For all that Amos has been tough to read, the opening to this passage has at least traces of dark humor to it. I can imagine a person running away from a lion, getting away and stopping to rest, leaning against a big furry pillar. Then they look up, and it's a bear! It's almost something out of a Scooby-Doo cartoon. Except that this image isn't meant just to be laughed at, it says something pretty significant to the Israelite people.
They are waiting for the "Day of the Lord," a prophesied day when God will appear and set things right. We as Christians are waiting for a similar day in the return of the Lord Jesus. But the Day of the Lord is not simply an "end of the world" vision, but a kind of reset button so that life can continue. And the Israelites celebrate the coming of this day in their worship services and pray for it every night. They assume that God will come and destroy their enemies and justify their own injustices. Amos (and by extension, God) is not so impressed. God realizes that to justify the Israelite people would be to ignore the oppression and harm they do to people. And so God rejects the sacrifices they bring because they are using them as a bribe for God to turn a blind eye to downright evil actions.
God is concerned with the oppressed in the world. God cares for the marginalized, the despised and the left-out. And when God's people don't reflect that attitude, that's a problem. Everything else may be right, but if our attitude does not reflect God's, then we have a problem. It's a gut check for all of us today (and the gut check we have had every day we have been in Amos). How do we consider the people around us? What is our attitude toward the marginalized, the despised and the left-out? Let our prayer be that God would open our eyes to suffering and open our hands to reach out in the midst of it. Amen.
Thank you Father for the "gut checks" Amos and Andy have given us. Allow us to see others and their needs the way You see them and respond to them the way You would want us to respond. Thank you for sending Jesus to us as our perfect example of compassion and Your Word that allows us to focus on Him. Amen
ReplyDeleteAndy, Thanks for dealing with the hard stuff and challenging us to be more like Jesus. ( :
From the Student's Life Application Bible(New Living Translation) - Page 840:
ReplyDeleteCOMPLACENCY
When Missy got involved in youth activities about three years ago, exciting things were always taking place. One semester, they reached out to a local retirement home. Her sophomore year, the group developed an ongoing outreach to homeless people. Each summer at least 30 or 40 teens went on some sort of mission project.
Nowadays things are different. Most of the older crowd has gone on to college. And for whatever reason, the younger kids in the group only seem to come to "fun" activities-parties, cookouts, etc. Missy is concerned that youth group is becoming more of a social club than a place for ministry.
During sharing time at youth group, she expresses her concerns, telling the group that she misses the commitment to ministry, and shares stories of the real joy and fun the group had experienced in the past through serving other people.
The group's reaction ranges from glares, to whispers, to yawns. One girl approaches Missy after the meeting and says, "How dare you lecture us! You act like you're the only one in the group who is a good Christian. Just because we like to have fun doesn't make us any less spiritual than you!"
Like Missy, the prophet Amos had the unpleasant task of lighting a spiritual fire under complacent people. Read Amos 5:21 - 6:8 and ask yourself: Am I more like Amos... or the people he was addressing?