Amos 4:6-13--Israel Has Not Returned to the LORD

Amos 4:6-13
English Standard Version

Israel Has Not Returned to the LORD
6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
    and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.

7 “I also withheld the rain from you
    when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
    and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
    and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
8 so two or three cities would wander to another city
    to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.

9 “I struck you with blight and mildew;
    your many gardens and your vineyards,
    your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.

10 “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
    I killed your young men with the sword,
and carried away your horses,
    and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.

11 “I overthrew some of you,
    as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
    and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.

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

13 For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
    and declares to man what is his thought,
who makes the morning darkness,
    and treads on the heights of the earth--
    the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!

---

The people should not have waited for the LORD to relent before they repented (for once the threat of judgment was removed, they would not repent).  They should have repented first and then cried out for salvation in response to that repentance, but they never did.  Though the LORD brought all the curses of the Law upon them that were meant to draw them back, they did not repent.

The LORD caused famine and drought but was gracious enough to save the crops of some cities so the people would survive.  We know from the book of Genesis that He is able to send famine across the whole known world if he wanted to as in the days of Joseph and it would not rain anywhere, but He chose to preserve the people and give them a chance to repent, but they did not.

He made their fruit trees and vineyards diseased with blight and mildew.  He caused their fig trees and olive trees to be devoured (these all were images of the nation and its state, but the people missed the symbolism).  They still did not repent.

He sent plagues upon them like He had done to the nation of Egypt when He had set them free by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, yet they hardened their hearts in much the same way that Pharaoh and the Egyptians did--and they were all destroyed.  Did the people not learn from the history that they retold year after year at the Passover (I think this is evidence they did not keep the Passover).  The LORD allowed some to be killed with the sword and for their horses to be carried away.  Their camp smelled of the dead an rotting corpses of their brothers because they went into battle against the LORD's direction, and they did not repent.

Others faced quick and decisive judgment that obviously came from the LORD, much like the judgment that came against Sodom and Gomorrah that was a sign of the hellfire and eternal judgment that was to come.  Even with strong warnings like this, the people did not repent.

Therefore, the LORD has one message left for Israel.  "Prepare to meet your God."  The LORD is the maker of the wind and the mountains, and He is able to reveal the very thoughts and motives of of a man.  He brings forth the morning and causes the sun to set to bring the evening and night time.  He walks on the mountains as they are nothing to Him.  The LORD of Hosts is His Name (He is the LORD of heaven and earth and all that is in them).

The people have revealed the condition of their heart and that they are guilty as charged and that they do not desire repentance--they just want reprieve so they can keep on sinning, but the LORD will not allow that.  Judgement is coming, though not without warning.  The LORD has been warning them for many years through many prophets, but they would not listen to any of them.  Therefore, the LORD is just to treat them as He did Sodom, Gomorrah, Egypt, or any other pagan nation, for that is what Israel has become and what they desired to become.  They wanted to become just like all the other nations.  Now they have--arguably worse than many of their neighbors so that now their pagan neighbors are calling for the LORD to judge them--even those that supposedly do not believe in the LORD are calling out to Him to judge His people.