FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH                                                                                               AMOS 8:4-8

AMOS AND THE ROARING LION                                                                                              JUNE 25, 2006

 

 

THE PROPHET WITHIN

 

If you could imagine yourself in the presence of a prophet of God, a real locust-eating, camel-skin wearing John-the-Baptist kind of prophet, what do you suspect his message for you would be?  I remember asking this question to a group of 8th-9th Grade SS kids, and I was amazed at their responses.  “I think he would tell me to start speaking more respectfully to my parents.”  “I think he would tell me to break up with my boyfriend.”  “I think he would tell me to stop being mean to the kids from the other school.”  They seemed to have an innate sense about what was morally wrong in their lives and they could name it.  We all seem to have a prophet within yet we listen too little.  Today I want to force us to listen to the prophet within by studying a prophet of old.  I think you will find that the old prophet and the inner prophet are saying the same things.

 

PROPHECY IN 8TH CENTURY ISRAEL

 

I’m going to start a series of sermons based on Old Testament prophecy and prophets.  Today we’ll study a passage in Amos together.  Amos was perhaps the first of the writing prophets of the Classical Period of prophecy.  There was a major shift in the way prophecy operated, and Amos seems to be at the start of that transition.  Before Amos, prophets did not write books – that is, their prophetic oracles were not written down.  We have stories of what they said and did – like the many stories of Elijah and Elisha – and these stories describe prophets going to kings or commonfolk and saying, “Thus says the LORD of Israel, you have done wrong . . .”  These words are often accompanied by a description of ecstatic behavior: trances, visions, etc.  The prophets heard God’s word and proclaimed it and we have the stories.  Sometimes we have ecstatic prophetic behavior but no actual proclaimed Word of the LORD.

 

With Amos, we have almost no story (there is one important story) but we have written prophecy.  These prophecies were not composed the way a person today would compose a book.  There still are prophetic experiences described: “These are the words of Amos . . . which he saw . . .”  (1:1).  Amos describes this experience almost as hearing the roaring of a Lion: “And he said, ‘The Lord roars from Zion . . . and the pastures of the shepherds wither.”  So he has had powerful spiritual/psychic experiences, but somehow these are written down and collected into a book of sayings.

 

What caused this shift from oral to written prophecy, from story to proclamation?  It could be that Amos is the first prophet to speak to an international situation.  Prophets usually simply tried to provide God’s word for a specific question: should I go to war or not?  Amos begins by speaking God’s word to the nations: to Damascus, Gaza, Tyre and Edom, to Ammon and Moab.  But they may have been written to provide authentication: he prophesied the destruction of the Northern tribes which came to pass some 40 years later.  But the memory of the prophecy had to survive to prove that God’s word is true.  One prophets started speaking to the bigger social/political questions of the day – instead of answering people’s daily sorts of questions – then the message had to be written down in order to verify its accuracy.  Amos either understood this himself or his disciples did.  In either case, he stands at the very start of a new thing in the history of God: written prophecy.

 

But another reason why their words were retained is quite simple.  The disciples of the prophets realized that their words, while the spoke to specific events of specific times, actually had universal importance.  They spoke but they also continue to speak.  In other words, Amos is retained, edited, added to, and preserved, because they believed Amos’ message still has power as “The Word of the LORD.”  I believe as we consider this passage, we will all be inclined to agree.  It is the Word of God for the people of God.

 

AMOS’ SOCIAL LOCATION

 

Amos prophesied during the long and peaceful reign of Jeroboam II (788 – 747), a period in which Israel attained the height of its territorial expansion and national prosperity.  Yet, while this was a time of great national power and prosperity, it was also a time of great expansion of the gross inequities between the urban elites and the landless power.  Through manipulation of debt and credit, wealthy landowners amassed capital and estates at the expense of small farmers.  The smallest debt served as the thin end of a wedge that lenders could use to separate farmers from their patrimonial farms and personal liberty.

 

Into this scene stepped Amos with his roaring lion-like message – probably around 760-750 BC.  Amos denounced the society of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, in vivid language.  He bitterly renounces the decadent opulence, immorality and smug piety of these elites who “trampled the head of the poor into the dust of the earth.”  Amos calls for justice with the words Martin Luther King made famous, “Let justice well up as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”  Amos announces God’s care for the poor and disadvantaged.

 

Amos is even more radical than that.  He claims that, because Israel is not acting like Moses commanded, they were in danger and even on the way to completely loose their protected status.  He transforms their religious language to do so.  Israelites used the phrase, “The Day of the Lord” to signify the day when God would re-establish the throne of David and right the wrongs of the world.  But Amos turns that on their head; ‘You Israel are now what is wrong with the world.’  The day of the Lord is coming but it isn’t what you think.  It is a day that will spell your doom not your salvation!  At this time, the fortified palaces and temples of Israel would be leveled along with those of rival nations (1:3 – 2:3).

 

A central theme in Amos is that Israel’s covenant with God did not absolve it of their ethical obligations and responsibilities (3:1).  Amos didn’t challenge the fact that Israel had a special calling.  He did claim that this calling gave them greater obligation than they understood.  In 3:1 he says directly to Israel, “You I brought up out of the land of Egypt; You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”  The chosen people do not get a free pass but actually have to live by a higher standard.

 

AMOS 8:4-8

“THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONGED”

 

This section of Amos continues to detail how the wealthy of Israel have defrauded the poor.  His critique in this section is specifically on the merchants of Israel and their dishonest business practices.  You really will need to have your Bible open for this so you can listen closely to what Amos is saying.  Let your reading reflect your intention to take God’s word seriously.  It is on page 856 in your pew Bible.

 

Vs. 4 “Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land.”  The word in Hebrew for ‘bring to ruin’ literally means ‘bring to an end.’  In other words, Amos is saying that the unfair business practices of these merchants are literally exterminating the poor.  “People are dying out there because of what you do.”

 

Amos goes on to tell us what these robber merchants are thinking – a stream of consciousness – while they defraud the poor.

 

Vs. 5 “saying” (the merchants thought here) ‘When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?’”

This is really a fascinating passage – and incredibly relevant.  What is happening?  These merchants are being pious!  They are observing the biblical laws concerning proper times for worship and the obligation to rest on the Sabbath!  But the whole time they are just itching to get back to work to continue their work – which all the time is morally corrupt and unfair.  But they are outwardly pious in terms of their religious obligations.

 

Amos goes on to explain how they are defrauding the poor.  “We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances. . .”  Making the ephah small meant to sell less than the apparent volume.  Making the shekel great is to overcharge or price gouge.  False balances are rigged in the favor of the merchant.  He goes on to describe how the merchants mixed the wheat they sold with chaff and other sweepings.  Amos says, “That kind of behavior is literally causing the poor to die.  And you are so outwardly pious.”

 

8:6 buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals refers to the outright sale of the poor into slavery.  In other words, a poor person would purchase a pair of sandals on credit.  When they couldn’t pay, they would be sold into slavery in order for the wealthy merchants to get their payment.  The Lord swears in 8:7, I will not forget any of their deeds.  Judgment is on its way and will make everyone mourn for what they have done.

 

A CONVENIENT DICHOTOMY

 

The issue here is the classic and convenient dichotomy between faith and life, between religion and everyday business.  These businessmen have divided their life into airtight compartments: religion and real practical daily affairs.  They are scrupulous about closing down for the religious holidays and no doubt they would be among those who throng the sanctuary in Jerusalem on the high holidays.  But during the rest of the week, their religion couldn’t be further from their minds.  It had no practical application to the daily affairs of life.  The customers who entered their shops were cheated on their way in and again on their way out.  If they failed to pay up immediately, they were sold into debt slavery.  “Religion is religion, and business is business” these folks would say. 

 

So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  Their greed prevented them from even enjoying the national holidays or even understanding what the point of the Sabbath.  All they could do was itch to get back to work; “When will the holiday be over?”  “The love of money is the root of all evils” Paul instructed Timothy.

 

THE PROPHETIC WORD

 

Amos, our prophet from God, still speaks today.  He rejects this false dichotomy as evil and unholy.  His prophetic word is simple.  No false dichotomies!  Faith in God and real religion of the heart has to do with the whole of life.  No compartmentalizing allowed in the religion of this prophet of God.  God’s religion must touch not only outward observance but inward loves and affections.  True faith brings blessing to the poor and justice to our world.  God has heard the cry of the poor and powerless.  The prophet proclaims that the Lord’s own people have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.  The prophet goes so far as to say that Israel is acting just like the other nations and now, in God’s eyes, is becoming just like other nations (9:7): Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel? Says the LORD.”

 

THE WORD FOR TODAY