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Amos 8:4-7  Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?” – skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.  The LORD has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob:  “I will never forget anything they have done. …”.

This was a very powerful and condemning message the prophet from the Southern Kingdom of Judah was required by the LORD to give to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  It is not surprising therefore that they told him to ‘go home’!  “Then [the Prophet] Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah.  Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.  Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom!” (7:12-13)

But, obviously, the faithful Amos stayed true to his calling and commission.  What is interesting and significant for us is Amos’s summary at the close of today’s verses: “The LORD has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: ‘I will never forget anything they have done.’”  This is the God who had declared himself to Moses, eight centuries earlier, as “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” (Exodus 34:6-7a)

This apparent ‘change’ in God’s very nature between Exodus and Amos only makes real sense to us, when, another seven and a half centuries later, he sends the ultimate and True Prophet, his Only Son, Jesus, into our world to die for us.  The Cross of Jesus demonstrates, and leaves us in no doubt whatsoever, the enormity of God’s wrath against our sin, and just what it cost him to forgive us.  Amos was an important ‘link in the chain’ of the Old Testament story that enables us even to start to understand the depth of our sin and the cost of our redemption.  

A hint of the first part of this ‘sin-redemption’ equation was given to Moses in the second half of Exodus 34:7 (which I didn’t include above): “Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”  In Jesus’ death we see this ‘punishment’ of ‘children’s children’ as Amos predicted, being ‘not forgotten’ but being inflicted instead to God’s child, Jesus.

It is only because David could ‘see’ with the eye of faith the gracious provision of a promised Messiah Kinsman-Redeemer that he could write: “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.  He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger forever (cf Amos’s ‘never forget’); he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:8-12)  In other words, the wrath of our holy God against our sin is not forgotten/forgiven/removed, but is satisfied by being poured out on Jesus instead of us!  This will all become much clearer on the Day of Judgement!

I’ve already exceeded my word limit, but I’d like to conclude with the first verse of Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s wonderful hymn (set to one of the ‘Rock of Ages’ tunes, ‘Toplady’): “When this passing world is done, when has sunk yon glaring sun; when I stand with Christ in glory, looking o’er life’s history, then, Lord, shall I fully know – not till then – how much I owe.”  (The other verses are great, too.)

– Bruce Christian