At Ease in Zion
by Rev. Paul Howden
October 7, 2007
Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
Amos

The tomato farmers of Paraguay suffered a big disappointment the first year I lived there. In prior years tomato growers had earned good money selling their produce to ketchup factories in Argentina. Expecting more of the same, they worked with hoe and machete, sowing the seeds, and tying up branches.  A good rainfall produced a nice harvest. At the appropriate time, the campesinos placed the picked fruit into wooden crates, loaded the crates onto oxcarts, guided their carts to a main road, and stacked the crates beside the dirt roads for the trucks to haul away to Argentina. Everything was going fine. Unfortunately, at the last moment, the Argentine president, pressured by special interests, signed into law a trade barrier. The tariff prohibited the sale of Paraguayan tomatoes in Argentina. The tomatoes were barred from getting into Argentina, and Paraguay had no ketchup factories.

What do you do with a million tomatoes? In Spain they have a tomato-throwing festival. People pelt one another in the streets until everyone is a red mess. In Paraguay they did that a little, but mainly the tomatoes sat there and spoiled. The countryside was littered with the rotting fly-infested stuff. I remember traveling through the countryside observing the red waste. The farmers, disgruntled, had invested a summer into something that gave no return.

The prophet Amos saw a similar picture of over-ripe fruit. By occupation, he was a dresser of figs. The Lord showed him a basket of summer fruit. Some commentators think figs was the fruit. Rotten figs are worse than tomatoes. We had a fig tree in our back yard in California. A few times I accidentally stepped on a rotten fig lying in the grass. They are sticky, slimy things. Let us read Amos 8:1-3.

Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit. And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

Amos employs a play on words in Hebrew: “Ripe fruit” is qayis, and the word “end” is qes. The end in the sense of destruction and ruin. Therefore, the Hebrew ear joined the words “rotten fruit” and “destruction.” “Amos, do you know what Israel has become? She has turned into a basket of figs, over-ripe, and about to decay, fit for the refuse heap. She is morally rotten. And because of her immorality, her end is near. So far, I have refrained from judging My people. I have been merciful. But now, I will throw this putrid fruit in the garbage. I will no longer abide her evil ways.”

That is essentially the message God gave Amos, to give to the people.  How would the Lord punish Israel? The Assyrians would strike. In their wake they would leave the land strewn with cadavers. Howling in the streets would replace the hymns of the temple. Sure enough, Amos’ prophecy came true. In 722 B.C. the Assyrian hordes invaded, killed most, and carried off the survivors into slavery. Corpses were too numerous to bury, so they were quietly thrown out where they decomposed in the sun.

What were the specific causes of the doom? Let us find the answer in the next verses: Amos 8:4-6.

Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

Prosperity and success had become a problem. The Northern Kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam II had experienced an economic boom similar to that of the reign of King Solomon. This had created a situation that Amos described as “ease in Zion.” Amos 6:1 proclaims: “Woe to you who are at ease in Zion.” It is a picture of luxury and moral slumber. Remember Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Masque of the Red Death”? While the bubonic plague ravaged the population outside the walls of the castle, the healthy aristocracy locked themselves inside to eat, drink, dance, and make merry. And that is what they did, until the mysterious masked man entered unannounced. Israel was at ease in Zion. They slumbered and partied while their fellow citizens died. The ringing of the death knell was due to their swallowing up the needy and exploiting the poor.

How did they hurt the poor and needy? Perhaps it was the same way the Paraguayan tomato farmers got cheated the year the government blocked them from the ketchup market. Perhaps the poor and needy got swindled in the courts. Power is not inherently evil but it tempts bad people into brutality. Pol Pot is an example. Amos mentions several other specific sins that the people were committing, and if we were to read the entire nine chapters we would find out about large-scale lawlessness, anger, violence, adultery, idolatry, and fraud. Israel was a basket case, a basket of over-ripe fruit, rotten through and through. Gross materialism characterized the merchant classes, which trickled down through the nation, rotting it to the core. They falsified their scales to rip off buyers. They advertised good wheat, but sold stems, husks and chaff. The rich figured out ways to steal land from the needy. Adultery had become common; temple prostitution too. Idols were fabricated and set up for worship. Violence became pervasive. In a word, biblical justice had been abandoned.

The people in power were cold-hearted. Their fraud and corruption had robbed the poor of the basics. To close one’s heart to the poor is a terrible thing. God has a special concern for the poor. That is one reason Grace Church sponsors short-term mission trips to poor countries like Paraguay and Nigeria. For the youth we want to set up projects to help the shut-ins, the poor, and the needy in our area. If you are a Christian you will look for ways to serve the poor and needy. We do this because God cares about the needy. In the Old Testament He demands that fields be left at the corners to be gleaned by the poor. These are called the gleaning laws. Moreover, the poor were not to be discriminated at “the gates.” What does that mean? The law courts were located at the gates of the city. In other words, the poor were not to be exploited by the rich and powerful in court cases.

These problems Amos addressed. “Hear this, you who swallow up the needy… Saying; “When will the New Moon be past, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may trade wheat? Making the ephah small and the shekel large, falsifying the scales by deceit.” The traders of Amos' day were bothered by worship. Money was their god, and the new moons and the Sabbath days, with their ban on work proved an annoying time. For them, worship had become a waste; they wanted to get back to the business of ripping people off.

Amos speaks of buying and selling, trade and commerce; in a word, economics. Some Christians think that Christianity and economics have nothing in common. They feel uneasy about combining God and monetary matters. Isn’t economics too worldly for the church to be concerned about? No. As Christians we are called to be profoundly concerned with ethics, and economics touches heavily upon ethics. Every time we choose to spend a dollar, invest a dollar, or save a dollar, we make an economic decision based on ethics. When economic policy is legislated by a government, ethical decisions are being made. Scripture touches on several financial principles: binge spending, waste, debt, selfishness, and greed the Bible condemns; while tithing, saving, good stewardship, and generosity the Bible encourages. This is just as valid on a governmental level as it is on a personal level. Thus, the Bible says much about economics. In fact, come to think of it, the Bible says something about every department of life and thought. The question is this: will we apply God’s Word wisely to every area of life and thought, or will we do it foolishly?

While I studied in Seminary, the theological fad was liberation theology. Liberation theology is the mixing of Christianity and Marxist socialism. Some socialists pointed to the book of Amos as proof that Christians should be working toward a socialistic society, which entails an abolition of private property, a redistribution of wealth, and the expansion of government. The problem is this: socialism never works. Think of Zimbabwe, Cuba, or the old Soviet Union. Total failures that ended in tragedy! In North Korea people eat grass and insects. Visitors say there are no birds in North Korea, not even sparrows. The hungry kill and eat them. Pure socialism inevitably leads to economic calamity.

What about economic inequality? Isn’t that bad? No. Inequalities exist with respect to personal wealth because some people are more responsible and hard-working than others. Some people get rich by stealing, but that is a rare and temporary condition. The Lord does not allow crime to pay in the long-term. The Bible is more interested in equity than equality; more concerned for justice than equality; more inclined toward liberty than equality. Equity is the equal treatment of all concerned. Equity requires that the responsible person be justly rewarded for his thrift, and that the slothful person be justly penalized for his slothfulness. If the government takes from the hard-working and transfers it to the indolent, we violate biblical principles of justice. If we do that in the name of compassion, our compassion has become cruelty. To steal from one man to give to another shows neither justice nor compassion.

The message of Amos is primarily a message of judgment. If you are a good bible reader you know that the Old Testament has a lot of passages like this. Over and again, we see that God judges those nations that despise biblical justice and morality. Let’s see how God judged Samaria. Amos 8:7-14 offers more details.

The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

The judgment which Amos foresaw was multi-faceted. Take for instance the earthquake. Amos says the land would undulate like waves. It is an apt description. Earthquakes can feel like rolling waves on the ocean. Amos says that the land would heave and subside like waves on the Nile River. Lo and behold, there was an earthquake of such dimensions two years after Amos wrote this (Amos 1:2). Reading Amos 8:9-10 again.

And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

“It shall come to pass in that day.” “It will be a bitter day.” The Lord will come to them but He will not come with sweetness. Amos’ proclamation that the Day of the Lord was a day of darkness and death was a shock. The people longed for the Day of the Lord as a day of peace and prosperity. Amos promised that the Day of the Lord would be sad.

Does our own day resemble that of Amos? Are we in for a Day of the Lord? Are we a basket of rotten figs? Amos spoke of a father and son sleeping with the same lady. He mentioned temple prostitution. We have sexual abandonment too. Amos condemned violence. Perhaps they had violent games like the gladiators. We have abortion and high rates of murder in America. Amos denounced the poor getting trampled in the courts. Our system is stacked so that the rich can hire good lawyers and manipulate decisions in their favor. Amos railed against the ease in Zion. Affluence had created a comfortable lifestyle for the wealthy. The rich women Amos called “cows of Bashan” for they wallowed in the kind of hedonism that trampled the poor. Are Americans deaf to the cries of the poor? I don’t think so.

Anyway, there are many parallels between the society Amos lived in and our own. Amos tells us that a nation cannot forever shun the law of God with impunity. God will not be mocked. At some point He will intervene with judgment. God judges the nations. During the 1920s the U.S. declined morally. The ease of Zion had caused the nation to become morally lax in the “roaring 20s.” Then the depression of the 30s hit. The depression was a horrible time economically, but it helped our nation return to the Lord. It purified us and toughened us. The Lord does this to you and me too. He disciplines you like a loving Father. The question is: will you learn holiness from your suffering and affliction? Will hardship have a sanctifying effect on you? Or will you turn your back on the Heavenly Father and become hardened in rebellion? 1 Peter 4:12-15 tells us that Christ, suffered; and in union with Him we will suffer. So rejoice in it.

Predicting the future is risky; and it would be wrong for us to predict America’s future like Amos prophesied the future of Israel. He had the infallible inspiration of the Holy Spirit and we don’t. In my opinion, the U.S. is a mixed bag. Compared to every country in the world, we look pretty good. We are a force for good in the world today. But compared with God’s standard of holiness we look awful. In the eyes of God, America may be a basket of rotten fruit, a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah. Amos teaches us that eventually God judges a high level of sin. Ease in Zion can’t last long once biblical morality disappears. And when judgment hits, evildoers and godly alike suffer under God’s purifying hand. If we go through calamity and ruin, keep in mind that God is in control. His agenda will never get derailed. In the midst of disintegration, believe that God is purifying His people, overcoming His enemies, and extending His kingdom. Trust in the Lord when hardship arrives.

Let us pray.

Sovereign God, loving Father, make us willing to fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church. Help us to rejoice in suffering, sanctify us through it, and draw us closer to Jesus Christ in the midst of it. And to thee, Lord Jesus, be the praise; unto whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.