“Consider the Lord’s word, people of this generation. Haven’t I been a desert, a land of thick darkness, for Israel? Why do my people say that they are free to wander around and no longer come to me?
The chief priest Azariah from Zadok’s family said, “Since the people started to bring the offerings to the Lord’s temple, we have had all we wanted to eat and plenty to spare. The Lord has blessed his people, and there’s a lot left over.”
I haven’t spoken privately or in some dark corner of the world. I didn’t say to Jacob’s descendants, “Search for me in vain!” I, the Lord, speak what is fair and say what is right.
“Long ago you broke off your yoke, tore off your chains, and said that you wouldn’t be a slave. You lay down and acted like a prostitute on every high hill and under every large tree.
Let me go to important people and speak to them. They know the way of the Lord and the justice that God demands.” But they, too, had broken off their yokes and torn off their chains.
That is why a lion from the forest will attack them. A wolf from the wilderness will destroy them. A leopard will lie in ambush outside their cities. All who leave the cities will be torn to pieces, because they rebel so often and they become more and more unfaithful.
These are the words of Amos, one of the sheep farmers from Tekoa. He saw ⌞a vision⌟ about Israel during the reigns of Judah’s King Uzziah and Israel’s King Jeroboam, son of Joash. This happened two years before the earthquake.
You already have what you want! You’ve already become rich! You’ve become kings without us! I wish you really were kings so that we could be kings with you.
I will bring them into the land that I swore to give to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey. When they have eaten all they want and have become fat, they will turn to other gods and worship them. They will despise me and reject my promise.
Jeshurun got fat and disrespectful. (You got fat! You were stuffed! You were gorged!) They abandoned the God who made them and treated the rock of their salvation like a fool.