From the Lion's Teeth
3/21/26 Bible Thought (Amos 3)
Main Idea: God’s choice should result in devotion, not presumption.
A Look at the Text:
Amos picks up in chapter 3 with essentially the same charge as the previous chapter—privilege creates responsibility.
The Lord cried out to His condemned people:
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2a)
Israel was God’s chosen possession solely because of His grace (see Deut. 7:7-8). They weren’t special because they were special. Truthfully, they didn’t bring anything to the table to merit God’s favor. They were only special because God chose them and delivered them as His people from out of Egyptian slavery (Amos 3:1).
All in all, the people’s election and deliverance from slavery should have caused them to live their lives in obedience to God. They were to be His distinct people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (see Ex. 19:6). This great privilege should have wrought great devotion, but instead God’s wayward people were just as bad as the rest of the nations.
So much so that God called the Philistines to come and see their sin (Amos 3:9). Even the Philistines could have seen that the sinfulness of Israel was great. Israel failed God and stood under His judgment.
Samaria (the capital of Israel), although being a great and glorious city, was facing imminent destruction. Just as a shepherd might recover legs or a part of an ear from his sheep after the lion takes hold of it, so Samaria was to be consumed (Amos 3:12).
God’s sovereign choice wouldn’t spare them from judgment. Once again, the privilege of being God’s people created a great responsibility. Their election didn’t result in immunity.[1]
Bringing it Home:
To know God is a great privilege. This is especially true for Gentile believers. Israel, out of all the families on earth, was chosen as the apple of God’s eye. Yet, now, in Christ, the door is open to all who believe—both Jew and Gentile.
We are all saved by a gift of grace received through faith (Eph. 2:8-9). Just as Israel did nothing to affect God’s choice of them or His deliverance of them from Egyptian slavery, so the believer in Jesus Christ contributes nothing to their salvation. It is wholly of grace.
That great salvation is something that should stir our hearts to serve God. We cannot presume upon His grace as a license for sinful behavior. We must see that His grace isn’t just to forgive but to empower obedience.
As the apostle Paul once so powerfully contended:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Rom. 12:1).
In light of God’s great mercies towards us, so abundant and free, how could we not respond in loving obedience?
Israel was to look back to Egyptian slavery, remembering how much God had done for them, and in light of that knowledge, serve God.
Let us then, as Christians, look to our much greater deliverance from sin and death, and in light of God’s work towards us, give our whole selves to Him as living sacrifices—unreserved, wholly devoted to the Master’s use.
Knowing God is a privilege that we shouldn’t take lightly, and that should cause us to live differently.
Challenge:
Do I look back regularly on the great work God did in saving me as the source for heartfelt Christian service in the present?
[1] Duane A. Garrett, “Amos,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1383.