We live our whole lives, and towards the end, you realize all my success means nothing without leaving a legacy to be remembered.”
                    –Kenneth Pratt  (Hollister)

       “But how quickly they forgot what he had done! They wouldn’t wait for his advice.”
                    –Psalm 106:13 (CEB)
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          3.1 — My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands;
            .2 — For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.  (NKJV)

          3.1 — My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments,
            .2 — for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.  (ESV)

     It is vital to a successful life that we learn God’s truth and obey it.  As Warren Wiersbe states, “It isn’t enough for believers to carry the Bible in their hands; they must let the Holy Spirit write it on their hearts.  Obedience to the Word can add years to your life and life to your years.”  In Proverbs, “We are here taught to live a life of communion with God.” (Matthew Henry)  The Bible is required to adhere to if we are to truly develop a Christian worldview for our life.  The words of Francis Schaeffer ring true, “True spirituality covers all of reality.”  
     Our steps are to be order to and by the Word of God.  Two terms should be emphasized:  “do not forget,” where the emphasis is actually “always remember.”  The term “keep” means “to look hard at,” or “to watch over.”  This implies a disciplined, attentive life.  “If we can learn to be obedient to the will of God we will find that life becomes a little easier to live, and a lot more fulfilling.  Life ceases to be such a struggle, and it becomes a joy.”  (Dan Dick)  Paul writes to the church at Colossae, “…to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:9-10, NKJV)  Know and understand the truth of God is vital then; He is willing to share with His children.  Dan Dick writes, “Our God is a God of order and sense.  He knows infinitely more than we can ever hope to, and He shares His knowledge with us to help us through our lives.”
     Memory, the internalization of God’s Word into our minds and heart is vital in keeping God’s commands.  Someone said that, “Memory holds a very important place in the formation of moral character.”  Paul tells us to “hold fast that word…” (1 Corinthians 15:2)  “When the heart keeps the Divine Word, mercy and truth will not forsake the character.”  Our minds must be fixed–focused on the Word of God.  The Psalmist said, “Your Word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” (119:11, NKJV)  We must make a determined effort to prepare our hearts and then to obey.  We read about Ezra, the priest, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.” (Ezra 7:10, NKJV)  Do not think this is only Old Testament, for Jesus states, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word…” (John 14:23, NKJV).
     Focus, discipline, obey are all key to knowing and not forgetting, and keeping the Word of the Lord.  Memory depends a great deal on attention to what God says.  The theologian Ralph Wardlaw speaks to the important of giving attention to God’s Word, “He who feel no interest will not attend, and he who does not attend will not remember.”  The whole heart should desire the Word of God, the mind should attentively seek it, and then the total person should readily act upon it.  Can a person call themselves a Christian if there is not sincere interest in communion with God?  
     There will be a wonderful blessing for those who keeps God’s Word.  It could be inferred that prosperity awaits–but understand, prosperity does not necessarily mean rich in the things of the world.  It goes much deeper than that.  The Christian has new life–that is true prosperity.  Bob Beasley points out several means of spiritual prosperity:  “no longer slaves to disobedience, no longer separated from the love of God; no longer under the bondage of guilt, or fear, or the law.  No longer do we walk under the shadow of eternal death.”  Think of the deeper meaning of “length of days.”  Eternity is a long time.  “He asked you for life, and you gave it to him, all right–long days, forever and always!” (Psalm 21:4, CEB)  I like what the Scottish minister, William Arnot says, “Submission to His will is the best condition for humanity.”  
     I would then ask:  Why should we not follow the instructions of our Father if we are indeed His children?  Why would be purposely be disobedient children?  The Father most certainly knows what is good and best for us.

 “There was right and there was wrong. You did what was right and didn’t do what was wrong.”

                    –C.J. Petit  (Virgil’s Herd)

       “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

                    –Matthew 3:12 (NKJV)
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     Lloyd Ogilvie sets the stage for this last chapter of Amos.  “We behold God who makes and keeps His promises.  He follows through on His promises of judgment as well as His subsequent promises of a new beginning.  His righteousness and grace are inseparable.”

          9.1 — I saw the LORD standing by the altar, and He said:  “Strike the doorposts, that the thresholds may shake, and break them on the heads of them all.  I will slay the last of them with the sword.  He who flees from them shall not get away, and he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.
            .2 — Though they dig into hell, from there My hand shall take them; though they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down;
            .3 — And though they hide themselves on top of Carmel, from there I will search and take them; though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them;
            .4 — Though they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword, and it shall slay them.  I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good.” (NKJV)

     Amos’ fifth vision is God–the promise-keeper.  Amos is at the altar.  This should have been the place of repentance.  It was to be a place of mercy and atonement.  Instead, however, it was the place of compromise and apostasy; it was a place now desecrated and God will strike it down.  It is fitting that Amos gives forth his vision from there.  “The altar of vision symbolized the rotten core of an apostate people….  The result is that the altar, the temple, and the nation itself will be destroyed.”  (Ogilvie)
     Ogilvie continues his discourse saying the temple will be shaken.  “The judgment of the Lord, which begins with the temple, will pervade the land…   The distortion of their worship of God had permeated the heart of the nation…  Everything was wrong because the nation was not right with God.”  Judgment begins in the sanctuary; no one will escape.  “There is no hiding place from the chastening hand of God, laid on men because of their willful persistent sins.” (Garner)  It will do us well to contemplate this as now, “we are the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19)  Therefore, do not grieve the Spirit.  Jesus declared, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34, NKJV)  “There is no standing before His sword” (Matthew Henry) therefore be sure that you are standing on the side of the Lord so that His righteous sword will not smite you.
     “True security is submitting to God’s authority, committing each day to discern and do His will, accepting His corrective judgment, and claiming His forgiveness.” (Ogilvie).  Israel had long ignored God, refusing to acknowledge their sins and then to repent.  Like so many today, there is the presumption of God’s grace thinking that He will never hold them accountable.
     Open your ears, hear the Word of the Lord–now is the day of salvation; when judgment comes there is no escape.  Ask the souls of Noah’s day, ask those who reaped the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Even those who try to hide in Sheol, the place of the dead, will be found, there will be no protection.  Is this a glimpse of the Great White Throne when hell will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.  When God searches there is no hiding place.  The judgment will be as described in Revelation, “…every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!'” (6:15-16, NKJV)  The rock cannot hide; death is not an escape from the fires of eternity.
     The people rejected the warnings; they rejected the opportunity to repent; they rejected the covenant–they rejected God.  Now it is too late.  Peter C. Craigies says, “One can never earn the privilege of God’s grace, but nor can one abandon its responsibilities without denying the privilege itself.”  The final words of verse four, “I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good,” should cause the unrepentant to tremble.

I want to come out of a morning and look up at those hills and know nothing can be very wrong as long as there’s something so beautiful. My pa used to say that when corruption is visited upon the cities of men, the mountains and the deserts await him. The cities are for money but the high-up hills are purely for the soul.”