Amos 3:12-4:5
Imagine
you live in a culture where wealth is attributed to the gods. If you
have a mansion, you're considered blessed by the gods. If you're poor,
you're considered cursed by the gods.
It's believed that the more you sacrifice, the more you'll be given stuff. So, the people with palaces, winter mansions, and summer houses have sacrificed more than anybody else. The people living on the streets, diseased, and hungry have given hardly anything.
Everyone is competing against each other to appease the gods, even to the point of stealing. If you've given all you can possibly muster to make the gods happy, then you start going after people who don't have much as it is, and sacrificing their stuff to the gods.
The gods need a home, so you not only sacrifice your own stuff and the stuff of others, but you start using the stuff you steal and sacrifice to build altars and temples to the gods. The gods need a home right? They need a comfortable place to dwell in, right?
If you're in good standing with the gods, you accumulate wealth and you're able to construct temples and shrines.
If you're poor, it means you haven't given enough. If you're rich, it means you've given a ton.
It's in this context that the author writes about a God who cares about the poor. And, if a god cares about the poor, then it means that this God doesn't care about how much is given or about being appeased. The author writes about a new kind of God, one that turns the current system up on its head, one that doesn't attribute wealth or poverty to itself.
This God cares about how worship happens. This God cares about how wealth is accumulated. This God cares about how people are treated.
And when we talk about how, we're talking about the heart.
The people of Samaria have hearts that are full of greed and fear. Because, when we fear the gods aren't happy with us, we think we have to do whatever it takes to make them happy. In doing so, we get greedy.
Now imagine this. There's a new temple being built a few miles down the road, and you think, "Thank god, it's close. Now, I can give more than I ever have because I can get there. I can participate in the construction of this temple."
Your
neighborhood also happens to be a predominantly poor area of the city.
Every day, on your way to the temple to sacrifice to the gods, you pass
people who cry out for help. But, using your common sense, you know that
it's more important to build a temple, because in the end it's really
about giving to the gods and not people.
The author is introducing a new kind of God to the Israelites - one that attributes giving to the poor as giving directly to itself. This God sees a connection between itself and the poor, and gets angry when it sees people building mansions, temples, and shrines all while there are poor and hungry people outside asking for help.
It's almost as if the author is saying about this God, "Since you've neglected the poor, you've neglected me. And for that, you will become slaves through your own corruption."
If this story sounds familiar, then good. It means that the God the author is introducing through this narrative to a population in ancient Samaria, is still relevant to readers today.
There is a God who cares about how we use our resources and how we care for the poor. This God doesn't care about how much we have, but how we get what we have and how well we use what we have. Do we use it to build comfortable buildings for the gods to dwell in while the poor suffer outside in the cold?
It's believed that the more you sacrifice, the more you'll be given stuff. So, the people with palaces, winter mansions, and summer houses have sacrificed more than anybody else. The people living on the streets, diseased, and hungry have given hardly anything.
Everyone is competing against each other to appease the gods, even to the point of stealing. If you've given all you can possibly muster to make the gods happy, then you start going after people who don't have much as it is, and sacrificing their stuff to the gods.
The gods need a home, so you not only sacrifice your own stuff and the stuff of others, but you start using the stuff you steal and sacrifice to build altars and temples to the gods. The gods need a home right? They need a comfortable place to dwell in, right?
If you're in good standing with the gods, you accumulate wealth and you're able to construct temples and shrines.
If you're poor, it means you haven't given enough. If you're rich, it means you've given a ton.
It's in this context that the author writes about a God who cares about the poor. And, if a god cares about the poor, then it means that this God doesn't care about how much is given or about being appeased. The author writes about a new kind of God, one that turns the current system up on its head, one that doesn't attribute wealth or poverty to itself.
This God cares about how worship happens. This God cares about how wealth is accumulated. This God cares about how people are treated.
And when we talk about how, we're talking about the heart.
The people of Samaria have hearts that are full of greed and fear. Because, when we fear the gods aren't happy with us, we think we have to do whatever it takes to make them happy. In doing so, we get greedy.
Now imagine this. There's a new temple being built a few miles down the road, and you think, "Thank god, it's close. Now, I can give more than I ever have because I can get there. I can participate in the construction of this temple."
Your
neighborhood also happens to be a predominantly poor area of the city.
Every day, on your way to the temple to sacrifice to the gods, you pass
people who cry out for help. But, using your common sense, you know that
it's more important to build a temple, because in the end it's really
about giving to the gods and not people. The author is introducing a new kind of God to the Israelites - one that attributes giving to the poor as giving directly to itself. This God sees a connection between itself and the poor, and gets angry when it sees people building mansions, temples, and shrines all while there are poor and hungry people outside asking for help.
It's almost as if the author is saying about this God, "Since you've neglected the poor, you've neglected me. And for that, you will become slaves through your own corruption."
If this story sounds familiar, then good. It means that the God the author is introducing through this narrative to a population in ancient Samaria, is still relevant to readers today.
There is a God who cares about how we use our resources and how we care for the poor. This God doesn't care about how much we have, but how we get what we have and how well we use what we have. Do we use it to build comfortable buildings for the gods to dwell in while the poor suffer outside in the cold?
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