Meet Your God

"I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,"
declares the Lord.

"I also withheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
so two or three cities would wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,"
declares the Lord.

I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,"
declares the Lord.

"I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and carried away your horses,
and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,"
declares the Lord.

"I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,"
declares the Lord.

"Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!:

For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
and declares to man what is his thought,
who makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth -
the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

---Amos 4:6-13 ESV

I came across this passage again while adding proof texts and more items (especially at the bottom under Choices and actions of people) to the post on God's sovereignty.

Yes, we have a gracious and merciful and loving God--one to whom we can turn for comfort in trials with assurance that he will help, and one to whom we can turn for forgiveness with assurance that he will forgive--but the same merciful God we turn to for help is the God of these verses in Amos. And if this doesn't prod us to turn to him for help, I don't know what will!