6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
7 “I also withheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
8 so two or three cities would wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
9 “I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
10 “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and carried away your horses,1
and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
11 “I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were as a brand1 plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
13 For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
and declares to man what is his thought,
who makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!
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Amos 4:6-13
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One of the first things I noticed in this passage is the repetition of the words, “Yet you did not return to me” (6g, 8e, 9h, 10i, 11g). These five repetitions show the central point of verses 6-11.
The rest of each of the five sections has a Concessive relationship with their main phrase, “Yet you did not return.” Even though God brought famine, drought, blight, disease and war, and death, they still did not repent of their sin.
Their sin is summarized in Amos 2:4-8: Judah had “rejected the law of the LORD, and … not kept his statutes,” and Israel oppressed the poor and committed immorality.
Then the “therefore” in 12a shows that all of 6-11 is a Ground for verse 12! Because Israel did not repent in spite of God’s judgments, he would do something further to them.
This is a little tricky to grasp because of the use of the words “thus” and “this” (12a and 12d). I see them as pointing forward to 12f-h. “I’m going to do this to you, so get ready: you are going to meet your God.”
“Your” is significant here. Note that LORD - “Yahweh” was used throughout verses 6-11. That is God’s covenant name; Israel was God’s special people (see Ex 19:3-8; Amos 3:2).
They should prepare to “meet … God” - but not in his gracious giving of the law as in Exodus 19-20; not in the showing of his glory to Moses in the cleft of the rock as in Exodus 33; but rather to meet God as a judge, as a covenant avenger. Israel must repent (see 5:4-15).
Finally, the “for” in 13a gives an Explanation for why Amos used the description “your God”: the one who created all things and is sovereign over all things is called the LORD - Yahweh. The Creator is also their Covenant Lord; the one they had rebelled against is the all-powerful ruler of the universe. They should be terrified!
APPLICATION
Let’s apply this text to our head, heart, and hands.
Now, we are not Israel - we are God’s New Covenant people, the church. How can we apply this specific warning to Israel to ourselves? I think that Luke 13:1-5 is key here. Jesus told his questioners, “People don’t die in disasters because they are the worst sinners out there. So don’t think like that - think this, that unless you repent, you too will die.”
We don’t get to say to nations and families and individuals, “You are suffering this disease, this job loss, this famine, because of your sin.” If we do this, we sin like Job’s three friends, whom God was angry with for this view (Job 42:7-8). What we can say is that every disaster is a call from God to repent of sin, because all who refuse to repent will experience the greatest disaster: permanent exile from God’s presence and joy and life for all eternity in Hell.
Head (mind): We should remember the absolute sovereignty of God over all circumstances. We should remember Romans 8:30 as well.
Heart (emotions): We should fear, lest we fall away from the living God (Heb 4:1; cf. 3:12).
Hands (will): We should turn away from all sin, repenting daily, bringing our sin to the cross and embracing the gospel (Heb 12:1-2).
