"All the nations will be gathered before Him [for judgment]; and He will separate them from one another, as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats"
Matthew 25:32
All the nations will be judged according to their treatment of the nation of Israel.
"There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel..."
Joel 3:2
And God will judge his people, the nation of Israel, for their treatment of the covenant obligation. He'll judge them for their inequities they committed while walking with him. God complains of their sins, especially the sins of his professing people, which are as a burden to him. He likens their sins to a heavy load.
Amos 2:13
“Behold, I am weighted down beneath you. As a cart that is weighted down when it is full of sheaves."
They've piled on, overloaded and filled the land with all their evil deeds. They chased off the prophets. They polluted the holy men, forcing them to break their vows. They laid down with pagan gods. They practiced incest, and homosexuality. They turned the temple into a corrupt corporation, cheating the people and robbing the poor.
God, not the pagan gods, destroyed the Egyptian army, The Ammorites, The Edomites, The Philistines, and The Moabites. And yet Israel lays down with these gods and temple prostitutes of the pagans. And God raises up holy men from their homes to warn and instruct them, to save them from the coming war, and they corrupted them, silenced them, imprisoned them, killed them. Is it any wonder that God judges his people with wrath?
God has always warned his people of the coming judgment so that his people might choose to change their behavior and avoid the consequences. He warned Noah of the coming flood. He warned Abraham about Sodom. He warned Joseph about the coming famine. He warned Moses about the plagues. He warned Jonah about the danger facing Nineveh. And here God now warns Amos about the downfall of the enemies of Israel. He judges Syria, Moab, Edom, Ammon, Philistia, Tyre, and Judah-Israel as well. Time after time the prophets warned them. And they'd repent only to fall away again in the next generation. Until finally when the most wicked of all the generations would rise to power and fame, and they'd pollute the entire nation. And so no one can claim ignorance, God gives them his word.
Amos 3:7
"Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret plan of the judgment to come to His servants the prophets."
But they abused it in the temple. They perverted it in the church. They brought in their own priests who prophesied what they preferred to hear. And they worried the meanings of this and the inflections of that about what God has done and said.
Sound familiar?
Genesis 3
He (the Devil) said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
And somehow through all their pride and confusion God continues to call them to himself.
“Seek Me [search diligently for Me and regard Me as more essential than food] so that you may live."
Even as they brought their offerings to the golden calves, God calls them. Even as they turn justice into graft, God calls them to himself. Even while they hate the One who brought them out of slavery, God calls them to himself.
Amos 5:15
"Seek (long for, require) good and not evil, that you may live. And so may the Lord God of hosts be with you...Hate evil and love good,
And establish justice in the [court of the city] gate."
Don't look back God said...and they looked back.
Today the preachers preach about not loosing your joy. They preach about your best life now. They preach about the abundant life. They preach the things the people want to hear. And coming into that nation of God's people is the coming judgment. And everything they worshipped will be exiled. And as they run away from the judgment...don't look back.
(To be continued)