away". it began to feel like i was slamming my head into the wall. i then realized it was going to take more study. i researched all the places in the bible that gilgal is mentioned. gilgal is where the israelites first crossed over into the promised land and joshua had the men build an altar from rocks taken from the middle of the jordan river. it became a cermonial altar where israel would return to offer sacrifices.

so, with this “new” information, let's begin by restructuring amos 4:4-5. "come to [the house of God], and [sin]; to [the altar], and [sin even more]; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; offer a sacrifice of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, o people of israel! declares the Lord God."

like i said before, i don't really know how to approach this. i mean it is so applicable to today's church that it hardly seems right to let it apply only to the old testament israelites like so many preachers and professors would have us believe.

i think the beginning of the passage is quite telling. but i'd like to take a moment to focus on the end of the passage. the Lord is really calling us out.

first, He calls us out on our "sacrifices of excess" or sacrificing that which is leavened. the israelites were required to offer unleavened bread- bread that doesn't have yeast. yeast can double and triple the size of the bread. it can make it look bigger than what it really is. what it refers to is that we take what we need and then add yeast to whatever is left over and give that because it looks big, but it isn't what God requires.

second, He calls us out on our free will offerings. one of the prevalent trends in the church today is the declaration of free will offerings coupled with a publishing of the names of big givers. sure, we may not announce them from the pulpit (or maybe we do), but we publish it in other ways- donor lists, wall plaques, gift lists, and the presentation of gifts to or naming of rooms, wings and additions after big givers. this sort of behavior has two effects. the first effect is that the church is robbed of its blessings because they begin to see the people God may have used to give and the size of their gifts, so the church begins to focus on the individual and not God. the other effect is that the giver is robbed of blessing because their reward has been relegated to whatever the church has given them instead of what God wanted to give them.

now focusing on the beginning of the passage, we discover just who God is speaking to when we read "come to [the house of God]." still confused? He further clarifies it for us with the next statement, "[come] to [the altar] and [sin even more]."

it is alarming, as it should be, that God wasn't (and isn't) speaking to the godless people or to those who worshipped a different god. He was (and is) speaking directly to those called by His name- His people; the ones He chose. the Lord explains that all the tragedies and natural disasters that He allowed to occur were not actual judgements, but rather, He allowed them to occur to draw His people back to Him. today, when tragedy strikes in the form of a natural disaster or a terror attack or whatever, many christian "leaders" are quick to say it is God's judgement on a sin-plagued land. the problem with that is the ignorant rhetoric is unfounded and it paints christians in the same light as muslims. our God goes from a God who is loving and seeks justice to a God who is disgusted with His creation and only wants it destroyed; that our God is heartless and only bent on judgement. don’t believe me? a quick look back to 2001 should be sufficient. how many countless Christians declared that to be God’s judgement?

it is when His people ignore His more gentle calling that He must, by his very nature, seek justice with obvious beckonings. He is a merciful God, and He finds justice either through the death of His Son (for those who choose to believe) or through the death of someone else.in verse 12 He leaves us with a warning that must serve to wake us up. if we continue to ignore Him, we must be prepared to meet Him face to face to account for our injustices.

there is good news though, back when Solomon dedicated the temple (2 chronicles 6-7), the Lord promised the people that if they left their wicked ways and returned to Him that He would hear them.

He desires steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of Him rather than burnt offerings (hosea 6:6).

"but for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. you shall go out with leaping like calves from the stall" (malachi 4:2).

He gives us strength to stand so that when tragedy comes, we can point others to Him. but when we have no strength it leaves the unsaved and unchurched with nothing to hope in.

"and it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions" (joel 2:28).

“God’s men are in hiding until the day of their showing forth. they will come.

let him be as plain as john the baptist. let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and stagnant churchianity. let him be as selfless as paul the apostle. let him, too, say and live, “this ONE thing i do.” let him reject ecclesiastical favors. let him be self-abasing, non-self-projecting, non-self-glorifying, non-self-promoting.

let him say nothing that will draw men to himself, let him come daily from the throne-room of a holy God, the place where he has received the order of the day. let him, under God, unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism.

let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a vision no man in this century has seen. God send us this moses to lead us from the wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing armageddon.

God have mercy; send us PROPHETS!” (borrowed from strings for your harp by leonard ravenhill)


for the world-wide renown of His sovereign glory...