He said: “The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers.” – Amos 1:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 30, 2019): Amos 1

German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote that “Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.” Too often, we seem to believe that anything that avoids confrontation is good. We preach about the benefits of compromise, and there is truth to a belief in compromise. But while there are times when compromise is essential, there are also times the only appropriate action is confrontation. I can’t crawl into the mind of the theologian, but I wonder if Bonhoeffer’s specific need for confrontation had to do with the reaction of the Christian Church in Germany to the reign of Adolf Hitler. From the outside, they seem to have believed that compromise with Hitler was appropriate. They may have even hailed him as the protector of the Christian faith and the conservative way of life. But Bonhoeffer believed that there could be no compromise with Hitler or any politician remotely like him. He was not a defender of the faith, but the destroyer of it. 

Amos denies being a prophet, but he was a missionary. Born in Judah, Amos leaves home to confront the Northern Kingdom concerning what he saw as their sin. In the mind of Amos, in this situation, there could be no compromise. Israel had set up centers of worship in Dan, Bethel, and Gilgal that were supposed to make Jerusalem unnecessary, at least for citizens of the Northern Kingdom. At the time of the split with Judah, Jeroboam had created two golden calves and declared that these calves were the gods of Israel. It was these calves who had brought Israel out of slavery and through their desert wanderings (1 Kings 12:28). There was no need to go to Jerusalem, the political, cultural, and spiritual center of the Davidic dynasties, to worship. Worship could be done at home just as well in Israel as in Jerusalem.

Amos goes to the Northern Kingdom and argues the reverse. God’s voice thunders in Jerusalem, and the pastures in Israel no longer provide food for the flocks. God’s voice roars in Jerusalem, and the refuge of the Northern Kingdom, Mount Carmel, no longer provides safety to those who go there. When God speaks in Jerusalem, he does not just talk for Judah, but Israel and the world as well.

Compromise was not needed in Israel. In their effort to compromise, they had left the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to follow false gods of their own creation. And the missionary Amos felt that he had been called by God to bring Israel back where they belonged.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 2