or professional prophet (7:14),27 his only authentication was the Word of Yahweh which had come to him and demanded to be spoken (3:8; 7:15). He was thus a man of the charisma like the judges of old. Only charisma now no longer summoned to leadership in the state, but to the severest criticism of it.
1. The message of Amos seems to the reader rather plain and altogether thrilling. It is the classic ethical protest. It is classic because every prophet after Amos was to take it up; it is classic because it was never said better—it could not be said better. With savage anger Amos lashes at those who have placed gain above rectitude:
Ah, these that turn justice to poison,
thrust righteousness down to the ground
They do hate him who rebukes crookedness in the court,28
abhor him who speaks with integrity!
Wherefore, because you trample on the weak
take from him “presents” of grain,
Houses of hewn stone you have built,
but you’ll not get to live in them;
Delightful vineyards you have planted,
but you’ll never drink their wine.
For I know that many are your crimes
and countless your sins,
Who harass honest men, take bribes,
and push aside the needy in the court.
(5:7, 10-12; cf. 2:6-16; 8:4-10)
But Amos knew that society’s sin is far more than overt crookedness and greed. It is also a luxury-loving ease that places its comfort above human beings and is unconcerned about the deep schism in the social order. How the prophet scores the gentle ladies of the kingdom, calling them fat “Bashan cows” of Samaria (4:1)! How he excoriates a pampered society amusing itself before the Deluge!
Ah these careless ones in Zion,
complacent ones in Samaria’s mount,
Elite of the very top nation,
to whom the house of Israel must resort,
Who put far off the evil day,
and make unjust assizes present fact,29
Who lounge on ivory divans,
are sprawled upon their couches,
And eat choice lambs from the flock,
together with stall-fattened calves;
Who improvise to the sound of the harp,
just like David, they compose all sorts of songs,30
Who drink wine by the bowl,
and anoint themselves with the finest of oils;
But over the rupture of Joseph they are not sick!
(6:1, 3-6)
Nor can a society so broken possibly heal itself by much religion. The busy religion of a people that has flouted all righteousness will avail nothing with God; nay more, it is a positive offense to him. Never has it been put better than Amos put it!
I do hate, I do despise your pilgrim feasts,
take no pleasure in your high holy days,
Though you offer to me (your) burnt offerings
and your meal offerings, I won’t accept them;
And to the peace offerings of your fat animals I’ll pay no attention.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I’m not listening.
But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness as an ever-flowing stream.
(5:21-24)
Thus it was at a time when society desperately needed criticism, yet when established religion could not deliver that criticism, nor even criticize itself, that the protest had to come from outside the organized church. And that, plainly, was a horrible state of affairs.
The intent of Amos’ message, then, is plain—as plain as a blow in the face. Nor is there need to argue that it is a relevant message in all ages; it is desperately relevant. It tells us what we need to hear: that a society that cares more for gain than for honor, for its living standard than for God, is sick to the death; that a church which has no rebuke for society, which demands lavish support before righteous behavior, is no true church but a sham of a church. Amos tells us that no amount of religious activity and loyalty to church can make a man’s conduct in business and society of no concern to God, nor can a correct creed play substitute for plain obedience to the divine Will in all aspects of life. He tells us that a church which makes a dichotomy between faith and ethics, to the point of making small insistence upon the latter, is under the judgment of God along with the society of which it has become a part.
2. Relevant indeed! But one might well ask what this has got to do with the hope of the Kingdom of God? Amos’ message is one of almost unrelieved doom. True, he called for repentance (5:4, 14-15), and to the repentant he held out hope. But it is plain that he did not expect repentance: the doom is both sure and soon. Israel is a tottering, jerry-built wall out of line with the plumb line of God (7:7-9)—tear it down! Israel will be left “the crumbs of a lion’s meal”31—two legs and a piece of an ear (3:12). So real was the coming ruin to Amos that he set up a wailing over the doomed nation as if for the dead:
She has fallen, never again to rise,
has virgin Israel;
Hurled headlong upon her land,
there is none to pick her up.
(5:2)
One might well ask what such black doom has to do with our topic.
But we shall badly mistake Amos and the other eighth century men if we do not understand their preaching as a powerful reactivation of the covenant faith. It is rooted and grounded in that sense of the intimate relationship between God and people which was the heart of all Israelite believing. It addresses the people as nothing other than the people of Yahweh, the subjects of his rule and partners of his covenant, and reminds them what that relationship means.
Now it is not to be supposed that Israel really needed to be reminded of her election. On the contrary, it was a fixed idea with her; she believed it all too well. Her whole tradition asserted with unanimous voice that God
