Series: Shepherds Roar
Message: Promises of Hope
Preacher: Alex Bryan
Reflection: Nathan Brown
Live Wonder: Zan Long
Live Adventure: Jess Lee
Editor: Becky De Oliveira

Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.

Read: Amos 9 in The Message (MSG). Note 1–3 insights or questions.

Reflect: Reading the first few verses of Amos 9 is an important reminder that we are reading poetic–prophetic language and that we need to be careful about quoting single verses out of their larger context. Over the course of a mere nine verses, Amos moved from “No one will escape” to “I will destroy [the nation] from the face of the earth. But I will never completely destroy the family of Israel” to “not one true kernel will be lost.” (see Amos 9:1, 8, 9, NLT). The first is a statement of despair, the second is a modified statement, the last is a statement of hope—and it’s important that we keep that order in mind.

God was not changing His mind as the message progressed, nor was He contradicting or correcting Himself. This is a literary form that feels something like a conversation God is having with Himself—almost a kind of call-and-response—seen most clearly in the apparent reversal in Verse 8. In a sense, each of the statements was true in describing God’s judgment and its consequences. But they are most true when read together, not in isolation, and when read with an understanding of the larger message of Amos’ prophetic ministry and the overarching action of the mercy of God, even in the harsh warnings of His looming judgments.

In this sense, as we have seen in earlier chapters, this was also an ongoing conversation—even harking back to the image of Israel wrestling with God—between God, Amos, and the people of Israel. This is less a universalizing principle than a story of how God sought to call His people back to His ways at a particular time in their history—from which we can learn more of what His righteousness, His judgments, and His mercy look like in human history.

Continuing this conversation and leading into the final words of Amos’ message, Verse 10 offered a revised version of Verse 1, but now those who will die by the sword are those who persist as sinners and tell themselves that there are no consequences to their stubborn idolatry and injustice.

Recalibrate: Why is it so appealing to use single Bible verses for inspiration or doctrinal study? What are some of the risks that come with this?

Respond: Pray these words: “God, thank you for inviting us into the much larger story of Your mercy and loving intention for our world.”

Research: Read the book of Amos again as a whole, in one sitting if possible. How has your reading and understanding of this book as a whole changed because of the closer study we have done? How might you read individual verses differently because of this larger picture?

Remember: “I will bring my people Israel back from captivity. They will build the ruined cities again. And they will live in them” (Amos 9:14, ICB).

Nathan Brown is a writer and book editor at Signs Publishing Company, near Melbourne, Australia. Nathan is author/editor of 16 books, including two this year—Of Falafels and Following Jesus and For the Least of These.

Find some pictures, and cut them in half or in thirds to suit the level of your child, or your may have a book or blocks where the top matches with the bottom. See if your little one can match up the tops and bottoms. So often we can get a very weird picture of something because we are missing parts of the picture or we have mixed the parts up. Know that God sees the big picture and He asks us to help make a beautiful, kind, caring, and good picture with Him.

Do you have a favorite song? Perhaps it’s Baby Shark or Let it Go. Did you know that one of the most well-known kids songs is Jesus Loves the Little Children? Have you sung that song lately? This song teaches us one of the most important things about Jesus; it tells us that He loves all the children of the world. God wants us to love everyone no matter who they are just like He does.

Zan Long is GRC director for faith development for ages 0-17. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and serves at her local church in nearby Kellyville.
Jess Lee is an education consultant for the New South Wales Adventist education system. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and attends Kellyville Church.