Jesus throughout the Scriptures: Pre-exilic Prophets 1 (5)
Pray Psalm 147.1.
Praise the LORD!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.
Sing Psalm 147.1.
(St. Anne: Our God, Our Help in Ages Past)
Praise God, for it is good to sing loud praises to the LORD!
With joy our songs of praise we bring to God and to His Word.
Read Amos 3.1-15; meditate on verses 7, 8.
Preparation
1. What had God revealed?
2. What must His spokesmen do?
Meditation
What could be more secret than God? He dwells in darkness. His thoughts and ways are higher than we can comprehend. He is unfathomable by the human mind, the greatest Secret that ever was.
And yet Jesus revealed Him (Jn. 14.9; Heb. 1.3). The work of prophets like Amos foreshadows the coming of Jesus. The secret things that God has chosen to make known to us, He has done so by prophets who proclaimed His secrets to their generation and wrote them down for us to ponder (Deut. 29.29). A pattern unfolds throughout the Old Testament of increasing revelation of divine secrets followed by almost immediate fulfillment of certain of them—as in the case of Amos and other prophets. What they preached about divine judgment and captivity came to pass, showing that a secret had been revealed that few had chosen to heed. The message to us is, When the Lion roars, listen up!
And so it is today. The great Secret—God Himself—has been revealed to us in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. God’s prophets pointed forward to His coming and His apostles pointed backward to His work and forward to His return. The Lion of Judah has roared, and those who dare not listen and will not fear Him will find themselves the object of His wrath over time, and at the end of time (Rom. 1.18-32; Rev. 19, 20).
Similarly, we who have received the Secret are called to proclaim it (v. 8). God has spoken to the world through our Lord Jesus Christ. Who can but prophesy? You and I must follow the example of Amos and the others. We know a secret, in fact, the best, most important, most urgent Secret the world could ever know. We know Jesus, and He has appointed us His witness, to make Him known throughout our Personal Mission Field.
Who can but bear witness to such a glorious and wonderful Secret?
Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162.
“Surely the LORD God does nothing, unless
He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3.7).
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the word of this law” (Deut. 29.29). There is a reason He tells us some of His secrets—so we will learn His law and do it.
From Amos we have learned that all the redeemed are called as sheepbreeder/farmer/prophets and have a glorious message to pass along. But God is careful to whom He whispers His secrets.
“Do not envy the oppressor, and choose none of his ways;
for the perverse person is an abomination to the LORD,
but His secret counsel is with the upright” (Prov. 3.31, 32).
Paul, who was a tentmaker/prophet revealed the same message like this:
“I now rejoice in my sufferings for you,
and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ,
for the sake of His body, which is the church,
of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God
which was given to me for you,
to fulfill the word of God,
the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations,
but now has been revealed to His saints.
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles;
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom,
that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
To this end I also labor,
striving according to His working
which works in me mightily” (Col. 1.24-29).
Jesus says sweetly and encouragingly to us:
“No longer do I call you servants,
for a servant does not know what his master is doing;
but I have called you friends,
for all things that I heard from My Father
I have made known to you” (Jn. 15.15).
He has whispered the Secret to us.
We just need to be mindful that our whispered message,
our telling of the Secret to others,
is clear and concise and doesn’t come out garbled—
like the end of a game of Telephone.
Reflection
1. What “secrets” of the Lord are revealed in the Gospel? How have these secrets changed your life?
2. God is a great, unfathomable mystery, and yet we know Him. How can that be?
3. With whom will you share today the great Secret of our faith, even our Lord Jesus Christ?
I am constrained, willing or unwilling, to obey God: he has chosen me to be a Prophet, and has showed what he intends that I should proclaim. What can I do, he says? I am not at liberty to invent revelations; but I faithfully bring forth to you what has been delivered to me by the Lord. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Amos 3.7, 8
Pray Psalm 147.2, 3, 19, 20.
Thank and praise the Lord for the gift of salvation and the charge to proclaim this great secret as His witnesses and ambassadors. Ask Him to embolden you today to talk to someone about Jesus.
Sing Psalm 147.2, 3, 19, 20).
(St. Anne: Our God, Our Help in Ages Past)
The LORD builds up His Church and He His people gathers in.
The broken hearts He tenderly repairs and heals their sin.
His Word He to His Church bestows—His promises and Law.
No other nation God thus knows: Praise Him with songs of awe!
T. M. and Susie Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
