At the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, the remains of numerous animals have been discovered. These range from a saber-toothed cat to wolves, sloths, and even an American lion.
Recently discovered is a nearly intact mammoth skeleton.
What do all these animals have in common? They got trapped in the pit, and there was no one to pluck them out. That is just like the Christian and sin. If we get trapped, and there is no one to pluck us out, we are swallowed by it, and it keeps us in its grasp for all time.
In the book of Amos, God’s people had gone astray. They were trapped in the tar pits of sin, and God wished to draw Israel back to him.
Amos reveals the multiple steps God went through to prompt Israel to return to him. He ruined her crops with drought. He sent blight and mildew on her farms. Locusts ate her figs and olives.
Still, the people refused to return to him.
God became harsher. He killed Israel’s children in war and drove away her horses. He allowed the stench of death to cover the land.
Still, the people refused to return to him.
How is that like us? God knocks our feet out from under us to get our attention, and we clamber up and continue to run from him. He brings disaster upon our families, and still we refuse to see that we are separated from the one who can deliver us.
In Amos, we read where God finally took the ultimate step. He began to destroy his people with the fires of his destruction. Even as he did so, he felt remorse. In Amos 4:11 we find where God snatched the remainder of his people out of the fire, a firebrand from the flames, hoping they would finally come to repentance.
When we have fallen into the tar pits of this world, and sin threatens to engulf us, there is a hand to pull us free. Jesus reaches his hand to us, and he offers us rescue in our time of need. All we have to do is repent of our wrongdoing and trust on his holy name.
The Father desires that no man should perish. He wishes all to come to him by the way of his Son, Christ Jesus.
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Code: FD.FGO.F.9.13d.vp
Throwback Thursday: Originally Published August 18, 2013 in Salvation