Today's Reading:O.T. - Amos 1 - 3
N.T. - James 5
Focus Verses: Amos 2:6
6 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back {my wrath}. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.
Insight:
The prophet Amos enumerated the sins of Damascus, Gaza, Ashdod, Tyre, Edom, Moab, Israel, and Judah. Their sins included brutality, war, torture, inhumanity, rejection of God's Law, idol worship, oppression of the poor, social injustice, sexual immorality, decadence, materialism, greed, and more.
Amos used the poetic device "for three sins, even four" to make the point that no list of sins was ever complete. No matter how many sins he listed, he could always find and add another.
Response and Action:
Sin must be taken seriously. The sins Amos listed are all too common in our world. When I think of the oppression, social injustice, greed, sexual immorality, brutality, false worship, and war my country is involved in, I am humbled before God and moved to pray in repentance. I will ask God to forgive us and lead us into the life and truth of his will and his ways.
O God, save us from the sins of indifference and selfishness. Forgive us for the oppression and suffering we ignore. Help us to be aware of the ways our wealth and privilege is a burden on the backs of so many who are suffering under corruption, greed, and poverty. Show me ways that I can resist and subvert the powers and the principalities of this world that destroy and oppress people you created and love. Amen.
Proverbs: 16:19
"Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud."
Resources:
Good News About Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World
by Gary Haugen
