“Prosperity is too apt to prevent us from examining our conduct, but

adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most

beneficial to us.” So wrote the British author Samuel Johnson. This is

because, as G.K. Chesterton wrote, “If prosperity is regarded as the

reward of virtue, it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue.”

Prosperity clouds our judgment and makes it difficult for us to have a

clear picture of who we are and what we are doing with our lives. As

Johnson claimed, it is adversity that is the better teacher.

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We have reached the last chapter of Amos. Next week we will begin a

new sermon series on the book of Hebrews, which will take us right to

Advent. But for today, we have to deal with the final chapter of Amos.

As you would have realized by now, Amos is a terrifying book. Israel’s

sins are described in brutally honest terms. The failure of the Israelites

to keep the covenant is highlighted in many metaphorical ways. And the

judgments announced in the book are stark and Amos has hammered at

the Israelites all through the book.

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But Amos ministered in the mid 8th century BC, during the reigns of

Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam II, king of Israel. Both these kings

had long reigns and they came to power at around the same time. And,

setting aside past hostilities, Uzziah and Jeroboam functioned as allies

rather than as enemies. This meant that the Northern kingdom of Israel

and the Southern kingdom had a few decades of unprecedented peace

and stability. But in the words of actress Lily Tomlin, “The trouble with

being in the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.”

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You see, when Yahweh called Abram out of the land of the Chaldeans to

move to Canaan, he had a clear purpose. In that small strip of land that

connected Africa, Asia and Europe, he would create a distinct people.

He would work in and through this people, making their distinctiveness

shine out along with their unparalleled prosperity. And this would make

their neighbors and their trade partners wonder about this unique

people. How was it that, despite not joining the rat race, they were so

successful and so prosperous? That was the plan, anyway.

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However, as the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings clearly

indicate, that is not what happened. The people of Israel did not drive

the Canaanites out of the land. These Canaanites remained in the land,

showcasing how they worshipped their gods, thereby making it difficult

for the Israelites to obey the first commandment and worship only

Yahweh. And so the Israelites worshipped the Canaanite deities

alongside Yahweh, something that the prophets repeatedly warned them

about by announcing judgment.

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Yet, the Israelites did not learn. As an aside, archaeological excavations

in Palestine have uncovered evidence of widespread worship of the

Canaanite deities in all strata related to the period of the monarchy.

However, in the strata related to the exilic and post-exilic periods, which

would have been uncovered first, there is absolutely no evidence of the

worship of any pagan deities. As Johnson claimed, it was the adversity

of the exile that taught the Israelites much better than the prosperity of

the mid 8th century BC, which is when Amos prophesied.

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One major belief that is widespread among religious people is the

notion of retributive justice. According to this belief, the gods bless

those who are good and punish those who are evil. Doing the will of the

gods brings blessings, good health, and wealth, while rejecting the will

of the gods brings curses, sickness and poverty. With such a belief

system it is hardly surprising that, as Chesterton claimed, “If prosperity

is regarded as the reward of virtue, it will be regarded as the symptom

of virtue.”

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And so in the mid 8th century BC, with both Uzziah and Jeroboam

cooperating with each other, Judah and Israel witnessed an era of

prosperity that rivalled what they had had during Solomon’s reign. And

quite likely they concluded that, since they were prosperous, they must

have been doing things that the gods approved of. It is in this context

that Amos and Hosea in the Northern kingdom and Isaiah and Micah in

the Southern kingdom proclaimed their messages, warning the people

that their prosperity had blinded them to reality.

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Amos, of course, is relentless. After the first few verses of chapter 1, he

pounds away at the Israelites. This reaches a crescendo in the passage

we are dealing with today. Till now Amos has been a reporter of sorts.

He has announced the word of the Sovereign Yahweh that came to him

through visions in which Yahweh showed him different ways of

communicating to the Israelites how precarious their situation was and

how close they were to judgment. His stark language was probably

chosen with the hope that they would produce repentance.

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But now at the start of chapter 9 we read, “I saw the Lord standing by

the altar.” It is no longer enough for God to declare his warnings. That

time is past. As we saw earlier in Amos, Israel was likened to a basket

of ripe summer fruit. Think of the mango. Once it’s ripe, in a couple of

days it is no longer fit to be eaten. And so it was with Israel. Once the

last warning had been announced, the window of opportunity for

repentance was narrow and had passed them by. Now it was time to put

the judgment into effect.

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And so God, who would normally be seen sitting with his feet resting

between the Cherubim on the ark of the covenant, has now arisen from

his throne and has set his feet on the ground near the altar. The altar was

where most of the - pardon the word - action in the temple happened.

And Amos sees that God had taken his stand there. God was ready to

act on the judgment he had declared. And more terrifyingly, he was

taking a personal interest in this one. He was not asking one of his

minions to oversee this, but was going to supervise it himself.

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And then Amos declares what he presumably heard God say. The first

thing he announces is, “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the

thresholds shake.” Till a few decades ago, buildings were made with the

doorways being the most structurally stable parts of the interiors. In case

of an earthquake, the interior doorways would have been the safest

places, especially if you did not have a sturdy table. God declares,

however, that he will strike the tops of the supporting pillars of the

temple with such force that the thresholds themselves would quake.

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With the foundations shaking the entire structure would collapse on the

heads of the worshippers. And if anyone escaped, they would fall to the

sword. Those familiar with the book of Judges will recognize some

resonances with the story of Samson. As his last act, Samson took hold

of the pillars in the temple of Dagon and brought the whole structure

down. And just as he has used Samson to judge the Philistines so also

he would judge the Israelites for worship of false gods and false worship

of the true God are both detestable in God’s eyes.

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The message that God announces is that ‘none will escape’. Those who

might want to escape may think that they could flee to the underworld -

the depths below - or ascend to the heavens. But even there God would

find them. Here too we can see a parodic resonance with Psalm 139,

where David declares, “If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I

make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the

dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will

guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

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And if the Israelites thought that the worst that could befall them would

be exile, which was the policy of the Assyrians, God declares, “Though

they are driven into exile by their enemies, there I will command the

sword to slay them.” The Israelites had so completely broken and

rejected the covenant that there was no recourse but to completely

annihilate them. What could have been more terrifying than that God

had so utterly forsaken his people that even exile would be just the

beginning of their end?

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And then God says, “I will keep my eye on them.” These would

normally be words of comfort for in Deuteronomy 32.10 we read, “He

found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of a wilderness; he

encircled him, he cared for him, he guarded him as the apple of his

eye.” This is Moses retelling the story of the formation of the people of

Israel. God had formed Israel and had guarded Israel as the apple of his

eye. Surely when he says, “I will keep my eye on them” it was a word

of comfort!?

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But no! God continues, “for harm and not for good.” He is going to

oversee the punishment he intends to bring upon Israel. That’s why he is

going to keep an eye on them. This was not going to be the caring

observation of a father for his child, but the punitive supervision of an

executioner for a convicted criminal. What was going on? Where were

the everlasting promises God had made with the Patriarchs? What had

happened to them? Was Israel not Yahweh’s special people, chosen from

among the peoples of the world to be recipients of Yahweh’s love?

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And then in a shocker God declares, “Are not you Israelites the same to

me as the Cushites? Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines

from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?” God declares that, just as it

was he who had brought Israel out of Egypt, so also it was he who was

responsible for all the migratory movements of all the people groups,

the Philistines and Arameans being mentioned as examples. God was

reminding the Israelites that he was Sovereign over the whole world and

not just the people of Israel and the small patch of land they lived in.

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God then declares that his eyes are on the sinful kingdom and that he

will ensure that it is wiped from the face of the earth. Till now in Amos

there has been no reprieve from the constant onslaught of the words he

declared to the Israelites. And with this statement from God that he

would destroy Israel from the face of the earth, all hope of restoration

would have gone up in smoke. I would not want for one minute to have

been in Amos’ audience, listening to his message of impending and

imminent doom. But this was not the end of Amos’ prophecy.

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In late 2003, or early 2004 if you were in India, you may have gone to

the theaters to witness the final installment of Peter Jackson’s

interpretation of Lord of the Rings. Frodo had stumbled toward Mount

Doom and was perfectly poised over the fires of the mountain, the only

fires hot enough to destroy the Ring of Power that had such a corrupting

influence on the world. And as we wait for him to cast the Ring down to

its destruction, he chooses rather to claim it for himself. And our hearts

sink as the last hope is lost to the corrupting power of the Ring.

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And just as we thought it could not get worse, along comes Gollum,

who, after fighting with Frodo, claims the Ring for himself. Surely now

all is truly lost. Gollum is extremely susceptible to the influence of the

Ring and the Dark Lord will surely forcibly take it from Gollum. But

just as Gollum is celebrating the recovery of his precious Ring, he

stumbles and falls off the edge to his doom, taking the Ring with him to

its destruction. Of course, this is how the book narrates the final events.

In the movie, they had Frodo and Gollum fighting over the Ring.

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Tolkien, of course, wrote the book and he coined the term

‘eucatastrophe’ to describe this sudden change when something that is

truly a catastrophe is reversed into something that brings good. Joseph

being sold into slavery is such a catastrophe, but his being exalted to

second in command over Egypt is the eucatastrophe. In a similar

manner, Jesus’ death is a catastrophe, but the resurrection shows that his

death was actually a eucatastrophe. Why did Peter Jackson change the

eucatastrophe of the books into a struggle in the movies?

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We humans crave some kind of assurance that we are in control of our

future. We want to have the confidence that what we do actually

changes things. A classic example of this is when someone who does

not believe the doctrine of predestination asks, “If everything is

predestined, then why should we bother to evangelize anyone else?” If

Peter Jackson had stuck to the way Tolkien told the story, it would have

been a cinematic faux pas. You can’t have the heroes standing by while

a chance circumstance solves the problem. That’s storytelling suicide.

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And so Jackson, recognizing that the way Tolkien told the story would

not work on screen, alters the narrative to include a scuffle between

Frodo and Gollum. But by doing this, Jackson actually undermines one

of the main points of the book - true character is displayed when we do

something simply because it is the right thing to do, not because we

think we might actually succeed in our endeavors by doing it. The

problem is solved despite the failure of Frodo to successfully complete

his task of destroying the Ring. And we don’t like this.

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And so when we come to the second half of verse 8, it seems to come at

us from out of the blue. There was no preparation for it before this in

Amos. There was no indication that there was any hope. So when God

declares, “Yet I will not totally destroy the descendants of Jacob,” we

may wonder where this came from. Indeed, so out of tune with the rest

of Amos is this declaration that many interpreters have concluded that

the latter part of chapter 9 was added many years after Amos, probably

shortly after the Jewish people returned to the land from exile.

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But that misses the point of the book, not just as a self contained literary

work, but also as one book in the library we call the Old Testament.

The scriptures are fully aware that humans are sinful and God himself

declares this in a number of places in the Old Testament. But the

scriptures also showcase a few unconditional, unilateral promises that

God made, notably with Abraham and David. And the conditional

Mosaic covenant is given as a response to God’s unconditional call of

and promise to Abraham.

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If God utterly wiped out the people of Israel, for whatever reason, he

would not be able to be faithful to the unconditional promises he had

made to Abraham. But if he did not impose judgment on the people of

Israel for their sins, he would be unfaithful to the conditional covenant

he made with them through Moses. It is in light of these almost

contradictory impulses that the prophets declare that there would be one

way in which God could be faithful to both the unconditional promise to

Abraham and the conditional promise through Moses.

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We saw way back in Amos 3 that the prophet gives the first hint of the

idea of a remnant. But since there is only an idea of getting spared from

an attack in Amos 3, that passage does not really offer much hope. But

Amos has received from God the manner in which God could be faithful

to all the covenants, both unconditional and conditional, that he has

made with humans. In order to understand this we must do something

that most Protestants find very difficult. We must not read the New

Testament into the Old Testament. What do I mean?

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Both testaments have ideas of election. In the New Testament, which is

likely the part of the bible we are more familiar with, the notion of

election is linked to eternal salvation. And we unfortunately read these

ideas into the Old Testament and get stumped. The Old Testament idea

of election is related to the people of Israel and not to individuals within

the nation. Israel is chosen and elected for a purpose. This does not

mean that every Israelite is eternally saved. The prophets, primarily

Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, make it very clear.

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The prophets are clear that biological descent from Abraham only

guarantees inclusion in the blessings Israel receives as a nation and

requires adherence to the Torah given through Moses. Hence, inherent

in their writings is the notion that Paul later develops, namely that not

all who are of Israel by physical descent belong to the true Israel. So

God says, “I will destroy it, namely the sinful nation, from the face of

the earth. Yet I will not totally destroy the descendants of Jacob.” The

nation will be destroyed while the remnant will be preserved.

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But it was not going to be easy going. God uses the image of shaking

grain in a sieve. While not a violent image, it is nonetheless tumultuous.

The remnant is going to face a difficult time while Yahweh sifts the

people of Israel. And just as the grain husks would be carried away by

the wind and the dust would fall through the sieve, leaving only the

grain kernels behind, so also the difficult times ahead of them would sift

out those who were not a part of the remnant, leaving only the remnant

ready for Yahweh’s deliverance.

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All those who are not a part of the remnant, in context those who do not

receive Amos’ words and who say, “Disaster will not overtake or meet

us,” are warned that they will be put to the sword. But for the remnant

there is a promise that God would restore David’s fallen shelter. But

here we have an intriguing idea when God declares that David’s fallen

shelter when restored would possess the remnant of Edom and all the

nations that bear God’s name. What does the remnant of Edom refer to?

And what are these nations that bear God’s name?

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God’s people have, unfortunately, been very limited in their

understanding of who actually constitutes God’s people. After fleeing

from Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah claimed that he was the only one in the

northern kingdom who was faithful to Yahweh only to have Yahweh

inform him that there were thousands of others, unknown to Elijah, who

had not worshipped Baal. When Jacob stole Esau’s blessing from Isaac,

Isaac seemed to think that there was no way of blessing Esau after he

had blessed Jacob. But here we read about the remnant of Edom.

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God’s specific actions with respect to the plan and history of salvation

do not mean that he has not called to himself faithful people from

among all the peoples of the earth. And then God announces a

mind-blowing promise, “The days are coming when the reaper will be

overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes.”

How can the reaper be overtaken by the plowman? Simply put, this

means that when the sowing season starts the harvest of the previous

year would not have ended. The promise is of unimaginable abundance.

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But God also promises a return from exile of the people of Israel. Let us

step back for a moment and take stock of the situation into which this

promise was made. Remember that Amos prophesied to the Northern

kingdom of Israel. This was in the mid 8th century BC. But less than a

decade after the death of Jeroboam II, the Assyrian forces, under the

command of Tiglath-Pileser, conquered the Israelite tribes that had

settled on the Eastern side of the Jordan and took them into captivity,

forcibly resettling them in other parts of the empire.

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A few years later, Tiglath-Pileser once again attacked Israel, annexed

the Northern parts of the Northern kingdom and took those tribes into

captivity. And in 722 BC, Sargon II completely destroyed the Northern

kingdom, sacked the capital, Samaria, and carried the remaining tribes

of the Northern kingdom into captivity. The bible records that, during

this period of constant threat from Assyria, some members of the

Northern kingdom migrated South and took refuge in Judah. Which

exile was Amos referring to?

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Since Amos addressed the people of the Northern kingdom, the only

exile that would have made sense to them would have been the

deportation by the Assyrians and not the deportation under the

Babylonians. However, there was no formal return from the Assyrian

deportation. Moreover, v. 15 reads, “I will plant Israel in their own land,

never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them.” This

definitely cannot refer to the Babylonian exile since the Jewish people

were uprooted from the land in AD 135 after the bar Kokhba revolt.

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So how are we to understand this passage? How are we to make sense

of this promise of a sudden change in Israel’s fortunes from an

unprecedented catastrophe to an unimaginable abundance and an

unbreakable stability? When the Israelites conquered the land, formed

the monarchy and built the Temple, the great promise to Abraham about

the land and the promise to David about the kingdom and place of

worship had been fulfilled. They could not conceive of their identity

apart from these three elements - land, kingdom, and Temple.

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But when they were conquered and when the Temple was destroyed and

when they were taken from the land, they had to find a new way of

formulating their identity. And so began the process of defining

themselves in terms of a people dispersed through the world. This

process was cut short when Cyrus allowed the Judahites to return to the

land. Being in the land, renewed the fervor of their belief in land,

kingdom, and Temple. But while earlier they accommodated to the

practices of the other nations, now they became insular.

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In the pre-exilic times they were indistinguishable from the other

nations. But now they became so wary about the other nations that they

became insular to the exclusion of the other nations. The pendulum had

swung from one extreme to the other. Amos’ vision of a remnant in

Edom and other nations could just not be realized as long as the Jewish

people were so insular. They had exchanged the catastrophe of

worshipping the false gods for the equally ineffective catastrophe of

isolationism.

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The Hellenization under Alexander and his successors and the

persecution under the Syrian Seleucid rulers did nothing to swing the

pendulum back to a position where the Jewish people could be effective

witnesses to the true God in a world that readily worshipped so many

false gods. Their growing insularity and inward focus ensured that they

began to lose the prophetic vision that included the other nations in

God’s plans. Rather, they began gradually to view the peoples of the

other nations as enemies and, at times, even as sub-human.

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With the Jewish people having such an attitude toward the Gentiles,

there was no way Amos’ prophecy would be fulfilled. But since his

prophecy depended on the ingathering of the remnant of Edom and

other nations, the promised abundance and stability could never become

a reality. From one era to another the Jewish people went from one

catastrophe to a more severe one. And ironically, it would take the

crucifixion of a first century Jewish teacher to make the fulfillment of

Amos’ prophecy a possibility, though in quite a surprising manner.

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Now, instead of having just a small strip of land in the Levant to focus

on, the whole earth became part of the purview of the people of God.

God’s people can no longer be in exile because, through the victorious

death of this Jewish teacher, the whole earth has become the Promised

Land. Through the victorious death of this Jewish teacher the Temple

had been rendered obsolete. And through the victorious death of this

Jewish teacher, he had been given all authority not just over the small

strip of land in the Levant, but over the whole world.

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This is the eucatastrophe that Amos’ prophecy was awaiting. It was a

sudden, unexpected, unplanned-for overturning of events that changed

everything. The remnant of Edom and the other nations do not have to

physically move in order to be in the jurisdiction of Israel’s God

because Israel’s Messiah has been given authority over the whole world.

God’s people can never be uprooted from their land and exiled because

there is no place in the world that lies outside the jurisdiction of Israel’s

true king.

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And what does this mean for us? First, through his death and

resurrection, Jesus has torn down all the obstacles that stood in the way

of the people of God witnessing to the wonderful, marvelous deeds of

God. Now we have no excuse for not sharing how God has worked in

and through our lives. We share our testimony with others not because

we think we are better than they are but because we have found

something that is so wonderful that we want everyone else, especially

those whom we love, to experience it.

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But we must not share our testimony with others in a threatening

manner. Jesus has called us to be witnesses to the manner in which he

has transformed us. He has not called us to speak about anything we are

unaware of, namely the heart of any other person. But when we speak,

we need to be aware that this may have consequences for us. Our nation

has become increasingly intolerant to people becoming followers of

Jesus. And our government has cracked down on some fellow

Christians because they led someone else to the feet of Jesus.

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Do we shrink back in the face of this opposition? Do we attempt to

reverse the law? If we do so, it simply means that we have not been

convinced that Jesus has authority over the whole world. It means we

believe that there is a realm in which his authority is not ultimate. It’s

okay if we act that way. It’s okay if we believe that we should not break

such laws of the land. But in that case, let us please at least be consistent

and erase all references to Jesus’ being Lord from our discourse, our

prayers, and our liturgies.

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Second, Jesus’ death and resurrection show us that God is in the

business of turning catastrophes into eucatastrophes. Do we not see it

when he rescues Noah and his family in the Ark? Do we not see his

hand when he stops Abraham from killing Isaac? Do we not see it in

Joseph’s words, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for

good”? And I could go on from almost every book in the Old

Testament. So when we are walking through the valley of death we are

able to walk tall because God walks with us.

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Mind you, this does not mean that God will deliver us physically from

every evil we face! No! Most of the Old Testament prophets were

mistreated by the Israelites and some were even killed. Most of Jesus’

first disciples were martyred for their faith. But we can walk with an

unshakeable faith even in the face of death because we know, from what

God did when he raised Jesus, that even the darkness of death is not

catastrophic enough to prevent God from fulfilling his promise of

eucatastrophe through our resurrection.

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Or do we recoil at the prospect of death? It is a daunting prospect and I

would not fault anyone for considering the threat of death too high a

hurdle to climb. I too do not know the caliber of my own faith and

whether I would be able to remain resolute in the face of prolonged and

severe periods of suffering. Even as I speak, I speak first to myself, as a

challenge to live a life consistent with the messages he delivers to God’s

people whether it be in sermons like today or in the bible studies or in

any other forum and believe God’s promise of eucatastrophe.

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Third, we need to reevaluate our continued dependence on holy times,

holy places, holy practices, and holy people. The Jewish people thought

that God was concerned only about them because they were a holy

nation, but Amos announced that there was a remnant of Edom and of

the other nations. The Jewish people were hung up on the Temple when

it was standing, but managed to redefine their worship practices after it

was destroyed. The Jewish people could not think of being God’s people

apart from being in the land, but learnt to do so when they were exiled.

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In and through Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection, God has

redefined the role of his people with respect to the rest of the world. By

raising Jesus and granting him all authority, God has redefined the land,

the temple and the throne and we should take it seriously. Because of

Jesus’ promise that where two or three meet in his name, he is there, the

gathering of any Christians is at once a holy place and holy time

because Jesus is there. We need to remember this and reappropriate the

priesthood of all believers in the life of the Church.

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You see, God has fulfilled the promise announced through Amos. For

sure it is not fulfilled in a literal manner. But that is the nature of biblical

prophecy. The fulfillment often does not look like what was expected.

But that does not mean it wasn’t a fulfillment. We await the appearance

of Jesus to fully establish his kingdom and spread his justice throughout

the world. In the meantime we will have a roller coaster of a ride. There

will be mountaintop moments and seasons in the valleys. And as we

remain faithful to Jesus, we may or may not face opposition.

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And we may or may not face unimaginable suffering and distress,

mental anguish and physical trauma, that is completely unconnected to

our witness as Christians, but just a facet of living in a creation marred

by human sinfulness. But one thing we can hold on to that will enable

us to praise God in the good times and rely on him when things look

bleak is the promise of resurrection - the promise of eucatastrophe.

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