I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. Today is my 16th anniversary. It has been 16 wonderful years.
Thank you for being my wife through 16 years.
I am so glad that she married me.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Amos 1-5.
When Amos started out prophesying the people of Israel must have cheered because he started by condemning their neighbors, who were their enemies. We need to pay attention to the sins of which Amos accuses them. They mistreated and abused God’s people. They sold whole villages into slavery (Note that Amos does not say that the villages which the Philistines sold into slavery were of Israel or Judah). The Edomites chased down and killed the Israelites (the sin here seems to be that the Israelites were their relatives, not that they were God’s people). Finally, the Moabites were condemned for desecrating the dead (and again, not the Israelite dead). I am not going to attempt to determine if we as a people are guilty of these sins, but I will say that it would be very easy for any nation to go there and we should seek forgiveness for the degree to which these things have been done in our names.
As I said, the Israelites certainly cheered when Amos began to prophesy, but their cheering did not last long. After a few words of condemnation against Israel’s neighbors, Amos turns his attention to the sins of Israel. He condemned them for having forgotten how to do right. Things had gone beyond people doing what they knew was wrong to the point that they no longer even knew how to do right. It reminds me of what I see around me to the point where I wonder if I truly know how to do right. However, Amos does provide us with enough information to know what sorts of sins he was condemning. He condemns those who live a life of leisure which is earned at the expense of those less fortunate than themselves. They were people who made of show of their righteousness, while neglecting to actually behave righteously.