Heard It all Before (Vol 2)
It Takes 2 To Make A Thing Go Right!
Israel was elected to be a nation of chosen people. Amos 3:1 summarizes the whole sweep of their salvation history. They were God’s holy people, belonging first and foremost to Him. He called them out of Egypt, liberated them from bondage, blessed them with the Exodus, and brought them to the Promised Land. However, through the years Israel forgot that her privilege was inseparably related to accomplishing God’s purpose. The word of the Lord spoken by Amos against Israel was for their defection from that purpose.
“Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (3:3). The word agreed is really “met” in the Hebrew, yā˓ad (niphal). Two people who take a walk must meet together to begin the walk. There must be a starting place, a shared pace, and a shared destination. This is the cause of the effect of the walk.
Israel had been called as God’s chosen family to walk with Him. He extricated His people out of Egypt so He could meet them at Sinai to begin to walk with them as His holy nation, His bride. The terms of that walk were clearly defined in the covenant and the commandments. The destination of the walk was not just the promised land, but consistent companionship with Him through history.
The simile of life in God being like a walk with God was a part of Israel’s sacred history. Abraham, Enoch, and Moses were said to have “walked with God.” Then after the meeting of Sinai, God said, “Walk in My statutes, walk in My commandments, walk in My way.”
Walking humbly with God meant walking attentively and responsively to what God said as He walked with His people. They were not to run ahead or lag behind, but to keep His pace with Him, moving toward His goal. The watchword was, “This is My way, walk in it.”
Thus the question, “Can two walk together unless they have met?” stresses the point that Israel’s daily walk with God was not being consistently renewed.
The starting place for a Christian’s walk with God is Calvary. We meet Him at the foot of the cross
The old hymn expresses this liberating experience of beginning to walk with the Lord:
At the cross, at the cross,
Where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith
I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day.1
The image of the Christian life being a walk is firmly rooted in the messages of Paul and John. Paul called the Ephesians “to have a walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness” (Eph. 4:1–2). He called the saints to “walk by faith” (2 Cor. 5:7), to “walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16), to “walk in love” (Eph. 5:2), and to “walk as children of the light” (Eph. 5:8)
For the apostle John, walking in Christ meant walking in the light of truth. Fellowship with the Lord and with our fellow walkers in faith requires honesty and openness. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:6–7).
From the meeting place of Calvary, we walk in the light of the presence and truth of Christ, God with us, and daily our pace and direction is righted with confession and forgiveness. We must meet the Lord in the morning if we want to walk with Him through the day. And each day’s walk will lead us on in the Lord’s plan and purpose for our lives.
James Sammis put it more poetically but no less directly in his poem that has been set to music of a favorite hymn:
When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
This was exactly what Israel refused to do. They had ceased to walk with Yahweh. They would not meet Him daily for a renewal of the true covenant. That was the cause of the effect that they no longer walked in His ways.