July
5, 2018
Amos
7: 10-17Nativity, Washington, D.C.
“The
Lord took me from following the flock, and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my
people Israel” (Amos 7: 15).
For
several weeks we read from Kings 2 fragments of the history of the 2 Hebrew
kingdoms, Judah in the south with its capital in Jerusalem, ruled by the
dynasty of King David; and Israel in the north with its capital in Samaria,
ruled by a succession of families and afflicted with numerous coups. Israel’s history is one of consistent
infidelity to the covenant between God and his people, while Judah’s history is
a mixed bag of infidelity and reform.
In
the end, Israel is conquered by Assyria in 721 B.C. and its 10 tribes dispersed
into exile, where they disappear from history.
As for Judah, it survives until it’s conquered and Jerusalem is
destroyed by Babylon in 587 B.C., and all the upper- and middle-class people
are taken away to Babylon—the Babylonian captivity. (You heard parts of that episode late last
week.)
Into
that history come the prophets. We met
Elijah and Elisha in 2 Kings, prophesying in Israel. On Monday we began some weeks of hearing from
the “classical prophets,” starting with 2 of the so-called minor prophets, Amos
and Hosea, and then moving on to the major prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah.
The prophet Amos
By 18 cen. icon painter - Iconostasis of Kizhi Monastery, Russia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3232602
|
Amos
was active around 760 B.C. (If you do
the arithmetic—760 to 721 B.C.—you realize that Israel had just a short time
left.) Altho he was from Judah and was
but a humble shepherd and some kind of woodsman, God called him to prophesy in
Israel. It was an awkward time to go and
tell the powers of Israel how displeased God was with them, for the 40-year
reign of Jeroboam II was the best period in that kingdom’s life—one of economic
prosperity and diplomatic and political success. Yet Amos shows up in Bethel, where the kings
have established a quasi-pagan temple to rival the true Temple in Jerusalem, more
or less in the middle of Jeroboam’s apparently happy reign—shows up to denounce
both idolatry and rampant social injustice.
The king, nobles, and priests violate God’s covenant by false worship,
cheating at business, and oppression of the poor. We heard on Monday that “they sell the just
man for silver and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the weak into the
dust of the earth.” Fathers and sons
visit the same prostitutes (2:6-7)—there’s an implication that these are
“sacred prostitutes” serving at pagan temples.
Amid
the kingdom’s material prosperity, Amos prophesies doom. Having abandoned the Lord God, they will be
abandoned by him and suffer a sudden, disastrous collapse.
And
that’s what we must take note of.
Idolatry—the worship of anything that’s not God—and disregard for the
dignity and the rights of our fellow human beings are expressions of disdain
for God and formulas for both moral and social disaster. If we worship wealth, pleasure, comfort,
power, fame, national security—we’re looking for trouble. If we have no room in our hearts or our
policies for refugees, the sick, the aged, the unborn, the uneducated, the poor
and illiterate of the world, we’re violating a covenant between God and
humanity—for all are his beloved children.
The terrible price Israel paid for its infidelity may serve as a warning
for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment