My elementary school selected well-behaved sixth graders to serve as “patrols.” Their main duty was to stand on the curbs and use flags to control traffic before and after school. But patrols also had hall monitoring duties for those who showed up early. Early arrivals were supposed to sit behind the line and behave calmly. It was a struggle. When you misbehaved, the patrols would report you. I remember watching this scenario, completely mystified. Even as a first grader, the impossibly tall sixth graders seemed too young for such heady responsibility. I listened to my peers to learn the ropes:
“Brian! I’m going to report you!”
“No, please! Give me a second chance.”
“I already gave you a second chance.”
“But can you just give me a third chance? Pleeeease?”
“Okay. But this is your last chance.”
“Okay! Right on!”
I was amazed. What was this ‘chance’ they spoke of? We never had ‘chances’ at home, or at church or at mother’s day out. The word ‘chance’ immediately became part of my vocabulary. Soon I was begging everyone for second chances, third chances, and more—patrols, teachers, my parents, everyone.
No matter how badly we fail, doesn’t everyone want another chance, a bit of hope? No matter how dark the tunnel, aren’t we motivated by that spot of light at the other end? Who can live without hope?
God is the ultimate expert on human nature, and he knows how desperately we need hope. How many times do God’s prophets pronounce judgment only to follow it up with the promise of restoration? God is so full of compassion, he almost always offers hope to those who will repent.
In the book of Amos, God pronounces chapter after chapter of judgment on the people of Judah and Israel.
“Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel” Amos 4:12.
“Let judgment run down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream” 5:24. (This line was quoted by Martin Luther King in his “I Have a Dream” speech.)
“Woe to them that are at ease in Zion” 6:1 (This is one of the most famous lines in the book of Amos.)
“Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel” 7:8.
God promises to send devastating judgments: plague, famine, poverty, and war (see Amos 4). But perhaps the worst judgment is silence:
“Behold, the days are coming, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it” Amos 8:11-12.
This prophecy would be fulfilled during the 400 years of silence before Gabriel announced the birth of Christ. Imagine four centuries without a word from God. Some of us become anxious if we can’t “feel God” for two or three days. Imagine ten generations of silence from heaven.
Yet, God promises hope. There is always hope—because God knows how badly we need it. “He knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust” Psalm 103:14.
Notice that Amos ends his book with words of great hope:
“Behold, the days are coming, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed, and the mountains shall drip sweet wine … And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the … cities, and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof. They shall make gardens and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant [the people] in the land, and they shall no more be pulled up….” Amos 9:13-15.
There is always hope, 1 Corinthians 13:13.
God always offers hope.
“I don’t think people can live without hope. What oxygen is to the lungs, hope is to our survival in this world. And the Bible is filled with hope.” –Billy Graham.
God, thank you for hope! No matter how dark our days might be, there is always hope. Hope for healing and restoration. Hope on earth, and hope for a beautiful eternity in heaven. Make us prophets, evangelists, missionaries of HOPE in a world with so little. May our lives and our words bring hope to all who know us.
AΩ
Household Words: 