Topic: Are You Prepared? [Thursday January 26, 2017]
Text: Amos 4:1-13
Key Verse: “Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel” (Amos 4:12).
Among a race in Africa, there is a saying that aptly captures the tragedy that awaits an incorrigible person. It says the dog that would run into perdition would not heed (or listen to) the warning whistle of the owner. The dog owner plays his part of cautioning the animal; but because the beast is bent on destroying itself, it refuses to be saved, preferring to go its own way of death. Nearly one thousand years ago, Prophet Amos found himself in a similar position, delivering God’s judgment to the northern kingdom of Israel, which had departed from the ways of God and had reverted to the sin and corruption of wanton living and outright idol worship.
The people were deaf to the prophetic warning that God was angry and His judgment was at the doorstep. Amos played the true role of the watchman who described the looming danger as revealed by God. He spoke of the people’s ingratitude to a God Who had prospered Israel greatly. Their women had been favoured with riches and abundance. In return however, these affluent women oppressed the poor. They extorted the needy and pushed their husbands to task the weak in the society.
So, God punished the land with such unfavourable natural afflictions as draught, attacks of locusts, pestilence and wars. The children of Israel would not read between the lines to discover that these were not mere freak events or sheer natural disasters but divine judgments. Unfortunately, Israel did not get the message. So, God declared: “…Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” Whether they liked it or not, they would stand face to face with this God Who they had scorned repeatedly. All the world would one day also stand in God’s presence to account for what we have done or refused to do concerning His commandments. His chief commandment is to flee sin and accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Thought for the day: He who prepares to meet his God, equally prepares to enter into glory.
Bible Reading in one Year: Acts 26-28
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
