Amos 4:12 Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. How often have these words been turned into words of terror; how many noble discourses have been preached from this text which had no relation whatever to its meaning! This is the voice of love. All punishment, has failed — what now is to be done? Something larger, nobler. Prepare to meet thy God." "Prepare": there is forewarning. When God forewarns He means to give us every opportunity of repentance; if He were not determined upon giving us every opportunity He would plunge upon us without warning, and carry us away as a flood in the night-time, The very word "prepare," so used in,, this relation is itself a Gospel term. Prepare to meet thy God. Still it is thy God." Men give up God, but does God give up them? They forget that there is a double relation. Imagine not that God is moved by your fickle changefulness. You may have renounced God, but God has not renounced you. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. |
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