Amos 4:1-13: “Yet You Did Not Return to Me”

March 4, 2013

This is the second of Amos’s three prophetic speeches against Israel. They each begin with “Hear this word” (3:1; 4:1; 5:1). The first announced God’s coming visit in judgment against Israel while the third will voice lament. The second highlights divine patience and persistence in seeking to turn Israel from its sins.

While this second speech remembers Yahweh’s incessant attempts to hinder Israel’s sins, it also boldly announces that God’s patience has reached a limit. Even as Yahweh, through the prophet Amos, runs through a series of divine acts (4:6-11) intended to produce repentance, Yahweh sarcastically encourages Israel to continue its opulent lifestyle and idolatrous worship (4:1-5). God has had enough. The time for repentance is finished. Judgment is coming (4:12-13).

Yahweh Addresses Israel’s Wealthy Elite (4:1-5).

Amos begins where his last sermon ended–at Bethel and in the summer/winter homes (3:14-15)–but in reverse order. The connection between the end of the previous oracle and the beginning of the present one forms a B-A-A’-B’ structure. Amos moves from Bethel to “winter/summer homes” and then from “Bashan/Samaria” to Bethel. The allusions of 3:14-15 are explicit in 4:1-5.

Wealthy women who live in their winter and summer homes are like “cows of Bashan.” They are well-fed and lounging in luxury where their husbands or servants are pictured as wait on them. It is a life of ease in their “great houses” filled with ivory. But this wealth was acquired through the cruel oppression of the poor and needy. They have much because they have taken from those who have little (cf. Amos 2:7).

Amos mocks their religious observances. Bethel (Jeroboam I’s new worship center where he erected a golden calf) and Gilgal (apparently a worship center at the very place where Israel first camped in Canaan; Joshua 5:9) are places where Israel assembled to worship Yahweh though in idolatrous fashion. They practiced Torah. In fact, they practiced Torah in hyper-fashion.

Animal sacrifices were not required every morning, but they brought them every day. Tithes were only required every three years but they brought some every third day (Deuteronomy 14:28). They even burned leavened bread for their Thanksgiving sacrifices when only unleavened was required (Leviticus 2:11; 7:12-15). They publicly announced their Freewill offerings when that was not required (Leviticus 22:18-25). Whether Israel actually practiced this hyper-”obedience” is immaterial or whether Amos is mocking their devotion, Amos’s description ridicules their motive.

Israel worships Yahweh in this manner only to display their wealth. Yahweh rejects their worship, at least in part, because they gained their wealth by oppressing the poor. Their worship–even hyper-worship–had become a form of rebellion (transgression). They feigned the love of God while at the same time they failed to love their neighbor (poor).

Consequently, the women who now luxuriously recline in their great houses will be taken by fishhooks into captivity through openings in Samaria’s breached wall (4:2-3). Assyrians were known for using hooks in the noses of their captives to lead them into exile (cf. 2 Chronicles 33:11). The metaphor, however, is even more chilling. These women will be dragged out their great houses like fish out of the sea. They will be “cast out into Harmon” (Amos 4:3). Harmon is apparently some distant and unwelcome place, but contemporary scholarship has not been able to identify it. Some, however, think the name is a version of “Hermon” which would then refer to the peak that overlooks the fields of Bashan. It might mean that the women who, metaphorically, grazed Bashan in peace and splendor are now removed to the desolate peak of Hermon.

Yahweh Remembers the Warnings (4:6-11).

Five times Amos repeats the formulaic phrase: “yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord” (Amos 4:6, 8, 9, 10, 11). It is the final two lines in each of the descriptions of God’s interaction with Israel as Yahweh attempted to turn Israel from their sins. But Israel would not return to God.

Yahweh used famine (4:6), drought (4:7-8), crop devastation (4:9), disease and war (4:10), and tragic disasters (4:11) to persuade Israel. Each of these events originated in the will of God. “I gave” (4:6), “I withheld” (4:7), “I struck” (4:9), “I sent” (4:10), and “I overthrew” (4:11) clarify that God is responsible for these “evils” (cf. Amos 3:6).

While Yahweh intended them as warnings, Israel did not heed them. Perhaps they did not even recognize them as such. Israel failed to see the hand of God in these disasters and discern their meaning. The “evils,” however, should have reminded them of God’s past dealings with the nations in their own history. Such disasters should have become occasions for self-evaluation and introspection. Instead, they look elsewhere for their meaning.

Famine, drought, locust, pestilence like in Egypt and disasters like Sodom and Gomorrah are signals for how God has previously engaged nations as their own history recounts. The memories of Egypt and Sodom underscore God’s acts. Israel should have known but failed to listen to the voice of God in these moments.

God acted in Israel, as Yahweh had among the nations at various times, in order to lead them to repentance. The Apocalypse reminds us that God still moves among the nations for similar purposes (cf. Revelation 9:20-21; 16:9-11). Though we are unable to discern without prophetic insight the nature of God’s actions in the world, moments of pain and hurt are always appropriate for prayer, fasting and introspection. Being with God or returning to God are redemptive responses to “evils” in our lives.

Yahweh Announces Judgment (4:12-13).

As if to relieve all doubt, Yahweh announces that this is a divine judgment. “I will do this to you,” says the Lord. The coming disaster is no mere coincidence or freak of nature. It is an act of God.

The time for repentance , however, is now over. When the Lord says “prepare to meet your God, O Israel,” this is no invitation to repentance or even covenant renewal. Rather, as Paul notes in the Hermeneia series (p. 151), this is “a summons to a final battle.” Every previous attempt by Yahweh to turn Israel and renew the covenant with them was ineffective. This final encounter is not redemptive but punitive. When Israel meets God in this moment there will be no parley, no truce, and no delay. Judgment is imminent.

The successive uses of the “declares Yahweh” followed by the summons to meet God issues in a doxology (Amos 4:13).  The praise articulates the majesty and power of God. Yahweh is the Creator who formed the mountains and the winds. Yahweh is the most high God who walks upon the hills. Yahweh created them and reigns upon them.

The concluding reference to the one who “treads upon the hills” is a metaphor for a conquering king. God moves along the ridge line of the greatest heights and  watches the battle. The Creator God has summoned Israel to battle and God will see it to its final end. The God who created the mountains will turn morning into darkness for the nation of Israel. [Some translations read the dawn breaks the darkness.

Yahweh did not hide this from Israel. Over and over again, Yahweh warned Israel about her fate. But she did not listen. Now the prophet, speaking for Yahweh, announces what Yahweh intends to do.

The Creator God who formed Israel, her covenant God Yahweh, will now destroy her.

Her destruction is a warning to Judah…and to us.

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

Amos 3:9-15 — An Oracle of Divine Punishment, Part 2

February 28, 2013

The second major section of Amos (chapters 3-5) contains three oracles describing the punishment, sin and lament of the northern kingdom of Israel. Each begins with “Hear this word!” (3:1; 4:1; 5:1). In many ways, this is the heart of Amos’s work as it lays out Yahweh’s case against Israel. We might even imagine Amos as a prosecutor who presses the case against Israel as a defendant.

The first oracle is titled by a superscription (3:1) followed by the divine announcement of punish exactly because they are God’s elect nation (3:2). The rest of the oracle describes the nature and rationale for this divine punishment (3:3-15).

Superscription: Yahweh Addresses Redeemed Israel (3:1).

Premise:  Yahweh punishes Israel because they are elect (3:2).

1.  Yahweh is responsible for the coming disaster (3:3-8).

2.  The nations will witness Israel’s destruction (3:9-12).

3.  Israels economic and religious centers will topple (3:13-15).

In the first post on this oracle, Amos–compelled by the voice of God–announces that the coming disaster is from Yahweh. God has decided to “visit” (or punish) Israel in judgment rather than grace (Amos 3:3-8). God intends disaster rather than blessing. Amos is a roaring lion that warns Israel that God is coming.

The second movement in this oracle announces that the nations will witness and execute God’s plan against Israel (3:9-12). The nations are first called to assemble and “see.” Specifically,

Proclaim
to the strongholds in Ashdod
 to the strongholds in Egypt

say [to them], “Assemble on the ridges of Samaria and
     see the great tumults in her,
     see the oppressed in her.”

Why are Ashdod (Philistia) and Egypt specified? Egypt is missing from the previous list of nations in Amos 1-2. There is probably something about them that remind Israel of their history. Perhaps it is the memory of slavery in Egypt (already noted in Amos 3:1) and the idolatrous reputation of Ashdod (1 Samuel 5:1-6). Perhaps, as Harold Shank suggests in his NIV College Press Commentary, their reputations for cruelty are in play. Yahweh summons barbarous nations to see the ruthlessness of Israel. These malicious nations will testify to the presence of evil within Israel. As Shank notes, “Amos pictures the Hitlers and Stalins of the ancient world shaking their heads at the atrocities in Samaria” (p. 233).

What do they see? They see confusion (“unrest”) and oppression within Israel. The term “unrest” or “tumults” is a Hebrew term that denotes panic or terror that is the opposite of shalom (cf. 2 Chronicles 15:5). Israel is filled with fear; they are terrorized. The term “oppression” describes the burdens about which humans cry out and desperately seek help (cf. Job 35:9). Given that Amos plays out these themes of fear and oppression later in this work, the picture portrays a city whose poor are filled with fear and cry out for relief (cf. Amos 6:3-6; 8:4-6).

The nature of this fear and oppression is partly explained by Yahweh’s comment on the situation in Amos 3:10.  ”Violence and robbery” (NRSV) or “violence and extortion” (NJB) characterize Samaria, according to Yahweh. “They do not know how to do right.” Instead of justice (cf.Isaiah 59:14), they treasure up the spoils of their violence in their citadels so that they might live in splendor and ease. Their only concern is for themselves; they have no mercy for the poor and needy.

Yet, what they have stored up will be “plundered” (Amos 3:12). Because they have not pursued justice but have looted the poor, an unidentified hostile nation will plunder their strongholds. Egypt and Ashdod will bear witness to this. Israel will not be able to resist the onslaught of the adversary that will come to loot and dispossess it. Israel will face divine judgment because it did “not know how to do right,” that is, it did not practice justice.

The destruction will be so thorough that it is compared to a shepherd who returns from the fields with the evidence that a sheep was eaten by an animal rather than stolen by a human. The lion–the national adversary–will completely devour its prey–Israel–so that there is little left. The latter part of Amos 3:12 contains a translation difficulty that involves how to point the Hebrew text (the vowels supplied to the Hebrew consonants) among other matters. This need not detain us but the difference is evident when one reads the NIV (“Damascus”) compared with the  NRSV (“bed”). Whatever the case, the rhetorical significance is clear: only a marginal part of those who “sit” or “dwell” in Samaria will be rescued from the lion that will devour the nation. The nation itself will not survive.

The third movement of this first oracle identifies the primary culprits of this inability to “do right” in the land (Amos 3:13-15). They are those who worship at the “altars of Bethel” and live in the “great houses” of Israel. The idolators and powerful enjoy their wealth while the poor languish in oppression.

The courtroom metaphor is explicit here. Amos is to “testify” against Israel. This is a legal attestation (cf. Isaiah 8:2; Jeremiah 32:10, 25; Malachi 2:14; Psalm 50:7). It functions as a legal warning. Devastation awaits Israel.

Their religious centers will disappear. The “horns of the altar,” which are a last place of refuge, will be “cut off” and thrown to the ground. To cut the horns off an altar is to desecrate it so that it became useless for religious purposes. Bethel–the religious center which Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, erected–will cease to exist. [The image pictures a reconstruction of the altar that was found at Beersheba.] The altar was also a place where people would seek refuge (Exodus 21:13-14; 1 Kings 1:50; 2:28). With their altars destroyed, there will be no refuge for Israel.Horns of the altar

Not only will the religious centers fall, but the “great houses” will fall. Such houses are described as “large and beautiful” (cf. Isaiah 5:9). They are filled with luxury, including ivory. They are not merely the homes needed for shelter and warmth, but they are the homes of the wealthy. The have “winter” and “summer” houses. The poor experienced fear and oppression through violence and extortion that the wealthy might live comfortably in their multiple homes and worship at their idolatrous altars.

These are the sins for which God will “visit” Israel in judgment. God will bring disaster upon the nation. He will punish rather than bless.

The call to “hear” the word of the Lord rings as true today as it did then. God still loves the poor and “visits” oppressors.

O people of God, “hear the word of the Lord.”

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

Reading Amos

January 2, 2013

How might a migrant worker convict luxurious homeowners about their oppressive lifestyles? What might a poor, rural believer say to wealthy, urban idolaters?

Amos was neither trained as a prophet nor assumed the career of a prophet. He was a shepherd near the Judean wilderness six miles SE of Bethlehem in the backwater village of Tekoa. He supplemented his income through cultivating sycamore-fig trees (probably as a kind of migrant worker since they did not grow in the area of Tekoa). He was, most likely, a poor man and certainly so by the standards of the ruling elite in Israel. Nevertheless, he was, for a brief time, Yahweh’s voice out of Zion (Jerusalem) to the northern kingdom of Israel.

He ventured into Israel sometime prior to the great earthquake that rocked Israel around 760 BCE. The destruction was so devastating that not only is there evidence of it in Hazor’s archeological record, but the earthquake became part of Palestine’s living memory . Zechariah 14:5 uses it as a metaphor for the Day of the Lord some 250 years after it happened. It was for ancient Palestinian Jews what the 1755 Lisbon earthquake was for Europe.

The 760s, however, were a time of prosperity and peace.  Jeroboam II (786-746 BCE) ruled over the northern kingdom while Uzziah (783-742 BCE) reigned over Judah. Jeroboam II had the longest reign of any northern king and Uzziah had the second longest of any king of Judah. Together their reigns approximated the “golden age” of Solomon himself in terms of territory, building projects and economic trade.  They lived in peace as Assyria had suppressed Syria (Aram) even as Assyria’s imperial designs were interrupted by internal troubles. Israel and Judah developed their economies and expanded their borders.

Peace and prosperity, however, did not form a just and faithful nation. On the contrary, wealth was increasingly located in the hands of the few and the elite. Instead of thanking Yahweh, they thanked other gods for their blessings. Whereas their blessings should have blessed all, the wealthy consumed their blessings rather than sharing them.

The shepherd Amos went from his rural environs near Tekoa to the heartland of Israel’s ruling elite in Bethel and Samaria. His message decries injustice, oppression and idolatry. He announces Israel’s future–one of both judgment and hope.

How do the poor speak a word from God to the rich? How does a lowly shepherd address the ruling elite about the plight of their nation? What might that address say for us?

That is why we read Amos.  We stand with Amos as he speaks against injustice and idolatry. Yes, we want to stand with the prophet.  But we will miss the message if we do not become Amos’ audience as well. We must hear Amos as those who live in luxury with more wealth than we need. We must see ourselves as Amos’ audience if we are to be convicted by his words. Otherwise we will simply make excuses and judge that his words do not apply–much like Israel itself responded to Amos.

The ancient words of Amos address us. We may not live in 760′s Palestine–and the cultural differences are enormous, but we–especially middle class to upper class Americans–share a similar social location that gave rise to the prophet’s mission.

Prosperity often creates spiritual apathy along with greed and covetousness (as we always want more). If nothing else, the words of Amos warn us that prosperity is only a blessing if it is acknowledged with gratitude and shared.  Otherwise it becomes the root of greed, injustice and oppression.

How we hear Amos will probably say more about our own hearts than it does anything else.

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

Malachi 2:17-3:5 — When God Gets Weary

August 2, 2012

Humans have amazing potential. We were created to partner with God in the dynamic development of creation itself. Our dignity far exceeds our finitude and fallibility. We are God’s royal entourage crowned with glory and honor (Psalm 8).

This potential for dynamic partnership with God, alas, also has the potential to frustrate, grieve and tire God.

Malachi approaches post-exilic Judah with a startling message: “You have wearied Yahweh with your words.” Judah responds by throwing the same word back to Malachi: “How have we wearied him?” The key term is “wearied” (yaga’). Its fundamental meaning is to work oneself to exhaustion, or–as we might say in an English idiom–”to work oneself to death.” Consequently, “weariness” is the result of toil, labor or effort.

In Malachi the tone is negative. Yahweh is wearied, that is, Yahweh is frustrated with the fruits of his efforts in the life of Judah. He tires of how Judah responds to him. His patience is gone.

Malachi may use this term against the backdrop of one of Isaiah’s great polemics against Israel in Isaiah 43. Though Israel was created and nurtured by Yahweh through the Exodus and his gifts to them in the wilderness, Israel grew “weary” of Yahweh (43:22) and thereby they “wearied” Yahweh (43:24). Specifically, Yahweh announces through the mouth of Isaiah:  ”You have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.” God was wearied by the sins of his people.

Malachi has the same message but he specifically links God’s frustration with Judah’s “words.” What words? Malachi is specific.

  1. “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Yahweh, and he delights in them.”
  2. “Where is the God of justice?”

The two statements are deeply interconnected. If Yahweh delights in evil, then Yahweh is unjust. If God is just, why are evildoers apparently treated so benevolently? To affirm that God delights in injustice stands in stark contrast with the prophetic message that God delights (same word as in Malachi) in “steadfast love, justice, and righteousness” (hesed; Jeremiah 9:24; Hosea 6:6; Micah 7:18).

We might wonder what would occasion such thoughts and questions from post-exilic Judah. We have several hints already in Malachi’s oracle. Judah feels unloved in the face of their dire circumstances (1:2). Some, perhaps the powerful, have employed violence against their own community (husbands divorcing wives and others sacrificing animals they obtained through violence).

But I don’t think God minds the oppressed and victims asking questions. Is Yahweh wearied by a divorcee who cries out against the injustice of divorce and wonders where the God of justice is? That does not seem to be the point here. Indeed, Israel’s sages, poets and prophets have as many similar questions such as, “Why do the wicked prosper?” (Psalm 73; Jeremiah 12; Job 21).

The problem  is not so much the question but the attitude that lies behind the question. This attitude is expressed in the complaint that “God delights in evil.” This wearies God. Perhaps it is not so much the victims of injustice who complain but the “sons of Levi” and leaders of Judah who rail against God. They wonder why Judah has not returned to its former glory. They wonder why the Persians reign in splendor and wealth while Judah languishes as a backwater province. They see the riches of the nations who do not worship Yahweh and wonder whether the worship of Yahweh is profitable (cf. 3:13).

We should take our cue from this particular message of Malachi as to the point of the questions. God is interested in justice but the kind of justice he will administer is exactly the kind of justice for which Judah has no heart. Judah’s religious leaders need purifying and the evil in Judah needs judgment.  Malachi identifies the evil in a classic summary of injustice in 3:5.

Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

This description bears directly on the social issues of justice within the post-exilic community. These injustices were perpetrated by those in power and their supporters. They failed to pay just wages (cf. Deuteronomy 24:14-15), victimized the helpless (cf. Deuteronomy 24:17-18), arranged for false witnesses in court (Deuteronomy 19:16-21), divorced their wives unjustly (cf. how Jesus interprets the Torah in Matthew 5:27-30) and found solace in sorcerers (Leviticus 20:27) rather than Yahweh. They have not practiced Torah-righteousness.

It would be a mistake to think that this list is eclectic, that is, a disconnected list of sins. It is better to ask to the question: why this list? What holds this list together? How does it reflect the circumstances in which Malachi is prophesying? The particulars in the list function as part of a system which emboldens the powerful and marginalizes the weak. Leaders look to sorcerers as counselors rather than the Torah. Powerful men divorce their wives. The legal system steals from the widow and fatherless as they are supported by perjurers in court. The economic system does not pay a livable wage. The alien is discounted as nothing. The system works for the powerful; they like the status quo though they hunger for more. Malachi is not simply judging isolated sins but confronts the systemic problems within Judah’s society. The system wearies God.

It is not necessarily the victims of this social oppression in Judah who weary God through their lament but the oppressors who lament that God delights in the Persians more than he does in Judah. Malachi, however, identifies the problem in Judah. It is their social oppression; Judah does not practice justice and righteousness.

So, what will God do? “Behold” (as in 1:13 and 2:3) identify Yahweh’s message–”watch this!”  Yahweh will send a messenger to prepare for Yahweh’s coming to the temple. In this coming, God will purify a people for himself, especially the sons of Levi, and will also judge the oppressors. Some will be judged (and thus excluded) and others will be refined for future service. That is the essence of Malachi’s message.

But about whom is Malachi speaking. At one level, I think Malachi is speaking of the whole prophetic tradition (himself included as a primary representative). It is important to remember that Malachi’s name means “my messenger.” The prophets served the function of purifying and  judging the covenant people. They functioned like prosecutors as they announced God’s lawsuits against his people (cf. Micah 6:1-8), and by this purified a people for service to God and the nations. They put the people of God on trial (Malachi 3:5). They prepared the people for God’s “coming” to his temple, which God sometimes does in judgment (Psalm 50) as well as grace.  Malachi, as other prophets, prepared the people for the coming of Yahweh to the temple. In this way, the people would bring “offerings in righteousness to the Lord,” that is, righteous and just people would worship Yahweh in the temple.

At another level, however, there does appear to be something more expected in Malachi than simply just another prophet and continued temple service. This hint is confirmed by the ending of Malachi which expects the coming of Elijah (4:5). Malachi’s language will be “filled full” when Elijah arrives who is another prophet in a long line of prophets that announces judgment against Israel and prepares for the coming of God to his temple (cf. Matthew 11:1-15). I will wait till the exposition of that text to say more about that “fulfilling.”

Despite a future orientation and the expectant, hopeful waiting for Day of the Lord, Malachi assures the people that his own presence (as the presence of prophets before him) is a call from God to practice again Torah-righteousness (cf. Malachi 4:4). God is not insensitive to injustice nor does he delight in evil. To the contrary, Yahweh will judge injustice and refine his people for the practice of righteousness.

That message is a perennial one in prophetic literature (Micah 6:8), in the ministry of Jesus (Luke 4:18-19), and in the proclamation of the early church (cf. James 5:4-6).

Yahweh hates injustice and delights in “steadfast love, justice and righteousness.” The God of Israel, the Father of Jesus, still does.

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

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