July 11 – Amos 1 - 5

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Amos 1-5. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word. Also above in the tabs is a link to the Bible reading plan.

 

Photo Credit: Microsoft Clip Art

God’s Word blows me away sometimes. We are now in a portion of Scripture that many of us do not read often. There is so much wonderful stuff but out of context it can be very confusing and very discouraging. On top of this it speaks of destruction and desolation. These are not fun things to read about. But in the middle of it God gives us a nugget of amazing truth.

Read these words again … “Listen to this message that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel and Judah—against the entire family I rescued from Egypt: “From among all the families on the earth, I have been intimate with you alone. That is why I must punish you for all your sins.” (Amos 3:1-2 NLT) We are getting closer and closer in our reading to the end of the nations of Israel and Judah. God has sent messengers known as the prophets to declare a message of repentance and to remind them that if they do not they will be disciplined for their actions. If there was any doubt as to why God delivered His punishment to these nations it is right here in the words of Amos.

God disciplined because He considered them to have a special relationship with Him. No one on earth; no tribe, no nation, no people group, and no ethnic race had the level of intimacy with God that Abraham’s descendants through Jacob had. Because of this intimacy God had no choice but to bring discipline. The great thing as we will soon see, this discipline and this punishment, was corrective punishment. It was all there so God could continue His purpose of bringing Jesus Christ into the world.

Parents, teachers, caregivers, let me encourage you to practice corrective discipline. I understand and know it is not always fun to carry out. I understand that it actually does hurt you more than those you are disciplining. But the best you can do sometimes for those you love and care about is by giving them corrective discipline. It is your responsibility to teach them about life, to raise them up, train them, and prepare them to do life on their own out of your wing one day. The lessons you teach in corrective discipline will help to reach those goals.