Spiritual Awakening
Twenty-four years ago, terrorists flew planes filled with people into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. The following day, churches around the country welcomed people who didn’t know where else to go. We were all struggling to cope with what was happening. Nothing made sense, so we turned to God. Was this beginning a new awakening?

There had been other Great Awakenings—like in the years leading up to the American Revolution, or the years leading to the Civil War. Each of these had more staying power. The country was spiritually adrift and united under Christ. Their conversions were genuine, and once they committed, they applied those reforms to their lives.

Unfortunately, before the end of 2001, most Americans had moved on. Faith was no longer important to them.(1) We see this same complacency in Amos 6:1: “Woe to you who are complacent in Zion” (NIV). God was not having any of it. He was calling many prophets—some who were prophets, but others like Amos, who were commoners. He was a fig farmer (Amos 1:1).
Prophetic Call 
Now, Amos stands before the high priest Amaziah, needing to give an answer. It is an uncomfortable feeling.

Early in my ministerial life, I had been working with the youth group at our church. The company I worked for promoted me to a role that required me to move to Chicago for six months. The new youth minister was pushing the teens in a direction they were not comfortable with, and I felt an obligation to them. When you pour your heart into people, you can’t just walk away. So, through email, we stayed in touch. This youth leader would cause other troubles in our church afterward; what he was teaching the youth was heretical. They would reach out to me, and I would explain the truth to them. This resulted in my pastor asking if I could meet with him, our deacons, and the youth minister when I was back in town. It was a tense meeting, but I stood my ground. The Bible backed everything I stated. I was finished with ministry. Walking away seemed like the most logical thing to do. Who was I?

This was Amos. He was under attack. But like me, he couldn’t walk away. When God is telling you to speak, you speak. Like the apostles in Luke 19:40, if I didn’t speak, the stones would cry out. Still, when you are called to speak, it is intimidating. My pastor tells of how he fought that call. So did John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, Billy Graham, and countless other great preachers. Preaching the Word of God is a heavy responsibility, and people resist it.

The apostles were all martyred. They beat and imprisoned Jeremiah (Jer. 20:1–2). They murdered Zechariah. Telling a nation under attack, like Ezekiel, or already in exile, like Daniel, that they will be restored upon repentance is one thing. People who are suffering need hope. It didn’t make things any easier for those prophets, but I know I enjoy when God gives me a message of hope.
Complacency and Consequences
But Amos is speaking to people who are enjoying their riches. As David Guzik states, “Israel’s sinful ease was shown in love of self, through all the self-indulgence described in Amos 6:4–6.” (2) We are the people who are lovers of ourselves, obsessed with sin (2 Tim. 3:1–2).

Amos was warning of a devastating earthquake that was coming. It would hit two years later, around 770 BCE, and geologists estimate it would measure 7.8 on the Richter scale (Amos 1:1).(3) With the construction of buildings in those days, most would have collapsed, leaving people to dig through the rubble to find whole families and bring out the dead (Amos 6:10).

These chapters made me think of that horrible day when we saw bodies mangled in the twisted rubble. The bodies were flung everywhere, as in Amos 8:3. Must we suffer a tragedy to come to the Lord? What good is it if we don’t let those events change us for more than a few weeks?
Modern Parallels
There is a greater tragedy coming if we don’t repent and seek the Lord. He will relent, which we see in Amos 7:3 and 7:6, but not if our hearts remain far from Him. The time is now to examine our lives and think back to those days when our faith was all that made sense.
Tomorrow, we will read Obadiah. 
Footnotes

Mark Chaves, quoted in Duke Today, “After 9/11, a short-lived rush to church,” August 19, 2016.

David Guzik, Enduring Word Commentary, on Amos 6:4–6.

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, and geological studies cited in the Israel Antiquities Authority.