Day 264. Amos 1-3

Amos is one of the earliest of Israel's prophets—he was active in the eighth century before Christ—yet his oracles have every right to be called "classic." All the great prophetic themes are present in them, and they are written with great elegance and clarity in what I am told is some of the best Hebrew in the Bible. Yet the author of this highly literate little book does not make any pretensions to learning. We are told that Amos was "among the shepherds of Tekoa" (1:1) before, during, and probably after his short prophetic career at Bethel. Tekoa was a village in the kingdom of Judah, south of Jerusalem; Bethel was the royal sanctuary of the northern kingdom of Israel. Amos journeyed there to denounce the same corrupt religious practices as First Isaiah, who was his contemporary. His prophecies were given during the reign of King Uzziah of Judah (783-742 B.C.) and King Jeroboam II of Israel (786-746 B.C.). The "earthquake" mentioned
in 1:1 took place in 760 B.C., and one of its aftershocks may have occasioned the vision so vividly described Isaiah in 6:1-8.
The division between Judah and Israel was a strictly artificial, political one. The two nations were essentially identical in their ethnic and religious background. So it is not so strange that Amos, a southerner, should rage against the northern kingdom for turning its back of the "right" worship of the temple and embracing a syncretistic mixture of Yahweh worship with paganism. The LORD is the God of both Israel and Judah, and he is "jealous" for his people. He "roars" from Zion, the place of the temple and the throne of the Davidic monarchy, against Israel's neighbors who have one way or another harmed his people. Amos first lashes out against Aram and its capital of Damascus (1:3) for its inhuman treatment of the Israelite town of Gilead. Its transgressions cannot to be forgiven and must be punished. The agent of that punishment, though never named, is the expanding empire of Assyria. The Assyrians will carry off "the people of Aram
. . . into Kir," in eastern Mesopotamia (1:5), and they will vanish.
Then Amos turns to Israel's ancient enemies the Philistines; they have also committed unforgiveable sins in taking "entire communities" of Israelites captive and selling them as slaves to Edom (1:6). The major Philistine city-states—Gaza, Ashdod, Askelon, and Ekron-- will be besieged and taken by Assyria, and "the remnant of the Philistines shall perish" (1:8).
Next the Phoenician city-state of Tyre is condemned, and for much the same reason—it has sold whole Israelite communities as slaves to work the copper mines of Edom and has ignored its covenant obligations going back to the time of David and Solomon (1:9). (This covenant is mentioned in I Kings 7:14). And it will come as no surprise that Edom is likewise condemned in the strongest possible terms. Descendents of Jacob's twin brother Esau (see Genesis 36:1-14), Edom "pursued his brother [Israel] with the sword and cast off all pity" (1:11), and still keeps "his wrath forever." So its strongholds will be taken and destroyed.
The Ammonites were also distant cousins of Israel (see Genesis 19), but they committed atrocities against Israelite civilians while seeking to enlarge their territory (1:13). For this reason the Assyrians will also break upon them "with a storm [on] the day of the whirlwind" (1:14). Their king and his officials will trudge away into exile with all the rest of Israel's enemies (1:15). The Moabites were also kin of Israel, and also estranged from the time of the conquest of the Promised Land. Their crimes climax in their disrespect for the dead—they "burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom" (2:1), we are told. Why this was done we are not told, but the LORD promises "to set a fire on Moab." It will "die amid uproar" (2:2), and its king and his officials will be butchered by the Assyrian invader.
After disposing of unclean and "unchosen" nations, the prophet turns this attention to Israel, speaking out "against the whole family that [the LORD] brought up out of the land of Egypt" (3:1). Scholars think that the condemnation of Judah (2:4-5) comes not from the Amos but from a writer of a much later period after Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. But the condemnation of Israel (2:6ff) is vintage Amos, filled with moral outrage at a people who "sell the righteous" poor, who cannot pay their debts, into slavery. Destitute people in Samaria have as little value as a pair of shoes (2:6). Incest and sexual license are commonplace, and "father and son go in to the same girl" in direct opposition to the Law of Moses (2:7). Garments taken as security on a loan are not returned, and officials drink wine in the "house of their God"—the name "Bethel" means "house of God"—using money they have collected
as fines (2:8).
Corruption is everywhere. The people of Israel have turned out to be no better than the Amorites (2:9), that giant race whom God destroyed to make room for them. God brought them "out of the land of Egypt" and "raised up some of [their] children to be prophets," but now they are worse than their pagan neighbors. Israel has repressed prophecy and forced "the nazirites"--God's holy order—to break their vows and drink wine (2:12). And now they are no different from their enemies roundabout; no human strength or might will save them from the wrath to come. Like those wicked nations whom God has condemned for their sins, Israel will fall before the might of Assyria and nothing they do will "save their lives . . . in that day" (2:15-16). Neither will their chosen-ness save them; the fact of their being set apart only makes the suffering conspicuous, and prophets must announce it. Amos offers a series of examples of causes and effects to
explain why when God does something, he must reveal "his secret to his servants the prophets" (3:7). Now that "the LORD God has spoken", Amos his prophet has no choice but to prophesy.
The people of neighboring countries and erstwhile enemies of Israel are summoned to come to "Mount Samaria," the capital of the northern kingdom, to observe the profound moral chaos and "oppressions" there. In spite of having the Law of Moses to guide them, "they do not know how to do right" (3:10). Therefore, again according to the principle of cause and effect, "the adversary"—Assyria—"shall surround the land, and strip [its people of their] defense, and [their] strongholds shall be plundered" (3:11). Only a slight few shall be rescued from the onslaught. It will be like when a lion attacks a sheep, and the shepherd rescues "two legs, or a piece of an ear" so only a remnant of Israel shall be rescued "with the corner of a couch and part of a bed" (3:12). Only fragments shall be left.
As for the royal sanctuary of Israel and its corrupted worship, the LORD with destroy the "altars of Bethel"--"the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground" (3:14). And for the houses of the rich, who have both summer and winter residences, all their "houses of ivory shall perish," all because of their idolatry and their callous treatment of the poor. Nothing will remain but "the corner of a couch and part of a bed."