Knockout
18 For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel, “Seek Me that you may live.” Amos 5:4
Seek – Live – The Hebrew here is much more forceful. Just two words: dirshuni vikhyu. Like a one-two punch! The two words are darash and hayah, but it’s probably hard to see them because the form of the word changes, and the “and” is combined with the second verb – live. Remember darash. It’s the verb associated with examining, inquiring and absorbing God’s Law. Amos does not use baqash, the verb associated with pursuing God’s presence. Isn’t that interesting? In our culture, we speak about experiencing the presence of God, as if being in His presence is the solution to life’s problems. But God tells us something else. He points to His Word and says, “Pursue this. Go after this with all that you’ve got. Make this your life – and you will live.” By the way, hayah (the verb for “to live”) doesn’t mean just having spiritual life. It means to be alive in any way, shape or form. If you want to live, you must pursue God’s Word. Otherwise, you die! And this death is not limited to your eternal soul. It is about not being alive while you walk around dead, waiting for the end.
Do you know what that’s like? Can you remember (maybe not so long ago) when you were the walking dead? In that state it often feels as if there is no way out. No matter what you try, the death spiral just keeps coming back to you. You can run or you can fight, but you can’t hide. There is a good reason why life seems so utterly empty and hopeless when the death grip of disobedience squeezes your throat. God designed it that way! That hopeless and purposeless defeat is built into sin itself. Why? Because God wants you to feel the crush, know the despair and taste the rot in order to get you to come back to Him. No man seeks God until he has exhausted himself. It shouldn’t be that way. After all, God’s rule is the very best thing that could happen to anyone. But we are corrupt, self-absorbed, ego-maniacs. So, God has to take us apart before we are ready to be put back together. The only reason people turn around is because they can’t keep going in the same direction. They have to hit a brick-wall before they will look another way.
If you thought that keeping God’s commandments was optional, then you probably haven’t had a good dose of despair. Go read Ecclesiastes. When you are done, you will have two choices: suicide or obedience. Actually, that’s where we all are, because if we are not obeying, we are simple committing delayed suicide. You are taking your own life, one day at a time.
God delivers a knockout punch, but He is not interested in standing over you with His fist clenched. He is interested in rescuing you from certain destruction. So, He points to the way out – His Word – and tells you to come running for all your worth.
Time to sprint a marathon.
