Sunday, November 17 – Amos 2, 3 – Additional Reading, Prophets and Kings, chapter 23, “The Assyrian Captivity”

1. “Can two walk together unless they agree?” who are the two? Amos 3:3

2. “God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His prophets.” Has God given us a prophet/s for these last days? Amos 3:7

Commentary and Reflection:

Amos was a sheep breeder. He wrote all nine chapters “two years before the earthquake.” Thus, he was a “lay” prophet whose time as a prophet was short. We should listen to the laity when God gives them a message, even if they don’t hold positions and the message seems negative.

In chapters 2 and 3, judgments against Moab, Judah, and Israel are mentioned. Only two verses are spent on Judah.

Until that time, Judah had 81 years in a row of doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. Despite the many good years, God foresaw that eventually, there would be a turning away, and there would need to be a correction.

Two often quoted verses are: “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets,” and “Can two walk together unless they are agreed?”

The second is often said at religious weddings. Yet it is not about spouses; it is about God and us.

When God spoke through His servants, the prophets were usually corrections. During Judah’s many good years, few prophets and Bible verses were recorded. Judah did right in the sight of the Lord about 75% of the time. Almost all the Bible records and most of the prophecies concerned less frequent times when God’s people were not doing right.

I thought it would have been nice to ask a prophet a question, but considering their role, getting a phone call from a prophet might be the last thing I would want.

How has your life been (or your nation’s or your denomination’s) for the last 81 years? Is it written in the books of heaven that we have “done what is right in the sight of the Lord”? If yes, then why are we still here? Why hasn’t He come already?

Has God given us prophecies for these last days? Are we heeding them?

If we had a prophet who wrote: “…not one in twenty whose names are registered upon the church books are prepared to close their earthly history, and would be as verily without God and without hope in the world as the common sinner” (Christian service 41), would we do some very serious heart-searching?

Would we heed that counsel if we had a prophet who told us how to eat, dress, and live? (2 Testimonies 352, Review and Herald April 19, 1887 Paragraph 12-15, Temperance p. 69, Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students P. 302-306)  

If God gave us a prophet who wrote that “a most precious message,” “the third angel’s message,” “that would lighten the whole earth with its glory,” was given to us by God through two individuals (Jones and Waggoner in 1888), would we read those people’s writings? (Testimonies to Ministers 91) 

Considering the above counsels and many others, are you and I, and God’s people, walking together in agreement with God?

What does it mean to be “in agreement with God”? To be at one with Him, to be united with Him. To have His mind.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.” (Philippians 2:5-9)

To be in harmony with Him is to make ourselves of no reputation, a total death to self, crucified with Christ daily, and to be reborn, totally new, victorious through His Spirit, giving glory to His Name.