Even when the worst of circumstances come, we figure at least a few will escape. Perhaps some will be away from home and will escape by being absent. Perhaps there will be some fluke happenings and some will escape. After all, even in the worst tornado there always is a living infant cradled in a treetop or an uninjured person in the rubble! People always marvel at the few who escape when destruction is everywhere. Perhaps someone will successfully hide and escape by being unnoticed. Perhaps some will just be sneaky enough to figure out how to get away or hide.
Total destruction rarely means all people were destroyed. Maybe all buildings were destroyed. Maybe all animal life died. Maybe there were no signs of life at first glance. Maybe outsiders say, No one could live through this much destruction!yet, someone always does.
There are always survivors! No matter how bad the event was, there are always survivors! We always hope for survival by an incredible, unexplainable escape. After all, who invented the statement, We are hoping against hope? So no matter how bad an event isfrom plane crash to hurricanewe always look for survivors, and we expect to find them.
We are unaccustomed to thinking that total destruction means a complete loss of human life. There will always be the exception, and that exception will be me. Everyone else may die, but I will survive!
Amos neared the close of his short written prophecy by declaring the unthinkable: There will be no survivors! Why? You have made a very patient God justly angry. In His just anger, He declared no one shall escape the consequences of the offenses.
Amos revealed his vision by declaring that the Lord God was standing by the altar. Ordinarily, that was good! The Lord God by the altar often meant that the Lord God accepted the human gifts presented at the altar. The Lord God speaking by the altar brought words of blessing as He spoke in truth.
Not this time! The Lord God would speak in truth, but it would not be words of blessing. Instead of truthful words of blessing, He spoke truthful words of destruction.
What did He say?
He, the Lord God, would break the unbreakable! Their impressive structures would not protect them! The Lord God would strike the tops of the columns with such force that the bottoms of the doorways would shake. (That would be a force beyond imagination! Imagine fleeing to your strongest building only to have it fall on you.)
Not everyone would be successful in fleeing to their strongest buildings. The ones who did not make it would be killed with the sword.
Whether by the collapse of their strongest buildings or by violent acts of war, none would escape. If it were possible to dig a hole (to hide in) in Sheol, there would be no escape. (Sheol was the undefined world of the dead, here pictured as the lowest possible realm.) If a person were to ascend to heaven, the Lord God would pull him down. They could hide on the highest mountain accessible to them, and God would find them. They could go to the bottom of the sea, and God would send a serpent to bite them. They could even go as captives to their enemies, and God would direct a sword to them.
All of this said something simple: There will be absolutely, positively no escape from My just anger. Were it possible to do anything imaginable, it would not work. When you make God justly angry, you will face His anger. If I say you will be destroyed, you will be destroyedthere is no escaping and no place to hide. When I say it will happen, it will happen.
Do you understand who I am? Do you understand the power I have? I can make the earth melt and give people reason to mourn. I am the mysterious one Who is beyond explanation. There is nowhere that I am not. I do things you cannot explain. I am the Lord!
God has great power to do us good, and does us good. That is His preference! However, if we reject Him and refuse to learn His purposes or live by His values, we give Him no alternative. The power that He wished to use for our good is turned to be used for our destruction. See Jeremiah 18:5-10.
For Thought and Discussion:
1. Even when the worst of circumstances come, we figure what?
2. How can escape occur?
3. Total destruction rarely means what?
4. There are always what?
5. In most peoples thinking, who will be the exception?
6. As Amos neared the close of his written prophecy, he declared the unthinkable. What was the unthinkable?
7. In Amos vision, discuss the fact that the Lord God was by the altar.
8. The Lord God would strike the top of the columns with such force that what happened?
9. What happened to those who could not reach their strongest buildings?
10. Discuss the hopelessness of escaping.
11. State the simple thing Amos said.
12. Discuss Gods use of His great power.
Link to Teacher's Guide
Lesson 12