Friday, December 5, 2014

Friday, December 5, 2014 

AMOS 5:1-17

Today’s passage is found within the book of the prophet, Amos who was a native of the southern Kingdom of Judah, but who criticized the society of the Northern Kingdom in the first half of the eighth century BCE. At this time, the northern Kingdom of Israel was a regional power and had attained the greatest extent of its territorial expansion. It was enjoying the lengthy and relatively peaceful and prosperous reign of Jeroboam II. While national prosperity would never again reach such high levels, this was also a time of extreme social inequalities between a small number of wealthy urban elites and the vast majority of the population which was very poor.

Amos’s lament for the Kingdom of Israel was meant to shock and horrify its members by forcing them to come to terms with the fact that this system’s social and political power structures were offending God and producing injustices that would ultimately lead this society into ruin.  For example, Amos foretells of future costly wars that will result in 90 percent casualty rates: “the city that marched out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which marched out a hundred shall have ten left.” Perhaps this suggests that such an unjust society can expect to be devastated because its social sin offends the Lord. Furthermore, the unjust, regressive social structure that encourage the mistreatment of the poor by collecting grain levies from impoverished small farmers and redistributing them to the wealthy will not be forgotten by the Lord. For Amos, the affluent elites of this society would not be allowed to enjoy the wealth they had hoarded unto themselves. According to Amos, the powerful elites would ultimately suffer a reversal of their fortunes as they were predicted to be ejected from their lavish homes and denied the fruits of their pleasant vineyards all because their past actions offended God.

Today, does this passage of lament in Amos, speak to you? What are the sources of injustice that are experienced in our local, national and world communities? Should we be content to sit back and wait for God to act to bring justice into this world? How should people of faith react?  

-Terry Rothwell