Amos 4: Return to Me

Key verse(s)
“…yet you did not return to me.” Verses 6, 8, 9, 10, 11
 
Meditation
God’s heart is for His people to return to Him and His covenant love. As a living parable of God’s steadfast love, the prophet Hosea purchased Ghomer to return “and dwell” with him (Hosea 3).  In a literal parable told by Jesus, the Father’s lavish love (Luke 15) waited for his prodigal son to return. Today’s reading is the other side of the coin, God’s anger when His people reject Him and His love by not returning to Him.
 
“…yet you did not return to me” is the repeated refrain throughout this chapter (6, 8, 9, 10, 11). Israel had ignored the cries of the poor and were going to be taken into captivity (1-3). Their worship had been hypocritical (4-5) and Amos was clear: The roaring lion was poised to pounce on the rebellious people (12-13).
 
Israel had snubbed the seven plagues God sent to help them come to their senses and return to Him (6-11). God had taken away food, rain, produce, human and animal life, and had overthrown the wicked like Sodom and Gomorrah.  The Lord disciplines those He loves. (Hebrews 12:6) Israel refused to repent and return to God’s covenant love. (Deuteronomy 30:1-10) 
 
Jesus was forsaken by the Father, experiencing the plagues we deserve for not returning to God, so believers can be welcomed when we return. God’s lavish love is evidenced in Jesus dying so by faith believers can experience abundant life through repenting from sin returning to Him. 
 
Jesus speaks to His sheep, (John 5:25-25) inviting us to return to Him and His steadfast love.    
 
Today’s Reading
“Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,
    who are on the mountain of Samaria,
who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
    who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
2 The Lord God has sworn by his holiness
    that, behold, the days are coming upon you,
when they shall take you away with hooks,
    even the last of you with fishhooks.
3 And you shall go out through the breaches,
    each one straight ahead;
    and you shall be cast out into Harmon,”
declares the Lord.
4 “Come to Bethel, and transgress;
    to Gilgal, and multiply transgression;
bring your sacrifices every morning,
    your tithes every three days;
5 offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving 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.

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!
 
Richly Dwelling
-What stands out to you from today’s reading, especially Israel’s rejection of God’s invitation for them to return to Him? 
 
-Where do you identify with Israel, not listening to the discipline our Father sends to help us come to our senses and return to Him?
 
-How does the finished work of Jesus free you to come to your senses, repent, and return to our Father’s love? Where, specifically, do you need to apply this reality?
 
Key verse(s)
6, 8, 9, 10, 11 “…yet you did not return to me.”