you can't silence the word

Good morning all,
We read this passage a week and a half ago in worship. It is a pretty jarring passage. Yesterday we saw Amos's vision of God with a plumb line; here we see the religious leader's response to his words. It seems that Amos was preaching at Bethel, one of the major religious centers of Israel, and a site that had been important religiously since before there were kings in Israel. As a priest Amaziah should hear and accept God's word, even though with this message we certainly wouldn't expect him to be happy about it. Instead he seeks to silence Amos because his words are too harsh.

The trouble is, silencing bad news doesn't make it go away. Instead, Amaziah is rejecting God's warning and loosing the opportunity to repent. As we see from Amos's prophesy, he is also angering God by trying to silence God's messenger. There's always a part of us that wants to hide from bad news and run away from our weaknesses. I pray that God would give us ears to hear and eyes to see so that we might receive judgement as an opportunity to return to God with all our strength.

God bless,
Sam

Amos 7:10-17
10Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. 11For thus Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’” 12And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; 13but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

14Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, 15and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16“Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.” 17Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”