The last verse we studied mentioned sexual immorality and it is believed by many scholars to have been combined with idolatry, for the very next verse mentions other altars and other gods. "They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines." (Amos 2:8)
The only altar at this point in the nation's history that is approved for use by the Lord is the altar in the temple at Jerusalem. But when the northern kingdom of Israel split from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the first king chosen by Israel set up a golden calf at Bethel and another golden calf at Dan and insisted they use these sites as substitutes for the temple at Jerusalem in Judah. King Jeroboam declared that these calves symbolized the Lord who brought them out of Egypt, contrary to the Lord's commandment that they were to make no image representing Him. To do so was to begin a slippery slope into idolatry since it's not a very big step to go from bowing to an image that symbolizes the Lord to bowing to other images.
On top of that, no image could represent Him in all of His glory, His holiness, His righteousness, and His power. Anything that man could make would fall so far short in representing His true nature that the image would lessen the esteem in which the people held the Lord. One image is much like any other and there is no way to really represent Him in an image that causes Him to stand out among all the other idolatrous images of all the cultures of the world. Having any type of representation of Him was bound to cause many people to begin thinking of Him as just one of many gods instead of regarding Him as who He is: the one true God who created everything.
In verse 8 we find the people not only lying down at idolatrous altars (and this "lying down" is likely to be a reference to the sexual immorality that took place in pagan temples of that era) but they are lying down on garments taken as a pledge (items taken as a promise to repay a debt) when the Lord commanded them in Exodus 22:26-27 to return such a garment by sundown so its owner could sleep in it. Outer cloaks were used as blankets at night and it was important to return them. But in verse 8 not only have the takers of the cloaks not returned them by sundown, they are engaging in sexual immorality on the cloaks while also drinking wine "taken as fines".
They are drinking wine taken as fines or wine that was bought with money taken as fines. This may be another reference to something from the book of Exodus. The Lord commanded the people of Israel not to charge any interest on loans they made to their fellow Israelites (Exodus 22:25) and the breaking of this law may be what's in view here. There definitely seems to be something dishonest taking place in regard to the fines or else the Lord would not have mentioned the fines. Verse 8 only contains twenty-three words but those twenty-three words paint a picture of excess and debauchery and of having no concern for the needy.
The people are worshiping the gods of some of the very nations the Lord drove out of the land for idolatry. "Yet I destroyed the Amorites before them, though they were as tall as cedars and strong as the oaks. I destroyed their fruit above and their roots below. I brought you up out of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness to give you the land of the Amorites." (Amos 2:9-10)
Before the Lord brought the people of Israel into the promised land, He warned them that He was just as capable of uprooting them as He was of uprooting those who had inhabited the land before them. He pulled up the heathen nations of Canaan because they forsook Him long ago and kept on rejecting Him generation after generation. He stated that if the Israelites fell into idolatry, they too would be pulled up from the land of Canaan. The entire passage containing all of His warnings can be found in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 but His specific statement that He would uproot them is in Deuteronomy 28:63b: "You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess."
The Lord pulled the heathen idolaters of Canaan up by the roots and planted Israel in their place. To do this, He defeated nations too powerful for the Israelites to defeat on their own. Yet by Amos' day we find many of the people bowing to the gods those sinful nations had worshiped. We find many of the people feeling no gratitude in their hearts toward the Lord for all He has done on Israel's behalf. Certainly there are people in Israel in Amos' day who have never worshiped at a pagan altar; Amos himself is an example of that. But those who are being faithful to the Lord are in the minority and as we continue on in Chapter 2 tomorrow we will see the Lord bringing more charges against those who have forsaken Him and we will find Him predicting disaster.
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