Amos 4 Devotional

Hardship That Calls Them Home

“For behold, He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind and reveals His thoughts to man, who turns the dawn to darkness and strides on the heights of the earth—the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name.””Amos 4:13 (BSB)

Amos confronts the wealthy women of Samaria, who oppress the poor and crush the needy while calling for more to drink (4:1). Then, with sharp irony, he invites Israel to go to Bethel and Gilgal and sin some more, bringing sacrifices every morning and announcing their freewill offerings, because that is what they love to do (4:4-5). Their worship had become a show.

Then God lists what he had already sent: empty stomachs, drought that fell on one city and not the next, blight and locusts, plague and sword, and an overthrow like Sodom's (4:6-11). After each one comes the same sorrowful refrain: yet you did not return to me. These hardships were his calls to come back. So the chapter ends with a summons to prepare to meet their God, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and makes known his thoughts to people (4:12-13). Not every hardship comes with an explanation, but this chapter shows a God who uses loss to call his people home.

To think about: Has a recent difficulty been loosening your grip on something, and could God be using it to draw you back to him?