If you’ve been paying attention at
all, then today’s reading looks a little different. What were the crimes of the
pagan nations again? Total warfare, cruelty against civilians, slaughtering
pregnant women, raiding communities and selling them into slavery, and showing
contempt and disrespect by desecrating a corpse of one’s enemy.
But in this passage, Amos’s
condemnation is different: “they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not
kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their
ancestors followed.”
You see, both Judah and Israel were
special. They were chosen. But they were chosen not just for special blessing
but for special responsibility. Unique among nations, they had the Torah, the
law of the Lord. They had his decrees. They had the voice of God himself, the
Creator of the universe, speaking to them from a mountain.
I hate to repeat myself, but this is
a good time to review the difference between general revelation and special
revelation. General revelation—like the name says—is available to everyone.
Romans chapters one and two talk about two different types of general
revelation, witnesses the Lord has provided to pretty much everyone: What we might call external
and internal.
External refers to the physical creation. It’s astounding to me that someone
can look at this world with all its beauty and majesty and intricacy and say
“All this is just a happy accident.” No, someone created all this.
But
the part that I believe Amos is addressing is the internal. Paul says that to
some degree, Gentiles (who don’t have the Torah) have the law “written on their
hearts.” They have some concept of right and wrong. There’s never been a
society that didn’t have this. Read C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, and he succinctly outlines how different cultures
and societies--with no access to a Bible--still have rules against wanton
killing, taking just any woman for yourself, stealing, etc. They might have
different definitions of what actually constitutes
unjustified killing, but they still know that unjustified killing in itself is
wrong.
That’s
why the Lord through Amos could condemn the pagan nations. They knew better
than this. They wouldn’t want these sorts of things done to them, so in their
hearts they should've known that what they did was wrong.
But
with Judah, ah, that’s a different story. They had special revelation, something that none of us would have unless the Lord specifically intervened in human history and spoke directly to us.
This
would've been an unmitigated blessing—if they had obeyed. But obviously they
didn’t. Heck, the
Lord wasn’t even done giving the Law to Moses before they broke it;
while he was on top of the mountain, they were on the bottom committing
idolatry and starting orgies. And their record wasn’t much better since then.
So
what’s the difference here between people who’ve been exposed to his word and
those who haven’t? Well, neither group was obedient to what God told them,
either from Mount Sinai or through the human conscience. And getting back to
Paul, he says,
just as Amos did, that “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart
from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.” But if
anything, having more revelation could be a bad thing if you’re disobedient,
since the Law-Giver will hold you more accountable. As our Lord said,
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one
who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
Is
this a little scary? It should be. R. C. Sproul says that that Luke verse I
quoted above is the scariest verse in the Bible to him. To those of us who’ve had
God’s word taught and preached to us, we have so much less an excuse than
someone who’s had little to no access to it.
If
you’ll excuse me, I think it’s time for a little Spirit-examination.
Lord Jesus, your word is so precious to
me, but even more so is your blood which you shed to cover my sin. Please
search out my heart, point out any areas of sin and rebellion, and let your
word do its work.
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