In the time of Amos, Israel as a nation was prosperous and secure. But God saw through their prosperity and security to the rampant injustice, immorality, and superficial worship that characterized their society. The Israelites had a show of religion, but in their hearts, they had stopped taking God seriously. They were seeking a lot of things—wealth, power, pleasure and comfort, even spiritual experiences—but they were not seeking God. And they were seeking in the wrong places—the altars and shrines of pagan gods. So God sent a wake-up call via the prophet Amos to call his people to account. “Come back to Me and live!” (Amos 5:4).
It’s only when we fully seek God that we truly find life.
1. Seek God not in a place but in a Person. To seek God means to have a strong desire, a longing, a hunger for Him, to pursue Him, to hear from Him, and to follow Him.
In the Old Testament, the person of God was present in the temple. Today, we no longer need to go to a physical place, like the temple, to seek God. He wants to be found, and He always makes a way for us to find Him! Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We find God not by going through rituals but by seeking Him with all our heart. We pursue God by getting to know the Son of God, who is revealed in the Word of God.
2. Seek God in the midst of the shakeup.
The Israelites in Amos’ day weren’t pursuing the person of God. They pursued the fulfillment of their own desires, which led to stepping on others, oppressing the innocent, and trampling the poor. Therefore, God, through Amos, promised to shake Israel and all the nations as grain is shaken in a sieve (Amos 9:9).
Imagine the world is one massive sieve; everyone is mixed in together, and the Lord, the Farmer, is shaking and sifting. When that happens, even those who are seeking the Lord are in the shakeup. In such a time, remember it is the Sovereign Lord who is doing the sifting. The promise in scripture is that you may be shaken, but you are never forsaken.
The book of Amos teaches that we cannot have a genuine relationship with God and worship Him authentically without being moved by the evil, injustice and suffering around us. Seeking God in the midst of the shakeup means we allow God to test us, refine us, grow us, and transform us. As we are transformed, we will respond to God’s calling to ‘do good’ while we’re in the mix of this world. Doing good includes confronting evil and responding to injustices around us.
3. Seek God and be part of what He’s building.
Judgment did come upon Israel, but that was not the end of the story. God promised to build up what was broken and restore the kingship to David’s lineage. This kingship will extend to all the nations of the earth. This is a powerful reminder that God’s confronting, shaking, and sifting of His people and the world isn’t the final word. God is building something beautiful and eternal.
As we seek God and become part of His building or His dwelling place, the question becomes, ‘How are we inviting Him to build in us?’
Give Jesus access to all the rooms in your life. Jesus, during His time on earth, was a carpenter and a builder. He’s still building. Will you let him build in you?