Amos 1

I am reading through the OT book of Amos, and it is quite the ride! The themes that run through the book are:
1. Injustice is not tolerated by our Holy God. (2:6-8), (4:1)
2. The reason that God sends judgment is not for punishment, but to show the people that they need him. (4:6-13)
3. Those who oppress the weak to get rich will get what's coming to them. (3:15) (6:4-7)
4. Those who trust the Lord will be saved, but those who trust themselves will be destroyed. (6:1-7)
5. God is sovereign over everything and everyone. (9:1-10)
6. God is still faithful to accomplish his purposes. (9:11-15)

What Amos is trying to say all through the book, is that God's law is not just the outward obedience, but a changed heart. The question to keep in the front of our minds is, "How does this book show Jesus?" The reasons for this, if we believe that the Bible is inspired and profitable, (2 Tim 3:16) then it all has one central theme. That central theme Jesus reveals in Luke 24 in the stoy of the road to Emmaus. (vv 25-27) says that he opened to them all the things that Moses and the Prophets wrote of him, and not only that, that it was in "all the Scriptures" were the "things concerning himself." Therefore, the central theme of the Bible is Jesus. It's all written by God to reveal himself, and the clearest way that God revealed himself was in his Son, Jesus. The Bible is not primarily about us, how to live life, or the rules.
As Sally Lloyd-Jones says in The Jesus Storybook Bible, "Now some people think the Bible is a book of rule, telling you what you should and shouldn't do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. The show you how life works best. But the Bible isn't mainly about you and what you should be doing. It's about God and what he has done...There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them."