Choosing to Stand Against God: Amos 7:10-17
The choice is always ours to make. Our heart determines which choice we pick. The humble heart listens to God and makes course corrections along the way. The proud heart stands firm, refusing to change.
Amaziah, a priest of Bethel, sends word to the king about Amos. He accuses Amos of conspiracy. He charges Amos with preaching words the land cannot bear. Amaziah is correct in one aspect: Amos’ message of change is a difficult one. There is nothing easy about what Amos is saying. Amos, however, is not trying to lead a conspiracy. Amos is trying to change culture.
This is one of the most significant problems with trying to change a system without an established relationship. Change is always hard. For change to properly happen, the problem must be identified and the person who needs to change must want it for themselves. Amos identifies the problem, but the people of Israel don’t want to change.
This is one of the reasons why Jesus’ ministry is strikingly different than the ministry of the Old Testament prophets. Both Jesus and the prophets gave difficult messages full of challenge. Jesus, however, delivered His message through relationship. When Jesus spoke a hard message, He was typically speaking to someone who already cared about His opinion.
This doesn’t imply the Old Testament prophets were doing anything wrong. The prophets delivered messages God told them to deliver. They weren’t called to make relationships; they were told by God to go to a place and deliver a message. Jesus was creating something new; the prophets illustrated flaws in the old. The prophets and Jesus were different because God used them differently, not because anyone did anything wrong.
Amaziah the priest of Bethel does exactly what God accused of the elite all along. Amaziah throws up a defense to protect his way of life. He isn’t interested in justice and righteousness; he is interested in perpetuating his elite lifestyle. Rather than listen to a message from God, Amaziah tells Amos to go home and prophesy there. Rather than look for truth in Amos’ words, Amaziah sends word to the king to manipulate the king to solve his problem for him. This is the danger of living an elite lifestyle. When we become accustomed to being elite, it becomes easier to forego our quest for truth in lieu of our quest for being elite.
God sends a personal message for Amaziah. Because Amaziah chose to ignore Him, Amaziah’s own wife would become a prostitute. While Amaziah leads people out of relationship with God, Amaziah’s wife will search for intimacy with other men. Because Amaziah chose to seek the power of the king to silence Amos, Amaziah’s own sons would be silenced by the sword of some other king’s men.
God allows us to choose. We can listen or we can go our own way. Each choice has a lasting impact on our life. The choice is always ours to make.
