Have you ever heard a child tell a parent, “I don’t need you”? How about an employee who passes by his or her mentor on the corporate ladder, without giving any credit for their help?
For one thing, those things are just rude, but it’s not just because of a lack of gratitude. More than that, these behaviors bring a total lack of acknowledgement that the “junior member” in each relationship would never have gotten to where they are without help from others. A teenager or young adult who wants to go off on their own and do what they want wouldn’t be able to do so if parent(s) – or other caretakers – hadn’t spent years feeding and caring for them as infants.
When I was young, there were sometimes jigsaw puzzles in one of the classrooms at school, and it was a big deal to put in the last piece (even if that meant holding it in secret until all of the other pieces were set). Putting in the last piece of the puzzle was kind of a silly goal, though, given that many others had helped assemble the rest of it.
Let’s take a look at some of God’s statements in Amos 9:
“Are not you Israelites
the same to me as the Cushites?”
declares the LORD.
“Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor
and the Arameans from Kir?“Surely the eyes of the Sovereign LORD
are on the sinful kingdom.
I will destroy it
from the face of the earth.
Yet I will not totally destroy
the descendants of Jacob,”
declares the LORD.
“For I will give the command,
and I will shake the people of Israel
among all the nations
as grain is shaken in a sieve,
and not a pebble will reach the ground.
All the sinners among my people
will die by the sword,
all those who say,
‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’Amos 9:7-10 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/amo.9.7-10.NIV
It appears that some of the Israelites have forgotten how they got where they were in the first place. It’s as if they were miraculously brought out of slavery into the Promised Land by God’s hand, but they retold the story (at least in their own minds) that they had been the ones to do all of the work!
In fact, God placed the nations of the world where He chose. (See Acts 17:24-28) This includes bringing the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land, but it also includes bringing other people groups to their present countries (both in the time of Amos, and even today…think about that). A commentary [Shank, p.293] suggests that God is comparing the Israelites to one people group (Cushites) who were slaves at the time, and explaining that God had helped move two of their enemies (the Philistines and Arameans) to new locations, so Israel’s blessings weren’t all as unique as they may have thought.
Just as God had the power to place the nations where they were (at that time), He could change things at will. And, His future plans are being prophesied: In verse 8, there is a “sinful kingdom” [NIV and NASB] that will be destroyed [NIV] or eliminated [NASB].
Do you know how sometimes Hebrew words are repeated for emphasis? Apparently [per Shank, p.295], the Hebrew word for “destroy” appears three times in this verse, and so the idea is that God will destroy this “sinful kingdom”, but He will not destroy destroy “the descendants of Jacob”. Instead, God will preserve a remnant, which we see in various places throughout the Bible.
The challenge is that a righteous (or repentant) remnant needs to be separated out of a sinful society. You may have seen (or heard of) a sieve for grain before, like a flat strainer where the harvest is placed in the top, and shaking it allows the grain to fall through, while other junk that got caught up with the grain (like rocks or stalks) remains in the sieve. (In fact, I like to watch the show, “How It’s Made”, and sifting with screens is still used to separate harvested food from debris even today.)
If I’m reading this correctly, God is saying that only the righteous remnant (i.e., the good grain) will get through the “sieve” of His punishment. All of the sinners – like pebbles that the person sifting grain wants to keep out of the food – will all be caught in God’s justice, even if they think that they are somehow going to be exempt.
Even today, let us not take God’s generosity and grace for granted. If we are far from Him, He might give us some time to return, but eventually, His love and justice are going to result in action to address a persistent problem. After all, our success was dependent upon Him in the first place, and He can still send us down any path He chooses, whether with loving blessings, or loving discipline!
From Sunday School lesson prepared for March 19, 2023
References:
- The Lookout, March 19, 2023, © 2022 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – Minor Prophets Volume 1 – Hosea-Micah, by Harold Shank. © 2001 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 