May 22, 2021: Day 77 – Amos 8

Often in prophecies the Lord chooses to use images and object lessons to describe what God’s desires and wishes are and what is about to happen next.  Here Amos is shown a fruit basket to demonstrate that just as quickly as it comes, so as quickly will it go away.  Did you notice what the Lord was the most upset about?

As you get to vs.4 you see that the prophet is speaking strongly against those who trample on the rights of the poor and the needy.  This is a group of people who have no one to speak on their behalf.  No one is going to provide resources for them to make sure that their needs are met.  We often have an ideology that the poor are poor because of their decision making.  But how short sighted that is to not take into consideration the multiplicity of variables that go into someone being poor.  There is absolutely systemic favoritism to those who have will continue to have and have it even more abundantly.  The lower you start on the totem pole, the harder it is to rise to the top and have your needs met.  The higher you are on that pole, the easier it is to have your needs met.  It is simple societal truths that make this reality something that Hosea dealt with and something that we deal with as well.