The prophet Amos lived a frustrated life. This is so because he dealt with a people who had little concern for the important message he tried to deliver to them. He must have felt like the proverbial salesman who was selling a product that few, if any, wanted to buy. But couched in his written wisdom are very many revelatory truths that good men and women everywhere will be encouraged and strengthened by. Do not neglect to read and study his little book of prophecy. In his frustration with a disobedient and stubborn people he taught much that every generation of human beings needs to hear and to know.

On one occasion, for example, he told the Lord’s wayward people, “Seek the Lord, and ye shall live” (Amos 5:16). Later on in the same chapter, he enlarged upon the identical proposition: “Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live” (Amos 5:14). In both instances he set off the sentence with the verb “seek,” and in both cases he ended with the expression, “that ye may live.” The people needed to do some “seeking” in order to obtain the result, namely, that they would be able to survive. So the conversation turned upon what we might describe as a life or death situation. If they continued on their present course, they would die. If they chose to take a new course and change their direction, then they were at the same time choosing to live rather than to die. We know the unfortunate outcome of this conversation. In the end, they chose to die rather than to live. The northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians by stages at the hand of Tiglath-Pilezer (2 Kings 15:29) and then their capitol Samaria to Shalmanezer in 722 B.C. (17:6). The change that was required of them was too much for them to bear. They enjoyed their present direction, even if it landed them in a bad place. And that is precisely what happened to them.

But the prophet Amos had given the people hope. But it was hope that was anchored in action. He had extended an olive branch in their direction. They could avoid the tragic consequences of their present course, if only they would alter it. They needed to change their ways and change their direction. If they had done so, the fruit of their endeavor was to be life. The nation would continue. Life would go on. Smiles and joy would persist into another day. Horrible, unthinkable things would not happen. The Assyrians were cruel beyond description. They took pleasure in piles of severed human heads and human hands. One of their greatest pleasures, pictured in their annals, was skinning people alive, and another of them was to impale their helpless victims on tall poles while they took many hours to die in agony. Their defeated enemies served as slaves at their pleasure for life. They also served as illustrations to other enemies who might choose to resist their power what it meant to be defeated and captured alive by them. Such was the message to the people: seek God and good and you will avoid all of this.

Inaction, on the other hand, would lead to death and destruction. So, they needed desperately to “seek the Lord” and “seek good and not evil” so that things would end well. But in this case we are dealing with a choice that is ancient history. And that history has already been written because it is already (as they say) “history.” We know how it all turned out. The people did not seek the Lord. They resisted his calls for change. They did not seek good instead of evil. They persisted in their evil ways. So the whole thing ended in calamity and unimaginable horror for those who attempted to resist the Assyrian army and its king. It is painful even to think of what they endured, all of it, on account of a poor choice made as regards the direction of their common life as a people.

In the face of all this we must know that there is an evident reason that the Lord saw to it that these ancient words of the prophet Amos survived throughout all of the centuries that have passed since he first spoke them. God wants his people in this day also to know that seeking the Lord and seeking good and not evil represent the way that leads to life today, just as it did back then. Resisting God will not end well for us any more than it did for them. Ignoring God’s message will not take us toward blessing, but toward all of the curses that have ever attended disobedience and unfaithfulness. So let us choose to take another course than the one they chose.  Instead of the unspeakable horrors they selected when they made the unfortunate decision to resist the Lord’s counsel, let us choose to seek the Lord and seek good rather than evil. That course of action leads us to life, precisely as it had the potential of doing for them! Let us choose wisely!