{"id":5136,"date":"2014-03-17T00:05:28","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T07:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5136"},"modified":"2014-03-16T22:31:54","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T05:31:54","slug":"warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/03\/17\/warning\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>People of Israel, <br \/>\nI rescued you from Egypt. <br \/>\nNow listen to my judgment <br \/>\nagainst you. <br \/>\nOf all nations on earth, <br \/>\nyou are the only one <br \/>\nI have chosen. <br \/>\nThat\u2019s why I will punish you <br \/>\nbecause of your sins. <br \/>\nCan two people walk together <br \/>\nwithout agreeing to meet? <br \/>\nDoes a lion roar in the forest <br \/>\nunless it has caught <br \/>\na victim? <br \/>\nDoes it growl in its den <br \/>\nunless it is eating? <br \/>\nHow can anyone catch a bird <br \/>\nwithout using a net? <br \/>\nDoes a trap spring shut <br \/>\nunless something is caught? <br \/>\nIsn\u2019t the whole city frightened <br \/>\nwhen the trumpet <br \/>\nsignals an attack? <br \/>\nIsn\u2019t it the LORD who brings <br \/>\ndisaster on a city? <br \/>\nWhatever the LORD God <br \/>\nplans to do, <br \/>\nhe tells his servants, <br \/>\nthe prophets. <br \/>\nEveryone is terrified <br \/>\nwhen a lion roars\u2014 <br \/>\nand ordinary people <br \/>\nbecome prophets <br \/>\nwhen the LORD God speaks. (Amos 3:1-8)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>God punishes those he loves.  God tells his people, whom he loves, that just as two people can\u2019t walk along together unless there is some agreement between them, so the Israelites are going to have to agree with God.  Moreover, just as a lion roars only when he has his prey, as trumpets are blown to signal an attack, so God does not act without warning.  Ordinary people will become prophets when God speaks.  God doesn\u2019t need anyone special to serve as his spokesperson.  Amos was not a professional prophet.  He was just a shepherd and farmer.  He had never planned on speaking upon God\u2019s behalf, but when God came to him, he obeyed, warning Israel, Judah and the surrounding nations of God\u2019s intent and their need to repent.<\/p>\n<p>How was a person to know when what was happening was the hand of God?  Prophets announced ahead of time what was going to come upon them.  They interpreted the circumstances and explained the reasons for them.  They pointed at how God in the past, in the time of Moses, had already warned them.  God doesn\u2019t punish without making it clear that it is him.  Disaster does not befall from God without him issuing a warning.  It isn\u2019t going to be a mystery; people won\u2019t be wondering whether it was God or not.  A trumpet blast, a roaring lion, a snare catching a bird are all obvious and easy to recognize.  Likewise, the acts of God in our lives are obvious.  <\/p>\n<div class='kindleWidget kindleLight' ><img src=\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\" \/><span>Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People of Israel, I rescued you from Egypt. Now listen to my judgment against you. Of all nations on earth, you are the only one I have chosen. That\u2019s why I will punish you because of your sins. Can two &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/03\/17\/warning\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5138,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5136\/revisions\/5138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}