March 14, 2011

Minor Prophet XXXVIII: In god's We Trust ?!?!

“Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings—boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,” declares the Sovereign LORD." Amos 4:4-5

Why would God tell one of His prophets to tell the people to sin?
Amos is being cuttingly sarcastic to them or using sarcastic irony Amos was making a statement today that would’ve sound like, “Go to church and sin!”. What Amos is doing is a parody of the priests call to worship. But Amos calls them to Bethel… “Go to Bethel and sin”…the northern home of syncretism and false worship. Amos encourages them to bring the entire plethora of worship offerings including tithes. All of these offerings had become a ruse or a sham carried out by people performing “religious activities” but they were not being offered the True God but a God of their own making. They bragged of their religiousness but in light of what they worshipped…the self-back patting and accolades rang hollow and Amos knew it. Sarcasm indeed. What is even worse is some of the offers to this false God of theirs came in the form of goods from stolen land or land taken from the oppressed if we understand the nature of the previous three verses (1-3) which made these offerings twice as offensive to God and that much more hypocritical. Idiots.

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