Amos and Andy
No not the Radio/TV show of the 50′s…
Been reading the Book of Amos of late. If you like judgment books, this is a good one as its 8 1/2 chapters full of God venting. But beware, as it gets personal.
Amos, a shepherd prophet (what a combo!) in pre-Isaiah days starts off with pronouncements from God towards the naughty neighbors. (Yeah, those pagans and there 3, no 4 sins get what’s coming to them.) But then starting midway through chapter 2, the judgments turn on the house of God. Judah has disobeyed and followed idolatry. But Israel? It’s judgments of injustice… and it makes me feel uncomfortable.
“You sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.”
“You trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed.”
“You cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you who oppress the poor and crush the needy…”
“You who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground”
“You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine.”
“You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.”
“Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, ’When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?’ — skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.”
I look at my own life. I think I am not wealthy but when I compare myself to the world, I am swimming in wealth. I have so much. I have easy access to stuff. I think I need things to satisfy me. Surely I have bought sandals (or coffee or something) without thinking that I could give that same money to help the needy. Do I leave my corners for the poor or do ‘I sweep up the scraps’ for my own prosperity? Okay my house is not a stone mansion but maybe it is. When I buy those cheap clothes do I even think a worker might have been exploited so I could save a few dollars? Maybe a child? Do I even think of the poor? Do I even think of injustice? Its easy such to turn my eyes. I am no better than the Israelites.
There judgment was swift by a God who cares for the poor and is a defender of the weak. In His mercy, He leaves behind some and promises that they will return from exile never to be uprooted again. (That’s happening in our midst.) But if God did not spare His the root, how do I think i will escape judgment? How will the Western church escape our selfish excess?
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! – Amos 5:24
