A Call to Repentance
November 20, 2019
Commentary
Amos shocked his listeners by singing a funeral song for the northern kingdom of Israel (vv. 1-3). The Israelites believed that their wealth and religious ritual made them secure but they were doomed for an untimely destruction. Furthermore, those who attempted to protect Israel from this doom that awaited them would themselves be destroyed regardless of their might (v. 3).
The Lord’s people could find life only by seeking Him (v. 4). They could not find it by performing prescribed rituals at traditional religious sites such as Bethel and Gilgal, for these cities had become center for idolatry (vv. 5-6). The courts of law should have been places of justice but instead they had become places of greed and injustice (v. 7). Pleiades and Orion are star constellations (Job 9:9). The stars were worshiped by many ancient peoples, but they are created objects, not gods (vv. 8-9).
The elders and judges of the city officially met “at the gate” where legal transactions took place (vv. 10-13). “One who rebukes in the gate,” refers to an honest judge. A society is in trouble when those who try to do right are hated for their commitment to justice. They would not benefit from any of their labors because they had denied justice to the poor, who could not pay the bribes. The way of life lies in seeking God and doing right (v. 14). The way of death is to persist in sinning (v. 15).
Application
This passage reminds me that one of the marks of holiness is to have a concern for the poor. I need to look for ways I can reflect God’s interest in the poor by my actions.
Amos 5:1– 15 (NET)
1 Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, family of Israel:
2 “The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again. She is abandoned on her own land with no one to help her get up.”
3 The Sovereign Lord says this: “The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers will have only a hundred left; the town that marches out with a hundred soldiers will have only ten left for the family of Israel.”
4 The Lord says this to the family of Israel: “Seek me so you can live!
5 Do not seek Bethel. Do not visit Gilgal. Do not journey down to Beer Sheba. For the people of Gilgal will certainly be carried into exile, and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds.”
6 Seek the Lord so you can live! Otherwise he will break out like fire against Joseph’s family; the fire will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel.
7 The Israelites turn justice into bitterness; they throw what is fair and right to the ground.
8 But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name!
9 He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places.
10 The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate; they despise anyone who speaks honestly.
11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops and exact a grain tax from them, you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone, nor will you drink the wine from the fine vineyards you planted.
12 Certainly I am aware of your many rebellious acts and your numerous sins. You torment the innocent, you take bribes, and you deny justice to the needy at the city gate.
13 For this reason whoever is smart keeps quiet in such a time, for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies just might be with you, as you claim he is.
15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right. Promote justice at the city gate. Maybe the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on those who are left from Joseph.