Amo 3:6 | KingComments | STEP | Every previous question starts with the effect, for example: the bird is caught: then comes the cause: because of bait. That order is now reversed. We now first have the cause: the blowing of the trumpet; then the effect: the trembling or frightening of the inhabitants of the city. The sound of the trumpet from the city wall warns the city that intruders are approaching ( ). The trumpet represents the voice of the prophets. It is not listened to ( ), because the people are gazing at their prosperity. They go on as if there were no danger and no warning. Every disaster that strikes a human being or a community of people, a city, is meant by God as a punishment. The word ‘discipline’ has a negative sound for some people. But it has to do with education. Its meaning is ‘pulling’. God disciplines to educate His people and to draw them to Himself. Also, discipline does not always have to be ‘corrective’, as a result of sins committed. It can also be ‘preventive’, to prevent us from sinning. Another mistake we can make when we are disciplined is that we remain sticking to the means God uses to discipline. That is the case if we start giving our own explanations for example for illness, an accident, unemployment, children going their own way, while we do not think about the fact that God makes these things happen to us. We must learn not to look at second causes, the instruments, because there is nothing that happens outside of Him. No sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father ( ). How much less can a disaster occur in a city without Him. The foregoing is not meant to be a cheap solution for dramatic and shocking events or even crimes that have happened to someone. There are acts that can be done to someone, that can ruin someone’s life. In such cases, one can only hope and pray that the victim may eventually come to entrust himself completely to God. He was there when that terrible thing happened. He did not intervene, that is true, but that does not mean he wanted this terrible thing or even agreed with it. He cried with him or her. Whoever can get to the point of looking at God beyond this personal catastrophe and its cause, will experience His consolation and alleviation of pain on the way to healing. The thought of sin, as if God would work it, is completely misplaced. That is also not what Amos says. It is always, and certainly here, necessary to see the context of the verses in which it is written. Then it becomes clear that God is not the Processor, the Author of sin. Evil has a punitive character here. It is a disaster, such as an invasion by hostile forces, the sword, famine, or plague, as the necessary consequence of sin ( ).

‏ Amos 3:6

Cause and Effect in the City

Every previous question starts with the effect, for example: the bird is caught: then comes the cause: because of bait. That order is now reversed. We now first have the cause: the blowing of the trumpet; then the effect: the trembling or frightening of the inhabitants of the city. The sound of the trumpet from the city wall warns the city that intruders are approaching (Eze 33:1-3).

The trumpet represents the voice of the prophets. It is not listened to (Jer 6:17), because the people are gazing at their prosperity. They go on as if there were no danger and no warning. Every disaster that strikes a human being or a community of people, a city, is meant by God as a punishment. The word ‘discipline’ has a negative sound for some people. But it has to do with education. Its meaning is ‘pulling’. God disciplines to educate His people and to draw them to Himself. Also, discipline does not always have to be ‘corrective’, as a result of sins committed. It can also be ‘preventive’, to prevent us from sinning.

Another mistake we can make when we are disciplined is that we remain sticking to the means God uses to discipline. That is the case if we start giving our own explanations for example for illness, an accident, unemployment, children going their own way, while we do not think about the fact that God makes these things happen to us. We must learn not to look at second causes, the instruments, because there is nothing that happens outside of Him. No sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father (Mt 10:29). How much less can a disaster occur in a city without Him.

The foregoing is not meant to be a cheap solution for dramatic and shocking events or even crimes that have happened to someone. There are acts that can be done to someone, that can ruin someone’s life. In such cases, one can only hope and pray that the victim may eventually come to entrust himself completely to God. He was there when that terrible thing happened.

He did not intervene, that is true, but that does not mean he wanted this terrible thing or even agreed with it. He cried with him or her. Whoever can get to the point of looking at God beyond this personal catastrophe and its cause, will experience His consolation and alleviation of pain on the way to healing.

The thought of sin, as if God would work it, is completely misplaced. That is also not what Amos says. It is always, and certainly here, necessary to see the context of the verses in which it is written. Then it becomes clear that God is not the Processor, the Author of sin. Evil has a punitive character here. It is a disaster, such as an invasion by hostile forces, the sword, famine, or plague, as the necessary consequence of sin (Isa 45:7).