Turn Around

Watching the Super Bowl commercials made me sick. I couldn't help picturing my elementary school students at home watching the game and being bombarded with images and phrases that would slowly (and sometimes quickly) chip away at their innocence. I taught this chapter of Amos to the second graders yesterday. It seemed timely.

Amos 4

Israel Has Not Returned to God

1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,
you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy
and say to your husbands, "Bring us some drinks!"

2 The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness:
"The time will surely come
when you will be taken away with hooks,
the last of you with fishhooks.

3 You will each go straight out
through breaks in the wall,
and you will be cast out toward Harmon,"
declares the LORD.

4 "Go to Bethel and sin;
go to Gilgal and sin yet more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three years.

5 Burn leavened bread as a thank offering
and brag about your freewill offerings—
boast about them, you Israelites,
for this is what you love to do,"
declares the Sovereign LORD.

6 "I gave you empty stomachs in every city
and lack of bread in every town,
yet you have not returned to me,"
declares the LORD.

7 "I also withheld rain from you
when the harvest was still three months away.
I sent rain on one town,
but withheld it from another.
One field had rain;
another had none and dried up.

8 People staggered from town to town for water
but did not get enough to drink,
yet you have not returned to me,"
declares the LORD.

9 "Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards,
I struck them with blight and mildew.
Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees,
yet you have not returned to me,"
declares the LORD.

10 "I sent plagues among you
as I did to Egypt.
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with your captured horses.
I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps,
yet you have not returned to me,"
declares the LORD.

11 "I overthrew some of you
as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire,
yet you have not returned to me,"
declares the LORD.

12 "Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel,
and because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel."

13 He who forms the mountains,
creates the wind,
and reveals his thoughts to man,
he who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads the high places of the earth—
the LORD God Almighty is his name.

In this time of recession, it seems our hearts are not turning. America is at war and things are not well. Our economy is not built upon the rock. The rain is coming. The wind is blowing.

Because God is good and desires repentance, he sent Israel drought and war. He sent them these things to expose their hearts and to turn them back to him. They refused and ran faster in the opposite direction.

Every situation that reminds us of the brokenness of our world is there to drive us back to our need for the Savior. Being removed from the garden was punishment as well as salvation for Adam and Eve. I pray today that the obvious brokenness of our world leaves my heart broken and humbled at the feet of God. I pray the same for our nation. These times are a gift of grace. Let those with ears hear.