Prepare To Meet

6/29/2017

 

Amos 4. 12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God.” – Amos of Tekoa 

In the movie, The Princess Bride, the character, Inigo Montoya states several times: “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” I thought of that this morning as I read Amos’ prophetic words to the people of Israel who’d abandoned their God. “Hello. My Name is the Lord Almighty. You have abandoned Me and worshiped other gods. Prepare to meet your Me!” 

America, the land I love, is not Israel – a land I’ve only read about. America was founded on the principles that all men are created equal in the sight of God and have been endowed by God with the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Americans are to be free, live free, and ultimately die free. 

But Americans have bought into a lie that says: we’re better with government rule, than self-rule. We’re better off with the god of law and government, than the God of who gave us the inalienable rights to be free. Somebody somewhere decided that men cannot be trusted with their freedom, and need to be reined in with rules. We speak of freedom here, but in our day, freedom’s a very short leash. And many seem quite content with the short leash. 

What happened in ancient Israel where Amos lived and spoke, was a society remarkably similar to ours today. They had the opportunity for self-rule, but didn’t want self-rule, they wanted a king (a government) to take care of the dirty-work and they sold their freedom in God for slavery to a political, religious, and economic system that taught them, apathy. As long as their perceived gravy-train of leisure kept rolling, they were quite content to live on a very short leash. 

What they certainly didn’t expect (or care about) was push-back from God, and Amos’s words of: the time is short and your life choices are horrible – prepare to meet your God. And they met God, and He looked strangely like the invading Assyrians that captured them, and drug them off into pagan captivity. 

So, Paul, are you implying that we are about to meet our God? (Your God?) Well, let me just ask: if He does show up today, how will you respond? He may not look like what we expect… 

God is actually here. Right now. Today. He’s never gone anywhere. And He’s given us the freedom to make life choices. He’s also given us the freedom to abide by His choices. It’s not an unfair game God plays – it’s the game of reality, life choices, wisdom, and cooperation. God never changes His mind about the gifts He gives or the people He calls. (Romans 11.29) But we men want someone else to do the heavy lifting so we can spend our ‘free’ moments not caring about things like oppression, injustice, poverty, and on and on, and on.  

The further a people drift from the truth, the more they will come to hate those who speak it… - Chesterton 

Father, may I repent of my apathy in my daily encounters with You. My freedom is not leisure cash to selfishly spend frivolously, but opportunity to freely help others come to know You and the Gospel You offer. Amen.