They are not my problem (Amos 7-9)

As we have studied the book of Amos I have realized that there are a few things that we just can’t say about people.  We can’t say, ‘they are not my problem’, because God has made us his problem.  We can’t say, ‘I just don’t care about them’, because God cares about undeserving us.  We can’t say, ‘it’s their own fault’ or ‘they just messed up’, because God does not treat us as we deserve but according to his loving kindness.

Background

God’s Old Testament kingdom had been divided in two.  The southern kingdom was Judah, and its capital was Jerusalem.  The northern kingdom was Israel, and its capital was Samaria.  During the division Jeroboam was king of the north.  He did not want his people travelling to the temple in Jerusalem, so he put golden calves in Bethel and Dan.  At Amos’s time, and hundred and thirty years later, another Jeroboam (no relation) is king in Israel.  Israel was experiencing a time of financial growth, but the people were opulent and their religion was hypocritical. 

Amos was minding his own business in the south as a shepherd and fig tree farmer.  God called him to go to the north in Bethel and tell the people, ‘your courts are corrupt’, ‘your religion is empty’ and ‘you are oppressing the poor’.  ‘If you don’t turn back to God there will be a ‘day of the Lord’ where God is going to judge you.  They did not turn back, and forty years later the Assyrians came and conquered their nation.

Caring for the vulnerable reflects the character of God

The most famous verse in the book of Amos reads, ‘but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ (5:24).  James, the half-brother of Jesus, writes something similar: ‘religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep yourself unstained from the world’ (James 1:27).

The Hebrew word for justice is ‘misphat’.  It is a broader word than our word.  It is used hundreds of times in the Old Testament for ‘treating other people’s problems as our own.’ 

The Hebrew word for righteousness is ‘tsedaqah’.  In older versions it is translated ‘charity’, but it is more than charity because it is not optional.  It is an obligation for those who follow the Lord.

These ideas are rooted in God’s character.  ‘Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne, love and faithfulness belong to you’ (Psalm 89:1).  Jesus says that we are to be merciful as our father in heaven is merciful’.

God cared for us when we were vulnerable

Amos gathered a crowd at Bethel by denouncing the surrounding nations.  Then he did something unexpected: he turned of Judah and Israel.  In fact, there are three times as many verses denouncing Israel as there are verses denouncing any of the other nations.  The logic for this is given in chapter 2: ‘It is I who brought you up out of Egypt and led you for forty years in the wilderness’ (2:10).  ‘You were victims of injustice.  You were enslaved in Egypt.  You cried out to me in pain.  I came to your rescue.  Now you don’t care for the vulnerable.  How can that be?’

Compassion towards the vulnerable shows that we understand the logic of the gospel.  ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing.  It is a gift of God.  Not by works, so that no one can boast’ (Ephesians 2:8-9).  We show mercy to the underserving because God has shown mercy to us.

God calls us to be a blessing to the vulnerable

Speaking to both he northern and the southern kingdom God says, ‘you only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for your iniquities’ (3:2).

Not all who were a part of Israel and Judah were truly God’s people.  Not all who walked with God’s people knew him.  Similarly, not all who belong to churches are born again.  One of the ways that we know that we belong to Jesus is that the Holy Spirit gives us compassion to his people.  ‘If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother or sister in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in that person?’ (1 John 3:17-18).

God called Israel and Judah to be a blessing to the nations.  He calls us to be a light to those around us.

Before we finish I want to show you a picture of the gospel beauty in this book.  

In chapter seven the people have turned their back to God.  God tells Amos that he is going to send locusts among them.  This would be a disaster for a society that centered around agriculture.  So, Amos prays, ‘O, Lord God, please forgive!  How can Jacob stand?  He is so small!’ (2-3).  The Lord listened to Amos and relented from sending disaster.  Then God says that he will judge by fire.  Again, Amos pray.  ‘O Lord God, please cease!  How can Jacob stand?  He is so small!’ (5-6).  Again, God relents.  We live is a society that is often cruel and unjust.  Do we love our neighbors and pray for them?  Do we ask God to forgive them and turn back his judgement?  Of course, Amos is also giving us a picture of Jesus, who has prayed for us so that God’s judgement would be turned away.

Israel did not repent.  The threatened day of the Lord came.  The Assyrians came from the north and conquered them.  But the book does not end without hope.  A day will come when ‘I will raise up the belt of David that is fallen’ (9:11).  There will be a future king.  At that time the ‘mountains will drip with wine’ (9:13).  Then in John’s gospel Jesus is at a wedding in Cana, and the water is turned to wine, and the wine flows. He brings justice and mercy.  He will bring us to a new Jerusalem where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13).

Conclusion

So, the logic of the gospel says that as God has cared for us, we must care for the vulnerable.   We can’t say, ‘they are not my problem’, because God has made us his problem.  We can’t say, ‘I just don’t care about them’, because God cares about undeserving us.  We can’t say, ‘it’s their own fault’ or ‘they just messed up’, because God does not treat us as we deserve but according to his loving kindness.