Amos 8:4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13; Psalm 113
September 22, 2019
Larry Campbell
Amos 8: 4-7
Amos was a prophet that lived as a shepherd and a fig-tree farmer in Southern Judah. Northern Israel had declared its independence, and separated from Southern Judah. The king of Northern Israel, Jeroboam II, had won many battles and accumulated new territory, property, and possessions. This generated great wealth for him, and the leaders and nobles of Northern Israel. Jeroboam II became so wealthy it led to apathy. He began to allow idol worship to the gods of Canaan. These were Asherah, the goddess of sex, Baal, the god of weather, and Anat, the god of war. These gods had no expectations of moral behaviour. In their mythology, they were immoral themselves. So the worship of these gods, in turn, led to injustice, and greed, and the neglect of the poor. The God of Israel, Amos told them, was the equivalent of seeking Good, and not Evil. (Amos 5:4, 14) Although the religious of the Israelites were dedicated to worship, and sacrifice, they also neglected the poor. Amos came to the people of Northern Israel to expose their religious hypocrisy, and cried out to them in chapter 5, “Let Justice flow like a river, and Righteousness like an unfailing stream...”
“Righteousness” was an important word to Amos, and to all the prophets of the Old Testament. To be righteous was to have right relationships, with God certainly, but also with creation, and with people, no matter what their differences may be. “Justice” was another important word to the prophets, and it was closely related to “righteousness”. Justice described the concrete actions taken by a person, or a people to correct injustice, and create righteousness.
Now let’s take a look at this passage, Amos 8:4-7, to see what Amos was saying to the religious and wealthy nobles of Israel.
Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
(Amos was speaking to those taking advantage of the poor in any way, from buying their produce cheap, to selling them merchandise that was overpriced, to paying their workers less than what was needed to live)
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
(think of grain companies that sell their grain cheap, just long enough to force small farmers into bankruptcy, so the corporate farmers can buy the farms that fail. that’s what was going on here)
(and they were) saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?
(these merchants had forgotten their faith; they desired market days over and above the holy feast days. The sabbath was the day that was set aside to acknowledge 1. the peoples’ dependence on the Creator, 2. that God is enough, and 3. to declare the importance of right relationship, with God, creation, and each other)
(they continued,) We will make the measure small and the payments great,
and practice deceit with fixed scales,
buying the poor for silver, and buying the needy for a pair of sandals
(these wealthy merchants did this by causing debts so unmanageable by their shady business practices, they would force the poor into virtual, or real indentured servitude. They would charge whatever they could squeeze out of the poor for things they could not live without),
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.
(which, by Jewish law was to be left for the poor to gather).
The Lord has sworn by the excellence of Jacob
(that is, by the spiritual privileges of Israel, their adoption as God’s chosen children):
(...and then the ominous threat…)
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.”
The laws that were being broken by the nobles to whom Amos was speaking, were laws that declared the heart of God as from a God of justice.
Isaiah (5:8) said,
“Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until no space is left, and you live alone in the land.”
Amos was saying, the owners of wealth and power ought not to use that power to manipulate markets causing poor farmers to lose their land.
Nor should they forget the purpose of holy days: to acknowledge the One who is greater, and more powerful than they. And one of the reasons for the sabbath was to give rest to the poor, and those that labour, whether peasant, beast, or land.
One commentator...
(Patrick D. Miller, the Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary)
...called this the “Sabbatical Principle”.
In these sabbatical laws,
the poor and wild animals are provided for (Exodus 23:10-11),
slaves are given their freedom (Deuteronomy 15:12-18),
those in deep debt are forgiven what they owe (Deuteronomy 15:2-18).
The “Sabbatical Principle” can be found woven all the way throughout the law. This may be worth looking into at a later date.
But the people had lost their way, and forgot the purpose of feast days and sabbath. For the law said,
“at the time of your rejoicing – your appointed festivals and New Moon feasts – you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God.” (Numbers 10:10)
The law said,
“If any of your fellow Israelites become poor, and sell themselves to you, do not make them work as slaves.” (Leviticus 25:39)
But these nobles put the poor into such debt as to make it impossible for them ever to be free.
The law said,
“Do not have two differing weights in your bag – one heavy and one light. Do not have differing measures in your house – one large and one small.” (Deuteronomy 25:13, 14)
And yet these merchants thought that to increase the weights and shrink the measures was just business as usual. They took advantage of the poor simply to enrich themselves. They couldn’t even bring themselves to spare the wheat that was normally left on the threshing floor for the poor to gather. They just swept it up and sold it to increase their own wealth.
God has no argument with people who work hard, and in so doing, become wealthy. What God does oppose are business practices that are designed to achieve unfettered riches on the backs of the poor. Many of the Jewish laws are regulations that God put in place so that the poor would not be taken advantage of by the greed of those who hold all the power and wealth.
God is a god of justice. Therefore, God’s people ought to be a people of justice.
We all participate in some systems that are just, and some that are unjust. Many of us give money, or volunteer, or even have jobs that allow us to work for justice. At the same time, where we choose to buy our food, the particular make of clothing we purchase, the companies we choose to patronize, these are all ways in which we can take part in what we recognize as unjust. We can all think of situations, organizations, systems, that practice justice, but also, many that practice injustice. In what social systems do we take part that are just? Unjust? What is the impact of our participation?
A just society makes it possible for life to thrive. The more just the society, the more life thrives. The less just that social order, the less life thrives. Do lives thrive in our society? Who thrives? Who doesn’t? Why?
“Let Justice flow like a river, and Righteousness like an unfailing stream...” (Amos 5:24)
Let us confess our participation in the culture, and the systems of injustice that we have willfully adopted, or unconsciously absorbed.
Let us change our minds and our actions to recapture the sabbatical principle of justice.
Let us be thankful for God’s longing to forgive us of whatever debt we owe.
Let us be thankful that our God has a heart for the poor.
And let us bow to God’s desire and purpose for us
as chosen children, and as a people of Justice.