Revised by Cory Driver, 5/24
Preaching Geography – AmosProphet to the northern kingdom who condemned Israel’s oppression of the poor, calling for justice to "roll down like waters." More and the Rev. Dr. King’s “I have a Dream” Speech
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously quoted Amos in his 1963 “I have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to say that devotees of civil rights cannot be satisfied until, “…justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a[n ever-flowing] stream” (Amos 5:24). The words of Amos are so connected with Dr. King that they are inscribed in the fountain and pool surrounding his grave.
But Dr. King’s speech is much more connected to Amos than simply borrowing one verse. The repeated geographic framing to ground and draw home the rhetorical points is a central feature of both texts.
Amos famously begins with clockwise circles around Israel, that draw the hearer’s/reader’s focus toward the eventual target of the rest of the text: Israel. In the same way, Dr. King, speaking in Washington, D.C., initially spoke of the red hills of Georgia, the sweltering injustice of Mississippi, and the vicious racists of Alabama, before turning to the focus on the need for freedom in New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and California, while not neglecting Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi. Dr. King echoed the prophet Amos, initially concentrating on denouncing areas where everyone agreed injustice and idolatry were problems. But then, Dr. King and Amos turned the prophetic critique on the supposed “good guys”: northern and western states, and JudahJudah was the name of Jacob’s fourth son and one of the 12 tribes. More and Israel, respectively. By rhetorically taking a tour of surrounding lands, prophetic speech opens the hearers to the need for change and reformation in other people, before turning attention to the hearers themselves, who will hopefully seek to root out their own hypocrisy.
“Planting in the Land” and Agriculture in Amos
The closing words of Amos look forward to a time when Israel will be planted in their land and not uprooted from their land again (Amos 9:15). The image of GodAccording to the book of Genesis, humans were created in the likeness, or the image, of God. The phrase is generally taken to refer to the uprightness and dignity of human nature. Because of disobedience the image of God has been corrupted or, some say,… More intentionally planting the people Israel in the Land Israel is a potent symbol throughout Scripture, and throughout Jewish history, particularly with the establishment of the modern State of Israel in the middle of the 20th century CE. The biblical notion of a portable plant, whose roots can grow anywhere, but have a specific home, continues to be a potent symbol for Jews.
Exodus 15:17 and the Song of the Sea, one of the most ancient portions of Scripture, speaks of God transplanting the people Israel from Egypt to God’s mountain of inheritance, the sanctuaryA sanctuary is the consecrated area around the altar of a church or temple. It also means a place of safety where one can flee for protection. In the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, God is referred to as a sanctuary, a refuge from… More where God dwells. Jerusalem is not mentioned here, and it may be because of the archaic language that Shiloh or some prior cultic center in the Land was in view. Nevertheless, the planting language is sufficiently evocative that other writers take it up.
At roughly the same time that Amos heard the word of the Lord that Israel eventually would be planted never to be uprooted, HoseaProphet to the northern kingdom who married a prostitute to show God’s relationship to a faithless Israel. More related similar words:
I will be like the dew to Israel;
He shall blossom like the lily,
And he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon.
His shoots shall sprout,
His beauty shall be like the olive tree,
And his fragrance like that of Lebanon.
They shall again live beneath my shadow,
They will flourish as a garden;
They shall blossom like the vine.
Their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon. (Hosea 14:5-7)
Later, IsaiahIsaiah, son of Amoz, who prophesied in Jerusalem, is included among the prophets of the eighth century BCE (along with Amos, Hosea, and Micah)–preachers who boldly proclaimed God’s word of judgment against the economic, social, and religious disorders of their time. More, in both the Book of Isaiah (37:31) and 2 Kings (19:30), prophesied that after the Assyrian invasion, the survivors of Judah would again take root downward and bear fruit upward. With the threat of complete Babylonian destruction of Judah at stake, JeremiahProphet who condemned Judah’s infidelity to God, warned of Babylonian conquest, and promised a new covenant. More prophesied that God would bring the Judahites back to the land, and plant them to no longer be uprooted (Jeremiah 24:6).
The Psalmic retrospective of Israelite and Judahite history casts God as a somewhat fickle gardener who has lost interest in protecting his vine:
You brought a vine out of Egypt;
You drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it,
It took deep root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade,
The mighty cedars with its branches.
It sent out its branches to the sea
And its shoots to the River.
Why then have you broken down its walls,
So that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
The boar from the forest ravages it,
And all that move in the field feed on it.Turn again, O God of hosts;
Look down from heaven and see, have regard for this vine,
The stock that your right hand planted,
They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;
May they perish at the rebuke of your countenance. (PsalmA psalm is a song of praise. In the Old Testament 150 psalms comprise the psalter, although some of the psalms are laments and thanksgivings. In the New Testament early Christians gathered to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. More 80:8-16)
Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah, of course, see the people as fickle, rather than God.
Ultimately, God-through-Isaiah promised new growth from long-established roots: “Then a shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isaiah 11:1). While Christians see the fulfillment of this prophecyProphecy is the gift, inspired by God, of speaking and interpreting the divine will. Prophets such as Amos, Isaiah, and Ezekiel spoke words of judgment and comfort to the people of Israel on behalf of God. More in JesusJesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God’s saving act for humanity. More, Jews are still waiting for a time when they will be planted safely in the Land, without threat of being uprooted.
Missionary Prophet – Amos, JonahJonah son of Amittai was a rebellious prophet who fled from the Lord’s command, only to be delivered by a big and fish and bring about the repentance of Nineveh. More, and Missions
Amos is famously one of the missionary prophets in the Bible, sent from his own homeland to witness to people in another kingdom. Amos, in this respect, may be compared with his near-neighbor in the biblical canonA canon is a general law or principle by which something is judged. The body of literature in the Old and New Testaments is accepted by most Christians as being canonical (that is, authentic and authoritative) for them. More, Jonah, as well as modern missionaries.
Amos seems to have had little hesitation about journeying north to the Kingdom of Israel to testify about how injustice therein would eventually lead to divine punishment, up to, and including, exile. While no ruling power wants to hear critiques, condemnation from a foreigner is especially difficult to take. Amaziah, the high priestThe high priest was the most powerful priest in the temple in Jerusalem. The high priest Caiaphas held the office during the trial of Jesus. Later, in the New Testament book of Hebrews, the role of merciful high priest is ascribed to the resurrected Jesus. More of Bethel – one of the cultic sites of the north – and Jeroboam IIThe king of Israel (786-746) during a time when Israel increased in prosperity and power. More, the king of Israel, saw Amos as a foreign interloper. In Amaziah’s opinion, Amos was fomenting conspiracy against Jeroboam II and throwing the land into chaos. He urged him to return to the kingdom of his birth – Judah – and to leave them alone. Amos was an unwelcome foreign missionary/prophet, bringing an unwelcome message.
The book of Jonah describes a photo-negative experience. Jonah was unwilling to travel north (and east) to Nineveh. After his marine misadventures, Jonah offered a half-hearted proclamation of Nineveh’s destruction (preaching a short sermon one day in a city that took three days to cross [Jonah 3:3-4]). Hearing a prophecy of their destruction, the people of Nineveh not only refused to criticize the foreign messenger, they repented in sackcloth and ashes, and fasted to provoke God’s mercyMercy is a term used to describe leniency or compassion. God’s mercy is frequently referred to or invoked in both the Old and New Testaments. More. Jonah’s missionary journey was welcomed, and his words were received gratefully.
In popular Christian culture, the idea of the intentional foreign missionary is endlessly debated. St. Patrick returned to the Irish people who captured and enslaved him to preach a liberating Gospel to his former captors. ElizabethMother of John the Baptist. More Elliot preached for years to the Waorani people who killed her husband. And yet, in the world of fiction, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible and the musical The Book of Mormon, both raise issues of hubris and cultural misunderstanding, and are probably the most influential pictures of missionaries in popular culture. Missionaries who are willing to sacrificeSacrifice is commonly understood as the practice of offering or giving up something as a sign of worship, commitment, or obedience. In the Old Testament grain, wine, or animals are used as sacrifice. In some New Testament writings Jesus’ death on the cross as the… More even their own lives for the sake of sharing the Gospel are juxtaposed with proud/deluded missionaries who end up being converted to the way of life of those they came to change.
Amos’ mission is certainly undertaken in the face of at least rhetorical repudiation. Amos risked his life, and did not cease his mission, even in the face of royal rejection. Amos is, in many ways, an unwelcome guest, who had nevertheless been sent by God to tell an unpleasant truth. He is, in other words, a model prophet.
God’s Emotions in Amos
Just prior to the arguably most famous passage of Amos – “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24) – the text describes God’s emotional self-revelation. The text says, of the counterfeit worship conducted in the cultic site of Bethel, that God hates the festivals and dislikes the smells of festive assemblies. God rejects offerings and averts the divine gaze from sacrifices, refusing to listen to hymns or songs (Amos 5:21-23). God’s reaction to hypocrisy – worshiping God while disobeying God’s commandments around justice and righteousA righteous person is one who is ethical and faithful to God’s covenant. Righteousness in the Old Testament is an attitude of God; in the New Testament it is a gift of God through grace. In the New Testament righteousness is a relationship with God… More action – is not just negative, it is deeply emotional. In Amos, and especially throughout the other prophetic literature in Scripture, God is a deeply emotional person, who is unashamed to speak about divine emotions, especially as they motivate divine actions.
Christians at times have been uncomfortable with the notion of God as divine feeler. Theologies have posited God as an unmoved mover and suggested that the emotional language for God in the Bible is to be understood not as generative theology, but as anthropomorphism of ancient authors. Yet other Christians understand God as the primary emotional being. John 3:16, for instance, proclaims that God’s deep love for the world motivated Jesus’ salvific mission. The Doctor of the Church Teresa of Ávila witnessed in God, and especially in the person of Jesus, overwhelming emotions of suffering and love.
The 20th century civil rights icon and public theologian, Rabbi AbrahamGod promised that Abraham would become the father of a great nation, receive a land, and bring blessing to all nations. More JoshuaThe successor of Moses, Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan. More Heschel, addressed the issue of divine emotions or pathos by cautioning interpreters not to simply reject the writing of the prophets – especially Amos – by saying that depictions of God’s rich emotional life were anthropomorphisms. Instead, Heschel suggested that Amos invited the readers of the text to theopomorphize their emotions. Just as God is utterly repulsed by hypocrisy that seeks to put a respectable face on blatant injustice, so humans ought to be enraged by polite society ignoring the needs of the marginalized. The work of the prophet, according to Heschel, was to teach humans to have emotions like God has emotions, and to let those emotions stir up humans to action, just as God’s emotions arouse divine action. Amos’ stark description of God’s rejection of sacrifices in the presence of systemic injustice are best understood as an invitation for humans to emulate God and reject going through the motions of worship without attending to justice and righteousness first.
Wealth Inequality and God
One of God’s chief complaints in the book of Amos is about wealth inequality, whether wealth was built dishonestly or not. The wealthy are condemned for “selling the needy for a pair of sandals” (2:6) and for cynically using garments held in pledge as mattresses for forbidden sexual acts (2:7-8). Trampling the needy and preventing periods of rest by having perpetually open markets with predatory exchange rates (8:4-6) are specifically condemned. But even when there is no predatory or unjust economic activity mentioned, merely being rich in a time in which poverty exists is an unthinkable affront to the God of justice, and to poor neighbors (6:1, 4-6). Those who are carefree and live in comfortable homes would have done better to mourn the ruination of their society because of economic inequality.
The economic resets in Leviticus 25, and elsewhere, seem to have been the intended mode of behavior for God’s HolyHoly is a term that originally meant set apart for the worship or service of God. While the term may refer to people, objects, time, or places, holiness in Judaism and Christianity primarily denotes the realm of the divine More Community, precisely to prevent and correct long term wealth inequality. Amos’ frequent mention of injustice concerning fields and agriculture calls to mind the reforms of SabbathSabbath is a weekly day of rest, the seventh day, observed on Saturday in Judaism and on Sunday in Christianity. In the book of Genesis, God rested on the seventh day; in the Gospel accounts Jesus and his disciples are criticized by some for not… More years, indentured servant liberation and JubileeJubilee is a time of celebration and rejoicing. Hebrew law, as prescribed in Leviticus 25 and 27, declared every fiftieth year to be a jubilee year during which time slaves would be emancipated, debts would be forgiven, and even the land would be allowed to rest. More. The New Testament community took Amos’ call for economic equity seriously, and those who had resources sold them to relieve the poor of their debts (Acts 2:44-45; Acts 4:32, 34-35). Amos’ critique of wealth inequality was likely part of the motivation for Jesus’ early followers to liberate the needy from grinding debt.
In the same way, many 21st century churches and congregations work to mobilize assets to free the poor from debts and financial bondage. Non-profits, like RIP Medical Debt, cite Amos as they buy the ownership of medical debt from creditors in order to forgive the debt and release people who are recovering from surgeries and cancer treatment from the additional hardship of medical debts. These Christian organizations take seriously the petition from the Lord’s Prayer, sometimes translated as “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Instead of selling the needy, as Amos is horrified to observe, some modern Christians are buying the rights to free the needy.
