One of the first thing that we see in this chapter is Amos's endearing term for the Israelites: the cows of Bashan. I honestly had no idea what this term meant so I did the logical thing......and Googled it. Apparently, the cows of Bashan were a breed of of cattle known to be very big and very strong. However, they were very greedy about their food and were almost impossible to in their enclosures. In fact Matthew Henry calls them "wanton and unruly", both very apt descriptions of Israelites in this time period. With this reference we again see reference to Amos's humble upbringing as a shepherd. Following this analogy up, we again see a recurrence of the reference to the Assyrian army in verse two and three.
I found verses 4 and 5 to be interesting as it seems to me that these two verses are pointing to the fact that Israel will sin then offer sacrifices to cover their sins then go sin again. In my opinion this is not something that is specific to the Israelites of this time period but is something that can apply to our lives as well. When we sin, we usually pray to God and ask for forgiveness and that's the end of it. We'll forget the event happened, we'll forget that every sin is a knife to God's heart. And we'll continue with our lives and sometimes we'll sin again in the same manner. This is similar to how Israel is behaving in this passage. And God does not like it. He does not like it at all.
Maybe it was just me but i saw a theme of God sending destruction to try to teach the Israelites how to rely more on God. I thought this was a beautiful yet very scary depiction of love. On one hand God loves these people so much he is willing to do anything to show them their wrongs, but at the same time it is very hard to accept the fact that our God would do things like this.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely something that makes me think about my relationships with others, and if i would ever feel like doing something like this.
I dont know, its late, im having those late night weird thoughts - i read earlier but just now posted.
I don't think it's just you. I think this passage is perfectly suited towards displaying the many ways God has blessed Israel and wants them to rely on Him. I believe that this points again to God's love for them in a manner similar to a father's love for a child. That's why it pains Him so much to see them constantly turning away and spurning his love for new, shiny, empty things like Baal.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, weird thoughts late at night are always interesting and worth dissecting. I also want to say that I appreciate that you are thinking about how this impacts your relationships with others. People who tend to read the Old Testament get caught up in the history of it without analyzing what this means to them in today's world. I think it is a good thing that you are taking them time to contemplate this.
-Drew