Do You Want Proof That You Can’t Afford?

Amos 5:25
“Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?

Amos 5:26
You have lifted up the shrine of your king,
the pedestal of your idols,
the star of your god—
which you made for yourselves.

Amos 5:27
Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,”
says the LORD, whose name is God Almighty.

It is good to know what you can afford and what you can’t afford. It informs your shopping decisions. What you can’t afford you don’t go for it to avoid embarrassment. What you can afford you gladly purchase.

When someone tells you that you can’t afford something, it hurts. It is being put in your place. It is being humbled. It is a situation to avoid next time.

In our text of consideration today, God tells Israel that they can’t afford what they seem to brag to possess. Israelites had reached a point they had forgotten God, and they thought their lives were sustained by their religious activities, wit, and affiliation to idols. God tells them, the life you had and you still have you can’t afford. Do you want proof that you can’t afford it?

God gives them proof that they can’t afford what they claim to own. God tells them that when they left Egypt and stayed in the wilderness for forty years, they didn’t have much livestock for sacrifices. Yet God sustained them in the desert for all those years until they got into Canaan, without their sacrifices being sufficient or sometimes even available. God is telling them that their inadequate and absent sacrifices never paid for life in the desert. They couldn’t afford it, yet God gave it to them!

Deuteronomy 8:4
Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.

Deuteronomy 29:5-6
(5) Yet the LORD says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. (6) You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I am the LORD your God.”

Life in the desert was too expensive you couldn’t afford it. You had clothes that do wear out, can you afford this? You had shoes that remained brand new after forty years of wearing them, could you afford this? God provided daily fresh food in a desert for all Israelites, could they afford this in the desert? Do you still want proof that you can’t afford what you are bragging about as yours?

God tells them that since they think that they can afford through the idols they have made, He will prove that they can’t afford it by sending them to exile and the idols won’t save them. In your suffering, it will dawn on you that idols don’t save. You will discover that salvation is a free gift from me that you can’t afford. I can prove that you can’t afford it by withdrawing my provisions for you. Do you want proof that you can’t afford it?

God can prove that you don’t deserve and can’t afford the wealth you have. God can prove that you don’t deserve and can’t afford your family, your spouse, and your children. God can prove that you can’t afford the job you currently have. God can prove that you can’t afford the fame, power, titles, achievements, and loss that define you today. You have everything by God’s grace. Do you want proof that you can’t afford it?

Dear God, I don’t want proof that I can’t afford it. I believe all I am and have is by your marvelous grace. May I never forget this to the extent that you must prove to me that it’s grace, in Jesus’s name, Amen!

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