Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Amos 2: Judgment on Israel

In Amos 2 we read judgements against Moab, Judah and Israel, but the text focus on Israel.
The Lord is upset with the response that Israel gave to His love, instead of one loving another, people were greedy:

6-8 (...)
They buy and sell upstanding people.
    People for them are only things — ways of making money.
They’d sell a poor man for a pair of shoes.
    They’d sell their own grandmother!
They grind the penniless into the dirt,
    shove the luckless into the ditch.
Everyone and his brother sleeps with the ‘sacred whore’—
    a sacrilege against my Holy Name.
Stuff they’ve extorted from the poor
    is piled up at the shrine of their god,
While they sit around drinking wine
    they’ve conned from their victims.

Our world is not so different: "people are only things - ways of making money". The great problem is that the Lord showed love to Israel:
    

9-11
“In contrast, I was always on your side.
    I destroyed the Amorites who confronted you,
Amorites with the stature of great cedars,
    tough as thick oaks.
I destroyed them from the top branches down.
    I destroyed them from the roots up.
And yes, I’m the One who delivered you from Egypt,
    led you safely through the wilderness for forty years
And then handed you the country of the Amorites
    like a piece of cake on a platter.
I raised up some of your young men to be prophets,
    set aside your best youth for training in holiness.
Isn’t this so, Israel?”

Thus, the Lord expected love from His people.
So I ask myself: the Lord showed love to me. Am I showing love to others? I am afraid the answer is "not so much".

No comments:

Post a Comment