The Lord of All Nations
Amos 1:3--2:3 shows us that God is not only the Lord of Israel and Judah, he is the Lord of all. Understandably most of the Old Testament material is addressed directly to Israel but the prophets have a significant number of oracles that are addressed to foreign nations also. And these are part of Israel's canonical scriptures because while they address the foreigners there is much for Israel to hear in these oracles.These sections make it clear that if God will not tolerate impenitent evil in his own peculiarly covenanted people he certainly won't tolerate it in others. They also make it clear that God cares for the non-elect nations as well as his elect people. It matters to God how these nations behave themselves and while that might not seem to be a blessing that's how it should be seen. God isn't simply a judge; he is a Holy Father who has made all men and claims them all as his own (Exodus 19:5). He cares enough to judge them when they have gone headlong into sin but the judgement is an aspect of his care. Anyone who says he loves his boy but that it doesn't make the slightest difference to him that the young man is a moral reprobate--that person needs to think again about what love really means. We may love our children (as we have been loved) despite their evil ways but we don't love them because of their evil ways and our love seeks their redemption. There's no kindness so cruel as the kindness that leaves people wallowing in their moral mire without trying to help them out.
And in case we think that God's only interest in these other nations is to damn them for sin we need to pay attention to Amos 9:7 where God says, "Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?" It's true that God had covenanted himself peculiarly with Israel (3:2) but he gave other nations land to live in and was active in their history also (compare Acts 17:25-27). That's a temptation the elect always wrestle with (and often lose the match), they get to thinking they're the elite rather than the elect. Election is blessing, of course, but God also elects people as witnesses or a community of witness to the non-elect.
This opening oracle has the tone and content of a judgement. The Lord has roared from Jerusalem (1:2) and everywhere the ground trembles and withers. This isn't a sweet social message that's going out.
Imagine it's Friday and the crowds are getting their business done in the markets when Amos stands up in some central place and begins to speak judgement on Damascus for needless savagery (1:3-5). Wouldn't the gathering crowd nod enthusiastically? Then he hammers the Philistines for excesses in slavery (1:6-8), the Phoenicians for wholesale slave-trading and treachery (1:9-10), the Edomites for unchecked hatred against brothers (1:11-12), the Ammonites for unbridled cruelty just to gain territory and natural reserves (1:13-15) and the Moabites for bitter and malevolent insult which despised a nation by despising its king (2:1-3). You can imagine the crowd has swelled into hundreds and are they cheering by now? Every time an enemy was named the Israelites would have cheered like mad.
Then it was Judah's turn (2:4-5). For their idolatry and refusal to live by the torah they would come under God's judgement. At that there would have been dancing in the marketplace for the bitterness between Israel and Judah had been long and involved civil war (compare 2 Kings 14:8-14 and 2 Chronicles 25:5-24). How pleased they must have been with this new prophet.
Then it was Israel's turn (2:6-16). The cheering would have stopped and protest would have replaced the cheering. The speaker had gained their trust and approval and then delivered what he had especially come for because God had said (7:15), "Go prophesy to my people Israel." This Amos was no fool and he was no gutless court-preacher who spoke only pleasing things. All over the world there are voices raised against tribal and national hatreds, against treachery in the face of covenants, unbridled savagery and greed that seeks territorial expansion so that natural resources can be exploited. Here and there we find preachers who are willing to put their own security at risk (and the security of their families) by telling selfish and self-satisfied assemblies what they don't want to hear but direly need to hear. But these statesmen and ministers and concerned men and women, boys and girls have heard a lion roar somewhere and shepherds spring into action.
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