Amos, Pt. 8

The Lord disciplines those that He loves, but He absolutely loves to bless those that He loves. After all the preaching against Israel, the Lord reminds His people that He will restore them and bless them. They had gotten way off track, and misplaced their priorities, but the Lord’s anger is temporary. He will discipline and restore. He will remake His covenant with His people.

Read Amos 9:11-15. After all that is spoken against Israel, in a few short verses Amos tells them what it can be like when we follow the Lord. Amos alludes to the covenant the Lord made with Noah in Genesis 9. The land will be so fertile that people are still harvesting when its time to plant again. When the people are faithful, the land is good (Leviticus 26:1-13). Amos reminds them of this promise in Leviticus and uses the same language. In the Mosaic covenant, the health of the land is directly tied to the faithfulness of the people. Amos also talks about the Davidic covenant, where the Lord’s anointed will reign on the throne, and not just over Israel, but all nations.

Acts 15:16-18 quotes Amos 9:11-12. “Edom” is the same word as “Adam” which is understood to mean all people, and in Acts they use the word Gentiles, which is a good translation. Amos is talking about a time when all people will be ruled by the throne of David, and this came true in Christ. Amos even talks about the New Covenant.

Amos is a book we must pay attention to. After all, our society is not much different, and we must look at ourselves through the mirror of Amos. Humans have not changed in that time, and we are just as susceptible to greed, indifference, and self delusion. We don’t like to talk about it in our country or our churches, but how we conduct our business is a moral issue as strong as any sexual ethics. Amos makes us have to face that. It is immoral to run a business and rake in cash while paying good workers barely a living wage. In fact paying people well for a job will done will bless a business and its owners. It is simply giving credit where credit is due and using business to bless others. It is immoral to make money off the backs of the poor by taking advantage of their desperation or greed (greed has no social class) by running a payday loan store that charges ridiculous interest. Those are two ways that Amos is speaking directly to our business culture. It may not be how we think about things in our economy, but the Lord is tremendously more interested in our faithfulness and love for our neighbor than our economic system. The Lord is the same, and He is just as capable of being angry at His people when they are not living up to His standard and taking advantage of others. Yet there is always hope of restoration. If the Lord must destroy, He will rebuild stronger. He never abandons His people. But He will discipline them, because He loves them.