Wednesday, December 4, 2013
This
is what the LORD says: “A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion’s mouth will
recover only two legs or a piece of an ear. So it will be for the Israelites in Samaria lying on
luxurious beds, and for the people of Damascus reclining on couches. “Now listen to this, and announce
it throughout all Israel,” says the Lord, the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies. Amos 3:12 - 13 (NLT)
Amos was a shepherd, so he knew
that when a lion gets hold of a sheep there’s not much left! As a reluctant prophet Amos didn’t have much
“warm and fuzzy” to tickle the ears of those who would listen. He was from a poverty-stricken area of the
Southern kingdom of Judah, and his message was to the affluent Northerners
dwelling in Samaria. Amos was a poor-boy
“nobody” prophet coming to town like the Beverly Hillbillies wearing a
signboard warning about the end to come.
Few paid attention.
What did Amos’ message mean?
Samaria was full of rich folks who
had gotten that way primarily by oppressing the poor. The picture Amos paints is how the fat
(prosperous) lambs of Samaria are going to be torn apart by the lions of
Assyria, the few people left like discarded legs and ear parts the lion missed
after the attack; few would escape this carnage. Out of their ease and luxuriant lifestyle
would come devastation and hardship. One
day you’re eating “high on the hog”; the next day you’re skewered on the
rotisserie pole over an open fire!
How could God let this happen to His own?
Well, God didn’t let
it happen; God caused it!
God sent the Assyrians to devastate
Samaria (and eventually Judah/Jerusalem) because they were His own, with a
mandated message to proclaim to the world of holiness, righteousness and God’s
sovereignty. But, instead of proclaiming
TO the world,
Israel had become part of the world’s system.
Nothing New under the Sun
The church in America parallels
what we read in Amos; instead of preaching an unadulterated Gospel of the
Kingdom of God, we opt for cultural relevance. We want our culture to understand the Gospel
on their
terms,
so we try hard to not offend. We try so
hard we take the offense of the cross[1]
away and make following Jesus all about being nice, prosperous and good for
whatever’s broken in you. There’s hardly
anything about denying self, taking up a cross and following Christ.[2]
In this part of world history, the
premier “super-power” has been America and western culture. Americans are accustomed to being in-charge
in the world – just like lions in the jungle.
And, just like lions ruling the jungle, we can fall in love with the
sound of our own roaring while failing to notice Assyria getting bigger in the rear-view
mirror.
We forget that our strength in
time-past has been because we understood that our riches and power are gifts to
be used for blessing God’s world – not a soft couch to live the good life! If we are blessed of God, surely we (like
Israel) have a mandate and a message. If
we will not do God’s bidding, can it be long before we wind up legs and ear
flaps strewn on the ground?
Today
Is it your practice to pray for our government’s leadership?And do you pray that God will only uphold leaders who will stand up for the oppressed, instead of standing with the oppressors?
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