Minor Prophets XXXIX: Refrain O' Pain

So along comes the refrain of pain in Amos 4:6-11 and it is like the needle skipping over the same spot on a warped record...God has to repeat Himself to no avail. Dead hearts and dead minds cannot hear.


(v.6)   Yet you have not returned to Me,” Says the LORD.
(v.8)   Yet you have not returned to Me,” Says the LORD.
(v.9)   Yet you have not returned to Me,” Says the LORD.
(v.10) Yet you have not returned to Me,” Says the LORD.
(v.11) Yet you have not returned to Me,” Says the LORD.


It occurs frequently. It occurs frequently. It occurs frequently. Not because of God but because of man's foolish stupidity.


Its effect is profound and impactful like repeated slaps in the face, Israel was dissing God over and over and over and over.
 
The repeated refrain of pain: “yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.” Appears 5 times in 6 verses. It shows a repeated failure to do something. Repent and return to God, to stop breaking covenant and obey, to be holy and righteous not unrighteous. Fail, fail, fail, fail ,fail. This repeated stupidity and apostasy shows nothing more that spiritually ignorant or desensitized people or a willfully obstinate/ignorant behavior. Because of the failure to return to God we also see accumulated guilt and an accumulation of God’s wrath against them for breaking covenant and disobeying. As we understand all throughout Scripture about God’s wrath, once it is incurred, it must be vented. Judgment was inevitable and unavoidable for these folks.


The impacts of the previous verses then carryover to verse 12-13 and we see the bruised cheek of God due to Israels obstiance and inability to get their act together...to rectify and repent.


"Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name! Amos 4:12-13


The “Therefore” in verse 12 points us back to the previous verses of Israel being stupid or obstinate and what happens to them because of their stupidity. We know what they have “not returned to the Lord” so He offers them one final chance through the Lords prophet. Events preceding Amos had done nothing to dull Israel’s apostasy. The giving of God’s word was given one last time before the judgment of God overtook them like a devastating wall of wrath. “I will do this to you”…something more devastating than Sodom and Gomorrah mentioned in verse 11. They will either face their true repentance or destruction when they “prepare to meet their God”. These verses are pregnant with absolutism.