No Escape

Thus says the LORD: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my word; Because they sell the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth and force the lowly out of the way. Son and father go to the same prostitute, profaning my holy name. Upon garments taken in pledge they recline beside any altar, and the wine of those who have been fined they drink in the house of their god.

Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorites before them, who were as tall as the cedars, and as strong as the oak trees. I destroyed their fruit above, and their roots beneath. It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt, and who led you through the desert for forty years, to occupy the land of the Amorites.

Beware, I will crush you into the ground as a wagon crushes when laden with sheaves. Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong man shall not retain his strength. The warrior shall not save his life, nor the bowman stand his ground. The swift of foot shall not escape, nor the horseman save his life. And the most stouthearted of warriors shall flee naked on that day, says the LORD. (Amos 2:6-10, 13-16)

The prophet Amos pulled no punches.  The first paragraph is quite hard-hitting, and hits us today just as it hit Amos’s audience many centuries ago.  Amos speaks for God who makes it clear those who “recline beside any altar and drink the wine in the house of their god,” are in for hard times.  The LORD “will crush them into the ground as a wagon crushes when laden with sheaves…The swift of foot shall not escape, nor the horseman save his life.”  

Most of us don’t have horses, and we are not swift of foot.  If Amos’s words make us uneasy, then we had better flee, naked or not.  Then again, there will be no escape.

Deacon David Pierce