Amos 6:1-14
Lesson Focus Those who are affluent and apathetic about the needs of those around them will be the first to experience God’s judgment.
Lesson Outcomes Through this lesson, students should:
Understand that Israel is being judged for its overinflated sense of importance and apathy toward the needs of others amid its own affluence.
Be encouraged to examine their own life for arrogance and apathy.
Discover ways to fight apathy.
Catch up on the story Amos has lamented the current state of Israel. He has sung a funeral dirge over the loss of Israel, even though their downfall has not yet happened. For Amos, Israel’s destruction is as good as done. Yet, Amos still calls Israel to seek God so that they might live. Israel is encouraged to seek God, not as they have done in the past, by engaging in ritual worship services at special places of worship, but in returning to living lives of justice and righteousness. God has rejected Israel and their worship because they have rejected justice and righteousness.
This week’s passage can be split into two sections, verses 1-3 and 4-7. Amos continues to speak using the same themes he has previously used. The affluence of Israel is their primary source of trouble. Although, in this passage, Amos does not focus on how Israel got to be affluent but on their attitude amid affluence.
We’re #1: 6:1-3 The opening, “Alas” (“Woe” as the NIV renders it) of chapter 6 tells us that Amos is continuing his lamenting over Israel. This “woe” would have been a familiar cry when someone had died. The effect on the hearers would have been one of chill and sorrow (Limburg, 110). Amos continues to speak to Israel from a place of solidarity with them. While he does not participate in Israel’s injustices, he offers prophetic speech and mourns their fate as one of them. Amos does not stand on the outside looking in, judging from a place of superiority. Instead, he mourns for them and with them.
Amos is mourning because he sees the self-deception that has fallen over Israel. Israel, and Judah, too (Zion), have come to believe that they are the “first among nations.” By all accounts, Israel was not the largest, wealthiest, or most powerful nation in the world or even the region. Yet, in their affluence and comfort, they began to see themselves as more important than they were. Perhaps they even thought of themselves as invulnerable. They “feel secure on Mt. Samaria.”
To counter this overconfidence, Amos encourages his hearers to go to Calneh, Hammath, and Gath. These three cities were important cities in the region. Calneh and Hamath were important city-states and trading centers to the north of Israel in Syria. Gath was one of the lead Philistine cities (Birch, 67). Amos wants Israel to have a dose of reality. Israel is small and insignificant compared to its neighbors. In a rhetorical question, Amos asks, is Israel’s territory better than any other? Amos probably would have received a positive answer from his hearers, but the question demands a negative response. In Israel’s affluence, they have come to understand themselves as overly important and invulnerable.
This first section ends with a lament. Amos laments that Israel has deceived itself into thinking that they are important and invulnerable to the calamity that fast approaches. “O you that put far away the evil day…” Here Amos laments because Israel’s self-deception, their unwillingness to believe that God’s judgment is near, has actually brought that day ever closer. Israel’s arrogance has led them to reject any possible notion of repentance.
Oh Apathy!: 6:4-8 Next, Amos turns to describe, once again, the lifestyle of those who have plenty in Israel. Furthermore, he begins this lament with “Alas.” Woe to the one who sleeps on a bed made of ivory or who has time to spend lounging often on a couch. Woe to those who have the luxury of eating lamb and calf. Remember that eating meat was a privilege for only those who had significant means. To choose between two different kinds of meat was even more significant. The average person would have only been able to afford a little meat once or twice a year. Woe to those who sing idle songs and have drunk so much wine that a standard wine glass is not sufficient to satisfy their thirst.
Amos offers these woes not because fine furnishings, meat, or singing songs are wrong in and of themselves; he offers these woes because the wealthy in Israel enjoy these things while there is great need and suffering around them. The end of verse 6 is the kicker for these two sections of chapter 6: Israel engages in this opulent lifestyle, but they “are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.” Joseph is another name for the northern nation of Israel. A little more literal translation of this phrase would go something like this, “Are you not sick…?” Amos wonders why Israel does not have a strong reaction that compels them to action when confronted with the needs of others around them. The point is clear: affluence that is enjoyed at the cost of less privileged people while ignoring the hunger and suffering all around is affluence that is to be condemned.
The section ends with Amos declaring that Israel will indeed be first. They will be first to be carried off into exile. Their arrogance, presumed importance, and invulnerability, along with their apathy toward those in need while enjoying great wealth, will lead them to be the first to experience God’s coming judgment. God hates their pride.
So What…? I wonder if we don’t suffer from the same arrogance and apathy from which Israel suffered. We are indeed an affluent nation. We are indeed an important country on the global scene. It’s no sin to be proud of our country and what we have accomplished. We have been truly blessed with what we have, and we should be constantly mindful of those blessings.
But do we think more highly of ourselves than we ought? Like Israel, do we believe we are invulnerable? Do we think that God’s judgment may be a long way off because we are who we are? More importantly, do we enjoy the comforts of our material success while neglecting the needs and cries of pain all around us?
I think we do. Our affluence quickly leads us to a misplaced conception of our own importance. Our wealth leads us to become apathetic about the needs of others, even while we have more than enough to share. Our church is generous, but I wonder how much more we might be able to do, personally and as a church family.
The challenge of this chapter is obvious. Those who overvalue themselves, those who become apathetic about the needs of others while enjoying life’s comforts, will be the first to experience God’s judgment. That judgment might not come for us until the hereafter, but it will come.
Specific Discussion Questions Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.
Why would Israel have feelings of security? Why would Israel think they were one of the “first nations,” first being most important?
Why would Israel’s belief that the day of judgment is far away brought it closer (verse 3)?
Amos describes Israel’s behavior as laying on beds made of ivory, lounging on couches, singing idle songs, drinking wine out of bowls because they have so much of it. Is there anything inherently wrong with these things? If not, why does Amos decry their behavior?
Why does Amos say, in verse 7, that Israel will be the first to go into exile?
Israel’s sins seem to be arrogance and apathy. They believe that their affluence has made them very important. Their wealth has also led them to turn a blind eye toward those in need. As Americans, are we guilty of the same sins? If yes, how so?
How does Jesus take up these same themes? Read Luke 16:19-31.
We are affluent people. How might we guard against the apathy for which Israel was being judged?
Are you apathetic toward the needs of others? How can you move out of such apathy?
Works Cited
Birch, Bruce C. Hosea, Joel, and Amos, Westminster Bible Companion. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997.