God’s judgment and wrath, when unleashed, are always a bit difficult for us to wrap our minds around! We like to think of God as loving, compassionate, slow to anger, forgiving and full of grace. Which He is! But He is also pure, holy and sin doesn’t stand a chance in His presence!
Whenever I read about God’s judgment and wrath, it helps me to think of the sun!
If you or I were to try to approach the sun, we might hear the sun saying… “I will send fire on you and consume anything you try to hide in!” (Amos 2:2) “I will utterly kill you and the officials around you!”(Amos 2:3) “I will send fire on you and when I do, your skin will begin to blister. Your hair will catch fire. Your eyeballs will begin to melt. Your clothes will be burnt off your body. You will scream in terror and wish you were dead! Your space craft’s, made of Hf-Ta-C material that will withstand temperatures up to 7460F will melt like a popcicle as you near my 17,000,000 F temperatures!” “I will crush you like a cart loaded with wheat crushes!” (Amos 2:13) “14 The swift will not escape, the strong will not muster their strength, and the warrior will not save his life.” (Amos 2:14)
Would the sun make such horrible, nasty and destructive threats because the sun is mean, vengeful or cruel? No! Because the sun is so pure, holy and unfathomably hot! Those are simply the results of attempting to live in the presence of the sun!
Whenever God speaks of His justice and wrath, it is only a description of the chances humanity stands as they are in the presence of the 17,000,000 F holiness of God!
Trying to wrap my mind around 17,000,000 F is nearly impossible! I can imagine and understand 500 F, because that is the temperature wood ignites! I can even comprehend 2750 F, because that is the temperature at which steel melts! You’d have to have a flame burning at 5500 F in order to melt tantalum! Ok! I get that! But what is 17 million degrees F? That is a mind-blowing, incomprehensible amount of heat!
We may not understand or comprehend God’s holiness, but thankfully we are shielded from it…most of the time! Amos is simply warning and describing the effects of 17 million degrees of holiness on the sins of people!
YOUR TURN: So, what phrase, word or concept from this chapter lit up your soul today?
HIT ‘COMMENT’ BELOW to share your reflections! You don’t have to complete personal fields to participate!
The Bible: A Chapter A Day 
Amos 2,
Well we are hitting closer to home now with Moab, Judah and Israel. I might have thought God would be more lenient and quick to be forgiving in the holy lands (home town advantage) but I learn that His expectations must be even higher for those same reasons. He starts reminding the people of all the good He has done for them, and then lists off the bad things they are doing currently. And all,
big or small, quick on your feet or on an animals back, your judgement is coming and you can’t escape. Your gonna bet pressed down. The “heat” will find you.
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This blog post really helped me! Thank you!
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Honestly, my mind can’t comprehend the first 2chapters of Amos’ full of the wrath of God.
Oh, as I am now writing this blog, I was reminded that the intensity of God’s love is the same intensity of His wrath.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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I’m no biblical scholar but I find it now worthy that Amos follows the same trend, (Three and four transgressions I shall not ignore ) then for each a little blurb on the nature of the transgressions. For Israel the same but oh man he goes on and on about the transgressions. To me this says we will be judged more harshly because more is expected of us as God people. This means we will come out more refined more pure and more holy. Again I say thanks to God for his holy judgement for its result is a pure and true heart.
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And more Christ like. God is ascending us into His kingdom .
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Amos 2:4 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Judah,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they have rejected the law of the Lord,
and have not kept his statutes,
but their lies have led them astray,
those after which their fathers walked.
5 So I will send a fire upon Judah,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”
I found some new perspective on God’s judgement, after reading Pastor Todd’s post today, and listening to some old messages from The Ascent. If God is not angered by or doesn’t cast judgement on evil, no matter who or where it comes, God would not be good. When living close to such a holy and good God in the old covenant, fire and destruction seems to be the only outcome when hearts and worship wander to things aside from God and His righteousness. You put your bare hand in fire without protection the flesh will burn not because the fire doesn’t love you or hates you but because fire is powerful and its nature can harm us.
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God’s judgments are taking place now in our lives…His judgments and His truths are revealed to us through His Holy Spirit living within us. God’s commandments are now written on our hearts and the Holy Spirit within us leads and guides us and teaches us a better way. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit within us opens our eyes to sin in our lives so we can repent…change course! We are a new creation and God is growing us.
Because we still sin, we don’t “Feel” like we are a new creation even though we are.
Questions we need to research:
What does it mean that we are a new creation?
Which Bible verses refer to us being a new creation?
How does it affect our lives when we understand that we are a new creation and that our sins-past, present and future have been forgiven? Do we have to do penance when we sin and wallow in guilt and self condemnation or can we just thank God for revealing our sin and thank God that we now have the power within us to change?
I want to learn more about myself as a new creation.
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