Cows of Bashan
I still remember studying this verse in seminary. You just don’t forget an analogy like
this. It is one of my favorite analogies
in the whole of the Old Testament.
Let’s look at what Amos is trying to say through this
analogy. First of all, notice that he is
specifically talking to women because in the end of verse 1 he speaks of their “husbands.” So Amos is addressing the women of Israel
here.
Second, he is talking about the rich women. In fact, he is talking to rich women who have
such expensive tastes that the only way for their obsequious husbands to please
them is to crush the poor under oppression.
That’s the audience to whom Amos is speaking.
You see, the area of Bashan was noted for its lush pastures and
therefore its well-fed cattle. These
were cattle that lived the good life until they were slaughtered. This is the comparison that Amos is making to
the wealthy women of Israel. They are living
the good life now because they are oppressing the people below them. But the day is coming when they will be led
away to slaughter and other people will feast off of them.
Religious Sarcasm
After proclaiming judgment
on the wealthy women, Amos then turns to talk about the sham of religious
practices in which they are engaged.
Amos tells them to continue to bring all of their so-called sacrifices
so that they might be received. The
problem is, these sacrifices are only for show.
They are only to impress people or fulfill what is required of
them. It is clear through the oppression
by the rich and powerful that they really have no desire to follow God or abide
by His ways. The sacrifices are merely
motions that these cows of Bashan are going for in some sort of mystical way to
appease God so that their prosperity can continue. Sham.
This is a pretty important passage, though. How easy is it for us to allow our religious
practices to become rote ritual? How
easy is it for our religious practices to become superstitious things we do to maintain
the status quo as we go through the motions?
How easy is it for our religious practices to become things we do to
make up for the areas in our life where we aren’t being obedient? As human beings, we are all prone to see
religion as our means to cover up or balance out the bad things rather than as
a means to alter, change, and redeem the bad into God’s good!
Opportunities for Repentance
The rest of the chapter is
Amos speaking about opportunities that the people of Israel have had for
repentance. God sent a drought here and
there. He caused one place to fail in
the harvest. Blight and mildew ruined
the crops in another place. Locusts
devoured other areas. Pestilence
overcame some. Others lost military
battles. Still more were overthrown as
Sodom and Gomorrah.
Yet, how did the people respond?
They responded by moving around their country to whatever place was not
affected. Rather than struggle through
their sinfulness and come to repentance, they side-stepped what God was trying
to do in their life so that they could avoid it. They wanted to continue their lifestyle, not
change it!
How true this is in most of our lives, isn’t it? How many people do we see who bury problems
and find work-around solutions rather than actually work to resolution? How many people choose denial rather than
confession?
We have all sorts of cute sayings.
“When life gives you lemons …” “When
the going gets tough …” But the reality
is that for most people, when life gives them lemons they simple leave the lemons
on the ground and move elsewhere. For
most people, when the going gets tough they literally get going elsewhere. Humanity does not default to resolving our
problems. That’s why we need proverbs to
teach us a better way.
That’s God’s point here in Amos 4 as well. God has brought them time and time again to a
place for them to recognize their errors.
Yet the people constantly side-step God’s attempt t get their
attention. They are more interested in
living their life their way rather than living their life God’s way. This is an incredibly potent lesson to learn! God brings times and places for our
repentance into our life. We’re best
served recognizing them!
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment