Amos 7:1–3

Thus the Lord GOD showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king’s mowings. And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said:

“O Lord GOD, forgive, I pray!
Oh, that Jacob may stand,
For he is small!”
So the LORD relented concerning this.
“It shall not be,” said the LORD.

The first nine verses of chapter seven are three prophesies of three verses each. In this first prophesy, God gives Amos a vision of a terrible plague of locusts. The locusts show up after the “tax” portion of the harvest (the king’s mowings) is completed. The “little” people bear the brunt of this catastrophic loss.

So, Amos pleads for the people of Israel (the descendants of Jacob) and, curiously, God relents. This sets an important pattern for the message of this whole section. This time, Amos’s plea carries the day.

And his plea is simply that Jacob is small! He makes no case that Jacob (Israel) deserves God’s favor. In fact, he starts out with, “O Lord GOD, forgive, I pray!”

That’s an admission of guilt.

Admission of guilt is obviously essential to being a Christian. Jesus can’t be your savior if you don’t think you need one.

But it’s deeper than that. Seeing the need for a savior is just an indicator. If someone has that wrong, everything’s wrong. People need to see themselves in a proper light to have a proper concept of God. Without a proper concept of God, one can’t confess Jesus as Lord in any meaningful way.

People who don’t recognize their sinfulness see themselves as righteous, so the righteousness of God has no meaning. Whoever they might think God is, He isn’t that.

This is what makes the born-again experience so powerful. Everything changes when you see yourself, and thus everything, in a proper light.

It’s painful, but ultimately the most beautiful thing in the world.

It’s what makes anything truly beautiful.

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Weekend DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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The weekly study guides, which include the Monday–Friday devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.