‏ Amos 2:6-8

Judgment on Israel

Maybe Israel started to be suspicious when Amos was talking about Juda. The accusing finger of the prophet is coming more and more in their direction. They nodded violently when they heard him speak about the judgment on the nations around them. They also nodded approvingly when they heard him speak about the judgment on their brother and southern neighbor Judah. They may have openly expressed their joy at the judgment that will affect the nations and have a secret joy when they think of the judgment that will come over Judah. But if the accusing finger of the prophet is now pointed directly at them, their joy is over.

The majority of those present in the market square of Bethel will have been Israelites. They will be the last and most extensively confronted with their own situation. Now they themselves are the object of God’s judgment. The accusation of Judah has been formulated in terms of violating principles of what God has said in the law. Israel’s transgressions are clearly stated. Judah despises the law; in Israel there is a total lack of fear of God.

1. Israel’s crimes are described in Amos 2:6-8.

2. In Amos 2:9-11 the prophet refers to God’s actions in favor of them in the past.

3. In Amos 2:12-16, Amos concludes his speech with a vivid description of the punishment they will receive for their behavior.

Israel’s sins are measured widest. It is not enough to describe a single sin as a model for all sins, as it were, and in which the other sins are represented. There appear to be four transgressions: greed, trampling of the poor, an unnatural form of fornication, and idolatrous pleasures.

What they do with righteous people, they will also do with the Righteous One. The Lord Jesus is sold by Judas. He is also the Poor One. The righteous is he who has the law at his side, so righteous in a legal sense. Because of corrupt justice and his poverty, the righteous is nevertheless declared guilty for the benefit of those who have money and respect.

In selling, we can imagine that a poor person has become a serf of someone from whom he has had to borrow money and with whom he is therefore in debt. He may have had to buy a pair of sandals, of which he was unable to pay the price, and therefore was enslaved (Lev 25:39; 2Kgs 4:1). In the case of ‘selling’ one can also think of handing over to the arbitrariness of the other party.

Heartlessness and Sexual Misconduct

The oppressors are so heartless, their mind is so depraved, that they pant after the humiliation of the helpless. Their helplessness has already humiliated them, but there is no tenderness or compassion for their situation among these oppressors. Hard and selfish as they are, they find it a devilish pleasure to see how the helpless in their great sadness are humiliated even deeper and brought to despair. Of these rich, what has been said of Edom is true: they have stifled their compassion (Amos 1:11). And here it concerns to their own compatriots, fellow members of the people of God.

The expression “dust … on the head” means that they are plunged into mourning or that the rich walk over them and push them into the dust. Dust on the head is a sign of sadness (2Sam 1:2; Job 2:12).

Helpless people are defenseless at the same time. Power is with those who have money. The helpless are at the mercy of the rich. They determine, according to their own unjust standards, what is right for the helpless and what is due to them. This means that they bend all the living conditions of the helpless in a way that is most advantageous to them.

Anyone who is somewhat familiar with the history of mankind will see this horrible way of acting resurfacing again and again. The least fortunate are manipulated, they act as if they were merchandise or chattel. Every human dignity, every right to a humane existence, is taken away from them. Once again, these are the actions of people who belong to God’s people in relation to people who also belong to that people.

If the heart is closed to God and His Word – although one still confesses something with the mouth – the heart also closes to the fellow believers (cf. 1Jn 3:17). The relationship with other members of God’s people is determined by what that relationship yields, either in material benefit or in the satisfaction of depraved feelings.

How much the natural feelings are suffocated is also shown by the second offense mentioned. A man and his father going to the same girl is reminiscent of “immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife” (1Cor 5:1). When the people of God reject God’s Word, they sink lower than the Gentiles. Going to the same girl or harlot is even worse than going to another girl or harlot. The one is already a great sin, the other is an even greater sin.

In connection with this low sin, the LORD speaks through Amos that it is precisely this sin that is happening “to profane My holy name”. This expression also appears in Leviticus 22 as the conclusion of a long section that deals with personal and social purity (Lev 22:32). In that section, the sin of incest is specifically forbidden (Lev 18:6-18; Lev 20:17-21). It does not specifically mention a prohibition for fellowship with a woman outside the family. However, the principle does apply here, of course, when it comes to the use of one and the same girl by both the father and the son.

This way of acting provides insight into the social conditions at that time. The purity and faithfulness that may be expected of a God-fearing father in his marriage are lacking. Both the father and the son consciously act in disobedience to God. With the persistence of disobedience all feelings of shame also disappear.

The quotation above from 1 Corinthians 5 makes clear that this kind of disobedience did not only occur in Israel. This shameless fornication also occurs in the Christian church. Where justice is being bent, there is also no right view anymore on marriage and sexuality and also in these things the brother is being wronged (1Thes 4:6).

Paul makes clear in the sequel of 1 Corinthians 5 what the duty of the church is towards members of the church who live in such and other sins. The church is given the task: “Remove the wicked man from among yourselves” (1Cor 5:13b). Whoever persists in sin must ultimately be removed from the church as a wicked person.

The Rights of God and Man Trampled Underfoot

Garments are considered an object of value, not so much in the material sense, but more in the sense of use. For the owner, a garment is something with which he can cover himself at night as a protection against the cold. If someone has to borrow money, he can leave his garment as a pledge. In His care for the poor, God has included in His law that the person who has taken the garment as a pledge must return it in the evening (Exo 22:26-27; Deu 24:10-13).

But the rich do not care about God’s law. They can use that garment as a soft surface, on which they can lie comfortably. They do not care about their poor brother, who is now also suffering from cold, any more than they care about God. On the contrary, they are very devoted to all kinds of idols, to which the expression “every altar” seems to point. There is a multitude of altars (cf. Hos 10:1).

They believe they owe all their prosperity to the idols. Those idols are located in the temple in Bethel. They may have built other houses for these idols as well. There they get drunk on the wine they have bought with money obtained criminally. They have fined innocent people and came up with crimes for that. With the money thus obtained, they are now celebrating.

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