Not Listening to God

Amos 3:7, 4:12: "Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets . . . . Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel."

About 700 years before Christ, the prophet Amos received a Word from the Lord to communicate to the people of Israel their wickedness and rebellion against God as their Sovereign Lord.

God explained to the people that they could not use ignorance as an excuse when He enacted His judgement against them, for He reminded them that His plans had been communicated via his servants, the prophets. When the Israelites refused to heed the warnings that were shared by the prophets, God then used natural disasters and war to attempt to get their attention. Specifically, God sent famine, drought, blight, mildew, plagues, and enemy invasions (Amos 4) to draw His people (see 3:2) to Himself, but they would not respond with repentance.

In the end, God told these rebellious people to prepare to meet their Maker; their obstinacy would result in God enacting final judgment for such recalcitrance.

We should never treat with contempt God's attempts to get our attention. God primarily uses His Word, the Scriptures, to bring conviction in us leading to repentance. Sometimes, God has to get our attention through circumstances in our lives, but if we continue to ignore His calling for our repentance, we may find ourselves standing before the Most Holy God!

Hebrews 10:31 says that it is a "dreadful thing to fall into the hands of a living God." When we are engaged in sin, may we clear our spiritual ears to hear early God's calling for us to repent and turn to Him. We will never regret such a decision to surrender to Him as Lord.