The Book Of Amos. Day 16, Lighter Discipline Has Not Worked, Part One

In Chapter 4 the Lord is going to say that He must move on to harsher methods of discipline because milder forms of discipline have not worked. There has been no widescale repentance. Even though He has already begun to allow some of the curses for disobedience to fall upon the nation (the list of curses can be found in Deuteronomy 28), the majority of the citizens have not taken to heart the Lord's corrective actions.

He begins Chapter 4 by painting a picture of a society where many are living in luxury while they oppress the poor and needy. "Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, 'Bring us some drinks!'" (Amos 4:1) 

It was insulting, both then and now, to refer to a woman as a "cow". It's intended to be insulting in verse 1 because these wealthy women are so spoiled and coddled that they won't even arise from the couch to make themselves a drink. They have nothing to do all day except indulge themselves. The money with which they fund their lives of excess was gained by defrauding the poor, according to the statement with which the chapter opens. If they'd made their money through honest hard work, we might not find fault with them taking it easy now, but they made it by dishonest means and by mistreating their fellow man. 

One commentary I consulted offered the opinion that a vicious cycle is going on here where the men began providing a more affluent lifestyle by dishonest means and their women applauded them for it, then the women kept asking them for more and more luxuries (for example, in verse 1 when they called for drinks---likely the finest that could be had), so the men felt compelled to achieve more. Since the easiest way to achieve more was to perpetrate more acts of dishonesty or oppression against their fellow man, the men kept sinking further into depravity.

"The Sovereign Lord has sworn by His holiness: 'The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks. You will each go straight out through breaches in the wall, and you will be cast out toward Harmon,' declares the Lord." (Amos 4:2) I wouldn't be at all surprised if the men and women mentioned in Chapter 4 were guilty of enslaving their fellow Israelites. To me that makes the most sense in the context of verse 2. They are going to become captives themselves when the Assyrian army comes and attacks the nation, is victorious in battle, puts hooks through the noses of the people with chains attached to the hooks, and forcibly marches them to other regions. This was the way the Assyrian Empire dealt with the citizens of any region they conquered. They deported the natural-born citizens to other lands and settled other conquered people in their place. 

The Lord's words sound harsh, to be sure, but He doesn't overdo penalties. If He assesses a serious penalty, we can be certain that it fits the crime. We aren't being provided with a detailed list of how the people have sinned against their fellow citizens but if they had not trodden them down and deprived them of their rights and treated them as if they were less than human, I don't think the Lord would allow an enemy army to come in and subjugate them and take away their right and treat them like slaves. If anything, we know that the Lord is more merciful to us than we deserve, so we can be assured that He never overreacts when administering correction. 

Chapter 4 will talk about lesser measures of discipline He's already tried. So far none of these measures have had any effect and next He says something like, "Have it your way, then. Keep on sinning. Just go out and sin more and more. Bow to more idols. Make more offerings to gods that don't exist." The verse reads like this: "Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings---boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,' declares the Sovereign Lord." (Amos 4:4-5) 

We've talked before about how sin reaches a tipping point. The sins of the people of Amos' day are going to reach that tipping point in about 30 years when the Lord allows the nation to fall. But as we continue on through the chapter over the next couple of days we will find the Lord listing the things He's already tried to keep them from reaching a tipping point. He doesn't want to allow the nation to fall but nothing else has taken their focus off of their idolatrous and carnal pursuits.