#DailyDevotion Are We Living It Up When We Should Be Repenting?
Amos 6 Woe to you in Zion who are unworried, to you in the mountain of Samaria, who are so confident: the leaders of the best of the nations, to whom the people of Israel come. 2Go over to Calneh and look. And from there go to the great city of Hamath. Then go down to Gath, city of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than yours? 3You act as if the day of destruction were far away while you have crime sitting near you. 4You sleep on your ivory beds, sprawl on your couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the stall. 5You sing your songs to the lyre and like David invent instruments for singing. 6You drink from big bowls of wine, grease yourselves with the finest oils, and aren’t grieved by the ruin of the people of Joseph. 7That is why you will now be the first to go into exile, and the happy noise of those who lounge at banquets will be gone.
We can probably note here the “woe” applies to those in the chief cities of Jerusalem and Samaria who are unworried and confident. They misplaced their trust in the fortress walls of the cities. Perhaps they also had a vain confidence the LORD would protect them because of their ancestors’ relationship with God. They seemed to have forgotten the curses that were set up in the last chapters of Deuteronomy. The LORD did make them the leaders of the best of the nations. They were not living up to what the LORD had called them to do or to be.
So the LORD points them to look at these cities once belonging to great kingdoms and ask how they are today? Didn’t the LORD take them out because of their wickedness? Despite their kingdoms and their great territories, they were taken out. Do they really think they are any better than these nations? Destruction is at their doorstep! They needed to wake up. Even though the LORD had sent them a number of prophets calling them to repentance, they were acting as if the day of destruction were far away while crime was sitting next to them. Had not the LORD sent prophets to them warning them of the coming destruction because they had made friendship with crime and wickedness? Did not Nineveh repent when Jonah went to them? They did not even receive a promise God would relent if they repented, yet they repented anyway. The Israelites ignored the warnings.
We can see how they responded to the Word of the LORD when warned. They, particularly the rich and powerful, were living it up, most likely at the expense of the poor, widow, father, foreigner and priest. We see these accusations in other places. Instead of staying awake, putting on sackcloth and ashes, fasting and turning their lives around following the Torah, they were sleeping on ivory beds. They were eating the best of the flocks and cattle getting fat off of them. They were partying with singing and drinking lots of wine and making themselves dandy. Not what one would expect when the LORD is threatening with judgment. They had no concern for those suffering under them. They lived off those people’s suffering.
We probably should take note if the rich and powerful among us make their lives easier and fatter by having laws that benefit them and take advantage of the poor. When we see injustice do we complain to those in power or as long as it doesn’t touch us, do we ignore it? Do we ever fast and pray, repenting of the wickedness of our land? Will we be in Babylon on the day of its destruction? Do we put a false security in thinking God is for us (our country) as it allows wickedness to sit at its right hand? Let us call our country in its people to repentance and faith.
Almighty Judge and God, grant a spirit of repentance and faith to the people of our land so we may see Your glory and not Your wrath and displeasure. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.