Remember Your Place

“Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” (Am 4:12 AV)

The prophet is speaking to a disobedient and wicked nation.  Israel had abandoned God.  She had taken up pagan worship.  It went so far that they were offering human sacrifice.  The people of God had so thoroughly perverted themselves from the perfect law that the LORD gave them, that God has no choice but to bring the nation to a temporary end.  Assyria would invade the north and carry away almost the entire population.  BTW, Assyria is modern-day Iran.  Then Babylon would come a few decades later and carry Judah and Benjamin away.   BTW, Babylon is in modern-day Iraq.  Because they refused to walk with God, the LORD told them to prepare.  Regardless of their desire to be with God, God was going to be with them.  He was going to be with them as a God of judgment.  This got me thinking.  Are we too familiar with God that we do not fear Him as we should?  Do we pray so often that we forget exactly who it is that we pray to?  Do we speak of Him so often that we downgrade His divinity and sovereignty?  Do we make Him less than what He is?  Not that we do this on purpose.  We would never dream of it.  But the warning to prepare to meet thy God is another way of saying they had forgotten just who and what God was and that they were unprepared to meet Him.

I know I have used this example before, but it still works.  My wife’s OB/GYN’s name was Dr. Roger Olander.  At the time, he was one of the best in his field.  He was highly recommended by many of those in our church.  When we were pregnant with our first son, Nathan, we got to know Dr. Olander very well.  He was a good doctor and a good friend.  He treated my wife as though she was his only patient.  He was amazing.  When Lisa went into labor, the Dr. was there the whole time.  He wasn’t one of those who would wait at home for a phone call when birth was relatively close.  He was in the hospital for almost the entire delivery process.  Because Nathan had gotten the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, every time Lisa had a contraction, his heartbeat went dangerously low.  This resulted in an emergency C-section.  After six or eight hours of labor, the Dr. finally called it and we raced down to the OR.  He scrubbed in and was waiting in the OR.  He went out to meet me, calmed me down, and gave me instructions on scrubbing in, then into the room he went.  By the time I had scrubbed in and entered, Nathan had almost been born.  The whole process took less than three minutes.  Then came Nathan.  He was perfect.  Everything went super well.  When we finally went to our room I had been up for for about 36 hours.  I told Lisa I was going home for a shower and a few winks, but I was so pumped at being a new father, I couldn’t sleep.  So, back to the hospital I went.  It was then that I saw Dr. Olander in the hall as I was waiting for an elevator and greeted him by his first name.  To which he replied, “It is Dr. Olander.  Not Roger.”  I was so elated that I forgot my place.

This is the concern I have for myself and the rest of N.T. Christianity.  We have lost our place and the fear of God is not as it should be.  God has become a subject of study in our classrooms.  He has become a source of entertainment.  God has become so familiar with us that the wonder and majesty of His person have become something common.  When Amos tells Israel to prepare to meet their God, he did so from the reference of judgment from an angry God.  This we understand.  God may not be angry with us in the same way He was with Israel.  But the potential is still there.  God has not changed.  He is still the Almighty God perfect in holiness.  He is still the God of righteousness who demands we conform to His perfect will.  He is still the same God who hates sin and must destroy it in all its forms.  He is still the same God who loves righteousness and holiness and declares it is for this reason He created all things.  We have lost our place.  We have lost our way.  We need to get back to a healthy fear of God.