Text: Amos 8:4-14
To go from bad to worse is demoralizing. To expect things to get better only to see things get increasingly dire crushes the human spirit. It is simple to expect good days to become better days (that is what people always expect). We never think good days cannot be improved so that the future is filled with even better days.
However, we always expect bad days to come to an end. There is always a bottom to the bad but “the sky is the limit” with the good. If it is bad, it can only get so bad—there is always a limit to how bad it can get. “Badness” is limited by human expectation. But “good,” is a different story. There is no ceiling on “good.” “Good” is unlimited.
Have you noticed if we have experienced the “good” we can never go back to the bad? Take the “good ole days” as an example. We long for the simplicity of those days, but not with the expense of enduring the bad. Anyone for outhouses? Or no in-house running water? Or no water heaters? Or no electronics? Or limited medications? Or no air conditioning? Or lower life expectancy? “Oh, we could never ‘go back to THAT.’ Those days are long gone and could never come again.” Really! Do you realize that is current existence for many people alive right now?
Amos addressed those who trampled the needy and regarded the humble as an unwanted handicap to their society. This time Amos addressed a problem that should make our blood run cold. Amos factors religious attitude into the motivation that resulted in trampling the poor and rejecting the humble.
When religion is reduced to “a necessary evil,” religious people are in trouble! These people had to be religious; they did not dare make God angry by not worshiping and honoring “correct” religious expectations.
However, these people could not wait for religious occasions to be over. They did what they were supposed to do by being at the correct place. However, they did not think about God. That was a waste of time! They thought about how they could take advantage of people—how they could cheat people in the wheat market by using dishonest scales, or taking advantage of the helpless, or by selling an inferior product.
After all, it was just business! And business was business! Everyone did it! That was just the way the game was played! If you were going to do business, you had to play the game, and play it better than others. If someone was hurt as people played the game, it was too bad—that was simply the reality of the situation.
If you could make “God time” profitable time (instead of wasted time) by thinking of ways to take advantage of the helpless and needy, good. Turning wasted time in a money-making direction was good, not bad.
Amos said they needed to consider the impact of their thoughts on God (whom they were seeking to pacify and manipulate). God said He knew what they were doing and would never forget it. (What human wants his ungodly acts to live always in God’s memory?)
The consequences defied human understanding. Their land would quake, the people would mourn, and things would happen as mysteriously as the Nile’s rise and fall. The predictable would become unpredictable—it would be dark at noon, their festivals would sound like funerals instead of celebrations, and there would be no occasions of happiness, only occasions of sorrow and bitterness.
“I, God, tried to talk to you, and you would not listen. I will try no more. It will be so obvious I am not among you that you will travel everywhere in your attempt to find Me. There will be a famine, but it will be a famine of My words. Your choice people will die, and all will know it is because I am not with you.”
The other gods you worshiped will be powerless to help. Their powerlessness will be obvious. You will have nothing but your wicked selves to turn to: I am gone & your false gods cannot help. What a pitiful situation! Your wickedness only is left!
The lessons: (a) “God time” is for honoring God. (b) To be at the correct event and fail to think about God offends God. (c) Honoring God includes respecting the helpless. (d) For our evil deeds to live in God’s memory is a horrible thing. (e) For God to withdraw His presence from people is destructive to the people. (f) It is possible to trust in something that has no power to help us with our greatest needs
