Following Directions

Daily Devotional • December 4

A Reading from Amos 4:6-13

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,

            says the Lord.

7 And I also withheld the rain from you

    when there were still three months to the harvest;

I would send rain on one city

    and send no rain on another city;

one field would be rained upon,

    and the field on which it did not rain withered;

8 so two or three towns wandered to one town

    to drink water and were not satisfied;

yet you did not return to me,

            says the Lord.

9 I struck you with blight and mildew;

    I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards;

    the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees;

yet you did not return to me,

            says the Lord.

10 I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;

    I killed your young men with the sword;

I carried away your horses;

    and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;

yet you did not return to me,

            says the Lord.

11 I overthrew some of you

    as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

    and you were like a brand snatched from the fire;

yet you did not return to me,

            says 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 the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind,

    reveals his thoughts to mortals,

makes the morning darkness,

    and treads on the heights of the earth —

    the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

Meditation

Yesterday’s lesson closed with God telling the rebellious people in Israel to “go ahead” and keep doing what they were doing, if that’s what they really wanted. Today’s lesson picks up with the results of what happens when that course is followed. Psalm 106:15 summarizes it: “The Lord gave them what they asked, but sent leanness into their soul.” 

In today’s lesson we are given a list of bad things that have happened to the people of Israel: famine and drought; spoiled crops in garden, vineyard, and orchard; pestilence, violence, and theft. God says, “I did all these things, and you still didn’t return to me.” It is the height of human folly. It’s not that God is destroying people’s stuff; it’s that when people ignore God, things don’t go well. 

We will follow computer manuals, recipes, detailed applications for employment or entrance to a university, and the rules for sports and games, to make sure that we do it right and get what we hope for—but that reasoning suddenly lapses when it comes to obeying God. I saw a joke in a magazine years ago. It showed Adam and Eve looking at an organizational chart. The word GOD is above an arrow that points down to the word YOU, and Adam is saying, “I don’t get it.” The closing paragraph in today’s lesson says, “Behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought … the Lord, the God of hosts is his name!” This is the One who is the source of everything, even the very thoughts of man. Not following his directions is…well…not a great idea!

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

David Baumann