The Worst Kind of Thirst: Amos 8:9-14

When our eyes are not focused on God, it can be hard to find genuine truth.  The world has no shortage of opportunities to believe.  The question is never “do we believe;” the question is always “what do we believe in?”

God gives three images to prepare the Hebrew people for life after the Assyrian invasion.  He gives the image of an eclipse, the perspective of a funeral, and the effects of famine.  Each perspective has a message for those who walk away from God.

In an eclipse, light goes away at an unnatural time.  Everyone expects the predictable darkness of night; nobody expects the darkness of an eclipse.  Eclipses are startling and jarring.  Ancient people would not have understood solar retinopathy, which is why people develop problems during an eclipse.  When illumination dims, our eyes dilate and our blink reflexes slow.  However, the visible portion of the sun still emits enough regular and ultraviolet light to damage our retina without our knowing.  There are accounts of ancient people experiencing blindness or damaged eyesight.

Eclipse imagery in the Bible is not solely about the darkness.  It is also about the lingering communal blindness that can result.  Walking away from God opens the door to blindness to God’s truth and direction.

God also gives funeral imagery, but no ordinary funeral.  God speaks of the pain from losing an only son.  While this is certainly a foreshadowing of Jesus’ crucifixion, the Hebrew people of Amos’ day would realize a different cultural significance.  When an only son dies, a branch of Hebrew lineage terminates.  Today we understand how genetics pass down, but from the ancient Hebrew perspective one’s place in the family tree was defined by the father.  When only sons die, branches cease growing.

Welcome to the Assyrian conquest.  Under Assyrian brutality, the Hebrew family tree will experience many branch terminations.  Families will simply cease to exist.

Finally, God speaks about a famine unlike any other kind.  The coming famine is a spiritual famine.  People will seek the Word of God, but they will not find it.

I don’t believe this passage is talking about God intentionally hiding Himself so He cannot be found. That would be contrary to God’s character.  It would be deceitful. 

I believe God refers to people who look for truth but settle for false truths instead.  People always find things to believe in, but many beliefs don’t bring true inner joy.  It’s like believing in a cause only to find out the cause doesn’t satisfactorily feed.  When the Hebrew people are scattered into Assyrian culture, they will be exposed to many different gods and beliefs.  It will grow harder to find genuine truth among the world’s truth.

It’s not unlike the world today.  With books and the internet, people have no shortage of truth to which they are exposed.  When our eyes are not focused on God, it can be hard to find genuine truth.