We find Amos, who was a simple shepherd and tree farmer, now called by God to speak to Israel; he was told to stop telling the truth.
Amos 7:16 (NIV84):
“ ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and stop preaching against the house of Isaac.’
The problem is, whether we want to deny it, cancel it or make it stop, it is still the truth.
We can take out the messenger, but it doesn’t change the truth.
God is keeping account.
Amos 8:7 (NIV84):
7 The Lord has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.
Like today, we may want to go about worshipping God and even enjoying religious festivals, but we may not turn from our sin or listen to the truth.
God has had enough of Israel’s pride and sin and tells them so through Amos.
Amos 8:10 (NIV84):
10 I will turn your religious feasts into mourning
and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
It is true today. We want to ignore the wrong in our lives. We want to sweep under the rug our sin, pretend we didn’t harm others with our selfishness, and we want only the good times. We also want to appear as good to others as we continue our religious celebrations and acts of ‘worship.”
But we see from the book of Amos that if we are surrendered to God, sometimes our best form of worship is weeping over our sin and owning what we have done against God and what we have done to others.
As often in God’s economy, the way up is down.
We want the blessing of God. We want the joy of worship.
But have we dealt with our sins?
Are we shutting our ears to the truth and pushing people out of our lives because we don’t want the truth? Do we pretend everything is great?
Better a season of reflection, a time of mourning, than living in a lie and not owning our sin.
God is just.
Psalm 30:11
You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
God is merciful. Let us not push away the truth. If we have wronged others or lived on pride, let’s own it and weep before the Lord. Let us not cover our sin
He will turn our mourning into joy.
