Judgment Upon Those Who Don't Value Life: Amos 2:1-3
God calls us to value life rather than destroy it. After all, God sent His Son to die for us so that our life with Him would be preserved. Death is a natural part of the order of things, but intentionally destroying life for the sake of being destructive is not a part of God’s plan for us.
This is the sixth judgment in the book of Amos. Each has started with the same phrase: “For three transgressions and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” This is a formulaic Hebrew idiom which means God is patient, but His patience has limits. The idiom indicates retribution will not take place after the first error, however, if the error is repeated enough punishment will come.
The numbers three are four are not usually meant literally. It is like Jesus in the New Testament when He says we should forgive other people seventy times. Jesus isn’t saying we should tally people’s sins and stop forgiving them when they reach the 71st iteration. Jesus is saying we should be open to forgiving repeatedly because people make a lot of mistakes.
Thus, the sins God mentions are not one-offs. It isn’t like the Phoenicians and Philistines raided the Hebrew people and took slaves once. The Edomites didn’t slaughter a single village and take the land. Moab didn’t kill one king. The sins spoken about in these judgments were part of the identity of the people. These sins were encouraged through their worship of false gods. These sins were common enough to try God’s patience.
The Moabites were guilty of burning the bones of the Edomites until lime – or a fine dust – remained. Like the Edomites, the Moabites worshipped a god who promoted human sacrifice to earn his favor. The god of the Moabites was called Chemosh, although like the Edomites Chemosh could be a bastardization of a Hebrew word. The vowels of Chemosh are taken from the Hebrew word for stench. This would make sense. If the worship of the Moabite god involved burning human beings in sacrifice, their times of worship wound absolutely have a distinct stench.
The Moabites were not picky in who they sacrificed. Captured populations could be sacrificed to Chemosh in their entirety rather than kept as slaves. Moabite families could sacrifice a child when faced with a particularly difficult situation to try and earn Chemosh’s favor. Sacrifices could be made before a battle, and the beginning of the growing season, or any other significant time in a Moabite town or the nation. Human sacrifice was central to the worship of Chemosh. This characteristic brings God’s judgment upon them.
Once more we learn how God disapproves of grand displays disrespecting human life. God knows people die, but God does not approve of taking human life in an attempt to earn divine favor. We are created in God’s image. God calls us to value life rather than destroy it.
