--Three-Hour Blanket of Blackness

-Amos 7:1-9:15-Recommended Reading/ bible

--Situation:
-Amos saw God's coming judgments on Israel through two visions. After each vision, he prayed that God would be merciful.

--Observation:
God sent His prophet Amos to warn the people of Israel to repent of their sins. God gives us these examples to teach us that He hates sin. And He promised a Savior who would save us from our sins.

--Inspiration:
At midday, darkness falls like a curtain. "From the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land" (Matthew 27:45). cross

This is a supernatural darkness. Not a casual gathering of clouds or a brief eclipse of the sun. This is a three-hour blanket of blackness. Merchants in Jerusalem light candles. Soldiers ignite torches. Parents worry. People everywhere ask questions. From whence comes this noonday night?...

Of course the sky is dark; people are killing the Light of the World.

The universe grieves. God said it would. "And it shall come to pass in that day...I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight...I will make it like mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day" (Amos 8:9,10)...

Christ lifts his heavy head and eyelids toward the heavens and spends His final energy crying out toward the ducking stars. "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?' which means, 'My God, my God, why did you abandon me?" (Matthew 27:46 TEV).

We would ask the same. Why Him? Why forsake your Son? Forsake the murderers. Desert the evildoers. Turn your back on perverts and peddlers of pain. Abandon them, not Him. Why would you abandon earth's only sinles soul?

Ah, there is the hardest word. Abandon.The house no one wants. The child no one claims. The parent no one remembers. The Savior no one understands. He pierces the darkness with heaven's loneliest question: "My God, my God, why did You abandon me?"

Paul used the same Greek word when he urged Timothy: "Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica" (2 Timothy 4:9,10, emphasis mine).

As Paul looks for Demas, can he find him? No. Forsaken.

As Jesus looks for God, can He find Him? No. Forsaken.

Wait a second. Doesn't David tell us, "I have not seen the righteous forsaken" (Psalm 37:25)? Did David misspeak? Did Jesus misstep? Neither. In this hour Jesus is anything but righteous. But His mistakes aren't His own. "Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so we would stop living for sin and start living for what is right" (1 Peter 2:24 NCV).

Christ carried all our sins in His body. 'Thank you, Jesus, that you died for such a wretched sinner like me.'
-From: Next Door Savior
-By: Max Lucado
-Application:
Take a moment and meditate on the truth that Jesus carried your sins in His body that day when He died a horrible death on the cross--abandoned by God because of your sin. Thank Him for His astonishing love.~~

-AMAZING LOVE, YOU ARE MY KING!/Rachel Robinson <http://youtu.be/oPLVllFwTKM>

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." [John 14:6]