Tuesday, January 22: Amos 5- Consistency and integrity rather than hypocrisy.

Consistency... integrity... not hypocrisy, these are the words that came to me upon concluding my reading of this chapter.

God is angry with Israel. They pursued false gods, yet somehow they believe that by performing the ritual sacrifices of the faith, God Almighty is bound to bless them. Amos, as God’s mouthpiece, gives a stinging rebuke as the chapter concludes:

“I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god— which you made for yourselves. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is God Almighty (21-27).

The word ‘your’ strikes me as highly important in verse 21. I hate, I despise your religious festivals... It is not that those religious observances were bad in and of themselves, in fact, they are good having been instituted by the Lord. But their observances of these religious festivals render them unacceptable because they are offered by people who were actually pursuing false gods, which is an abomination to the Lord.

God expects consistency, integrity, honesty. If you are going to worship God, GREAT... go for it. If you are going to pursue false gods, the Lord will not be pleased but at least He can do things to call you home. But Israel was pretending to love God while actually loving false gods. They are fooling themselves. And when God did things to get their attention, they didn’t pay any attention to them because they had duped themselves.

Israel’s sin begs the question of me... am I fooling myself? Am I consistent and full of integrity in my love for God? I am not perfect. I sin and fall short of God’s ideal, but am I pressing into the Lord and living as a person who has the Spirit of God in their life?

Again and again God’s Word causes me to examine my life.  Am I faithful to the Lord? Today is another call to do just that.

Lord, I avail myself to Your gaze. Examine me and know me and see if there is any wickedness in me and then purge that wickedness from me. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.