I want to add one more comment about the end of our Amos passage: “…I will send fire upon Judah…” (Amos 2:4b-5a).
Fire is used as a symbol of God’s presence and as a figurative or literal representation of His power. Let’s look at a few passages:
Numbers 11:1-2: “Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when He heard them His anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord and the fire died down.”
First Kings 18:36-38: “At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: ‘O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and have done all these things at Your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that You, O Lord, are God, and that You are turning their hearts back again.’ Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, ‘The Lord – He is God! The Lord – He is God!’”
Exodus 13:21: “By day the Lord went ahead of them [the Israelites] in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.”
Revelation 1:14: “His head and [His] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes [were] as a flame of fire.”
Hebrews 12:29 (quoting Deuteronomy 4:24): “For our God is a consuming fire.”
Matthew 13:40: “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.”
Fire represents the presence of the Lord and it represents the judgment of the Lord. But it also represents the purifying of the Lord. Isaiah 6:5-7: “‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’”
If you have accepted His free pardon of sin, Jesus Christ has already redeemed you and set you free. He experienced the fiery trial and suffering of crucifixion and death so that you wouldn’t have to know the eternal suffering of “…the second death…” (see Revelation 20:14). If He never did another thing for you, hasn’t He done enough already?
Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture is from the New International Version (NIV).
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