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For
Sunday June 7, 2015
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JUDGMENT
ON ISRAEL AND JUDAH
(Keep
GOD’s Law or you will go astray)
(Amos
2:4-16)
The prophet Amos was a contemporary of the prophets Hosea, Isaiah,
and Micah. His message was directed at the northern Kingdom of Israel, even
though he physically resided in the southern Kingdom of Judah. He begins his
prophesy by announcing judgment on the surrounding nations such as Syria,
Philistia, Tyre, Edom, and Ammon (Amos 1:3-2:3), before later changing his
focus to Judah and northern Israel itself (Amos 2:4-9:10).
In his scathing condemnation of GOD’s chosen people however, Amos
severely denounces, in particular, the social sins and injustices of the nation,
government and judicial corruption, greed, and the worship of false gods. Here
in this book, a series of “five stern messages” unfold, and yet, when all is
said and done, it ends with little hope that Israel was interested in changing
her unjust behavior towards the indigent, the weakest sector of their society, and
nor were they willing to improve their intolerable disrespect towards the GOD
WHO, quite literally, sees all that they do.
The events in the Book of Amos take place during one the most
prosperous times in northern Israel’s history. Their dynamic king, Jeroboam II,
had led them in war to successful victories over their hostile neighbors, and,
as a result, had won control of the lucrative trade routes that now poured
wealth into Samaria, Israel’s northern capital.
It was a golden age for the wealthy that built grand homes and
proud public facilities, near the popular worship centers of Bethel and Dan,
and in those days, the fertile land of northern Israel presented bumper crops
year after year. Unfortunately, beneath the glitter, glamour, and prosperity of
this golden society, lay the dark tragedy of social injustice and economic
disparity.
In those days, as is the case now, the rich had little regard for
their, less fortunate, Jewish brothers, or, for that matter, had little regard
even for GOD HIMSELF, or, HIS sacred Laws. The poor were mercilessly oppressed
by merchants who used “unjust weights of measure in the marketplace”, and, by “robber
judges” (“Deyanneh Gezeloth” in the Hebrew) whose justice was for sell to the
highest bidder.
And so, it is against this backdrop of “prosperity” and “wickedness”
that we find the prophet Amos, a farmer and shepherd from the town of Tekoa in
nearby Judah, being called by GOD to deliver a resounding message to his
wayward kinsman in northern Israel. In this deeply penetrating prophesy, Amos
exposes the very underbelly of this seemingly upright society.
In Amos 1:1-2, he writes of the receiving of his prophesy from
GOD, just two years before the earthquake that occurred during the reign of
Uzziah, king of Judah. Here he describes what he had seen and heard, as the
LORD’s roar of judgment vividly places an “imaginary noose” around the necks of
Judah and northern Israel. He first, reveals how GOD would serve justice on
Israel’s surrounding neighbors (Vs. 3-2:3), and then later, he reveals just how
GOD would tighten that noose to choke off the sins of Israel itself.
In chapter 2, verses 6-8, Amos’ message focuses on northern Israel
(namely Ephraim), who would be the first of GOD’s chosen nation to fall (in 722
B.C.). Ephraim, the most influential of Israel’s twelve tribes, during that
period, had used that influence to lead the whole nation into sin. They had
perverted justice by oppressing the poor, and in many cases, by selling poor
and honest people into slavery in exchange for silver, gold, and, sometimes,
for as little as a pair of sandals. They also famously committed the sexual sin
of “incest” (father and son sleeping with the same woman), and held festivals
to their idol gods, sacrificing to them, money, and things that they had stolen
from others.
The oracles of the Old Testament prophets such as Amos, in a very
real sense, are aimed at the hearts of generations of people who are fortunate
enough, or blessed enough, to read and hear them. They are attempts by GOD to
soften the hard-heartedness that has been brought on by pride, selfishness, and
greed. Hopefully, the prophetic messages of HIS faithful servants will touch
and soften those hearts to the needs of the poor and oppressed, those who have
been brought down by circumstances that are not self-imposed, and cause them to
seek to remedy those injustices that contributed to their condition, and
condemned them to poverty and hopelessness.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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