KEEPING US IN THE DARK? Is God’s will an inscrutable mystery?
- Amos 3:3-7.
- It is a common complaint that God’s will is an inscrutable mystery? Who can discern that hand of God? Who can understand the mind of the Lord?
- And so many presume that because it is an impossibility to understand God’s will, then they might as well just do what they want.
- Of course, occasionally this is a sincere complaint. More often, it serves well to open the door to the person doing what they want to do.
- In vv. 3-6 we have repeated questions. What’s the point?
- There are number of ways that most of the questions can be answered. “No.” “Obviously.” “Obviously true.” Whichever answer you choose, the point is clear: God is saying that it is obviously true that these things happen.
- In the same way, God wants it to be proclaimed that it also is obviously true that God reveals His will through the prophets.
- In this context, “prophets” could be read as limited to the specific Old Testament role of prophet. Conversely, it could be taken in a more general sense to include anyone proclaiming God’s truth.
WHY DOES GOD REVEAL HIS WILL TO THE PROPHETS? It’s essential for people to make the connection between the sin and the punishment.
- Amos 3:7.
- We have just come out of two chapters discussing the sinfulness of the nations as well as Judah and Israel. The focus here is clearly sin, guilt, and judgment.
- As we come into chapter 3, the focus is on Israel and their sinfulness (see vv. 1-2). We just discussed the repeated questions in vv. 3-6 that lead to the point in v. 7.
- Why would God be so deliberate about revealing His will to the prophets? I believe it’s because He wants to make sure that the people understood the reason for the judgment.
- We see a number of occasions where Israel whines about what they perceive as God abandoning them. (See Joshua 7:6-12 as an example.) Rather than correctly interpreting the situation to see that their sin was the culprit, they blamed God. Unchecked, that lack of awareness would create a deepening sinfulness combined with a victim mentality. It’s essential that such erroneous fantasies be laid to rest. And that won’t happen unassisted. So God sends His message through the prophets.
- Philip Yancey makes an excellent point about the need for this connection.
- Consider two parents. One makes clear the boundaries and what the punishments are for crossing them. When punishment must be administered, he makes it clear why he is doing so. The other parent randomly punishes his kid, presuming that he must have done something. The first situation will lead to a healthy adult; the second to a neurotic adult. It’s essential that the connection between the punishment and the action is clear.
- So it is with God as well. It’s essential that He makes it clear what He is punishing. The connection must be made.
WHAT IS GOD'S GOAL IN REVEALING HIS WILL TO THE PROPHETS? Usually in cases of disobedience, God’s goal for the punishment is repentance and redirection.
- God’s usual goal in bringing punishment for sin is that the person receiving the deserved pain would recognize their error and turn away from their sin.
- This is true both for Christians and non-Christians.
a. Christians.
- We read in Hebrews 12:4-11 we are taught that God disciplines those He loves. That means that even when we are a child of God, that doesn’t mean that He is going to excuse our misbehavior. Instead, there will be a hand of correction. It might be light or heavy, depending on the degree of sin we are pursuing.
- When God does this, the goal is that we would get back on track.
b. Non-Christians.
- Obviously non-Christians are more likely to be deeper into sin because they have not had an experience with salvation. One way that the Bible describes what God does in their situation is found in Romans 1:28: “God . . . gave them over” to their sin and the result was that they “received in themselves the due penalty” for their sin. Although Paul is speaking there of a specific situation, the language is true in a more general sense as well: sometimes God simply allows the negative impact of our sin come into our lives, creating the problems that one would expect it might.
- Again, in that situation, God’s goal is that this might wake the person up to the fact that they are sinning and create a desire for calling out to God for change. As someone once said, “The only way to get some people to look up is for them to get knocked flat on their back.”
- It should be noted that there are times when repentance and redirection are not the goal. Less often, the focus is simply punishment and judgment.
- Thankfully these situations happen less often than the repentance and redirection ones, but it is important to say that they do occur sometimes.
- In general, there are a number of reasons for bad things to happen.
a. My sin.
b. Others’ sin.
c. Fallen world.
d. God’s hand.
- God’s perfect will v. God’s permissive will.
HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND TO THIS TRUTH?
1. Be open to the bad news.
- Many of us are sensitive to criticism. We take outright rebuke even worse. We quickly change the subject when we start feeling convicted about something.
- We are reminded in this passage, however, that we need to be open to bad news.
- God may be giving us a warning. God may be pointing us in a better direction.
- There is an automatic impulse to reject bad news, but we need to push back against that.
- Listen to the prophets, even when you initially don’t like what they’re saying.
- The most important question is not “Do I like it?” but “Is it true?”
2. Treat conviction as good news.
- Going back to the earlier discussion: it is good news that when God brings punishment His usual goal is repentance and redirection. That means that we should not treat conviction as bad news. Certainly, it’s bad that we have done something wrong and need conviction. But there’s a larger thing to see as good news.
- Conviction means that God hasn’t given up on us yet. It means He is still working in our hearts to try to make us more like Christ. It means He is tugging our spirits in His direction.
- Certainly the knowledge that God is still at work in our lives is an encouragement, even though it comes in a painful message.
- As we read the Word and get convicted, as we hear a sermon and get convicted, as we talk to a friend and get convicted, we need to temper our pain at the conviction with a gratitude that the Spirit is still working on us.
