Goodness and Light

Bible Study

Amos 1:13-15 ESV

I can’t help but think about what the Prophet Amos experienced as he saw the future for each nation. The pain must have been difficult to see, but even more so he would have also known the pain and sorrow of God. There would have been anger as well, but because “This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.” (I John 1:5)

The light of God according to Psalm 27:1 associates that light to the stronghold of God. 2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us the light dispells the darkness in our hearts because we see the knowledge of who God is (for example: love, goodness, kindness, joy, and peace). The very character and nature of God is omnibenevolent. God is completely good. God stands against evil.

So in Amos 1:13-15 Amos was told, “Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.

So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour her strongholds,with shouting on the day of battle,    with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind; and their king shall go into exile, he and his princes together,”says the Lord.”

The egregious sin of the Ammonites against women and the unborn children they carried. Gilead belonged to Israel and the children and unborn children represented the future of Israel. The act of killing was not only brutal, what was done to innocent women was especially cruel because the Ammonites did it so they could take the land and the future of Israel.

This cruel act prompted God (who is goodness and light) to breakdown their walls and strongholds. God also promised he would exile the Ammonite king and princes.

Even then, God was merciful. He did not repay in kind. That’s because God is goodness and light. In God there is no darkness.

In God, Deborah

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