Meandering thoughts about Amos from a guy who missed the discussion:


Ok. so Judah and Israel are experiencing incredible influence almost like the glory day of Solomon. Life is good. Amos is particularly interested in how affluence is on the rise and often at the cost of the little guy and the poor. The people of the Way, living in the shadow of the Davidic Covenant, believed they could do no wrong. In other words, the messiah will be a decendant of David and since the messiah is not here yet, nothings going to happen to us. The feeling I'd assume is similar to asking a 25 year old about when America will cease being a country. The idea is completely foreign to the 25 year old because of the success and worship of the american democracy and power of our milatary. Compare this idea to the idea woven into the very fabric of a nation that God is going to save the world through your future king. Neighboring superpowers are nothing to fear when God promised to be on your side.

But like Rhett Bomar found out in Norman, OK. recently, even if you are the starting quarterback in a town who worships football, you aren't untouchable.

More context might be helpful. The poor are not the point if Amos, they are symtoms of the problem. Scripture is God working out his Kingdom. Amos's pleading (thanks for that word Stephen) with Israel is an attempt to move people toward joining God in making the world God has in mind.

Is Amos asking the rich to solve the problems of the poor, or asking the to remember the Way of God. Other parts of the book (if I remember correctly) express frustration with "God's people" confusing "doing a good thing" and "being the right kind of people". God blasts tithers, worship and things he's encouraged them to do in the past because they have lost their bearings.

I suppose money can do that, make you loose your bearings.


So in my imagination I think that Amos is not talking to every individual in the entire nation. But perhaps a majority, or a powerful minority. Regardless, he clumps his people altogether. Being a communal people, with collective knowledge, the people are bound together, no matter how much they dispise the norm.

Today I have to tolerate TV preachers telling people God favors them when they get on the airplane so they will be safe or Pat Robertson being a calling for the assassination of a south american leader or James Dobson comparing the judicial system to the Klu Klux Klan. To seperate myself from them is only in my head. The problem is they are declaring themselves to be as Amos was, a prophet speaking against the evils of the world. Are they any different than me? They say they speak on behalf of God and his Kingdom.

Judah and Israel thought they were living out the way of God as well. Amos reminds them about what God is about. What it means to be a part of his way in the world.

I guess I'm wondering what it means to be apart of the way of God today.

What do you think?
posted by riddle at 8:45 AM | |