A Nuanced Tone
I read a verse in scripture this morning where God is being sarcastic. I’ve never really noticed it before. Maybe it’s my own mood this morning but, it does seem to qualify for sarcasm. And it made me laugh even in the midst of such a chilling address by the Lord.
It’s Amos 4.1-5. This passage is quite terrifying because whatever God speaks accomplishes that which it’s sent to accomplish…and it prospers in its purpose. Gives me chills…
God doesn’t play around y’all.
There’s another verse that really moved me which I’ll get to in a moment. But the sarcasm is found in verses 4 and 5 where God uses a nuanced tone with them and says in essence, ‘Come on to Bethel and transgress! Bring those sacrifices every morning, proclaim and announce your offerings, go right ahead! Because this is who you are and this is what you love!”
Whewwww~ NOBODY wants God speaking sarcastically to them, oh my goodness…
Evildoers Miss the Straight Path
He’s addressing the land of Bashan in Samaria here. I don’t know all the history but one of my favorite lines in this section is as follows:
“You will go out through broken walls..”
No hint of sarcasm there. This is an amazing imagery and description of an exit of power, or a driving out of evil from a place it once inhabited but is being rejected from the land. The scripture says the Lord will make our paths straight. Our path is made easy when we choose God’s way. We may not think this is true, because life is strenuous and confusing at times. But the Lord always makes a way where there seems to be no way. Isaiah 43.16, God made a way through a sea, He made a way through transporting in the belly of a whale, He made a way from death to life for Christ and all of us. There is no path, not even the path through the heart of evil, that God cannot make a way for us to walk out on dry land – a straight path.
But those who are evil, well their way is out through broken crumbled walls, falling debris, stumbling and even dying of their wounds just trying to get away from whatever is pursuing them. It is their own sin that has crumbled the walls of their life and existence. The word of God is tremendous. I like that wording very much, it’s concise and deadly.
God Delivers Us, But Evildoers are Delivered to Their Fate
In Amos 3.11 He speaks another powerful word:
“An adversary shall be all around the land; He shall sap your strength from you, and your palaces shall be plundered.”
Our enemies don’t stand a change against God. However, against us alone…well that’s a different story. But, alas!, we are not alone! We don’t have to deliver ourselves all the time. If we can’t admit we need help, then the issue is far deeper than just trying to act strong. The strongest are able to receive help willingly.
Evil never slips out of the snare – there will always be a final snare that never lets them go. God will see to that. We don’t see to it, God sees to it.
Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.’
Deuteronomy 32.35
God works contrary to our understanding of the world. When we think we’ve won, we’ve actually lost. When we think it’s the end, it’s actually a newly created beginning. This only happens for those the Bible says are ‘hidden in Christ’. Hiding in any other way won’t save us from the exiting through crumbling walls. God protects and preserves His own, He watches over His word to perform it on our behalf.
Because God is just marvelous like that.
Featured Image by Pawel Czerwinski.