Amos
7
It’s about time we did some stocktaking. We’re studying the little book of Amos in the Old Testament. He was one of the first of the writing prophets and his message delivered around 760B.C still has relevance today because, in one sense, not much has changed.
Amos had a message from God for the northern kingdom of Israel. The kingdom bore all the outward signs of material success and appeared politically secure. But spiritually it was a very different story. Unfaithfulness, smugness, no commitment to God’s law and perversion of justice was the order of the day.
No one had imagined that God’s chosen people could ever be evicted from the Promised Land. It was unthinkable to suppose that God would use a pagan nation to effect His judgement on His ancient people. But that is precisely what Amos declares will occur unless national repentance diverts imminent judgement. Because God does not change we need to take careful note of how Amos reveals that corrupt conduct can alienate God and cause Him to oppose His own people.
Eugene Peterson says, “More people are exploited and abused in the cause of religion than in any other way. Sex, money and power all take a back seat to religion as a source of evil.” In effect, he’s simply echoing Amos. It’s as if prophets, like Amos, have x-ray eyes and can see through hypocrisy that appears very religious. They are more aware of standing before the invisible God at all times than they are before a powerful priest or important rulers. Amos tells us he’d had a vision (chapter 1 verse 2) of things that were going to happen. He faithfully spoke of what he had seen and heard from the Almighty. God’s people were such a disappointment to Him – they never got hungry for God, but engaged in religious cover up as if nothing was wrong.
Israel’s religion was not neglected, it was perverted and it took the prophet Amos to explode the charade. While crushing and exploiting their fellow citizens, the Israelites still kept up their religious façade. Everything was coated with a thin veneer of religion as if God could be bought off with a handful of ceremonies. This was ‘insurance policy’ religion and a mockery of the real thing.
We’ve seen how God has used the candid and straight talk of Amos to shatter their erroneous beliefs. Firstly he redefined “covenant”. Don’t glibly assume God is always on your side. Rather make sure you are on His side. Don’t forget there are penalty clauses in God’s covenant and they will be automatically activated by your non-compliance.
Secondly don’t be too eager for the Day of the Lord to dawn – that wonderful golden age when they would be delivered from oppression and joy and happiness would be theirs forever. What makes you suppose you will dodge judgement if you’ve lived immoral and corrupt lives? You can’t say “we’re God’s favourites, we’re His people” and chant it like a mantra supposing that anything goes as long as you worship God. God’s special relationship to His own Jewish people meant not privilege to do wrong, but responsibility to do right.
Thirdly it was unwise to trust in the strength of Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. Excavations reveal how well fortified this stronghold had been by Omri, Ahab and Jeroboam the second, but the only impregnable fortress is God Himself, not a walled city.
The calf images at Bethel and Dan, the shrines of the counterfeit cult set up by Jeroboam the first, were in full operation and open for business. They were all show with no substance. In fact Israel was littered with “sex and religion” shrines and Samaria was the “sin and sex centre” of the northern kingdom.
Remember how Amos has denounced the six pagan nations that surround the Promised Land – they sinned against conscience and will be annihilated. God is still Lord of the nations. Judah and Israel will not be wiped out, though they have sinned against mercy and grace and the revealed Word of God. The chosen people of God will survive. They are learning the hard way that predestination is not favouritism but a call to a closer walk with God, an intimate relationship with their Covenant-keeping God.
Will the message sink in? God, who changes the seasons of the year, who controls history with the rise and fall of nations, can bring about massive changes with the greatest of ease, whenever He wishes. The God of Israel who, at Bethel, changed deceitful Jacob from a crafty shuffler into a man of godliness and integrity, can effect radical change in the entire nation. Last minute repentance might bring last minute rescue from God who does not change.
In a nutshell the holy demands of God were these: self-pleasing, self-centred religion must be outlawed. An abundance of righteousness – not a little trickle or a dribble – must flood down like an ever-flowing river. For the nation faced “Make your mind up time” and time was ticking away. Amos thunders out God’s heart-desire. “Do you know what I want? I want justice – oceans of it. I want fairness – rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”