A few years ago I visited a hospital deep in the jungles of Africa. I had been invited to speak to missionary doctors, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

It is truly one of the most amazing places I've ever been.

Dr. Dave and Becky Thompson spent their lifetimes building up this outpost for the gospel. Tribal people who had nowhere else to go came to the hospital by the thousands. Our family here at Pathway has been financially supporting this hospital for decades. When you give to Pathway and our Great Commission Fund, you help make this incredible hospital possible.

Here in the middle of Africa, there is an AIDS clinic, eye clinic, neonatal intensive care unit, and general health clinic. There are surgical suites, and a host of medical buildings and homes to house a thriving outpost for medical professionals, who would all be very wealthy living here, but instead they have given their lives, and their wealth, to serve people that the world likes to forget.

On a tour of the facilities, David Thompson showed me a new apartment building they were building for visiting doctors.

It was four units, two apartments on the first floor and two apartments upstairs. It was still under construction. Right away, I could see that something was off with that construction. David knew it too. He was smiling.

Everything in this building was crooked. It was uneven. David said, "They build everything here by eye. The walls aren't plumb, the corners aren't square, and the floors aren't level. They just eyeball everything, and it's good enough."
Cabinets didn't sit flat against the wall; there were gaps. Counters didn't mesh with the corners or the walls—more gaps. You can't do a good job just building by eye.

Your eyes can trick you. You think that something is level, plumb, and square, but when you hold the right tool against it, you realize it is crooked, slanted, and completely out of alignment.

In a minute, we are going to see God hold up a tool to his people to see if they are properly aligned.

Welcome to part eight in our series. We are talking about a Maverick Spirit. To do that. We are studying one of the ancient prophetic books in the Old Testament. This would be the prophecies of Amos.

Today we are in chapter 7. I invite you to think with me on the topic: Measuring Up

Amos is a rough, tough, working man. He was a rancher and a farmer. He was also a man who loved God and loved God's word.

One day, the Lord spoke to him and told him to leave his homeland, ride up into Israel, and start preaching. God told him to warn the people that they have been spitting in God's face for so long their nation is about to be destroyed... but there's still time to get their hearts right with God.

The basic problem was that God had called the Jews into a special covenant relationship with himself. In that relationship, God promised to bless them and protect them. Their job was to enjoy his grace, to share his grace with one another, and to show God's good news to a waiting watching world.

That was the plan.

Unfortunately, that plan didn't happen. Instead of looking to God, the people turned away from God.

Instead of worshiping God, the people worshiped idols. Instead of showing grace to one another, the people took advantage of one another. They used people. They exploited people financially and sexually. Instead of showing a lost and dying world the way to God, God's people let the demonized nations show them the way to paganism and corruption.

By the time of Amos, this twisted, crooked, shady way of life had been the story for generations. But now everything is going to change. The reign of fake religion was over. The days of taking God's blessing for granted were coming to an end.

Amos is there to warn them to get right with God.

In chapter 7, God shows Amos three visions. Here we go.

"Thus the Lord GOD showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king's mowings. And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said: 'O Lord GOD, forgive, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, For he is small!' So the LORD relented concerning this. 'It shall not be,' said the LORD." (Amos 7:1-3)

Amos has a vision of swarms of locusts. In these societies, locusts were absolutely devastating. When they come through, there's no food left behind. No grain. No crops. No food. No economy. Just starvation and death.

If the locusts came through, that would be the ruin of the nation.

So this was the vision God gave him, and it made Amos pray. He prayed.
O Lord, God, forgive, I pray!

Of all the things he could pray, why pray for this? Why pray for forgiveness? Amos prayed for forgiveness because Amos followed the logic.

He knows why the locusts are coming. It is because the justice of God has been activated. God is in full judgment mode.

Whenever God sends down judgments, it means that there has been serious sin. Serious, ongoing, unashamed rebellion against God. Disrespecting God. Ignoring God. Forgetting God. Disobeying God.

The problem isn't locusts. Locusts are a symptom of the problem. The problem is sin against God.

So Amos doesn't pray against the locusts, the symptom. No. Amos prays over the real problem here which is sin.

Wherever there is sin, there is a massive need for forgiveness. So Amos prays for that. "O Lord God, forgive, I pray. Oh that Jacob [Israel] may stand, for he is small."

God hears. God answers. God forgives.
So the LORD relented [repented, changed his mind] concerning this. "It shall not be," said the LORD."

So no locusts.

 

Aren't you glad you have a forgiving God?