Reflections on Amos 4

 Amos 04  (Contemporary English Version)

1. You women of Samaria are fat cows! You mistreat and abuse the poor and needy, then you say to your husbands, "Bring us more drinks!"
   
2. I, the LORD God, have sworn by my own name that your time is coming. Not one of you will be left-- you will be taken away by sharp hooks.
   
3. You will be dragged through holes in your city walls, and you will be thrown toward Harmon. I, the LORD, have spoken!
   
4. Come to Bethel and Gilgal. Sin all you want! Offer sacrifices the next morning and bring a tenth of your crops on the third day.
   
5. Bring offerings to show me how thankful you are. Gladly bring more offerings than I have demanded. You really love to do this. I, the LORD God, have spoken!
   
6. I, the LORD, took away the food from every town and village, but still you rejected me.
   
7. Three months before harvest, I kept back the rain. Sometimes I would let it fall on one town or field but not on another, and pastures dried up.
   
8. People from two or three towns would go to a town that still had water, but it wasn't enough. Even then you rejected me. I, the LORD, have spoken!
   
9. I dried up your grain fields; your gardens and vineyards turned brown. Locusts ate your fig trees and olive orchards, but even then you rejected me. I, the LORD, have spoken!
   
10. I did terrible things to you, just as I did to Egypt-- I killed your young men in war; I let your horses be stolen, and I made your camp stink with dead bodies. Even then you rejected me. I, the LORD, have spoken!
    
11. I destroyed many of you, just as I did the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. You were a burning stick I rescued from the fire. Even then you rejected me. I, the LORD, have spoken!
    
12. Now, Israel, I myself will deal with you. Get ready to face your God!
    
13. I created the mountains and the wind. I let humans know what I am thinking. I bring darkness at dawn and step over hills. I am the LORD God All-Powerful!

---

The last verse of chapter 3 clued us in that God was fed up with the rich in Israel you had built winter houses and summer houses and elaborately designed them with inlaid ivory and such. It wasn't just the flaunting of wealth that bothered Him but also that they had gotten it by oppressing the poor.

Now, in the first verses of chapter 4 this proclamation of judgment against those who got rich unjustly and flaunted it continued, taking aim especially at the rich women of Bashan whom Amos referred to as "cows." They, or possibly their henpecked husbands, oppressed the poor and crushed the needy to get what they had. These women continually insisted their husbands bring them wine to drink as they pampered themselves. Judgment for these women would be especially harsh. When the invading army came, they would be dragged out with hooks through breaches in the wall made by the invaders as they broke through the wall into the city. They would then be marched into exile.

Amos mocked their hypocritical religious activity in verses 4 & 5. As they loved to flaunt their wealth, they also loved to flaunt their religious observance. But it was the appearance of religious piety and not the spirit of it that they loved. It was the spirit and not the observance, however, that the Lord wanted. He hated this hypocrisy, and it was made worse by taking place at Bethel, an unauthorized place of worship. In addition to all this, their sacrifices and tithes were made possible with the wealth they had gotten by oppressing the poor. This made it even more distasteful to the Lord. Therefore, they were told to keep going there with their sacrifices and tithes and keep flaunting their rebellion along with their wealth and their fake religious observance.

Amos' prophesy was given as the last straw for Israel. God had attempted through numerous means to bring Israel back to Him, but the nation had refused. To paraphrase an often used quote, "People are like tea bags, you don't know know what is in them until they get into hot water." God had repeatedly put Israel in hot water to bring about a return to Him, but it didn't work. They just kept returning to their rebellious ways. He sent them drought and famine, blight and locusts, war and destruction, yet they did not return to the Lord. Rather than making them better, these difficulties no doubt made them bitter.

Verse 12 says that as a result of what God was going to do them, they should "prepare to meet your God!" Ironically, Israel had not met God through their hypocritical worship observances so they would meet Him through the judgment He brought on them.