THESE solemn words were addressed to Israel upon their not repenting of their sins, nor returning to the Lord and humbling themselves under God’s hand. Warning after warning had been sent to them, all of which they neglected, and at length the word went forth, “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” (Amos 4:1212Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. (Amos 4:12).) Apply this message to yourself, reader. Put your name in the place of Israel, and so read the text. Nothing is more uncertain than life-nothing so certain as that every man must meet God. Yet with strange perversity man refuses to consider the reality of meeting God.
“Prepare” is the divine word, and it is a merciful, warning word. Meet God we must, and in the Person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There are two meeting places. One is to be found in time; the other will be found in eternity. The meeting place in time is the mercy-seat, that in eternity is the judgment-seat. If God be not met at the mercy-seat now―if he be not met in the Person of the Lord Jesus, who died for our sins―He must be met at the judgment-seat hereafter, upon which the Son of God will sit and judge every man for his words and works.
In ancient times God had a mercy-seat, whereon sacrificial blood was sprinkled, and whence He spoke to them who drew near to Himself. His own beloved Son, having shed His atoning blood upon earth, is now in heaven, seated upon the throne of divine majesty, and He Himself is the meeting place for man and God. His blood has glorified the claims of God’s righteousness against sin, and His blood is the cleansing power for all sin. From that throne, none the less truly than from the earth, where He uttered the words, does Jesus invite sinful man to receive His salvation, saying, “Come unto Me.” To meet God Himself in the Person of His Son, is to find in Him perfect peace.
But to trifle away life, to neglect the concerns of eternity, to refuse the invitations from the mercy-seat, and to be called from the grave to meet God in the Person of His Son upon the Great White Throne of Judgment, will result in hopeless and endless woe, Long-forgotten words will be remembered and revived; hidden deeds of darkness read out from the books where they are now written by God. How will you meet God, reader? What account of yourself will you give to Him?
Consider the Christ of God upon the cross, forsaken of God, because He was bearing sin. Consider His agony when He was dying. Consider the cup of wrath He drank, in which there was not a drop of mercy. What can explain more perfectly to us sinful men the infinite justice of our God than His forsaking His beloved Son when He was made sin for us! Shall, then, the sinner who dies in his sins presume to think that he shall receive mercy at God’s hand in the day of judgment?
“Prepare to meet thy God” What is the preparation needed. We cannot fit ourselves for the holy God, we cannot save ourselves by our works; no, what God requires of man is a heart to believe and to receive His mercy. “Come, for all things are now ready.” The feast is ready. God is waiting to be gracious. Are you ready?
God also sent the message to prepare to the old world, and for one hundred and twenty years the voice of Noah preached righteousness, and the sound of his hammer proclaimed coming judgment. But after its long, long warning the old world was not ready. As in our time, so then—they ate, they drank, they married, and gave in marriage, and thus they continued till the flood came and took them all away.
God sent one solitary warning at midnight to a few men in Sodom. In effect the message was “Prepare,” but the message was derided; and, when the morning broke, the sons-in-law of Lot were not ready. Then the Lord rained fire and brimstone out of heaven upon them and destroyed them all.
God now sends the word of warning to the professors of Christianity. But in this day the foolish virgins are not ready. They have their lamps of religious profession, but they lack the oil of grace. They sleep on, but they will awake at midnight to discover the terror of darkness, and to come too late to the shut door, saying, “Open, open unto us.”
With these solemn warnings before us, once more we repeat, “Prepare to meet thy God,” and we inquire, are you ready?
A votary of fashion died piteously crying, “A million of money for a moment of time.” Like the rich man who was cast into hell, she had within her reach the book of God, but she had neglected it. She spent her brief life in pleasure, and died in terror. Are you having your good things in this your lifetime? Oh! receive the good things of God which endure forever.
Go to the mercy-seat, and find there pardon for your sins, and perfect peace.