Amos 1:6-8
"This is what the Lord says: ‘For the many crimes of Gaza, I will punish them. They sold all the people of one area as slaves to Edom. So I will send a fire on the walls of Gaza that will destroy the city’s strong buildings. I will destroy the king of the city of Ashdod, as well as the leader of Ashkelon. Then I will turn against the people of the city of Ekron, and the last of the Philistines will die,’ says the Lord God." (NCV)
They sold the people into slavery.
What happens when one becomes a slave? A slave is completely and absolutely subject to that person who is ruling over her. She has no will, has no choice.
Paul talks about slavery of a fashion in Romans 6:
"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (v. 15-23 NKJV).
Slavery. Paul chose to use slavery as the analogy because he knew his audience would understand that helplessness that comes from being a slave. One has no choices when living as a slave. In the same way, a person has no choices when living without Christ; they will choose the way of sin. Those who aren’t saved have no choice; they will choose unholiness, evil, and sin. They have no choice.
One of the problems in America is that we continue to try to use politics to clean up sinfulness. We want those around us who are unsaved to adhere to the laws of righteousness because that’s what we are comfortable with. Because we, as a Church, as biblical illiterate, we continue to press forward with an agenda that has no end other than failure. Why? Because we have convinced ourselves that we can "change the world" with ideology.
Ideology—culture—is a hopeless issue. It is a construct that is spiritually non-existent. But because we have listened to teachers who have told us that there is not just black and white, sin and righteousness, but also gray areas of non-morality, we have become convinced that we can vote righteousness into existence in the community around us.
People don’t need better laws. People need the Lord Jesus! People need to become saved. And the saved need to start acting like we really are slaves to righteousness. Many are currently standing with one foot in the Church and one foot in the world. Why are we not ashamed of those things which represent evil, which are evil, those things which we still embrace in our own lives? Why do we continue to choose sin instead of obedience?
We are as much—or more of the problem—than our unsaved neighbors.
Ann Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham, is currently promoting seven days of prayer beginning on July 1st, culminating with seven hours of fasting and prayer on July 7th. She has been burdened with the message in 2 Chronicles 7:14:
"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 I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
I, too, for many years, have been burdened by this verse. But I fear that this "call to arms" will be useless because the call ignores an important piece of this promise: "turn from their wicked ways." Christians all over America want revival, but they don’t want to turn from their wickedness. "What wickedness is that?" you ask. Look around your home, in your life. What is there that is unpleasing to the Lord? How do you spend your time, your resources? Over the past years, I have worked at purging my life. I have to admit, ashamedly, that what I have done over the years should have been done in a matter of moments. Sin is hard to purge because we use it to protect ourselves, to reward ourselves, to comfort ourselves. Our idols are precious to us and Satan uses them to embed his claws into our souls. But in an effort, I have given away (or thrown out) books whose authors and stories don’t glorify the Lord. (This includes some book series that I really, really liked, I’m sorry to say.) DVD’s are gone. Cable TV is off. But there are still things in my life! As I have begun this process, I am more aware of what I have spent my time and resources on that has gotten in the way of my relationship with the Lord. It all needs to go!
Can you imagine what would happen in America if Christians threw out the stuff that consumes them and turned to the Lord instead?
We are those who have made slaves of those around us. We have made our children into slaves of the rubbish that consumes our culture by sending them to public schools and by immersing them in secular media. We have made ourselves slaves to sin by embracing that which is displeasing to the Lord. We have made our friends and neighbors slaves to sin by refusing to live as Christians should live.
We are as guilty as the Philistines. I pray for God’s mercy on our souls. We need to repent and turn from our wicked ways. If we do that, God will heal our land. If not, the ramifications from Amos are clear.
© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.
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