In there somewhere...

Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they delivered entire communities over to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of kinship. So I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, fire that shall devour its strongholds. (Amos 1:9-10)

In a recent Bible study, we were reading and discussing the book of Amos. Amos is called to bring the word of judgment to Israel. After overlooking the nation's transgressions time and again, the Lord's patience has finally come to an end. The shepherd turned prophet is called and the Word comes swift and relentless. Things begin to change rapidly in Israel and the people come to see that this is God's judgment befalling them.

The question raised in the Bible study was: where is this today? Where is God's hand? Where is God's response to modern sin or disrespect? Is God patient or irresponsible? Or is it that we just haven't reached the tipping point just yet?

The specifics in our conversation had to do with the environment. Some of the people in the group noticed that we aren't hearing as much about global warming as we did just a year or two ago. Why is this? Is it because the evidence now suggests that the matter is not as urgent as some initially believed? Is it because all this is simply too big and involved and there really isn't anything that we can do about it? Is it information overload?

These are all reasonable explanations. But there is another question--what does God make of all this? What does God make of the 70+ Million Barrels of oil that the planet is burning through each and every day? What does the Lord think about the vanishing rain-forest or the level of pollution escalating in developing countries like China and India?

The members of the bible study struggled--not merely in answering these kinds of questions but in even thinking about them. What does this mean? Does it mean anything? My point is not to suggest I have some kind of insight or righteousness. The fact is that I am as incapable of talking meaningfully about this stuff as anybody else. But something tells me that it does matter.

Next time you pick up a paper or click on your favorite Internet news-source, ask yourself that question--what does God make of this? Because it seems to me that whether we are talking our personal decisions or national priorities or corporate values or whatever... God has got to be in there somewhere. Maybe the Lord is patient or hopeful and, therefore, remaining hidden and inactive in some of these situations. But according to the prophets, if there is real sin or wickedness involved, there does come a time... Indeed, there must come a time when all that patience runs out.