Amos 8:1-14 ( The Complete Jewish Bible ) 1 Here is what Adonai Elohim showed me: there in front of me was a basket of summer fruit. 2 He asked, “‘Amos, what do you see?” I answered, “A basket of summer [a] fruit.” Then Adonai said to me, “The end [b] has come for my people, I will never again overlook their offenses. 3 When that time comes, the songs in the temple will be wailings,” says Adonai Elohim. “There will be many dead bodies; everywhere silence will reign.” 4 Listen, you who swallow the needy and destroy the poor of the land! 5 You say, “When will Rosh-Hodesh be over, so we can market our grain? and Shabbat, so we can sell wheat?” You measure the grain in a small eifah, but the silver in heavy shekels, fixing the scales, so that you can cheat, 6 buying the needy for money and the poor for a pair of shoes, and sweeping up the refuse of the wheat to sell!” 7Adonai swears by Ya‘akov’s pride, “I will forget none of their deeds, ever. 8 Won’t the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn, who lives in the land? It will all rise, just like the Nile, be in turmoil and subside, like the Nile in Egypt. 9 “When that time comes,” says Adonai Elohim, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10 I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into wailing; I will make you all put sackcloth around your waists and shave your heads bald in grief. I will make it like mourning for an only son and its end like a bitter day. 11 “The time is coming,” says Adonai Elohim, “when I will send famine over the land, not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Adonai. 12 People will stagger from sea to sea and from north to east, running back and forth, seeking the word of Adonai; but they will not find it. 13When that time comes, young women and men will faint from thirst. 14 Those who swear by the sin of Shomron, who say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives,’ and, ‘As the way of Be’er-Sheva lives’ — they will fall and never get up again.”
Ask your neighbor or coworker to list the “top ten” sins, and you will probably hear a version of the Ten Commandments. Murder, stealing, lying and adultery would probably head the list. But when God revealed to Amos that he was about to bring judgment upon his people, he cited Israel’s treatment of the poor as cause for punishment. In startling imagery, God said Israel had “trampled” the needy and cheated the poor. The poor, the victims of Israel’s greed and exploitation, had no recourse but to appeal to God. And God listened. In the New Testament, Jesus repeatedly takes up the often-overlooked cause of the poor. When Jesus preached in the synagogue in Luke 4:16-21, - 16 Now when he went to Natzeret, where he had been brought up, on Shabbat he went to the synagogue as usual. He stood up to read, 17 and he was given the scroll of the prophet Yesha‘yahu. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of Adonai is upon me; therefore he has anointed me to announce Good News to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the imprisoned and renewed sight for the blind, to release those who have been crushed, 19 to proclaim a year of the favor of Adonai.”[e] 20 After closing the scroll and returning it to the shammash, he sat down; and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 He started to speak to them: “Today, as you heard it read, this passage of the Tanakh was fulfilled!” the prophecy he chose to read to reveal who he was came from: Isaiah 61:1-2 - 1 The Spirit of Adonai Elohim is upon me, because Adonai has anointed me to announce good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted; to proclaim freedom to the captives, to let out into light those bound in the dark; 2 to proclaim the year of the favor of Adonai and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn. When Yeshua described final judgment in Matthew 25:31–46, 31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, accompanied by all the angels, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. 33 The ‘sheep’ he will place at his right hand and the ‘goats’ at his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take your inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you made me your guest, 36 I needed clothes and you provided them, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the people who have done what God wants will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and make you our guest, or needing clothes and provide them? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ 40 The King will say to them, ‘Yes! I tell you that whenever you did these things for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did them for me!’ 41 “Then he will also speak to those on his left, saying, ‘Get away from me, you who are cursed! Go off into the fire prepared for the Adversary and his angels! 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 a stranger and you did not welcome me, needing clothes and you did not give them to me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, a stranger, needing clothes, sick or in prison, and not take care of you?’ 45 And he will answer them, ‘Yes! I tell you that whenever you refused to do it for the least important of these people, you refused to do it for me!’ 46 They will go off to eternal punishment, but those who have done what God wants will go to eternal life.” he evaluated how well people cared for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the needy and the imprisoned. Jesus so identifies with the poor in this passage that he says that the good deeds done to the “least of these” were counted as being done to him!
How does the way you live reveal your concern for the poor? Are the poor an afterthought? A nuisance? A perplexing problem you’ve quit trying to solve? For many of us, Amos’s message challenges us to serve the poverty stricken in ways besides simply giving money. Volunteering in a food pantry or rescue mission may be the first step to helping poor people with their immediate needs. Working directly with people who are poor helps us to put names and faces on poverty. When we do that, we can no longer objectify and ignore the needy. But are there ways to take our compassion one step further? How can we speak up to make sure the poor aren’t exploited? How can we work to make sure our institutions don’t make the problem worse? How can we vote for policies and practices that are equitable?
It is God’s desire that we be willing to share what we have with those in need and help the poor whenever we can. When we do, our hearts beat in time with his.
Reflection
1. What are your assumptions about why someone might be poor?
2. Have you ever been without what you needed to live? What did you do?
3. Why do you think God identifies himself with the poor? What does that tell you about his character?
Amos 8:4-5 - 4 Listen, you who swallow the needy and destroy the poor of the land! 5 You say, “When will Rosh-Hodesh be over, so we can market our grain? and Shabbat, so we can sell wheat?” You measure the grain in a small eifah, but the silver in heavy shekels, fixing the scales, so that you can cheat,
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