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Daily Devotions

Amos

Amos 
Day 
Day 97

"The eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom"

Text: Amos 9:8

ISRAEL’S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Israel’s relationship with the Lord is well portrayed in the Pentateuch. They were the descendants of Abraham. They were gloriously redeemed by the Lord from Egypt and then established in the land of Canaan. Sadly, Israel abused the privileges and blessings bestowed on them. God had to re-visit His relationship with Israel in the following text.

“‘Are you not like the people of Ethiopia to Me,
O children of Israel?’ says the LORD.
‘Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
The Philistines from Caphtor,
And the Syrians from Kir?
Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom,
And I will destroy it from the face of the earth;
Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,’
says the LORD.”
Amos 9:7-8

1. What was the significance of mentioning the Ethiopians, Philistines and Syrians?

a) Israel always felt itself superior to other nations.
b) Thus, they found it hard that God pronounce such a stern judgment on the nation.
c) God’s answer was not what Israel expected to hear!
i) Yes, God did lead Israel out of Egypt.
ii) But God’s hand was involved among the Ethiopians too.
iii) And He brought the Philistines out of barbarous Caphtor.
iv) And He rescued the Syrians out of the tough and fierce region of Kir.

2. “Behold the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom”

a) Israel believed that God would only watch over Israel with eyes of affection.
b) That He would never judge Israel in any adverse way!
c) Israel was deadly wrong in this perspective.
d) God could not but note the idolatrous and wicked practices of Israel.

3. “And I will destroy it from the face of the earth”

a) God has the sovereign right to destroy any unrepentant sinful nation.
b) That included the nation of Israel.

4. “‘Yet, I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,’ says the LORD”

a) In wrath God remembered mercy.
b) He would destroy the nation of Israel as it was. But He would not exterminate it utterly!