Kingdom Building
July 9, 2019
Scripture Reading: Amos 7:7-17
Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said,
“Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.” ’
And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.’ –Amos 7:10-13
The primary thing we learn from all prophets is what we sow we will reap. This scripture follows Amos’ discussion of God’s plumb line, the guideline by which we are to live. The Israelites clearly were not following the plumb line and God sent Amos to tell them that. He is telling them the natural conclusions of bad practices. Prophesy is essentially religious instruction, with occasional predictions* of outcomes.
Greed is most often the sand in which humans bury their heads to avoid facing the real results of their behavior. Greed is often accompanied by lust for power. We in the USA are caught in the web of both and like Amos’ Israel if we do not pull our heads out of that sand and see the harm we are doing, we will face the consequences.
I am so tired of hearing what a great economy we have. For whom I must ask?
A full 43 percent of Californian voters, and an astounding 61 percent of those aged 18 to 34, feel they can’t afford to live in the state, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll. And over three-quarters of voters agree that there’s a “housing crisis**.”
The U.S. economy is enjoying nearly a decade of expansion since the Great Recession. Yet food insecurity — a lack of money or resources to secure enough to eat — still grips almost one in eight Americans. That’s roughly 40 million people. While slowly improving, that figure remains stubbornly higher than before the recession, when more than one in 10 U.S. residents had difficulty knowing when and how they might eat next, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Until all have enough to eat, a place to live, affordable and accessible health care, and adequate education to maintain self-support and self-sufficiency, we will not have a good economy much less a great one.
Prayer: Lord, forgive us for our greed and lust for power. Help us to find the plumb line to follow that assures all will have enough. Amen.
*https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5012.htm.
**https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/08/43-percent-of-california-residents-say-they-cant-afford-to-live-there.html
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.