IT'S THE BLOOD, NOT THE BLESSINGS
It was around 800BC in the northern part of the Promised Land during the time of King Jeroboam II, and the Israelites had it all. God’s people in that northern kingdom of Israel were blessed with good food, nice homes, large fields, safe borders, and plenty of the other niceties of life. They didn’t have a need that couldn’t be met; they didn’t have a want that couldn’t be filled. They didn’t have a worry in the world because of all the earthly blessings that the Lord had showered upon them. And they were loving life. In fact, they couldn’t have been happier. But not everything was good. Because the Lord was actually angry at them! Even though he was blessing them with an incredible amount of gifts, even though he was supplying them with almost every enjoyable thing they could have possibly wanted in this life, the Lord was not happy with them at all. Instead he was furious! God was extremely upset at his people because they had forgotten about the only thing that should have made them happy. They had forgotten about him.
The Lord did not like it that his own people, his own chosen nation, had forgotten about him because they should have known better! His own children should have understood that the gifts were not more important than the Giver, that the blessings should have never overshadowed the one who blessed them. And so the Lord sent the prophet Amos to his people. Amos was originally a shepherd and an owner of a fig orchard by trade from the southern kingdom of Judah. But this man of the flocks and the fruit trees was hand-picked by the Lord anyway to be his special messenger to preach to his countrymen in the northern kingdom of Israel. And the Lord’s words through him were not very pleasant.
“Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!... You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.”
For the previous 150 years leading up to the time Amos spoke these words, as long as the land of Israel had been divided into two kingdoms, the northern land of Israel had been in a spiritual downward spiral. They had never had a godly king on the throne and Jeroboam II, the king who ruled during Amos’ time, was no better. The people worshiped false gods in the cities of Bethel and Dan; they refused to honor the Lord in Jerusalem; and the majority of the people had turned their backs on their God. And yet the people of Israel were still happy! They were content to lie on their expensive couches and enjoy their lavish feasts and listen to their beautiful music and indulge in the finest pampering available, but they were unconcerned that the house of Joseph - the nation of God’s people - was in spiritual ruins. They shouldn’t have been happy, but they were. They shouldn’t have been content, but they were. Because their happiness was based on the wrong things altogether.
The way in which the Lord gave earthly blessings to the Israelites in and around 800 BC is similar to the way he has blessed us here in and around 2010 AD, isn’t it? We eat some of the best food in this world, we live in nice homes, we are supplied by hundreds of thousands of acres of local farmland, we enjoy relatively safe borders, and we have access to plenty of the other niceties of life. The Lord has been good to us. The Lord has showered us - drenched us - with more blessings than we can possibly enjoy all at once! And so we have to be careful not to slip into the error that those Israelites did during the time of Amos: We must be careful not to base our happiness on the things we have and the things we can get and the things we can keep in this life. That’s just a really hard thing not to do.
Because we look forward to the blessings, don’t we? We work for the blessings, we strive for the blessings, we revel in the blessings, but sometimes we are also only happy if we are in the middle of the blessings. Because think of what happens in your life when you don’t get what you worked so hard for. What happens when you can’t have what you really want? What happens when the blessings that you have enjoyed for years are suddenly taken away from you? Are you disappointed? Are you angry? Are you extremely sad? There are times when I am disappointed or angry or sad when I can’t get the blessings I so eagerly want. Because those particular blessings mean so much to us. The good things in this life are so important to us that our happiness is largely based on what we have and what we can get and what we can keep. And we forget that this life is not about the blessings. True happiness cannot be found in the gifts. Learn from the Israelites during the time of Amos: they had everything; but they really had nothing at all. They could get their hands on anything they wanted; but they neglected the only thing they actually needed. They were overjoyed with all of the earthly blessings the Lord had given them; but they ended up throwing away the only blessing that really mattered.
Our happiness cannot be based on the kind of house we can get or the type of retirement we can enjoy or the quality of vehicle we can drive or the size of the tv we can watch or the amount of trips we can take or even the number of family members we can spend time with. Because those things aren’t what really matter. And those things won’t last anyway. Those things won’t stay. Those things are temporary. They may give us a dose of happiness now and they may very well be God-given gifts that we should enjoy, but to base our entire happiness and contentment on these various earthly blessings is a serious mistake and an insult to our Lord. Because he has given us something far greater! He has given us something much more permanent, much more meaningful. And this is what that much more permanent and meaningful gift is:
On the very first Easter Sunday evening, Jesus’ eleven remaining disciples were gathered together in a locked room, afraid for their lives. But there, suddenly, the resurrected Jesus appeared to them and he showed them his hands and his feet and his side. The holes. The gashes. The wounds. The blood no longer there because it had been wiped off by those who had buried him in that tomb - now once again empty. And of course a few days before that miraculous appearance to his disciples, Jesus’ hands and feet were nailed to that cross, and the blood poured out, soaking the wood and dripping to the ground and gathering in puddles at the centurion’s feet. A few hours earlier Jesus had been taken by the Roman soldiers and had had a thorn-twisted crown pressed down into his skull - only to then be beaten over the head with a staff. The blood from those puncture wounds and the soldier’s strikes must have matted down his hair and streamed down his face. And that was after he was pinned to a post and scourged with a metal-pronged whip 39 times, tearing his flesh, opening up his back to the bone. That morning, to start things off, the men in that mock courtroom blindfolded the Lord and beat him with their fists, undoubtedly causing some nasty cuts and gashes on the face of our Savior. And the night before, in an upper room with his disciples, before all of this blood came pouring out of the different wounds of his body, Jesus gave his blood to his chosen followers and to us in the wine of the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of our sins.
That is the gift that is much more permanent, much more meaningful. It’s the blood, not the blessings. It’s the blood of Christ that gives us true happiness and true joy and true peace of mind and true comfort and true pleasure, not the passing blessings of a sin-filled life in a sin-filled world. Because unlike any other gift in this world, Christ’s blood will not go away. It’s soaked deep into that cross beam of his death - it’s not coming out. It’s sitting in that cup on the altar of the Lord’s Supper - it will never run dry. It’s dried on the grave clothes that Jesus left in the tomb - it won’t be washed away. That blood can and does give us something that nothing else on this earth can: our forgiveness, our salvation, our guaranteed spot in a heaven where God himself lives. The houses that each of us enjoy can give us shelter and a sense of home. The vehicles we drive can get us where we need to go. The various toys and hobbies we have can give us something to do. The family members we visit can give us someone to talk to and to help out and to laugh with. But none of these things can give us heaven. None of these things can seal our eternity in Paradise. Christ’s blood can. In fact, that is the only reason why he bled: so that heaven could be ours, at no cost to us, at the cost of life to Christ.
It’s one of the saddest tragedies in all of Scripture that the majority of God’s own chosen Israelite nation threw that away. Even after all the prophets that the Lord had sent them, even after Amos himself spoke such harsh words to the people, they threw it away. Amos spoke this warning of the Lord to his people only about 60-70 years or so before the Assyrian army came down and swept them away. And because they had ignored God’s warning and had rejected the Lord and his Word, by 722 BC the northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exist. They were gone, living in a foreign country, never to return. They had relied on their earthly blessings: their houses, their food, their flocks, their army, their lifestyle… and they had gotten burned. Their happiness turned to sorrow, their joy turned to despair. And all they were left with was a deep regret for what they had lost - something they had lost long before they ever had it taken away.
My fellow Christians, we who are true Israelites according to the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul, do not overlook what those Old Testament Israelites gave up. Do not forget what they forgot. Do not let the good, enjoyable, and God-pleasing blessings of this life become the objects of your full affection and the basis of all of your happiness in this life. Because if you do, when those blessings get old, when those blessings lose their sparkle, when those blessings are taken away, you will be left with nothing. Nothing to rely on, nothing to hold on to, nothing to make you happy. By all means, enjoy them now! Use them, share them, relish them! But don’t bank on them. Instead, bank on the blood. Set all of your hopes and all of your trust and all of your confidence and all of your happiness on that which poured from Jesus’ wounds. His blood will protect you when your roof cannot. His blood will carry you in ways your vehicle is incapable of doing. His blood will comfort you even when your family is completely gone. His blood will make you happy when nothing else can and happier than anything else will. It’s the blood, not the blessings. And with that blood of Jesus at the center of your life, no matter what you have on this earth, no matter what you can get, and no matter what is taken away, your happiness will never fade. With Christ’s bloody hand in yours, your happiness will never end.
Amen.
“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father - to him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.” - Rev. 1:5-6
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