Turning Advantage into Profit: Amos 1:2-5
God does not call us to intentionally turn an advantage we possess over someone else into a means for profit. This teaching has incredible challenge. The world tells us to step into opportunities and exploit them. However, our God is not a God of exploitation.
The Lord roars from Zion. I won’t forget the one time I was lucky enough to be in the presence of a roaring lion. My wife and I were strolling through the Atlanta Zoo. We walked out of one of the interior enclosures. Taking several steps into the sun – feeling the breeze through the air – we heard an incredible sound. A single lion, standing on the top of a rock in his enclosure, roared for about a minute and a half. People stopped moving about as they turned to look. Every eye that could see the lion looked. The lion’s roar awoke a primeval place in every person. It commanded attention.
Amos compares the roar of a lion to God’s hand when He is aroused. Anyone can ignore the lion as it lays in the grass silently watching the world and twitching its tail. Anyone can ignore God when He gives us free will and allows us to make our own choices. But, when God acts and brings His hand to the earth, like the people in the zoo we will all take notice of the roaring lion.
The first people to draw the attention of God’s judgment in Amos are the people of Damascus, the capitol of Syria. In 2 Kings 10:32-33 and 2 Kings 13:1-9, we hear how God called the Syrians to bring judgment upon the people of the kingdom of Israel. The Israelites would not walk in the Lord’s ways.
The problem is the Syrians took things too far. They were the instruments of God’s wrath, but they did more than put the Israelites in their place. The Syrians took advantage of their superior power and plundered the Israelites.
Amos was a shepherd. He was not accustomed to power or social status. Amos probably spent his life having to protect what belonged to him. Amos understands that human beings love to use any advantage given to them to help themselves prosper. This will be a recurring theme in Amos.
The sin of the Syrians isn’t in attacking the kingdom of Israel; God asked them to do it! Attacking the people of Israel was Syrian obedience to God! The sin of the Syrians was profiting from the opportunity God gave them. The sin of the Syrians was threshing the people of Israel instead of being content with restoring balance.
God doesn’t mind if we prosper. He gave us this world so we could try our hand at making our way. If we profit through legitimate means and fair trade, we’ve done nothing wrong in our community. However, God does not call us to intentionally turn an advantage we possess over someone else into a means for profit.
