Amos: A story of Judgment and Justice
May 5, 2013 | Anita Retzlaff

Greetings this fine Sunday morning from our friend and truth-teller Amos, of whom it is written was among the shepherds of Tekoa. My sources propose that Amos was not merely a herder of sheep but an owner of sheep as well. He was an entrepreneur and not without means. He seems to have had fair knowledge of religious tradition and a keen awareness of the social troubles in his community. Amos says of himself: “I am not a prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees.” In other words Amos was not a professional prophet though there were a goodly number of those hanging around. Rather, he ran a couple of businesses. Acting as God’s mouthpiece was not part of his business plan. And yet Amos recalls that when “…the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel…” he accepted the call from God and told his people Israel exactly what he saw coming.

The Word of the LORD that Amos delivered is the utter condemnation of the religious community and the damnation of his friends and kinfolk. The litany of dire consequences for Israel is catastrophic. As Armin read, those who are smugly waiting for the Day of the LORD, an accounting with God, are to be surprised indeed. They seem to be oblivious to the fact that they are about to encounter the unbridled fury of God. That accounting is imminent and Israel will fail miserably. They don’t seem to have a clue that they have forsaken God’s ways and completely lost touch with Yahweh their rescuer and redeemer.

Arny - IMAGE – lion roaring

Allan – Amos 1:1-5
The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake. 2And he said: The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds wither, and the top of Carmel dries up.

3Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron.4So I will send a fire on the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.5I will break the gate bars of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and the one who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; and the people of Aram shall go into exile to Kir, says the Lord.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, God is really angry! God roars like a lion and now everyone will hear it - the heathen nations first - Damascus which is Syria, the Philistines, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab. The time has come to pay attention. If it sounds like God is hard on the foreign nations, the diatribe that is about to be unleashed upon Israel should make our hair stand on end. For far too long, maybe as long as 400 years since the time that the people entered into the Promised Land, Israel has adapted to the customs and religions of the foreign nations worshipping their fertility gods, building idols and forgetting their social responsibilities. God is choked! Through centuries of passive indifference the knowledge of the LORD has slipped away and along with this knowledge has departed all sense of human decency. The people of Israel callously abuse the needy, ignore the poor, defile their young women and carouse at the foot of heathen altars. Along with the roar of the Almighty comes the fire of judgment and the forth-telling of disaster.

Edna – Amos 2:4-11
Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes, but they have been led astray by the same lies after which their ancestors walked.5So I will send a fire on Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.6Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals—7they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned;8they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink wine bought with fines they imposed.

Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of cedars, and who was as strong as oaks; I destroyed his fruit above, and his roots beneath.10Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.11And I raised up some of your children to be prophets and some of your youths to be nazirites. Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel? says the Lord.

“How is it that my people can go so far off course?” God asks. How is it that the chosen people of God, given the commandments and law of love, have forgotten to pay attention to factory employees working in substandard conditions, the helpless children of Syria blown to pieces by a brutal regime? How is it that God’s chosen people, who were themselves rescued from slavery, allow their little ones to be prostituted on the street and families of the poor ignored while military coffers continue to fill? There will be consequences.

Ron – Amos 2: 13-16
So, I will press you down in your place, just as a cart presses down when it is full of sheaves. 14Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not retain their strength, nor shall the mighty save their lives; 15those who handle the bow shall not stand, and those who are swift of foot shall not save themselves, nor shall those who ride horses save their lives; 16and those who are stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, says the Lord.

Arny – IMAGE – poverty

The nation of Israel is doomed for it has forgotten its humanity, turned its back on the teaching of the LORD allowing the starvation and misery of its helpless ones to become its social policy. Hope dies among the needy while the affluent indifferent carry on as if nothing is amiss.

Alison – Amos 4:1-5
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on Mount Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, “Bring something to drink!”2The Lord God has sworn by his holiness: The time is surely coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks.3Through breaches in the wall you shall leave, each one straight ahead; and you shall be flung out into Harmon, says the Lord.4Come to Bethel—and transgress; to Gilgal—and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days;5bring a thank-offering of leavened bread, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel! says the Lord God.

“I warned you!” God says.

Arny – IMAGE – parched earth

Plagues, pestilence and all manner of reminders have been issued by God and still the people do not get it. Their experience in the wilderness is gone from their collective memory and they don’t see where they are heading. The gift of promise has turned into a parched desert, the likes of which they once traveled in their wilderness wandering but have since forgotten. Their worship is empty posturing, merely going through motions of long held tradition that now are devoid of meaning.

Allan – Amos 4: 6-13
I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.7And I also withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain withered;8so two or three towns wandered to one town to drink water, and were not satisfied; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.9I struck you with blight and mildew; I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards; the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.10I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword; I carried away your horses; and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.11I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a brand snatched from the fire; yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.12Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!13For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, reveals his thoughts to mortals, makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

The end is near. Israel is soon to be overrun by Assyria and carried off to Babylon. And in a series of visions Amos announces defeat. Using a play on words he sees a vision of summer fruit which in Hebrew sounds similar to the word that means, “the end.” The basket of summer fruit tells the story.

Edna – Amos 8:1-10
This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. 2He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. 3The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” says the Lord God; “the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!”
4Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, 5saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, 6buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.” 7The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. 8Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? 9On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.

History concurs that Israel carted is off to Babylon captive to the Assyrian army. The explanation? Israel has been unfaithful and negligent and unloving. And so, not only does Israel go into exile but the Word of the LORD departs from them as well.

Ron – Amos 8:11-12
The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.12They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.

God withdraws!
However…

Arny – IMAGE – vineyard

Alison – Amos 9: 8-15
The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth—except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord.9For lo, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the ground.10All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, “Evil shall not overtake or meet us.”

On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old;12in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, says the Lord who does this.13The time is surely coming, says the Lord, when the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps, and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.14I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.15I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God.

God will restore the people.

Arny – IMAGE – flowing stream

Salvation comes. “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream,” says Yahweh God. In the biblical story a remnant always survives. When God withdraws and waits, a faithful few eventually find their way back. Salvation comes as justice flows. Restoration and faithful response are tied together so that God and God’s people see together, work together and share a fierce love for all of creation. Exile changes hearts and minds. We know that. Our society will come to know it too. In the name of religion we fight over issues of morality while we ignore the poor. That will get us in the end. While we buy more and more guns and more and more people die because of violence the consequences cannot be far off.

But we are not helpless. The voice of justice is our voice. God has given us all that we need to become the everflowing presence of goodness in the world. Like the tumbling waters of a swollen stream – an image that is familiar to us this spring – we will cover the earth with the only response that we need know: “For God so loved the world…”

Prayer – “The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, The LORD is his name.” AMEN