Title: Judgment of Forgetting the Word
Shepherd Amos
Amos is unique in many ways. According to 1:1, Amos was a shepherd in Tekoa, the southern region of Judah. It is not uncommon for an ordinary shepherd who is neither a professional prophet nor an aristocrat, nor an intellectual, to make such a prophecy. It is similar to a merchant who went to every town to sell fruit and suddenly goes out to preach the word of God. However, although Amos was a shepherd, it seems that he had more spiritual experience than any other professional prophets. Because prophesying the word of God is not possible just by going out on your own, but is related to the activity of the Holy Spirit, we just do not know that Amos' prophecy contains such valuable content. You must have had that experience.
As mentioned above, Amos was from southern Judah, but his prophetic activities were centered on Samaria and Bethel, the capitals of northern Israel. It is a point in the reign of Jeroboam II of Northern Israel (786-753 B.C.). The year that northern Israel was destroyed by Assyria was 721 B.C., so when Amos was active, the fortunes of the nation were still before the decline. Rather, it was a time when it maintained considerable political and economic power. From the fact that the shepherd Amos, who was not a professional prophet, prophesied at this time, we can infer some of the religious conditions of that time.
First of all, the situation at that time may have been so easy-going that no special prophecy was needed. If all people are living in peace, there is no need for the Prophet to come out and criticize him. Since the prophet's job is to proclaim God's will when the world is not moving according to His will, it is right for the prophet to keep his mouth shut during times of true peace. However, looking through Amos as a whole, Israel at that time only seemed peaceful on the outside, but socially it was in a very bad state.
The pinnacle of dehumanization
Social phenomena that were not visible to the professional prophets at that time came to Amos' eyes so clearly. Others would not have seen it at all or would have taken a slight hint, but Amos was outspoken. It is recorded in verses 4-6.
listen to this You who trample the poor and die of the chaff who live in the soil, the voice that barely speaks is, “I must sell my grain, but when is the Sabbath? You have to make the weight small and the weight large, cheat with fake scales, and even sell the back husks. Those who say, “The powerless should be enslaved to debt, and the poor should be enslaved for the price of a pair of grains.”
This prophecy that came out of the mouth of the prophet 2,700 years ago from now on exposes the reality of our humanity. It seems to be showing the reality of our society where low-income capitalism is rampant today. Those who eagerly waited for the Sabbath to pass in order to earn money, those who tried to trick the poor with fake scales to get money, were still present in ancient societies, where to our eyes today would have been very naive. Just as then and now, we do not hesitate to threaten the very existence of others for our own little gain. With the exception of humans, no other animal or living thing in this world will exploit its opponent when its conditions for survival are already sufficient.
As we read Amos' prophecy, we can learn what the mission of the church is today. Although this society is closing its eyes, it is the prophetic mission of the church to expose the phenomena that are destroying human life and survival. If it was said that in the days of Amos, the rich deceived the poor and made them slaves with pennies, what would it be in our day today? I don't want to point out all of that. Such a phenomenon can be seen by itself with a little insight into the world, but on the other hand, it is something that cannot be noticed no matter how much you explain it from the other side.
In this regard, churches and Christian believers must carefully examine whether their spirituality is working properly. These problems are not so easily solved. It's because they say that they like each other's faith. My argument may also remain partial, but only the basics can be said with certainty. Religious practices that focus purely on man's personal religiosity without paying attention to the reign of God are clearly distortions of spirituality, and as a result, the affairs of this world are not seen.
Why are human-centered worship and religious practices a problem? Why is that a distortion of spirituality? People generally think this way. Going to church is ultimately about making our hearts feel at ease, or believing in Jesus to bless us and be saved. So today, the Korean church is developing all kinds of technologies that can comfort people. Open worship, praise and worship, counseling skills, multi-project, light gospel worship-centered worship, etc. Over time, our worship services and church events accelerate in ways that make it easy for people to participate, have fun, and be emotionally cathartic. As this situation continues, God's rule is lost and only human religious enjoyment is overproduced. What does this mean? Religion acts like 'opium' to the masses, making Amos' spiritual vision impossible today.
revelation oblivion
Amos warns that Yahweh God does not forget the actions of the Israelites (v. 7). “When the sun goes down in broad daylight, and the earth gets dark in one hundred weeks,” we tell them to know that it is the Lord's work (verse 9). It is prophesied that the last days of Israel will end in tragedy (verse 10). While these prophecies may foreshadow the destruction of 721 B.C.E., they are not necessarily the only historical facts. This prophecy of judgment is a clear diagnosis of the current situation in which judgment is bound to come. The end of a community that conspires to make the poor slaves with pennies is bound to be tragic. According to the spiritual analysis of the Prophet Amos, God must intervene in this history. The prophecy of Amos must have been chosen in the Old Testament because it turned out to be true, but before that, this prophecy was already true. Even if the destruction of Israel was delayed or did not occur, in the eyes of the Prophet, Israel's society had to be judged by God.
God's judgment is not necessarily only by swords and calamities. It's not just hunger and thirst and plagues. These calamities happen for reasons we are unaware of, or after the disasters are over, we realize that it was God's judgment. In this regard, there is a more fundamental judgment than a natural disaster that the sun goes down in broad daylight and the earth becomes dark in the midday, or a military disaster that a boon sound spreads. Amos knew it very accurately. “They were hungry because they could not hear the word of the Lord” (11b). “It is a world where even if you search for the word of the Lord, you cannot hear it” (12b). Judging from the overall structure of today's text, the inability to hear the word of Yahweh is God's judgment that came due to Israel's unrighteousness. Of course, this could be the cause of the immediate judgment call. According to Amos, the word of Yahweh is the core that is both the cause and the result of judgment. Today, it seems right to view it as a result of judgment in context.
Let's read verse 11 again. “The day is not far off when I will bring a famine upon the land. - This is the word of the Lord Yahweh. They are not hungry for lack of food, not thirsty for lack of water, but hungry because they cannot hear the word of the LORD.” Do you understand this? It is understandable that the crisis of survival due to lack of food and water is God's judgment, but it is difficult to understand why hunger is God's judgment because we cannot hear the word of Yahweh. Thinking of these words only superficially, you can think of it as meaning that if this country is destroyed by the enemy in the future, it will be impossible to worship. But Amos could not have prophesied in such a sense. Even if it was not Amos, there were many people who worshiped at that time and there were many experts who preached the word of God. That tradition has never been broken in the history of Israel. Nevertheless, Amos declares that Israel will go hungry for the word of Yahweh.
This word of Yahweh, to which Amos is pointing, is His revelation, not the dead language of man, but Yahweh God Himself. Human language does not always contain the truth, but rather hides it. A sermon where God is forgotten and focuses only on humans is meaningless, no matter how many times it is shouted. This situation was the greatest crisis, and in that sense it was God's judgment. Worship and sermons are often held, but God is increasingly forgotten.