Amos 4:6-11

In the book of Amos, God likewise spells out His activity in the nation of Israel. His communications went unheeded. We won’t turn to it, but Amos 4:6-11 records the very disruptive actions God took to get His people to consider their ways. He sent food scarcity, and drought, and flooding, and crop failure, and various plagues, and military losses, and massive destruction in some areas. We can find exact parallels with headlines in the nations of Israel in recent years.

God’s nudges increased to national body checks and tackles, and yet, as each devastating contact ran its course and ended, the pressure was off, and any urgency to repent and look to God passed. The nation continued on, unchanged spiritually. There does not appear to have been any recognition that God was behind those things, ether then or now.

Amos 4:6-12

We won’t turn to it, but you may remember the progression of calamities that God claims in Amos 4:6-12, where God says that He sent food scarcity, and He sent drought and floods. He sent mildew and blight—meaning, winds so hot they withered everything, as well as locusts to disrupt the crops. He says He sent a plague, and He caused young men to die in battle. Next, He caused overthrow and massive destruction like He did to Sodom and Gomorra, yet the hardhearted people still would not return to Him. Finally, He said the nation would meet Him, implying a terrifying personal encounter. This is outlined and explained in the Amos booklet that John and Richard wrote in 1995, and which is being republished now as articles, 30 years later, perhaps as a second testimony.