Amos 2:9-16 - I will crush you

2:9,10

Now why does Israel get more severe treatment than the other nations? And why more severe than Judah? The case for Israel being worse than the other nations is simple. Israel had received the Law, had been formed and rescued by God, and experienced the goodness of the Lord. To whom much is given, much is expected (Luke 12:48). Israel had faced strong enemies, but the Lord had defeated them. The Lord had brought them out of slavery in Egypt, He had led them through the wilderness, and then given them the land of the Amorites. Of course, all this had been true of Judah as well, but at this time Israel (the Northern kingdom) was rapidly deserting the Lord. Judah was, at the time, more faithful than Israel, though later on this would change and she would become just as bad as her sister.

2:11,12

It wasn’t as if Israel was not given the chance to repent, to change her ways. God has raised up prophets, and Nazirites. Men who were committed to the Lord and spoke clearly, and lived faithfully, the word of God. Israel could not say she had not been warned, but she did not want to hear the warning, she did not want to correct her ways. Instead she told the Nazarites to live like everyone else (drink wine) and told the prophets to shut up. This pattern is a very human pattern, and obe we see repeated in our own time. Over the last fifty or sixty years we have seen the continuing breakdown of sexual morality and family life in the nation. There have been repeated voices saying that marriage is the best foundation for children and society. Back in the seventy and eighties the debate was over marriage and children. Now it has moved on to the LGBT agenda. Over the years the breakdown of family life has hurt numerous people, especially the poor and children. It has had an enormous social and economic cost, but society has refused to do anything about it. We have continued along the road of abandoning God’s plan for society.

2:13-16

One can imagine the change in heart of the Amos’s hearers. This would have enjoyed hearing the condemnation of the surrounding nations, but now the tables are turned and they too are to be subject to God’s judgement. Remember that at this time Israel was doing quite well, trade was increasing, and they were militarily doing not too badly. But none of these skills and prowess would be of any interest to them. They would be defeated and humiliated. We can look at people, organisations, and nations and be impressed with them, even intimidated. But if God decides to judge a nation or a people then there is nothing they can do to avoid it. The only wise and effective course of action is to repent.