“God’s judgment call”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Thursday, December 9, 2021
Amos 9:1-10 (Forward, p. 41) CEV p. 935
Today’s passage begins on an incredibly negative note, namely on the unmitigated doom and disaster that is about to overtake the northern kingdom of Israel. Verses 1-4 basically describe a scenario where nobody will escape God’s wrath, God’s judgment call. Here are God’s words, as recorded by the prophet Amos:
“Shake the columns [of the temple] until the tops fall loose and the doorposts crumble. Then make the pieces fall on the people below. I will take a sword and kill anyone who escapes. If they dig deep into the earth or climb to the sky, I’ll reach out and get them. If they escape to the peaks of Mount Carmel, I’ll search and find them. And if they hide from me at the bottom of the ocean, I’ll command a sea monster to bite them. I’ll send a sword to kill them, wherever their enemies drag them off as captives. I’m determined to hurt them, not help them”.
That certainly sound nasty, not at all like a loving, merciful, compassionate, forgiving God. So, what is it that has evoked such anger on the part of God? Today’s passage doesn’t tell us, but the proceeding chapter does:
“You people crush those in need and wipe out the poor. You say to yourselves, ‘how much longer before the end of the New Moon Festival? When will the Sabbath be over? Our wheat is ready, and we want to sell it now. We can’t wait to cheat and charge high prices for the grain we sell. We will use dishonest scales and mix dust in the grain. Those who are needy and poor don’t have any money. We will make them our slaves for the price of a pair of sandals” (chapter 8 vs. 4-6).
It is rather interesting—and very instructive—to notice that there is nothing at all pertaining to their worship of God. (That comes later, in verse 14). All of this has to do with their interactions with other people, especially their treatment of the poor and needy among them. It is this mistreatment of those who are so vulnerable that excites God’s anger.
What all this says to me is that God holds the people of the earth accountable for their actions, but especially His own people, the people who are called by His name, who claim to be His followers. Often people think that God doesn’t notice, or doesn’t care, because no action takes place and no accountability seems to be present. People seem to get off ‘scot free’, immune from any consequences. Today’s passage, however, assures us that judgment will come and justice will be done, if not right now then later.
The final verses of today’s chapter offer some reassurance in light of the dismal outcome awaiting those who are determined, and who persist, in doing evil. God will have mercy even on other nations, such as Cush and Caphtor, modern day Ethiopia and Crete, and upon a remnant of Israel as well. Yes, Israel will be sifted like grain and weeded of the chaff and impurities, but it will be rebuilt and restored to something even further than its former glory.
Today’s passage reminds us that God wants a holy people, a purified people, a people who both honour Him and respect and care for each other, especially the poor and the vulnerable. Elsewhere in the Bible, it says that judgment begins at the house of the Lord (1 Peter 4:17), and perhaps this is most appropriate, for, after all, it is we who claim to be His disciples and followers, who claim to know and do His will. So maybe we should be held accountable in a particularly direct and immediate way.
And maybe, it should start with us, with our examining our lives and behaviours and seeing how they ‘match up’ to what God wants. To ensure that we truly honour God and not fall prey to putting other things ahead of Him, and to make sure that we respect and care for the poor and the vulnerable and not take advantage of their cheap labour or difficult and sometimes perilous working conditions. Somewhere in the Scriptures, it says that it is a ‘fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God’ (Hebrews 10:31), so does it not make sense that we start on this process right now, with just ourselves, so there is less for Him to scrutinize. Amen.
Forward notes: “Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search out and take them; and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the sea-serpent, and it shall bite them” (verse 3).
“As a child, I couldn’t get enough of The Runaway Bunny. Whenever someone would read to me, I’d ‘read’ right along with them: So he said to his mother, ‘I am running away.’ ‘If you run away,’ said his mother, ‘I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.’
“Decades later, my eyes bugged out of their sockets when a priest pulled a copy of the worn book out from behind the pulpit. I’d never put the two together, that this story might replicate scripture’s greatest game of hide-and-go-seek—of God’s search-and-rescue mission.
“Although some theologians say the book of Amos is purely a warning for a wayward people and their judgmental God, I can’t help but see love squeezed into the center of the text, just as I can’t help but see the One who chases after the baby bunny, time and time again, and who offers a carrot and a cozy burrow in the end.
“Is God any different toward our bunny selves?”
MOVING FORWARD: “In your life, when have you been ‘found’ by God?”
Some concluding observations: I’m afraid that today’s author has missed the point of our passage. Yes, God is searching out His people, but not to save them, but rather, to hold them accountable and punish them for their deeds, particularly their grievous behaviour towards their fellow citizens and their mistreatment of them. I guess that judgment is an act of love and caring, but not quite in the way that our author envisions. There will indeed be a restoration and a return, albeit only of a faithful remnant, but only after this sifting and this judgment. He will indeed search for and find His wayward bunny, but only after much peril and hardship.
