People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD. – Amos 4:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 2, 2020): Amos 4

At the beginning of the story of Elijah, the prophet appears to burst onto the scene with a message and then just a quickly disappears again. The message? There will be a drought. No rain will fall until I say that it will fall.  Elijah phrases it as a message from God, but it is also very personal. Rain will not fall unless Elijah declares that it will fall. The hope was that King Ahab would lead Israel back to the God of Abraham. The solution to all that comes next is that Israel would return to God, and then God would send Elijah back into the presence of the king with word that the drought was over and that rain would fall. Of course, then we would not have the stories of Elijah being fed by ravens, or the story of the widow and the miracle of her endless oil and flour, or even the grand battle on Mount Carmel.

Instead, Ahab seeks Elijah as if it really was something that the prophet could undo. He searches for Elijah and Jezebel, Mrs. Ahab, leads prayer services to Ba’al and Asherah, asking for rain. But no rain comes. Finally, there is a showdown on Mount Carmel in which Elijah singlehandedly defeats the hundreds of priests of Ba’al and Asherah. Then, with the religious system of Ahab in tatters, Elijah declares that rain is coming. Of course, none of this is enough to get Jezebel and Ahab to come back to God. The King and Queen remain firmly entrenched in their false religions.

Amos speaks to Israel almost a hundred years after that great Battle of Elijah, and the issue of drought is still present in Israel. One town has water while the next does not. The fields dry up, and there is no food because of the drought. People wander from town to town, hoping to find water, but there is never enough to quench their thirst. And yet, like Ahab in the days of Elijah, they do not return to God, the author of the rain.

Amos speaks judgment over the nation, but his words are also an invitation. God is still inviting Israel to come to him, to have fellowship with the one who created them. They don’t have to figure everything out, just return and begin the conversation.

That is also God’s message for us. Not that we return to him in some state of perfection, but that we are willing to begin again the conversation with him. After all, he is the author of all that is good in our lives.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 5