Virtual Bible Study: Amos 6

Welcome to this week's Virtual Bible Study! Let's get started!

First Step: Read the Text. (This doesn't take too long). This Week’s Reading is Amos 4. You can read it here.

Second Step: Lesson/Focus Text

“Woe to you who are complacent in Zion...” Amos 6:1

Here Comes Amos... Watch out!

I found the most interesting little poem in my office this week. This is what it says:

The Prophet’s Way
His classroom is the good earth.
His tools are Love and Faith.
His Word is Prayer
His students are the poor, the lame, the blind, the unwanted.

He opens eyes with faith.
He opens ears with simple truth...
And He opens love with true love.
He is gentle and humbe...
Full of forgivenes.

His teachings are of God’s gift
of everlasting life.
For God’s heart brings heaven to earth,
and love and understanding to mankind.

It's a nice little poem. Almost makes you want to invite a prophet over to dinner, huh? Show a prophet a good time? Maybe take him fishing and serve him up a meal at home. It makes hearing and listening to a prophet oh so appealing. Too bad it’s not true.

What’s wrong with it, you ask? What’s wrong with these things? Aren’t the things spoken here of God? Well... yes. Except for the fact that this is not what a prophet is called to do. And it is way too kind to be a prophet’s way.

Prophets are known to have harsh words. They are said to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” They say things like:

If ten men are left in one house, they too will die. And if a relative who is to burn the bodies comes to carry them out of the house and asks anyone still hiding there, “Is anyone with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

For the Lord has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the smaller house into bits! Amos 6:9-11

THIS is what Amos says to the people of Israel against their complacency, against the injustice they are living with. This is what Amos says against those who...“...lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fatted calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlfuls and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.” (Amos 6:6-7)

Amos does not speak words of comfort. He speaks words of judgement. Judgement against how they have forgotten the poor and needy at their doorsteps. Judgement against their laziness in reaching out to their neighbor. Judgement against a comfortable lifestyle that does not “grieve over the ruin of Joseph.”

That’s what a prophet does! Those are a true prophet’s words!

Amos is no prophet you want to invite over to dinner. As he walked up to dinner, he would notice the size of your home and mention how most of the world lives in poverty or in a poor, one-room shack at best. You would escort him in, and he comment on your fine things and wonder how the sale of those items might change lives. He would glance outside and ask why you have two nice cars when most of the world doesn’t own even one. You would sit him down to the meal and he would mention how, if this food were distributed justly, to all people everywhere, you would be eating just rice and a few flour cakes. He might comment on your comfortable chairs, your “beds inlaid with ivory” and tell you that billions of people sleep will never sleep on anything else but th floor. He might tell you how men and women in other countries are paid pennies for their labor so that you can have the privilege of cheap clothing worn on your back. In fact, I think, there is little in your life that a prophet like Amos wouldn’t criticize.

And why not? We are the comfortable. If a prophet is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, than we stand to be afflicted! We are the richest nation who have ever existed. We are the top 10% of all people living on earth and we do little to help others, little more than make excuses. Why shouldn’t a prophet like Amos speak against our lifestyle? He is an ambassador of justice after all. Why not point out the injustice that makes up our standard of living?

We might feel there is little we can do, but that is far from the truth. The awareness of the problem is our first step. Seeing our own prosperity and our neighbor’s disparity is a start. The confession, to God and our neighbor, that injustice exists, even in our own lifestyles, is our next step. From there we must stop ourselves from making excuses and dismissing it. Either making excuses for the other person’s poverty(i.e. “They are lazy” or “They’re all mentally ill...” or “If they just got up and worked a bit...”) or excuses for our own wealth (i.e. “I worked for it...” or “I deserve it...”). And finally, with a new heart, we move to action. Actually helping another person. And here we don’t have to sell everything we have. We’re called to bless others as we've been blessed, not to become a burden on them. No, we can use what we have to bless our neighbor.

Luke tells a perfect tale of this in Zaccheaus. When faced with Jesus in his own home, Zaccheaus, a very rich man, showed us transformation at its best. Sitting at dinner, he told Jesus: “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” To this Jesus replies, “Today salvation has come to this house...”

If it were up to the prophets, salvation would come to your house only as you strive for peace and justice. Thankfully God has sent His Son to save the rich along with the poor and to ensure that, in His Kingdom, “justice does flow like a river and righteousness like a never ending stream.” Amen.

Third Step: Questions to Ponder...

1) How would you describe your lifestyle? Are you comfortable? How would you compare it to the homeless men and women struggling in Pakistan after the recent flooding?

2) Do Amos’ words offend you? Or comfort you? What do you find offensive about them? What might be comforting about them?

3) How can you bring the justice of God into your life?

Fourth Step: Email(if you like) your responses. You can just reply to this email or email it to craznluv@msn.com.

Fifth Step: Close with prayer...

God of the Prophets, your coming disturbs our comfortable lifestyles and challenges our wealth and privilege. Open our eyes to the injustice around us. Forgive us for our own part in it. And enable us by your Spirit to change, in Christ’s Name we pray. Amen.

See you Next Week!