Trusting and Understanding Prophesy

Scripture: Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament, house of Israel:
She has fallen;
Virgin Israel will never rise again.
She lies abandoned on her land
with no one to raise her up.
Amos 5:1-2

Observation: Amos begins a new section of prophecy this way, declaring with sadness the fact that Israel will be destroyed and sent into exile. This isn't the harsh warnings about destruction, but a lament that it comes to this.

The primary way to test prophecy is to see if it comes true. Certainly, Amos' warning that Israel would fall and go into exile came true. However, what about this line ... that "Israel will never rise again"? Israel exists again today, so did this prophecy fail? Obviously, no. This line is and was about the "northern kingdom" now also calling itself Samaria. It is also about the activities of that nation - the worship of idols at the high places of Bethel and Gilgal - which get called out just one verse later.

Samaria fell and never rose again, and those idols were destroyed and have never existed again. Just as importantly, the people of the northern kingdom did not have the same exile experience as Judah did under Babylon, but rather they were scattered and never returned. It is important to understand all of this when examining prophesy, for the Lord's true word never fails.

Application: Today, I stand with Israel, as I have declared before. I still strongly believe that the Lord is active in that part of the world in a way that is supernatural and powerful. I believe the enemies of Israel are actually enemies of Yahweh, and identified and cursed as such. I believe the Lord works through Israel to reveal himself and his plan for mankind.

And I know that 'Israel' of the first millennia BC was absolutely destroyed and never rose again. The prophesies of the past were true and accurate, giving us faith in both the prophesies of the future, and in the prophesies about Jesus as the Messiah. I trust in the word of the Lord, as I have declared before.

Prayer: Lord, may your word always comfort, inform, instruct, and teach me every day. Please be with Israel and those there today as they continue in danger and hardship, and may your will for the world, and the spiritual war that is occurring all around us, be revealed through Israel. Amen.