Amos 6:1-7--The Pretty People in the 8th Cent. B.C.

"Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria, the notables of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel resorts! 2 Cross over to Calneh, and see; from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is your territory greater than their territory, 3 O you that put far away the evil day, and bring near a reign of violence? 4 Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; 5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music; 6 who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! 7 Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away."

I. Introduction--Getting to Know Amos

A little of Amos goes a long way. He was the first, and in many ways, the most vehement and pointed of all the writing prophets of Israel. I say "writing prophets" because there were certain individuals (Elijah and Elisha) and "schools" of prophets before the mid-8th century BC, when Amos lived, who didn't write but gathered bands of followers who both supported and questioned the monarchy.

He was, by pretty universal consent, the first of the writing prophets. Thus his message of justice, doom, and criticism of Israel and the nations burst into the scene without literary progenitor. It must have been shocking to hear the vehemence of the Tekoan shepherd. He used 28 different verbs, according to one scholar, to emphasize the destructive work of God. God, for example, kills (2:3; 4:10; 9:1), destroys (2:9; 9:8), sends fire (1:4,7,10,12; 2:2,5). The significant point about Amos, however, is that the judgment of God seems nowhere softened by divine mercy. There is nothing like Exodus 34:6-7, for example:

"6 The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity 7 continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for their fathers' wickedness!"

Perhaps as a result of the harshness of Amos' message, it hasn't been a traditional favorite in the history of Christianity. There is little ethical teaching in Amos--about the ways in which life is to be lived, and little hope held out for the people. Most scholars take 9:11-15 as a passage added after the exile--to soften the rough spots of Amos' message.

Yet Amos came into favor with the dawn of the "social justice" movement in Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries. His wonderful metaphors especially in 5:18-20 and his desire for justice to roll down like the waters captured the imagination of those who maintained that the Gospel message includes a social dimension. As the late William Sloane Coffin, Jr. famously said, 'Amos tells us to have justice flow down like the waters; he leaves to us the buidling of the irrigation system.'

So, Amos confronts us like a two-edged sword this morning. On the one hand he is a prophet who speaks of the necessity of justice--a message we all politely applaud. On the other hand, he speaks of the urgency of the task before us and the certainty of imminent judgment. He captures the latter in 8:2, where God says--"The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by."

As we turn to 6:1-7, we are in the midst of one of his oracles of judgment--this time against the "pretty people" of his era. Let's look at the passage under two points: afflicting the comfortable and no hope left.

II. Afflicting the Comfortable

The "woe" or "alas" that begins our passage is replicated only one other place in Amos--5:18. By reflecting briefly on these dual "woes," we see the hopelessness of Amos' message. The first, in 5:18, criticizes those who look for the day of the Lord right now. The concept of the day of the Lord emerged in military contexts and was a frequent one in Israel's history. It went back to the days of triumph under the Judges and even earlier. The Day of the Lord was that time when Yahweh wreaked vengeance on the opponents of Israel. Yet, according to our Prophet, to look for the day of the Lord (a victorious battle) in his day was wrong. It would be darkness rather than light. Alas, then, to those who want divine intervention now.

But in 6:1 he also says "woe" or "alas" to those who don't want any kind of divine intervention. These are the people who are "at ease" in Zion, who daily recline on their ivory couches, sipping from refreshing drinks and eating the latest confections of the Jerusalem Konditorei. They are bored out of their minds, living the lives of the "nameless rich," as I talk about in my Luke 16:19-31 exposition. Instead of being able to prolong their existence in luxury, "they shall now be the first to go into exile." The din of the revelers will soon be replaced by a different kind of noise--that of wailing and mourning as people are led into exile.

This passage is, in my judgment, a dangerous one for us to read today because it can be used without much reflection as a weapon against the rich in our own day. As any can tell who read my reflections, I am not one who believes that the goal of life is to become rich. But, on the other hand, I think that Amos' denunciations can't simply be lifted from the 8th century BC and applied to people whom we might despise because of their wasteful ways. Amos can easily be used as a cover for resentment.

Yet there is enough consistency in the Biblical message to be a little fearful if we attain too comfortable a life in this world. I suppose I would draw a distinction, which I don't have time to develop here, between being comfortable in one's skin and comfortable in the world. I long for the former; I am skeptical about the latter. Perhaps this is just a sliver of my New England Puritan upbringing showing forth; perhaps, also, there is a strong biblical strain (like in the passage we see before us) that says the same thing.

III. No Hope

In 6:2 the prophet urges his hearers to go to various people afar off. These cities exist no longer, but they were both to the NE and SW of Israel. The point was that the prophet was urging the people to look "all around them." What should they see when they do this? A better translation of the last half of v. 2 goes as follows:

"are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than yours?"

The point is that all of them are really the same in God's sight; chosen people and non-Israelites alike will all soon go into exile. When they look around themselves, then, they ought to see coming disaster. But the people of Israel, God's beloved, who live at ease in Zion and lie on beds of ivory, will be the first to go into exile. And, when will this happen? Well, soon. As Amos says elsewhere:

"The lion has roared; who will not fear?
The Lord has spoken; who can but prophesy? (3:8)"

Amos' message is that all the revelry and flashy shows of wealth will soon end. Israel will go off into exile. The life of fun and ease will come to an end.

Conclusion

How does this "play" today? Well, I don't see an imminent coming world disaster--though I am not an apocalyptic type. Apocalyptic-type people are around in almost every movement, and sometimes they spur us on to look at ourselves and the way we are wasting resources or living our lives (the eagerness, for example, of the "Climate Change" folk or "Sustainability" movement has brought good changes and will bring many more, I think). But I don't see imminent economic collapse. And, even if the "global financial markets" were to come apart at the seams, which many people pray for each day, we will always have people reclining on the 21st century equivalents of couches of ivory. We can, in fact, turn Jesus' statement on its head: "The rich you will always have with you."

So, we build for our futures, and we put money away for the kids or for emergencies. Then, on the other hand, the richer I am, and the more money I earn, the more uneasiness grows in me. That is perhaps Amos' dual legacy to us/me. How about you?

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