Blessing/Expectation (Amos 5:14,15)

“Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and thus may the LORD God of hosts be with you just as you have said!
Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate! Perhaps the LORD God of hosts may be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

Israel had a huge problem. They got their blessing/expectation relationship with God backwards. They though that God chose them as His people because of who they were, and that they could therefore do no wrong. They thought God’s choice was based on their preexisting character. Instead, they should have known (based on God’s interaction with them and His words) that He had chosen them to become His people, and it was therefore imperative that they live up to that designation. His choice was meant to produce a character, and they were not changing at all. They were as evil as any other people.

For God to “be with them” a change was in order. They needed to seek good. They were living an example of evil. They needed to learn to love good and hate the evil that they were perpetuating. Spoiler, the next verses will reveal that this is not going to happen.

Today we live under a new covenant. Our relationship with God is not dependent on our behavior, but on Christ’s merit. That said, the expectation is just as valid today. IF we are God’s people, we are chosen for change. We need to seek good and not evil. We need to hate evil and love good. If we find that we are not doing that—or worse, it has never occurred to us to question the issue—we may discover that we, like Israel, have never truly become God’s people. Our behavior does not determine who we are, but who we are does most certainly determine our behavior!