Passage Read: Joel 2 - Amos 2
Meditation Verses: Amos 2:11-12
Thought
Why is it that even God's own people turn against Him and His purposes? Here are all these prophesies against the nations around Judah and Israel, promises of judgment for how they have attacked God's people and one another, but then His own people are little better. They also incur His wrath. He raises up prophets and Nazirites among them, but they tell the prophets to be quiet and force the Nazirites to violate their vow. They don't want to hear how they are not all that God desires. They don't want to see someone dramatically devoted to the Lord. They want everyone and everything to go on as suits themselves. They don't want to be called to greater righteousness or see someone giving up regular human pleasures in extra devotion to the Lord. How sad is that?
Application
As it's said, "The good is enemy to the great." So also "good" Christians are too often the enemies of those who desire to be great in God's kingdom. The prophets call people to give up sinful ways, to purify their ways and live lives of proper holiness before God. The Nazirite gives up wine and regular hair-cutting to devote a period of his days specially to the Lord. That kind of Christian makes regular Christians uncomfortable, because it casts a light on their worldliness and compromises. They don't want to give up the things of this life and this world; they want to be assured that they can have both God and the world. So they are compelled to silence and discredit and put a stop to those voices that bring conviction, that challenge their worldliness. And so the Church invariably marches toward lukewarmness, gathering about themselves teachers who will tell them what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. So we labor to fulfill the prophecy of the end times. It is incredibly uncomfortable to meet someone more fully devoted to Christ than me, but I need those people, that I would not be complacent, but spurred on to greater love and good works and devotion to the Lord. God forbid, I silence the prophets in my own life, or encourage the Nazirite to break his vow. I don't want to be someone who makes others drift from the Lord, who causes others to stumble, but one who encourages others to draw nearer to the Lord in growing devotion and sanctification to God.