Sin, retribution and Thin Lizzy

So here’s the thing, the breakfast crew are, in spiritual terms, a quite diverse group. Half the guys teach the Word, either through their careers or using the gifts God has granted them. The other half (which includes yours truly) wish they knew their Bibles as well as they knew their football! The great thing is that we, the unlearned, can still earn our bacon by asking the questions that the ordinary Christian in the street might ask, or making the simple layman’s observations on the text being studied. Add the various analyses and observations together, and you have got something which is (hopefully) interesting and worthwhile. And let’s face it, how many Old Testament Bible Commentaries cross-reference Emmerdale Farm and Thin Lizzy!

So what are the layman contingent to make of the Judgement on Israel (Amos Ch 2 V 6)? Perhaps this is one of the easier passages because it catalogues the horrendous moral and social decline of God’s people. Abusing the poor, abusing the temple, abusing the act of sex, force-feeding alcohol to those who have vowed abstinence (the Nazirites). It is also one of the saddest most upsetting passages, not just because of the realisation of what an ungrateful shower these Israelites had become, but also because we know what an ungrateful shower we have become. Were the Israelites’ abuses of the poor, faith, sex and the devout any worse than what we might find today? Most of us do not expect God to crush the West, the UK or Bangor because of hypocritical clergymen, a thriving porn industry and the Da Vinci code. Not yet anyway. So how are we Christians to handle such “norms” in our modern day lives?

Let’s hope Amos has a few answers!

Justcoffeeforme       

Prophets & Prophecy

Considerable disagreement exists among the scholars about prophecy and how the prophets worked. One question that frequently raises its head is whether they were fore-tellers or forth-tellers.

Did God tell prophets in advance what would happen in relation to these nations and ultimately Israel and Judah enabling them to predict or fore-tell events? Or were they blessed by God with unique insight to the circumstances of their days and an ability to read the signs of their times to see the ultimate, inevitable consequences in the absence of repentance?

It’s an interesting question.

Who was the Audience?

The early chapters of the book seem to skirt around the real target. From Syria, to Philistia, to Tyre, three circling nations who had a history with Israel and Judah that was frequently violent. Then come Edom, Ammon and Moab who were sort of related to the people of God. Then Judah, part of the immediate family, but estranged, and therefore probably capable of stirring the most heat, just as in real life. And finally, the arrow strikes the heart, and God speaks directly to Israel.

I think it is interesting to note that when God was condemning these other nations, none of them are condemned for their abuse of God’s people. The judgments come because of a whole series of relational cruelties—every ‘because’ has a personal dimension (1:3, 6, 9, 11, 13; 2:1). But when it comes to those who should have known better, the true reason for judgment is given as a rejection of the word of God (2:4, 12). This is the true source of abuse; reject what God says and people suffer.

And so a particular anger is reserved for those who think they have the God-thing sorted out. God, who is peculiarly patient with respect to judgment (for three…even for four), eventually will roar his verdict. And when he does so, there is particular fury reserved for God’s people.

Being part of the people of God is a fearful belonging when the time of judgment comes.