sin and righteousness

Good morning everyone,
Today Amos's warnings get closer to home and he certainly doesn't pull any punches. He moves from the oracles against the nations to oracles against Judah and Israel. Notice the formula he uses is the same because even though God has a special relationship with Israel he rules all nations, so all of us face God as judge in the same way. Judah's sin is abandoning God's law, and their punishment will be fire, which probably means being burned by a conquering army. Amos is more specific in speaking against Israel: their sin has more to do with oppression of the poor and abuses by the powerful. The image of selling the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals is powerful and fitting for the way powerful people sometimes think of others, especially others without power, purely in terms of "profit centers."

Let me add two pieces of background that will help explain some of Amos's language. First, as God's special people Israel (and also Christians) are called to "be holy as I am holy." The book of Leviticus spells out in painstaking detail what it means to be holy like God, but the point is that people with a special relationship with God represent him, so when they act in ways that are wrong it desecrates God as well. Second, it was common practice when making a loan to take a piece of property belonging to the borrower as collateral. Scripture put limits on what could be taken and how it could be taken to protect the borrower, since they were probably in a vulnerable situation already. What do you think Amos's words here have to say to our society today?

God bless,
Sam


Amos 2:4-8
4Thus 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.