If there is something important that needs to be found, you will seek it out, searching high and low, until you find it. You don’t waste any time, and no effort is too great, whether it be misplaced keys, lost jewelry, or even some hidden treasure you heard about. You also won’t waste your time or effort looking around for something else. You focus on the one important thing. In our Scripture passage from the Old Testament prophet Amos, we are told what important thing in our life we need to be seeking after. Let’s see what God has to say to us here.
Amos was an Old Testament prophet who came from the southern Kingdom of Judah, yet preached God’s Word primarily to the northern Kingdom of Israel approximately around 760 - 755 BC. He had been a sheep rancher and had fig orchards before God called him to preach His message to the people. The Jewish people, particularly the northern Kingdom of Israel, had fallen away from true worship of Yahweh and keeping His commandments. Many had turned to worshipping the idols and false gods of the surrounding nations.
In our passage today, from the messages he brought to the people, Amos admonished the people to seek after the Lord God Yahweh, and not their false idols, to seek Him and live. Four times in this passage, God, through His prophet Amos, calls us to seek Him (vs. 4, 6, 8, and 14). Though God will bring judgment, it can be avoided if we seek the Lord Jesus in true repentance.
We need to ask ourselves what we are seeking after in our life. For many they could list money, power, fame, love, happiness, popularity. Have we turned them into a type of god? Maybe we have made our job a god, or a family member, or our house. Of course, there are still many people who actually worship idols and false gods, following pagan religions or the occult. For those who seek after anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ, they will not find the truth or fulfillment they seek. Instead, they will ultimately find death. God says to seek after Him and live.
Amos mentioned in his preaching to the people for them not to seek after Bethel (vs. 5). Bethel was a village in the southern part of the northern Kingdom of Israel. When the country split into two kingdoms during the reign of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, the new king of the northern kingdom, Jeroboam set up two idols, two golden calves, one in the far north, and one in Bethel. From then on, that village was associated with pagan, idolatrous worship. God warned them, and us today, not to get caught up in any sort of idolatry. Don’t worship the stars, or seek the future through them (vs. 8). Instead, seek Him who made the stars. The idols we set up, whatever they may be, will not bring us what our souls are really seeking after.
In addition to turning to false, idolatrous, pagan worship, the people also had turned away from showing justice and righteousness in their lives. They, along with both their political and religious leaders, were corrupt. They were not following God’s laws, either religious laws or civil ones. All of God’s prophets spoke out against this, in addition to idol worship. The law courts should have been places to find justice, and for the poor and oppressed to get relief. Instead, they were places of greed and injustice (vs. 7). True justice had been destroyed, causing corruption (vs. 10-13). The people were seeking their own ways, not the Lord’s. They were seeking their own power, wealth, and fame, not for God’s justice and righteousness.
God didn’t like it then, and He doesn’t like it today, either. He is calling us to seek after Him. Turn to Him, for those who refuse face the fire of His judgment. God will not have fellowship with falsehood in doctrine, or evil-doing in conduct. It doesn’t matter how rich or powerful someone may be, God can smite the strongest (vs. 9). There is no place anyone can hide from Him.
Prophets like Amos and others who spoke out against both religious and civil corruption, were not popular. They are not popular today, either (vs 10). People today hate the preachers who speak out against the evil ways of the world, just as they did against Amos in his day. Yet we need more preachers who admonish and urge people to seek after the Lord Jesus, and His ways. Seeking and following after anything else will bring destruction upon ourselves, but hope is found in seeking and following God.
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