#DailyDevotion The LORD Judges His People
Amos 2 4 The LORD says this: “For three and four wrongs of Judah I will not change it. Because they have rejected the LORD’s law and haven’t done what He ordered, and because their false gods that their fathers followed led them astray, 5 I will send a fire into Judah, and it will burn down Jerusalem’s palaces.” 6 The LORD says this: “For three and four wrongs of Israel I will not change it. They sell a righteous man for money and a poor man for a pair of shoes. 7 They pant even for the dust on the heads of the poor; they wrong lowly persons; a man and his father go to the same girl to soil My holy name; 8 beside every altar they stretch out on clothes taken as pledges, and in the temples of their gods they drink the wine of those they have fined.
The nations aren’t the only ones in dutch with the LORD. Here He turns to His attention to His people. Both Judah and Israel’s sins are overflowing like the nations surrounding them. He starts with Judah, where His temple is. They have the temple, the priests, the prophets. Yet the LORD has a number of things against them. First and foremost, they have rejected the Law, the Torah, the LORD had given them through Moses. They are not living according to the laws, precepts, statutes, testimonies and words the LORD told them to live by.
Secondly, they have not only broken the second table of the Law but they have rejected the LORD as their only God. They have taken up the practice of worshiping false gods which their fathers worshiped. That’s really sticking in the LORD’s face. They will suffer the burning of their palaces. It is not clear if this will happen with the Assyrians or just the Babylonians.
Israel, the northern kingdom, is also in the sights of the LORD. They also are in trouble because they are not following the Law, the Torah, the LORD had given them. They are not practicing justice by favoring the guilty in disputes and the poor righteous person is found in the wrong. They are abusing the poor by not restoring their pledges. They’re even after the dust which resides on the heads of the poor. Those who cannot provide a defense, the lowly are taken advantage of. They are sexually immoral. They are even putting the clothes taken in pledge, which were to be restored in the evening on the altars of pagan gods. Finally, they too are worshiping false gods.
It is written, “17It is time for the judgment to start in God’s temple. But if it is starting with us, how will it end for those who refuse to listen to God’s good news? 18 If it is hard for a righteous person to be saved, what will happen to the ungodly and the sinner?”(1 Pet. 4) We as the Church, the children of God, like Israel, are held to our LORD Jesus Christ’s standards. While we are free from all the rules, regulations, statutes, etc. of the Mosaic law because we are under the Gospel in the New Testament, that doesn’t mean He doesn’t have standards for us to live by.
We can easily go to the Sermon on the Mount and see what Jesus expects of us who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts. We have been freed from sin (Rom. 8). We can look to all of Paul’s letters and see the moral standards or rather, the fruits of faith expected to be seen in God’s New Testament people. Mostly, I believe, if we take Jesus’ words seriously, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” (Matt. 9:13, 12:7; Is. 1:17; Hos. 6:6, Mic. 6:8) then mercy would be the hallmark of all our actions. Will our LORD commend us for being merciful or condemn us for not acting towards others as He has toward us?
Merciful God and Father, grant that we turn aside all that is harmful to our neighbor and grant us Your Spirit that we be merciful as You are merciful. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.