"The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa – the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jereboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel." (Amos 1:1 NLT)
I just watched the Bible Project summary of the book of Amos. It concluded with the overarching theme “True worship of God should always lead to justice, righteousness, and loving our neighbor.” And then I opened Amos to the first verse and found a fig farmer living quite comfortably in the southern kingdom, under the happy rule of a God-pursuing king. Amos was aware, though, of the deep injustice happening just over his fence-line in the land of Israel. He had heard of the oppression of Judah’s poor and the righteous man was moved to action. Instead of looking the other way as many of us might, he left his home and made himself a mouthpiece in the hands of a holy God.
Amos lived out his message before he opened his mouth to preach it and, thus, he is an amazing example to us. We can feign worship as the Israelites did, but internally turn our hearts toward false gods. Or we can wholly commit ourselves to the One True God and such commitment will turn up as righteousness, justice and compassion for our fellow man. When we love God most we are discontent to sit in our figs and forget about what we see and hear over the fence line. We instead are compelled to follow the loving lead of God; away from our life of self-reliance and ease towards those in need.
I heard it in a podcast the other day; how helping the disenfranchised is always messy, inconvenient and uncomfortable. It’s true. We look to Jesus as our archetype and we see a King who left His throne, a baby born to a feed trough and two paupers, and a minister without at home address. Jesus got incredibly uncomfortable for the sake of salvation, shouldn’t we also?
Amos convicts us in the very first sentence. What are we willing to abandon in allegiance and obedience to the cause of Christ?
"Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say He is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph." (Amos 5:14-15 NLT)
Lord, forgive us for our self-centered focus on our own figs. Help us hear the cries of our neighbors as we learn to live unrighteousness. Move us toward justice, even when it means leaving our own accommodations. Give us gumption to take the gospel into unlikely places. Strengthen our resolve and thicken our skin as we live obedient to Your instruction. Amen.