'Can Two Walk Together Except They be Agreed'

"Jehovah-mekoddishkem" The Lord Who Sanctifies

*Psalms 4:3-5, "But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him. Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD."

Imagination and pretending can go hand in hand especially when you are a child. Each of us can remember finding mom's or dad's old clothes and putting them on. Pretending to be all grown up can be fun when you're only three or four feet tall.

Girls getting into mom's make-up, putting on long dresses, purse pulled over their shoulder, dawning a hat and those high-heeled shoes and then trying to walk down the street while tugging and pulling to keep everything in place. Cooking dinner for the family on a little plastic stove. Having tea parties with imaginary friends, Teddy, Raggedy Ann, or Ken and Barbie. Using the family's cat or dog as the baby they can dress up and walk around in a stroller while pretending they are shopping then pulling imaginary or play money out of their purse. 

On the other hand, boys riding stick horses dawning cowboy hats and spurs and pretending to be the new sheriff in town then locking up the local bank robber in a cardboard jail. Perhaps walking around in their dad's old army gear, riding helmet, or fire hat. Making all those motor noises while riding their bikes or big wheels. Climbing hills to capture the flag. Putting out fires with the garden hose. Digging trenches and putting dirt on their face so they can't been seen.  Skulking, crawling on their bellies through the trees or grass pretending they are stocking an enemy or prey.

It is easy to pull life out of a closet or box full of old clothes when you are a child; however, as adults, there are those who try to hide what is unpleasant about their life in a closet while pretending everything is perfect. Dawning make up and covering over their life with a lackluster of fairy tales and imaginary scenarios, they try to mask the hollowness and emptiness that lies deep inside. These are people who are smiling and laughing on the outside while on the inside they are screaming and crying for help.

Outward appearances aren't always what they seem. 'Putting on airs' or 'Keeping up appearances' often leave a void once you are behind closed doors. Once you are alone with who you are, all of the fear, anger, and sadness can return as quickly as flipping on a light switch in an empty room.

There is a light that can consume the darkness and shine as bright as the sun. There is a place where you can walk in all goodness, righteousness, and truth by putting your hand in the hand of the One Who knows you more than you know yourself, the One Who knows your pain. But greater than that, He knows your potential and desires for you to walk in love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance because against such there is no law.

*Amos 3:1-8, "Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?"

Amos, whose name means 'a burden', was one of the twelve minor prophets. Amos prophesied in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel, and was contemporary with Isaiah and Hosea. A native of Tekoa, he was a man of humble birth, neither a "prophet nor a prophet's son," but a herdsman and "a gatherer of sycomore fruit". Amos was called to remind the people of the law of God's retributive justice and to call them to repentance.

Amos' call to repentance was in the form of a lamentation. His words, as recorded, warned of the impending fall of Israel and, because she had forsaken the Lord, there was no one to raise her again. His cry was, "For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name."

Amos reminded them that God destroyed the Amorite before them, and brought them up from the land of Egypt leading them for forty years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. He raised up their sons for prophets and their young men for Nazarites, but they gave the Nazarites wine to drink and commanded the prophets, saying, "Don't prophesy". "I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves."

He warned that for three transgressions of Judah and for four, God would not turn away their punishment. They had despised the law of the LORD and had not kept His commandments. Their lies caused them to err because they continued to walk in the way of their fathers. He told them the Lord  would send a fire upon Judah which would devour the palaces of Jerusalem. He also warned for three transgressions of Israel and for four God would not turn away their punishment because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes. They turned aside the way of the meek and a man and his father went after the same woman in the house of their god.

Nevertheless, God never judges and condemns without giving a promise of restoration. Amos' prophesy ends with these words of hope, "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God."

God knew Israel's manifold transgressions and mighty sins. They afflicted the just, took bribes, and turned the poor away from the gate. The warnings were strong, "Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD. Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts." Amos cried to them, "Hate the evil and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate. Perhaps the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

In his despair Amos cried out, "O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small." The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD. Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the LORD stood upon a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the LORD, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, told Jeroboam, the king of Israel, that Amos had conspired against him in the midst of the house of Israel. Amos said, "Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land." Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy, but don't prophesy any more at Bethel because it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court."

Amos answered Amaziah, "You say don't prophesy against Israel and speak your word against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus says the LORD, 'your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line. You shall die in a polluted land and Israel shall surely go into captivity.' Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and He will destroy it from off the face of the earth but He will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob. He will command and sift the house of Israel among all nations like corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All the sinners of His people shall die by the sword that say, 'The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us'."

In 754 B.C. Amos' prophesies ended and in 721 B.C. the king of Assyria led Israel away captive and placed them in Halah and Habor, cities of the Medes. Then the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. Samaria was never again inhabited by the Israelites, thus terminated the kingdom of the ten tribes after a separate duration of two hundred, fifty-five years.

It is easy to pretend everything is right with the world when you deny all that is wrong. Walking through life with 'rose colored glasses' can hinder your view of all the black and white that is right in front of you, especially when you are of the opinion that it will never happen to you. We always think that what happens to others will never touch our lives; however, quite frequently it does, especially when it happens within the confines of our own home.

Tragedy comes in many forms. Our first response is denial, disbelief, often the next response is anger, and then finally grief. It is not so much the tragedy itself, but how we go through that tragedy that refines us. Refusing to believe what has happened actually occurred gives place for false witness and a lying tongue; however, the real tragedy is, if we choose to stay in denial we give no place for healing.

There is nothing more desperate, more deprived than a sick soul. It is a wound that goes much deeper than the flesh and its burning goes deep. It grieves and sighs and its strength fails. It becomes as one dead, a broken vessel. Then there is the fear that others will see through the mask, the facade that it hides behind. It sets up walls where it can confine its feelings. An invisible line, as it were, that says, "you can come this far but no further". Any further and anyone has invaded its private zone, the place where it is most vulnerable.

It is only when the soul cries out to God that it can find healing. In his darkest hour David cried out to God, "In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength," *Psalms 31:1-4.

The world is full of people such as these. The unfortunate tragedy is they really don't know they need a savior. People who live their lives in denial, never seeing nor understanding that a death has taken place, a death that can be exchanged for a new, eternal life. People who believe everything is perfect while masking the hollowness and emptiness that lies deep inside. People whose destination is obscure and full of darkness. They are called lost souls.

Often we see these people and take no notice. They may be your neighbor, the person standing next to you in line at the grocery store, someone you work with, a classmate in your school, or just someone you pass by on the street. People who need to know the truth. People who need to see the light of Christ and, if you are a born again Christian, they need to see the light of Christ in you. We need to reveal the life of Christ because there are many in this world who bear burdens too hard to carry and it is Christ Who can lift that burden and make it light.

When you continue in His love then the love of Christ will be seen in you and work through you to those who need the love of God in their life, because perfect love casts out all fear. When you let the peace of Christ abound in you to all men then the hope of God will fill you with all joy so that you can reveal that hope to those who have no hope. Do not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. Fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power and allow the mercy of God to be revealed in your life to show His longsuffering for you as a pattern to those who believe unto eternal life.

We have been called into the service of the Lord. Called to reveal the love of God to the world's lost and dieing souls. Called to walk along side the Spirit of God Who leads us into all truth. Who does not speak on His own but whatsoever the Lord speaks He speaks to your heart. We walk side by side with the Spirit of truth, therefore, walk according to the Spirit of Christ that dwells in you, for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

Jesus said, "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me." "If you continue in My word you are my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." We have been sanctified, set apart for the purpose of spreading the truth, the good news, that Christ is risen indeed, and, if Christ is risen indeed, we know He is coming back to receive us into His everlasting kingdom. In this knowledge is our hope, our peace, and our fulness of joy.

We have been given a commission to fulfill. The days are getting shorter and the time is at hand. Today is the day of salvation. Walk while is is yet day, not circumspectly but wise, redeeming the time, understanding the will of the Lord. You are light in the Lord, walk as children of the light for that light can consume the darkness and bring light and life to those who are in desperate need.

P The prophesies of the Old Testament reveal much about the differences between outward appearances and what was actually occurring on the inside, or within the heart of the nation of Israel. While the nation of Israel was being destroyed the nations that should have come to their aide stood idly by then plundered what remained. The nation of Edom, (Esau) Jacob's own brother, chose to close their eyes to what was happening and in the process was swept away in the same flood.

*Revised February 9, 2008