Reflections on Amos 2

 Amos 02  (Contemporary English Version)

1. The LORD said: I will punish Moab for countless crimes, and I won't change my mind. They made lime from the bones of the king of Edom.
   
2. Now I will send fire to destroy the fortresses of Kerioth. Battle shouts and trumpet blasts will be heard as I destroy Moab
   
3. with its king and leaders. I, the LORD, have spoken!
   
4. The LORD said: I will punish Judah for countless crimes, and I won't change my mind. They have rejected my teachings and refused to obey me. They were led astray by the same false gods their ancestors worshiped.
   
5. Now I will send fire on Judah and destroy the fortresses of Jerusalem.
   
6. The LORD said: I will punish Israel for countless crimes, and I won't change my mind. They sell honest people for money, and the needy are sold for the price of sandals.
   
7. They smear the poor in the dirt and push aside those who are helpless. My holy name is dishonored, because fathers and sons sleep with the same young women.
   
8. They lie down beside altars on clothes taken as security for loans. And they drink wine in my temple, wine bought with the money they received from fines.
   
9. Israel, the Amorites were there when you entered Canaan. They were tall as cedars and strong as oaks. But I wiped them out-- I destroyed their branches and their roots.
   
10. I had rescued you from Egypt, and for forty years I had led you through the desert. Then I gave you the land of the Amorites.
    
11. I chose some of you to be prophets and others to be Nazirites. People of Israel, you know this is true. I, the LORD, have spoken!
    
12. But you commanded the prophets not to speak their message, and you pressured the Nazirites into drinking wine.
    
13. And so I will crush you, just as a wagon full of grain crushes the ground.
    
14. No matter how fast you run, you won't escape. No matter how strong you are, you will lose your strength and your life.
    
15. Even if you are an expert with a bow and arrow, you will retreat. And you won't get away alive, not even if you run fast or ride a horse.
    
16. You may be brave and strong, but you will run away, stripped naked. I, the LORD, have spoken!

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The judgment Amos spoke against Moab may be the only one among the six nations he addressed who was not guilty of a crime against Israel. Moab was guilty of burning "to lime the bones of the king of Edom." (2:1) Though this offense may seem a bit strange to us, it is thought by some it involved the capture of the son of the king of Edom who they offered as a burnt offering upon the city wall. Whatever the actual offense, it did not please the Just Judge of the universe. Moab would be destroyed as a result.

Judah next entered the cross hairs as judgment was aimed at the nation. While the other nations mentioned had broken a more generic covenant by shedding blood, Judah had broken a more specific covenant in which they were to be God's special people and He was to be their God with no other godly allegiances. But Judah had not kept the Lord's statutes and had been led astray by the lies of her ancestors to worship idols, resulting in being consumed by fire. These events led to the nation's exile in Babylon.

Finally it was Israel's turn to receive the prophet's attention, directing God's judgment on them. As with Judah, Israel had broken her covenant with the Lord by worshiping idols. This was the most basic stipulation of Israel's covenant with God. It was the one on which all the other stipulations were founded. God had personally put in place every piece of the puzzle forming the Israelite nation, the final piece coming into place as God brought the people out of Egyptian slavery and enabled them to overthrow the Amorites and other nations inhabiting the land of Canaan, making possible Israel's possession of the land as her own. Worshiping other gods was an insinuation that they were responsible for Israel's good fortunes rather than God. This was an extreme offense to God.

Having broken this basic covenantal stipulation, Israel's other sins spread like a cancer. Worship of other gods was not concerned about moral issues and Israel soon lost her concern as well. Social injustice spread as did legal perversion, sexual immortality, and mistreatment of fellow Jews over the misuse of collateral. God was about to crush Israel "as a wagon full of sheaves crushes grain." No one would escape the coming devastation regardless of their prowess. God had declared it and it would happen. As Judah would be exiled into Babylon, Israel would be led away into Assyria. Though Judah, the southern kingdom, would eventually return to her homeland and the nation partially restored, Israel's exile would be the end of the northern kingdom.