Prepare To
Meet Your God -Amos 4:12
Israel
was on the road to destruction! In spite of all that God had done to turn her
around, Israel would not turn. She refused to heed the warnings of the
prophets and so God sought to wake her from her spiritual slumber through war
and natural calamities.
(Amos 4:6-11) “But I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places, yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the LORD. {7} “Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest. Then I would send rain on one city and on another city I would not send rain; one part would be rained on, while the part not rained on would dry up. {8} So two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water, but would not be satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the LORD. {9} “I smote you with scorching wind and mildew; and the caterpillar was devouring Your many gardens and vineyards, fig trees and olive trees; yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the LORD. {11} “I sent a plague among you after the manner of Egypt; I slew your young men by the sword along with your captured horses, and I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the LORD. {11} “I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze; yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the LORD.
Predicting the future was not the primary function of
the prophet. Instead, it was to make known to the people that God was actively
involved with the nation; that not only the blessings, but also the calamities
were do to the will of God. It was He
who brought the famine on the land and who withheld the rains; it was He who
caused the crops to be destroyed by scorching wind, mildew and insect and who
sent the sword to take away the young men; not out of capriciousness or because
He is malevolent toward men, but in order to turn men back to Him. God sent
these national calamities as warnings to the people to wake them up; to cause
them to think again about their relationship with Him so that they might serve
Him in truth.
Each
of these warnings had the capability of destroying the nation; each, at one
time or the other, brought the nation to the precipice of devastation. But in
every instance—even while they were in the fire--God reached His hand into the
blaze and to snatch them out. But in all this, the nation did not—would
not—return to Him. And as they (from their rebelliousness saw it) why should
turn to God, for it was not He who delivered them from such great calamities,
but they stood by their own power, by their own strength? And if it God were
the one responsible for sending these disasters … “Was this all He could do?”
“Yes,
God had sent them,” declared the prophets. But was this His whole arsenal? On
the contrary, they were only His warning shots. But because they refused to pay
attention to these warnings Israel (and later Judah) would be meeting God in
judgment.
(Amos 4:12) “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.”
Regarding
this verse, Jerome (as quoted by C.F. Keil) observes that when the prophet said
“Thus I will do to you,” “He is silent as to what He will do, in order that,
whilist Israel is left in uncertainty as to the particular kind of punishment
(which is all the more terrible because all kinds of things are imagined), it
may repent of its sins, and so avert the things which God threatens here”(Minor Prophets, 276). To this Keil adds,
“Instead of an announcement of the punishment, there follows in the words,
‘Because I will do this to thee … prepare to meet thy God,’ a summons to hold
themselves in readiness … to stand before God thy judge” (276).
What
at horrible thought: To be forced to stand before the judgment seat of God
after having lived a life in total rebellion to His ways. Meeting God under
such circumstance is akin to the sheriff taking the felon from his cell and
saying, “Time to face the judge.” Israel and later Judah had their meeting with
God and both were destroyed as nations.
Though
these words were spoken to the people of God under the Old Testament, it would
do each of us well to consider this as our warning too, because individually
each one of us will eventually be called to the bar of God to meet Him in
judgment. This being the case, lets carefully consider the prophet’s admonition
as though it were directed to us personally – “prepare to meet your God.”
Do
we think often and do we think seriously about God – about His nature, His
holiness and His demands. The one that we must all eventually stand before in
judgment is unlike any other. Amos brought this out to Israel in words that
immediately follow the admonition to “prepare to meet your God.
(Amos 4:13) For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what are His thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness and treads on the high places of the earth, the LORD God of hosts is His name.
The judge of
the world is the creator to of all things. And though He also has revealed His
own thoughts to man (through the prophets), He can also reveal to us what we
are thinking; and I believe that this is what the prophet means when he says
that God “declares to man what are his thoughts.” God knows what we have
thought in the past and He knows what we are thinking now. This has also been
revealed by the New Testament prophet in Hebrews 4:12-13
(Heb 4:12-13) For
the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and
piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow,
and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden
from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with
whom we have to do.
The judgment
of God will be without question, for unlike any other who may pass judgment
upon us, He knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Does such
knowledge have any effect upon you? It ought to!
“All
souls our Mine,” says the Lord (Ezek 18:4), thus He “your” God (and mine)
whether we acknowledge Him or not. We belong to Him and for our own sake must
understand that we are never away from His presence. The Psalmist understood
this and so must we.
(Psa 139:7-8) Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? {8} If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
That fact
that we would deny Him does not change the fact that He is still watching and
noting our deeds for judgment. “‘Can a
man hide himself in hiding places, so I do not see him?’ declares the LORD” (Jer 23:24).
Furthermore
our God is not only present with us in life, but even at our death He is there.
This knowledge caused Solomon to give us this admonishment: “Remember Him before the silver cord is
broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and
the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as
it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Ecc 12:6,7). For too
many of us, death will be our first introduction to God. This is not because
God did not make Himself known, but because they ignored Him in life. Though
God requested an audience with them in life, they refused. But God will have
His audience with us. Therefore …
The
unprepared will meet with God just as certainly as the prepared will. The scriptures teach that an interview with
God is inevitable.
(2 Cor 5:10) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
God does not
want you to come ignorant and unprepared.
He sent His prophets, and later His Son and the apostles, telling men to
prepare. He also furnished conclusive
proof that the judgment meeting will come by raising His Son from the dead.
(Acts 17:30-31) Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, {31} because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.
The
need to prepare to meet God is clearly recognized by all who understand what
will happen when we meet. At this meeting each individual will be judged based
upon whyat we have done, whether good or bad (cf. 2 Cor 5:10). In the
Revelation John also speaks of this judgment with these words:
(Rev 20:12) And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
I confess that some do not understand that this meeting will take place and are making know preparations for this meeting. Like those in the days of Noah, they are “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” and will not understand until the time of judgment comes (Mat 24:38-39), but then it will be too late. So we must warn these people! We must tell them about Jesus, we must tell them about what he has done for them and what they must do in response to his word – believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, repent of their sins and be baptized (immersed) in water for the remission of their sins (Acts 2:36-38). Without these things they will be unprepared for their meeting with God.
But there are others who have heard about this meeting and who know about Jesus and what they must to do be prepare themselves, but who have not made any preparations. Tillit S. Teddlie had such people in mind when he the poem and then the song Time Enough Yet. The following are the first three verses, followed by the chorus
O soul of mine, be not alarmed at what the Lord may say, some further time, when I am old, I’ll chose the heav’nly way
I’m strong enough, I need no help, it’s pleasure that I crave; when I have drunk life’s sparkly cup, I’ll call on Christ to save.
The Holy Spirit’s tender voice entreats me night and day, and ere I go in sin to far I’ll turn and Him obey.
Time,
time, time enough yet, O soul, why be alarmed? The heavenly way I’ll choose
some day, but there’s time, time enough yet!
Too
many are like the one described in the words of this song. They are young,
strong and they feel that they will miss something important, significant to
life if they become a Christian now. Furthermore, they believe that they can go
into sin without going so far as to stop listening altogether to the voice of
the Spirit as He entreat them through the message of the apostles. But they are
wrong on all accounts and they are playing a dangerous game; for for they do
not know the day or the hour of their death. How do you, how does anyone know
if there is time enough to put off the call of the gospel when we don’t know
what the next hour will bring, must less the next day and year? And this must
have been on brother Teddlie mind when he wrote the last verse of his song.
Today, O
friend, may be the last, stop now and count the cost; you stand condemned
before the throne, your soul forever lost.
Lost!
Lost! O what a cry from souls along the shore; in darkness to go, in sorrow and
woe, and be lost, lost evermore!
We (you and
I) must make preparation now. For now is all we have!
But
having begun our preparations is not the same as completing them. “Consider
Noah, who ‘in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household.’
(Heb. 11:7) Think if Noah had stopped
preparing before he had ‘cover[ed] it inside and out with pitch.’ (Gen.
6:14) He would have spent a year in a
very leaky boat. Do you think he would have been willing to risk his life and
the lives of his family without making all the preparations that God said to
make? But how many Christians risk their souls with so much left undone, inside
and out, when it come to morals, faithfulness, and service? How many need to heed of the warnings of the
Lord? ‘But I have this against you,
that you have left your first love...because you are lukewarm, and neither hot
nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.’ (Rev. 2:4; 3:16)” (Jay Horsley, Expository Files – May 2002, “Prepared To
Meet Thy God,” Online: http://expositoryfiles.homestead.com/2002.html
).
Brother,
sister are you completing your preparations for the meeting with God or, have
you become lukewarm about your salvation—about your relationship with God? If
so then repent while you still have the time.
Don’t put of till tomorrow what you can do today, especially when you
don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Repent (cf. Rev 2:5; Acts 8:22) and the
promise of God is that He will be faithful and righteous to forgive us of our
sins (1 John 1:9).
Each
of us must prepare to meet God in judgment. Those who are not prepared “will go
away into eternal punishment” (Matt 25:41), “will pay the penalty of
eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of
His power” (2 Thess 1:9).
Israel and Judah were both admonished to make preparations to meet God in
judgment, but neither one did. Today, you too have been admonished. What will
your answer be?
Kieran Murphy – kieran53@msn.com