Scripture: Amos 7:10-17; John 6: 1-21

“But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”

-- Amos 5:24

Last Sunday we saw what I call prophetic monotheism emerge from the tribalism of primitive prophecy. It took the form of Elisha’s permission to Naaman, a convert to Yahweh, to continue to worship in the temple of Rimmon as part of his job. To be sure this was only a glimmer of the possibility that the biblical understanding of God might someday break out of tribal exclusionism and its fierce rivalry with other gods. Namaan had acknowledged that the God of Israel is the only true God, and was then forced by circumstance to take the next step and acknowledge that if Yahweh is the one true God then all other gods are  nothing, not rival gods any longer, but simply figments of the imagination. Therefore, it is possible to seem to venerate them and not do any harm, because they are nothing. This is a line of thought that eventually leads us all the way to Jesus; prophetic monotheism is the OT tradition in which Jesus stands, and therefore the OT theme that we Christians affirm most clearly.

Elijah and Elisha represent prophecy at its chauvinist, tribal stage. Their God is always in competition with other gods, whom they accuse of being false but nevertheless accept as real. The gods are false in the sense that they destroy and devour their worshipers, not in the sense that they do not exist at all. Prophetic monotheism emerges as a shoot on a branch at the end of the Elisha cycle, and then we lose sight of it for a century until it bursts open as a flower in the proclamation of the prophets of the next century. Elijah and Elisha worked in the 9^th century BC, in the reign of Ahab (874-853 BC), and in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. We move now to the reign of Jeroboam II (783-743 BC) and the proclamation of the prophet Amos, and his contemporaries Hosea in Israel and Micah in the Southern kingdom of Judah. In them prophetic monotheism came to fruition.

Monotheism is the word for the belief that there is only one God, responsible for all of creation. Prior to these prophets the people of the Bible believed in what is called henotheism, that is there are many gods, but we worship only one. The critical step was therefore not simply the move to worship only one God but the step to the conviction that there are no other gods besides Yahweh.

The advent of Monotheism had absolutely critical significance for human culture. What the causal priority might be we cannot tell, but the century that saw the advent of prophetic monotheism also saw the birth of natural science among the Pre-socratic philosophers in Greece. For the first time thinkers about nature adopted the assumption that all of nature could be explained in terms of one fundamental substance. For Heraclitus it was fire, for Anaximander it was water, for Democritus it was atoms in a void, for Parmenides it was being. However, mistaken these thinkers were they, like the prophets, saw that everything might be understood by means of one fundamental principle or assumption. The 20^th century philosopher Karl Jaspers called this period in human history the “axial “ period. It is the time from about 800 to 600 BC. and it is axial or determinative because in it we discovered the spiritual and intellectual principles that made the scientific and spiritual development of the West possible. There are very few fundamental principles, assumptions without which we cannot proceed, perhaps only one, the prophetic monotheistic principle that there is only one, single, sufficient and all-powerful principle behind all human knowing and being. The Gospel of John calls this the LOGOS, says that all things were created through him, that he is the light that enlightens every one, and that we beheld his glory in Jesus (John 1:1-3, 14).

For the Greeks this mono-principle meant science, - one principle to explain all of nature - for the Bible it meant morality, - one morality for all the human race because there is only one God as so only one humanity all made in the divine image. One God entails one humanity entails one morality. This is the message that so stunningly comes to word in the preaching of an Israelite shepherd named Amos, who lived in the north in the reign of Jeroboam II, in the middle of the 8^th century BC. This fact is startling enough, but if possible, the substance of this morality is even more startling. Let us look at it as Amos sets it out. What is the content of this one morality?

His collection of oracles begins with a series that pronounces judgment on the nations around Israel: Damascus, Gaza and Philistia, Tyre and Phoenicia, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah, and then, amazingly Israel itself. He includes his own nation among the other nations and subjects it to the same standard of judgment as the rest. (Just think of how we excuse, even praise, the US for actions that in other nations we condemn). Having established that his own people are just like other people (cf. also 9:7-8) and subject, like them, to the same morality, Amos tells us the particulars of this morality. The reasons for his condemnation of his own people Israel are startling in that time or any time. They are not high ritual or religious transgressions, - frankly Amos does not care whether our worship is this way or that, - but rather, they are social and commercial crimes. Listen, here is a list from the opening oracle against Israel (1:3-2:16): ‘You sell the virtuous man for silver and the poor man for a pair of sandals; you trample the heads of ordinary people and push the poor out of your path; father and son have relations with the same girl; you stretch yourselves beside every altar on clothing taken as pledges for loans; you drink the wine of the people you have fined in the temples of all kinds of gods. You silence the prophets, not wanting to hear any criticism.’ And then he asks, ”Is this not true, sons of Israel (2:11)?” confident that they cannot deny it. “Because you alone have I acknowledged of all the nations of the earth, therefore, I shall judge you more severely (3:2).”  

Two things stand out: election means not exemption from judgment but a higher standard, and transgression means not ritual mistakes, but social, financial abuse. Think of our society where the gap between the rich and the poor is widening dramatically, and where the rich are treated leniently by the judiciary while the poor are punished severely, where thievery is rampant in the places where there should be integrity. Let me not go further into details; you all read the newspapers and can apply this prophetic critique for yourselves. Here are some choice grains as grist for your mill: “Listen to this, you who trample on the needy and try to suppress the poor people of the country, you who say, ‘When will the New Moon be over so that we can sell our corn, and Sabbath so that we can market our wheat? Then by lowering the bushel, raising the shekel, by swindling and tampering with the scales, we can buy up the poor for money, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and get a price even for the sweepings of the wheat.’ Yahweh swears it by the pride of Jacob, ‘Never will I forget a single thing that you have done’ (8:4-8).”

To the rich women he says, “Listen to this word you cows of Bashan living in the mountain of Samaria, oppressing the needy, crushing the poor, saying to your husbands, ‘Bring us something to drink!’  The days are coming to you now when you will be dragged out with hooks…out you will go each by the nearest breach in the wall (4:1-3).” To the fastidious priests and liturgists, “I hate and despise your feasts, I take no pleasure in your solemn festivals…Let me have no more of the din of your chanting, no more of your strumming on harps. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream (5:21-24).“ The day of the Lord, which Israel thinks will be the time of their vindication, will be for them darkness and not light (5:18), and so “Israel prepare to meet your God (4:12).” ‘Because you silence the prophets there will be for you a famine of the Word of God, you shall no longer hear the truth but only the flattery of false prophets and kept priests, royal shrine keepers and paid cheerleaders (8:11).’