Amos 7:8 KJV
And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:
Amos 7:15 KJV
And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
The message of Amos is a very serious one. God was finished with the northern kingdom. He would not hear the Intercession of the prophet any longer, their summer was past and they were not saved.
• They would be taken by an enemy
• Their children would be slain with the sword
• Their land would be divided by a stranger
It could not have been a worse pronouncement.
But then I noticed that not once but twice God calls these doomed people "my people Israel." God had determined judgment upon them but God had not dispossessed them. They were still His people. And so they have ever been.
• Through the millennia of sufferings and persecution
• Through the debates of Christian people concerning them
• Through their own era of disbelief in Him, even
• Through their part in crucifying Him
they have always been and shall evermore continue to be His people.
And one day God will once again pick up the pieces of Israel.
• He will cause their dry bones to come together
• He will restore flesh and sinew to those bones and
• He will breathe back into the body of Israel His very own breath of life
He has not forgotten His people.
And for we, who are neither Jews by birth nor will be here when God once again picks up Israel, there is a message of hope as well.
• Though we sense keenly our sins
• Though we yet sting over the sin the too often overcomes us
We who have been accepted in the beloved find here our hope; God will never leave us or forsake us.
• We have been called by His name
• We have been adopted as His sons
and that adoption, He will never reverse.
And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:
Amos 7:15 KJV
And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
The message of Amos is a very serious one. God was finished with the northern kingdom. He would not hear the Intercession of the prophet any longer, their summer was past and they were not saved.
• They would be taken by an enemy
• Their children would be slain with the sword
• Their land would be divided by a stranger
It could not have been a worse pronouncement.
But then I noticed that not once but twice God calls these doomed people "my people Israel." God had determined judgment upon them but God had not dispossessed them. They were still His people. And so they have ever been.
• Through the millennia of sufferings and persecution
• Through the debates of Christian people concerning them
• Through their own era of disbelief in Him, even
• Through their part in crucifying Him
they have always been and shall evermore continue to be His people.
And one day God will once again pick up the pieces of Israel.
• He will cause their dry bones to come together
• He will restore flesh and sinew to those bones and
• He will breathe back into the body of Israel His very own breath of life
He has not forgotten His people.
And for we, who are neither Jews by birth nor will be here when God once again picks up Israel, there is a message of hope as well.
• Though we sense keenly our sins
• Though we yet sting over the sin the too often overcomes us
We who have been accepted in the beloved find here our hope; God will never leave us or forsake us.
• We have been called by His name
• We have been adopted as His sons
and that adoption, He will never reverse.
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