Spiritual Famine

October 31, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.”
Amos 8:11 (NIV)

We’ve enjoyed a very mild autumn this year with temps that feel warmer on average than usual. At least, that was until the past few days. The first blast of arctic air has blown in with a reminder of winter’s scheduled arrival. It’s a little chilly in the quiet this morning.

Along with the change in weather, the chill reminds me that the season of Advent is right around the corner. While not universally observed among followers of Jesus, Advent is a traditional time of spiritual preparation and “waiting” for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. It is also a reminder of our “waiting” for Jesus’ promised return. Many followers of Jesus will fast as a part of the season, and of course you can find almost any kind of Advent calendar with a little treat for each day leading up to Christmas.

In today’s chapter, Amos makes a rather strange prophetic proclamation. He says that there is a coming famine, but it won’t be food that will be scarce, but the word of the Lord. People will search for a word from the Lord and be unable to find it.

What’s interesting about this prophecy is that Jesus famously replied to the evil one when He was tempted, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” In the same way that bread is a staple form of physical sustenance, so God’s words are a form of staple spiritual sustenance. This chapter-a-day journey is a form of daily spiritual nourishment. When Amos declares that there will be a famine of God’s word, he’s declaring a spiritual famine.

What’s equally interesting is that after the last prophet, Malachi, there is a roughly 400 year period of prophetic silence until the birth of Jesus. Amos’ prophesy was eventually realized. More than just a celebration of Christmas, the annual season of Advent is a yearly reminder of the 400 years of spiritual famine that preceded the baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.

I’m thinking this morning not just about physical seasons but spiritual seasons. As a child, the season of Advent and countdown to Christmas morning is agonizing. In the same way, my spiritual journey has contained long seasons of waiting, when each day felt spiritually parched and the fulfillment of promise seems perpetually on the horizon. Looking back, I realize that times of spiritual famine have exercised my faith, on which I have to rely like a starving person getting by on meager provisions. I have also experienced that seasons of spiritual famine do end. Christmas morning dawns. A time of harvest and blessing eventually arrives like spiritual rain. As Jesus put it, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Sometimes, you have to wait.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Consideration of Words

October 30, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”
Amos 7:12-13 (NIV)

There is a theme that runs throughout the Great Story that has to do with the judicious use of words. In Genesis, God creates the universe with words. The ancient sages of the Proverbs remind me to be careful with words, that they have the power to wound and to heal. John introduces Jesus metaphorically as the Word. Jesus said, “I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

When Jesus is questioned by the Roman Governor, Pilates ask Jesus “are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus replies that Pilate has just said it himself. It is a strange thing to say, but Jesus points out that there is something spiritually potent in Pilate’s simply speaking the words, even in the form of a question.

Words are important.

In today’s chapter, Amos finds himself in hot water with the nation’s priest, Amaziah. Amos delivers a message that specifically pronounces God’s judgement and the ruin of both the sanctuary and the death of King Jeroboam. Not appreciating being the brunt of Amos’ prognostication of doom, Amaziah tells Amos to get lost, which causes Amos to double-down and tell the high priest how bad it will be for him and his family when the nation is destroyed and carried into exile.

Amos, the cheeky, blue-collar prophet uses the same device in responding to Israel’s high priest that Jesus uses with Pilate. Amaziah sends word to the king, summarizing Amos’ prophetic messages, saying “Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.” When Amos declares his prophetic sentence on Amaziah and his family, he ends the prophecy with “Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.” In the original Hebrew, it is word-for-word the same. In essence, Amos is saying, “You’ve said it with your own mouth, Amaziah. It will happen just as you have said yourself.“

In the quiet this morning, today’s chapter has me thinking about my words. How have my words wounded others? How have my own words condemned me? Do my words bring blessing and healing to others? When have spoken too many words? When have I remained silent when I should have spoken up?

As I enter into another work week, I’m reminded of my need to be considerate of my words.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Lessons Then and Now

October 26, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

You put off the day of disaster
and bring near a reign of terror.
Amos 6:3 (NIV)

It was an all-night music festival and make-shift campground. Hundreds of young people gathered to have fun and dance through the whole night. Suddenly, the electricity was cut. Stage lights and music became instant silence and darkness. Then the bullets from Hamas terrorists started firing indiscriminately into the crowd. By the time the massacre was over, some 260 young people lay dead.

In the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attacks, one of the predominate themes coming out of Israel was the complete and utter surprise. The government and army were unprepared. They didn’t see it coming. “We failed,” one official said matter-of-factly to the press, offering no elucidation.

As I continue my chapter-a-day trek through the ancient prophecies of Amos, I can’t help but think of the eery parallels with current events.

In today’s chapter, Amos describes the people of ancient Israel feasting, drinking, and partying to music. He then contrasts this with a prophecy of sudden terror and destruction that will come when another nation attacks. He describes a house full of dead bodies and a family member hiding among the corpses in fear of his life. Amos calls out ancient Israel’s complacency and pride lulling them into a false sense of security. The description reads like a description of the October 7 massacre and aftermath.

This morning, I sit in the quiet and ponder similar events both ancient and contemporary. What are my take aways?

The first thing I thing about is a warning against complacency. Ancient Israel was enjoying a boom of prosperity that was rooted in greed, corruption, and idolatry. Things were great in the moment for the fortunate and affluent. They didn’t want to listen to Amos’ words of warning. In similar ways, the U.S. before 9/11 and Israel before October 7, were not prepared for the instantaneous terror that was unleashed. How do I keep my mind and spirit honed to the realities of evil and hatred, and not get lulled into a false sense of security?

The second take away for me is the spiritual rot that lay at the root of Amos’ prophetic messages. God, through Amos, is begging for people to repent of their greed, their lack of concern for the poor and needy, and the self-centered rigging of systems to pad their pockets and get away with corruption at the expense of others. As a disciple of Jesus, how do I daily live true to the virtues of charity, generosity, compassion, and contentment in a world that teaches looking out for numero uno?

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day, Uncategorized

Prudent Silence, Bold Speech

October 25, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times,
for the times are evil.
Amos 5:13 (NIV)

I remember Garrison Keillor once saying that a small town newspaper isn’t really the news, it’s just the table of contents. The real news, the stuff that’s really going on, never made it into print. Having lived in a few different small towns along my life journey, I feel the truth of Keillor’s statement. Yes, every small town has a City Council, but I’ve observed that there are always unelected individuals in small towns who wield unofficial power.

In the ancient days of the prophet Amos, the seat of justice was always at the local city gate. Small towns handled their own justice right inside the gates of the city. The town’s elders met there regularly to visit, share news, and conduct business. If there was a criminal or legal matter, it was the town elders who heard the case and meted out justice.

There was only one problem with this system, of course. Just like any small town, there were those individuals who wielded unofficial power. The wealthy and prominent puppet-masters pulled the strings of justice as they saw fit. And because the populace feared the threat of what the puppet masters could do in retaliation, they kept their mouths shut and their heads down.

Enter the prophet Amos.

Amos, the blue-collar prophet from Judah, strolls into town with words that bite. He calls the people of Israel to repent from the shady local politics and power games in which the poor and weak suffered at the hands of the rich, local puppet masters.

Today’s chapter was written as lyrics to a funerary lament. It was a way of Amos saying to his audience, “You’re already dead, you just don’t know it yet.” Amos then ends his lament with a proclamation of the “day of the Lord” when God would pronounce judgement on Israel. The justice of God contrasting the injustice of the local puppet-masters.

In the quiet this morning, I was struck by Amos’ description of the silent bystanders who are “prudent” in keeping silent. That is a theme that resonates deeply in the current events of today. Researchers say that the level of anxiety in young people today is off-the-charts, and one of the reasons is the daily fear that saying the wrong thing will get them cancelled and ostracized in the classroom or social media. Just yesterday I listened to an interview with Palestinians inside Gaza explaining that they must prudently keep quiet about what’s really happening inside Gaza or their Hamas puppet masters will torture and kill them and their families. On college campuses, the administrations who have always been quick to speak out about social justice issues suddenly find it prudent to keep silent about terrorists indiscriminately torturing, raping, and murdering innocent people, including children.

One of the things that I love about the prophets is their willingness to say the things that needed to be said. Of course, things did not always end well for them. The power brokers and puppet masters regularly found ways to silence their prophetic critics. Jesus offered His own lament over this reality:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”

Just last week I was reminded of the words of Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran pastor who initially supported Hitler’s rise to power, but then became the leader of clergy who opposed the regime. He wrote:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

May God grant me the boldness of a prophet to speak and to pen the right words at the right time with a heart that is ever motivated by love.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Tom's Photos, Wayfarer's Journal

The Latest Summer 2023

October 22, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Note: For my regular chapter-a-day subscribers, please note that Wendy and I are out for a few days and I’ll continue our trek through Amos when I return.

Where does the time go? Here it is, late October and I still haven’t posted about the summer that was summer 2023. As I went through photos and pondered the memories, there is a part of me that recognizes the familiar cadence our lives have become. That said, I embrace the cadence. Life always offers new events, new surprises, as well as moments we have tried long to avoid. When you are blessed to enjoy life that moves along with a cadence of love, good family, good friends, and well-established traditions and routines, those difficult moments melt into the love and goodness. So, here’s to the cadence.

Summer beings with Memorial Day weekend at the lake with the Pella VLs. When the cadence began, their oldest was a wee one. The Playhouse has always been a thin place for healing, life-changes, and rites of passage. That wee one whose first visit was in the single-wide, seventy-feet of Ozark glory, is catching fish and experiencing his first stogie with the boys. Of course, the cadence also includes scoring the Cubs game on the deck listening to the call by Pat and Ron. It includes good books you should have read years ago. It includes “the puddle effect” of the lake and movies together as shared experience.

In ways, the Playhouse is the cadence of the summer for Wendy and me. After Memorial Day there is the annual weekend with Kev & Beck. The cadence has almost always included family, though that was interrupted in recent years by my mother’s descent into the oblivion of Alzheimers and my father’s loving and dutiful care for her. With mom’s passing and memorial service on St. Patrick’s Day this year, my sister and I enjoyed taking dad to the lake for the first time in a few years.

Life’s cadence also requires maintenance (dang it!), and this summer it was replacement of the Playhouse patio door with a new Pella (of course) slider. A tear in the chill-mat also required me to channel my 8th grade Home Ec sewing skills (thank you, Mrs. Dykema!) to repair and keep us and our guests “chillin'” for another summer or two. And, life didn’t stop back in Pella where Wendy and enjoyed the annual Pella Opera House Gala and the Red Rock Balloon Fest which sent many hot air balloons right over our house.

For Wendy and me, the cadence of summer is always synonymous with America’s pastime. While we got to far too few baseball games (though I snuck in a Columbia, SC Fireflies game with MK & G!) we enjoyed cheering on our friend, Nathan, and the Pella baseball team. I even got to be the PA Announcer for a couple of games, which was a real treat!

Speaking of the South Carolina crew, they also joined us for Fourth of July at the Playhouse. Our Rottie “grand-pups,” Bertha and Hazel, brought news of our third grandchild, due in late January. Madison utilized G’s high school football team to help celebrate gender reveal. A wee granddaughter is on the way!

Speaking of wee ones, Milo and Sylvie have continued to flourish in Scotland. As I reviewed the summer photo cache, it was definitely the “Summer of Sylvie” as the second-born commanded the attention and refused to be overshadowed by her older brother. She took her first steps and her folks appear determined to celebrate child #2 with all the media vigor commanded by child #1. Milo has become a young math whiz. Papa and Yaya are ecstatic about having the crew back in Pella this Christmas.

The cadence of life is punctuated with significant life events. Mom’s passing was followed by the burial of her ashes this summer. My dad, my sibs, and a small gathering of family had a private and personal memorial. We shared memories, laughter, and tears. We then shared a meal together. It was a small affair, but I could feel mom smiling on the other side of the veil. Dad continues the transition to Pella, but his stained-glass work (another Iowa State Fair ribbon this year) has been celebrated. He was commissioned to do a window for a new house in Pella as well as being commissioned to replicate the prayer bench he made for me years ago. He was “Artist of the Month” at Pella Manor. My sister and I joined his presentation to the fellow residents.

Of course, it’s all about friends and family isn’t it? Wendy and loved hosting family and friends through the summer, as well as enjoying gatherings with Community and loved ones. That included visits of cousins from Colorado and the weekly cadence of Sunday nights with friends to watch classics both old and new. We enjoyed potluck with our local gathering of Jesus’ followers, including young Asher who has become a surrogate grandchild. We enoyed taking mom Hall to Butcher’s Brewhuis in Pella, where she and Wendy lived when it was an apartment, back in the day. In addition, the Pella VLs opened their pool this summer. This means that Wendy and I can increasingly be found down the street in the summer where the water is cool and the fellowship is warm.

August brought the realities of age to the cadence of summer. Wendy had surgery to address join issues in a pinky and joints on two toes. The cadence of summer then ended, as usual on Labor Day weekend for us. For many years, it has been an “adult weekend” with with JPs and Pella VLs. This year, we enjoyed adding the Lubachs to celebrate summer’s end. A boat-trip for dinner ended with being towed home by good Samaritans. A ten-year-old “what happened to the iPad?” mystery was finally solved when a casual tap on the bottom of a chair revealed that the iPad had slipped beneath the cushion and the springs, requiring a forensic cut from beneath the chair to rescue the (now obsolete) iPad. A mystery solved! A happy ending to summer! And now, the cadence of autumn calls.

Uncategorized

Words that Bite

October 20, 2023 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,
you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy
and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”
Amos 4:1 (NIV)

As we began this chapter-a-day trek through Amos, I likened the working man’s prophet with Oliver Anthony, an Appalachian singer-songwriter who recently went from anonymity to having the most popular song on the planet overnight. His song, Rich Men North of Richmond is classic protest song in the spirit of Woody Guthrie, the likes of which we have not heard since Bob Dylan’s Masters of War in the early 1960s. Both of these songs stand out, not just because they are well-crafted songs, but because the are the raw cries of broken and angry souls. (For any who aren’t familiar with one, or both, I will post links to both at the bottom of this post and I encourage you to search for the lyrics online and take a few minutes to listen.)

Rich Men North of Richmond is a fascinating song to have resonated so deeply with so many at this moment in time. It is a scathing rebuke of American government (Washington D.C. is roughly 100 miles north of Richmond, Virginia) and policies that has left people feeling that our leaders have marginalized the many in pandering to the few. The lyrics don’t mince words. They bite. They bite hard amidst a culture that throws around terms such as micro-aggressions, trigger warnings, and the violence of words in order to duck-and-cover under the desks of their victim status.

This is why I come back to this song after meditating on today’s chapter. Amos’ prophecy stands up along side these modern songs of angry, soul-aching protest. Amos begins by calling the elite, wealthy women of Israel “cows of Bashan,” which in that day were prime exclusive, pampered livestock that would have been the choice meats enjoyed by the lucky few of their day.

Amos immediately moves from this image to that of conquered peoples being led by a hook through the nose. This was a common practice in ancient times. A ring or hook through the nose, attached to a rope, was how victors humiliated their defeated foes as they led them off into slavery. Of course, metaphors are layered with meaning. A ring through the nose is also how cattle and livestock were controlled and led. The elitist, wealthy, pampered women of Israel, the “cows of Bashan,” will become humiliated, human livestock.

Amos then immediately pivots to dripping sarcasm telling his elitist audience to “go to Bethel and Gilgal” to make sacrifices, offerings, and tithes. Lost on modern readers, these two worship centers were set up as a nod to Yaweh and the God of their ancestors, but they mixed their people’s religion with those of other pagan gods. The northern Kingdom of Israel gave their people an “alternative” to going to Jerusalem and worshipping Yahweh at Solomon’s temple. Thus, the worship of God was not the worship of God at all, but a watered-down, pagan version of it that the elites of Israel practiced religiously. A system of regular sacrifices, offerings, and tithes. The worship of Bethel and Gilgal were a shadow of the real worship God designed for His people.

What did God demand of his people in the Law of Moses? He demanded that the choicest of meat be used for sacrifice. What was the choicest beef in Israel? The pampered cows of Bashan. In just a few verses, Amos has called the rich, elitist women of Israel cows, intimated that they will humiliated like common livestock, and further insinuated that in profaning the true worship of the Holy God, they have made themselves the sacrifice of choice to a foreign power who will come with judgement.

These are words that bite.

In the quiet this morning, I ponder the culture I see around me. I think back to the first time I listened to Bob Dylan’s Masters of War in the 1970s on my Walkman as I walked home from school. I was young, but still remember the anger over the Vietnam war and over Watergate. I grew up being taught that freedom of speech means that we have the right to speak words that bite, that we sometimes have to hear words that bite (even if we don’t want to hear them), and that sometimes we need words that bite. We need words that bite to wake us from the fog of our complacency, to reveal our need of personal, moral, political, and cultural change, and to drive us to our knees in repentance. That’s why God raised up prophets like Amos. That’s why we still need modern-day prophets like Bob Dylan and Oliver Anthony.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Imelda’s Shoes

October 19, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“On the day I punish Israel for her sins,
    I will destroy the altars of Bethel;
the horns of the altar will be cut off
    and fall to the ground.
I will tear down the winter house
    along with the summer house;
the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed
    and the mansions will be demolished,”
declares the Lord.”
Amos 3:14-15 (NIV)

Many years ago I was in Manila and had the opportunity to tour Malacanang Palace that had been the residence of infamous Philippine despots, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. The Marcos’ were known for living outlandishly opulent lives while their people struggled to survive. Imelda Marcos was famous for her shoe collection, and I can attest to the thousands and thousands of pairs of shoes she had hoarded away in her palace. I saw them with my own eyes. It was something. After losing power, their palace was made into a museum so that the people of the Philippines could see it for themselves.

Ferdinand and Imelda, of course, are not alone. A person with great wealth often invests in properties. It’s typically a safe investment and it affords space in multiple locations to hoard more stuff.

As Amos delivers his prophecy to the people of Israel, it is a time of great economic prosperity. But like the Philippines under the Marcos regime, the powerful and wealthy are hoarding their ill-gotten gains in their various mansions while the poor and needy struggle to survive. There was no social welfare program in the ancient world.

Beyond this glaring social justice issue, the root of Israel’s corrupt prosperity was idolatry. When the northern kingdom broke away from Judah, the first thing King Jeroboam did was create a pagan altar in the town of Bethel and set up a system of idol worship. Centers of pagan worship generated a lot of business and it made those who controlled it very rich.

In today’s chapter, Amos declares that an unnamed power will punish Israel for her sins of idolatry, greed, and injustice. Amos’ description is striking. The summer villa will offer no refuge. The winter palace will be no place to hide. Even “the horns of the altar” which a condemned person could cling to as a last resort appeal in the justice system of that day would offer no recourse because the altar itself would be utterly destroyed.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself pondering some of the despots who have risen and fallen during my life journey. As it has been, so it is, and will continue to be. Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. The teacher of Ecclesiastes observed the futility of building up wealth only to die and leave it to someone who never worked for it. I was watching Antiques Roadshow the other day and a very strange looking dude had a $50,000 cold air return grate that a sugar baron once commissioned Tiffany & Co. to make for his mansion in Manhattan. A generation later the mansion is no more and some rough looking dude in California has the $50,000 cold air grate in his garage.

I suppose that there are those who would say “you only live once” (Yolo) so you might as well get as much as you can while you’re here. Jesus told His followers to have enough faith and wisdom to not just look from here to the grave, but to look from here to beyond the grave, to the eternity that lies beyond it. The sound investment strategy, Jesus said, was to not worry about treasure in this earthly life which is nothing but a shadow of the life to come. He advised His followers to store up treasure in heaven. How? By loving God, and loving the people around me. By living a life of contentment marked by kindness, forgiveness, consideration, gentleness, goodness, and generosity.

An eternal investment portfolio is focused on giving rather than getting while I’m on this earthly journey.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Sting

October 18, 2023 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

“For three sins of Israel,
    even for four, I will not relent.
They sell the innocent for silver,
    and the needy for a pair of sandals.
They trample on the heads of the poor
    as on the dust of the ground
    and deny justice to the oppressed.
Father and son use the same girl
    and so profane my holy name.
They lie down beside every altar
    on garments taken in pledge.
In the house of their god
    they drink wine taken as fines.”
Amos 2:6-8 (NIV)

Wendy and I were watching Jeopardy! the other day and one of the questions referenced a classic movie of the 70s The Sting with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The movie tells the tale of two small-time street hustlers and con-men who run a “sting” operation, “the big con” against a big-time gambler and Irish mob boss, played by Robert Shaw. The movie won seven Oscars including Best Picture. It’s a great film.

I thought about The Sting this morning as I meditated on the first two chapters of Amos. As I mentioned in yesterday’s chapter, Amos was not from nobility and he didn’t have high social status. He was a working class prophet from Judah whom God called to prophesy against the northern kingdom of Israel. Amos is from Judah, so him marching into Israel with God’s Message will be as well received as a Cyclone sweatshirt in Kinnick Stadium.

What Amos does in these opening chapters is as shrewd as a street hustler working a prophetic sting. Amos begins with a series of prophesies against neighboring kingdoms. Under King David and Solomon, these territories were part of the united kingdom of Israel, but when Solomon died and the nation divided, these neighbors went back to self-rule. Nevertheless, they are neighboring states and they probably had all of the rivalries and border jokes that exist between neighboring states today.

As Amos’ prophesies criss-cross geography of these neighboring states, he is inviting his audience in Israel to agree with him.

“Yeah, Amos! You tell ’em! Give those no-good cheaters in Tyre an ear full!”

His audience in Israel would have especially loved it when Amos prophesies against his own team in Judah. At that point, he’s got them sucked in. The people of Israel are loving this street preacher from down south. He’s got them hooked. Then he pulls the sting.

His audience in Israel can’t gloat over the prophetic doom Amos’ has proclaimed for all the rival teams in the region and then suddenly excuse themselves. They are just as guilty. They do the same things.

Amos’ opening message to the people of Israel paint a picture of affluent Israelites using their power and prestige to oppress the poor, ignore God’s law, act immorally, and corrupt God’s people.

God’s law was designed to care for those who had little. For example, if you loaned money to a poor person and took their cloak as collateral, you were supposed to return it by sunset. You don’t leave a poor person without a blanket on a cold night. The rich of Israel were ignoring this.

God’s law also had strict codes of conduct for how one treats those under your care. Fathers and sons were using their power to sexually abuse the same female bond-servants in their own households.

Faithful followers of God in that day sometimes took a “Nazarite Vow” not to drink wine or cut their hair for a period of time. The people of Israel were mocking this, urging those who had taken the vow to break it. They were telling prophets to keep their mouths shut.

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, I couldn’t help but hear Jesus’ words echo in my soul: “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Along my own life journey, I’ve experienced both what it’s like to have much and what it’s like to have little.

When I have much, it is easy to get used to the status and perks that go along with it. It’s easy to begin thinking I deserve them. It’s easy to expect that I will, and should, always have them. It’s easy to forget what it’s like to have little, and it’s easy to begin overlooking those who have little. It’s easy for me to think that I’m different in my affluence than everybody else.

Then comes along a street hustler of a working man’s prophet name Amos. Amos reminds Israel, and reminds me, that I’m no different than any other person from any other people group from any other place. God calls me to take an honest look at my own heart, motives, thoughts, words, and actions. How has affluence subtly corrupted me and turned me into a person I don’t want to be?

There’s a great line in The Sting when Henry Gondorff asks Johnny Hooker if he’s sticking around to collect his share of the take. “Nah,” Johnny answers, “I’d only blow it.”

And, that’s the thing. With all that I’m blessed to have, how do I not “blow it?”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Book Summary List, Chapter-a-Day

Amos (Oct-Nov 2023)

October 17, 2023 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

Each photo below corresponds to a chapter-a-day post for the book of Amos published by Tom Vander Well in October and November 2023. Click on the photo linked to each chapter to read the post.

Chapter-a-Day

“The More Things Change…”

October 17, 2023 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

“The Lord roars from Zion
and thunders from Jerusalem…”
Amos 1:2 (NIV)

It was a time of incredible prosperity and affluence for the kingdoms of Israel and Judah when God called Amos to proclaim his message. Amos was not a noble member of the court like Isaiah. He didn’t hail from blue-blood priestly families like Jeremiah or Ezekiel. Amos was a blue-collared common man. He was a shepherd. He worked with his hands harvesting figs to make ends meet.

What Amos sees around him is that the rich get rich off by oppressing the poor. The powerful use corruption to keep themselves in power. The weak don’t stand a chance. And it’s not just the northern kingdom of Israel or the southern kingdom of Judah. It’s everyone in the region. At the feet of the powerful and wealthy lies hatred, human trafficking, violence, genocide, greed.

So God gives Amos a message. The Lion of Judah is about to roar.

As I read today’s first chapter of the prophet Amos’ message, I couldn’t believe how relevant it felt to today. Just a week and a half ago, the terrorist group, Hamas, brutally attacked Jewish communities just outside of Gaza. Screaming words of hatred, women and children were killed. Babies were cut from their mother’s wombs. Infants were beheaded. Families were kidnapped. A girl was raped next to the body of her dead friends.

Amos’ opening message addresses the kingdoms surrounding Israel and Judah, including Gaza which was Philistine territory in that day. God through Amos, describes their behavior that has stoked His anger. It seemed to me that it came right from this past week’s news:

“…she took captive whole communities.” (vs. 6)
“…she sold whole communities of captives to Edom disregarding a treaty of brotherhood.” (vs. 9)
“..he slaughtered the women of the land.” (vs. 10)
“..his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked.” (vs. 10)
“…he ripped open the pregnant women in order to extend his borders.” (vs. 13)
“I will send fire on the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses.” (vs. 7)

Amazing.

As I read today’s chapter in the quiet this morning, I couldn’t help but think of the prophet Amos as an Oliver Anthony of his day belting out his own version of Rich Men North of Richmond. Amos sees the same things in his day that Oliver Anthony sings about from his perspective today. There are double standards. The rich get richer by oppressing the poor. Corruption flourishes and the powerful get away with their crimes. As Bob Dylan sang, “You know the Golden Rule? The one who’s got the gold rules.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same. History changes. Technology changes. Knowledge increases. Yet, the human condition remains the same. We need justice today as much as humanity has ever needed it. So, I’m anxious to hear the cries of the blue-collared working man’s prophet, Amos in the days ahead. If the human condition and the circumstances haven’t changed all that much since his day, and it appears that they haven’t, then I think he just might have something relevant for me, my life, and my times.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Wayfarer

Monthly Archives: October 2023

Spiritual Famine