Ever feel like trials and problems are flooding your life?  I know how you feel.
 

I am preaching this month at Arlington Presbyterian Church in Arlington, Tennessee.  My sermon today dealt with the topic of trials, particularly in the lives of Christians.

To get to the point I wanted to make, I worked through the idea of trials, side-stepping the complicated theological discussions that emerge from the question of where trials come from.

(See the following for THAT discussion:

Alvin C. Pantinga: God, Freedom, and Evil.

C. S. Lewis: The Problem of Pain.

These are just two examples from the Twentieth Century that are on my bookshelves.  There are many, many more books and writings on the topic.)

So with the understanding that trials do come, I went on to talk about how we as Christians work through them.  My text, a surprise to some, was from Amos, Chapter 9, a text on God's judgment of Israel for Isreal's disobedience.  Amos was written to the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the Eighth Century B. C.  It was a time of relative stability, but the threat of the Assyrians was imminent.  Meanwhile, the people of Israel were not following God.

Amos sets out to correct their behavior through the first seven chapters.

By chapter 8 however, Amos has concluded that Israel’s disobedience has gone too far and that God’s judgment is forthcoming.

Amos 9
Israel to Be Destroyed

1 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said:
       "Strike the tops of the pillars
       so that the thresholds shake.
       Bring them down on the heads of all the people;
       those who are left I will kill with the sword.
       Not one will get away,
       none will escape.

2 Though they dig down to the depths of the grave,
       from there my hand will take them.
       Though they climb up to the heavens,
       from there I will bring them down.

3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
       there I will hunt them down and seize them.
       Though they hide from me at the bottom of the sea,
       there I will command the serpent to bite them.

4 Though they are driven into exile by their enemies,
       there I will command the sword to slay them.
       I will fix my eyes upon them
       for evil and not for good."


Amos claims that those who have turned from God’s ways will not be able get away unpunished.  He says in verses 2 and 3 that they can try to hide, but where?  God will find them all!

At this point, you might we wondering why on earth I’d pick this text.  Why would I pick a text on God’s judgment of those who would disobey if I am setting out to show who Christians might come through trials.

The answer begins in verse 5.  Verses 5 and 6 are the prophet’s comments about what has told him to say in verses 1-4.  It ties back in to verse 1, like an appositive.  In verse 1 Amos says, “The Lord said,” then in 5 to make sure the readers know who is doing the talking, he repeats:

5 The Lord, the LORD Almighty,
       he who touches the earth and it melts,
       and all who live in it mourn—

Amos says that when God touches the earth—a mere touch—it trembles, and all who live in it mourn.  God’s judgment is a terrible trial!  All will mourn.


Then, Amos introduces the imagery of the flood.

(v 5, cont.)
       the whole land ( א ר צ ) rises like the Nile,
       then sinks like the river of Egypt-

Amos says God’s judgment will rise up from the whole land.  God’s judgment—the trial that the people of Israel will face—will be like a flood of the Nile that will rise up and cover everything.  It will seep under doors into houses and wash away everything in its path.

It was this imagery that made me want to explore this text. I can imagine someone who feeling the pressure of post-modern life saying, “I just feel like I’ve been flooded with stress and trials!”

I felt like the image of trials as a flood was fitting and one that would be valuable.

I know the idea of Gods judgment doesn't equate with being under trials.  Trials come for a lot of reasons other than God's judgment.  I didn’t want to get into why we have trials, as I said, but I wanted to focus on coming through them, and I strongly believe there is a message about coming through trials in this passage.

We all know the devastating potential of flooding.  We need only think back to hurricane Katrina to the flooding in Africa in 2007.  We need only look at the news of the spring of 2008 in the central USA to see how flooding is destroying homes and lives all over the US.

But there is another side to the idea of flooding that people of the 21st century might miss.  It is an idea, however, that was obvious to people of Israel in the time of Amos.

The Nile, and its annual flood, was very important as Egypt has so little rain. In ancient times the flood happened as the snow melted on mountains in Africa and flowed to the sea, through Egypt. The mud that was left by the water put goodness back into the land and helped the crops to grow.

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