A Gruesome Picture You Need to See—Amos 3:12

A Gruesome Picture You Need to See—Amos 3:12
Jack Klumpenhower
3/19/2013
Cigarette packs in America have long come with written warning labels. Now there’s a proposal, debated in the courts as I write this, to make those warnings include large photos of corpses, diseased lungs, and disfigured smokers. Whether you like the idea or not, you can understand the intent. Regulators hope daily exposure to the gruesome pictures will get smokers’ attention, change their behavior, and save lives.

Personally, I’m more concerned with how souls are saved. I wonder whether some graphic images might be good for us spiritually. They could get our attention when we start drifting away from godly behavior.

In the Bible, the prophet Amos ministered to people who needed such images. The nation of Israel was enjoying a period of prosperity. The people quickly embraced a greedy, materialistic culture and became more eager to succeed in business than to serve God. Many still kept religious observances. But they fit those in between exploiting the poor and shopping for fancy goods, or else they changed God-ordered worship practices to better fit their lifestyles or indulge their desires. They hoped God would be okay with that. Hadn’t he promised always to be their Savior?

Amos’ graphic picture

Amos had to get the people’s attention, so he chose a graphic image. He told them to imagine themselves as sheep attacked by a lion, with a shepherd standing by to save them: “A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion’s mouth will recover only two legs or a piece of an ear. So it will be for the Israelites in Samaria lying on luxurious beds” (Amos 3:12, NLT).

Just a few legs and a chunk of ear get saved from the lion. That’s pretty gruesome.

Amos said that trouble was coming and there would be a rescue—in a sense. There would be salvation—of a sort. But it wouldn’t be the sort that turned out well for the sheep. God will save his people in some way, somehow. But don’t presume that you’ll be one of the survivors if you aren’t living like one of God’s people.

Sadly, despite the graphic warning, the people didn’t listen to Amos. They continued to live selfishly. Soon the ruthless Assyrians eyed their wealth and decided to conquer them, and God allowed the lion to have its meal. Israel was destroyed.

The picture we need

What about salvation? Well, a remnant of Israelites survived and worshiped God, but the bigger salvation came centuries later in Jesus. Out of the blood and mangled bones of Israel, God’s own Son was born. We who believe in him are brought into his Kingdom—one far grander than Israel, even at its height. We share all the wealth of God. We’re a saved people who know his love, his forgiveness, his transforming power, and his promise to be with us always. What a life!

Yet sometimes I take it for granted. Like the Israelites, I push God aside to chase greedy desires and consumer comforts. I assume that’ll be okay.
This is why Amos’ warning is as important today—maybe even more important—as it was when he first delivered it.

Maybe you don’t like graphic warnings. Maybe you think they’re heavy handed. If that’s the case, let me remind you of something Amos hinted at when he mentioned the saving shepherd. Our Good Shepherd, Jesus, took the most extreme measures imaginable to rescue his sheep. He stepped into the lion’s mouth himself. In place of us, he let his own blood be spilled and his own bones broken. This is how he saves us from our greedy sins. It’s the greatest love imaginable, the most devotion possible from any shepherd.

So if he gives me a warning, I know it springs from love. And it’s never just a warning. It’s also a shout of good news that draws my heart to him in gratitude and wonder. That’s exactly the kind of warning I need every day.

This is the third in a series of articles about the shorter books of prophecy known as the Minor Prophets.

Jack Klumpenhower is a writer and children’s ministry worker living in Colorado.