12.14.2014 Old Testament: Amos 2.4–5

To read the Bible in a year, read Amos 1–3 on December 14, In the year of our Lord 2014

By Don Ruhl

The Lord God pronounced judgment upon Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab. If His people committed the same sins, or even other sins from which they did not repent, why would He spare them? He did not, for after denouncing those cities and nations, He then turned His attention to Judah,

Thus says the Lord:
“For three transgressions of Judah, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they have despised the law of the Lord,
And have not kept His commandments.
Their lies lead them astray,
Lies which their fathers followed.
But I will send a fire upon Judah,
And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”
(Amos 2.4–5) 

Amos used the same formula against Judah as against the other nations, saying that for three transgressions and for four, the Lord would not turn away the punishment of a people.

Our God is tolerant and patient, but in time, He sees that a people reach a state in their sin from which they will not repent. Then He punishes them.