Those who are affluent and apathetic about the needs of
those around them will be the first to experience God’s judgment.
Lesson Outcomes:
Through this lessons students should:
1. Understand
that Israel is being judged for her over inflated sense of importance and
apathy toward the needs of others in the midst of her own affluence.
2. Be
encouraged to examine their own life for arrogance and apathy.
3. Discover
ways to fight apathy.
Amos has lamented the current state of Israel. He has sung a funeral dirge over the loss of Israel, even though her downfall has not yet happened. For Amos, Israel’s destruction is as good as done. Yet, Amos still calls Israel to seek God so that they might live. Israel is encouraged to seek God, not as she has done in the past, by engaging in ritual worship services at special places of worship, but in returning to living lives of justice and righteousness. God has rejected Israel, and her worship because she has rejected justice and righteousness.
The Text:
This week’s passage can be split
up into two sections, verses 1-3 and 4-7. Amos continues to speak using the
same themes he has previously used. The affluence of Israel is her main source
of trouble. Although in this passage, Amos does not focus on how Israel got to
be affluent, but on her attitude in the midst of her affluence.
We’re #1: 6:1-3
The opening, “Alas” (“Woe” as
the NIV renders it) of chapter 6 tells us that Amos is continuing his lamenting
over Israel. This “woe” would have been a common cry when someone had died. The
effect on the hearers would have been one of chill and sorrow.[1] Amos continues to speak to Israel from a place of solidarity with them. While
he does not participate in Israel’s injustices, he offers prophetic speech and
mourns their fate as one of them. Amos does not stand on the outside looking
in, judging from a place of superiority. Rather, he mourns for them and with
them.
Amos is mourning because he sees
the self-deception that has fallen over Israel. Israel, and Judah too (Zion)
have come to believe that they are the “first among nations.” By all accounts,
Israel was not the largest or richest or most powerful nation in the world, or
even the region. Yet, in their affluence and comfort they began to see
themselves as more important then they actually were. Perhaps they even thought
of themselves as invulnerable. They “feel secure on Mt. Samaria.”
To counter this over confidence,
Amos encourages his hearers to go to Calneh, Hammath and Gath. These three
cities were important cities in the region. Calneh and Hamath were important
city-states and trading centers to the north of Israel in Syria. Gath was one
of the important Philistine cities.[2] Amos wants Israel to have a dose of reality. Israel is small and insignificant
compared to her neighbors. In a rhetorical question, Amos asks, is Israel’s
territory better than any other? Amos probably would have received a positive
answer from his hearers, but the question itself demands a negative answer. In
Israel’s affluence she has come to understand herself as overly important and
invulnerable.
This first section ends with a
lament. Amos laments over the fact that Israel, because she has deceived
herself into thinking that she is important and invulnerable to the calamity
that fast approaches. “O you that put far away the evil day…” Here Amos laments
because Israel’s self deception, her unwillingness to believe that God’s
judgement is near, has actually brought that day ever closer. Her arrogance has
led her to reject any possible notion of repentance.
Oh Apathy!: 6:4-8
Next, Amos turns to describing,
once again, the lifestyle of those who have plenty in Israel. Again, he begins
this lament with “Alas.” Woe to the one who sleeps on a bed made of ivory, or
who has time to spend lounging often on couch. Woe to those who have the luxury
of eating lamb and calf. Keep in mind here, that eating meat was a privilege
for only those who had significant means. To have a choice between two
different kinds of meat was even more significant. The average person would
have only been able to afford a little meat once or twice a year. Woe to those
who sing idle songs and have and drunk so much wine that a normal wine glass is
not sufficient to satisfy their thirst.
Amos offers these woes, not
because fine furnishings, or meat or singing songs are wrong in and of
themselves, he offers these woes because the wealthy in Israel enjoy these
things while there is great need and suffering around them. The end of verse 6
is the kicker for these two sections of chapter 6, Israel engages in this
opulent lifestyle but they “are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.” Joseph is
another name for the northern nation of Israel. A little more literal
translation of this phrase would go something like this, “Are you not sick…?”
Amos wonders why Israel does not have a strong reaction that compels them to action
when they are confronted with the needs of others around them. The point is
clear, affluence that is enjoyed at the cost of less privileged people and
while ignoring the need and suffering all around is affluence that is to be
condemned.
The section ends with Amos
declaring that Israel will indeed be first. They will be first to be carried
off into exile. Their arrogance, their presumed importance and invulnerability,
along with their apathy toward those in need while enjoying great wealth, will
lead them to be the first to experience God’s coming judgment. God hates their
pride.
So What…?
I wonder if here in America we
don’t suffer from the same arrogance and apathy from which Israel suffered? We
are indeed an affluent nation. We are indeed an important country in the global
scene. It’s not sin to be proud of our country and the things that we have
accomplished. We have been truly blessed with what we have, and we should be
constantly mindful of those blessings.
But do we think more highly of
ourselves than we ought? Like Israel, do we think we are invulnerable? Do we
think that because we are who we are that God’s judgement may be a long way
off? More importantly, do we enjoy the comforts of our material success while
neglecting the needs and cries of pain all around us?
I think we do. Our affluence
easily leads us to a misplaced conception of our on importance. Our affluence
leads us to become apathetic about the needs of others, even while we have more
than enough to share. While our church is moving in the right direction, as we
allocate more time and resources to tending to the needs of others, I wonder
how much more we might be able to do, personally and as church family?
The challenge of this chapter is
very clear. Those who over value themselves, those who become apathetic about
the needs of others while enjoying life’s comforts, they will be the first to
experience God’s judgment. That judgment might not come for us until the
hereafter, but it will come.
Critical Discussion
Questions:
- What does God look like in this text/Who is God in this text/What is God doing in this text?
- God is speaking clearly about what our priorities should be as his followers. Our priorities should be toward those around us, especially those who are in need. Those who think they are safe, because they worship rightly, or because they have amassed a sizable fortune, are not safe. God will judge those who think that they are. God is judging those who do not have their priorities straight.
- What does holiness/salvation look like in this text?
- Holiness in this text is using the gifts that God has given us in a proper way. The gifts God has given us are not just for our own enjoyment but so that we might alleviate the pain of others. As it has been said, there is no holiness except social holiness.
- How does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
- I think this story should lead us to a good deal of self-reflection. If in that reflection we find that we have an over inflated sense of self worth, or that we are apathetic toward the needs of those around us, then we should seek the Spirit’s power to change our attitudes and actions.
- Shifting from a place of apathy to one of active engagement is not easy. It takes practice and intentionality. If you cant pray that God would help you not be apathetic, at least pray that God would help you want to not be apathetic.
Specific Discussion
Questions:
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself
quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.
1.
Why would Israel have feelings of security? Why would
she think that she was one of the “first nations,” first being most important?
2.
Why would Israel’s belief that the day of judgment is
far away actually bring it closer (verse 3)?
3.
Amos describes Israel’s behavior as laying on beds made
of ivory, lounging on couches, singing idle songs, drinking wine out of bowls
because they have so much of it. Is there anything inherently wrong with these
things? If not, why does Amos decry their behavior?
4.
Why does Amos say, in verse 7, that Israel will be the
first to go into exile?
5.
Israel’s sins seem to be arrogance and apathy. They
believe that their affluence has made them very important. Their affluence has
also led them to turn a blind eye toward those in need. As Americans, are we
guilty of the same sins? If yes, how so?
6.
Does Jesus take up these same themes? Read Luke
16:19-31.
7.
We are an affluent people. How might we guard against
the apathy for which Israel was being judge?
[2] Bruce C. Birch, Hosea, Joel, and Amos, Westminster Bible Companion (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997, 225.
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