In our Bible study tonight, we continued looking at Amos, seeing how Amos brings warning of judgment to God’s people. As we have said before, with great privilege comes great responsibility, and the problem Israel faced was misusing their relationship with God as licence instead of living righteously before Him. The people abused their power, treating the poor with scorn (Amos 5:11), believing that their own righteousness and offerings were pleasing to God. God’s words to them are shocking, calling the women ‘cows of Bashan’ (Amos 4:1) and telling them He despised their religious festivals and worship (Amos 5:21-24). What God was interested in can be summed up in Amos 5:24: ‘But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.’
It’s all too easy to settle for the outward form of religion and worship; Jesus warned against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who would pray on street corners and give ostentatiously. (Matt 6:5) In Luke 18:11-12, He contrasted the self-righteous attitude of the Pharisee with the simply humility of the tax collector; He spoke also about the widow’s offering being of more value than that given by those who were rich but did not really care about giving for the right reasons. (Mark 12:38-42) What God is looking for, however, is that inward humility of heart which hears God’s word and obeys it. Only when this happens can we avoid the judgment that is otherwise coming. We should not think judgment will always happen to ‘someone else’; instead, we should search our hearts and seek God.
