Series: Dog Daze
Amos. 4:1 ESV
Amos 2:6 ESV
Amos 5:18-23 ESV
John 8:12 ESV
I Corinthians 13:1 ESV
Amos 5:24 ESV
Unfair treatment that Israel found acceptable at the time of the Prophet Amos was unacceptable to the Lord for numerous reasons.
First, it was unfair to those who were being abused.
Second, being cruel and aggressive continuously fed evil into the heart of Israel.
Third, over time that evil could (or had) become their focus. By making evil their focus they were separating themselves from God and his goodness.
Several times the Prophet Amos names the repeat sins of Israel for what we will call unfair treatment.
Imagine in you will how an Israelite living in the 8th Century during the time of Amos spends their first hour of the day.
They open their eyes and instead of thinking of Yahweh God and praying their morning prayers, they think of all the things they need to accomplish to make money. They might make a list of ways the poor who sit around can serve them. They are fully focused on how they can control an oppress everyone they will come in contact with that day.
Amos 4:1, “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria,who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
The prophet Amos lived in Tekoa in the mountains just south of Israel. As he tended sheep he remembered Israel led by King Uzziah in Judah and King Jeroboam II of Israel. We remember he prophesied during the 8th Century B.C.
At the time Amos prophesied he saw the people of God had become divided into two groups…the wealthy and the poor. In today’s world that would mean there was no middle class.
When Amos wrote in Amos 2:6, “Thus says the Lord:
“For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.”
In a sense the two parties he mentioned were the seller (the wealthy) and the sold (the poor).
Amos saw the righteous who cried out to God. They were the poor who cried out to God. They were the righteous. Amos saw they were honest in their dealings and they paid their debts.
God knew the heart of the righteous who turned to Him. God saw their suffering at the hands of the wealthy.
God also saw the hearts of the wealthy who sold the “righteous for silver”. Think of it…the poor who sought God were being sold out by the wealthy who did not seek God.
Amos noted that they sold the needy for a pair of sandals. In other words money meant more to the wealthy than righteousness. It also would have meant the wealthy were willing to do anything in order to make money (sound familiar?). In the 8th Century that could have meant if a poor man was in debt to a wealthy man (even if he was indebted to him because he was trying to obtain a way to purchase medicine to save a sick child) the wealthy man could have seized and sold one of the poor man’s healthy children in order to satisfy the debt.
While that is an example of how a wealthy man could treat a righteous poor man, when we look at it in those terms we begin to realize why God said He would not revoke the punishment of the wealthy. They were clearly abusing the poor…the righteous poor.
In Amos 5:18-23 the prophet wrote,
“Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord?It is darkness, and not light,
as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him,or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.
Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them;and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.”
Amos’ poignant words that speak of the day of the Lord which refers to the day when one will come to bring light to a dark world. We remember the words in John 8:12, “Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Amos saw that those who were abusing the righteous would not see or recognize the light. The prophets example is interesting. Even if the unrighteousness try to run from a Lion they will be subdued by a bear. If the unrighteousness do not turn to serpent will bite them.
The prophet knew that the day of the Lord will still result in darkness for the unrighteousness because they will not recognize the one who brings light.
Amos saw that the feasts of the unrighteousness do not honor God. Their offerings were a joke because they did not offer them to God. Their songs were an off-tune clanging bell to God. We are mindful of I Corinthians 13:1, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
Then in Amos 5:24 Amos spoke the heart of God to the people of Israel and to Judah in the 8th Century. He told them (and us today) what God really wants:
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
God wants justice for all. By turning to God we receive love and because our hearts are full of love we give love.
Seek righteousness like an ever-flowing stream and live. That is what God wanted then and it’s what God wants now.
Turn. Turn to Jesus. Turn and receive God’s love and live.
Spiritual Practice: Turn
Turn to God and receive love. If it’s your first time receive life. If not, be refreshed in God’s love and let God give you what is yours today.
In God, Deborah
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