Not Bad by Comparison

I am guessing we all have excused ourselves by comparing ourselves to others. Sometimes I play this game of mental reservation on the highway. I set my speed at 4 MPH above the speed limit. I know that others will speed around me. Yes, I am breaking the law of the posted limit. I am banking on the state trooper agreeing with me that I am not as bad as the others and going much faster. Worse than these games of relative speeding is my walking around day by day with an attitude that I am relatively good and don’t need to change a thing.

Amos is the Hebrew Prophet who worked over the conscience of the wealthy in the Northern Kingdom of Samaria, often called Israel. In the passage below this kingdom is nicknamed “Joseph”. He wants this land of Mount Samaria to awaken its vigilance for following the ways of God. He is jabbing at the wealthy who are exploiting the poor. He is trying to break through their games of rationalization. He implies that they are thinking, “We may be lax, but not as bad as those terrible Zion folk down south.” Amos attracts their attention with the first line in the following couplet, then levels the charge against them with the second:

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,
and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria.

We should emphasize the word “and” because, the northern folks tend to accuse the southern folk and excuse themselves, but here Amos declares there is equivalency in their guilt. The wealthy of Samaria are identical to those of Judah with their smugly self-satisfied attitudes padded with affluence. Amos seems to wonder if they are lulling themselves into false security against the dangers of invasion. He might suspect them of thinking, “What ill can come to us? Look how we live; could any ill come to people so blessed?” Here is the warning of the prophet:

Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches,

and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall;

who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,

and like David improvise on instruments of music;

who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils,

but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

He describes people pampering themselves, dissolving any vigilance they ought to have to avert the ruin that will likely result. Amos warns that they are ignoring that the Assyrian monarch could roll armies in to take them over. This is due to their disregard for Yahweh’s standards. The wealthy are in denial that, when this happens, the hoity-toity will be carted off first. The rich, learned, creative, and powerful of Israel will be exiled to cripple the nation left behind. Notice the verses that follow:

Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,

and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.   (Amos 6:1a,4-7)

This warning of antiquity is a warning for all time, and so for us. How our actions compare with others’ actions does not matter. What does matter is how we do with the respect to God’s desires for us. God’s holiness is our reference point in the divine call for us to change. When exactly will we learn?