What will you do?

December 4
Amos 5:1-15

(1) Hear this word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel: (2) The virgin of Israel has fallen; She will rise no more. She lies forsaken on her land; There is no one to raise her up. (3) For thus says the Lord GOD: " The city that goes out by a thousand Shall have a hundred left, And that which goes out by a hundred Shall have ten left to the house of Israel." (4) For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: " Seek Me and live; (5) But do not seek Bethel, Nor enter Gilgal, Nor pass over to Beersheba; For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, And Bethel shall come to nothing. (6) Seek the LORD and live, Lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, And devour it, With no one to quench it in Bethel—

(8) He made the Pleiades and Orion; He turns the shadow of death into morning
And makes the day dark as night; He calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the face of the earth; The LORD is His name. (9) He rains ruin upon the strong,
So that fury comes upon the fortress.

(14) Seek good and not evil, That you may live; So the LORD God of hosts will be with you, As you have spoken. (15) Hate evil, love good; Establish justice in the gate. It may be that the LORD God of hosts Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.



Almighty God has here issued a dire warning to His people Israel. They have fallen away from the practice of faith; they have turned their backs on His law and His prophets.

The Holy One has admonished Israel to seek Him and to follow Him; to trust Him and to serve Him, but they had their own agenda and they fell away. In their plummet from grace, they became vulnerable to the infidels around them, they became the target of the evil one who is a master of using wicked men to do his bidding.

Yet even in the cauldron of sin and disobedience into which they had fallen, the Almighty called to them in love. He admonished them to eschew evil and to live righteously; He urged them to establish justice within their hearts and within their government—all that He might be gracious to them again. But they would not.

America today is at a similar crossroads as were God’s ancient people. This nation was established on Judeo-Christian principles by godly men who loved the Lord Jesus Christ, but our country has fallen from its lofty spiritual estate. We have succumbed to the seduction of false religions and to the gods of hedonism and power. The fabric of our once-strong commitment to Christianity has become like a moth-eaten garment that is useless. We are damaged goods.

Yet our Savior calls to us as He did to the Israelites of old. He admonishes us to turn from sin and to embrace Him once again. He desires to restore us in righteousness and justice if we will but hate evil and love good.

What will we do?

Our options are to call out to Him according to II Chronicles 7:14, which says, “If My people who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land,” or we can perish by the hand of a ruthless and godless enemy.

What will you do?