Sharper Iron From Kfuo Radio

Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor at Christ Lutheran Church in Hebron, CT, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Amos 7:1-3. This text starts the final third of the book of Amos. He has preached, “Repent!” but the people have refused to respond and return to the LORD. The series of visions the LORD shows to Amos beginning with this text proclaim the LORD’s judgment against His people Israel. The first vision is a swarm of locusts. The LORD forms them to send against His people at the time when the most destruction will be caused, before the first crops have been harvested yet after the second crops have sprouted. If this vision comes to pass, the devastation against Israel will be absolutely terrible. Amos responds as a prophet should. He prays on behalf of the people, with whom he is one. Amos asks the LORD to forgive, not based on any worthiness from Israel, but based on the LORD’s promise to send the Savior in the line of Jacob. In response, the LORD relents from His verdict of judgment for the time being. In A