Does the word make you think of the last day, the final day, when the Lord returns and we stand before Him to give an account?

We should make ourselves aware that even though there will be a final judgment, God has already come in judgment many times throughout history and that He has made this fact very clear. Have you read of His coming in judgment on Egypt from long ago?

Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt; the idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them…. “Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master, and a mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord God of hosts.     Isaiah 19:1 & 4

A harsh fate for Egypt indeed! God, however, gave His prophet Amos a word of judgment against several nations. Eight times Amos repeated the words ‘For three transgressions of __________ and for four I will not revoke its punishment….”, filling in the name of the guilty nation and also specifically naming their sins, Amos chapters 1 & 2.

God has shown us His pattern of responding to the sins of nations in the past. Has He not shown us His divine tendency to discipline nations expressly so that we can know to expect Him to do the same as long as time remains?

But God is patient. Consider that Amos continued the Lord’s report to His people telling them of His attempts to bring them to repentance, Amos 4:6-11:

“…I gave you cleanness of teeth (famine - mjk)…and a lack
of bread
Yet you have not returned to Me…
. . .I withheld the rain from you…
Yet you have not returned to Me
…I smote you with scorching wind and mildew… and the caterpillar was devouring
Yet you have not returned to Me
…I sent a plague among you after the manner of Egypt
Yet you have not returned to Me
…I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were
like a firebrand snatched from the blaze
Yet you have not returned to Me”


Since there was no repentance, Amos brings us a word from God that is one of the most horrifying in all of human history:

“Therefore, thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare
to meet your God, O Israel.”     Amos 4:12


Prepare to meet God! How tragic, that God offered perfect salvation, peace and joy beyond our ability to imagination to these who’ve gone before us and they turned Him down. They chose rather to spiral downward in the consequences of their own foolishness.

What will we choose, America? More importantly, what will we choose, church?

Marty Kessler