God’s Heart for the Poor

Amos 2:6-16

6 Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Israel,

    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because they sell the righteous for silver,

    and the needy for a pair of sandals—

7 those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth

    and turn aside the way of the afflicted;

a man and his father go in to the same girl,

    so that my holy name is profaned;

8 they lay themselves down beside every altar

    on garments taken in pledge,

and in the house of their God they drink

    the wine of those who have been fined.

9 “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,

    whose height was like the height of the cedars

    and who was as strong as the oaks;

I destroyed his fruit above

    and his roots beneath.

10 Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt

    and led you forty years in the wilderness,

    to possess the land of the Amorite.

11 And I raised up some of your sons for prophets,

    and some of your young men for Nazirites.

    Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?”

declares the Lord.

12 “But you made the Nazirites drink wine,

    and commanded the prophets,

    saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’

13 “Behold, I will press you down in your place,

    as a cart full of sheaves presses down.

14 Flight shall perish from the swift,

    and the strong shall not retain his strength,

    nor shall the mighty save his life;

15 he who handles the bow shall not stand,

    and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself,

    nor shall he who rides the horse save his life;

16 and he who is stout of heart among the mighty

    shall flee away naked in that day,”

declares the Lord.

We have jumped right into the book of Amos and today we’re continuing our look at the first set of prophetic oracles that Amos declared. There are eight oracles in total in these first two chapters which are directed at eight different nations, and they all follow a basic pattern. Last week we looked at the first part of chapter one where we learn a bit about who Amos is. He is a shepherd from a place called Tekoa, which was a town in the Southern Kingdom of Judah about ten miles from Jerusalem, but he was sent to the Northern Kingdom of Israel to declare the word of the Lord.

In addition, we also learned a bit about who God is. He is the one whose voice makes the fields and mountains wither. And, we looked at the very first oracle of Amos, which was directed at the nation of Syria.

Before we get into this today, let me remind us of why this is worth studying at all.

1. Very simply, it is a part of God’s word. So, why would we not consider it?
2. We learn about who God is, what he is like and what he desires.

Again, there are eight prophetic oracles in chapters one and two. These oracles essentially make up a set of prophecies. And, what we just read is the last oracle in the set. Before we talk about it, though, I want to again consider the pattern we see repeated in these oracles, because we saw two strange things this past week.

In each oracle,

1. We learn who the prophecy is about, and each time it is about a nation surrounding Israel.
2. The phrase “for three transgressions and for four I will not revoke punishment.” And, we said that a way that you could picture that is like a cup where three transgressions fill the cup to the brim, but then the fourth makes it overflow.
3. We learn the transgression.
4. We learn the punishment. And, the punishment for each is basically the same with slight differences. God says that for each he will send fire and destroy the strongholds, fortresses or citadels of that particular nation.

That all seems pretty straightforward, God is telling these nations what he thinks they have done wrong. But, what we said last week was that a couple of things were strange.

1. Amos is a prophet to Israel, but he’s talking about all these other nations. Why? He hasn’t been sent to those other nations. He’s not declaring this prophecy to them. So, why is he telling Israel these things?
2. Each prophecy begins with that line “for three transgressions and for four,” but then only one transgression is ever revealed. At least not only the last prophecy. Also strange.

In chapter one and in the first part of chapter two, Amos goes through all of these other different neighboring places. Damascus, Edom, Tyre, Ammon and on and on. And, with each of them, the crime relates to their treatment of other people, and, in many cases, how the nations have killed or done violence against someone else in pursuit of their own self-interest.

But, then, he gets really close to home and begins talking about Judah. And their offense is different. They have rejected the law of the Lord. Notice, this isn’t necessarily something God holds against the other nations…because they don’t have the law. It hasn’t been given to them to reject. But, to Judah it has.

Now, if you are Israel listening to all of this. What are you thinking? Israel was no stranger to these exact same kinds of transgressions. They had certainly abandoned the law God. They had certainly run roughshod over other peoples. My guess though, because I think this is human nature, is that the focus thus far on the sin of other nations would have actually relieved Israel from thinking of their own sin. Because this is what we do. We focus on the shortcomings of other people, especially people we don’t like. And we do this for two reasons.

1. Is that we hope they will be undone by their own missteps. We are likely to secretly root for people to fail because when they fail and we don’t, we somehow convince ourselves that I’ve won.
2. Also, when we major in the sin of other people, we don’t have to think about our own transgressions.

Now, a good Hebrew would have also noticed at this point that Amos has declared seven oracles, and, more than likely the assumption would be that the prophecy is over. Seven is a number of completion. It would seem fitting that the prophecies end with Judah. But, still, the strange issues we previously stated remain. Amos isn’t talking to those nations, and he has not identified anyone as having four transgressions. But, then, there is an eighth oracle. And, this one is very different. Look at verse 6:

6 Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Israel,

    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

Woah, ok. Now, Israel goes, “he’s talking about us.” And, this prophecy starts out the exact same way the other ones have. But, then he says:

because they sell the righteous for silver,

    and the needy for a pair of sandals—

7 those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth

    and turn aside the way of the afflicted;

a man and his father go in to the same girl,

    so that my holy name is profaned;

8 they lay themselves down beside every altar

    on garments taken in pledge,

and in the house of their God they drink

    the wine of those who have been fined.

9 “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,

    whose height was like the height of the cedars

    and who was as strong as the oaks;

I destroyed his fruit above

    and his roots beneath.

10 Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt

    and led you forty years in the wilderness,

    to possess the land of the Amorite.

11 And I raised up some of your sons for prophets,

    and some of your young men for Nazirites.

    Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?”

declares the Lord.

12 “But you made the Nazirites drink wine,

    and commanded the prophets,

    saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’

Let’s unpack this:

Four transgressions of Israel – Here are how these sins are described by scholars Al Fuhr and Gary Yates

1. Israel has aggressively pursued the debtor.
   1. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. As you may know, at this time, and in many places and at many times throughout human history, if someone is indebted to you and cannot pay, it was possible to either have that person imprisoned or enslaved. And, if a person through debt becomes your slave, you can then sell them to recoup your loss. The prophet’s point is that this is happening in the most minor of instances, like over a pair of sandals. And, they are doing this to righteous people, meaning not criminals, but people whose intention is to repay their debt. Good people being sold into slavery over nothing.
   2. Now, who’s doing this? The rich. It’s the elite. The wealthy are the ones who are in a position to loan money to other people. It’s not poor people who are loaning money to others. It’s those with financial means. And, this is a textbook case of the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer. If you’re poor, you’ve taken a loan as a free person, but ultimately wind up as a slave being sold. Your station has not improved. It has gotten worse.

So, what else have they done? They have not only sold people into slavery…

1. They have oppressed the slave, even sexually.
   
2. It is not just that they have forgotten the plight of the poor or neglected the impoverished. They have committed crimes against them. They have trampled them into the dust. They have ignored their affliction. Not only that, it says that “a man and his father go into the same girl so that my holy name is profaned.” It is clear a sexual offense is taking place here and the law of God is being broken. Fuhr and Yates assert that this is connected contextually to the trampling of the poor. Basically, not only is incest happening, in violation of God’s law, but more than likely in this context it is happening with someone who is a slave. So, you see the downward spiral. You are poor—not good. You become indebted—not better. You become a slave—even worse. You become a slave who is abused—you’re not even a person anymore. Again, who is doing this? Well, it’s not the poor trampling the poor. It is the rich.

      3. They have broken the law that protected the debtor.

1. Here’s what the law of God says in Exodus 27:
   1. 26 If ever you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, 27 for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
2. So, if you take someone’s cloak as a sort of security deposit or collateral on a debt that is owed to you. You must give it back to the person every night. But, Amos says Israel hasn’t done this. Instead: they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. This is like a pinnacle of sin, not only are you breaking God’s law, the implication is that you are then wearing these clothes as you bow down before false gods.
3. Now, who gives a debtor his only cloak? Someone who has nothing else of value to give—the poor. That’s not all the rich are doing though, they are also drinking the wine of those who have been fined, which could mean they are either charging additional fees on top of the debt or that this is wine taken in pledge, but rather than holding it to be returned, they are acting as if it is theirs.

So… let’s recap: 1. They have aggressively pursued the debtor. 2. They have oppressed the slave, even sexually. 3. They have broken the law that protected the debtor. Then transgression four.

        4.  They have encouraged sin among the consecrate and they have suppressed the prophets.

1. Verse 12 says,“But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’
2. Nazirites were men who had taken vows before the Lord and were set apart. This was Samson in the book of Judges. They could not cut their hair and they could not drink wine. They were meant to be set apart as holy men. The point is, you have not allowed holy men to be holy men. You’ve forced Nazirites to break their vows and you’ve shut up the prophets. The people who are meant to point you to what is good and right, to point you to repentance, you have silenced them.

So, four transgressions of Israel, and within the context of the set of prophecies in chapters one and two, the point is this. It actually is not the sin of Damascus or Tyre or Edom or Judah that is making the cup of God’s wrath spill over, it is Israel’s. They are the ones with four transgressions. Remember, the prophets were not necessarily writers, they were public speakers. They were orators. So, like any great public speaker, Amos has sucked everyone into his rhetoric by talking about the other nations, only to reveal that he was really aiming his laser beam at Israel.

What’s the theme here? The theme is God’s compassionate heart for the poor in contrast to Israel’s. Israel’s abuse of the poor. In short, the theme is social justice. Their sin is that they have not only broken God’s law, they have violated the human rites of these groups of people namely the poor and those who love the Lord.

So, what is going to happen?

13 “Behold, I will press you down in your place,

    as a cart full of sheaves presses down.

14 Flight shall perish from the swift,

    and the strong shall not retain his strength,

    nor shall the mighty save his life;

15 he who handles the bow shall not stand,

    and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself,

    nor shall he who rides the horse save his life;

16 and he who is stout of heart among the mighty

    shall flee away naked in that day,”

Yikes! Again, unlike the other oracles, it isn’t fire that’s coming. God basically says, you’ve crushed the poor, now I’m going to crush you. So, again, the question is: what are we learning about God here?

• God cares deeply for the poor and oppressed.
  

   

  • This is a consistent theme throughout the Old Testament and the New, and it will continually come up in our study of the Minor Prophets. In fact, there are four groups of people who Israel is notorious for neglecting or dehumanizing that come up again and again. It is such a consistent theme that this group has come to be known by a title, the Quartet of the Vulnerable. 
    

     

    • Widows, orphans, immigrants and the poor. 
      
• God expects those who have wealth and power to use their privilege to bless others rather than to curse them.
  

   

  • In many ways, this is God’s intention for the whole nation of Israel, that they would be blessed to be a blessing to the other nations. As we saw today, this is embedded in the law of God as found in the Books of Moses. There are all kinds of provisions made for the poor and marginalized in the law of God as we will see in coming weeks. 
    
• God does not change
  

Last thought today – God does not change, which means God’s heart has not changed. If you think that God only used to care about the poor and oppressed, you are wrong. If you think that God only wanted Israel to use their wealth and power to be a blessing to others, you are wrong. Israel isn’t just some other nation. In God’s sight, they were his people. But, now, through Christ, it is the church, made up of many nations, who has been brought into that place. Because of Jesus, we are now sons and daughters of God. Scripture is clear, we are God’s people. But, here’s the thing, the church has been just as guilty over the centuries of neglecting the poor and oppressed. And, the church has been just as guilty of using its wealth and power to run over other people. And, I don’t have time today to get into the myriad of ways that this has occurred, like the way that the church for a very long time was, largely, cool with slavery in America or the ways that people with power or positional authority have abused others. But, I do know this, it hasn’t just been the organization of the church that has done this stuff, it has been the people. People like you and me. And, it’s people like you and me that Amos is talking to. People whose relative wealth allows them to either insulate themselves from the plight of the vulnerable or to outright oppress them. But God is clear: I hear them; I see them. 

It is so easy in our individualistic American culture to think that our faith is personal and all about us. But, the Scriptures really do not use that language. To the contrary, your faith is not simply about what you get out of it, it is also largely about what others get out of your faith. We’ve got all kinds of people in this room today—mothers, fathers, doctors, teachers, business people. Do you honestly think your faith, or lack thereof, only impacts you? No, you are a conduit through which the kingdom of God is revealed to others. The New Testament says that if you have faith in Christ, yes, you have passed from death to life, but it is from this position of new life that you have also now been sent as ambassadors so that others might be blessed. To miss that is to miss your calling in life no matter what your vocation is. And to treat it like a private, personal thing is to miss the point as well. Let us remember today that no matter what we have done, there is grace and forgiveness to be found in Christ, but that there is also a “so-that” to that forgiveness. And the “so-that” is that you become a blessing to the world around you by doing that which has been done unto you. We forgive because we have been forgiven. We adopt because we’ve been adopted. We love because we have been loved. We pay debts because our debt has been paid. We humbled ourselves because He humbled himself even to the point of death.