To Devour the Poor is to Invite Destruction: A Meditation on Amos 8

There are many nefarious consequences to the growing secularization of our land, and the psychology of atheism or agnosticism that creeps behind it.  The relativity of morals is amongst the most noxious, since without God as arbiter of Good and Evil, man imagines himself as the measure of all things.  And even amongst those who still profess a belief in God, often there is a misunderstanding about who He is, and what He has promised to do.  So many in our day discard the Holy Scriptures either because they discard the God who breathed them out, or they have become vain in their imaginations about who this God actually is.  While the self-styled atheist or agnostic discards Divine Revelation because he repudiates the idea of the Divine, the self-made Christian (or other religious adherent) discards God’s Word to replace it with their own words, imaginations, and philosophies.

The prophet Amos reminds us, that regardless of our self delusion—be it our self idolatry that casts God aside, or our idolatrous syncretism that permits God to remain subservient to our own desires—God still reigns, and He still judges the living and the dead.  There is no person that escapes His watchful eye, and no action made upon the earth that He is not aware of.  No one comes into being without His permissive grace which bestows life upon them, and no one leaves this world without His permissive will.  No thought, word, or deed ever escapes Him, regardless of how fleeting or remote it may be.  If not even one sparrow falls to the ground without His knowledge and care, we may be sure that every hair on our head is numbered.  He knows us, and all His creation, more intimately than we know ourselves.

And with such knowledge, He, and He alone, judges rightly.  While we may think our best and brightest people know a great deal, it is only limited to their senses and capabilities.  Even the most brilliant philosopher or scientist is still constrained by their ability to perceive the world around them, and to structure that perception of the world with reason and logic inherent in their person—a person which is, by the way, broken in sin, and destined to die.  But for God, this is not so.  Where we are limited, He is unlimited.  Where we are bound, He is free.  Where we are distorted and corrupted, He is pure and holy.  Where we are destined to die, He is eternal life.

Yet knowing this, we strut around this globe, as if we own the place.  We act either personally or corporately as if there is no God, or if there is, that He is unable or unwilling to judge His creation.  We consume the poor through manipulation and greed.  We abuse the orphan and the widow through policy and procedure.  We oppress the homeless and the destitute by statute and law.  We craft whole economic systems that prey upon the weak of mind, as if tricking a person out of their money or their labor is justified as “good business.”  We inflate our prices to line our own pockets, and leave others to scratch out the most meager of existence.  We feed ourselves gluttonously on the plunder of the poor, while the poor struggle to eat at all.

Amos shows us that God is not blind to our sinful condition, nor to the evils we perpetuate.  While we abuse the poor, He swears to uplift and defend them.  While we abuse the orphan and the widow, He pledges to be their protection and their deliverer.  We think in our pride that God has blessed us because we are rich, and He tells us that He will cut us down and cast us out for the sake of the poor we have defrauded.  Make no mistake, He who rules from on high, sees the plight of the poor and the oppressed, and He shall rise up to defend them.  He will lay low those who elevate themselves, and lift up the lowly and the downtrodden.  He will cast out the prideful, and call in the humble.  Hear the Word of the Lord—He has said it, and there is none who can resist or stop Him from the execution of His judgment.  When the Lord rises up to judge, there is none to deliver from His hand.

Oh, you who have defrauded the poor, filled yourselves with good things, and left your neighbor empty, where shall you flee?  Where shall you run to escape the righteous judgment which will so swiftly fall upon you?  To whom will you plead your case, when the Immortal and the Almighty comes to rip your life from your body, and cast you into the eternal fires of hell?  You fat, prideful, gluttonous, selfish, idolatrous brood of vipers—who will deliver you from the wrath which is to come?

There is only one hope for you, and for me.  There is one avenue of escape, for sinners such as you and I, only one Savior to whom we may flee.  But let us not be deceived, our God is not mocked—the same great and almighty God who has promised to execute judgment upon this sinful world, is He who has come to deliver us all.  We who are oppressed and abused and downtrodden by sin, death, and the devil, have one Deliverer who comes to seek and to save us.  This same Jesus, by whose Word the Law is spoken to our condemnation, is the one whose Word speaks also forgiveness, life, and salvation through His Gospel.  The Judge of All has become the Deliverer and Savior of all, through His sacrificial death on the Cross of Calvary.  Through His death, our debt of death and hell are paid, that His resurrected Life may be our life as well.  The Judge has judged righteously, and taken the guilt of us all upon Himself, that He may have mercy and grace upon all who will come to Him in faith and repentance.

And so the Word of the Lord comes to us—a sinful, prideful, stiff-necked people, who by our own hands deserve nothing but death and hell.  To us, a word of grace pierces our darkness, calling us to repent, to turn from our evil, and believe in Him who has come to save us by grace through faith.  Of course, the choice remains with us, to remain in our sins, to discard the Word of the Lord, and perish in the Day of Wrath that so quickly comes upon us.  The call of the Gospel is urgent and unwavering, calling sinners to repentance, faith, and life, before the sentence of righteous judgment falls upon us.  May we hear this good news, believe and live.  Amen.