The Minor Writing Prophets I: Amos – a shepherd
January 15, 2012
BMC- Amos
Introduction: Galileo
Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist and mathematician who live from 1564-1642. He is known for playing a major role in setting the course for modern science, especially in the areas of physics and astronomy. He was the first person to observe the four major moons of Jupiter.
Perhaps, however, he is best known for his championing of heliocentrism. This was the belief that the sun is at the center of our solar system and that the earth revolves around it. Today, of course, this is common knowledge but in his day most people believed in geocentrism, that the earth was the center of the solar system and that the sun and other planets revolved around it.
Now to us in an age in which science is continually making new discoveries, in which Pluto is no longer considered a full-fledged planet, and the Voyager I space craft is reaching the edge of space that is influenced by our Sun and therefore nearing interstellar space, this debate may seem rather inconsequential. Yet in its day, a change in thinking like this was a seismic shift that met with great resistance.
Galileo was tried in the Inquisition for his beliefs. He was “found "vehemently suspect of heresy", forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.”[1] He died on January 8, 1642[2], 370 years ago last Sunday.
What could this possibly have to do with our study of the minor writing prophets? What could a scientist possibly teach us about the role of the prophets in ancient Israel? After all while science and religion may address similar realities, science is primarily about the questions of what, why and how. What is it? Why did it do that? How did that happen? Whereas religion is primarily about the questions of what does it mean and should we do it?
Yet in their book If This is the Way the World Works, Avery and Gaede suggest that the lessons of science can be instructive to our faith. In fact one of their underlying suppositions is that the world that we are living in is undergoing continual change. We reflected on this a bit in our advent series, on the changing landscape. While science tends to approach this with an openness of adapting to the new realities, religious belief tends to approach this with more of a fortress mentality in which we defend the way it has always been.
That’s not to say that we readily abandon the core of our convictions. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m wondering is if science can teach us something about adapting the application of our convictions to a world that is shifting and changing around us. To say this in more biblical terms, Jesus came with core convictions that were rooted in Old Testament teaching and in many cases the prophets; yet his application of these beliefs shifted from the traditional status quo of the teachers of the law. Are we able to follow Jesus’ lead, to take those core convictions of our faith; many of which are highlighted in the old testament prophets; and apply them to our context of a changing landscape today?
More specifically, are we able like Galileo, to see the world with different eyes; not bound by the limitations of our physical eyes but with the enhanced vision of holy imagination. Now when I use the word imagination, I don’t mean as in pretending that something is there when really it isn’t. I mean being able to see the world beyond our own physical limitations, to see the world as God sees it and as God intends it to be.
In order for a scientist to propose a new theory or a new understanding of the way in which things work, he or she must have some capacity for imagination, to see it differently than the world always had. Certainly, this involves careful observation and systematic experimentation to confirm things, but ultimately the profound “aha” of a new take on what is really going on requires a certain level of imagination to see things as they really are.
Walter Brueggemann, in his book The Prophetic Imagination, suggests a similar understanding of the prophets. At some level, the prophets were those who spoke about the future that was to come, but they were so much more than that. They were visionaries that used holy imagination to describe the world as it really is to God, as it really should be. They took what they saw. They worked with what they knew of God, but then they saw beyond the limitations of their human eyes to describe a real world that not very many people could see. As Galileo was able through scientific imagination to see the solar system as it really is, the prophets were able through prophetic imagination to describe the world as it really was and as God desired it to be.
Why This Study?
You may be wondering, “Why this study on the Minor Writing Prophets?” That seems like a valid question. And I would suggest the following reasons.
First, I believe that all scripture is God inspired and useful for teaching. This is scripture that we rarely touch, let alone put focused attention on it. What lessons might we be missing when we in essence use a smaller Bible? What can we learn by looking at the whole of scripture?
Second as Christians, we have a tendency to focus in on the New Testament. When we do go back into the Old Testament, we tend to limit our view to the stories or the verses in the prophets that point directly toward Jesus. Yet the minor writing prophets were a significant part of the Bible that Jesus read, and He refers back to them. If Jesus himself studied them, shouldn’t we?
Third, I believe that the prophets have something to teach us about taking what we know of who God is and applying it to the changing context around us. The prophets knew the Torah, the law of God. They saw what was happening around them and they were able to declare the Word of the Lord, to see the world as it really was or as it should be; not only as everybody else did. Through prophetic imagination, they were able to see as God sees.
Now, I am not suggesting that we all become prophets like those in these books. And certainly, there is something to the fact that these men were called to this role. At the same time, they also had to take on the role that God called them to. They had to open themselves to see as God sees in order to be able to declare what God had for them.
While our call, our circumstances and our time may be different; I wonder if there might also be some important similarities. We live in a world with a changing landscape and we are called to reorder our world. We talked about this during Advent. And while we may not receive the call to be a prophet, we are called to share the gospel message and to engage a hurting world with the word of the Lord. And we do carry within us the Holy Spirit to guide us. Perhaps by spending time with these prophets, we can learn more about how to see the world around us as God sees it and to engage it more fully with God’s mission.
Who was Amos?
What do we mean by “The Minor Writing Prophets?” In the Old Testament, we have the former prophets. These are the prophets that we read about in I & II Samuel and I & II Kings. Prophets like Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, and Elisha. We have their stories and some of what they said, but not these extended works.
We also have the Latter Prophets. These are the ones for which we have a book named after them. We have Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. These three each wrote enough that their work filled about a scroll each. And then we have the scroll that is referred to as the Book of the Twelve. When the writings of these 12 prophets were combined together, they were about the right length to fill a fourth scroll. The prophets from this scroll, the book of the twelve, are the Minor Writing Prophets that we will be considering.
When were they active and what was going on at the time? These prophets likely declared these words of the Lord from about 760 BCE to around 450 BCE, so over the course of about 300 years. Amos was likely the first of these prophets and he spoke around 760 BCE, some 40 years before the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 722. Later in 587 BCE, the southern kingdom experienced a similar fate when it was conquered by Babylon. Then in 538, the Persian king, Cyrus, issued a decree that allowed Jews to return to Palestine.
We learn from our texts this morning, that Amos was a shepherd from Tekoa in Judah. He was called by God to go to Israel to prophesy against them. This was during a time of relative prosperity and peace for the people of Israel. They had recently regained some of their lost territory and there were those who were very well off even having summer and winter homes. But Amos came in the midst of that to warn the people of impending disaster. What can we learn from Amos and his answer to God’s call?
Lesson 1: God Called a Shepherd
The first thing that I believe we can learn from Amos, is that God may call anyone of us to speak His word. Amos was a simple shepherd. He was not a priest or a teacher of the law. He was not a ruling authority. He was a shepherd, yet God called him to be his mouth piece, to speak into the lives of the people of Israel. In fact, not only was he a shepherd, but he was a foreigner. He was from Judah, but was called to prophesy in Israel.
How often do we receive little nudgings from God to say something to someone; a word of encouragement, of wisdom, or of concern. How often do we sense the movement of the Holy Spirit to share of how God is working in our lives, to testify to what God is doing; but we don’t act on it? Perhaps we fear rejection or we feel inadequate. Maybe we don’t think that they will want to hear it and so we don’t say it.
Amos was a shepherd from a foreign land. He didn’t have the clout or the connections, yet when he felt the Lord calling him to speak, he was compelled to carry it out. I believe that Amos models for us, sensitivity to the spirit and receptivity to carrying out the call of God, whoever you are and wherever you may be. Knowing that like Amos, our words may fall on deaf ears; but acting in faithfulness and trusting that God has a plan.
Lesson 2: With Knowledge Comes Responsibility
The second lesson that I believe we can learn from Amos is that with knowledge comes responsibility. Within Amos, we read of the ways that Israel is failing to live out the ways that God has instructed them. They are living the high life and ignoring the poor. They are performing acts of worship, yet their lives are not being formed or transformed by them.
Through Amos, God is calling Israel out on this and warning them of the impending consequences. But more than that, we read of Amos reminding them of all the things that the Lord has done for them. He brought them out of slavery. He freed them from oppression. They know better and yet they still are not living as God has instructed them.
As Abraham Heschel notes in his book The Prophets, they had to “remind the people that chosenness must not be mistaken as divine favoritism or immunity from chastisement, but on the contrary, that it meant being more seriously exposed to divine judgment and chastisement.” (pg. 32) Israel was held to a higher standard, because they knew better.
One of the images that Amos uses in chapter 7 is that of the plum line. God declares that He will wipe out the food supply with locusts and Amos intercedes asking that God forgive them because they will not survive. God relents. Then God declares that He will wipe them out with fire. Amos intercedes and asks God to spare them and God relents. But then God shows Amos a plum line and says that He will knock down their high places.
Now I don’t know a whole lot about construction, but as I understand it, a plum line serves as a guide in building to help you get things square and level. When used properly, it will result in a stronger and sturdier structure. It makes visible a known reality and it applies it to the structure.
This seems significant to me, in that the people of Israel had the plum line of the Torah. They knew the standard, but they were not applying it to their lives and they were now being held accountable for it. This wasn’t some random standard that came out of the sky and was unfairly applied. It was a known standard that they were not living up to.
If the people of Israel who only had the Torah for their plum line were being held accountable for not living it out, how much more accountable will we be with not only having the Torah, but also the prophets, the Gospels and the life of Jesus Christ? Now I don’t have a word of the Lord about impending disaster, but it seems significant to me that Amos was called to help the people see what was all around them; yet they failed to see.
Are we able to see clearly all that is around us? Are we living out as fully as we could the teachings that we have been given? Is there more that we can be doing to enact God’s peace and justice in our midst? Is there more that we can be sharing about what God desires for us?
Lesson 3: Worship with Your Whole Life
The third lesson that I see for us in Amos is that we need to worship with our whole lives. Amos charged the people of Israel with coming to the temple and making empty sacrifices. They were going through the motions of faith, but their lives were not being transformed. Their lives were not reflecting the work of God around them. In fact some commentators suggested that they were actually anxious for the Sabbath to end so that they could resume their injustices.
Certainly we strive to live out and embody our faith in our everyday lives. We seek to serve and to give of ourselves. And yet, I am challenged to consider what are the areas that I am overlooking? Who are the people that I am overlooking? What are the things that I do that I think nothing about, but that have far reaching impact?
Through an article online in The Mennonite and information from Everence, I recently became aware of something known as “conflict minerals.” These are minerals that are taken from the earth to be used to make electronic products, but that are acquired through destructive practices of slavery, violence and rape. Many of these minerals are used to make the everyday electronic equipment that we use like cell phones, but the means used to acquire them lead to oppression.
Now before this, I was ignorant about it; but now that I know, it seems to me that it becomes part of the plum line that I use to shape my life. And if it is part of the plum line, then it should also become a part of my life in the choices that I make.
What does it say to God if I come on Sunday morning and give my tithe as an act of worship, but then I go out and knowingly buy a product that was created or derived from unjust practice? A part of my money has been given as a sacrifice to God, but another part has been used to support sinful practices of injustice. Amos called the people of Israel to worship with their whole lives.
We too are called to this, and while I think that this is something that we work at, I still find myself challenged with new ways that I can do more and better. I’m not sure that in the world we live in that it is possible for us to completely avoid our resources being used in unjust ways. But we can make choices to reduce that outcome and to challenge the status quo that perpetuates it.
Conclusion
The prophets lived in a tumultuous time of change in which the unthinkable was happening. In the midst of that with prophetic imagination, they saw the world as God does. They proclaimed images of the real world as it should be. They named the work of God that was happening in their midst.
Amos, a shepherd, followed God’s call and delivered the word of the Lord. He called Israel to account for their unjust practices, reminding them of the standard that they were being held to. And Amos called Israel to end the hypocrisy of their empty practices of worship, by living lives of faithfulness.
Though our time and our place is not nearly so tumultuous as theirs, we do live in times of change. Might we learn from these prophets how to open ourselves up to God and to see as God sees? May God open our eyes to see as God sees and open our ears to hear as God hears. May God speak through our mouths with God’s words and act through our hands and feet.
Amen
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