Expository Outlines Amos 4:6-11 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have you not returned to me… I. THE DESIGN OF GOD, IN ALL HIS DISPENSATIONS, IS TO BRING MEN FROM THEIR WANDERINGS BACK AGAIN TO HIMSELF. No truth can be clearer than that we have departed from Him. Being anxious for our restoration, God is pleased to chastise us. He does not afflict willingly, as is evident from — 1. His nature. He is a Being of boundless compassion. 2. The patience He exercises. 3. The warnings He gives. II. THAT THESE DISPENSATIONS FREQUENTLY FAIL TO ANSWER THE END FOR WHICH THEY WERE INTENDED. Happily it is not so in all cases. It is in very many. They are chastised in vain, and the complaint from heaven is heard. "Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord." In the visitations here referred to, three things appear. 1. They are fearful in their character. Some light stroke might be unheeded. 2. Frequent in their infliction. If a single trial is unavailing, surely one coming after another would bring them to consider their ways, and turn to Him that smote them. 3. Marked by certain features which showed the hand of God in the clearest manner. "Rained on one city, and not on another." III. WHEN SUCH DISPENSATIONS ARE DISREGARDED THE MOST DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES ARE LIKELY TO ENSUE. "Therefore, thus will I do unto thee." (Expository Outlines.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. |
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